Brides of the Kindred Volume One Read online

  At last the boy gave a wild yell and jumped off the swing just as it reached its highest arc. Nadiah’s heart leapt up into her throat—she was certain he would break his neck! But he rolled on the neatly trimmed green grass and came up laughing in the bright sunshine.

  “You’re crazy! If Mom saw you do that it would give her a heart attack.” But Jessie was laughing as she said it. She slung an arm around her little brother’s skinny shoulders and he looked up at her adoringly.

  “Jessie, why can’t I come with you tonight? I went to all your other birthday parties.”

  “Yes, but this is a grownup party. I’m eighteen now—you know that.”

  “I don’t see what’s so great about being eighteen,” he grumbled. “You’d just rather hang out with your stupid friends than me. Especially that dumb Mark Hains.”

  Jessie blushed, her creamy cheeks going pink. “Don’t be a brat. Besides, Mark is nice—I like him. And…and I think he likes me.”

  “He likes you all right but he’s not a good guy.” The boy’s mood suddenly turned dark. “Stay away from him, Jessie. I get bad feelings when he looks at you. Really bad.”

  “Don’t talk like that.” She frowned. “You know it freaks people out when you talk about your ‘feelings’.”

  “You’re the only one I talk to about them,” the boy protested. “And besides, you know I’m right. I’m always right.”

  “Not this time.” She ruffled his hair. “C’mon, let’s get something cold to drink. It’s too hot out here.”

  “Okay.” The boy leaned against her side and she gave him a squeeze as they walked toward the back door of the big white house. “Just be careful. I love you, Jessie.”

  “Love you too, kiddo.” She dropped a kiss on the top of his head and they went into the house disappeared from Nadiah’s line of sight. Suddenly a voice spoke in her ear.

  “Remember. Remember and tell him all you have seen. Then he cannot help but believe.”

  Then it was gone and Nadiah felt herself drifting deeper, into the darkest reaches of sleep where there are no dreams.

  * * * * *

  “Do we really have to do this again?” Adam Rast ran a hand through his hair and glared at her. It had been a week since their last encounter and Nadiah hadn’t been sure he would meet her at the HKR building again, but she’d decided to take a chance. To her surprise, he had actually shown up when she called.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said coolly, straightening her tharp which had shaped itself into a close approximation of an Earth skirt and blouse today. She wanted to look calm and collected—professional.

  “I only came to tell you one thing,” he growled. “Stop bothering me, Nadiah, I have work to do.”

  “Because another girl has disappeared, right?” She arched an eyebrow at him and he glared at her.

  “Yeah, good for you. Did you read that on the NewsFeed this morning or did you have another vision about the missing girl?”

  “I have had a vision.” She gave him a level look. “But not about the girl you’re looking for. Last night in my dreams I saw a girl who’s been missing for the past twenty of your Earth years.”

  “What? Now you’re having visions about cold cases?” Rast shook his head. “Seriously, I don’t have time for this! Good bye, Nadiah. Have a nice life and don’t call me again.” He turned away, striding over the grey carpet of the HKR building, heading for the double glass doors.

  “Her name was Jessie,” Nadiah said, raising her voice to be heard over the murmuring of the Earth brides and the Kindred warriors who had called them. “She had long, auburn hair.”

  Slowly, Rast turned to face her. “What did you say?”

  “She smelled like fresh cut flowers,” Nadiah continued. “And she had a beautiful singing voice.”

  “What?” He strode over to her and grabbed her by the arm. His face was white with fury. “How dare you? How fucking dare you bring her into this?”

  “She meant the world to you, didn’t she?” Nadiah looked at him, realizing that he had been the boy in her vision. “She pushed you on the swing and called you ‘kiddo’ and—”

  “Stop right now. Just stop.” Rast dragged her over to one of the dark grey couches and pushed her down. Then he stood there, looming over her with a terrible expression on his face. “I don’t know how you dug up my past and I don’t care. But you stop talking about Jessie right now or—”

  “She sang to you when she pushed you on the swing,” Nadiah interrupted. What she was saying was obviously upsetting him deeply and she would have liked to stop but somehow she couldn’t. Her lips went on moving, forming words whether she wanted to speak them or not. “A special song,” she said. “One only the two of you knew.” Suddenly her throat was filled with the dead girl’s voice and she sang.

  “Swing me up a little bit higher,

  Obadiah, do.

  Swing me up a little bit higher,

  Say you love me too.

  Swing me over the garden wall,

  Tie me up so I’ll never fall.

  Swing me up a little bit higher,

  Obadiah, do!”

  “My God!” Rast sank onto the couch beside her, his face suddenly ashen. “How…what…?” He looked at her wonderingly. “I haven’t heard that song in twenty years. And that was her voice—her voice exactly. How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Nadiah said honestly. “Just as I don’t know why I see the things I see. I only know they’re true.” She touched his arm lightly. “She was your sister, wasn’t she? What happened to her?”

  “She was murdered,” he said, his voice grating harshly over the ugly word. “Abducted the night of her eighteenth birthday party and murdered.”

  “By Mark Hains?” Nadiah asked.

  Rast’s head jerked up. “How did you—never mind. Yes, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who did it. They could never pin anything on him but he was seen leaving with her on the night of the party.”

  “You tried to warn her about him,” Nadiah said, remembering her dream. “I saw it—you said you had a bad feeling when he looked at her.”

  “Yeah, me and my feelings.” He ran a hand though his hair and let out a harsh bark of laughter. “Used to get me into all kinds of trouble when I was a kid, until Jessie taught me to keep ‘em to myself.”

  Nadiah felt a burst of excitement. “So you have a gift too—the gift of discernment. You can see into people, read their true intentions.”

  He looked up at her with a frown. “Something like that. I prefer to think of it as trusting my instincts. I can always tell when someone’s telling the truth or not.”

  Nadiah frowned. “Then you must have known earlier that I was being truthful about my visions. Why did you keep putting me off?”

  “Because…” He stood up and started pacing. “You have to understand. We didn’t find Jessie’s body right away. She was missing for years before it was found. My parents…they went a little crazy. Jessie was always their favorite—I came along later so I was just an afterthought. But Jessie, well, she was so perfect and bright and beautiful you couldn’t help but love her.”

  “What did they do?” Nadiah asked softly. “Your parents?”

  Rast sighed. “After the case went cold and the police dropped out they hired private detectives—good ones too. Expensive. But my parents both had extremely successful careers—they could afford it.” He continued to pace, looking down at his shoes. “When that didn’t work, they went farther out into left field. My mom found a psychic who said she could feel Jessie’s energy. She told my mom Jessie was still alive, just waiting to be found.” He shrugged angrily. “It gave her hope—until we found the body, that was.”

  “The woman was a fraud,” Nadiah said flatly.

  “So were all the others my parents hired. They just wanted the money.” Rast sat beside her again, frowning. “And believe me, they got plenty of it. But the worst part was seeing how excited and hopeful my mom would get every time