‘I heal fast.’
‘Not fast enough,’ he growled. ‘I’m going to find out who those fuckers were and I’m going to kill them.’
She shuddered, certain in this moment that he was capable of doing just that. ‘Don’t go after them. Not for me.’
He shot her a look that seemed more animal than human, but didn’t answer. Instead, he moved swiftly through the lounge and down the hall, taking her into a room filled with comfortable smells: the dusty musk of old books, leather and furniture polish.
Skye would have loved to spend time in this room, exploring, but Jason marched to the worn leather couch and lowered her onto it as if she was something precious.
Looking down at her, his expression stern, he said, ‘I will do everything I need to keep you safe.’ He touched her cheek, his fingers circling the bruise on her forehead, the cut on her chin. She could still feel blood dribbling from the gash and down her neck. ‘They will pay for this.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want you—or anyone—to be hurt because of me.’
‘We will fight for you, Skye, whether you want us to or not.’ He bent, kissing her lightly on the lips. ‘I will fight for you to my last breath. You are mine.’
His words whispered over her, creating a rising warmth inside.
He moved back. ‘Stay here. I can hear your friends. I need to throw some clothes on.’ He kissed her on the forehead. ‘I’ll be right back.’
She took in a big, shuddering breath as he left the room. Oh hell. What was she going to do? How could she stay and deal with him as the Pack Witch, day to day, when all she wanted was—
‘Skye? Shit. What did they do to you?’
She looked up as Bron, Shelley and Adam rushed in the door, Shelley’s trusty first-aid kit in her hand. She almost burst into tears, her breath coming in short sharp gasps as her friends knelt beside the couch.
‘Are you okay?’ Shelley asked, brushing the hair from Skye’s face.
Skye nodded, unable to tell her friends her heart was being ripped out of her chest bit by slow bit. ‘Just a little banged up.’
‘Bron and I will help with that.’ Shelley opened her first-aid kit and began pulling things out. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t hear anything. What attacked you? Was it the rogue coven? Here, hold this to your chin, you’re still bleeding.’
Skye took the padded bandage and held it to her chin, wincing. ‘I think so. They looked like Were.’
‘They weren’t Were,’ Adam snarled.
‘I know.’ Glad to have something else to concentrate on, she caught Adam’s gaze but then looked away. Only a few moments ago he’d been a large black wolf and thinking about that just reminded her of Jason. She spoke to Bron instead. ‘They were from the rogue coven; shapeshifters. I think they found me years ago, came to me in those shapes, possibly to lure me away from Grandpa and Gran. It’s that memory I’ve carried with me, making me frightened of dogs.’
Shelley began to roll up Skye’s torn jeans. ‘Can you roll over? I need to see this in the light.’ She tutted. ‘Goddess, this is a mess. Whatever attacked you might not have been a true Were, but its teeth were real enough. It almost tore you to the bone.’ She got out some things from the bag and Skye felt her fingers prod around the wound. ‘There’s something wrong here. Bron, do you feel it? You’re better at this than me.’
Bron held her hand over the wound. Skye stiffened as a strange warmth covered her leg. ‘Don’t be a baby, Skye,’ Bron said. ‘I’m just pulling on a little of the Goddess’s magic to enhance my reiki.’
Skye tried to relax but overcoming her lifelong aversion to magic wasn’t a simple process.
After a moment Bron sat back. ‘There is definitely something dark in this wound. I think it’s going to be beyond my healing ability alone. If we don’t manage to neutralise whatever spell or poison was on their teeth, it could be disastrous. I need help.’
‘Oh, God,’ Skye whimpered, burying her head in her arms. ‘Am I going to die?’
‘Not if I can help it.’ Adam pulled out a phone. ‘I’ll Skype Cordy and see if she can help you.’
A moment later, a woman’s face appeared on the screen, her vibrantly red hair a silken spill around her pale, piquant face. ‘Adam? What’s up?’
He quickly explained the problem. Cordy asked to be shown the wound and spoke briefly to Bron and Shelley about their impressions of it.
‘You’re right, Bronwyn,’ she said. ‘We have to fight this magic with magic.’
‘Is that necessary?’ Skye trembled at the idea of magic being used on her again. Alfrere’s magic had hurt so much.
‘Very. If we don’t get their magic out of you, it could get into your blood, crawl into your brain, your heart, your soul. It could kill you, or worse.’
‘There’s something worse than death?’ She laughed, trying to lighten the air of doom that had drawn around them.
‘They could turn you into something dark. Something like them.’
Skye swallowed hard. ‘Okay.’
‘Shelley and Bron, you’re going to have to bind the spell with a boost of life force.’
‘A blood tie?’ Bron asked.
‘Yes. It’s stronger than anything else I know and the positive energy of your life force in your blood should help push out any dark magic still in the wound.’
‘I’ve never done something like that before.’
‘It’s not hard. I’ll talk you through it.’
As she spoke, Bron did as Cordelia asked, mixing up a grey-coloured powder from the collection of herbs in her bag. Then she collected three drops of blood from Shelley’s fingertip, repeated the action on herself, and mixed them into the powder. A coppery scent stung the air alongside the softer scents of the herbs.
‘Good,’ Cordy said, her voice echoing strangely from the phone. ‘Now, call on your Goddess power to enhance your natural abilities.’
‘Adam, you might want to go out of the room,’ Bron said. ‘I use the power of the Moon Goddess. It could turn you by force with the amount of power I’m about to borrow and I know you don’t like that.’
Adam nodded. ‘I’ll just be outside the door.’ He propped the phone up on the desk and left.
Skye turned over and tried to lie as still as possible as they ministered to her wounds, Cordy’s voice echoing around her. Bron sprinkled the powder over the torn flesh. Prickles skated over her skin as Bron and Shelley placed their hands over the wound and invoked their Goddess and the power of the moon with words that made the hair on the back of Skye’s neck stand up. She gripped the edge of the couch, ignoring the pain in her fingertips as a cooling tingle sank into her leg.
She shuddered and bit her lip, trying not to cry out. She had to get over this aversion to magic. Not all magic was evil. The proof of that was before her in her friends and Cordelia.
But still, some magic was evil. That magic had stood before her only a short time ago, cloaked in the form of grey wolves, and attacked.
That evil magic couldn’t be allowed to hold sway. It couldn’t win.
‘You can turn over, Skye,’ Shelley said. ‘Thanks, Cordelia. The wound is already looking better.’
Cordy nodded. ‘As the dark magic is expelled naturally from her body, it should start to heal quickly.’ She turned as her name was called in the background. ‘Coming,’ she yelled over her shoulder and looked back at them. ‘I have to go. We’re in the middle of our Samhain preparations. But if you need any more help, just call. I can’t come to you—yet—but I can at least do this.’
‘We appreciate that, Cordy,’ Bron said. ‘I would never have thought to do this myself.’
Cordy nodded. ‘That’s because you haven’t been trained to use your power properly. I can help all of you, not just Skye, if you want.’ There was another cry behind her. ‘Look, I have to go. Call me whenever.’
‘We will.’
The screen went blank.
Shelley broke the silence. ‘I feel a bit drained aft
er that.’
‘I don’t,’ Bron said. ‘I feel energised. I could probably do a full reiki healing on the rest of Skye’s wounds right now and not feel drained after.’
‘I don’t think that’s necessary,’ Shelley said as Skye stiffened again. ‘Just apply this salve to Skye’s face while I bandage her leg and I think that will be enough healing for tonight.’
Bron chuckled. ‘If you say so.’
‘Is it safe to come in?’ Adam called.
‘Yep. All done in here.’
Skye winced as Bron dabbed cream on her forehead. ‘What I don’t understand is how did they find me?’
‘I’d like to know the answer to that too,’ Adam said as he sauntered in.
Bron sighed. ‘They either followed us or tracked you through the magic you’re leaking.’
Skye nodded. Either could be true. ‘But why come as wolves again when it hadn’t worked all those years ago?’
Bron dabbed lotion on the cut on Skye’s chin. ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘They took on wolf form because they thought it meant they might be able to get close enough to succeed.’
‘Succeed in what?’ Jason said, entering the room, his gaze coming to rest on her, searing her as it always did. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, his feet bare, he looked more gorgeous than anyone had a right to. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘The rogue coven,’ Adam said. ‘Why attack? What was the motive?’
‘That’s simple,’ Jason said, his expression grim as he leaned against the desk directly opposite her. ‘It’s easier to run down the deer that’s been separated from the herd.’
Jason’s words fired through Skye, her anger a hard knot in her chest that made her more determined now to do what she’d decided to do. ‘Well, I’m not running. I’m staying.’
Jason’s eyes burned with suppressed joy. ‘You’re staying?’
‘Yes.’ She took in a deep breath, trying to stop the quiver in her voice. ‘They might have meant to frighten me by attacking me, but it backfired. I’m not a deer to be singled out and hunted down. I won’t be pushed around or used by others against my will ever again. I will learn not to be frightened of my powers. I’ll use the spell Cordy wrote for me and I will learn how to channel magic to help the pack. To help you. To protect all those in my care. And then the rogue coven can run from me.’
She reached into her pocket to pull out the spell, but Shelley’s hand on hers stopped her.
‘You can’t do that.’
Power buzzed on her fingers as they touched the paper in her pocket. ‘I won’t be the victim any more.’
‘I understand that. But even if you managed to unlock your powers, they are still dangerous unless you know how to channel them.’ Shelley sighed. ‘I didn’t want to say anything yet, but the diary I was reading earlier mentioned the incredible raw strength of your powers. They are akin to the sun as ours are to the moon. One uncontrolled flare-up and you could kill Jason and every single Were he is linked to.’ She paused, eyes moving from one tense face to the next.
Skye’s hand went limp, pulling away from the paper as Shelley’s words sank in.
‘That’s why I called Cordelia. I needed to check if what was written there could be true.’
‘Is it?’ Jason asked, voice tight.
Shelley nodded. ‘Cordy didn’t realise you had the power of two in you. She said you’re going to have to be very careful in unbinding Harrison’s spell. It could take weeks, if not months, to do it in a safe way. Especially if we don’t have help.’
Skye’s mind spun, but amid the turmoil one thing sprang clear. ‘I won’t let those I love be put in further danger because of me. We have to find some way to speed things up. I have to learn about my power. I can’t go through what I went through tonight again.’ She clasped her hands together so tightly it hurt. ‘I mean, they could have hurt Tom. Or any of you. But if I knew how to use my power, they would never have been able to do that. My father thought I could be taught. I have to believe in that. I have to. There has to be a way.’ Her eyes flashed, excited, as the solution came to her. ‘There is a way.’
‘What do you propose?’ Jason asked.
‘I have to go back to Alfrere and Morrigan. Alfrere taught Grandpa. Perhaps he can teach me.’
‘But they wanted you to bind your magic and run,’ Bron said into the stunned silence.
‘I know. But that was because they said there wasn’t time. They don’t have all the information about what will happen to the pack and to me if I don’t learn to channel my powers into you.’ Her gaze flickered to Jason’s and then away. ‘If I go to them—’
‘No,’ Jason said, his tone cold, final. ‘The danger to you is unacceptable.’
‘I can’t risk my power lashing out like the diaries suggest it might if I don’t learn to control it. I have to do this now.’
‘I think Skye is right,’ Bron said. ‘Given what Shelley read in Paul’s diary about Skye’s power, we need to take care of training her now. And if no Pack Witch can do it, then Alfrere is a reasonable alternative.’
Jason shook his head. ‘No.’
Skye stiffened. ‘You promised.’
‘Not about this. Not when it means danger to you.’
‘You don’t own me.’
‘I do when it comes to this.’
‘You lying f—’
‘All right then,’ Shelley coughed awkwardly. She finished bandaging Skye’s leg and stood. ‘Bron, Adam. Let’s leave them to discuss this without an audience. I need to wash up anyway.’
‘But this is just getting interesting,’ Adam drawled.
Shelley grabbed his arm. ‘You are coming with me.’
His lips curved up into a sensuous smile. ‘Whatever you say, kitten.’
Shelley rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath that made Adam laugh.
Bron followed them out, but turned to whisper as she went out the door, ‘Don’t kill him. We need you both intact.’
When they were all gone, Skye snapped. ‘I don’t like it when people lie to me. You said I’d be my own person, free to make my own decisions.’
‘I didn’t lie to you. But your safety is my responsibility.’
‘I could claim the same about myself for you and my friends.’
‘You could, but our lives aren’t in immediate danger like yours is.’
She growled at him. ‘You are impossible.’
He sat next to her and took her hand, ignoring her resistance. ‘No, I’m not. But it’s in our nature to be viciously protective of what’s ours. And you are mine.’
Her anger disappeared as his words stabbed through her heart. She looked away so he wouldn’t see how much his words meant. ‘I asked you not to say that.’
He grasped her face, careful of her wounds, but forced her to look in his eyes.
‘When the Curse started making itself known, I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to our pack, but I was wrong. Having you taken from me, never being able to build a life with you by my side, that thought tortures me most of all.’
‘Please, don’t.’ She squeezed her eyes closed. ‘It just makes it so much harder for me to separate things. I know I’m your Pack Witch; that the Bond Wine you gave me at the snow pledged me to you and your pack and created a feeling of such closeness that it encouraged us to cement the bond in a sexual way. But it’s difficult for me to think about it in such a clinical way. I know it’s easy for you—this must have happened between Alphas and their Pack Witches many times before, but—’
He pressed his fingers over her lips, stopping her words and making her open her eyes, gaze flicking to his. ‘The Bond Wine doesn’t create sexual attraction. It’s used to tie a Pack Witch to the Alpha, helping to create the bond that’s so essential in the transfer of power. My father shared it with your father as Alphas have done with their Pack Witches and Warlocks for the last five hundred years, and I can promise you, it never did for them what it did for u
s. For us, something special happened. The Bond Wine helped a deeper connection click into place. Something inevitable.’
He smoothed a finger over her frown. ‘Skye. I love you. I was always meant to love you because you are my mate.’
Skye gasped, knowledge tumbling into her head at that word. Then she stiffened. ‘You can’t want me as a mate.’
He chuckled. ‘There’s no choice, but if there was, I would have chosen you. You are perfect for me in every way.’ He brushed his fingers over her cheeks, his thumb on her lower lip causing a deep need to build and shudder inside her.
‘I understand this might come as a shock, it certainly came as quite a shock to me because I wasn’t looking for my mate; not with everything going on and such uncertainty in my pack’s future. But here you are. And my wolf and I could howl our joy to the sky. You are my mate and I love you.’
‘Oh God. Oh God.’ She didn’t realise the sound had hiccoughed out of her, barely felt Jason’s arms tighten around her as a memory flickered into her mind. She sat on her mama’s lap, a mating ceremony coming to a close on the other side of the bonfire.
‘A mating is for life,’ Ivy whispered. ‘They’ll be joined soon, just as your father and I were joined. Through hardship and arguments, they’ll know that the other will always be there, loving them. It’s the sweetest joy and the greatest burden.’
‘Why, Mama?’
Her mother chucked her under the chin and looked back at the couple who stared adoringly into each other’s eyes as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. ‘It’s a burden because both will have to work hard never to let the other feel less than they are. Happiness is not always ensured. Like with everything else in life, their mating will need constant work. But the one thing that will see them through, apart from always having the love of the other, is that they’ll know the joy of children. A mating ensures the strengthening of ties through more than love. It ensures them through blood. That’s why the birth of a child is such a treasure and always brings great celebration to the pack.’
Leisl Leighton - [Pack Bound 01] Page 26