by Bianca D'Arc
She tried not to be sad about it. It was a natural progression. It was part of growing up. They were still closer than most siblings. They would share their triumphs and tragedies. There would just be more people around them. More members of their family. More love to go around. So, it really was a positive thing, right?
“After I cast the permanent wards, John started asking me about less intensive uses of ward magic. We’ve been experimenting. In particular, I started to spell cast on his office and his work place almost right away. I don’t want anything to happen to that man. Especially not something I can help prevent. If magic starts flying, I want to know about it.”
“I can see that,” Mellie allowed, not altogether surprised by the vehemence of her sister’s words. When Urse loved, she loved fiercely, and she loved John as deeply as a woman could love a man. They were the real thing.
The sisters adjourned to the upper level apartment and worked side by side in the kitchen for a few minutes, making coffee and setting up snacks. Grizzly Cove men were always up for a snack, and when the guys returned, they would be ready.
“So… You and Peter?” Urse asked, carefully broaching the subject, even though she probably knew from Mellie’s previous reaction that she didn’t really want to talk about it.
“Yeah,” Mellie admitted on a sigh. “But can we leave it at that for now? Please? It’s still very new.”
“I hear you,” Urse said, cradling her hot mug of coffee in both hands and sitting back in her chair at the kitchen table. “Just… You know where I am if you ever want to talk about it. Loving a bear is kind of different than what we were raised to expect out of a relationship.”
“I’m sure,” Mellie rolled her eyes, knowing her sister would understand the gesture as a comment on the men, not on Urse’s words. They both laughed.
Only a few minutes later, they both heard heavy feet clomping up the stairs to the apartment. John had a key to the shop, and he knew to make noise so as not to sneak up on the sisters. Could they be returning so soon? Mellie looked at Urse, and she was smiling. She knew exactly who had passed through her wards.
“It’s John, Peter and the new guy,” Urse said. “They’re back.”
Mellie stood to get mugs down from the cabinet as Urse went to unlock the door and let them in. Mellie poured coffee, feeling rather than seeing Peter come up behind her.
“You all right?” he asked in a low tone, for her ears only.
“I’m good. What about you?” she asked, turning to him.
The fire in his eyes made her breath catch. He was standing much closer than she had expected. She handed him a mug of coffee, to both give herself an excuse to touch him and to keep him at arm’s length. She didn’t feel like this was the appropriate time to go public with their relationship.
He growled deep in his throat. He didn’t like being kept away, but he allowed it. For now. At least, that’s the impression she got from the possessive look in his eyes. A little tingle flared through her. She couldn’t wait until they were alone.
When they were all seated around the kitchen table with steaming mugs of coffee, Mellie looked at John. He was nibbling on the snacks they’d put out, but his manner was easy. If the Alpha bear was relaxed, things were going well.
Peter sat at Mellie’s side, having moved the chair slightly closer to hers than it should be, but she didn’t mind too much. She began to sense his bear’s need to stake some sort of claim. And judging by the way Paul was looking at her, she was glad of Peter’s move.
Paul looked interested. Way too interested. Couldn’t he see she was into Peter? Or was the dragon considering some sort of maneuver around the obstacle that was Peter? That couldn’t be allowed. She didn’t want the scary dragon. She wanted her Russian teddy bear. Hands down. No contest.
Mellie saw the way Paul looked from her to Peter and back again speculatively, as if he was considering something. Mellie reached over and took possession of Peter’s hand, making a clear statement to everyone in the room. No way was she going to let this dragon lothario mess up the best thing that had ever happened to her.
So much for keeping it to herself, but it couldn’t be helped. Paul’s eyebrow rose impossibly high for a moment, but eventually, he seemed to relax, then nodded and sipped his coffee. Good.
Meanwhile, Peter’s bear was rumbling happily at her side. She could feel the vibrations through their joined hands. She didn’t dare look at Urse or John. She had a feeling the teasing would begin soon enough, once they were alone.
“I have decided to accept the Alpha’s invitation to stay in Grizzly Cove for another day,” Paul announced, his accent thick but his English excellent. “I wish to examine the problem you face more closely. I also wish to know more details about the potion you intend to brew and my potential part in it. I would very much like to see the book.”
Mellie shot Urse a look, but the grimoire was Mellie’s to protect and use for now. “It’s not usually done, you understand. This book is ancient and powerful, and it has been entrusted to me for this one specific purpose. I have vowed to protect it, and its many secrets, until my task is complete and then return it to its rightful caretaker.”
“You can put a binding on me, if you wish, but I need to see the book before I can make my decision.” Paul’s voice was firm, and Mellie sensed this was a sticking point for him.
“All right,” Mellie conceded, standing. “Give me a moment. I have a binding potion we can use.”
Normally, Mellie probably would have asked her sister to take care of it, but this was her task. Her responsibility. And it would be good to show Paul the kind of power she could wield. It would also be a good test for her, as well. Would the dragon be bound by her potion? There was only one way to find out.
Mellie located the small glass bottle she wanted and closed the cabinet door, unsurprised to find that Peter had followed her down the hall and into the room she used to make her potions. She looked at him and put the glass bottle down carefully on the table before moving into his arms.
He hugged her close, rocking her back and forth. His mouth was near her ear, and he kissed her there, gently, before asking. “You okay with all this?”
She sensed he was talking about more than just the presence of the dragon shifter. She had just made a claim on him—albeit a small one, but still a claim—in front of her sister and the Alpha bear. That was something big, and they both knew it.
“I’m okay with you, Peter,” she told him honestly, moving back a bit to look into his eyes. “Paul is handsome and incredibly powerful,” she admitted, even though Peter’s gaze narrowed in annoyance. “But I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. I wanted him to know I’m your girl. At least… I want to be your girl, if that’s okay.” She was laying it on the line, hoping Peter wouldn’t let her down.
“Are you kidding?” A smile came over his face that lit her world. “Of course you’re my girl. Zvyozdochka… I know this is probably the worst time ever to be saying this to you, but I’m really hoping you’ll agree to be my mate.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Really?” she whispered, overcome with joy and relief. “Oh, Peter!” She reached up and kissed him, happy tears mixing in with the sweetest kiss she had ever known.
When it ended, he kept her close. “Is that a yes?” he asked, and she could see the swirl of magic—the bear spirit—in his eyes. If she accepted him, she would be accepting both of them. The bear and the man. Forevermore.
“It’s an emphatic yes,” she told him, giving him another kiss, this time, not mixed with tears, but pulsing with a passion they did not have the time to explore at the moment.
Heavy footsteps were coming down the hall. Dammit. John was coming to check on them. She pulled back from the kiss, spotting her brother-in-law through the open doorway. He was grinning.
“Hey, you two. Did you forget you’re entertaining a freaking dragon in the kitchen? We’re all waiting on you. Hop to it.” John’s voice was filled with mischievous hu
mor. “There’ll be time for that later.”
“Go away, John,” Peter groused, but he let Mellie go and turned toward the door to usher his Alpha down the hallway. Mellie chuckled as she pulled herself together and followed them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Where’s the book?” Paul asked as Mellie returned to the kitchen holding only the potion bottle.
Did he sound just a little too eager? Mellie tried not to worry about showing the book to this relative stranger. The book itself had centuries of protections woven into every page and special magic in the bindings and covers that kept it all much safer than a single witch could hope to do. The book had layer upon layer of witchcraft upon it, but would it be enough to stand up to the dragon’s probe, if he had bad intentions?
Mellie certainly hoped so. For now, she had to see if her potions were a match for the dragon shifter’s enormous power.
“Here.” Mellie slid the potion bottle across the table to Paul. “A standard binding potion. Are you familiar with them?”
“I have come across them a time or two,” Paul admitted, taking the small cork out of the top of the bottle and sniffing cautiously.
He used the spoon from his coffee to take a drop of the liquid out of the bottle and examine its color and consistency. Then, he seemed to focus his gaze on it, and what looked like fire leapt from his eyes to incinerate the droplet of potion in the spoon, sending a puff of clean white smoke upward. Paul nodded then looked back at Mellie.
“It is as you claim,” he pronounced. “And very strong. My compliments.”
Mellie had never seen anyone do anything like that before. She guessed it was possible that a dragon could shoot fire from his eyes and know a purpose and potency of a magical substance, but it was a new one on her. This day just got stranger and stranger.
“If you’d allow a drop of that to touch your skin and speak the words, I’ll allow you to see the book,” she told him.
The potion would bind him to whatever promise he made while it was active. So, if he promised not to try to steal the book or use anything he happened to see in it within about five minutes of the potion being absorbed into his skin, then he would be magically bound by that promise forevermore.
Most witches couldn’t manage a permanent binding potion, but just like Urse’s permanent wards, Mellie’s potions were built to last. She would feel much more confident if Paul gave them some promises she could be certain he would keep.
“As you wish,” Paul intoned, bowing his head but not breaking eye contact as he held out his left hand and poured a good dollop of the potion into his palm.
He wasn’t messing around. Just a drop would have done the trick, and allowing it to be absorbed by his left hand—the one closest to the heart—made the magic even more potent. He had to know that.
“I, Paul Lebchenko, solemnly promise to the good people of Grizzly Cove that I will cause no harm to anyone here who does not first try to harm me. Furthermore, I promise Amelia Ricoletti, the potion strega, that I will not try to steal, subvert, or use without permission anything I happen to see in the grimoire that has been entrusted to her care. The book is hers to protect, and I will not attempt anything untoward in the pursuit of my own goals.”
Wow. He really was going all out. Mellie felt the binding take hold, and it was a powerful one. As far as she could tell, the dragon’s innate magic wasn’t repulsing her potion, but blending with it as he took on the binding freely and of his own volition. Voluntary magic was often the strongest kind.
Mellie stood as John thanked the dragon shifter for the promise not to harm anyone in his town. She went back to her spell room and got the book. She couldn’t have asked for a more complete statement from Paul. She’d done all she could to be sure his intentions were pure. Now, she would have to trust that her preparations had been thorough enough.
She came into the kitchen, and everyone hushed. The book carried a palpable magic of its own that everyone in the room could feel. She laid the book on the table and held her hands over it. As before, it opened to the page of the spell, and no other.
“This is the potion I propose to brew. Crafted first by strega Pilar of Andalusia many generations ago.” Mellie noted John craning his neck to try to read the spidery writing on the page along with Paul. Peter had seen it before, as had Urse, so they seemed less interested in the book and more interested in watching the dragon.
“I do not speak this language, but I recognize some words. This is dragon, right?” Paul said, pointing to the word. Mellie nodded. “And that’s the word for… Blood?” Paul sounded shocked. Shocked and angry. He rose from his chair rapidly and towered over the table, a hint of his beast showing in his eyes as they grew slitted and inhuman.
Mellie’s throat went dry, but she had to fix this. “You’re right,” she told him in as reasonable a tone as she could manage. “This spell does call for exactly three drops of blood, freely given. It is not, however, the kind of blood magic I believe you are thinking of. It is not evil. Pilar was not evil. She was—if legend can be believed—mated to a dragon. I didn’t understand how that could be true until I found out that dragons could be shifters. Pilar was mated to one of your kind, and he allowed her to access his magic in this way. Blood magic of this kind is not evil. It is a benevolent form of self-sacrifice, blessed by the Mother of All.”
“I would never allow blood magic in our town,” John piped up. “I spoke to the girls’ grandmother about this when Urse first told me the details of the spell. I wasn’t any more comfortable with the idea of blood used in the ritual than you appear to be,” he told Paul. “But I did my research and spoke to Nonna Ricoletti and our shaman, Gus. Since I mated with Urse, I’ve been learning all sorts of stuff about how humans handle magic that I never knew before.” John reached for Urse’s hand and shared a loving glance with his wife.
The dragon grew still and watchful, but it could still be seen behind Paul’s human eyes. Unearthly. Watching. Measuring. Ready to strike, if necessary.
Scary as hell.
Mellie swallowed hard and tried again. “Shifters mostly know of blood magic because of unscrupulous sorcerers who try to steal other magical folk’s power by taking their blood and using it in horrific rites that go against everything we strega hold dear.” Mellie took a breath, trying to gauge how well her words were being received. “Evil mages will often kill beings of power—other mages, shifters, and Others—to steal their magic. They’ve even been known to kidnap shifters and hold them captive, bleeding them over a period of time to build up the pain magic and prolong the torture. That is as far from the voluntary giving of three drops of blood under the blessings of the Goddess as you can get. Ask Peter. He participated in my last attempt at this potion, and we actually managed to protect a small part of the beach with that one.”
“You did?” Paul’s gaze shot to Peter’s, skeptical.
“I thought my bear blood might be strong enough to do something, and I would do just about anything for the protection of this place and its people. They are my family, and this place is now my home. There was nothing in the making of the potion that felt wrong,” Peter told them all. “Mellie’s power is pure and of the Light. I saw it for myself when I agreed to help her with that brew.”
Instead of speaking, Paul moved closer to the table, still standing, and held his hand over the open book. He closed his eyes and seemed to reach out with his magic to touch the magic of the book. Mellie could almost see the vast powers intertwining and communicating in some arcane way.
After a moment, Paul dropped his hand to his side and opened his eyes. “The book is neither good nor evil in itself, but the protections laid on it over the centuries are of a benign variety,” he pronounced. Again, Mellie was surprised at the things he could discern. Dragons were something special, that was for sure. “I must think about this and seek counsel from the Lady.” His eyes looked troubled and still slightly inhuman. “Warn your shaman. I may have need of the standing stones entrust
ed to his care.” Paul turned toward the stairs. “I’ll be back in town tomorrow.” He shifted his gaze to Peter. “If your grandmother is willing to meet with me, I would still like to talk to her.”
“I’ll ask her and make the arrangements. I’m pretty sure she’ll be intrigued enough to want to meet you,” Peter replied.
Paul nodded once, and still looking troubled, he left. Mellie felt her spirits drop.
“Do you think I scared him off?” she asked morosely.
Peter reached out and squeezed her hand, offering comfort. “The blood thing is a tough one,” he told her. “We shifters have only known the bad side of blood magic, but I’m confident he’ll figure out that has nothing to do with what you propose to do.”
“It was brave of you to step up and try to help Mellie,” Urse put in, smiling kindly at Peter.
“I could do no less,” Peter replied, still holding Mellie’s hand.
They sat in an awkward silence for a couple of moments until finally John stood, his chair scraping back loudly against the plank floor. Urse stood a moment later and followed her mate’s lead in picking up her empty mug and heading for the sink with it.
The Alpha couple left after just a few more words. Urse made Peter promise to look after Mellie, to which he readily agreed, and John just told them to be careful and to call if they needed backup. Then, they were gone.
“Alone at last,” Mellie said, grinning at Peter.
He drew her into his arms and just held her tight for a long moment. So much had happened in such a short time.
“Tell me I wasn’t dreaming. You’ll be my mate, right?” he whispered, hoping he hadn’t misread her response somehow.
“Only if you’ll be mine, too,” she joked, looking up at him with a light of mischief in her pretty eyes.
“Zvyozdochka, I was yours from the moment we first met. It took me a little while to figure it out, but I was a goner even then.”
“Really?” Her smile turned coy. “Well, if we’re being honest, I’ll have to admit that I thought you were hot from the very beginning. I mean, the guys in this town are all pretty amazing, but there was something special about you from the start. I thought maybe it was your accent, but now, I know it’s just…you.” She ran her hands through his short hair and made him want to revel in her touch. Would she like his bear form as much? He certainly hoped so.