Page 55 of Chase Me

His smile was the last thing she saw before the world around her went black and she fell into a whirlwind of light and sound and colors that made her nauseated.

When the world stopped spinning, Ciara no longer sawthe cavern around her. She was in some sort of apartment kitchen. There was a refrigerator, a sink, a microwave, a small table and chairs, and plants on every available surface and hanging from the ceiling. They looked like herbs, yes that was a basil plant, and she was pretty sure that was cilantro on the windowsill.

She wanted to reach out and touch the leaves, but her hands and arms were not responding. She blinked and glanced all around the room, not sure what she was looking for. Then she reached into the pocket on her long white flowing gown and pulled out a necklace. When had she put on this dress? What happened to the beautiful one that Jakob had given her?

She laid the necklace on the table and saw two things where there should only be one.

At the bottom of the chain was a pendant with a tree and a serpent. But it was also a colorful collection of scales.

A muffled voice came from somewhere nearby, and Ciara quickly hid in the hallway. But wait. She didn't want to hide. She wanted to find anyone she could talk to, ask how she had gotten here, and where here was.

She couldn't move. She had no control over her own body, like she was possessed.

A key turned in a lock and door opened. The voice she'd heard became louder and clearer.

“No, mom, stay there. You will be more comfortable spending the summer as a flower. I'll be fine here.”

The voice was speaking English with an American accent. Not only was she not in the cavern anymore, she wasn't even in the Czech Republic, she wasn't even in Europe.

A pretty young woman came into the kitchen talking on acell phone. She dropped a bag of groceries on the counter and opened the nearest cupboard door.

Ciara tried everything to force her body to do her bidding. Even if she could call out to the woman, that would at least be something.

The woman held the cell phone between her ear and her shoulder while she pulled a set of martini glasses out and set them in the sink. “Yeah, the kids at school are really taking to the garden. I'm doing my best to help their little green thumbs along.”

She ran water in the sink and Ciara missed a few words of the conversation. Not that it seemed that important. She was just some girl talking to her mom on the phone.

The woman pulled one of the glasses out, but it slipped in her wet hands and fell towards the floor. She didn't even flinch. One of the leaves on the basil plant on the counter next to her quadrupled in size, swooped down, and caught the glass before it hit the floor.

Whoa. The only other time she had seen plants do anything like that was when either she or Jakob asked them for help. The plants in this kitchen were doing the same for the woman on the phone.

So, was she a witch or a dragon?

No, Jakob had said there was no such thing as female dragons. A witch then.

Oh my God. Jakob had thought that Ciara had stolen the First Dragon's relic and had been working with a coven of witches to do it. Could this woman be involved in the theft of the relic?

She had something on her kitchen table that belonged in Jakob's lair, if it belonged anywhere.

Ciara needed to get her hands on it.

“Yes, the party is this weekend. I'll be fine. It's not like anything could happen to me with so many shifters around.”

Shifters? Yeah, this woman was more than a schoolteacher.

She said some goodbyes and hung up the phone, then set it on the table. That's when she saw the necklace.

Damn. Ciara had been hoping she wouldn't find it.

“That's not like her.” The woman picked up the necklace and twirled it in her hand. “It is pretty.”

She opened the clasp and put the necklace on. The leaves on the tree, and the eye of the serpent glowed with the same green light as Jakob's shard.

There was something very strange going on here.

A warm white light surrounded Ciara and the world spun again.

This time Ciara couldn't figure out where she was. There was nothing around her. Like nothing. No sky, no ground, no horizon.

---