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

by Adkins, Heather Marie

  A man who wanted me to be his.

  It was nice to feel like his. Like it was true.

  I got dressed and made my way down to the dining hall, but none of the family were there.

  The students who lived in the castle all ate together and Abram, Claire, Pru and Juliana would sit at the large table in the corner. None of them were there now. The students were here though. Eating, talking and laughing.

  I grabbed some toast. Ate it and went to the library.

  I’d just started looking through a spell book when Pru came in. Actually she rushed inside.

  “My God there you are.” She rushed up to me looking panicked.

  “What happened?”

  “What happened? Gabrielle, I know, I know about you and Tristan. I told you to stay away from him. Juliana saw you with him and she’s just told Mother.”

  Shit! Fucking shit.

  I wanted to speak to Claire and now this.

  “How did she see me?”

  “With my eyes.” Juliana answered for herself.

  We both turned to see her standing by the door. Next to her was a very angry looking Claire.

  “I came to get you for breakfast and I heard a man’s voice in the room. So I cloaked myself and saw the two of you. Mother you should have seen it, they were all over each other.”

  What a fucking bitch.

  “Gabrielle, can I speak to you in the office. This is very serious. Very serious.”

  There wasn’t anything I could say.

  I just went with her.

  * * *

  Claire sat me down in the office and looked directly into my eyes.

  “Gabrielle, I understand you don’t know our ways but you must tell me now how serious it is between you and this vampire.”

  “No, I won’t. It’s my business. Not yours.”

  “It is my business, you are my business and you know you aren’t to have any dealings like this with them. God, this is my fault. I should have personally sat you down and gone over every single rule. Pru said she covered it. Obviously she wasn’t clear enough.”

  “She was very clear. Had to find out about the death punishment for myself though.”

  Her eyes widened. “And you still went to him? By the guardians, Gabrielle.”

  “How about we talk about my powers? That’s a great subject for discussion since that’s what I came here for, yet we haven’t done anything and no plan has been put in place for me to do so. I came here to learn, and you haven’t taught me shit. Instead I’ve been treated like some kind of lab rat for the most part.”

  She looked shocked at my tone. It was down to the fact that until now I’d been this meek, person sitting around and waiting for something to happen.

  “Gabrielle, we’ve told you it’s best to take things one step at a time.”

  I’d had enough of that shit. “Why? What don’t you want to know about me?” Better to ask that. “I’m just supposed to sit here and look while time passes. Well I did a little research of my own.”

  “And what did you find?” she challenged.

  “Someone erased my past.”

  She sucked in a breath. “That’s’ nonsense.”

  “It’s not nonsense. It was a seer who told me. Claire why would someone do that? If it was you I’m sure you’d want to know who you belong to. Someone erased my past and I think it had to be to protect me from something, but what. You guys don’t want to learn what I can do, but you want to dig around asking me about my birth parents. As if I know. If I knew I would have told you all already. If I knew chances are I wouldn’t even be here.”

  “Who asked you that?” Her voice shook as she spoke.

  “Abram, he asked me yesterday.”

  She stood, hands shaking now. “You are to go to your room and stay there. Don’t see the vampire.”

  “My God, I’m a grown woman, I can see him if I want to.” I couldn’t believe the absurdity.

  Now she looked freaked out. “Gabrielle did you sleep with him?”

  “Yes I did.”

  “Oh God Gabrielle.” Her hands flew up to her cheeks. “Please, just go to your room. Please, go and wait for me.”

  “Wait for what? My punishment? Are you going to kill me?” I hadn’t been told to go to my room since I was ten. This was all so crazy.

  “Wait for me. I have to speak to Juliana before she does more damage by telling Abram.”

  “Thought she would have done so already,” I shot back.

  “He’s away on business and will be back anytime soon. Now go.” She pointed to the door.

  Shaking my head I got up and made my way to my room.

  I sat on the bed and stared out the window. This was a classic example of a time I should probably contact Tristan. It absolutely was. No question about it.

  I was in trouble and the minute Abram found out I was with Tristan I didn’t know what would happen then.

  I wanted to go into my dream world. On to the dream plane and contact Tristan, but what if Claire came in here.

  She was a mage. I had full confidence that she’d know exactly what I was trying to do if she came in here and found me sleeping. Or rather if she didn’t know straightaway she’d have an idea of sorts now that she knew about him.

  I hated not knowing anything and again feeling helpless.

  What I needed to do was get the hell out of here. Even if it was just to find a way to tell Tristan. Just to give him a heads up.

  I didn’t want to get him in trouble. I really didn’t.

  So, what could I do? Couldn’t go to sleep and could portal like him to Saphiro…

  Wait…

  I stood up instantly as something crossed my mind. Something he said yesterday about my powers.

  He thought I created the portal to Pandir and that I could basically do what I wanted with my thoughts. How though?

  I didn’t know if I could simply just think something and it would happen. He’d also said my powers were based on my emotions. What if I used my worry to channel powers and find him.

  Or, I could just try to think of him and maybe that would take me to him.

  Maybe…

  This would be the first time that I used my powers by myself. Aside from when I first discovered my guardians.

  I closed my eyes and focused.

  Focused and concentrated. I conjured up an image of Tristan and then I tried to tap into my emotions. To control them.

  Opening my eyes again I frowned when nothing happened. Nothing was happening. I wasn’t doing it properly.

  I squeezed my eyes shut again and thought of him one more time.

  He told me I was his, that it was true. The seer told him that I needed to believe it was true.

  I did believe it, and when he told me I had him that was actually the first time that I didn’t feel alone in all this. He was the only person to guide me to the biggest part of what I could do.

  There was no question of whether I’d fallen for him. I knew I had. Time didn’t need to tell me that. My heart was full of love for him. I could feel it.

  It was him. I’d never fallen so hard and fast for anyone before.

  I tried to resist him and couldn’t because my heart didn’t want to. I’d always wanted him, right from the day when I conjured up that bar in my dream.

  “It’s true for me,” I whispered.

  Warm hands slid up my cheek and cupped my face.

  My eyes snapped open and I smiled when I saw him standing before me looking completely shocked.

  My smile however fell when I noticed we weren’t alone.

  Instead of his bedroom, I was in an old looking office and his brothers stood by the window looking just as shocked as him. More, maybe it was more since Tristan was holding me and we were together.

  They hadn’t seen me since the council meeting weeks ago.

  “What the hell is going on?” The tall blonde one said.

  I knew their names were Ivan and Virgil but I didn’t know who was who.r />
  “What happened? How’d you get here?” Tristan asked me pulling my attention back to him.

  “Claire knows about us. Juliana saw you there this morning. Don’t come to the castle.”

  “You stay here.”

  “What the fuck’s going on.” His brother demanded.

  “Ivan please,” Tristan hissed.

  “Don’t you dare. You went ahead and saw her even when I told you not to.” Ivan glared at the two of us.

  “Doesn’t he normally do things like that?” Virgil interrupted with a lopsided grin.

  Ivan cut him a sharp glance.

  “There’s a lot going on that the two of you don’t know.” Tristan stated.

  “Like you and this witch?”

  Tristan smiled. “No, she’s not just a witch. Half witch and…” he paused and looked at me. “Half… vampire, from here. Saphiro. Mother a witch and father a vampire. It’s definitely more likely that her father was the vampire and not the other way around.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him not understanding at all what he was saying.

  “What are you saying? I found you by thinking of you. I did.” Again I had that overwhelming feeling of it all being too much. “I thought of you and came here. My heart led me to you.”

  “It did, but not just your heart. Your blood too. If you were anything else you might have gotten as far as where the magics that exist to protect our realm start. No one, and nothing as long as time has existed has ever just come here unless if they came with one of us.”

  “Oh my God,” I gasped.

  He looked to his brothers who’d fallen silent. Ivan stared at me, looking me over like he was assessing me.

  So that was it. I was part witch and part vampire.

  Thinking about it now, it was kind of obvious.

  Tristan and I had the same powers.

  Abram may have shot me down the other day when I told him I’d read that children inherited certain powers from their parents, but it was looking like it was true.

  Walking the dream plane, telepathy and coming here, that was from my father.

  What about my mother?

  Who is she?

  The more I thought about it the more able I now felt to differentiate between the powers I had. The powers Tristan had helped me flesh out were all vampire powers. The other stuff though, the things I didn’t understand were all witches powers.

  “Who?” Ivan breathed and walked over to me. His eyes changed to black and I backed into Tristan. “What vampire would do this?”

  “We don’t know, but now we have something more to work with.” Tristan stepped in front of me. “She stays with us. She stays with me.”

  “No,” I cut in.

  He looked back to me. “Gabrielle, you’ve been saying that a lot and I let you go. I don’t know what those people will do to you but I won’t stand for it. You stay here with me.”

  “It’s best if I go. I just came to warn you. Just to warn you.”

  If I was telling him to stay away the other part of that warning could only be that I couldn’t see him either.

  “Warn me so I could do nothing? I told you to contact me if you were in danger. This is danger. The punishment is death.”

  “They can’t punish her. She’s half witch, half vampire,” Virgil pointed out.

  “Right now, to them she’s a witch.”

  “Claire will deal with me as she sees fit. Maybe she won’t tell Abram. I don’t know. I just know I can’t stay here, and you can’t come to the castle.”

  Before he could argue further I thought of the castle, of my room at the castle, and just like that I was back.

  Quicker than a blink.

  I turned around to go to the bed but jumped when I saw Abram standing by the door with another man.

  The man looked at me and smiled. His head was clean shaven and he wore a black tunic and wide legged pants.

  “Been anywhere interesting?” Abram asked.

  Oh God, what should I do?

  “No, I was testing out a new power,” I replied.

  Abram’s demeanor changed and his expression grew more hard.

  “Half witch, half vampire.” Abram folded his arms. “Research done. Completed. But, I’m afraid that makes you a threat to me in many ways.”

  I tried to think of Tristan again but something blocked me. In my mind.

  The man put out his hand and tilted his head to the side. He did something with his fingers and it paralyzed me.

  “What did you do to me?”

  “This gentleman here is a Transcluce Demon. They come in handy for a variety of things. Things like this.”

  “Like what? What are you really doing?”

  “Well, had you done what I told you to and take each day as it came, maybe read more books. Something other than the history of witchcraft, you’d know there’s always a way around certain things. You are indeed one very powerful being and I couldn’t allow you to explore your powers. That said I had other reasons too for stopping you.”

  “Help me,” I said looking at my arms. I expected my guardians to come out, like they did yesterday but they didn’t. “Help me.”

  Abram laughed and the man smiled wider opening his mouth now to reveal a hollow darkness that replaced his tongue.

  “Gabrielle, Transcluce Demons, for a start can stop you from accessing your powers. Yours seem to be connected to your emotions. So he’s just disconnecting you from them. My dear friend also has the ability to deflect your powers so they appear to be invisible to certain things. Or beings, or guardians. This man here can kill you, but your guardians can’t see him. If they can’t see him he’s not a threat.”

  “Why, why would you do this to me?”

  Abram smirked. “I have my reasons and I don’t really want to share them with you. You represent everything that could destroy me and the plans I have. Let me share a secret with you though. I’ve been an acolyte of Razul for many years. I’m the backup plan.” He flicked his wrists over and held out the etherstone to me. “When one member of the society fails another simply takes their place. I make sure that happens. You have no idea how long it took us to make this stone, and that idiot Caleb allowed this to happen.”

  “Oh my God. You know who made the stone?”

  “Of course, but it was no one person and I take great pride in saying that I assisted in the creation of something momentous.”

  “You’re the head of the coven, why would you turn to the dark side?”

  “I never turned, I was always there. The coven was a tool for me. A mask to hide my true intentions.”

  I started to tremble. “What are you going to do to me?”

  “Too many questions girl. Too many.”

  Behind him the door opened an Claire rushed in.

  “Abram what are you doing?” she cried.

  The look of disgust Abram gave her sent a chill through me. “You,” he pointed at her. “This is you, you’re doing. All of it.”

  Claire stilled. “Let her go. I was just coming to talk to you.”

  “Oh, about the vampire? No, you weren’t going to tell me that.” He frowned.

  I’d assumed she’d told him already. I thought that was one of the reasons why he came so quickly.

  “How did you find out?” Claire asked, she glanced at me.

  “I told you years ago, you couldn’t hide anything from me. You did a very good job of hiding this one though.” He flicked his hand toward me and a glass ball surrounded me.

  My curiosity surpassed the fear that gripped my body and I couldn’t take my eyes off them.

  What was he talking about? How had Claire hidden me?

  “Abram please. Let’s talk. Let her go.”

  “You’ve embarrassed me enough wife. Keep whatever lie you were about to formulate to yourself. I knew she was with the vampire from the first night he came to get her. Like mother like daughter.”

  My mouth dropped and I stared at Claire who had tears in her eyes.
r />   She lifted her hands and attempted to cast a spell but the same way I faded away from Tristan the same way we faded away too.

  Faded to nothing.

  Then darkness took me as my head felt light.

  My last thought was…

  Claire.

  She was my mother…

  11

  Tristan

  I teleported to the castle, right back to Gabrielle’s room. The door was open but there was no sign of her.

  No fucking way was I going to just sit down and watch shit go down and not do anything about it.

  No way in hell.

  And no way was I going to play nice either. Truthfully, I was panicking because I tried to sense her but I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel her anywhere.

  Where is she?

  Where the fuck was she?

  I shouldn’t have let her go. I should have been quicker and followed her, not pussyfoot around with Ivan and Virgil about what I should do.

  Two dark masses appeared before me in Gabrielle’s room and my brothers stepped out of it.

  “What are you doing here?” I snapped.

  “What does it look like we’re doing?” Ivan shot back. “We’re not impervious Tristan. One demon. That was all it took to kill mother. You are my brother. I will not lose you.”

  “Nor, I,” Virgil added. “You aren’t thinking straight. Things never work out when you just run in head first without a plan. We’re here to help.”

  “I can’t sense her.” I told them stepping past and making my way down the hallway. They followed me.

  Us walking around the castle like this would cause a stir but I didn’t care.

  “Where would she have gone?” Virgil asked.

  Ivan grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Look brother, I know on any given day we’re at each other’s throats but we’re brothers, and more importantly were friends. Tell me everything. Tell me so I can help you. A big bomb was dropped on us this morning by finding out she’s part vampire. It’s a lot to take in. You’ve spent time with her, tell us what’s going on.”

  I sighed, looked from him to Virgil and decided they should know. So, I told them. I told them everything. Everything about the visit to the seer, my theories and what I’d seen.