Read Enlightened (Love and Light Series) for Free Online Page A

burbling stream.
    She stopped at the sound of running water. Thank god , she thought, and her shoulders eased. Queen’s Creek wasn’t far, and soon she’d be putting her feet up to a warm fire. That’s what David is doing right now, building a fire and cooking dinner. She dug her pole tips into the hard-packed trail. No wind, not a sound. It was the wrong time of year for crickets, but there should’ve been something besides the utter stillness ringing in her ears. Stiff knees creaked as she hiked on, but instead of crossing Queen’s Creek, the trail devolved into ruts and rocks. The skeletons of last year’s undergrowth clutched at her gaiters and boot laces.
    A twig snapped. Heart thumping, she didn’t dare look back as she scuttled up the rocky incline. Her legs screamed to stop, but the foot crunches behind her drove her into a jumble of rocks. When she dared to look up, the tall trees were gone. In their place was a macabre sculpture garden of talus and twisted krummholz. How had she gotten above tree line? She turned in circles, but it was all wrong. There wasn’t an “above tree line” in Virginia. In the Whites, yes. New Hampshire, yes. Definitely in Maine, but not here.
    Holding her breath, she strained to hear the footsteps over her hammering heart. Jumping at the sound of boots scuffing on rocks, she bolted. The scree rolled under her panicked feet and her heavy pack wrenched her backwards. The hiking poles dangled and banged from the wrist straps as she snatched at a scrubby bush clinging to a rock. The roots ripped free. For an instant, she hung in space, and then sizzling adrenalin exploded under her ribs as she crossed the tipping point and plunged.
    A hand shot out, grabbing her wrist and Loti screamed. Another hand clamped around her other wrist and lifted her up and over the loose rock. Loti’s scream died away as a black face filled her vision. A mouth full of large, yellow teeth surrounded by a scraggy beard and mustache grinned down at her. A broad, flat nose hunkered over thick, rubbery lips.
    “Who are you?” she managed.
    She stumbled as the hands released her and the grin relaxed into a knowing smile. Motioning for her to follow, the tall stranger turned and picked up a walking stick. Never making a sound, he negotiated the rocks, climbing higher. Trembling all over, Loti followed in anxious silence to the top, where the black man threw both arms wide, raising a palm and his stick to the sky.
    “Do you know where we are, girl?” His booming voice shattered the silent night.
    Clutching herself, Loti peered around at the star-studded blackness blanketing the never-ending forest that hugged the bare mountain. Off in the distance a lake glittered in the moonlight. And the full moon wore a prism-like halo.
     “On a mountain?” she whispered.
    “Good” he yelled and she winced.
    He plopped down in a cross-legged position, gazing up at the moon with its crown of refracted light. The cold air bit Loti’s cheek, but all the black man wore was a loose pair of cargo shorts. His bare chest and arms, all lean muscle and gristle, were exposed. A head, too big for his spindle of a neck, sprouted gray tendrils. They splayed out in wavy strands, reminding Loti of a used Brillo pad. In an apparent effort to hold the mass of black and gray in place, he wrapped a brown leather thong several times around his forehead, tying it in a knot above his right ear. His bright eyes turned from the moon to Loti. In the iridescent moonlight the whites were tinted blue.
    “Actually, you’re at the center of the universe,” he spoke, his tone grave.
    Then he laughed, slapping his thigh, his voice like a chorus of laughing men. Loti stiffened, warning bells clanging in her ears. He cut himself off, forcing a serious frown as he said, “Man, fae, vampire, shape-shifter, dryad—” he waved his arms in a dramatic gesture, “—all kinds of creatures have been searching for this place, and we’ve stumbled upon