Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Adkins, Heather Marie

  As I lay there my mind drifted and I allowed it to. So many questions still plagued me. too many. Questions and feelings. Good and bad.

  The coven of shadows was supposedly where I belonged, but I didn’t feel that when I thought about it.

  In reality I lay in the arms of a vampire who made me feel like his.

  With him was where I felt like I belonged.

  With him…

  6

  Tristan

  The beauty woke up in my arms, stretching against my chest and I gave her a kiss that tasted of last night.

  She slipped her hand behind my head and kissed me back. It was the kind of kiss I could have gotten lost in.

  Gabrielle smiled and looked about her. I switched off my ability to hear her thoughts. It was okay to read someone’s mind sometimes, but not always. A person needed their privacy and going into the mind like that was an invasion when not invited.

  “I should go,” she whispered.

  “No, I’m keeping you with me.” I was actually serious. I would keep her if I could, if she allowed me. Screw the consequences.

  “You’re going to keep me here with you?” she giggled.

  Her delicious breasts bobbled as she sat up and the messy hair made me want to take her all over again. I had her all night and yet I wanted her all over again. More, more for the taking. More of the beautiful woman who rocked my world.

  “I can you know.” I sat up. “I could keep you here forever if I wanted to.”

  “Forever?” she cooed. “Right, and what would we do?”

  “Fuck.”

  “Must you be so crass?” She blushed and her cheeks turned a soft rose color.

  “Yes. Don’t act like you don’t like it.” I teased reaching out to touch her pretty pink nipples.

  She leaned forward and kissed me, then pulled back.

  “They’ll come looking for me.”

  “So?”

  “So, I should get back. Besides, this is crazy. I can’t just stay here. We haven’t even been on a proper date.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You want to date?”

  “Don’t you guys date?”

  “No. Not so much we just…” I didn’t bother to finish the rest of that sentence. The deflated look on her face told me she wouldn’t like the answer.

  Dating was a human thing. Vampires had a high sex drive and tended to skip over all that stuff that took up too much time. If we saw a woman we wanted we took her. I was more over the top than the average vamp. I couldn’t help it. Of the three brothers, I was the wildest. I got it from my father.

  When mother died he filled his days with concubines. One woman was never enough for him. It was only my mother that he treated with respect and gave his heart to. A demon killed her to get back at him. After that he wasn’t the same. He even chose to die, so as to speak by taking his leave from the world.

  At one thousand years old he just decided to fade into the ether. That was it. He gathered us together one day, set up the new order with me, my brothers and a few witnesses and that was it. He was the wild child too in his family, but he could be serious when the time called for it.

  That was me.

  Gabrielle pulled the sheet over her breasts and gazed out the window to the bright blue morning sky.

  “So if you don’t date how do you get to know a person?” she asked.

  “We know each other.”

  “The dream world is different, we never even got to know each other’s names.”

  “What do you want to know about me?”

  She shrugged. “Just stuff you want to share. And, I don’t know about vampires.”

  “I love sunlight and magic. That’s me. I spend my days learning whatever I can. Vampires in general tend to be curious beings. Like humans we each have our skills and abilities. Magic is my thing. Vampires have a number of different abilities. Telepathy, the power to enchant, teleportation, and for us we walk in the sun. I like to add to myself with magic. My brothers Ivan and Virgil have their own things too. Ivan is the brains and the organizer, Virgil the negotiator. Me, I’m muscle in every sense.”

  “That sounds like you.”

  “It is.”

  “What else is there?” I loved her curiosity. The light in her beautiful eyes reminded me of a child who was eager to learn everything.

  “I have a soul, I’m not dead, as you can see I don’t sleep in a coffin and I have a reflection.” I was trying to cover all the myths.

  “Is that vampires in general?”

  “No, baby, you see the other kind and you will know straight away. I pray you never happen upon any of them. If you do, call me straight away.”

  “What if I’m not with you?” I loved the little smile that pulled on her pretty lips.

  “Find a way. Magically or somehow.”

  She laughed. “Okay. What were you doing in the dream plane? How did we meet that way? Why?” She looked back to me.

  “I was testing a spell.”

  “So there I was exploring the dream plane when I saw something I’d never seen before. A bar decked out like the humans call the Wild West. I went in and I saw you. You projected the dream here.”

  “What?” her brows shot up.

  “Yeah, the whole setting was you. Every time you fell asleep the dream would come to Saphiro.”

  “Saphiro.” The name rolled off her tongue in a way I liked.

  “That is where you are Princess. This is the land of The Order.”

  “Is it a realm?” she looked intrigued.

  I nodded. “Indeed.”

  “How would I get here outside of a dream?”

  I sighed. “If I don’t bring you here there is no other way. Most beings travel through the veil via the Eden stones or teleportation stones. Saphiro is different. Only someone with our blood running through their veins can get here on their own.”

  “How so? How does it work?”

  “A little like using the Eden Stone. We think of home and we appear there.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, tell me, how did you get to the dream plane? Can you remember how it happened the first time?”

  She shrugged. “I fell asleep watching a western. I was thinking how cool it would be to go to a bar and get whisked away by a handsome stranger. Then it sort of happened.”

  There was something I was noticing since talking with her. Since the other day when I first kissed her I real life. She had a powerful mind. It piqued my interest. A lot.

  “Tristan…” He gave me a thoughtful look. “What do you think about the etherstone? I mean what do you think should happen to it?”

  I sighed and stared deeply into her gorgeous eyes. “I’m not sure. I know it’s dangerous but I don’t know what we should do with it. There’s a reason our ancestors worked hard to get rid of them.”

  “Are they that bad?”

  I nodded. “They absolutely are baby.”

  “So maybe the stone should be destroyed?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe, but the thing I learned from people of the past is this… they fear things they don’t understand. They think if something is different or they don’t understand it, it should be destroyed. We’ve learned from all that so maybe we could use it for good. I don’t know. It may still be a threat.”

  “To who? A threat to who? Caleb was the only threat I know. I hear people talking about dark magic and dark forces but what does it mean? At home in LA I was scared of thieves, burglars, and I guess just really bad guys who could kill you. I don’t know what I have to fear here.”

  I frowned at that. it was crazy. The coven had had her in that castle all week and hadn’t at least told her what to fear.

  “The main threats are anyone who attempts to break the laws of the realms. But… the darker threat is those who follow the old ways. Those who want them back. Those who fought against our forefathers who banished the demons and hell gods back to hell and the underworld. It was a massive war centuries ago. It took the legions o
f heaven, and all creatures and beings that ever existed to banish them. Their leader was a hell God called Razul. His followers are forever trying to free him. The stone could be used for that. The fact that it’s new suggests to me that the stone is bigger than Caleb’s plan to rule over Pandir.”

  I gazed at her, knowing that was a lot to take in. Yet she looked like she understood.

  “You’re looking at me weird.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

  “Sorry. Gabrielle, what made you come here? What really made you come to this world. I say this world because while we all live in separate realms we know who we are and to the humans we either don’t exist or we fascinate them. What made you do it? You don’t seem very happy.”

  She seemed like a fish out of water. Looking at her at that council meeting, she looked like she’d been pulled from her world against her will and I knew she’d come willingly.

  “I’m adopted. I have a great family. My adopted parents love me like nothing else. They made sure I knew they wanted me in their lives. Every day was a testament of that. They couldn’t have kids of their own so they spoilt me rotten. I was eight when they got me, and I never really questioned who my biological parents were. It didn’t matter because I didn’t have it rough like some people I know, and I didn’t need to. Then this happened and it was the first time that my biological parents really and truly crossed my mind.”

  I was listening. I was damn well listening. Listening to her, hearing her heart, feeling the desire in her soul.

  “No one ever talked about who they may be?”

  She shook her head. “Nobody. It was all anonymous. I really wanted to ask my mom— my adopted mom – more questions before I left to go to the Woodland Realm, but talking to her was difficult. I didn’t tell her where I was going, just that I was moving and she could sense there was something up with me but I couldn’t tell her. Usually I tell her everything. I figured the coven would have some answers. So far I haven’t had any but it’s just been so daunting being there. And look at me, in bed with you. My best friend would think I’d lost my mind.” She shook her head.

  I chuckled and pulled her on to my lap allowing the sheet to fall from her completely. I wanted her, naked pressed up against me.

  I slipped my arms around her waist and she slid hers around my neck.

  “Do not be coy about us. And don’t pull that stunt you did the night before.”

  “What stunt?” She feigned innocence.

  “Stay awake all night and try to avoid me. It won’t work, and I won’t leave you alone.” I gave her a sinful smile.

  “Not even if I tell you to?”

  “Especially if you tell me to. Forbidden flesh is the sweetest of all. You’re mine.”

  Her eyes widened. “Yours?”

  “You’re mine, but I’ll allow this…” I could keep her here but she’d end up hating me for it. That wasn’t the way I wanted us to be. That aside I knew this was fast both for her and me. I was serious though. She was mine. “I’ll take you back to the coven if you come back to me every night. I’ll come and get you. You are to contact me in the dream plane and you are to be careful.”

  “Be careful?” Now she looked worried. “I’m not part of the coven yet, I don’t care about their rules about vampires and witches.”

  “My lady, being a part of the coven is a blood rite. It’s in your blood. You were born into it. The life you live however is another story.”

  “That sounds like the same thing and like they could just come and punish me for doing what I want to do. And what would they do, take my powers away? Or curse me?”

  “The punishment is death.”

  Her lips parted and her face went completely pale. “What are you saying to me?

  “The punishment is death for both of us.”

  “Pru didn’t tell me that.”

  I would have joked about her asking Pru about vampires being with witches but now wasn’t the time to joke.

  “Prudence might not have told you that key factor because her dear father was the one who added on that rule to the law. It wasn’t always so strict. Then one day he called council and lay down the new laws.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Why would he do that?”

  I shook my head. “Preservation of pure magic was his argument. The only beings it really affected were vampires and werewolves because we are the closest to humankind and witches.”

  “You knew this and you brought me here?” She looked worried but not for herself . It was for me.

  I didn’t read her mind but I sensed it.

  “I live by my own rules. Whatever suits me, and I sure as fuck won’t have some person, whoever he is, tell me I can’t have the woman I want. So, Gabrielle be careful until I know what you are.”

  My emphasis on the word what made her look more curiously at me.

  “What? Did you just say what I am?”

  I nodded slowly.

  “I’m a witch, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, definitely. But there’s more to you than what meets the eye.”

  “More?”

  “No witch can walk the dream planes. It’s impossible. But you can and if you weren’t a witch you wouldn’t have guardians. And. If you weren’t something worth protecting you wouldn’t have two.”

  She pressed her hand to my chest. “What should I do?”

  “Trust me. Can you do that?”

  I smiled when she nodded.

  * * *

  I had her one last time before I took her back.

  It was early enough for her to get back and no one notice that she’d been gone all night.

  I left her appearing to her like I was leaving but I cloaked myself and thought I’d do a little more investigation of my own.

  My research in the books didn’t really give me any pointers, but for damn certain gave me more questions. Raising my suspicions.

  What was she?

  What was my girl indeed?

  With my cloaking I could go anywhere I wanted to in the castle without being seen. I would literally walk up to old Abe himself and not be seen. This was old magic my father taught me. Old in the sense that it relied on wit and a little thing called being clever. I wasn’t actually invisible.

  I’d toned down my essence so no one could sense me and then I bended the light around me to create an illusion. That way no one could sense the powerful magic it would take to actually become invisible.

  I headed to the second floor where they kept the artifacts. The etherstone would definitely be there.

  I’d only been in this room once before. One time only and that was when my father demanded to see one of the ancient relics he’d found. He found it in his travels to one of the dragon realms and Abram insisted on taking it and keeping it here.

  The Coven of Shadows in my opinion had been given too much power. Too much power over their own kind, and far too much over the shadow world. Anything like that was never good.

  How could it be? It was leaving your fate in the power of one man who never really gave you the confidence to trust him.

  I moved into the hall where the artifacts were kept and saw the etherstone. I recognized it from the drawings I’d seen in books.

  Abram had placed it in a glass case and there were some magical wards around it protecting it.

  It was such a small thing. It looked more like a pebble and was that misty gray of the ether just as you stepped beyond the veils separating realms and realities.

  This was my first time seeing one. All the talk over the centuries of how powerful these stones were had always intrigued me. I’d always wondered about the process in making one. Not that I’d ever tried myself, or want to.

  It just begged the question of what would you really use it for.

  The purpose. Why would you need to control the forces of darkness?

  Why would you need to control dark magic?

  In my head it definitely screamed Razul’s followers because if I were going
to hell something like an etherstone would definitely be helpful in getting past the hell fiends and whatever nightmare creatures lived there.

  This was a tool and if it was a tool placing it in the Shadowlands wasn’t going to help anyone. Placing it in the Cave of Endless night was just that. All anyone had to do if they wanted it was go in there and take it. Granted you’d have to know where to look first but that wasn’t that much of an issue.

  I knew more than most that there were ways around certain things. Like me now, invisible but not really.

  Voices sounded in the corridor and I turned to see Pru and Claire coming into the hall. They were dressed in more casual wear now and like this Claire looked practically the same age as her daughter.

  I watched them come in and go to the section with book shelves. They stopped at the foot of the stairs.

  “Mother I feel bad for her. Imagine how she must feel. She’s like a sitting duck. Not a child and we shouldn’t treat her like one.” Pru said to Claire who gave her a flustered sigh. “Gabrielle deserves every chance she can get to learn where she came from, and our way.”

  “I get it Pru, but she’s only been here for a little over a week. We can’t bombard her with too much.”

  “We haven’t done anything. That’s the worry. Think back to how eager she was when she first got here. It was like she wanted to know everything, not this drip feed crap we’re giving her while she sleeps for most of the day.”

  “It’s important that she takes the time she needs to adjust. Too much on the mind and it literally will be like too much. Like the council meeting. I didn’t want Gabrielle to be there. That was too much and too intense.”

  Pru shook her head and her blonde ponytail bobbled. “I don’t get it. We always, always encourage if not push our witches to the limit to seek out their powers. That’s what we do. But here we are babying her. Why? Why wouldn’t we want to harness that eagerness she has to explore the mystery of her? Mother she has two dragons.”

  “Prudence drop this. Your father and I have given specific instructions in how we are supposed to deal with Gabrielle and I will not have you force anything on her. Is that clear?” Claire placed her hands on her hips and Pru eased off.