by Fiore, L. A.
He stood; wiping a tear from my cheek with the pad of his thumb.
“We’ve been here before,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“I lost you.”
“I know.”
I pressed my face into his chest. I was selfish, but I didn’t want moments. I wanted forever. I touched his necklace, the stone that was just another connection we shared.
He touched my cheek, lowered his head and kissed me. He swept me into his arms, my back coming to rest on the soft grass under what remained of our past. He moved over me, his focus so intense.
“This is your first time,” he whispered.
“In this lifetime.”
We never took our eyes off one another as he moved into the cradle of my body, lifting my hips and slowly joining us. His inhaled breath matched my own because I remembered this, we both did. He moved slowly, drawing out the pleasure for us both, and with each shift of his hip, each tingle of pleasure, what had been lost returned. We came together, and it was only then that he pressed a kiss on my mouth and whispered, “Welcome home.”
It was bittersweet that we had to wait so long for one another. That the time we did have was so fleeting, like that cherry blossom tree. But staring into his beloved face, what we had was worth waiting lifetimes for.
Bain
She slept. I watched her for an hour, resisted the urge to wake her, then removed the temptation and took a walk. I remembered the lifetime from so long ago, it all came rushing back being with her again. I remembered when I first saw her; she was walking down a lane. It was a simpler time, the world a different place. Magic weaved through everything. Even as a human, I knew it existed, felt it, and respected it. I believed it was that magic that brought her to me, an angel on earth. Like now, there was an innocence about her, a thirst for life that was intoxicating. I loved her from the minute I saw her, and I have loved her every day since. Even when I couldn’t remember, even when she was lost to me, a part of me has always hunted for her. Ours was a cycle; we would come to the end of it again. She wasn’t immortal; we wouldn’t have forever. Finding her only to lose her, it was our fate. Moments, just pockets of them, were all we’d ever have. It had been enough once, but it wasn’t anymore.
I felt her before her arms wrapped around my waist. “Are you okay?”
“I remember us. I remember that lifetime.”
“Me too.”
Turning into her, I brushed her hair from her face. “Pockets of time aren’t enough anymore.”
She looked sad. I understood, but we had one of those pockets now. I wasn’t going to waste a second of it. I carried her back to our tree.
She looked adorable, confused as hell, but so fucking cute. We had to head back to the house, and I wasn’t doing so naked. Not in human form anyway.
“Where did the clothes come from?”
I chuckled. “The shift is magic, Ivy. Removing clothes is easier magic than shifting your form.”
She was so expressive that I witnessed as she processed my words from surprised to the ah-ha moment. “I didn’t think of that, magic being responsible for the shift.”
Taking her hand, I yanked her to me and kissed the confused look off her face. She melted into me. It was new but familiar at the same time. Staring down at what remained of the house I spoke the words before I’d even thought them through. “We should fix it up.”
By the way she curled deeper into my arms, I knew she liked that idea. “Bring it back to life.”
“My crew will appreciate the work. They’re getting itchy. They can also sleep here; empty out that house since it’s getting too crowded for my liking.” They didn’t all stay at the house, but now having Ivy back, even one was too many.
She grinned. My chest ached. I touched her hair remembering how it all started. “You were walking down a lane carrying a bunch of flowers.”
“You were tending your field.” A smile played over her lips. “I can’t imagine you tending a field now.”
“Like riding a bike,” I teased.
“I don’t remember what happened to our tree,” she said, her focus turning to what remained.
“I don’t either, but I do remember planting it. Remembered believing we were planting—”
“A stick. You kept calling it a stick,” she said on a laugh.
I brushed her cheek with my thumb. “I stand corrected.”
I caught a scent, my head whipping around just as the fox came from the trees. “Who is that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but he stays close.”
The crows flew down just then, landing on either side of us. “These two do as well,” I added.
“They’re hellhounds.”
Her revelation took me completely by surprise. “Hellhounds?”
“Yeah. Bart, the orderly…demon, he was too strong for Aine. She almost died. These two came flying down the hall, shifted in flight. They tore him apart in seconds.”
“Hellhounds outside of hell. When has that ever happened?” I thought out loud.
“I know them. They’re a part of the past I can’t remember.”
“Hellhounds are the guardians of the underworld, and they respond to only one master.”
“Who?”
“Hades.”
Her jaw dropped, I touched her chin to close it. “Hades, god of the underworld, really? Wait, is Hades and the devil one and the same?”
“No. The devil is servant to Hades, one of the more reckless demons, but considering what they are tasked with, I can’t say I blame the guy for wanting to let off some steam.”
“Tasked with?”
“Humans mistakenly think because Hades and the devil are in hell that they are evil, but they are responsible for keeping the evil locked away. To do that, they have to be the purest of all beings, the most incorruptible. They are far from evil.”
“I’d never thought of it that way. Makes sense though. Do you think the devil knows about what is going on here?”
“Couldn’t hurt to ask him. I owe you a lesson on the Internet.” I walked away but looked back at her. She was so fucking beautiful. “A whole array of teaching ideas are opened to me now.”
She understood what I meant by the way her eyes moved down my body, and she drew that lip into her mouth.
“Maybe we should have that lesson now?” I suggested.
Her answer tightened my balls. “Yes please.”
24
Darkness gave way to light, and confusion gave way to panic seeing Dr. Ellis across the room. Pulling at the cuffs was pointless; it was more than metal binding them.
Dr. Ellis turned in his white lab coat; crazy stared back. “The beauty of chemistry. The mind is a wonder. Our bodies are capable of so much more than we know. Trigger the right part of the brain and you can do unimaginable things.” His grin was sinister as he held up the syringe. “With one injection, and I’ll own you.”
Pulling at the restraints the words were carried on a hiss, “You won’t get away with this.”
“Oh, but I will, and I’ll know what she knows because one of her inner circle will be mine.”
25
Ivy
My head hurt, and my eyes were crossing, but the web was fascinating, though I had to admit surfing it while being naked and pressed against an equally naked Bain played a part in my new found love of the Internet. He wasn’t in bed at the moment. His bare back was to me as he stood on the balcony; he pulled on his jeans, his hands in the pockets of them. He was watching the sunrise. Even now, he watched the fire in the sky. My heart hurt in the best possible way.
“It wasn’t allowed.”
He turned, leaned against the balustrade. “What wasn’t allowed?”
“Visiting your world.”
He came to me, settling on the edge of the bed. “Do you remember who you are?”
“No, that’s still fuzzy, but I remember that day. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but I was drawn to that meadow, drawn to you. I think…
” I glanced down and swallowed the lump of pain.
He touched my chin and lifted my gaze. “You think what?”
“It’s a balance, life. The old woman mentioned knowing a place where love was so strong it lingered, a place in opposition to that dark place. What if evil came to be because of us?”
His expression didn’t change, but his voice grew softer. “Is that what you think?”
I couldn’t stop the tears. “What we had, how even after all this time it’s still just as strong. That is powerful and enough to create an equal and opposite reaction. What if we are what gave evil the foothold into this world?”
“No.” That single word was growled, resonating around the room.
“I don’t want it to be true either but—”
“Did you ever consider we were the response to evil?”
“What?”
“You said you were drawn here, to me. What if we weren’t what sparked evil, what if we were the balance?”
I had no reaction because I’d never thought of that, and it triggered the scene with Emily and her declaration about the Ancestors’ warrior coming to restore the balance. Was it possible that we were those warriors?
“I can see you hadn’t thought of that.”
“No.” The smile couldn’t be contained because being the response and not the cause meant I didn’t have to stay away from him. Being with him was what we were born to do. “We are destined.”
He ran his thumb along my jaw. “Now and always.” His eyes grew hot. “We need to continue our search because right now all I want to do is lower you back on this bed, but…”
I wanted that too, badly, but he was right. If we were the balance, we had to figure out how to battle back what was coming. I looked back at the screen and the page I’d been reading on the summer solstice. I went a little numb when a certain phrase caught my attention. “It says here the summer solstice is also called the Gathering Day.” My head lifted. “It focuses on the celebration of fire and light.”
“Not a coincidence.”
“It’s also when Mother Earth is at her strongest.”
“And she charges you, so it could be argued that on your birthday, you’re at your strongest.”
“It’s also the time when the veil between our world and the fairy world is at its thinnest. They’re the protectors of Mother Earth. I read about them. They exist in a realm different than our own.”
“Yes, but they do walk amongst us during the midsummer. The only time they can,” he added.
I reached for Bain’s tee, pulled it on before I stood and started to pace. “The memories are there, and this, I feel like we’re onto something. The summer solstice plays a role. I’m sure of it.” It was so frustrating; it was like having the words on the tip of your tongue, but they wouldn’t come. A thought froze me. “The night of the fire, my birthday, my foster parents tried to sacrifice me.”
Every muscle in his body went rigid, and his expression turned to granite. “What do you mean they tried to sacrifice you?”
“I only remember parts of it, but they anointed me with a woodsy oil; I was dressed in all black, and they drew a marking on the floor. I don’t remember the actual ritual; I only remember the fire that killed them. But why do that on the day I’m the strongest. If they knew enough to perform the ritual, you would think they’d know something about the one they were serving up to whoever they were serving me up to.”
“We need to know what they were doing. Maybe Esther will be able to give us an idea if you share with her what you remember.”
“That’s a good idea.” I started biting on my nail. “My gut is telling me whatever is going to happen is going to happen on the summer solstice.”
He didn’t answer, but I could see he was thinking the same thing.
“Are you sure about the pentacle and the black?” Esther asked as she flipped through an old book, her grimoire.
“Yes.” I shared a look with Bain before I asked, “Why?”
Her old eyes lifted from the parchment pages. “Those elements are usually involved in protection, especially if you smelled something woodsy.” She walked to her altar, lifted a few jars before finding the one she wanted. She sat back down and handed it to me. “Was this the smell?”
I recognized it immediately. “Yes.”
“Cypress oil, used predominately in protection and…”
She hesitated, I pressed, “And?”
“Binding spells.”
Binding spell. “Are you sure?” I asked then felt silly for asking her that, but why would the people who held me be protecting me?
Her lips turned up. “Yes.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Why do you think they were trying to hurt you?”
I opened my mouth to answer but closed it again. I didn’t really know why I thought they were trying to hurt me. At the time, really before I learned that my crazy wasn’t crazy at all, it just seemed like the ritual was bad. “I don’t really have a reason to believe they meant to hurt me.”
“The pentacle represents the elements. Cypress oil is used to link this world to the after-life; it’s one of the reasons the trees grow here in the bayou. I don’t know what they were doing, but they weren’t trying to hurt you.”
“If we assume they were trying to help her, protect her, why did they trigger her signature? If they knew enough about who she was, they had to know the fire would have summoned the good and the bad,” Bain theorized.
“It’s a good question. Unless, summoning was the intent,” Esther said.
My blood ran cold because I felt the truth of those words. “That was the plan.”
“Are you sure?” Bain asked.
“Yes. I wanted to summon Dr. Ellis.”
“You agreed to being locked away?” Bain sounded as confused as I felt.
“Yes, but why would I agree to that?”
“I can’t see you,” Esther admitted. “The Ancestors can’t either.”
“Not now or ever?”
“Ever.”
“Has that happened before?” Bain asked.
“No.”
“Any idea why it is now?” I asked.
“The only thing that makes sense is…” She paused for my benefit I was sure. I urged her to continue, though I already knew what she was going to say. She’d said it before. “That you are older than The Ancestors.”
I was feeling overwhelmed because I was part human and the concept that I could be older than the Ancestors was one I was having a hard time comprehending.
Esther’s door slammed open. Brock appeared. “Something is going down in town.”
He flew out the door, Bain and I right behind him.
Josiah
“She asked for it, begged for it. Then screamed the whole time that I was the best fuck she’d ever had. You’re not man enough for a woman like that.”
“We don’t stop them there’s going to be a blood bath.” Nick wasn’t wrong; unfortunately, I had a terrible feeling there was more going on here.
“Block off the street, get the civilians out of here. If we can’t stop it, we can minimize the damage.”
“On it.”
“I didn’t say that. I’d never say that about you.” She ran her painted fingers down the arm of the man who had just pulled a knife.
“Are you calling me a liar, whore. You weren’t saying much of anything when my cock was shoved down your throat.”
“I said no. He didn’t like that answer.” On cue, tears filled her large blue eyes.
“Fucking cunt, that’s a lie.”
Shit, this was about to get really ugly. My attention turned to the one inciting the crowd. A woman, beautiful and seductive, had eyes that a man just begged to learn the secrets behind. I’d bet my pension she was supernatural, and her intent was to incite madness. She played the part to perfection.
Bain and Ivy appeared. Thank fuck. Only dude scarier than the assholes about to level my city.
> “What do you need?” he asked.
“She’s not what she seems. She’s trying to get these two gangs to kill each other.”
“Evil, it’s feeding off their emotions,” Ivy said.
“From the looks of it, it’s succeeding,” Bain replied.
“Can you, you know…” I waved my hand because I didn’t actually know what he could do besides rip them all to pieces, which defeated the point.
“We can do crowd control, get the people off the street, but finesse is not my crew’s strong suit. We get thrown into the mix, and you’re going to have more bodies than you know what to do with.”
“So, what the hell do we do?”
“Maybe a spell,” Ivy suggested.
“Cyril. He’s a witch, maybe he can work a spell.” I looked around for my deputy. “Where the hell is he? We need to calm them down.”
“Is there time to get Esther?” Ivy asked.
The shoving started. “I don’t think so.”
“We can take them, move one gang a safe distance, but they see us, and they’ll start—” Bain’s head tipped back, and he inhaled.
Ivy noticed it too when she asked, “Bain?”
His smile could only be called wicked. “Perfect fucking timing.”
Before I could ask who had perfect timing, I heard the sound of cars, lots of car rolling down the street. The barricade I had just had set up was removed as one sports car rolled in after another.
“Do I even want to know who they are?”
The cars stopped, doors opened, but it was the crowd that had my attention. Everyone, including the bikers, were looking at the newcomers with not just interest but lust. I turned my attention back to them and understood the appeal. They were the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen. Long, lean muscles, chiseled pale faces, and hypnotic pale eyes. Their bodies moved fluidly, seductively. Sex hung in the air, anger shifted to heat of a different kind. They moved through the crowd, inciting them but in a totally different way. People started pairing off. I’d be issuing a lot of indecent exposure citations, but at this point, I’d rather naked people than dead people.