screamed at him. The women were terrified. Their faces filled with it as they watched Mason. He lunged.
Wilson made a choice then. His parents were the monsters in this confrontation.
`Dad, no!' He slammed into Mason and the ground shook. Impossibly hard flesh writhed under his grip but he didn't let go. `Stop, they're not—'
Blue exploded into his head and the ground vanished under him.
CHAPTER 5
Mason cracked open an eye. Legs and arms lay across him in a jumble. His head ached and his tongue was swollen. What the hell? Through a gap in the limbs he could see a gravestone.
`My arm,' Wilson muttered. Mason felt movement and knew it was Wilson's arm under him. He arched his back and cold air rushed in as Wilson rolled away.
`Ruth.' Mason moved her legs. `Ruth?'
She began to move slowly beside him. `That was, ah! like falling through a huge washing machine.'
`It can't be...' Wilson's voice wavered.
Mason looked up. Cold clawed at his insides. He knew this place. `Don't touch anything.' He stood up.
Wilson, pale and shaken, helped Ruth stand. Bile burnt at the back of Mason's throat as he took in the scene of frozen carnage. When the hearse had exploded he had borne the brunt of it. Protecting them. Shrapnel had torn his chest apart.
`Ruth. Don't look,' he said.
Too late. She grabbed his arm. `No, not again.'
Mason put an arm around her, helping her stand.
`This is so wrong.' Wilson leaned against him. `Is that what we looked like when it happened? There's so much blood.'
`Who would bring us back to this?' Ruth's grip was savage.
Mason couldn't speak for shaking. Not here, please. He couldn't be here. Not again. Cold tore at his insides. Fear raced through him.
`That's us, dying,' he whispered into the eerie silence.
`This is impossible, right, Dad? We haven't really gone back to the funeral?'
Ruth was crying as she clung to him. Wilson was right. It was impossible. A voice that didn't belong in this place came to him. `A man shows his true colours in the time of greatest need.'
`You!' Wilson spat on the ground. `You bitches brought us here.'
`No.' The dark-haired witch stepped out from behind a crypt. `I suspect my sister and I were brought here, as you were, to witness your pain.'
`Why should we believe that?' Mason clenched his hand, waiting for the rage to come as it always did.
`We have no reason to lie.' The witch held her open hands out to him. `I believe whoever brought us here wants us to see this.' She nodded at the family, frozen in time at the moment of what should have been their death.
Mason felt Wilson shift his weight and caught him by the arm before he could do anything. His rage had not come. In its place came confusion, and an instinct not to attack.
Ruth moved against him. `You're not Bloodells, are you?'
`No,' the witch said evenly.
The redhead edged out from behind the crypt, slowly standing. `Enough talk, sis. This is freaking me out.'
The witch indicated the redhead. `This one is Renee. I'm Nikki.'
Mason raised an eyebrow. Renee seemed very human now, compared to the woman he'd been fighting. And both women was being very unlike Bloodells, who'd never been much for chat, or introductions.
`Whoop de doo,' Wilson snorted. `Still doesn't explain why we're here, or why you attacked us on the island.'
`We didn't attack you, idiot.' Renee took a couple of rapid steps towards them, green eyes flashing. Mason blinked at the speed of her response. She sounded so human now, yet she was so fast. He tried to form a reply, but his brain was moving so slowly. The earth began to tremble.
`Holy shit!' Renee moved so fast she was a blur, finally coming to rest on top of the crypt.
The ground had begun to move upwards. An arm formed, followed by a head.
`That,' Nikki said, climbing up beside her sister, `would be the freaky bit you mentioned before.'
Wilson shuffled back and Mason pulled Ruth around behind him. Something touched his mind and he didn't know if the situation had improved or just become worse.
He knew that touch. It was her. The voice.
`A woman,' Wilson said.
Liquid blue eyes stared back at them. Earth made her flesh and skin. Strands of sand formed her long hair. Her lips were of a deep clay red. He smiled. She'd put make-up on.
`It's my Voice,' he said and was rewarded with her smile.
`You know her?' Nikki said, clearly surprised. `You do realise who she is?'
`No. Who is she? On the day — the real day — this happened, we all heard her voice.'
`We hear her in our dreams,' Ruth whispered, stepping towards the earthen figure. `Who are you?' she demanded.
`She's Gaia.' Nikki said from her spot on the crypt, sounding worried. `Or Mother Earth as some know her.'
The woman nodded.
`You, Gaia, brought us back here?' Mason breathed more easily as she nodded again. `What for?'
An arm came up and she pointed at the two women crouched on the crypt.
`Oh, shit,' Renee muttered.
`The Unnaturals?' Mason frowned, trying to understand. `You want me to, what, deal with them?'
The ground shook under him. Gaia didn't really need to shake her head.
Then the arm came up again, and she beckoned the women down.
Renee moaned. `I got a bad feeling about this.'
`Don't be a wuss. Come on.' Nikki slipped down off the crypt and stood waiting.
`No way, sis. This is way too freaky.'
Nikki glared up at her sister. `You got to trust me here. The magic stuff, I handle. You do the fighting, remember? Now, come on.'
Gaia stood patiently, hand outstretched.
Renee climbed down, under protest, not taking her eyes off Gaia who beckoned again.
`Shut up, Renee. This is not the time to argue.'
Mason hummed, surprised to realise they'd spoken the truth. `So they are really sisters.'
`Is
