The Dark
Page 43
“Just you, me, sunshine, sand, a few thrills, and an extraordinarily nice hotel room.” He glanced down at Kael, who happened to be nearby. “Sorry bud.”
“Humph,” Kael said in Cassia’s mind, but she could tell he was teasing. “Enjoy your human, Cassiandra.”
“I am,” she said out loud, and smiled at Jake as she added, “very much in love with you, Jake Macgregor.”
“Always, Princess.” Jake caught Cassia’s mouth in a sweet, wonderful kiss.
She closed her eyes, reveling in the kiss. The soft touch of his tongue, the firmness of his lips. So much happiness whirled through and poured out of Cassia’s heart and soul that she was nearly overwhelmed with it.
The sensations were so incredible she thought she saw gold sparks through her closed eyelids.
That, of course, was impossible.
For a second, it felt like something brushed Cassia’s mind, and tingles filled her from head to toe.
Jake groaned. Her whole body throbbed with such need for him that she held onto him tighter and pressed her belly against him. A moan rose up in her throat. She needed him inside her now—
A series of sharp cracks echoed throughout the rotunda as one flower vase after another shattered.
Jake and Cassia paused in their kiss and she met his gaze, her eyes wide and his surprised.
The skin around her navel burned and tingled.
Her star birthmark had been returned to her. She knew it without even having to look. Excitement sent a thrill tingling throughout her body. Was that her mother’s second gift?
And the exploding vases.
A soft voice within told her to close her eyes. As soon as Cassia did, a vision of the Great Guardian flowed into her mind like sunshine glistening on a crystal-clear pond.
“My darling Cassiandra, I have been able to ‘pull some strings,’ as your human—as Jake—would say.” Her mother’s smile was radiant, and it sent warmth through Cassia as the Guardian used Jake’s name for the first time.
“You are a full D’Anu witch now, my wonderful daughter. I cannot return to you your Guardian powers, but you have the magic of the D’Anu, the magic you have known and used your entire life. You are whole once again.”
Joy rose inside Cassia as the vision of her mother faded. The happiness bubbled up as her soul swelled with D’Anu magic. And it swelled even more with love for Jake, and for every other person she had been gifted to know in her long life.
Cassia opened her eyes and tilted her head back. “Thank you, Mother,” she whispered to the domed ceiling before she kissed Jake again.
53
Warmth brushed Kevin’s skin as he stirred from the nightmare.
Talk about fucking intense.
He scrubbed his hand over his face and opened his eyes. He had to blink several times because sunshine hit him like a spotlight.
The light started to fade and he found himself staring up at a gap in soft gray clouds where the sun had shone so brightly. Within a breath, the gap closed and all of the sky was gray.
Cool breezes brushed his skin and goose bumps rose on his arms. Sounds, like the push and pull of the sea, rushed in his ears. The things poking his back must be rocks and pebbles.
He frowned. What was he doing outside? Where was he? How long had he been here?
As he pushed himself to a sitting position, he felt hard, water-smoothed stones beneath his palms. Several feet from him, waves rolled in against a rocky shore where bowling-ball-and football-sized rocks lay scattered with strips of sand anchoring them in place.
When a wave hit one of the enormous boulders near the shoreline, the water shot up and glittered like hundreds of crystals in the sky.
Or like sparks of magic.
Images started rushing through his mind. They came so fast, so hard, so painfully that he gripped his head in both hands and fought back a shout.
He clenched his eyes shut, praying the barrage would stop. One thing after another hit him—
Like memories.
Blood sacrifices, demons, a flame-haired goddess, a one-eyed god—
A glowing red stone eye.
His entire body went still and, for a moment, all he could see was that eye.
Glowing redder and redder, brighter and brighter, until his head wanted to explode.
His chest heated over his heart.
Everything clinked together, like rune stones spilling onto a wooden tabletop.
Darkwolf.
His name wasn’t Kevin anymore. He was Darkwolf.
The memories swept over him, and he opened his eyes and held his hand to his heart. Yes, his flesh felt warm. Balor’s eye still resided in his chest.
The last thing he remembered was the Elvin witch, Cassia, capturing him with her magic—
Then nothing.
For a moment he rested his arms on his bent knees, stared out at his surroundings, and tried to control his heart rate and his breathing. It was cool here near the rocky shore where the sea surged and drew away. Surged and drew away.
Familiar—he’d been here before. But it wasn’t San Francisco.
He rubbed his palms on his jeans then realized where he was.
She’d sent him to hell.
The bitch.
A humorless laugh rolled out of Darkwolf. The Elvin witch had sent him to the same shore in Ireland where he’d found Balor’s eye.
Or at least a damned good imitation of the place. The coast along Dingle Peninsula near Cathair Con Ri. The breeze even carried the same scents he remembered—the clean, light, salty ocean air mixed with sea-battered stone.
No telling what date in time she’d sent him to, or if he was anywhere that actually existed on Earth.
Hell, he could be in a white padded cell after his sanity had gone bye-bye.
Then every other thought left his mind and pain squeezed his chest as his memories turned to Elizabeth.
His eyes burned and the pain in his chest became so bad that he began to wonder if life was even worth living with Elizabeth gone.
He didn’t care who or what she had been to anyone else. What mattered was who she was to him. With him.
Darkwolf stared out at the gray sea and the lines of low-hanging gray clouds. The hurt he felt so deep inside from her loss would never leave him.
Nor would the memories of all the things he had done since finding Balor’s eye.
He held one of his palms over his stone heart again, remembering the time Elizabeth had shown him how vulnerable he could be. But even then, he’d had no idea how much more vulnerable it was possible to become.
Until he’d lost her.
A voice came as soft and as distant as the low-hanging mist off the shores of Ireland. “Darkwolf,” the voice whispered.
He froze, frantic tingles running up and down his spine. “Elizabeth?”
Epilogue
Six years later
* * *
Warmth sizzled through Cassia as she looked at Jake over the dark-haired five-year-old Ryan, and she grinned. Their son bounced up and down in his seat. Popcorn would have been flying out of the bag in his lap if Cassia wasn’t using her magic to keep every kernel where it belonged.
“Yay, Giants!” Ryan yelled at the top of his lungs as the San Francisco Giants scored another run.
As he leaned closer to Ryan’s ear, Jake pointed to the next player up to bat. “One more home run and Mike Jones will break the record for the most home runs in San Francisco Giants history.”
“Yay, Mike!” Ryan shouted, and bounced up and down even more. This time Cassia barely saved her son’s soda with her magic.
Ryan’s name meant “little king” in Gaelic, and Cassia was beginning to think he was living up to that label.
Like his father, even at five, Ryan was a diehard Giants fan. He’d also inherited his dad’s gorgeous blue eyes and dark hair.
Recently it had become apparent the five-year-old had inherited at least some of his mother’s talents.
They n
ow had to keep an extra eye on their son because he’d been showing some odd tendencies. Such as the cat often jumping about ten feet in the air when Ryan was playing with her—as if the cat had been zapped with a small bolt of magic. And sometimes he’d twirl his finger in the air when he would make himself a glass of chocolate milk, and the spoon would mix the drink without him touching it.
Kael could speak to Ryan in his thoughts, just as he did with Cassia. Something only one with strong magic could do, Kael maintained.
Ryan would also “disappear” for a while, making Jake frantic with worry if Cassia wasn’t in the house. When she was home, Cassia could easily see through her son’s glamour.
And Jake swore he could “smell” what he thought of as the scent of magic around Ryan. The same as other magical beings Jake had been around.
Their son might or might not grow up to be a practicing D’Anu witch, but whatever the case, Cassia intended to make sure he didn’t get his little self into trouble.
Smells of buttery popcorn, hotdogs, and the sweet scent of cotton candy circulated throughout the huge stadium. Fans cheering and the shouts of vendors hawking food and drinks kept up a steady rumble.
It had been six years, and Cassia no longer got a chill when she looked at the pitcher’s mound and remembered when the dark goddess took the lives of thousands in the stadium.
As always throughout the centuries, Cassia’s memory remained perfect, but sometimes she wished she didn’t have full recall of Darkwolf and his Stormcutters when they’d invaded the park.
She glanced at Jake, who was so incredibly virile and handsome he made her heart thrum every time she looked at him. He’d stopped crying out in his sleep, his nightmares of losing his Special Ops team to dark sorcery having left him when the battle with Darkwolf had ended.
Jake had talked with her about what happened in Afghanistan, and she knew it was still painful to him. But some of the blame he had placed on himself had faded and he accepted the fact that there was nothing he could have done to stop it all from happening.
The crowd bellowed so loud all of a sudden that Cassia winced.
“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” Ryan tugged her arm and she focused solely on her son. “Did you see it? Mike Jones broke the home run record.” His blue eyes sparkled with excitement as he looked up at her. “Daddy says I just witnessed a piece of hiss-story.” He frowned. “What’s hiss-story?”
Jake laughed, but Cassia managed to maintain a serious expression. “Ask your dad.”
When Ryan turned to him, Jake swallowed his laughter and winked at Cassia before explaining the definition of history to their son.
Cassia, Jake, and the entire Alliance had been a huge part of San Francisco’s history. Thankfully those horrible, horrible events were fading from people’s minds.
It was like what had happened was a distant dream, a nightmare that was too bizarre to believe had really happened.
As she’d always known they would, San Francisco’s residents had picked up the pieces of their own lives as well as helping others. It had taken a few years of rebuilding, but the city was now as beautiful as it had been before.
Although several reminders of the war still existed. Like all of the trees in Crissy Field that had uprooted themselves and moved from the east end of the field to the west, where they had replanted themselves. No one had been able to figure that one out.
Cassia and the rest of the D’Anu witches hadn’t been inclined to enlighten anyone by explaining that Dryads had crossed over from Otherworld and used the trees to battle the Stormcutters. Not that anyone would begin to believe them, anyway.
Ryan held onto his baseball mitt as he stood. He clapped with the mitt on his hand while Mike Jones received a standing ovation for his record-breaking home run.
After the game, Cassia and her small family were meeting Silver, Hawk, Copper, and Tiernan at the new ice cream parlor on the Embarcadero. The parlor was not too far from the warehouse that was once the Alliance HQ.
In what seemed like a lifetime ago. Thank the goddess.
Silver and Hawk were bringing Hawk’s eleven-year-old daughter Shayla and their almost six-year-old son Duncan. Copper and Tiernan had twin sons, Keegan and Lachlan.
Hannah and Garran, and Sydney and Conlan, didn’t have kids—yet. Hannah had never believed she would have children, but she’d been reconsidering it since her marriage to Garran. Over the years she’d grown a little softer, her hard edges rounding a bit.
Rhiannon was pregnant with her first child, and Cassia had never seen Rhiannon’s big, gruff, warrior husband so proud. He was even more protective of his wife than Cassia had thought possible.
Ryan let out a loud whooping noise, and this time his soda splattered on the concrete and on Cassia’s jeans because her thoughts had strayed. When she was certain no one to either side of them was looking, she used her magic to clean the mess on the concrete and her jeans.
The D’Anu Covens had, thankfully, healed over the past six years, too. Janis Arrowsmith’s white magic Coven and the rest of the original D’Anu Covens across the nation, and even the world, were functioning like they always had.
Now when they sought new apprentices, the D’Anu focused on training and bonding to prevent another “Kevin” or “Darkwolf” situation. They couldn’t allow the schism between white and gray magic, and the blindness that allowed Kevin to become Darkwolf in the first place.
Darkwolf. Sometimes Cassia wondered how he fared, and she felt a little sorry for him, too. She sincerely hoped he had found a better life despite the fact she’d sent him to Ireland, almost four thousand years in the past.
It was a time before the rise and fall of all the old gods and goddesses, including Balor and Ceithlenn.
Darkwolf—or Kevin—would have been forced to design a whole new life during a period in time when he wouldn’t have the technology or the power to do what he’d done here in this place and time.
Being a duo-god, Darkwolf would likely live forever. It would no doubt be a real bitch to fight any number of the old gods and goddesses once they came into power.
“We won!” Ryan shouted over the cheers in the stadium as he grabbed Cassia’s arm and she jumped back to the moment.
She looked at him and smiled, then noticed his popcorn was all over the place. “The Giants kicked butt, Mommy.”
Cassia widened her eyes and looked at Jake, who winced and mouthed, “Sorry.”
She held back a laugh, and stood with her husband and son and the thousands of fans who now began flowing out of the stadium.
As she was jostled while she walked at Jake’s side and Ryan rode on his father’s shoulders, Cassia gave one last thought to Janis and the part she’d played when they first tried to defeat the dark goddess.
All of the world’s white magic Covens had given grudging acknowledgment of the gray magic Covens as a separate but equal, and equally desirable, group and path. It was an option for half-Elvin witches across this Otherworld, as well as D’Anu witches who wanted to follow the gray magic path.
The gray magic Covens practiced between all of the Otherworlds, as life and need called them to do. Gray witches were happy to train others like them, those called to the gray.
If any threat as horrible as what they’d been through with Balor, Ceithlenn, the demons, and Darkwolf ever arose again, there would be strength to meet it.
In the meantime, gray magic witches did what they could to aid the Paranormal Special Forces in any number of paranormal situations that arose.
Thankfully, those had been relatively small situations that required little from the witches.
As for herself, Cassia figured she had all she needed, and all she would ever need, to be happy and fulfilled and whole. She thought about her Coven, the original gray witches of this world, and all the new apprentices in training.
Victory. Duty. Purpose. Hope.
She had all of that, yes, and two worlds to call home, and a good relationship with her ever-enigmatic m
other.
Most importantly, though, she had herself, her true self, and she had her true love.
Cassia reached up and squeezed her son’s hand as he rode on Jake’s shoulders, and gave her husband and son each a smile.
A witch couldn’t get any luckier than this.
Also by Cheyenne McCray
(in reading order)
* * *
~Paranormal Romance~
“Dark Sorcery” Series
The Forbidden
The Seduced
The Wicked
One Breath (novella)
The Shadows
The Dark
* * *
~Contemporary Cowboys~
“Riding Tall” Series
The McBrides
Branded For You
Roping Your Heart
Fencing You In
Tying You Down
Playing With You
Crazy For You
Hot For You
Made For You
Held By You
Belong To You
* * *
Amazed by You
Loved by You
Midnight With You
Wild for You
* * *
“Rough and Ready” Series
The Camerons
Silk and Spurs
Lace and Lassos
Champagne and Chaps
Satin and Saddles
Roses and Rodeo (with Creed McBride)
Lingerie and Lariats
Lipstick and Leather
* * *
“Armed and Dangerous” Series
Zack
Luke
Clay
Kade
Alex (novella)
About Cheyenne
Cheyenne McCray is an award winning, New York Times and USA Today Best Selling author who is a rare native Arizonan.