Raintree Read online

  No, I’m Eve Ansara.

  Striving to maintain the second level of protection around Eve, Mercy opened her eyes and ran from her study, seeking her daughter. She found Eve sitting on a cushion on the floor in the living room, surrounded by an array of stuffed animals, all marching around Eve, their little stuffed appendages bounding up and down against the wooden floor.

  “Eve!”

  Eve gasped. Her eyes widened as she faced Mercy and abruptly aborted the spell she had used to animate her stuffed animals.

  “I was just practicing.” Eve’s beguiling smile pleaded for understanding.

  “That man—your father’s enemy—did you say or do anything—”

  “Don’t worry.” Eve stood, shoulders straight and head held high. Self-assured in a way few six-year-olds were. A true princess.

  “I sent him and the other two away,” Eve said. “They wanted to know who my father was and—”

  “You didn’t tell them, did you?”

  “Of course not.” Eve stepped over a tiger and a bear as she approached Mercy. “I shut them out. It made him mad.” She gazed up at Mercy, a deceptive innocence in her green Raintree eyes.

  Eve had been headstrong, stubborn and not easy to control before Judah entered her life, but she was always Mercy’s sweet little girl who might resist her mother’s wishes but would obey in the end. Without being able to pinpoint exactly the moment it had happened, Mercy recognized that Eve was no longer under her control. Perhaps it would have happened eventually, when Eve was older, whether or not she ever met her father, but somehow meeting Judah had changed Eve. And it had forever altered Mercy’s relationship with her daughter.

  “I love you just as much as ever.” Eve wrapped her arms around Mercy’s waist, laid her head on Mercy’s tummy, and hugged her.

  Mercy caressed Eve’s head. “I love you, too.”

  Eve eased away from Mercy and looked up at her. “I’m sorry you’re sad because I’m an Ansara.”

  Mercy bit down on her bottom lip in an effort to neither cry nor scream. Sighing heavily, she looked right at Eve. “I am Raintree. You’re my daughter. You are Raintree.”

  “Mother, Mother.” Eve shook her head. “I was born into the Raintree clan, but I was born for the Ansara. For my father.”

  A shiver of realization chilled Mercy, sending the cold, hard truth shooting to her brain. The fear that she had kept buried deep inside her since Eve’s conception came out of hiding, bursting from her in a psychic energy storm that shook the entire house.

  Mercy seldom if ever lost control of her powers, but this reaction had been entirely involuntary, a knee-jerk response to suspecting that her daughter’s destiny was to save the Raintree’s mortal enemies.

  Eve grabbed Mercy’s hand, instantly calming her. For one brief instant, as mother’s and daughter’s powers linked, Mercy felt the immense power Eve possessed.

  Once again in control of herself, Mercy said, “Your father’s people, the Ansara, and my people, the Raintree, have been enemies since time immemorial. Sidonia has told you the stories of our people, how long ago we defeated the Ansara in a terrible battle and only a handful of their kind survived.”

  “I love it when Sidonia tells me those stories,” Eve said. “She always tells me how mean and bad the Ansara are, and how good and kind the Raintree are. Does that mean I’m both good and bad?”

  How was it possible that one minute Eve was wise and powerful beyond her years, and then the next minute she seemed to be only an adorable six-year-old?

  “We are all good and bad,” Mercy said.

  “Even my daddy?”

  “Yes, perhaps.” Mercy could not bring herself to tell Eve that Judah was as wicked and evil as all his kind. But how do you know that to be true? a taunting inner voice asked. Judah is the only Ansara you’ve ever known, the only one you’ve ever met.

  The Raintrees’ knowledge of the Ansara came from historical accounts two hundred years old.

  And from an inborn psychic instinct that Mercy could not deny.

  Tuesday, 8:45 p.m.

  Three whores from his private brothel stroked and petted and pleasured Cael as he lay on black satin sheets. Risa and Natalie had disappointed him bitterly earlier today. He had sent both women out of his sight, placing all the blame for his failure to penetrate Eve Raintree’s mind squarely on the psychics’ shoulders. He had spent hours fuming, the anger inside him building to an explosive point.

  Needing to release his rage and find temporary ease and forgetfulness, he had sent for a diversion. Each of his whores had taken her turn under his whip, screaming and begging as his blows brought blood to their backs and buttocks. Their pain aroused Cael unbearably, adding heightened sensation to the sex act. As the redhead with the talented tongue brought him to yet another climax, Cael clutched her by the hair of her head, making her scream in pain as he shuddered with fulfillment.

  As he rested there, sated and sleepy, the double doors to his bedroom suite swung open as if a gale-force wind had ripped them from the hinges. Cael laughed when he saw Alexandria storming into his private quarters. No doubt she would throw a jealous tantrum.

  “Send your whores away,” she said, her voice oddly calm. “I need to speak to you without an audience.”

  Naked and reeking of sex, Cael shoved the women aside as he eased to the side of the bed and stood to face Alexandria. When he looked her in the eye, he saw neither anger nor jealousy.

  With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the whores. “Go. Leave me. Return to the brothel.”

  The women obeyed instantly, hurrying to put on their robes as they exited the room. Once they were gone, Cael walked over to Alexandria and smiled at her.

  “You disappoint me, my love. I had expected a jealous tantrum.”

  “You flatter yourself if you think I care who else you screw, now or in the future. As long as I rule at your side as the Dranira, you’re welcome to keep as many whores as it takes to satisfy your sexual appetites.”

  Cael’s smile widened. “We make a perfect couple.”

  “Only if you can defeat the Raintree and kill Judah.”

  Cael lifted his black silk robe from the floor and slipped into it. “I intend to do both very soon.” He reached out and stroked Alexandria’s cheek. “What brings you here tonight? You said you needed to speak with me privately.”

  “I have learned about a secret meeting of the Dranir and three council members.”

  “When?”

  “This afternoon.”

  “Who met with Judah, and why?”

  “Claude was there, along with Bartholomew and Sidra.”

  “Sidra?”

  “I don’t know who arranged the meeting, but Sidra and Bartholomew showed up at the palace and stayed for several hours.”

  “That old witch probably had a vision of some kind. I’ve been careful to protect my plans from others. That is why only I know the exact moment when we will strike the Raintree. I cannot risk Sidra seeing—”

  “We have more to concern us than Sidra foreseeing your plans,” Alexandria said. “Judah has done the unthinkable.”

  Pure fear gripped Cael. He hated the fact that his brother could evoke such terror in him. “What has he done?”

  “He has revoked an ancient decree. Judah signed the nullification proclamation. Claude and Bartholomew acted as witnesses.”

  “Which decree was overturned?”

  “The one declaring that any mixed-breed child would be put to death.”

  “Why would Judah…?” The child, the child. She could be our downfall.

  “What it is?” Alexandria asked. “What do you know?”

  Cael grasped Alexandria’s arm and yanked her to him. Eye to eye with her, he growled. “Such a child undoubtedly exists. And for Judah to revoke a decree issued thousands of years ago, this child must be very special to him.”

  “Are you implying that Judah has fathered a Raintree woman’s child?”

  Cael snarled. “Not j