Praise for CHEYENNE McCRAY and
Forbidden Magic
“Wildly erotic and dangerously sensual, this explosive paranormal thriller sizzles. McCray erupts on the scene with one of the sexiest stories of the year. Her darkly dramatic world is one readers won’t mind visiting again . . . McCray knows how to make a reader sweat—either from spine-tingling suspense or soul-singeing sex . . . McCray cleverly combines present-day reality with mythological fantasy to create a world where beings of lore exist—and visit the earthly realm.”
—Romantic Times BOOKclub Magazine
“McCray’s paranormal masterpiece is not for the faint-hearted. The battle between good and evil is brought to the reader in vivid and riveting detail to the point where the reader is drawn into the pages of this bewitching and seductive fantasy that delivers plenty of action-packed sequences and arousing love scenes.”
—Rendezvous
“Forbidden Magic is a spellbinding, sexy, superbly written dark fantasy. I couldn’t put it down, and you won’t want to either . . . [a] fabulous plot . . . [Cheyenne McCray has an] incredible skill at keeping readers engaged in every moment of the action. Long-time fans and newbies alike will be enchanted and swept away by this enduring tale of courage, love, passion, and magic.”
—A Romance Review
“If one were going to make a comparison to Cheyenne McCray with another writer of the supernatural/sensuality genre, it would have to be Laurell K. Hamilton . . . Forbidden Magic definitely puts McCray in the same league as Hamilton. The book is a very sexy work . . . Forbidden Magic is dark and filled with danger at almost every turn. Magic and mystery abound in San Francisco, with a major battle between the forces of good and evil, and the outcome is always in doubt when it comes to demons.”
—Shelf Life
More. . .
“This terrific romantic fantasy with police procedural elements grasps the audience from the moment that Silver meets Tuatha and Darkwolf and never slows down until the final twist of their triangle . . . fans will take great and immense pleasure with this strong thriller that both genres will treasure.”
—Harriet’s Book Reviews
“Cheyenne McCray’s Forbidden Magic is an intoxicating blend of luscious eroticism and spine-tingling action that will have you squirming on the edge of your seat.”
—Angela Knight,
USA Today bestselling author
“Cheyenne McCray has written a sexy adventure spiced with adventurous sex.”
—Charlaine Harris,
New York Times bestselling author
“McCray does a remarkable job of blending the familiar and the fantastical, creating a rich paranormal world with sexy and engaging characters.”
—Kelley Armstrong,
New York Times bestselling author
“Erotic with a great big capital E. Cheyenne McCray is my new favorite author!”
—Bertrice Small,
New York Times bestselling author
“Forbidden Magic is a fabulous faery tale. The writing is sharp; the story hot!”
—Virginia Henley,
New York Times bestselling author
More. . .
“Cheyenne McCray has crafted a novel that takes the imagination on an exciting flight. Full of fantasy, with a touch of darkness, a great read for anyone who loves to get lost in a book that stretches the boundaries!”
—Heather Graham,
New York Times bestselling author
“Not for the faint of heart! Forbidden Magic is Charmed meets Kim Harrison’s witch series but with a heavy dose of erotica on top!”
—Lynsay Sands,
New York Times bestselling author
“McCray’s magical tale will thrill and entrance you!”
—Sabrina Jeffries,
New York Times bestselling author
“Explosive, erotic, and un-put-downable. Cheyenne McCray more than delivers!”
—L.A. Banks,
bestselling author of The Vampire Huntress Legends series
“Magical mayhem, sexy shape shifters, wondrous witches, and warlocks . . . in Forbidden Magic, Cheyenne McCray has created a fabulous new world. You won’t be able to get enough!”
—Lori Handeland,
USA Today bestselling author
“Fans of dark paranormal fantasy will enjoy the fast-paced, spine-tingling twists and turns of Cheyenne McCray’s Forbidden Magic.”
—Toni Blake,
author of In Your Wildest Dreams
“Cheyenne McCray’s Forbidden Magic is a rich mix of witches, demons, and fae in an epic tapestry full of conflict and desire.”
—Robin Owens,
author of Heart Choice
“Chock-full of emotion and action, Cheyenne McCray’s Forbidden Magic will find a spot on the keeper shelf of every reader who enjoys a touch of the paranormal along with her erotic romance. I highly recommend it!”
—Ann Jacobs,
author of A Mutual Favor
“Cheyenne McCray has written a tempting, exciting novel rich in magic and pleasure.”
—Lora Leigh,
author of Megan’s Mark
“McCray’s knowledge of Fae, Fomorii, elves, and ancient Irish magics shines in this book of witches, warriors, and dangerous desires.”
—Linnea Sinclair,
author of Gabriel’s Ghost
“Cheyenne McCray delivers a scorching tale of modern witches and ancient Fae, a winner rich with lore, fantasy, gritty action, and heart-gripping romance.”
—Annie Windsor,
award-winning author of Arda: The Sailmaster’s Woman
“This modern-day tale meets ancient-world paranormal isn’t just a book, it’s an event. The elements all come together in this paranormal romance. You start reading for the story and end up reading for the characters. You’re left at the edge of your seat, needing more until the very last satisfying word. You won’t be able to put it down once you start reading!”
—Sheila English,
CEO of Circle of Seven Productions
St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles
by Cheyenne McCray
Forbidden Magic
Seduced by Magic
Seduced by Magic
Cheyenne McCray
NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
SEDUCED BY MAGIC
Copyright © 2006 by Cheyenne McCray.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-93763-6
EAN: 9780312-93763-8
Printed in the United States of America
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / October 2006
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my husband, Frank Federici–
after twenty years, the magic is still there.
Acknowledgments
Thank you as always to the special people in my life. My mom and dad for their support, my children for giving me the space to write when under deadline, and my friends for being there when I need them. And thank goodness for coffee shops and bookstores to write in when I need to escape!
Thanks bunches to Peggy Phillips for help with reading tarot cards.
Special thanks once again to my editor, Monique Patte
rson, along with my wonderful critique partners—Annie Windsor, Mackenzie McKade, and Patrice Michelle. Couldn’t have done it without you all.
One
San Francisco
Fifteen months prior
Copper Ashcroft moved through the fog-shrouded San Francisco night and shivered. Everything looked and felt exactly as it had in her dream-vision.
Rocks and twigs crunched beneath her running shoes as she made her way down the darkened trail to the sacred stretch of beach below, with only her wand light to illuminate the path. Tonight was a new moon and it was foggy as hell. But she knew her way and didn’t pause.
Her arms strained as she gripped the carved wooden chest bearing the tools of her witchcraft at the same time she carried her wand. Her breathing came easy. She was fit from regular exercise, playing softball, and toned from working out at the health club. She’d been a track star and a mean softball pitcher in high school, as well as being the lead pitcher on the California Bears team at UC Berkeley during her undergrad years.
Copper stumbled over a root and almost tumbled down the path. She grimaced and steadied herself. “Bless it,” she murmured. She’d known the root was there. “Too bad being fit and athletic doesn’t make me any less clumsy.”
Zephyr buzzed at her ear, but she ignored her honeybee familiar. She sensed Zeph’s unhappiness that she was attempting this moon ritual alone, but in Copper’s dream-vision she’d performed the ceremony with no one else around. For some reason the goddess wanted her to do this by herself.
She stepped from the dirt path onto sand when she reached the small portion of beach known only to the Coven of D’Anu witches to which she belonged. Her Coven was one of thirteen scattered across the United States. Many more Covens existed around the world, working to keep the cities they inhabited safe from dark magic. Descendents of the Ancient Druids, the D’Anu were powerful witches who used only white witchcraft.
Well, besides Copper and her sister, Silver. The sisters believed in utilizing gray magic to protect their world from the evils that preyed upon the innocent. If their father found out . . . they’d be in a world of trouble. Victor Ashcroft was high priest of the D’Anu Coven in Salem, Massachusetts, and he was a rather formidable man. Their mother, Moondust, was more an ethereal being, the calm in the storm. But she would agree with their father.
White witchcraft just wasn’t strong enough as far as Copper was concerned. She was somewhat of a rebel when it came to choosing between white and gray, and she had no fear of the gray or ever slipping to the black.
With white magic, their skills were limited. Several of the D’Anu could affect the weather but they didn’t dare tip the natural balance. Most could heal and work with animals, “talk through trees,” and make plants grow like crazy—even fast enough to help them bind an enemy. Useful, but . . . not strong enough.
Sand shifted beneath Copper’s jogging shoes as she heaved the chest higher in her arms and carried it across the small beach. Her jeans felt snug and comfortable and her cropped T-shirt allowed the coolness of the night to brush her flat belly. In the distance she could see a portion of the Golden Gate Bridge, its lights looping up and down in the darkness. A foghorn added to the eerie quality of the night, and despite the familiar sound, goose bumps prickled her skin and tiny hairs rose up on the back of her neck.
Copper remembered the old Grimoire she and Silver had used to learn gray magic. Mrs. Illes had given it to them before she passed on to Summerland, and Silver still had it. The ancient book looked harmless enough, but the spells inside—well . . . As Copper had found out when she tried to summon the tide and ended up almost flooding the city, gray magic had the potential to blow the natural order all to hell. Gray witchcraft could help a lot, but it could also cause indirect harm, like hurting a living creature or subverting a being’s natural will.
If anyone of the D’Anu suspected that Copper and Silver practiced gray magic, the pair of them would be kicked out of the Coven. Even using the craft to track down criminals just wasn’t allowed.
Besides, gray witchcraft carried heavy-duty risk to most witches, too. Many believed there was such a fine line between gray and black that gray witches could feel the incredible power that darkness offered. If a gray witch became too emotionally entangled—her own anger, want, need—her spells could lean close to the black. She could use her magic for personal gain and power instead of the general good.
Touching gray, Copper could sense the immeasurable and powerful flow and pull of dark magic. Yet Copper didn’t fear it. She embraced gray magic. She had no doubt she wouldn’t tip to the dark side no matter how deep her gray magic ran. Silver wasn’t so sure and wasn’t as strong a gray witch as Copper was.
A knot twisted Copper’s belly as she allowed a brief flash of why she believed so strongly in gray magic. A childhood friend, Trista, had been murdered when Copper was sixteen. If Copper had been a strong gray witch at that time, she knew with every fiber of her being that she could have saved Trista.
Copper shoved the thought and the threat of tears away. When she reached her favorite part of the shore, she bent and dropped the chest. It made a dull thud that was almost lost in the sound of waves crashing against the shore. The wind off the water carried smells of fish and salt.
As she settled on her knees before the chest, she caught another scent that made her pause. Her skin prickled again. “Wolfsbane?” she murmured.
She shook her head, her shoulder-length copper-colored hair swinging with the movement. Your imagination is on overdrive, girl.
Holding her wand tight in one hand, Copper fumbled with the catch on the trunk using her other, but finally managed to flip the rusted latch open. “I really need to get that oiled,” she muttered. It was one of those things that tended to be low on the priority list.
Hinges creaked as she opened the trunk lid and peered at the contents. Zephyr landed on the curve of her ear just as her wand slipped from her fingers and tumbled inside. She lost her focus and her wand light went out.
“For the Ancestors’ sake.” Her copper pentagram earrings swung against her neck as she rummaged around inside the chest until her fingers found her wand. She was never clumsy with her magic, but she tended to drop some things and knock over others.
The wand was made of copper and tipped with a round quartz crystal at one end and a pointed quartz crystal at the other. She gripped it tightly in her hand and frowned when the crystal did not immediately brighten again. She focused her magical energy on the wand. This time golden light glittered from the crystal and caused the pentagram on her thick copper bracelet to look as though it glowed against her wrist. She didn’t know what she’d do without her wand—her magic was powerful, but only with her wand. Her hand magic wasn’t so hot.
Copper mounted the wand in a corner slot of the trunk where it continued to spill its golden light across the sand, making the grains sparkle like Faerie dust.
She quickly stripped out of her clothing, tossing her T-shirt, bra, shoes, socks, jeans, and thong in a heap on the sand. Even though her witchcraft helped keep most of the coldness at bay, the chilly San Francisco wind whipped at her body, causing her nipples to tighten. She hurried to slip on a shimmering earth-colored robe she dug out of the chest and wrap it around her body.
Copper gathered her supplies, only dropping one candle and her incense burner as she strode a few feet away to where she would cast her circle. After she retrieved everything she needed, she placed each candle at the cardinal points—yellow for Air at the east, red for Fire at the south, blue for Water at the west, and green for Earth at the north.
She arranged her altar, careful not to spill her chalice as she filled it with purified water. As she reached for the cotton bag full of salt granules, her arm brushed the chalice, tipping it. Her heart raced as she dropped the bag to catch the cup before it could fall over and completely lose its contents. With a sigh of relief, she let go of her death grip on the cup and retrieved the cotton bag to pour s
alt to represent Earth into a small dish. Almost done. With her magic, she lit a black candle that represented both the new moon and Fire, and then she burned cinnamon incense for Air. Of course the filled chalice represented Water.
When Copper finished her preparations, she retrieved her glowing wand and returned to stand within the circle of candles. She took a deep breath. Everything she had just done was routine, yet it felt . . . different. It felt as her dream-vision had last night, and a sense of urgency filled her. Something wrong, terribly wrong, was going to happen in San Francisco—unless she found a way to stop it.
Copper prepared to cast her protective circle. “Goddess, I need your aid in learning as much as I can about the dangers I know the D’Anu will be facing.” I’ll inform Silver and the Coven about my dream-vision once I have more to tell.
She centered herself as she stared out at the ocean, breathing deeply and releasing all tension from her body. The wand was warm in her hand from the magic that filled it. The golden glow it cast looked like early morning sunlight sparkling upon the water’s less than calm surface. It was time to cast her circle and perform the moon ritual.
In the ritual she would ask the goddess for aid in whatever evils were coming their way, and to show her a vision of what they were about to face. Copper was not a seer, she could only dream-vision as her divination talent. But sometimes—well, rarely, but still—the goddess would show her visions when she performed a moon ritual.
Copper breathed deeply, allowing all the night smells to fill her. There was definitely a difference between night and day scents, as if the moon cast its own delicate perfume over the world, even when it was shrouded.
Zeph crawled along the top of her ear as she prepared to cast the circle. Already she felt his magic mingling with hers. But she also sensed distress coming from the familiar. “What’s wrong?” she asked, wishing he could speak aloud. But she could only feel his agitation, as if he were worried about something.
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