by Bianca D'Arc
She stroked the horse’s hide and reached up to whisper in his ear. Josh could just hear her murmuring to the horse, asking him for his help in carrying the two mages. The horse nodded his head, for all the world looking like he was saying yes, then trotted over to sniff at Reggie.
It didn’t take too long to get the enemy mages onto the horse’s back and transport them to the standing stones. Josh had regained most of his physical strength and was able to muscle them on and off the horse as needed while Deena steadied her equine friend. Both Reggie and the woman remained unconscious throughout, for which Josh was glad. He didn’t really feel up to having another magical showdown at the moment—and probably wouldn’t for at least a few days.
Deena directed him to place the mages on the low stone altar. There was just enough room for both of them to lie half-on the stone slab, their feet dangling off either end of the rectangular rock.
Josh stood at Deena’s side, ready to assist her in any way she requested while she began to chant. He recognized some of the lilting language, though he didn’t know what it all meant. She paused occasionally, to sprinkle water over the two on the altar or smudge their foreheads with dirt. He could feel her calling on the magic they now shared between them, but there was a third presence as well… A presence he’d felt before.
The Goddess was with them, and he knew, whatever was about to happen, it was going to be memorable. And potentially awesome in its intensity. Josh tried to mentally prepare himself as best he could, but there really was no way to prepare for encountering the divine.
CHAPTER NINE
Deena started her chant, realizing that since blending her energies with Josh’s, she had more power than ever to call on. She had to consciously dial it back a little to keep control. It was a heady feeling.
Her purpose here was to drain the evil magic from these two mages and send it back to the Earth, where it would be absorbed and do no harm. She would leave these two with no power to speak of and, if she did this right, no memory of their evil ways. But first, she had to seek the Goddess’s permission and agreement with the plan. Nothing could happen without Her approval, for She knew more about the true nature of all creatures than anyone. If She granted mercy, it would be wrong for Deena to do anything to them.
Seeking and receiving approval, Deena became the instrument of the Goddess’s justice. The evil in these two would be purged.
She wasn’t sure how long it took, but Deena didn’t tire. Not with Josh at her side, feeding her energy. The Goddess was near as well, watching over them, directing the outflow of magic from the evil mages and helping it dissipate harmlessly.
When the deed was done, the two attackers remained unconscious on the slab of stone as their magical energies were forever dispersed. Deena felt better than she’d expected, her own magical power stronger than it had been before meeting and joining with Josh. She turned to him, walking into his arms for a hug. She really needed one right now, and he didn’t disappoint.
He enveloped her in his arms, offering comfort without question. She was so blessed in that moment, to have found a man willing to fight at her side and hug her when the danger had passed. He let her be who she was, though he’d tried to keep her out of the fray at first. She didn’t hold that against him. He had simply been trying to be protective. It was sweet, but she hoped he realized after what they’d just been through that she could take care of herself.
“What now?” he asked quietly, still holding her close. His arms felt so safe, so secure. She was loath to step away from the comfort they offered and get back to reality, but she knew there was still work to do.
“They’ll be unconscious for a while, I think,” she told him, not really sure what to do next. “Their magic has been drained for all time, and their memories of us taken away. It would be best if they were taken somewhere else before they woke up, but I can’t think where we could put them that would be safe.”
“For them or for us?” His tone was speculative, and he was smiling when she looked up at him. She felt her lips twitch upward in an answer grin.
“Both, if we can manage it.”
Their gazes met and held for a long moment. So much had happened in so short a time. Life-altering stuff.
A rustling sound penetrated the peace of the moment, and Josh whirled, putting Deena slightly behind him. He was instantly on alert.
“Perhaps I can be of some assistance,” a new voice said from just outside the stone circle.
Deena recognized that voice, though she hadn’t heard it in quite a while. She peered out from behind Josh’s broad shoulders.
“Duncan?”
She saw the fey man smile faintly as he moved closer. Now that the ceremony was over, he was able to enter the ring easily.
“Forgive my late arrival. I thought I’d been leading these two merrily away from your door, but they doubled back, and I didn’t realize it quite in time. I’m glad you were able to deal with them on your own.” Duncan stood to one side of the altar, looking down on the unconscious former-mages with sympathy in his gaze. “I can transport them away, if you wish.”
“Away where?” Deena wanted to know.
“For now, to a safe house from which they cannot escape,” he said casually. “I have some questions to ask them when they wake. Then, after we’ve learned all we can, and deal with a few other matters, I’ll deliver each separately to places from which they can begin to rebuild their lives as non-magical beings.”
“You sound like you’ve done this before,” Josh mused.
“On occasion,” Duncan admitted. “I have battled the Venifucus in the past and am truly sorry to have to do so again, but there it is.” Duncan sighed, shaking his head. “You’ve both exceeded all expectations here. I was truly concerned for your safety going up against these two. Deena, the more I analyze it, the more I think the male was already here, checking out our home when I dropped Josh off. He followed me for a while, but he must’ve dropped back at some point to get the woman and come back here. I’m sorry I didn’t realize what was going on in time to help.”
“That’s okay,” Deena said, even as Josh bristled a bit. She liked her protective wolf, but she also knew how hard it could be sometimes to track mages that didn’t want to be tracked. The fact that she hadn’t known Reginald was stalking her even before Josh arrived was troublesome. “I’m glad Josh was here,” she said. “From what Reggie said, it delayed the attack until he could get Felicia in to help, which bought us some time, and they weren’t prepared for how strong Josh is.”
“They were after you, first and foremost,” Duncan agreed, nodding. “Josh was just going to be a bonus. You were lucky they didn’t realize exactly who he was or how powerful he is. This could’ve gone the other way if they’d brought in even more reinforcements.” Duncan sighed wearily. “As it was, they were quite a powerful team. It’s good that they won’t ever be able to reconstitute their strength. The dissociation ritual was well performed.” He bowed respectfully toward Deena.
“So, how do we want to do this?” Josh asked. Deena knew they had a number of things to accomplish before they could rest.
“We need to rebuild at least a basic ward as soon as possible,” Deena put in. She was tired, but she knew it would be best to get the wards back up and protecting her land and her animal friends as soon as possible.
“I can help with that, but I should remove these two first,” Duncan said. “I don’t often use this sort of magic because it’s very visible, but after everything that just happened here, I doubt it will be noticed. And if it is, perhaps it’ll confuse the trackers a bit.”
With those somewhat confusing words, Duncan reached out to touch one hand of each of the unconscious pair. Deena could feel an intense magical spike a moment before Duncan and the two former mages just disappeared.
“Well, hell,” Josh observed. “If the dude can just pop around wherever he wants, why did he make me sit for hours in a car to get here?”
But of co
urse they both already knew the answer. Duncan’s words made more sense in light of the enormous magical outlay his instantaneous travel must require. It left quite an aftershock, as well, which was something they could both feel reverberating around the stone circle long after he and the two former mages poofed out of sight.
“It’s a fey thing, though I’m not sure if all of them can manage it. I certainly can’t do it, even though I’m part fey, but I know my grandmother can. I’ve seen her do it,” Deena told him.
“So, my father could possibly…?” Josh’s question trailed off.
“Not if he’s in the fey realm,” Deena was quick to reply. “Traveling like that only works within each plane of existence, from what I’ve gathered. If he’s in the fey realm, it would take a whole lot more to bring him here to the mortal realm. It doesn’t happen all that often. Travel between the different planes of existence is dangerous, tricky, and really better left to the Mother of All. It takes Her kind of power to do it safely, and as you can imagine, She doesn’t do it lightly.”
“But what about all those folktales about mortals falling down rabbit holes into faerie?” Josh asked, his eyes dancing with humor in a way that made her heart warm. He was such a special man. A warrior one minute and a gentle lover the next. No wonder she was in love with him.
That thought didn’t shock her. She’d known it for a while, but she hadn’t quite admitted it to herself. Still, if she was going to choose a man to fall for, Josh was the ideal…even if he did still have a few magical problems to work out. She hoped she could convince him that they needed to work on his magic training for a good long while.
“Some of those stories might have a bit of truth to them, but I’d say the majority are just myths. It is said that the Destroyer was trying hard to make gateways to other realms to bring demons across to fight on her behalf, or lay traps for those of other realms who were aligned against her in this one. There’s evidence some of her followers have tried to follow in her footsteps. I could see the Venifucus laying traps like that, using the fey realm—or perhaps even more dangerous places that they might be able to access. But that’s all conjecture on my part. I don’t know for sure. I’m kind of isolated here on the farm.” She grinned at him and walked out of the ring, stopping to pet Buccaneer, her steadfast horse friend who had carried the two former mages to the stone circle for her.
Deena began walking with the horse at her side, back toward the barn. Several of the other animals had come along, keeping watch from outside the stone circle, and they paraded back to the homestead alongside them, a loose group moving slowly, but with determination.
She walked with them all, directly into the barn, and started putting out extra food and treats for them. They’d been so good to stand between her and danger, she could do no less than thank them for it. She also wanted to check them all over to make certain no one had been injured in the battle.
“I’m going to be a while here,” Deena told Josh as they stood in the wide doorway to the barn. “Why don’t you get cleaned up and I can help with your injuries.”
He walked right up to her and took her into his arms. Finally. That’s what she’d needed. A gentle hug from the man she loved after the hell they’d both been through that day.
He leaned down to kiss her, and she met him halfway, rising on her toes. It was a kiss of welcome and of thanks. A kiss of relief and of respect. Their relationship had taken off in new, unexpected directions. So much had happened, so quickly, it had lifted them beyond the normal progression of dating, kissing, fooling around and so on.
They’d jumped right from their first night together to mortal combat, and that was bound to change perspectives and accelerate the entire process. She didn’t mind, but she wasn’t sure exactly what he was thinking. Would he back off now? Or would he meet her halfway?
The kiss said, more eloquently than words, that he probably wouldn’t be backing away anytime soon. She grasped his shoulders, her senses alight with the promise of him. Of Josh. And what they could be together.
“Ahem.” A throat cleared rather deliberately nearby.
They broke apart quickly, Josh taking a ready stance that impressed Deena, while her head was still spinning from the abrupt change. If they were going to have to fight again, it would take her a few minutes to get her act together.
Thankfully, there was no danger. It was just Duncan. He’d returned while they’d been otherwise occupied. She hadn’t even noticed the inevitable energy surge when he’d popped back to her farm. Of course, a certain werewolf hottie had been distracting her. Still, she should have noticed something like that.
“Darn it,” she whispered, stepping forward to meet Duncan. “We’ve got to get those wards back up. Even you wouldn’t have been able to take me by surprise—no matter how distracted I was—if my wards had been in place.”
“My fault, Deena,” Josh said quickly, stepping up beside her. “I’m sorry.”
Was he sorry he’d kissed her? She looked over at him, and his expression said quite the contrary, which mollified her almost-hurt feelings. She saw the blood on his sleeve and touched his shoulder.
“We should patch you up before we do anything else. You’re still bleeding,” she observed, trying to keep the worry out of her tone.
Josh glanced down at his sleeve. “It’s nothing a shift won’t cure,” he replied off-handedly.
“Good idea,” Duncan said, entering the conversation for the first time since his return. “You can scout the perimeter a lot faster in your wolf form than we can on foot. And it will heal your wounds. Two birds, one stone.” Duncan looked pleased with the idea. “Meanwhile, I can assist Deena in preparing to raise the wards. Once you come back and give us the all clear, the three of us can work together to install something even stronger than what was here before.”
“I thought you were going to question Reggie and Felicia?” Josh asked Duncan rather pointedly.
“I am, but I can’t leave you both here with no protections on the farm. Wards first, then questions, then I’ll probably return again to discuss a few matters that are still outstanding.” His eyes held secrets as he gazed at Josh, but Deena didn’t think any topic Duncan had yet to raise would be harmful to either herself or Josh. Duncan was one of the good guys. “Besides,” Duncan went on. “Your two attackers will be unconscious for some time to come. They’re in a safe place for now, under guard, in case you were wondering.”
Josh looked like he might challenge the fey warrior further, but desisted. He walked toward the horse trough and the old-fashioned water pump there, stripping off his shirt as he went.
Deena had seen him naked the night before, of course, but the sight of Josh’s lean muscles was still something to behold. He seemed so unaware of his allure, and that was even sexier. He took off his jeans quickly and paused only a moment to bend and run some fresh cold water over his head.
As he straightened and shook out, he was already shifting shape to that of his wolf. He held Deena’s gaze as he transformed, and her breath caught at the message in his glowing eyes. He’d known she was watching him, and he’d liked it.
Well, so had she. Josh was, quite possibly, the sexiest man alive.
CHAPTER TEN
This time, Duncan’s throat clearing was more pronounced as she stared after Josh. He was fully wolf and trotting away, his tail up as if he owned the universe. Strutting, she thought. Showing off for his girl—for her. A warm, fuzzy feeling filled her heart, but Duncan was waiting. She turned to the fey mage.
“Now that you’ve effectively gotten rid of him, what did you want to say to me?” she challenged.
“Am I that transparent?” Duncan’s eyes twinkled with amusement, but she wasn’t fooled. He’d deliberately gotten her alone so they could talk. He wasn’t fooling anybody. Including Josh.
“I will help you with your animal friends as we talk, if that’s all right with you. I have a fondness for the critters of this realm,” he told her.
“Really?” Somehow, she hadn’t pegged Duncan le Fey for an animal lover, but she was happy to be wrong.
He helped her finish scooping out extra feed and treats. Much to her surprise, Duncan was an immediate hit with the citizens of her barn. They liked him and came to him eagerly for nose rubs and pats on the back.
She noticed him watching her out of the corner of his eye, but she didn’t call him on it until she was done with her animal friends. When they finished up—a task that took less than five minutes all told, since she’d done most of the work before Duncan had shown up—she faced him squarely.
“What? Do I have soot on my nose?” As she said it, she remembered the nasty smoke Felicia had been throwing and hoped to heaven she didn’t have any residue of that gross stuff on her anywhere. Or on her farm.
“No, I was just watching you move to see if any of those singe marks on your clothing signify deeper injuries.”
Oh. That was nice of him. She started walking with him, a little thrown by his concern. She hadn’t seen him often in recent years, so she wasn’t used to his concern. Anyone’s concern, really. Aside from her animals. Living alone on the farm had affected her more than she realized.
“No. I’m okay. Nothing a shower and some calendula ointment won’t cure,” she said as they walked toward the house.
“Well, then.” They arrived at the door, and he motioned politely for her precede him into the house. “I saw the way you and Joshua were looking at each other, and the level of power required to defeat those two high-level Venifucus mages had to be greater than anything I’ve observed in either one of you alone.”
They were standing in her kitchen, having come in the back door. She wasn’t sure she liked being questioned this way in her own home.