Yearning: Enchanting the Shifter (Legacy: A Paranormal Series Book 3)

by Ciana Stone

  Beau headed back to the apothecary shop, but cut through the alley between buildings to approach from the rear. Sirens were already wailing from the fire department, competing with the sound of the alarm from the Legacy building.

  Beau looked up, scanning the sky and Grace did the same. When she spotted something, her mouth fell open. “Holy fuck.”

  It wasn’t often Grace dropped the F-bomb, but this was an extraordinary circumstance.

  Ily descended ten feet from them, her knees bending so that she landed in a crouch. When she stood, Grace couldn’t do anything but stare in amazement.

  She was incredible. Covered with iridescent scales of golds and reds and wings of the same colors, her hair fanned out away from her face like a dark halo and her eyes glowed red. She was frightening, exotic, and beautiful.

  “Where is it?” Ily asked.

  “Inside, front room.”

  “Want us to come with?” Beau asked.

  “I’ve got it.”

  “Can I come?” Grace asked.

  Ily turned her red-eyed gaze on Grace for a moment, then nodded. “Just stay behind me. And if I tell you to run, do it.”

  “Okay.”

  “If she goes, so do I,” Beau insisted.

  “I expected that. Just promise to do what I say.”

  “You know I will.”

  “Then let’s do it.”

  “Oh shoot, it’s lock−“ Grace never got the last syllable out of her mouth. One twist from Ily and the door lock broke.

  There were still lights on in the back room when they crossed through it single file. Ily stepped through the doorway into the front room of the shop first. Grace hurried in behind her and came to such a sudden stop that Beau ran into her from behind.

  Irene wasn’t alone. “How did they all get here?” she whispered to Beau who had stepped up beside her and put one arm around her shoulders.

  Half a dozen men stood in a semicircle around Irene, who sat in a chair in the middle of the shop with her purse on her lap.

  “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Irene said. “We’re not looking for a fight with you Scythe. We only want the spell.”

  “She doesn’t have it,” Ily replied. “So, if you want to do this the easy way, then leave that woman’s body, take your friends, and go away.”

  “Not without the spell,” Irene said.

  “Well then, the hard way it will be.” Ily announced.

  “Kill the Scythe.” Irene raised one hand and snapped her fingers.

  “Yes, do try,” Ily taunted.

  Beau pulled Grace back as two of the men rushed Ily. Grace had never seen anyone move as fast or deal a more deadly blow as Ily. She executed a spin, catching one man with her foot to send him literally sailing to and though the front window. The second man she grabbed by the throat, lifted him up, and threw him. He followed the same trajectory as his partner and collapsed on the sidewalk outside the shop.

  By then two more men had rushed Ily. Irene cackled as the remaining two leapt into the fray. Grace screamed as the men ganged up on Ily, fists and feet flying as she fought back.

  Beau was apparently not content to stay in the background because the next thing Grace knew, there was a giant gorilla in the room. It grabbed one of the men by the head and Grace heard bone crack.

  Black smoke poured from it as the gorilla tossed it aside. Ily was trying to absorb the Umbra while still fighting.

  “No! No, no, no!” Grace was terrified for Ily. She looked around wildly, and then something blossomed in her mind.

  Without thinking, she turned and ran into the workshop. Grace didn’t know why, but she grabbed a big glass jar and started pouring ingredients into it. She snatched up a big bottle of oil and added some to the glass, then turned and looked around frantically.

  What had she done with it? When she remembered, she ran to the refrigerator and yanked it open. Inside was a stoppered bottle containing Ily’s blood.

  She grabbed it and carried it to the worktable, opened it and poured half of it into the jar.

  It bubbled and smoked, but that didn’t stop her from snatching it up and running back to the front of the shop.

  Two of the men were on the floor while one fought the gorilla and the other fought with Ily. Grace drew back her arm and hurled the jar. It hit the floor at Irene’s feet and literally exploded in a shower of glass and red glowing liquid.

  Irene screamed like a banshee, as did her men. They all started swiping at their skin, trying to get the liquid off. One of them nearly plowed into Grace and would have knocked her down if Beau as the gorilla hadn’t taken hold of her arm and pulled her out of the way.

  Ily grabbed one of the men by the throat and held him aloft. His face, burned by the liquid, turned even redder as he gasped and wheezed for air, kicking and beating at her to escape.

  Black smoke suddenly poured from his mouth and it looked like Ily just breathed it in. The moment she did, she tossed the man aside and turned. Her eyes glowed with the most brilliant light Grace had ever seen.

  She tackled the remaining man, sat on him, and when the Umbra left him, breathed it in as well. Ily sat back and looked around. Irene was all that was left, and she remained in the chair, glaring at Ily.

  “You don’t have the power to kill me, Scythe.”

  “Don’t I?” Ily opened her mouth and light shot from it and her eyes, hitting Irene and sending her flying.

  “Don’t kill her!” Grace screamed. “She’s just an old woman.”

  Ily crossed the room and bent over the prone figure of the old woman. “She’s alive, but the Um—“

  She never got to finish the sentence. Irene’s eyes popped open and she stabbed upward with her right hand.

  Grace screamed and flew across the room two steps behind Beau who transformed in motion. He jerked Ily back. Grace could see the knife embedded in her abdomen.

  Irene’s eyes were still black and she was laughing.

  Ily pulled the blade out and gasped. “Poison.”

  “Poison?” Beau grabbed the front of Irene’s blouse and lifted her up. “I swear I’ll kill you. How do we counteract the poison?”

  “You don’t,” Irene said and grinned, showing bloodstained teeth. “She does.” She looked at Grace. “If she is, after all, her father’s daughter. So, she either figures it out or the Scythe dies.”

  “And what does that gain you?” Grace asked. “I thought you needed her to open the portal. If she dies, then you lose.”

  “Correction. If she dies, you lose.”

  “Oh no, believe me, you’ll lose,” Beau threatened.

  Irene started laughing again. “You can’t kill me, Shifter.”

  “But I can.” Suddenly there was a blade in Ily’s hand.

  Grace opened her mouth to scream, but it was too late. The blade was already embedded in the center of Irene’s chest.

  The oily black smoke boiled out, and it appeared that this time, it was a struggle for Ily to take it in.

  “Don’t let it out.” Beau gathered her into his arms and held her. “Go into hibernation, Ily. Do it now. We’ll find the antidote. I promise.”

  Ily looked at Grace. “I saw the memories. They’re inside you. Find them and you find the answers, Grace.”

  Grace sat down beside Ily and took her hand. “I don’t know if I can.”

  “I do. I trust you, Grace. With my life.”

  With that, Ily closed her eyes. Grace felt the warmth seeping from Ily’s skin and looked at Beau. “What do we do?”

  He gently laid Ily on the floor and pulled out his phone. “We get help.”

  “From who?”

  He held up his hand with index finger extended as he spoke into the phone. “We have a situation and need help.”

  Grace looked up as he explained and just then noticed there were people on the sidewalk, watching. She tapped Beau’s arm and pointed. He looked as well and added that bit of information to whomever he was speaking with.


  A moment later, he ended the call and stood. Grace followed as he went to the front window and closed the shutters over the shattered glass. “That won’t make them unsee it,” she commented. “There are two unconscious people on the sidewalk and five in here, plus Ily. They won’t just forget what they saw.”

  “No, they won’t. But if they hang around, someone might make them.”

  “Make them what?”

  “Make them unsee it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You will.” He extended his hand and Grace placed hers in it.

  “I don’t know what to do,” she admitted.

  “I think we may get help with that as well.”

  Grace looked at Ily lying on the floor. “I hope so. Oh God, Beau.” She threw her arms around him and buried her face against his chest. “She trusted me.”

  “You’ll save her, baby. I know you will.”

  Grace’s phone rang and she got up to find it. The caller ID read Unknown. She showed it to Beau.

  “Answer it.”

  Grace hit Accept. “Hello?”

  “Check your text and I’ll call again.”

  “What?”

  The call went dead. A moment later, her phone chimed to let her know she had a text.

  “Oh, my God.” She grabbed hold of Beau’s arm for support. A picture was on the text. Her mother and her children. All three were bound and gagged and the fear was evident in their eyes.

  The phone rang again. Beau snatched it from her and hit Accept. “If you do anything to—“

  “Shut up and listen. Grace, are you listening?”

  “I am.”

  “Pay attention. It’s all up to you. If you give us the cloaking spell, your family will not be harmed.”

  “But I don’t know it.”

  “Yes, you do. You just have to remember. And you have seventy-two hours. Starting now.”

  The line went dead. “No, wait! Wait!” Grace collapsed against Beau, crying.”Oh my God, they have my family.”

  “We’ll get them back, I promise.”

  “How can you promise that? We don’t even know who has them.”

  “Help is on the way. Don’t give up, Grace. We can do this.”

  Grace closed her eyes and clung to him. Just when she thought maybe she was getting a bead on reality, seeing a possible path to happiness, this happened and now she wondered if she hadn’t been dreaming all along. She had to save her family. She wouldn’t even want to live if something happened to her mother and her children.

  And then there was Ily. If she didn’t save Ily, she’d never forgive herself and Beau would never forgive her either.

  Grace had seen Ily’s love for him in her mind, and knew Beau’s devotion to her. If she didn’t save Ily, then she and Beau were doomed.

  Right now, all she could see was the fear in her family’s eyes. Everyone was depending on her to save them and she didn’t have one clue how she was supposed to accomplish that.

  She was just an ex-photojournalism major college dropout, betrayed wife, and struggling mother. How was she supposed to save anyone?

  Chapter Twenty

  Grace felt like a kid on her first trip to Disney World. But instead of giant mice, dogs, princesses, and the like, she was surrounded by Shifters and Vampires, Daemons and Wizards and Fae. And instead of it being a mammoth amusement park, it was real. Saints and sinners, who would ever have dreamt that she would one day experience such a thing? She felt a bit like someone standing on the precipice of sanity, not sure if she was going to teeter and fall off into madness.

  From the time the three dark SUV’s and the big RV that was equipped with everything needed to effect repairs to the shop, it took less than two hours before everything was back to normal.

  Except Grace’s nerves. Those were pretty much shot.

  Someone had been kind enough to bring clothing for Beau. He’d destroyed his own when he transformed into the gorilla. Now he was standing off to one side with Severin the Daemon and his father, John Legacy.

  Everyone else had departed. Grace was sitting at the small table by the shuttered window, trying to convince herself not to start screaming. Panic was pressing in and she was afraid if she gave into it, she’d never escape.

  All she could think about was the photo of her mother and children and of Ily, who had been taken away by Severin’s people and John Luke. They had to do something to save everyone.

  But what?

  “Oh!” Grace stiffened as she remembered. God, it seemed like a lifetime ago and in reality, it was only a few hours since she’d recalled seeing her father opening a secret panel behind the counter.

  She rose and hurried behind the counter, feeling under each shelf and inside each drawer.

  “What’re you doing?” Beau asked as he walked behind the counter to stand beside her.

  “Before this nightmare started, I remembered my dad opening up a compartment here and putting something in it. I thought if I could find—“

  Her hand passed over a depression in the counter just above the drawer. Grace worked her hand deeper into the drawer and pressed the depression. Sure enough, she felt something give, like a button being pushed.

  A moment later, the back wall of the lower shelf unlatched and swung outward. Beau caught it in time to prevent it from knocking over bottles. He and Grace moved everything out of the way and opened the hidden door.

  There was only one thing in the compartment. A small leather-covered notebook. Grace recognized it and tears rose in her eyes. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d watched her dad scribble in this notebook.

  “It’s my dad’s.” She slid it from the compartment and showed it to Beau.

  “Do you think the answers are in it?”

  She looked up at him, fighting tears. “They have to be. If anything happens—“

  Grace couldn’t get the rest of the words out. She was trying to be strong, trying to believe that everything would be all right, but the truth was, she was terrified. Some evil person had her mother and her children, willing to do them harm if he didn’t get what he wanted.

  There it was again, that panic that threatened to take her over and turn her into a mindless screaming mess. “Beau.” It was the only word she could get out.

  He gathered her into his arms. “We’re going to save them, baby, but I need you to stay strong. Can you try?”

  She nodded and after a moment, pulled back from him. “The answer could be in here.” She clutched the notebook to her chest.

  “Then you need to start reading. And while you do that, Severin has an idea that may help.”

  “What?”

  “Put the town to sleep.”

  Grace blinked, frowned, and blinked again. “Pardon?”

  “Put the town to sleep.”

  “How would that help? And is it even possible?”

  Beau looked over at Severin. “Would you explain the plan to Grace?”

  Severin walked over to the counter. “We propose to cast a wide-area sleep spell. It’s night, so most people will be either sleeping or soon fall asleep. Our spell will reinforce their need to sleep and will encourage those awake to fall asleep. Everyone but your mother and children.”

  “Okay, saying that’s possible, how will it help?”

  “That’s where you come in, Grace. You’ll need to connect with your mother and your children and that connection will be like a beacon that will lead you and us to them.”

  “Are you insane?” Grace blurted. “I don’t know how to do that!”

  “But your mother does.” Severin’s tone was gentle.

  Grace looked from him to Beau, then back to Severin. “How do you know?”

  “It’s in your father’s journal.” He pointed to the leather notebook on the counter. “You should read that, Grace. And quickly. We have only a matter of hours until dawn and the spell is best cast at night.”

  Grace looked at the journal, reached out and put her hand on it, the
n looked at Beau. “I’m a little afraid.”

  “Don’t be. He was your father and loved you more than anything. And if reading it will save your family, you have to do it. We have to do it. I’ll be right here with you. In fact, let’s take it back to the break room where it’s quiet.”

  “Yes.” She agreed and for some strange reason looked to Severin for permission. What was it about this man that made her feel she needed to do that?

  He smiled and gestured toward the door. “We will be working on the spell. May we utilize your workshop?”

  “Of course.”

  He nodded and Beau took her hand to escort her to the break room. Once they were seated on the loveseat, he patted the notebook she’d placed in her lap. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Grace opened the notebook. The first page read, For my daughter, Grace.

  She trailed her finger over the words, then turned the page.

  Even today, after all the years I have been here, I can close my eyes and see her as she was the day we met. I’d never seen a woman so lovely. She glowed with life and her smile put the sun to shame with its light.

  Ida Bloom. I fell in love with her before I even knew her name. She is the most remarkable person I’ve ever known, my one true love and I am blessed beyond compare to have been honored by her love.

  People discount Ida because of her cheerful nature and pleasant manner. They think of her as dim of mind because of her sunny disposition when the opposite is true. A sharper mind I’ve never known. Not much escapes those beautiful green eyes.

  She saw right through me and asked me straight out two weeks after our initial meeting just what I was because she was quite convinced there was something very different about me.

  Like attracts like, I’ve heard, and it certainly was the case with us. The magic of the Fae I had inherited from my parents was strong, but so was hers. I didn’t realize humans could possess magic until I met Ida and she taught me how ignorant I was.

  Ida is magic. She soothes and heals with voice and touch. Her laughter can lift the spirits of the most dismal of souls, or bring a doomed man light and solace in his final moments. She is a miracle, a being so filled with love and light that everyone who stands in the light of her smile is blessed.