There was no shortage of money in her family, and taking care of Uncle Marshall, being his companion, would be considered a paid position. But Jolene ached for more. She didn’t want to drift and relax and be tranquil. She wanted to take care of herself, support herself, and make her mark on the world. She wanted action and excitement and wanted someone to sweep her off her feet and make her laugh and love beyond measure. She wanted one of those happily ever afters Becky wrote about, and just look at what she got. Yay. She had action and excitement to look forward to, that was for sure, and she would obviously be able to take care of herself, but she didn’t know if there was much laughter in her future, and love was questionable. Jolene suddenly felt terribly, overwhelmingly sad, and it simply gutted her. She vaguely became aware of the sudden shouts and hurried movements around her. She stopped and looked upward. The heavens had opened up, and the rain dropped from the sky in unseasonable torrents, soaking her to the skin and washing the evidence of yet another round of tears from her eyes. Someone scooped her up and ran the last few yards to her apartment building. She could hear him cursing quietly above her, curses in unfamiliar words and cadence, in a different language, but she knew what they meant, just another sign she was infused with magic. Jolene closed her eyes and dropped into the beckoning darkness, feeling Xander’s heart beat as a soothing accompaniment on the journey.
Chapter Twelve
Xander and Sulieman worked together to efficiently strip their witch of her soaked clothing and tuck her into her bed. Xander paused at the lack of undergarments beneath her shirt and bent his gaze on Sulie for a moment, but his brother shrugged.
“I have little skill with human clothing, Xander. You protest this little one is our mate, but you clearly know more about these things than I. We rarely stayed for any length of time with our other conquests. You must be a quick study.”
“I do not care for other males to visualize Jolene’s body, Sulie.” Xander heard the words and knew he slipped another inch into enchantment.
“One of us should stay with her until she awakens,” Sulieman said. “She might be frightened.”
Xander snorted. “You just hope you will be able to pleasure her, Brother. Not that I don’t understand your need.”
Sulie stared down at Jolene’s sleeping form. “I crave her, Xander. My blood heats and boils, and I want to run the pastures and meadows with her in my arms until I come to the forest of our ancestors. I want to take her there in the moonlight on the moss and lichens in both her human and Ipotane form, with you as my doppelganger. We would bring her such ecstasy, and she will meet our every need.”
Xander interrupted. “Sulie. We cannot. I cannot. I won’t mate with a human, not even a witch. Especially a witch. And we can’t have her unless we do, for she could spell our end. You know this. You must agree with me, Brother.”
“I won’t, Xander. You are fighting a losing battle, and it will be all the sweeter when you surrender because our little witch will surrender along with you and I will reap the spoils. You’ve had her already, and I envy you, but I will have her heart first. The three of us will come to be the real guardians of our realm, and our children will carry on the tradition. Look to the future, Xander!”
Xander clenched his fists. He knew his twin spoke the truth as he saw it, but he couldn’t accept it. He couldn’t accept he was destined to mate with a human, a race he’d come to heartily distrust and dislike for their greed and arrogance, the infection of their world. His feelings ran deep and strong. They didn’t even really know Jolene Phillips. How could Sulie simply trust she was their one, their mate, and believe she would even want to be with them in their realm, as a guardian? He ignored how his heart concurred with Sulie’s assertion.
Sulie read his thoughts as always. “Our mother said I was the more fanciful, the one who believed in the old legends and the magykal stories, Xander. You were the more practical, levelheaded one. But perhaps you should follow your heart a bit more on this.”
Arion’s voice intruded from the hall. “Come and sit with me, both of you. Let the witch rest. She is exhausted and understandably so. Her magyk is taking its toll, and she has had a very busy day, both emotionally and physically. The two of you arguing above her bed will not help her.”
Xander stepped back and headed out of Jolene’s bedroom, although he drifted his fingertips down her cheek first.
Sulie followed him and muttered, “Not to mention how three rounds of sex will have tired her.”
Xander managed not to smile in satisfaction at the envious note in his brother’s voice. He sternly reminded himself he had only complicated the situation.
They again sat at the kitchen table, and ate the large salads Arion put together while they took care of Jolene. The vast choice of vegetables, nuts, little candied fruits, and other delicacies delighted Xander’s palate, and he said as much.
“Your witch has no meat in her home, Xander. There are eggs and milk and cheese, but she clearly does not consume anything that once had a mother or the chance to grow up as a sentient being.”
“Like chickens have any intelligence,” Sulie muttered, but smiled as he said it. “Jolene clearly is a kind and loving person who means no one any harm.”
Xander choked. “If you could have seen the way she looked at me last night, you would not say that. She could have harmed me, and I am surprised she did not!”
He looked at the palm of his right hand and quickly set it on his lap. He had incited Jolene’s ire, vexed her, and she hadn’t realized what transpired, that she inflicted the injury. Sulie caught the movement and blinked, but said nothing. His twin felt the burn even if it hadn’t raised blisters on him.
“But she did not do so,” interjected Arion, very quietly. “Why do you resist, my friend?”
“Because he is afraid and dislikes humans,” Sulie offered.
Xander glared at his brother. “It’s true I dislike humans. But I am not afraid of that little female.”
“No, only that she will find her way into your heart, Brother, if she has not done so already.”
“Enough!” Arion’s aura glowed for only an instant, but it was enough to settle their squabbling. Arion was famed for his control and patience, and he was clearly being pressed.
“We must make some plans on many fronts. Jolene Phillips will tell me what she knows because she will want to help me, and want to help her friend. You will go to the team and find out what further information they have gathered on our Caprine cousins.”
He held up his hand in the face of their spirited protests. “You are no help to me here. You, Xander, confuse the witch with your ambivalence, and you, Sulieman, entice her and make her get ahead of herself. Go. I will call you if there is a problem. Otherwise, we will meet back here this evening around ten.
“I need to talk with your witch once she is rested, and she is also in dire need of instruction to understand and manage her gift. She strikes me as very quick and highly intelligent, so I have hopes of this moving along quickly. I have no desire to remain in this realm any longer than necessary.”
Xander pushed his plate away and sullenly got to his feet. Arion made total sense, and the further he was away from Jolene the better he could focus on the mission. He, too, wanted to get back to his realm and planned to stay there. The Council could find another to run the missions here. He made his way to the door before wheeling around and striding back to the bedroom. Sulie was already there, kneeling by the bed, pressing a kiss on Jolene’s lips, although she did not awaken, truly sleeping the slumber of one at the very end of endurance.
Xander’s heart clenched in his chest, and he willed his self-control back into place. Sulie looked up, and the expression on his face was so pensive and besotted Xander actually wanted to kick the walls down because it echoed everything he, too, felt. He turned and walked out, not daring to kiss Jolene, not knowing what he was going to do at the end of this, and fearing his other half, his twin, not the w
oman on the bed, although she, too, was already a part of him, would be lost to him. They would both be lost to him. Because he was not mating with her.
* * * *
Jolene came up out of the abyss with a groan and a whimper. She actually woke herself with the sound, and it forced her eyes open. The room glowed with the rays of the late afternoon sun, so she had either slept around the clock and then some, or managed only a few hours after a particularly trying time. At least she hadn’t dreamed again, although there was evidently little point in dreaming when the objects of her dreams were real. She struggled to sit up and swung her legs around to perch on the side of her bed. She looked down at herself. Naked. She never slept naked. She always wore pajama pants and a T-shirt to bed or a shirt over panties. And here she was naked. Damn those guys, those horse men. They had taken her clothes off and put her to bed. She closed her eyes and tried to think back to what happened but couldn’t get past the rainstorm she knew she’d conjured up. She was a menace, that was what she was, and she was going to hurt somebody with her newfound talents. Although, at this very moment, she thought she just might know who she actually wanted to hurt.
She cautiously felt between her legs, but there was no sign of sexual activity, and she was pretty sure she would have remembered that if Xander was involved. Or Sulieman, probably. They were twins, after all. So they had stripped her, tucked her in, and left, for the apartment was silent. She was glad they’d gone, really she was. It didn’t matter she felt a sudden, breath-stealing shaft of loss because it was actually relief she felt. Jolene got up and staggered out to the bathroom, maintaining her denial.
“Ah, you are up.”
She shrieked. There was no other word for it. She shrieked and jumped a foot in the air and threw her hand out in an automatic gesture of self-defense toward Arion, who slammed backward right off of his feet and into the wall at the end of the hallway. He kind of slid down into a crumpled heap on the floor before she could get to him, and he peered up at her in bemusement.
“I told Xander and Sulieman you were quite capable of taking care of yourself, Jolene Phillips, and you have proven me correct.”
Jolene stared down at him, and he stared back, although his face was actually on a level with her belly, and she remembered she was starkers, as her English friend Monica used to say. She felt the blush start right at the base of her toes to flood up her body, and Arion shut his eyes. He was a totally sensitive gentleman, quite unlike either of those twins. They would have taken advantage, and she probably would have let them. Jolene knew an out when she saw one. She turned and raced back into the bathroom and slammed the door. She sat on the toilet and put her head in her hands. This was too much to bear. She knew Xander and Sulieman were gone. She felt their absence keenly. They left her as she insisted they should, and Arion stayed to help her and have her help him with the mission. Okay, one thing at a time. She washed up and shrugged into a bathrobe and found a pair of panties to slip on. There hardly seemed the need to be formal, and Arion hadn’t looked at her with one iota of sexual interest on his face, even if he’d had an interesting bulge in his jeans. A man with some decorum and manners at last, and if he didn’t have any real appeal for her, then it was no more than what usually happened. Her life had gone from bad to worse with a twist of magic. She took a deep breath, composed her thoughts, and went back to the kitchen to take a cram course in that subject.
* * * *
“And that is what appears to have happened, Jolene Phillips, how you came into your legacy as a witch. The fact you have dreamed of our realm since adolescence tells me that you have either been there in another life or are destined to live there.”
She and Arion had spoken for nearly three hours, punctuated only by cups of green tea with honey. Jolene had no urge to eat anything. Her gut was tied in knots, and she could barely drink the tea he prepared. He explained about the two realms he personally knew existed, although there could well be more. He and the twins were part of a police force of sorts monitoring the barrier between the two realms, and Jolene well appreciated their dedication to maintaining it. She knew what people had done to this world, even as she imagined seeing the place he spoke of with such longing and admiration. As for living there before, that sounded too over the top, and she knew she was hardly destined to even visit, let alone move there. Xander made his intentions perfectly clear, and it remained to be seen what Sulieman planned to do, although his request in the locker room seemed so sincere. It had sounded like a proposal.
Her imagination was fired by the thought of the creatures inhabiting his realm and the idea there was no bloodshed or the need for it, as well as how they respected and protected the environment. She laughed at Arion’s wry assertion that all the preaching against the dangers of her world tempted the Caprines and some Ipotanes to find their way here for the different, if questionable, opportunities. While Arion’s realm didn’t appear to have sexual taboos or even strict social mores, variety was probably the spice of life even as it was on this side. And Jolene had read enough Greek folklore to appreciate the manner in which goats figured in regard to sexuality. She also recalled the references to Satyrs and Fauns and Hinds.
There apparently was a hierarchy of sorts, with the leaders being Ipotanes, like Arion and Sulieman and Xander, but it was a loose form of government, at least from Arion’s perspective. Perhaps the Caprines hadn’t seen it that way, she mused, and suggested as much to Arion. He was surprised.
“I hadn’t thought of that. None of us have. The Caprines are a group, a herd unto themselves, and they have never sat on the Council, nor expressed any interest in it. We coexist, and there is little feuding now. We have moved past all of that because there is enough for all and all is shared. We don’t interbreed, unless it is with witches and a few gifted others who are also able to transform. Caprines have eschewed even gifted ones as far as I know, except for the legends of stealing power, and those are ancient tales. They have no magyk. We live harmoniously, and when a Caprine crosses over, it is purely for sexual purposes and short-lived.”
“Sort of like visiting a whore house,” Jolene said nastily.
Arion looked shocked. “Not at all! The Caprines are highly sexual and have great skill in that area, regardless of their interests and tastes. I assure you human females are not maltreated.”
“And you would know that how? What if a human woman falls in love with a Caprine and he crosses back over and she is left here to feel used and abandoned, and, and, well, bereft. And I heard you say that Ipotanes are also known to cross.”
“But it is a night of pleasure, or perhaps a few nights. I do not see how your scenario would apply, Jolene Phillips.”
Jolene sat back in her chair and glared at him. “Then you know nothing about women, Arion. At least not human women. You babble on about mates and destiny and strength and all that shit, and then you turn around and suggest there’s no harm done.”
Arion blinked. “But surely that is different. Mates are destined, and we are powerless against destiny, unless we never find them.”
Jolene heard a tinge of sadness in Arion’s tone even as she responded. “We sometimes don’t have the choice here either, buddy. And if Terry or Terach the Caprine has hooked my friend Becky and breaks her heart, he’s going to have to deal with me.”
Arion sat in silence, clearly processing her statements. He shook his head and then thought some more. “I would caution you about using your powers against Terach, Jolene Phillips. You would alert the Caprines to your presence, and if what I am now beginning to suspect is true, then the old legends might not be such wild tales.”
“Oh, I don’t need my so-called powers to deal with Terry, Arion. Hang around and watch if you doubt me. Although we should start discussing those powers. Is your back okay now?” Jolene still felt bad about hurling him down the hallway, even if he was being such a man about the whole Caprine and some Ipotane sexual forays and all.
“I am fine.
We heal quickly, and I have magyk on my side to aid me. You have come into your powers, your magyk, with a vengeance, Jolene Phillips. And it is very strong indeed. You walked without any difficulty through a cover spell I cast and surprised me with your throwback spell. But you also seem to control the elements when you are most emotional, and that must be tutored and brought under strict control, or you could cause harm to yourself or others.
“Magyk is rarely given to those who would misuse it, you understand, although there is always an exception to every rule. And you have given me reason to consider the motivation of others already, simply by dint of our earlier conversation.”
Jolene immediately grasped the implication. “You think a Caprine or another one of your, uh, colleagues, kinfolk, whatever, might cross over to find a witch or someone with gifts and then seduce them and direct their powers? Even if witches seem destined for an Ipotane? Maybe your cousins might not see that as being fair?”
“I told Xander and Sulieman you are highly intelligent and perceptive, Jolene Phillips, as well as possessed of beauty and charm.”
“Stop calling me Jolene Phillips,” she said crossly, refusing to respond to his flattery. “Call me Jolene.”
“Very well, Jolene. But I have many things to think about because of you. Now, let me teach you some manner of controlling your magyk.”
Riding Magyk Page 8