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

by Margo Bond Collins

  “You don’t technically have to play anything, as it’s all mental. But if it would help you to visualize our lessons, then you could use the cello that Ian abandoned years ago. It’s around here somewhere.”

  That had been weeks ago when Cipriano started my musical lessons in protective shielding. He was right, it was more mental, but he explained how to accomplish the shielding in several different ways. I experimented with all of them until I found the one that suited me best.

  One method for creating a mental shield of protection was utilizing bricks. They made for a solid wall of protection. I could layer them one on top of the other to achieve a barrier that was solid and impenetrable.

  I found bricks to be mentally laborious, not to mention that I felt like I was back in my dungeon hell and suffocating in the dank darkness. Not my first choice.

  I concentrated on weaving music instead. The process perfectly suited my soul. I loved hearing and visualizing the notes as I wove them together to form a musical tapestry that became my protection.

  When I first picked up the bow and ran it across the cello strings, it was the most hideous sound and resembled a screeching cat. If it hurt my sensitive ears, I could only imagine what it was like for my dragon companions.

  The others would fly away to keep their ears from bleeding—but not Cipriano. He patiently tolerated my fumbles as I learned my way around the cello and taught myself how to play it with proficiency. Cipriano was a mentor, a friend and a father figure depending on what was needed and I would need all three over the months that followed.

  I’d always been musically inclined, so it didn’t take long for me to get the knack of making music and weaving the notes into a protective wall to hide behind. The cello became my voice—allowing me to speak what I could not vocalize, as the years of emotions that I’d kept buried inevitably surfaced and bled into every note that I played.

  Eventually everyone stayed to listen while I played the cello. I saw Ian wipe his eye on more than one occasion. He was a sensitive soul. I could easily feel his emotions when he let his guard down in these rare moments. Isabella would offer comfort and support to him by cuddling closer to her mate. Her love for Ian was quiet, yet fierce.

  When I asked Cipriano why Ian cried, he told me that they had all suffered great losses and like me, it was a way to release the emotions that we kept buried, least they bury us in return.

  I could definitely understand that. Today I was melancholy and the cello resonated that fact perfectly—weeping when I could not.

  I mastered the cello and learned to build my protective walls, but it still felt like something was missing and I told Cipriano so when we were outside walking. I needed the exercise to regain my strength, but I could spend hours outside basking in the light—something that had been a rarity for me since I had been a little girl thrown away.

  Daylight, moonlight, starlight, sunrise and sunset—fractured or full bright, it didn’t matter. Each one offered something uniquely beautiful to see and to feel.

  “Cipriano,” I asked through my mind, “what am I? How is that I can I hear all of you in my mind? Why can I see auras? When I drank of your dragon essence, your life force, did that change me?”

  “No. You are as you have always been, though only just now realized. When you died—the essence of who and what you are was finally unlocked. You, my dear Sister, are family in truth. You are Dragon.”

  “WHAT!” I screeched through my mind.

  I watched as Cipriano placed his fingertips to his temples, “Sister, volume if you please. Remember, our mind speak is a two-way street.”

  “Sorry,” I replied chagrined, “you’re telling me that I’m a dragon—like you?” I asked at a lower volume.

  “A Phoenix Dragon to be specific or at least I believe so.”

  “But, you don’t know?”

  “No, I don’t know for sure because we don’t know who your biologic parents were.”

  “So you have no idea if I can shift or not?” I asked through mind speak, as my voice had yet to return. A blessing for all those involved. However, I had perfected my body language and the ability to roll my eyes to silent perfection.

  “No, and you could die the first time you try to go through the shifting process. Which is why I haven’t discussed this with you. I wanted you to build the strength of your shields first, as well as your stamina,” Cipriano told me hesitantly.

  “But as I build strength, Mia loses it. I know you must feel it too. She’s weakening. You can’t choose me over her!”

  “I do sense it, just like I did with you. But I’m not choosing one over the other. Everything has its place and its time. Can you focus on her? Use your shields to block out everything but Mia’s voice.”

  I could hear her in my mind and feel her in my bones. She was the most subdued of all the voices that were vying for my attention. The key was to focus on her as my beacon of calm within a screaming sea of pain and noise.

  I was learning to build and control my own shields. Learning to pick out certain voices and emotions, mainly I searched for Mia—the little girl in my mind.

  Mia was so very quiet, it was difficult to locate her. I had to concentrate and work hard at excluding everything and everyone. It took a lot of patience and too much precious time.

  I needed to find her and quick, just like Cipriano and the others had found me. Her essence was dying and I knew Mia was fading away.

  I understood now what Cipriano must have gone through when trying to find me and why he kept yelling at me not to fade. It was painful to feel her and know that I might not find her in time.

  “Well, okay then!” I decided, right then and there.

  Whatever, I’d lived far past the time that I’d expected to. Dying under the wide open, yet forgiving sky would be the perfect way to enter the other side.

  Reaching inside, I searched for that special place hidden deep within my soul. The place where the naive and unrealized power experienced periods of expansion and contraction as it developed and became actualized.

  I had no idea what I was doing, but didn’t care.

  “No! You mustn’t shift until you learn how!”

  But he was too late. I was already lost and immersed within the essence of my soul.

  Chapter 11

  One minute Cipriano wanted me to focus on finding Mia and the next minute I was shifting into my dragon form. It was obvious I didn’t know what the hell I was doing because hours later and well into the night I was still a dragon.

  I couldn’t figure out how to shift back and finally gave up trying.

  I felt compelled to find Mia. She was in pain and crying for help. I needed to reach her before it was too late. I could feel her time was coming to an end. Her essence weakening—hopelessness consuming her.

  I understood that feeling all too well. I’d lived in that dark place. Where all hope was lost and you just wanted to die—take your last breath and cease to exist once and for all.

  I wanted to save her from dying without hope, dying without knowing or feeling love once more. I would give her that. I couldn’t erase what she was experiencing right now, but I could teach her, as Cipriano had taught me, to embrace those dark, lonely places and channel those feelings of worthlessness and shame into something positive and worthwhile.

  With no consideration for the consequences, I had thrown myself recklessly into that pool of power. I had no idea what to expect or how to do it. We had never spoken about the mechanics of how Cipriano and the others were able to shift. They just seemed to do it and with little thought.

  Initially it felt like I was immersed within a kaleidoscope of colors—euphorically floating on a current of peace and quiet and yet, I felt stretched and scattered all at once.

  Concentrating hard, I pictured a dragon in my mind and then became one, just like that. Though I was kind of a small one.

  I entered my new dragon body and saw that my world had been completely transformed. All my senses were hype
rsensitive and acute. It must have taken a moment for me to recover from the shift and become acclimated to my new form because I found myself gently cradled in the palm of Cipriano’s hand.

  I looked up at him with my new dragon eyes and thought to myself, oh fuck, I really screwed up! I must be tiny as hell if I could fit into the palm of his hand.

  “You are far too reckless little one, but you did it! You shifted into a beautiful dragon and with no help,” Cipriano admonished, yet praised me, then continued on to say, “but you need to learn to do it with more control and after,” he emphasized, “a bit of instruction. Next time you might want to choose a more proper sized dragon, instead of a little hatchling—though you are rather cute.”

  Come to find out, when shifting you could decide if you wanted to be big or small and since I didn’t know that at the time, I ended up very small.

  I opened my mind so he could hear me, “I know. I didn’t think. I just felt compelled to reach Mia. We have to find her, Cipriano.”

  What I felt from Mia was a strange dichotomy. On one hand, her soul felt so young and fragile and yet, at the same time she felt ancient. I’d been able to connect with her, tethering her soul to mine. It was risky, but how could I not. I just wouldn’t tell Cipriano. I was certain that he would tell me to pull back, that I was far too weak and healing from my own hell.

  Plus, I still didn’t know the ins and outs of being a dragon. Whatever, I’d learn on the fly—finding her was far more important than being a skilled and proficient shifter. I didn’t feel like I had the time to learn the particulars of how to shift or how to function in this new world. I would just have to learn as I went along.

  “We will find her. Have faith in that, Sister.”

  “Charani,” I corrected him.

  “Yes! That’s perfect. It means Phoenix in the Gypsy culture—your culture.”

  “Thank you, it seemed fitting.”

  “I want you to concentrate, Charani. Visualize yourself as you are normally and not in your little dragon form,” he chuckled.

  He clearly enjoyed teasing me about being so little. He had carried me back into the house after I had shifted and now we were in the great room with everyone in attendance.

  “What does my Phoenix Dragon look like?” I asked, dying of curiosity.

  “Besides being little? You are perfectly proportioned. Your wings are an iridescent blue like ours, but your scales are pearlescent and flame red too. An unusual combination, yet we all have our differences. I’m curious to see what happens to your hair when you shift back for the first time.”

  “Is that why Ian and you have a stripe of hair that’s a different color? I asked them.

  “Yes,” answered Ian who had a black stripe in his auburn hair, “and poor Cip got the short end of the old man stick with his dark hair and white stripe.”

  We all started laughing. I was giggling in my mind and thought of myself belly laughing in truth and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the floor laughing out loud. I didn’t even recognize my own voice, until I realized I was the only one laughing and the room was completely silent.

  My husky laughter trailed off and stopped altogether, blushing.

  “What a beautiful sound,” Cipriano said, “I never thought to hear you speak or laugh for that matter,” he continued, his voice raw with emotion.

  “I…I didn’t think about it,” I said, my voice sounding unusual to my ears. Husky from years of disuse.

  “Sister, I truly hate to point this out to you, especially as we are all having such a wonderful moment laughing at Cip’s expense,” Isabella began, her sweet voice hesitant, “but when you shifted you…um…you forgot to shift yourself into…” she trailed off, clearly not wanting to say it aloud and twirled her finger in a circle in my direction.

  At first I was confused, why was she pointing at me all shy like? But then I looked down at myself.

  “Well, hell!”

  Nope, no clothes at all and as naked as the day I was born. I burst out laughing because honestly it was just too funny. I didn’t know how to do anything! Though I did manage to shift to my dragon form and back for the first time and without too much trouble. And I lived to laugh about it.

  I felt Ian place his jacket around my shoulders again and clear his throat. He turned away and chuckled under his breath. The twins had a sudden interest in the fireplace and Cipriano was looking down at his hands.

  “I’m sure that I’m not the only one to screw up while shifting for the first time,” I said.

  I put my arms into the jacket and zipped it up. Luckily, since I was only about five foot seven and Ian was well over six foot, his jacket was long enough to cover all my lady bits.

  “Actually, Charani, you’ve done remarkably well. You’re a true Phoenix, just as we thought,” he said as he walked over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Welcome to our dragon clan—your new dragon family.”

  I was mute as I processed all that had occurred this evening. I shifted for the first time and lived. I was a true Phoenix and had the red stripe to prove it. I had family now, including my Mia.

  It was that concept that was the hardest to believe and to process.

  Family.

  I would test the strength of that bond repeatedly and what it meant to be a family, but especially a family of Phoenix Dragons.

  Chapter 12

  I had transitioned through and survived my first shift to dragon. I felt like celebrating, but I was too tired to contemplate it. I said goodnight and walked back to my bedroom with as much dignity as I could manage—considering they had all just seen me naked. I laughed, shaking my head at myself and my little dragon hatchling.

  Exhausted, yet wide awake, I snuggled under the covers, still warm from my shower and thought back over the night. I could have died again—yet didn’t. Why was my life spared when others weren’t? I was nothing special and felt like a complete fraud. I had nothing to offer and could hardly help myself!

  Unable to form a plausible explanation as to why, I put it aside and played with the weaving of my protective shield. Music danced through my mind and I found that it was much easier to create and maintain now that I had shifted.

  I could open and close the shield at random—allowing the voices of the lost and their accompanying pain to penetrate the shimmering notes. Or I could keep them muted and at a distance.

  I would need to remain vigilant to avoid being blindsided by incapacitating pain and noise that accompanied the voices of the lost.

  The missing piece had indeed been my dragon. I could feel the difference now that we were one—blended and indistinguishable.

  Cipriano thought that I might be a soul seeker. That I was attuned to the lost and dying souls of the brethren, those with dragon blood running through their veins—no matter how dilute.

  My heart ached for these strangers who were dying lost and alone. Mute, like I had been because crying for help and begging for mercy hadn’t worked. No one could hear, no one cared, and no one would ever come to their rescue—they were forlorn and forsaken.

  I knew the feeling all too well and felt the same way until Cipriano rescued me. I was consumed by hopelessness and had accepted the inevitable, my imminent death. I’d just died when he found me and pulled me back through the veil with his dragon essence to make me Renascent.

  I still struggled not to be consumed by these feelings. They would sneak in and catch me unawares, sabotaging all my progress.

  But why was I allowed to be risen? Was it so that I might rescue these others? Perhaps.

  I had been hearing and feeling voices since I was a little girl. I wanted to shut them off and never hear them again, but they’d been with me for so long that the total lack of noise might be intolerable and deafening.

  The individual voices had changed over the years, but they all echoed the same refrain—pain, hopelessness and despair. I could feel them, but not necessarily understand what they were trying to tell me.

  S
leep finally pulled me under and my mind wandered and pondered the ultimate question…why? Why had I been saved? Why could I hear these people, but more importantly, what was I supposed to do about it, if anything?

  I had just started drifting in the dreaming when Mia and the others found me. There’d be no rest for me tonight!

  It was an odd, disorienting sensation to rise up as a shadow and not as a body of substance. Cipriano and the others had shifted to mere shadows when they had rescued me from that hellhole of an asylum. I had no idea that I’d be capable of doing the same.

  I decided to let the shadow me go wherever it wanted—neither directing nor fighting the current I found myself drifting upon. Opening the shield that surrounded me, I let Mia and the others all the way in. I could hear one distinct voice vying for my attention, but not the one that I wanted to hear and help the most—Mia.

  She was quiet, saying absolutely nothing. It felt as if she’d given up on everything and everyone, including me.

  I was failing her.

  Why speak when no one would listen. I tried connecting with her, I wanted her to know that I could hear and feel her, but I couldn’t tell if I was reaching her.

  I hated this feeling of ineptitude, but I was a neophyte in my new world. I needed instruction and time to assimilate, but those were the very things I lacked, although Cipriano was teaching me all that he could.

  As I floated along, one voice became more insistent and felt more desperate. I was pulled in the direction of his pain. Perhaps if I could release this man from whatever was tormenting him, he would release me in return. With one less voice demanding my attention, I’d be able to focus on Mia.

  I couldn’t understand what he was saying—Ralph I decided to name him, so I followed his distinct pain signal instead. The strength of his pain made it incredibly difficult to focus. It resonated through me in stabbing waves of agony. If my shadow self could weep, I might have given in to the tears, but I doubted it. I didn’t like to lose control.