Broken Bonds (Valerian's Cove Book 2)

by H. C. de Cossy

  Marjorie agreed, then shooed Theo out of her office.

  “And Theo, have the Murphys add some pep-up potion or something to your coffee, ok?” She called after him as he walked out the door.

  After the clinic closed for the evening, Marjorie walked over to the Baker’s Delight to speak to the Murphys. The bakery was almost empty, except for a college-aged couple in a booth towards the back who were studying on their computers, their table laden with books, plates with half-eaten food, and coffee cups. Rachel nodded towards a table by the window and Marjorie turned to sit. Rachel bustled over, carrying a coffee pot in one hand and a tray with a plate containing a slice of red velvet cake, Marjorie’s favorite, in the other.

  “Theo says you may know something about this bitch who hurt him and our Marissa?” Rachel asked. Marjorie nodded.

  “It may be a girl I went to school with. I just can’t figure out why she would be working for the Council. She was the queen mean girl at school. Her husband, Hugh Thorndike, was from a wealthy family. She married for money, not love. If she is even capable of love.”

  “We will look into her, and into her husband as well. If she is the one responsible for this hurt, she will never know another day of joy in her life,” Rachel stated. Marjorie looked up quickly from her cake. Rachel’s eyes had gone black, and her face seemed to shrink, her round cheeks becoming hollow, her skin drying out and beginning to look leathery and lined.

  Marjorie stood quickly. “Rachel!” Marjorie grabbed Rachel by her upper arms and shook her once. “Rachel, calm down. We will figure this out. Rachel!” Rachel gestured with one hand and Marjorie was thrown backwards across the bench of her booth.

  “Declan!” Marjorie yelled.

  Declan Murphy ran out from the kitchen. He saw Marjorie lying across the bench of the booth, facing his wife, who had her back to him.

  “Rachel’s going Boggart!” Marjorie called to him. Alarm played across his face.

  “Rachel, lass, what’s gotten into ye?” He called to his wife softly. Rachel turned to face him. His heart clenched and sunk as he saw the state of her face.

  “We have a name for the Witch who hurt our Marissa,” she hissed at him. “We will find her, and she will pay.”

  “Lass, we will find her, we will. There’s no need to get all riled up about it. Come on now, we need to think clearly about this,” Declan told her calmly as he approached her slowly. Reaching Rachel, he put his arms around her and held her close. “Come on now, love. We’ll sort this out, you know we will. This isn’t the time to get all bent out of shape. Wait till we find her and have her in front of us. Then you can do what you will.”

  Declan continued to hold on to Rachel until he could feel her shoulders relax and drop. He held on for another minute, then looked down at her face. Her cheeks were filling in again, and her eyes were fading back to their normal chocolate brown. Tucking her head under his chin, he kissed the top of it, then looked at Marjorie.

  “Will you write down everything you can think of that you know about this person for us? Bring it in tomorrow, if you have time. This will greatly help us figure this mess all out.”

  Marjorie nodded. “Theo told me what you suspect about suppression spells been used on him. I think they must have been used on Marissa as well, which would mean that Clarice, or whoever it was, knew where to find her. Either that, or she was somehow able to cloak Theo from the bond in some way as well as suppress it in him. Either way, we are looking at a powerful Witch and mind-mage. I think we need to find another strong mind-mage to help us look into this. Marissa is strong, but her talents lie in other areas. And she is too close to the situation to be able to handle it in an unbiased way.”

  Declan nodded. “You’re right, I think,” he told her. “I will think about it and see if I can find anyone who fits the bill. I will mention it to Celine as well.”

  “It might be better to find someone other than a Witch. Or maybe a Witch and someone else, just in case,” Marjorie said, as she thought about it further. “Another Witch might be susceptible to controlling as well, if Clarice or whoever is doing this is still around. Maybe a Fae? Are there even any Fae Mind Mages around anymore?”

  Declan thought about it. “There… may be,” he said slowly. “Most of the Tuatha went home or to other realms a long time ago, but there may be one or two still around. I will see what I can find. You’re right, we need someone who cannot be swayed by Witch magic, but who is strong enough to figure out what has been done. I will talk to a few people, quietly, and see what I can find.”

  Marjorie thanked him, then stood to leave.

  “No charge for the cake and coffee,” Declan told her as she stood. “I’m sorry you didn’t have a chance to eat it.”

  Marjorie nodded and headed for the door.

  5

  The children came home filled with excitement about their new school and the lessons they would be learning. They talked about it excitedly over dinner.

  “Mrs. Fielding teaches Air magic. She’s pretty cool,” Ian said.

  “I liked Mr. Robertson, the Earth teacher,” Mikey stated. “He has greenhouses almost as big as yours, Grandpa! He said I would probably learn more here with you, though, and maybe I could help with the class!”

  Brendan smiled. “Carl Robertson is a wonderful person, and a fair Earth Witch. I helped him with those greenhouses, and he gets a lot of his stock from our nursery here. He’s right, though. You probably will learn more about plants here. There are other aspects to Earth magic, though, that Mr. Robertson is very capable of teaching you, and you will have a good time in his class.” Mikey grinned, delighted.

  “I liked the Water class the best,” Milena said. “We only got twenty minutes with each class, though, just to meet the teachers and see what the classes would be like. That Assembly was long.”

  “I hate sitting still!” Allie stated emphatically.

  “What class did you like the best?” Lia asked her headstrong daughter.

  “Fire!” Allie replied.

  “Well, it’s been a while since we had a Fire witch in the family, but I think there were one or two in the past,” Celine declared.

  “You sure have a fiery enough temper,” Ian told his twin. She punched him in the arm. Ian stuck his tongue out at her, rubbing his arm with his other hand.

  “What about you, Shari?” Malia asked her new sister. Shari-Beth smiled a tiny smile.

  “I liked it,” she replied. “It was nice to be around other Shifters my age and seeing so many different types of paranormals was totally cool. I’ve only really been around Shifters before. I’m not the only avian Shifter, either. I got to fly with three others. That was cool.”

  “Were the other avians Falcons, too?” Malia asked.

  “No. One Swan, one Sparrow and a girl from a new family in town who’s an Eagle. They’re all nice. The Sparrow is a guy, though. That was kind of funny. The rest of us are girls, and we are so much bigger than him in our bird forms! The Eagle and I had to promise not to eat him.” She grinned as everyone laughed. Everyone knew that no one would be eating anyone else at the Academy.

  After dinner the twins cleared the table, then headed out to the treehouse for an hour before bed. They each wanted to look up more information about the things they had learned in school that day. Malia leaned in the kitchen doorway and watched them run off across the field towards the treehouse. Marissa joined her and put an arm around her waist.

  “Can you believe the twins are starting the Academy already?” Marissa asked her twin.

  “I hope they have a better time than I did,” Malia said.

  “They don’t have the baggage you did, going in,” Marissa replied bluntly.

  Lia smiled. “You’re right,” she replied. “They are pretty brilliant kids, aren’t they?”

  Rissa laughed. “All four of them are,” she agreed. “And so were we. You just couldn’t see it. Come on, let’s have some ice cream,” and Marissa led Malia black into the house. />
  Marissa had just taken a bite of her cookies-and-cream ice cream with hot fudge and whipped cream (with rainbow sprinkles, because, sprinkles) when the house phone began to ring. Malia reached it first.

  “Hello, Casey residence… Hi, Mrs. Murphy. Really? Wow, that’s great. Now we have somewhere to start. What a break. Thank you. I’ll tell everyone here. Have a good night.” Lia replaced the handset on the base mounted to the wall. She turned to Marissa.

  “Guess what? It turns out that Marjorie at the Clinic might know this Clarice Thorndike person. Marjorie is going to write down everything she remembers about the woman she used to know and bring it by the bakery tomorrow after work. How crazy is that? I guess she was talking to Theo earlier and went to see the Murphy’s about it afterwards.”

  Marissa was quiet for a moment. “That’s really fortunate that someone here in town might know who she is,” Rissa replied slowly.

  Lia nodded. “It’s almost like the Goddess wants us to figure all of this out. We’re on the right track! Now we’ll have an easier time looking into this, knowing about who this person really is.”

  It was Rissa’s turn to nod. Just then, Celine came into the kitchen. Lia told her about Mrs. Murphy’s call.

  “That’s good. That will give us more insight into who this woman is as a person, if it is the same person. I have emailed a few friends I have, one at the new Council, one who is an archivist who handles Witch genealogies, and a couple of friends from school who have kept up with who’s who in the Witching world. I expect to receive replies from them shortly.”

  “Thank you, Mom,” Marissa whispered. Celine hugged her. Still holding her daughter, Celine pulled back, looking into Marissa’s eyes.

  “My darling girl, I cannot imagine how hard this is for you. Just remember, we are all here for you. We are doing this for you. We will figure this out. This needs to be settled, once and for all, so that you and Theo can figure out what is really there between you, if anything at all, without outside interference. And without wondering if it was ever real.”

  Marissa nodded again and laid her head on her mother’s chest. Lia stood up from where she had been leaning against the wall and joined the hug. Brendan came looking for Celine a moment later and found them there. He put his arms around the lot of them as well.

  Rissa’s sleep was interrupted by dreams, dark and twisting. She was looking for someone, running and calling. It was dark, and she was being chased. She couldn’t find whoever she was looking for, but sometimes she thought that she could hear them calling her name. When her alarm went off at five the next morning, Marissa felt as if she hadn’t slept at all. She dragged herself into the shower, then down the stairs to breakfast.

  Malia was in the kitchen, drinking her first cup of coffee for the day. Without a word, she handed her sister one as well. Marissa lifted her mug to her twin, then took her first sip. She sat down at the table, folding both hands around her mug.

  “Didn’t sleep much?” Lia asked.

  Rissa shook her head. “Dreams,” she replied.

  “Me, too,” Lia told her. “It’s weird. It felt as of a storm were coming, but everything looked happy. I just felt like there was something wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. I kept looking around, expecting to see something scary, but there was nothing.”

  “I was searching for someone while being chased. It was dark, and I could hear the person I was looking for, but I couldn’t find them.” Marissa replied.

  The sisters sipped their coffees for a moment, then Lia straightened up. “Well, breakfast won’t make itself,” she stated, getting out a frying pan. Marissa stood and got eggs, bread and butter out of the refrigerator.

  “Grab some spinach and feta too, please,” Lia asked her. Marissa did as she was told, placing them on the counter near the stove. Lia went to work making a breakfast scramble. Rissa put the toast in the toaster and started to set out plates.

  Shari-Beth wandered into the kitchen looking half-awake. Rissa handed her a glass of orange juice as she sat down. Slowly, the rest of the Caseys wandered into the kitchen. Shari-Beth and the children ate, then got ready for school. Brendan would drive them in as he had an early class that morning. Brendan taught Paranormal History at the Academy.

  “I am going to ride my bike in to work this morning,” Marissa stated.

  “I’m going to work in my studio, and help Mom in the garden center,” Lia answered. “I might see Tony for lunch, if his schedule allows.”

  Marissa had a full day of clients scheduled. One woman from the Pack, one married couple who were not Bonded, but had been very much in love and were now having trouble with their families. One married couple who were not Bonded, and the wife had recently met her Bond mate. She had not believed in Bonds and had figured that the love she had with her husband was as good as it got. Now she didn’t know what to do. The new Bond mate was going to come to this session as well. That should be fun. Then, in the afternoon, a transgendered young Bear Shifter and her very confused family. Thankfully, they loved their child, and wanted to understand and support her. It was an emotionally full day.

  Mid way through her lunch, which Marissa had eaten at her desk rather than taking a walk as she usually did, because of extra paperwork that needed completing, Marissa’s phone rang.

  “Marissa, you have a call on line one,” Samantha, the Clinic receptionist, told her.

  “Who is it? I’m on lunch,” she replied.

  “She says her name is Clara, and your college friend, Phoebe referred her? I can tell her to call back later if you like.”

  “That’s ok, I’ll take it,” Marissa told her.

  “Ok, putting her through.” Sam replied.

  “This is Healer Casey, how can I help you?” Marissa answered the phone.

  “Hello. My name is Clara, and Phoebe Southington referred me? She told me that you went to school together?” a smooth, cultured voice responded.

  “Yes, I know Phoebe. How may I help you?”

  “I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I keep having unpleasant dreams, where I’m searching for someone, but can’t find them. When I was younger, I had a child, but he died. I thought I had made peace with it, but he was my only child, and I suppose I never did really process it properly. I didn’t seek counseling at the time. My family saw counseling as a sign of weakness, so I muddled through on my own. I guess my subconscious has decided that now is the time to deal with it, and I no longer care what my family think.”

  “That is certainly a traumatic experience,” Marissa replied. “I would be happy to work with you on this. Are you here in Valerian’s Cove?”

  “No, I live in San Francisco. I was hoping that we could do phone sessions, and maybe once a month I could come up to Valerian’s Cove for an in-person session?”

  “I don’t usually practice over the phone,” Marissa explained. “As a Mind Healer, I find it better to be in close proximity to my clients. It sounds like you may benefit more from a traditional human therapist, if that is the kind of session that you are looking for.”

  “Please, I reached out because I trust Phoebe’s judgement. She said that you were the best she knew. My family is rather well-known, and while I don’t much care for their opinions anymore, there are other people whose opinion could be damaging to my family if it got out that I was seeing counseling, especially for something that happened so long ago.

  “I really am not comfortable practicing over the phone. I really do prefer to see my clients in person,” Marissa reiterated. “I would be willing to see you here once a month if that is when you could come up, or I would be happy to recommend someone in the City if you would prefer more frequent sessions.”

  “Once a month would be fine, I think,” Clara told her. “When could we start?”

  “I have a session open in three weeks, on Wednesday September ninth at ten in the morning, if that works for you?”

  “Nothing sooner?”

  “That is the first available appoint
ment at this time,” Marissa stated clearly.

  “That’s fine, I’ll take that, then,” Clara replied.

  “Please come about fifteen minutes early as there will be some paperwork to fill out.”

  After setting up the appointment, Marissa sat back in her chair, her fingers tented at her lips. Something about the call bothered her. The woman’s dreams echoed her own. Added to that, there was something-something that just felt out of place. It had her on edge. She was glad she had three weeks before she had to meet with this woman. Maybe she should just cancel altogether? Sitting forward, Marissa picked up the phone again and dialed.

  “Hey, Phoebe? It’s Marissa Casey. I just got a call from someone who says you referred them to me?”

  “Oh, yeah, hey, Marissa. There was a woman in one of my meditation classes that asked for the name of a good Mind-Healer. I don’t know her very well. She’s been to two or three classes. I think she just moved here. Was her name Clara?”

  “That’s the one. What do you think of her? I had the idea that she knew you better than that.”

  “She’s a bit snooty, almost. Doesn’t really talk to the other members of the class. Comes in, sits through practice, thanks me and leaves. I don’t think she knows very many people in the City yet. She’s only ever come alone.”

  “Ok, thank you. Hey, we haven’t gotten together for a while. How about we get in touch with Marie and Callie and go out for dinner sometime soon?”

  Marissa and Phoebe chatted for a while longer, then hung up, each promising to call one of their other school friends and plan a date. Marissa sat back again, deep in thought, her sandwich forgotten on the desk in front of her. The receptionist buzzing through to let her know that her next client was in the waiting room snapped her back to the present.

  6

  The weekend arrived with a heatwave and a swarm of children and young adults at the Casey home. Shari-Beth had invited the other avian Shifters home to fly together over Casey land. The younger twins had invites a bunch of young people their age home as well. Brendan took a group of five young Earth Witches out to the greenhouses and began teaching them about the different plants he was nurturing along there. Mikey was in his element. Literally. He felt justifiably proud to be a part of Casey Nurseries and was excited to show his friends around.