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 wanted 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 hasn’t been here long. 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.
“It’s clear. Sure. I get it. You put me in charge of the school and training new witches. The perfect opportunity comes along for me to help a new witch who clearly needs us and I’m supposed to sit down and look. Watching and waiting. Cool.”
Pru turned on her heals and left.
Claire shook her head in dismay and continued up the stairs. I didn’t follow.
Instead I stayed where I was, contemplating.
Claire didn’t want Gabrielle to use her powers and she didn’t want her learning anything new.
Why? What the hell was the point of that?
It was what she came here for.
Why indeed would they do the opposite?
Chapter 7
Gabrielle
“How are you doing Gabrielle,” Abram asked.
He’d asked for me to come to his office after lunch so here I was.
“Good, I’m okay. Today was really good.” I nodded with enthusiasm.
Maybe a little too much enthusiasm. Much more than I felt given that another two weeks had passed and not much happened.
Claire had given Pru the task of teaching me the basic elements of magic but it still wasn’t what I wanted, or hoped for. It was just a little better than going on a school trip to the Smithsonian and being told what happened to people and all the artifacts that were held there. But, nothing more. I wasn’t even shown how to do a simple spell because Pru said I had to give my mind time to adjust to the concept of spells.
“I like being here,” I added with a brighter smile.
“That’s really good, and I’m pleased to hear that. I’m mindful too that you must be eager for more. Pru tells me you’ve been researching a lot which is very good.”
“I’ve been reading a lot. It helps with the lessons she’s teaching me. I can’t wait to get to the meaty stuff.”
He nodded his approval. “What have you read so far?”
“Mainly the History of Witchcraft, and spells and potions.”
“Fantastic. That sounds like you’ll be equipped.” His blue eyes looked me over with keen interest. “I’d like to still take my time with you while we investigate. The mind is a fragile thing. Give it too much and it will resist. I felt the council meeting would give you the opportunity to see different types of beings and magical creatures.”
It was funny, he sounded like he meant well. That was the impression I got. He sounded like he knew what he was doing, and like a leader you could trust. There was something though ... something that tugged on my senses that made me cautious around him.
“I appreciated it. I am eager though as you say to get going. I want to learn and see what powers I have.” Other than the ones I was using to my advantage with Tristan. For the last two weeks I’d done as he’d said. At lunch time I’d go to sleep and be with him in the dream world and at night I’d be with him for real in his bed. It really was crazy, but we indulged on our dirty secret like we needed it to live. I got to really be me when I was with him, but I wanted to know more. “Everyone around me has so much power. I just want to fit in I guess.”
“Of course, and you’re quite right to be eager. I would be too if I were you. However, I must insist that you wait and hold off doing too much. Just until we know more ourselves.”
I bit the inside of my lip. I’d been here for three weeks and he was still telling me to wait. It was getting frustrating.
“More about what?” I had to ask.
“Where you come from in particular. Knowing where you come from is key given the circumstances of you in general.”
“So I should sit tight until something comes up. What if it never does? Then what? With all due respect, wouldn’t that mean I wasted time I could have spent learning. Also,” I thought I’d point out something I read. This part was for me, in line with what I explained to Tristan a few weeks ago about finding out who my birth parents were. “I read that we inherit powers from our parents. Wouldn’t it be a good thing to explore my powers and see then what I might have inherited from –”
He cut
me off before I could finish.
“That is a very obscure belief. We don’t always inherit powers from parents.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Anyway, as you know I’ve been doing what I can to investigate and I took the liberty of checking out your personal records.”
I straightened up instantly and narrowed my gaze at him. “My personal records, in what sense?”
“Files and memories.”
I stared at him with my jaw set. “Memories?”
“I do believe the key here is to find your birth parents because that could help us dramatically. I’m interested in the circumstances of why you have two dragons. I want to make sure you weren’t in any kind of danger... or...”
“A threat?” I filled in. “I’m not a threat.”
“No, I was going to say that if the danger still followed you. We searched through your things to see what we could come up with but we were unsuccessful.”
I hated when anyone went through my things. “Maybe if I knew you were going to look through my stuff I could have guided you on what was important and what wasn’t.” I couldn’t keep the edge out of my voice. It wasn’t okay that he did that.
“I apologize, I am simply trying to explore all avenues to get to the bottom of this. Gabrielle, this is something I had to check out. It was a given.”
“So, what now?” I asked deciding to cool off. There was no point getting upset with him.
“I have a few questions for you. I wanted to find out if you remember anything prior to the time you were adopted.”
I shook my head. “Nothing that would give me a clue as to who my birth parents were. If I did I would have found them already. Or used the information in some way.”
“Nothing maybe your adopted parents told you. They would have been given certain information that could help.”
“No.”
“Have you had anything else happen to you since you’ve been here, any special powers?”
Remembering Tristan’s warning I shook my head. “That’s the part I’m leaving to you. Pru says it can be dangerous to explore powers on your own.”
“Again, Pru is right. I just meant if anything strange happened that is worth mentioning. The witches who normally have two dragon shifter protectors have very strong powers that reveal themselves without any kind of prompting.”
“Nothing has happened like that.”
“How about the dragon shifter guardians, have you tried to call on them?”
“Not really, they only seemed to show themselves when I’m in danger. Serious danger.”
“Are they still bonded with you?”
He looked flustered. He looked like I felt and it was odd since I was the one being grilled not him.
“Yes. They still hide under my skin on my forearms.” I’d shown him before, all of them and it fascinated them. When I called them out they looked like tattoos on my arms. Then they faded. It was like they wanted me to know they were there, but wouldn’t come out unless I needed them.
Weeks ago, when the dragons first appeared they’d flown out from a portal that led to Pandir. It was then they molded to the skin on my arm. There were two Amazon looking women in human form. In dragon form they were gold dragons.
“Put out your arms.” He instructed.
I held out my hands and he got up to look at me.
“Show them to me.”
“Reveal,” I said, speaking the words Eric told me. In an instant the gold outline of the two dragons appeared on my forearms.
Abram looked down at them, and took hold of my left arm inspecting it.
“Lash, pra dash ma,” he said and stared long and hard at my arm. Nothing however happened. “Interesting.”
“What did you say?”
“I spoke in an ancient dragon tongue. The language of the guardians.” He gave me a tight lipped smile. There was something off about his expression. He almost looked ... angry. “You know it’s strange. All my years... all my very long years and I’ve never seen that until you came here. It’s extraordinary. What kind of creature needs such protection? The protection of gold dragon shifter guardians.”
I continued to stare at him. His words burning in my mind.
What kind of creature ...
That was what he said.
“It’s a mystery to me.” I shrugged. “Like I said advertising is me. I’m not much good with anything else.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t answer but his silence was enough.
I understood the distrust now, and something else. Up until now he gave the appearance of wanting to help me. Like he had my welfare at the forefront of his mind. Just now I saw something else.
Fear.
Fear and apprehension.
Fear, and that comment. He didn’t know what I was. Tristan said something similar. He knew there was something more to me than what I showed on the surface and now I got the feeling that Abram felt that too.
But, it looked like he was scared of what he’d find.
“Can I go now?” I asked standing. A plan was brewing in my mind.
“Sure,” he nodded.
I got up and left.
Answers were what I came here for, and I hadn’t been myself since coming here. Here to the Woodland Realm.
The strong confident, woman I was normally had calmed down to keep myself open to what I was going to see and experience.
It was time to get her back and do things a little differently.
To do that I needed the one person who’d had answers for me so far.
I went to my room and lay in my bed.
The minute I closed my eyes I was there, sucked into the dream and there he was waiting for me by the bar.
Tristan.
He smiled when he saw me.
“Thought I’d hang around just in case. You want me to come pick you up baby?”
“Yes, please.”
***
“Told you, you shouldn’t have left,” Tristan smirked.
He’d told me the same thing every day.
He set me down on his bed and stood, allowing the dark mass to fade from around him.
I stared at him for a few seconds, just staring at him.
“What is it? What happened?” he asked.
“What do you think I am?”
“A hot brunette I want to strip naked and devour.” He gave me a lopsided grin and walked around to a little table that had a pitcher of clear juice. “Your breasts look amazing in that top.”
“I’m serious.” I shook my head at him, slid off the bed and joined him.
“So am I. I want to devour you. Every piece of you.” He reached out and ran his fingers along the side of my jaw.
“Tristan, please, tell me. What kind of creature could I be to warrant the protection of two golden dragon shifter guardians?”
He looked at me and it was like he knew something was wrong.
“What happened?”
“Maybe it’s not fair to run to you with my problems we barely know each other.”
That sexy smile slid up the corners of his mouth and he lowered to me, stopping inches away from my lips.
“I told you weeks ago Gabrielle Donovan, you’re mine. Now tell me what happened?”
“Abram called me a creature, and you think I’m a what too. The other day you said you would try to find out what I was. We haven’t found anything.”
“It’s my fault. We spend too much time in bed.”
“You really think so?”
“No.” He chuckled and poured a drink. “On a serious note, I have been researching but coming up with not a lot. I don’t think books is where we’ll get answers.”
“I get the impression that no one really knows. They don’t do they? The coven. They don’t know and it’s like they don’t want to find out.”
“Maybe it’s fear. Fear of what you might be.”
“What makes you say that? It sounds like you have some kind of clue. If you can say that you must ha
ve an idea. Why won’t you tell me?”
“Because I actually don’t know. There’s no point in worrying you if I don’t know myself. I just know how people behave in different situations. Maybe we can’t find out what you are because there hasn’t been a being like you. Maybe Abram knows that.” He stared off to the counter and bit the inside of his lip.
“You don’t trust Abram, do you?”
He shook his head. “I do not.”
“So why should I trust him?”
“What actually happened Gabrielle?”
I pulled in a deep breath and told him, filling him in on my conversation with Abram.
“Well, he’s not wrong to want to know your birth parents. But what’s shady as shit is him not wanting to explore your powers.”
“I want to. I want to explore them. I came here for answers and to know who and what I am. I deserve something if the other part of the equation isn’t working out.”
He nodded. “Should I even bother to ask how I can help you?”
“You aren’t reading my mind?”
“Nope, I just reserved that for the very intimate times spent with you when I want to be sure just how to pleasure you.”
I smiled. “Will you help me? Do you think you can?”
His smile widened. “I can and I will. There’s a place I know. You won’t like it though. I was kind of leaving it as a last minute thing. Only to be used if we truly had to.”
Sounded like I wouldn’t like it in truth but I’d take the chance. I bit the inside of my lip as he took my hand.
With his other hand he snapped his fingers and a large hole appeared before us. A portal.
A portal that looked like water running through it. It was beautiful and reminded me of a waterfall, except the water was running in a loop as opposed to down.
“Ready for some real magic Princess?”
“I think I am.”
He squeezed my hand and led me through the portal.
Chapter 8
Gabrielle
Tempted by The Vampire Page 6