Panthers of Brigantia Shifter Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  “No. No. Not that. I need someone who can help me understand how things could go so wrong, and what can be done to fix it. If you can help me, I can help you.”

  Caspian stepped closer, his eyes beginning to assess her much more thoroughly, “Druids don’t make deals. Phoenix is the only one I know to have made that mistake.”

  “Good, so you admit it was her mistake. It’s a start.” He glared at her, and Heaven bit her lip, “Quite right. I apologize. We shouldn’t make deals. That is why I am asking for assistance, not making a deal. Should you agree, you are going to need a much longer lifespan than what your kind usually have.”

  Caspian laughed, “Do druids not know how long panthers can live?”

  “I cannot say that I know for certain. Based on the albino, your natural lifespan is a few thousand years. If you don’t get killed, of course.”

  “And what you need might take longer than that?”

  “I am absolutely certain of it.”

  “How will you not die before that happens?”

  “Easy. Um… well, I shouldn’t say easy, more like… I stole most of my sister’s time and have slowed my own aging process.”

  Caspian looked at her as if she were insane. The blades were at her neck before she could blink. “If what you say is true, you are corrupted.”

  “I understand how it looks that way.” She could feel a small trickle of blood on her neck, and she hoped it was hers instead of the seer’s. “You did clean those first, didn’t you?”

  “Always before putting them in their sheaths.”

  “Ah good, then it is my blood. Good. Really would not want her blood mixing with my own. Being cursed with prophecies is simply not something I am equipped to handle. Not on top of everything else.”

  “You have 10 seconds to justify your life continuing beyond the next 15 seconds.”

  Heaven didn’t say a word. Instead, she stuck a hand through the hole, brought out a piece of paper, and flicked it open. Holding it up into the light floating near her, Heaven moved her eyes to look at him to see his reaction. There was a sharp intake of breath, then she felt the daggers move from her throat as Caspian’s voice changed, “What kind of abomination are you planning?”

  “Not me. My sister. Mercy was working with her, and was supposed to provide the rest of the architecture for this by the year’s end. These plans had already been sent to my sister, so they are just duplicates of what I already destroyed. Obviously if anyone ever used this, it would have devasting, irreversible effects on the world. And of course, on all of us. Even me.”

  Filing her last words for later, the assassin took the paper to examine it. “Why would anyone do this?” Caspian placed the paper on a table, then held a hand out for the other things Heaven had stored.

  “Control. My sister wants to control this world. I took most of her time hoping that she would die off, but she found someone stupid enough to help her.”

  “No doubt Mercy thought she could provide some wrong instructions, and would take control herself.” Caspian was picking up the ramifications of the plan much faster than Heaven had expected. This made her hopeful that perhaps he would not turn her down after all.

  “Of course. But that wouldn’t have worked.”

  “How come?”

  “She was reading it from my sister’s future. And my sister has always dreamed of her own future. You see, her father was from a seer line, something she probably did not tell Mercy. Could have told her without compromising anything, though, since most seers can’t see their own futures. My sister is…. unique. What she needed was to speed things up once she realized her life had been shortened. That’s how I found out that she could see her own future, which I had not anticipated when I stole her time. She used Mercy as a way to speed up the project, but she could also tell that Mercy was hiding details. Would have gotten the fool killed eventually. Or more like, she would have been used, too. Not a great fate. What you did was far kinder.”

  Caspian looked baffled for a moment, as if there was too much unrelated information to process. When he spoke, he asked, “You have different fathers?”

  Heaven was momentarily stunned by the unexpected focus on her family. Scratching her ear, she answered, “Yes, different fathers. Same mother. Had she stopped after my sister, well, she wouldn’t have died. Then perhaps my sister would have been raised to be decent.”

  “I don’t think that is a matter of druids having more than one child.”

  “Of course it is. Birth and life are closely linked. That is why assassins and druids cannot have children. You are death,” she gestured toward Caspian. Then placing her hands on her own chest, she said, “And we are life. Perhaps if the roles were reversed it would work, but life dies. Death does not live. Even if life can come from death, death cannot create life from itself.”

  “I’m not a fan of riddles.”

  “Right. Sorry. It wasn’t meant to be a riddle. Being locked up by myself tends to make it more difficult to get my meaning across. Probably should get out a bit more.” She smiled sheepishly, “But if you will help me, maybe I can get my head back into a space where socializing isn’t so difficult.”

  “So you haven’t always been so enigmatic?”

  “Good grief, no. Just ask the albino.”

  “Why do you keep calling him that? His name is Diony.”

  “Ah, is it? Okay, if you say so.”

  “How can he tell me anything when it is clear you two don’t know each other?”

  Heaven began to tug on her ear. “Really not my place to talk about things on his side, but he was my first lover.” A smile flitted across her face. “But I guess our needs were just too different. It happens. Not that I blame him. My sister was turning when we were together, and it was just too much for him to watch. I mean, it’s not like I’m the same person anymore either. Just not quite so obviously so.”

  There was a faint blush on Caspian’s face, “He had never mentioned you.”

  “It was a very long time ago when we were together. Long before you were born.”

  “He’s not that much older than me.”

  “Not right now, no. But of course he is.”

  Caspian stared at her for a second, “You want me to believe that your first lover was Diony, but you don’t know his name. And he is much older than me, but not really.”

  “No, he really is, or at least—you know what, you ask him. No, wait, don’t ask him. He will be very angry with me, and I like to keep things civil. There aren’t that many people that I talk to.”

  A strange look passed over Caspian’s face, then his expression softened. “Let me know how I can help you, and I will do what I can.”

  Heaven smiled up at him and pushed her glasses up. “Really? Oh, that is fantastic. Well, not fantastic.” She tugged at her ear again, clearly not entirely happy. “I didn’t believe that you would agree. I suppose pity can really help, though I don’t really like the fact that you pity me. I suppose whatever works. I can’t do this alone and can’t be picky about why you join. I accept that you think I am insane if it means you will help me.”

  Before he could ask anything else, she opened a little area in front of herself and disappeared.

  Momentarily stunned, Caspian fumbled for an opening to follow her. As soon as he had it, he called out, “Heaven, you are going to have to wait for me, I don’t know where we are go—”

  As soon as he stepped through, Caspian realized that what he had agreed to was much more dire than Heaven had indicated.

  “I shortened the trip to minimize the disruption around it. The whole thing is incredibly unstable.” She looked over at the horror on his face. “Yes, quite monstrous, but I don’t have the right magic to undo it. Now you have an idea of why I need help. And this is one of three. And I am not sure where the other two are.”

  Caspian turned, his eyes wide, and he nodded. “Just tell me what to do.”

  “Right. My sister calls this a heart. In it, she has tra
pped—”

  “Magic users. I can see that. Explain later. We need to free them.”

  “It’s too late. They have already been drained and merged. All we can do now is help them to pass on.”

  Caspian nodded. Together, they began to disentangle nearly half a dozen women from the magic enclosure.

  Chapter 1

  The Return

  Heaven blinked her eyes and looked around. The sun was far too unforgiving as it blinded her. “This is why I hate being outside. Damn sun is always making things so bright, day or night, it is so tacky.” She moved the glasses off the bridge of her nose and rubbed her eyes before letting the glasses drop into place. With a quick motion of her hand, the lenses became tinted, blocking a little of the cruel light from her eyes, but not enough to make her comfortable.

  Her mind quickly shifted to something far more uncomfortable as the sound of silence descended over the area. It could only mean one thing.

  With a noisy sigh, Caspian appeared and flopped down in a small hammock. She watched as he rubbed his temples. “One week tomorrow, and I thought I would be ready for it. Thousands of years can’t be wrong, so clearly it’s never going to let up for me.”

  Heaven began chewing on her lip, trying to decide just how to approach him. When he was alone, Caspian let his emotions show on his face; it was the only time when he was honest about how he felt, and it was clear that he was suffering. Heaven looked away for a second as she was reminded that it was all because he had helped her that he was now condemned to a life he hated. Talking to the assassin always made her feel guilty, but she had managed to keep that from being obvious. Not that he would have understood her guilt anyway. Picking at her lip, she didn’t notice the taste of blood as she looked at Caspian, who was clearly going through his own personal torment.

  At least you can get his mind off of whatever it is that’s bothering him now. Small things, right? Heaven tried to steel herself for the encounter. Accustomed to dealing with things on her own, what difference did it make how uncomfortable she was if it meant making Caspian feel a little less burdened? She owed him that much.

  Before she could step forward, a small area opened just behind Caspian. Heaven stood rooted to the spot. The number of people who could use the Holding Place were few, and that meant something else was going on that she had missed. See? You should have approached him sooner. Now just what have you missed?

  Orion emerged, and he appeared to be pulling something with him. Heaven shifted a little and then her mouth fell open as Orion approached Caspian.

  “You seem a bit preoccupied.” Even from this distance, Heaven could hear the change in Orion’s voice. Closing her eyes, she smiled as he continued to talk to his life-long friend. Maybe this would be just what Caspian needed to finally let go of some of his pain.

  Caspian did not even look around. “Hello, Orion. I thought you were busy trying to track something down. That’s what you said when—” Finally, he turned to give his usual carefree smile to hide what he felt, but Caspian’s response mirrored Heaven’s a few seconds before.

  Holding Orion’s hand was the last person any of them would have expected to see. Phoenix.

  “Hey, Caspian. It’s been a while.”

  Heaven’s eyes went to Caspian’s face and she watched the torrent of emotion. The day Phoenix had disappeared had been the day his life had changed forever. Up to that point, she had been the only person whom he had loved, and Heaven suspected that had never changed. But life was entirely unpredictable, and eventually Heaven had entangled his life in hers. It had turned him into almost someone else entirely. Now here was that same woman, the first to touch his heart, back in his life. The problem was that she was no longer in love with him.

  He stood up, quickly closed the distance, and pulled her into a tight hug. “I had heard. So many times, but I didn’t think you would ever want to see me again after what had happened.” She couldn’t see his face, and neither could Orion or Phoenix.

  “I’m sorry, Caspian. I shouldn’t have—I should have seen you sooner. I just wasn’t sure what to say.”

  Caspian laughed, but did not let go of her. “You were never at a loss for words when you were with me.”

  Phoenix laughed and squeezed him, “Yeah, but I’ve seen what you have been through and I guess—I know that I bear a large part of the blame for it.”

  “No. My life has always been mine. What happened to me was always of my doing or because of my own failings. I don’t want you to feel anything but content and happy when you are with me.”

  Orion cleared his throat.

  Caspian patted her back and took a step away from her. “Sorry, Orion. Couldn’t help myself.”

  “Yes. I know. The only weakness I’ve ever known you to have, and you didn’t expect to ever see her again. And if I’m being honest, I kind of wanted to keep her from you.”

  Caspian laughed, the usual look of amusement on his face. “I know you don’t trust me, but I dare say that after all of this time, you don’t need to worry about her. Even if I did still feel that way about her, I know that she doesn’t feel that way about me anymore.” He moved toward Orion and punched him in the shoulder. “You told me you wanted to talk, but you didn’t mention that you were bringing a visitor. I would have cleaned up if I had known.” An honest smile spread across his face, and even Heaven could see the way Caspian’s eyes sparkled when he was happy. “I understand why. But still.” He punched Orion’s shoulder again, then returned to his hammock. “So, to what do I owe this most welcome pleasure?” He threaded his fingers together and put them behind his head, watching the pair expectantly, his usual careless demeanor clicking into place to hide whatever emotions he was actually feeling.

  Phoenix licked her lips as Orion watched her. Caspian could tell that they were communicating without words, but all he could do was wait. “Well, Caspian, I know that you are going to see the seer tomorrow and that you are going to Ishtar. Did she tell you what you will be doing there?”

  Caspian looked at her for a moment. The only other person who knew about his encounter with the seer was Maverick and his seer. There was no way they had encountered Orion or Phoenix, as Caspian suspected that they had spent much of their time without him having sex. They both reeked of attraction when he was there. The only thing they would have to get over was the fact that she had been with Caspian, something that Maverick had proven he did not take well. Who would want to be compared to their mentor in the bedroom? With a little laugh, Caspian nodded, “Indeed, you have very good information, though I am not entirely sure how you know. Neither of them would have told anyone. But no, she couldn’t tell me what we were supposed to do. Not without vomiting up more of those curses her kind are notorious for spewing. Something tells me you already know that I am dealing with more than enough in terms of curses to be burdened with any more prophecies or anything of that ilk.”

  Phoenix approached him as Orion grabbed a chair. He placed it near Caspian and helped Phoenix sit down. Caspian watched them without a word, his eyes reading what wasn’t being said.

  Phoenix blew at a loose strand of hair, clearly looking for the right words. “If I’m being honest, I don’t think she knows what she is doing there either. Just a… a vague notion, so she is acting on what she does know. She didn’t grow up with people who could teach her how to use her abilities, and she never had to figure out anything while she was living in Ishtar. That means this seer is… I don’t want to say unreliable.”

  Caspian shrugged, “Then just say untrained.”

  “Ah, yes,” Phoenix smiled, “yes, that’s a very good way to describe her.”

  “No, it really isn’t, but she does seem to be trying.”

  “I can tell you that she really does want to help the people. That is her main goal.”

  “Miracle.”

  “You think that it is a miracle she feels that way?” Phoenix asked, her head tilting to the side.

  Caspian sat up and moved a s
trand of hair out of her face. “That too. But it is her name. Harmony gave it to her.”

  “Oh,” Phoenix looked up at Orion before looking back at Caspian, “and you accepted it?”

  With a shrug, he settled back into his hammock. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because you hate seers. The pure-blooded ones anyway.”

  “There’s just the one left, and Maverick is in love with her. I don’t think he needs me making his life more difficult than I already have. I’ve no reason to test him further.”

  “That’s almost altruistic of you.” Orion smiled at him, his arms folded across his chest.

  “I just have other things to contend with, and at this point, we have the same goal. If she actually does mean to help the people, then she isn’t the same person that I encountered 800 years ago.”

  “And that means you don’t judge her the same as you did back then.” Orion was nodding.

  “That’s right. The job comes first, and I’ve no need to kill outside the job. You know that it rarely feels good.”

  Orion chuckled, “Rarely, yes. But there are a few times.”

  “Of course.” Caspian got a far-off look in his eyes for a moment. Heaven watched him and wondered what he was thinking. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t taken pleasure in killing anyone since they had worked together.

  “You alright?” Phoenix placed a hand on his arm.

  Looking over at her, he smiled, “Sure. Same as always. This has been a nice little chat, but neither of you has answered my original question.”

  “I was getting to that, Caspian.” Phoenix smiled. “You are not nearly as patient as you used to be.”

  “I am a good bit older.”

  “Most people tend to be—” Phoenix began, but a hand on her shoulder interrupted whatever she was about to say. Looking at Orion she nodded. Now wasn’t the time. “Right. I am here to tell you what actually needs to be done in Ishtar.”

  Caspian sat up again and swung his legs over the hammock. “You know?”