by Bianca D'Arc
She gave him another one of her gentle smiles. “Don’t worry. I can help you with that. We’ll fix you right up and have you back to your old self—only stronger—in no time.”
CHAPTER TWO
Two days later, Josh was out in the back of the house, chopping wood to work off some of his excess energy. Deena had been true to her word, teaching him from within the first few moments of their meeting to ground and center his magic. Once she’d released him from the spell that had frozen him in place, she’d taken him directly to the small circle of stones hidden in a thicket of trees. He’d felt the magical wards, knowing what they were this time, as he passed into the circle.
Deena had taught him the rudiments of shield formation and had left him to practice the skill for about an hour while she’d seen to her daily work in the house and barn. He’d felt safe within the circle. It felt as if the wards had hidden his wild magic from anyone who might be looking for it. The first hour in that sacred circle had been some of the first peace he’d had in months. And then, she’d returned, and the real work had begun.
He got the feeling she’d cleared her schedule to make time to work with him. He was grateful but wasn’t really sure how to express his profound gratitude. He’d started fixing things around the farmstead. There was a rough patch on part of the barn roof he’d replaced yesterday, and today, he was trying to stock up the woodpile he’d found around the back of the house, so she’d be all ready for colder weather.
He’d noted the wood-burning stove in the kitchen and the fireplace in the living room of her home when she’d invited him in for dinner. He’d eaten with her, then spent the night in a guest room on the first floor. It looked like it had been added on to the sprawling farmhouse at some point in the last seventy years or so, sticking out from the side of the house in an asymmetrical way.
Josh had heard her footsteps pattering around above his head. He knew there wasn’t an enclosed room above him, but since she was walking around right above him, there probably was some kind of patio space on the flat roof above the addition. Likely, it was a private spot connected to the master suite. Must be nice to stargaze from up there before going to bed.
Imagining her up there in her pajamas—or nothing at all—looking out at the stars made him yearn for things he was better off not thinking about. At least not now. Not until he got his rogue magic under control somehow.
“That’s quite the wood pile.” Her voice shook Josh out of his reverie. He’d been so lost in thought and memory she’d managed to sneak up on him.
Now, that wasn’t something that happened to him every day. Maybe she used her magic to assist? If not, he was in big trouble, because inattention at a time like this could easily get him killed and his magic drained by any one of the mages who’d been on his trail the past few months.
Josh tried to be cool as he set the ax head on the ground and leaned casually on the long handle. She walked around to face him, and he followed her progress with his eyes. She was just as beautiful today, the pale morning sunlight shimmering off her hair, as she had been the moment he first set eyes on her. Just as unattainable. Just as off-limits.
She was a holy woman, and he was a holy terror. A fuck-up of the first order. An angel like her deserved a man who was as upright as she was. Not a lone wolf drifting through life with little aim except to stay alive from day to day and do his best not to let his magic be drained by those with evil intent.
“I figured you could use a stockpile with Winter just around the corner,” he told her, trying his best to look and sound nonchalant. She didn’t need to know that it was stress and the inner turmoil of his wolf that had him out here chopping wood, sweating and exerting, hoping the physical activity would blunt his antsy mood.
“Oh, it won’t go to waste. Thank you. But you don’t have to knock yourself out, you know. I suspect you’ll be here for a while as we work on your training. You can pace yourself a bit.” Her smile was friendly, but he could see a hint of concern in her soft blue eyes.
He didn’t like that. He didn’t want her to waste her energy worrying about him. He was okay. He had to be okay.
“I’m used to working,” he replied, hoping she wouldn’t probe further. He needed the activity to calm his inner beast, which was still in a bit of turmoil over the changed state of his magic.
The wolf part of him didn’t know what to think about the magic that had suddenly surfaced. It was fighting the change—when bad guys weren’t trying to kill him—and the inner conflict was really messing with Josh’s head. Deena had asked Josh about how his magic had surfaced at dinner the night before, and he’d found himself telling her the story of the car wreck. He’d gone into much more detail about his feelings with her than he’d revealed to Duncan. Somehow Deena had gotten under his skin, but he found he didn’t mind it too much. Slowly, he was coming to trust her.
If only his inner wolf would learn to trust the new magic inside him. At present, the only time the wolf worked with the magic was when he was threatened. The survival instinct kicked in at such times, and the dual sides of Josh’s nature worked in a beautiful kind of harmony to protect him.
At all other times, the wolf seemed suspicious of the new magic, and the magic itself bounced around as if unsure where to go or what to do. That had to be a reflection of Josh’s uncertainty, of course, since the priestess and those he’d spoken to before her all agreed that the magic was an innate part of Josh that had been repressed in some way until just recently.
Why or how that had occurred wasn’t as important as fixing the problem now, while evil was on his trail. Maybe there’d be time later to figure out where it had all gone awry, but at the moment, survival was the first order of business. Josh had to adapt and overcome if he was going to survive.
“The moon will be full tonight,” Deena finally said, merely nodding to his earlier statement as he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
A werewolf always knew the phase of the moon, even if the folklore among humans was wrong about their inability to shapeshift at other times. Josh could turn into his wolf form at any time. The pull was just a little stronger—make that a lot stronger—when the moon was riding high and full in the sky.
“I’ll be doing a ceremony as the moon rises tonight in the stone circle. You’re welcome to join me.” She seemed almost shy about her invitation, which made him think she didn’t usually invite others to observe her rituals.
“I’d be honored.” He nodded his head in respect, holding her gaze. “I haven’t been to a full moon rite presided over by a real priestess since I was a child.”
There it was. The slightly timid smile he’d hoped to bring to her face. He felt like he’d just won the lottery, odd as it seemed. Why was this small woman so special to him? He’d barely known her for more than the blink of an eye.
“I haven’t had a werewolf—or a shifter of any kind, actually—in my ritual circle since I moved here. It’ll be a treat for both of us.”
He set the ax aside and faced her. “But I’m not fully were, am I?”
He’d been waiting for her to tell him what was wrong with his magic for two days, but although she’d been very forthcoming in teaching him how to ground and center, shield and release his new magic, she hadn’t really told him anything about her conclusions.
Deena sighed heavily and stepped closer to him, holding his gaze. She wasn’t demurring. She wasn’t backing down. He liked that about her.
“No, Josh, you’re not. Your mother is a werewolf, but I believe your father was something not of this world. Tell me, does she ever speak of him to you?”
A tremor went through him that had nothing to do with an earthquake. It was more like a soul-quake. Something felt by him, and him alone, rocking his world off its axis, and then back on. She probably couldn’t tell how her words had affected him, but he felt it down to the depths of his being.
“Mom doesn’t talk about him. I do know she loved him until i
t broke her heart. They were true mates, but one day, he just disappeared, never to be heard from again.”
Josh didn’t go so far as to curse the absent father he had never met—curses were serious in his world, and he didn’t speak them lightly—but he felt the same old anger. The anger at a man he had never met for hurting the one person who loved Josh unconditionally.
Josh loved his mother deeply. He still worried about her, out there on her own. When he’d been small, she’d protected him, but in the past few years, he’d been the one protecting her, and it didn’t sit well that he’d had to leave her alone and vulnerable because he was being hunted. Still, there’d been no alternative. To stay near her was to invite those hunting him to target her, as well.
“It’s just possible that your father’s disappearance wasn’t his fault,” Deena said slowly, moving a step closer. “The wild magic you’re feeling is part of you. A gift from your father’s lineage, I believe. He may still be alive, only not in this realm. If he still exists, he’s most likely back where he came from, in the fey realm.”
Josh wasn’t totally surprised by the idea of fey magic, but that she thought it came from his father was a new and startling thought. When Duncan had hinted that Josh might have fey blood, he’d just assumed it had crept in somewhere far back on his mother’s side of the family. Josh had honestly never entertained the idea that his father was anything other than human.
“You’re saying you think my father is fey.” It wasn’t a question.
“Fey do pass into our world from time to time, though they do not often stay unless for some greater purpose, like Duncan, who directed you to my door. He is a warrior on the side of good, and he stays here to aid in the battle against evil.”
Deena’s eyes were getting spooky as she spoke, glowing with an unearthly light. Josh’s senses went on alert. His wolf watched, sniffing and suspicious. Something was happening here that he didn’t fully understand.
“Deena?”
Deena’s lips smiled full and beautifully unabashed. Very unlike the shy smiles she’d given him until now. And those eyes… Those glowing eyes. The spirit looking out of the priestess’s eyes wasn’t like anything Josh had ever seen before.
“Priestess?” He tried again.
“Yes. She is Our priestess.” The presence in Deena’s body blinked, and the pure Light of Her dimmed not one bit. If Josh wasn’t mistaken, he was addressing one of the aspects of the Goddess, mind-blowing as that might seem. “We have been watching you, Joshua, for a long time. We have been waiting to see which way you would turn. Now is your time of decision. Do you continue towards the Light? Or do you succumb to the evil that shadows your path?”
“I will never give in to evil, milady,” he felt the need to respond. He felt the truth of his words and the conviction in them ring in his soul. “I serve the Light now, and will always serve the Light.”
The spirit in Deena’s body tilted Her head in acknowledgment. “Good. Your words and your strength of spirit are resolute. You will need that in the coming trials.”
Josh didn’t like the sound of that.
“Milady, I’m honored beyond words that You have chosen to show Yourself to me. What can I do for You?”
“Much,” She said at once. “Or nothing. It will depend on the outcome of the next weeks. Learn well from Our servant and prepare to use the magic of your forefathers to protect the innocent. We know your sire, Joshua. He is a true and loyal servant of the Light. Will you follow in his footsteps?”
Josh’s father was alive? And he served the Goddess? That was more information than he’d ever had about the man who’d sired him. Josh wasn’t sure how to feel about it—or this amazing visitation. To Josh’s knowledge, the Goddess didn’t speak directly to people very often, and if She did, nobody was talking about it. There was one thing Josh did know for certain, though. He knew he would never give in to evil.
“I have always tried serve the Light in whatever capacity I could,” he replied.
Deena’s head nodded as if pleased, Her luminous eyes shining bright. “You have been, and will continue to be, tested by evil, We are sorry to say. What evil does is not in Our control. Neither is how you respond. That is up to your free will. But if you stand strong, We will see you again, Joshua. We have a role in mind for you, if you make it through the trials ahead. Know that We are watching over you, and We will assist where We can, but the hard part will be up to you. You and Our servant, sweet Deena, whom We release to you now.” The Goddess smiled mischievously. “Better catch her.”
The intense Light blinked out, and Deena’s eyes returned to normal for a split second before she wilted, her knees giving way. Josh stepped forward, his wolf lending him preternatural speed so that he caught her before she hit the ground.
Deena had a sense of vertigo, then of falling and being caught in strong arms. Masculine arms. Sexy arms, attached to the most handsome man she’d ever met.
Wait. What?
She tried to touch her head, but her hand wouldn’t cooperate. A lethargy kept her whole body compliant in Josh’s arms.
Josh. That’s who’d caught her. Sexy, magical, lone wolf, Josh.
As her brain started to come back online, she blinked her eyes open to look up at him. His brown gaze was tender and full of concern.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his gruff voice tempered with gentleness. Was this how he’d sound with a lover? And where, exactly, had that thought come from?
“What happened?” The two words were about all she was capable of at the moment. Something had drained her, and she was very much afraid she knew what had happened.
“The Goddess…” His words trailed off as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d just seen. She was familiar with that response. Unfortunately.
“Used my body to say hello, did She?” Strength was returning to her more readily as she dealt with the fallout of the Goddess’s possession. It had happened often enough that Deena was able to bounce back a little more easily each time.
“That sort of thing happen a lot?” His lips quirked up in a smile, and she noticed that he hadn’t set her back on her feet yet. She wasn’t sure she wanted him to, which was somewhat surprising. She’d never warmed so quickly to a man, but Josh was something altogether different in her experience.
“Occasionally. It seems I’m an easy conduit for Her.”
CHAPTER THREE
“That’s…”
Josh stifled his first instinct to say how totally fucked up that was. He’d been roaming alone for so long, his language had become a bit more than crass. His mama would definitely not approve. He had to remind himself to clean up his filthy mouth around the lady.
“That’s pretty amazing,” he said instead. “But doesn’t that put you at greater risk than most of your kind? I mean, it’s a rare being who can commune directly with the Mother of All, right? The bad guys must really hate you for that.”
She surprised him with a smile. “Why do you think I live way out here, all on my own?”
She gestured weakly with one hand to the cornfield behind her house and the view that didn’t have a single other home in sight. Her home was, indeed, isolated, even though she didn’t live too far from civilization. There were towns all around with shopping centers and all the conveniences of modern life if she cared to drive about twenty minutes in any direction.
And there was a key North-South highway only a few miles away. That was the road Duncan had driven them in on. From that major artery, she could go just about anywhere.
Judging by the lack of strength in her hand and arm when she tried to point out the view, Josh realized she wasn’t quite ready to be put back on her own feet. He began walking toward the house. There were chairs and a couch in the living room that he could set her down on without causing her any injury. She probably needed to rest after that divine visitation. It sure looked to him that channeling the Goddess took its toll on a body.
“You can put me down,” she protested
as he walked up the steps on the back porch. He looked down at her face…so close, he wanted to go that extra few inches and match his lips to hers.
What?
Wait a minute. Josh had been attracted to the priestess from the moment he’d first seen her, but such a delicate creature was not for him. No. He needed a shifter mate. A female wolf he could howl with and really let loose his inner animal. Deena was far too genteel and fragile for a monster like him. Right?
Then why was he thinking so hard about kissing her into the next millennium? Why did his heart speed at the thought of learning her taste and touch? Why did his arms tremble, just the tiniest bit, at holding her so close?
This would never do.
“I don’t think so,” he said, moving toward the back door, which, thankfully, was just enough ajar that he could get his toe in the gap and open it. He carried her through the kitchen and into the living room, depositing her on the overstuffed couch as gently—and quickly—as he could.
Then he backed off, removing himself from temptation. He went to stand near the archway that led back toward the kitchen and escape.
“I’m sorry if I scared you.” She sat up, pushing her hair back from her forehead and taking a deep breath as if to refortify herself.
Now wait just a damn minute. He hadn’t been scared. How dare she think that about him?
He had to set her straight before he escaped her presence. He couldn’t leave her thinking he’d been a scaredy cat.
“I wasn’t frightened. Amazed, maybe. Surprised. But not scared. How could anyone be afraid of Her?” He heard the wonder in his own voice. He hadn’t meant to reveal so much, but now that he’d let his innermost thoughts out into the light, he didn’t regret it.
“Yeah. That’s what I always wonder, but more often than not, people get quite a shock when She chooses to reveal Herself. Glad it was a positive experience for you, though.” Deena sat more solidly on the couch. She was recovering before his eyes, her spirit more present with each breath, coming back from wherever it had been while the Goddess had used her body.