Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  “You are anything but normal, but we’ll save that for another day. For now, let’s go home.”

  Home, I shook my head. Tears clogged my throat, but would never dare to fall. I’d learned the hard way to never show weakness.

  My attention was drawn to the others as they made their over to us. There was the lone female, Ian and the two other men that looked like they could be twins.

  “They are.”

  I glared at Cipriano and he smiled back. First things first, I would have to learn how to keep him and the others out of my head.

  “Tarrin and Tauric, along with Isabella,” he told me, by way of introduction, then continued to say, “my family by choice and yours as well, should you choose us.”

  I didn’t say anything because at this point, there was nothing to say.

  “Are there any belongings that you want to collect before we leave?”

  “There’s nothing. I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”

  Nausea was rearing its ugly head again. I fought the need to dry heave the emptiness of my stomach. Cipriano must have sensed my struggles and told me we were leaving in a moment. He reached out to me with the blue iridescence of his calming essence. The shielding affect was so much stronger now that he was standing next to me and not an astral projection like before.

  The nausea improved and for the first time in my life, I felt something other than pain and suffering. I didn’t have a name for what I felt. At a guess, I’d call it compassion and it was coming from Cipriano and the others. I had no frame of reference for how to handle the emotion and as a result, I felt squirmy and uncomfortable on the inside.

  Everyone except Ian shifted into their dragon form. He had waited so that he could place me gently upon the back of Cipriano’s dragon. I caught myself wanting to pet Cipriano and barely refrained from doing so.

  His iridescent scales just begged for me to touch them. They were soft beneath my bared legs, like worn leather, not at all rough, like I thought they would be.

  Once settled, Ian gave me his jacket again. I thanked him and did as he told me to, which was to hold on. Once Ian shifted, we flew away. I chose to look towards my new future, instead of back at the painful past I was leaving behind.

  Flying upon Cipriano was even more exhilarating than I could’ve ever imagined. I tried to link with Mia to share it with her, but she still felt weak.

  Cipriano told me he chose his family and that I could do the same. Mia would be my first choice. I projected that to her and felt a ripple of acceptance and gratitude for my choice and for sharing my flight across the pale pink sky of dawn.

  After my rescue from hell, Cipriano brought me to his mansion on the outskirts of Kansas City. I wouldn’t appreciate the beauty of his home until much later. After I’d learned what it meant to be Renascent, who I was and what I was meant to do.

  Chapter 8

  I had so much to learn, but first and foremost I needed to get well and heal from my confinement in the dungeon. Malnutrition and neglect had taken its toll upon my body, though it had helped becoming Renascent.

  After all, I was alive.

  When we first arrived at the massive estate, I was too tired to appreciate its beauty—exhaustion pulled hard at me. I felt ready to fall sleep where I stood. It had been a long time since I felt comfortable letting my guard down enough to sleep without worrying over rats—both the two and four-legged variety.

  The bedroom where Isabella brought me was beautifully decorated in varying shades of creamy yellow. It was like a bashful morning sunshine had been captured and painted upon the walls.

  I loved it! Especially after weeks of darkness and years of staring at putrid green walls—walls meant to calm our supposedly unstable minds. Ha, it was the most nauseating color I had ever seen and made us all look jaundiced.

  I looked down at myself and cringed! I was filthy and I stank! I don’t know how Cipriano and the others could stand being around me, let alone fly here with me on his back. At least up there and flying, I had air movement in my favor. I decided it was best not to touch anything.

  Watching Isabella as she gathered things for a shower, I attempted to wipe the dirt and bloody remnants that were staining my hands off and onto the sides of my dirty gown, where it would blend in. But I had to quickly drop them back to my sides when Isabella turned around just I had brought them up to reassess their filth.

  “Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Isabella. I apologize for the mess I’m making, I’m so dirty,” I confessed, through mind speak.

  “Nonsense. You are not responsible for the conditions those heathens kept you in. There’s no need to apologize for their reprehensible behavior. I’d like to rip their throats out again!” she said angrily, then tempered her tone, to say regretfully, “I’m more than sorry we weren’t able to find you sooner. We’ve looked for years, you know?” she informed me.

  I shook my head.

  “We have, well mostly Cipriano has. He was the one that was most able to connect with you, though we could all hear you,” she finished.

  Isabella walked over to turn on the shower, though I could have done so and then left so that I could bathe in peace. She didn’t go far and stayed right outside the door just in case I should need her. She expressed her concern that I’d become overwhelmed by pain, nausea or weakness—or by the lost ones crying for mercy in my head.

  Lord, I was a complete mess physically, mentally and emotionally.

  I hadn’t had a proper shower in far too long and it felt heavenly. I was still cold and stood under the spray of hot water in an attempt to alleviate the chill. It had settled deep into my bones and would take more than hot water to relieve the ache.

  Multiple scrubbings with soap and hot water had cleansed my skin of what felt like years of filth. If only it were that easy to cleanse my soul. So while my soul didn’t feel all shiny and new—at least I no longer felt dirty and unkempt.

  Ian brought me a rich and nutritious mug of bone broth to drink. At first I was hesitant. But after he explained, it was just chicken broth that had been cooked with the bones still in the chicken to reap the nutritional benefits of the marrow, I sipped at the delicious broth knowing I needed it.

  There was that word again—reap. I glanced at Cipriano who had come to see me just as I had settled into bed. I wondered if he would know what Hanley had been referring to, I thought, as I sipped from the mug.

  “I do. But we will get to that later. Right now, finish your broth and then there are a few things that I would like to teach you before you go to sleep.”

  I wanted to chug it, so he’d tell what I needed to know, but I knew if I did, I’d vomit. I was already nauseous and still had half a cup to go. We sat in companionable silence while I finished. The nausea was vastly improved and the lost were—distant.

  I looked to Cipriano and saw his blue iridescence weaving around me to form a protective shield.

  “Thank you,” I said and at last, finished the broth.

  “You need to learn how to create your own shield so that you can protect yourself.”

  I definitely needed to learn how to protect myself. Creating my own shield was just the start. I couldn’t rely on Cipriano indefinitely, so I was eager to learn whatever was necessary to accomplish that goal.

  Plus, I refused to go back to another asylum. I wouldn’t go back. Not ever! I knew I wasn’t crazy, but the voices made me feel so. The key was creating my own protection, reliant on no one but myself and learn all about my new world and how to survive in it.

  “That way,” he continued to say, “when you enter the dreaming, you won’t be forced astray by the voices, the lost ones as you like to call them, when they start calling out to you. I want to start the first lesson right now, even though I know you’re exhausted. It’s that important,” he told me.

  “Why are the dreaming and the voices a worry?” I continued speaking to him with my mind, not trusting or willing to use my voice, “because I’m Renascent?”
>
  “Not exactly. Though that’s part of it, but not all of it,” he said cryptically.

  “Wait a minute! Am I…” My eyes flew to his face, as I watched and listened for his response, and asked in all seriousness, “am I…like a zombie or something?”

  Chapter 9

  “Pena, I do apologize,” Cipriano said, after bursting out in laughter and shocking the hell out of me, “but the horrified look upon your face was just too much and thankfully no, you’re not a zombie. They’re vile creatures!” He exclaimed.

  I rolled my eyes at him, comfortable in doing so. There was no fear of repercussions here. I trusted him, a rare thing for me. There was a sense of familiarity and a rapport that had been established during my dungeon hell. He said he had been with me longer than just that dark time and maybe he had.

  Were there really zombies out there somewhere? I shook my head no.

  No way!

  “Before we begin your lesson in shielding, I think a little history is in order. Do you think you can stay awake a little while longer?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. Honest. Besides, I’ve gone days without sleeping and your stories saved my sanity. I would love to hear more of them.”

  “I’ve been alive since the time of the Crusades,” he began, reminding me of what he had already shared.

  I nodded and settled deeper into the covers to listen to Cipriano weave his wonderful stories. He warned me before he started that this wouldn’t be a happy story and he was right.

  “My father, Laurent, had been the leader of our clan for centuries. He was away from Scotland, guarding the nobility, when my mother, Arianna had been murdered by the neighboring clan of Druids. I was told he knew the moment that she had died—the loss echoing through his dragon soul and he died within moments of her.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, at a loss for something more profound to say.

  “Dragons mate for life,” he explained, “and when their mate moves on to the other side, the one left behind usually follows within days, if not immediately. It’s an eternal bond that has never survived the separation of death, though there have been a few exceptions.

  “When a female dragon is expecting and loses her mate this can change what we know to be a universal truth. She will survive long enough to deliver her offspring and then usually dies shortly thereafter.”

  I couldn’t imagine submitting to a bond such as that—not willingly. My parents would’ve made perfect dragons, I thought to myself. They were extremely connected to each other—almost, though not entirely, to the exclusion of everything and everyone else.

  I was briefly allowed within the circle of their love, too bad I couldn’t have stayed there. But in their eyes, I was defective. They couldn’t see past my oddness to the daughter that I was and not the Snow White they wanted me to be.

  “As the eldest child,” Cipriano continued, “when my parents died I took my father’s place as leader of the dragon clan. But that responsibility and birthright came with heavy sacrifices, including the loss of my brothers.”

  “What happened to your brothers?” I asked interrupting him. “You told me that you were on a quest to find one of them.”

  “I had two brothers. Jakoi, the middle brother and Aiden, the youngest. Jakoi died long ago, passing over to the other side. I mourn him every day,” he said with a heavy heart, “he died protecting me,” he confessed and then hurried to continue before I could ask what had happened, but the pain was evident.

  “Aiden disappeared after being cursed and trapped by dark magic. I’ve searched for him endlessly through the centuries and refuse to rest until he’s found.”

  The guilt and remorse he felt, along with his abject pain over their loss, was pouring through our strange connection. He continued to shield me from the emotions associated with the voices of the lost, but his were leaking through unawares.

  “But in my journey to find Aiden, I have found and collected other dragons along the way. First, I found Ian and then the two of us found Isabella. The twins came along next and now, there’s you.”

  He was creating his own family, but I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the dragon clan back in Scotland.

  “We are precious few. The Scottish clan has been viciously hunted by drampires and murdered for our essence. They love to strike when we are divided, especially when our warriors are away. They crave and covet our immortality.

  “In their quest to become immortal, they’ve become a vampire of sorts—altering the very fabric and trajectory of their culture and consequently ours as well. We had to divide our clan and go into hiding. We hoped to divert the drampires for the mated dragons so they would have a chance to create more dragon offspring.”

  “What do you mean, a vampire?”

  “Traditional vampires feed on the blood. Drampires feed on emotional energy.”

  “Is there really such a thing as a traditional vampire?” I asked. I couldn’t wrap my head around either one actually.

  He answered me with a quote from Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth.”

  “So the drampires devised a way to syphon the life force from others and feed upon that strong emotional energy that was reaped in the process. It’s a temporary fix for them, but can extend their lives beyond that of a normal human being. However, if they can inflict a mortal injury on a dragon or more specifically, a Phoenix Dragon like me, then they could live indefinitely. But to do that, they’d have to steal the dragon’s essence and force them to transfer their immortality.”

  “I don’t imagine that would be an easy task. I wouldn’t think any dragon would willingly give it up.”

  “No, they wouldn’t and as long my dragon heart beats, I will never give those leeches my power!” He said emphatically.

  It was terrible that the drampires had hunted the dragons almost to the point of extinction, or at least for the Scotland clan. I wondered if they operated globally? Did they coordinate their efforts? Or did they prefer to be solo acts of murder and mayhem—robbing families of their loved ones all to prolong their finite lives?

  “Those are good questions, Pena and we’ll address that later,” he commented.

  Geez, it was like he was plucking the thoughts right out of head, just as they came to me. I shook my head and smiled. I needed to work on that.

  “Once I became immortal and the sharing of my life force was born, the drampire have tried to steal my essence numerous times throughout the centuries. Their attempts to kill me have grown tiresome. I moved around a lot over the past couple of centuries—searching, so the attempts on my life have decreased. There have been none since moving to Kansas City.

  “My people, the Gypsies, have always been magical,” he continued, “and have been persecuted throughout history for these magical differences and abilities. My branch just happened to be dragons, but there are other types of clans out there,” he explained.

  “I was told I came from a mixed Gypsy heritage. I was adopted from Scotland as an infant.”

  “I thought as much considering we are able to communicate with our minds and the fact that you hear and feel others,” he said.

  Foreboding settled into my already unsettled stomach and I felt weaker—if that were possible.

  “Sister, pull back your aura. You’re too weak right now to offer the healing of your essence.”

  I looked up to him startled. I didn’t realize I could do that, but now that he pointed it out, I could see my aura circling him. It was if, I was trying to comfort and heal his weary heart and soul—and perhaps mine in return.

  It was one of the most miraculous thing I had ever seen, besides Cipriano and the others shifting from dragon to human and back again—that was pretty cool. Oh and flying on Cipriano’s back—hard to beat that one!

  I watched my aura, it was a blend of colors, but predominately white at the moment. Later I would learn that I’d been surrounding him in the white light of healing and protection—something I’d been doin
g for years without even realizing it.

  Until I died, I had never seen an aura before and was thankful I had never seen Dr. Hanley or the guards’ auras. I pictured them as being muddy and as black as evil—lacking the vibrancy and clarity that I saw in Cipriano’s aura and mine.

  I had a lot to learn in this new world I found myself inhabiting. I didn’t chose this path in life, it had chosen me. I’d have to decide what to do with it.

  If I didn’t like this new existence, I could leave and never look back. I could allow the voices of the lost to carry me away.

  Cipriano was right, I was too weak to offer my healing essence to him. I could feel the decrease in my energy from doing so. But, I didn’t know how I engaged my aura to begin with, so I wasn’t sure how to pull it back.

  I decided not to overthink the process and simply thought to myself, come home to me, talking to it, as if it would understand exactly what I wanted. Surprisingly, my simple thought was all that was required because in the next moment my aura no longer surrounded Cipriano and had returned to me.

  “Cipriano,” I said, “will you teach me how to shield myself now?”

  Chapter 10

  “Yes, let’s get started,” he told me. “What’s something that you have always loved?”

  There hadn’t been a lot of things to love in my life, but I told him, “I have always been drawn towards music.”

  “Perfect, then we will use music to create a protective shield.”

  I loved the idea of using music as a shield. I had played with music as diversion during my dungeon hell and remembered those flickering golden notes and wondered whether they had been real.

  I played music as a child, the piano specifically. I was the center of my parents’ world then and not the bane of their existence, and love was plentiful and freely given. I was their little Snow White, instead of their demon-possessed child.

  “Yes, let’s get started, but I don’t want to play the piano,” I said resolutely.