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

by Adkins, Heather Marie

  “Yeah, too bad I’m clearly the exact man you want doing it.” He dropped a kiss along the nape of her neck just above the shoulder.

  Ivy shuddered. Every touch set her on fire. Elijah Vikander was infuriating, demanding, and damn good at knowing his way around a woman’s body.

  “I want you to stand back when we get there.”

  Ivy halted and opened her mouth to snap at him, but Elijah cut her off.

  “Let him see me first. He can send magic at me, I can take it. And not because I’m a man or a shifter. I can take it because I need to make sure you’re able to take him down.”

  “Excuse me?” She did her best to focus on absolutely everything except the glorious way his arm muscles looked when he crossed his arms.

  “You heard me. I’m not an idiot. Give me a shifter or a vamp, and I’ll gladly bring them to justice. Attacking a caster?” He shook his head. “Only if I have to.” No snark laced the words, Elijah meant them.

  Ivy shook her head and kept walking. The sentiment was utterly uncharacteristic of the brute of a man always barking orders. And yet, he looked like he meant it. Just keep walking.

  “What do you think we’ll be walking into?” He kept pace with her, walking on the inside of the street to keep his attire out from under the oil burning street lights.

  “It doesn’t work like that. We can’t tell what magic is done when a burst happens. All we get is the sensation—sort of like when electricity crackles over your skin and your hair stands on end.”

  “You never ate, are you certain –”

  “Don’t undo the good you did a minute ago. I’m not frail. Not right now. Just walk.”

  The screams started then. The first echoed through the night like a banshee cry—shrill and never-ending.

  “What in the hell?” Elijah started to jog, not bothering to watch if she was okay.

  “And you’re fine with that,” Ivy muttered just as another terror-filled cry filled the night.

  She could see the famous hotel signage. Though different from what stood in her present, the font remained the same.

  People raced out into the street in handfuls. Many in attire unfitting for public eyes in this decade. Men, women, and a few children filled the streets.

  “No, stop!” A younger sounding man shrieked just before a body fell outside the entryway.

  “Vampire,” Elijah howled.

  Ivy focused on the vivid red blood spilling down the man’s neck from two perfect holes.

  “Vampires!”

  “Blood drinkers!”

  “Demons!”

  Ivy couldn’t tell who shouted what. As more people filled out on to the street, it grew too crowded for someone of her petite height to see anything. “Elijah!”

  She whirled, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. One vampire could cause that much terror in any time period they weren’t known to exist. Something told Ivy there was more than one.

  The screams in the streets grew so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. Couldn’t listen to the voice in her head telling her not to light the street on fire with a purple blaze to get the humans to scatter away. She grabbed her wand, praying they didn’t turn their attention on her should she cast.

  “Elijah!”

  All at once fur rubbed under her hand. Glancing down she looked into Elijah’s perfect eyes and saw his wolf.

  “My goddess.”

  Elijah seemed to shimmer under the moonlight. The color of his fur was an exact-match for his hair, and the larger-than normal size of his wolf form must have had something to do with his stature as a man.

  Elijah let his gaze linger on her for a moment and then bounded through the terrified humans into the building.

  “Be careful you dumb, idiot.” She chewed her lip and forced her way through the crowd.

  Someone elbowed her the stomach, causing her to double over to catch her breath. Another person stepped on her foot, and she clenched her jaw to push up and move.

  “Don’t go in there,” a man about her perceived age grabbed onto her wrist. Terror blazed in his blue eyes. “They’re real. Vampires are real.”

  “Forgive me,” Ivy closed her eyes, and still holding the wand, began to swirl her hands around each other. Slowly, like before, the signature purple fog of her magic grew between her hands. “Silence them.” She let her hands fly in the direction of the crowd.

  All at once the street grew almost deadly quiet. Ivy heard the screams and shots of people inside other buildings, but the humans on the street grew panicked. Some clawed at their throats, others ran away.

  “Damn it.” If they ran, she couldn’t undo what she’d done when it was over. “Please!” She shouted, wincing at the howl that radiated from inside the hotel. “Do not go far. I mean you no harm but I can help with what’s inside.”

  Hundreds of eyes stared at her, all gripped with panic.

  “Stay together. Stay close. I promise I can make this right.” When this is over, you’re going to need to pray you can cast a strong enough memory spell to erase everything.

  Later. Ivy would deal with her actions and fixing the humans. Racing through the open door, Ivy stopped dead in her tracks. The hotel might never come clean. Blood was slashed over the vibrant drapery, stained into the plush beige chairs and sofas, and splattered along the walls like an abstract painting. The vampires who did this started quietly. They took down so many humans before the screams began and people evacuated and the hunters grew violent.

  Bodies lay on the furniture, white as death and utterly unmoving. She turned in a circle, taking in the number of dead. Thirteen bodies—more than likely human—lay strewn about the lobby. Five vampires with stakes protruding from their chest were scattered in the carnage. Someone beat her there and staked them all. Elijah couldn’t have done it, not in his wolf form.

  Elijah stood in damn near the center of the room, the djinn from earlier in his grasp. His jaws were wrapped around the man’s midsection, silvery-red blood dripping everywhere as the man flailed about on the floor trying to escape Elijah’s grip.

  Could the djinn have tried to stop the vampires and resorted to physical attempts or did a human on the scene use lore and legend to do this?

  “Elijah,” she spoke softly, unsure if he’d flown into a homicidal rage. “Let him go.”

  Elijah’s blue gaze locked with hers. He snarled and bit down harder, drawing a scream from the man and more blood running over his muzzle.

  “Elijah, stop. I don’t know where the others are, but he’s our connection to Jared. You can’t kill him.”

  Elijah seemed to dig his feet into the tile floor and gave another shake of his head.

  “Do not make me stop you. Please, don’t make me do this.” Her voice trembled. No caster, no moral caster, did so without consent on another person. She’d just hexed around fifty people and she wasn’t ready to stop him by magical means.

  “I’ll tell you anything you need to you know.” The djinn’s voice was weak.

  “You can’t cast with so much blood loss. If you try anything, I’ll kill you myself.”

  Elijah still hadn’t let go, but he wasn’t continuing his assault. Had the Djinn been a larger man, Elijah wouldn’t have been able to do what he’d done.

  “How did you get here?” That shouldn’t be your first question. Asking about the plans and where Jared was, that mattered more, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “My blood,” he coughed and groaned.

  “Elijah, if we want to get home I need to know what was done in case you kill Jared. Let him go,” her wand puffed purple smoke, a powerful hex brewing should she choose to unleash one from a wand.

  Elijah stared at her, his shoulders squared and his jaw unmoving. He let go, but put his paw on the djinn’s chest.

  Satisfied Elijah at least appeared to be in control, Ivy kept on. “What does your blood do?”

  “Wish magic. We had limitations as part of the curse, but it’s strong.” He coughed, and tear
s slipped down his face. “A witch and warlock cast together to open your damn circle. Djinn blood is spilled on an object from the time mixed with sand from a broken hour glass.” He closed his eyes and stopped speaking.

  Panic gripped her. She’d asked the wrong question first and didn’t even have the full answer.

  “Elijah! Move your fucking paw,” she snarled.

  He listened, and she dropped to the floor beside the man. She couldn’t heal others. Only potions could do that, and for some reason, she’d been so focused on time travel she hadn’t bothered to take other potions.

  “Please.”

  He opened his eyes, sorrow lingering in the silvery-blue depths. “Smash an object from the time after spilling my blood over it.”

  “Why tell us this?” She watched the light in his eyes dimming.

  “I don’t know. I believe in Jared’s goal, but hurting humans?” he wheezed. “It was not fulfilling. I want to find another way, if it’s not too late.”

  “Where is he now?” Her clipped words barely held back the tears.

  “I don’t know. He’ll be traveling. Take my blood. Nineteen twenty-five.”

  The words were his last. His eyes closed and his head fell to the side.

  “Damn it!” Ivy’s fists pounded against the floor. “Shit!” Her hands dug into her hair, and she tugged as tears spilled down her face.

  Elijah walked away, and she wanted to throw something at him.

  A person passed, and he’s utterly alone in this time. His body began to glow, and all at once, turned to ash. He was old. As with vampires, anything that died at that age deteriorated quickly. Tears for the dead stranger shouldn’t fall, he was part of the problem, but they still did.

  “You wasted the question.” Elijah barked, coming up behind her back as a human, and utterly bare until he grabbed for his clothes in the corner, stepping into them as he chastised her.

  The words slammed into her, but Ivy didn’t engage.

  “Did you hear me? What in the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking we might want to go home!” She shouted, her voice strained with sorrow. “Why in the hell did you mortally wound him?”

  “Because,” Elijah dropped down beside her, his eyes glowing. “He was going to wish me out of existence. It was kill or be killed.” He was quiet for a moment. “What in the fuck did you do that it’s so silent out there.”

  “The humans,” she whispered, looking down at the pile of ash. “I had to do something. There was so much commotion. I couldn’t think to cast or even follow you inside. I hexed them.”

  “Jesus Christ, Ivy.” Elijah dragged his hands through his blood-covered hair. “Are you kidding me?”

  “No, I’m not fucking kidding you!” Her scream echoed off the hotel walls. “I’m not proud of what I did, but I did what I had too.”

  Her shoulders shook as the anguish began to grow. She vowed to do no harm. She’d killed one man and hexed nearly fifty. Some who ran away and could never be unhexed. Ivy let out a sound more feral animal than human as witch fire blasted from her hands and singed the walls of one of the most historic buildings in the country.

  “Ivy,” Elijah coaxed. It was his turn to calm her down. He stood before her, his hands out in surrender or defense. “Ivy, come back.”

  She howled, her eyes watching the walls burn where the flames hit. Elijah had no right to care, not after attacking her. She raged, the fire catching onto the curtains and finally drawing her from her fit.

  “Neró!” She let her wand spout water, killing the magic flames.

  “Can you undo that?” Elijah looked wary.

  “No, but I can remove the hex and spell the humans not to remember. Hopefully they’ll think it was just a fire. Crime investigators in the late eighteen hundred’s would have no reason to look for bite marks in what appears to be a fire.”

  “Good, let’s go do that.” He tried to guide her, to touch her shoulder.

  “Don’t touch me. Just get yourself someplace safe.”

  “We didn’t get Jared. He ran off.”

  “I gathered.” She looked around. “He probably cast a hex on these vampires to lose control of their blood lust. Or had that djinn wish them to do something” So much death and blood in one space. “I have to try to undo this.” She glanced a shimmering hematite circle in the ash. “This must be spelled to track Jared’s energy patterns. When he casts, we’ll know as long as we travel with him. I have to do the spell.” She closed her eyes. “I can’t see my parents, but I know a warlock who will help.”

  Elijah nodded. “I’m not leaving. We’re in this together now. I’m not letting you go out into a crowd exhausted and upset.”

  She wanted to tell him to fuck off, but she couldn’t. Her fit nearly drained her, she needed his help.

  “Right, then, let’s do this.” She turned back to the spot where the unnamed djinn lay dead in the wrong timeline; to his ashes surrounded by his blood. “I need to do something first.” She took out one of the time potion bottles. She couldn’t go back far enough to save him. She should have when she ran in, too much time passed to do it now. Unscrewing two of the vials, she dumped then out and walked back over to the pile. “I’m sorry, you said we needed djinn blood.” She winced as she insensitively scooped the vial through the blood quickly seeping into the ash.

  “Good thinking.” Elijah offered her a hand up.

  She ignored it. “I don’t want your praise. You just murdered someone. We’ve killed twice tonight.” She pushed past Elijah, ready to ignore whatever came out of his mouth until after she fixed the humans outside.

  12

  Jared’s heart slammed in his chest as his feet pounded down the street, on his race away from the Hotel Monteleone. He glanced back only once, and only to see why the streets went deadly quiet. A cloud of purple smoke hung low in the sky, just above the rooftops, and he Jared knew Ivy hexed the humans.

  Well, he thought between strained pants for air, at least I’m not the only one who practiced magic on unwilling participants tonight. Jared kept running. Kept forcing his body to undergo more physical activity than he was used to in a small time despite the half marathons he liked to run. Running for one’s life creates a different set of circumstances.

  “Lafitte’s,” he said without turning to look at the witch. His memory of the time was sketchy at best, but the blacksmith’s shop would be there.

  Caliste ran beside him without a hint of the exhaustion plaguing her.

  Youth, Jared thought with a snort, turning onto a darkened section of Bourbon Street. The gay district wasn’t yet an area, and instead of rainbow-colored flags, a few American flags waved from buildings.

  “I think we can slow down.” Caliste stopped racing and slowed to a steady jog.

  “They’ll catch up.” He huffed but did slow down to preserve energy if she insisted on speaking.

  “No, they won’t.” Caliste stopped in her tracks. “The burst of magic we just felt with the witch. She did something big, which means she’s either cleaning up a mess or thinks we’re still there.” Caliste started walking at a more leisurely pace. “They’re not coming, not right this minute. Good thing you got the djinn blood in a few vials.”

  “You think he won’t make it out?”

  She shrugged. “I think if Atreus needed to stay to pump wish magic around the vampires he probably didn’t get out before they just got in.”

  Fuck. Jared pocketed some blood, but he hadn’t intended on anyone dying tonight. Now he was down a friend and a Djinn ally if Caliste was correct.

  “Yes, I suppose it was lucky.” He let his gaze linger over her, doing his best not to appreciate her slender form. “You best be more careful than Atreus and Drew. I’m not interested in convincing a witch to help send me home.”

  “So good of you to care,” she snorted. “I get it. I stay alive. I matter because, without me, you’re stuck here. Ever wonder what’s going to happen to you when we go home?”


  Jared nodded to a man on the street. The sun peeked over the buildings and sooner, rather than later, the vampire’s attack would end. He needed to focus on that, not on a silly question. “I have nothing to be worried about.”

  “What if what you’ve done tonight—and what you will do before leaving—follows you to the present? You’ve broken at least four accords just in the last two hours.” She pulled out the small, circular hematite stone. “Good thing you thought to link this to your blood. Without it, we wouldn’t have found you.”

  He snorted. “I told you the plan. If you lot ended up being too idiotic to remember it because you were frightened or enamored by the past that would have been unfortunate.”

  The rocks had been Drew’s idea. And they’d worked. Nine minutes after Jared got to the Monteleone, he’d had the other warlock help him activate the stones. They would have glowed like beacons, casting off his location only when he willed them to, or when he used his magic.

  “So you’re just going to ignore my question?” Caliste kicked at a loose cobblestone.

  “There’s no reason for me to be worried. I can’t be linked to the wish magic used to trigger those vamps. And there’s a chance we’ll use no magic on the wolves. Dangling a witch before them should easily rile them up. Though it’s possible you’ll need that mind control potion you brought. Always have a backup plan.”

  “So glad I can be helpful as bait,” she snickered. “No wonder no American witches would help. You’re insane.”

  “No,” he growled. “I’m doing what it takes to ensure when our existence is confirmed, the people will remember events from the past and believe we are as dangerous as the myths and legends suggest. It is my work here tonight and tomorrow that will ensure the casters, shifters, and undead never live the way we have. They won’t be forced to limit their numbers, hide their businesses, or move from their homes.”