by Bianca D'Arc
When Peter got back to the bookshop, Urse was manning the store, and she told him that Mellie was still upstairs in the apartment, holed up in her potion room. Lunch had come and gone, and dinner wasn’t too far away. Peter went up to the apartment and began cooking. He’d restocked Mellie’s fridge with meats from his shop, and it was a simple matter to get something started for them to eat when she emerged from her work.
Paul was still down at the clinic, catching up on some healing sleep under Sven’s watchful eye. They’d prearranged to have the dragon shifter arrive just before moonrise, when the real work on the potion would begin, according to Mellie. Peter would be on hand throughout, ready to help his mate in any way she needed.
The rest of his old Army unit would also be on high alert tonight and were quietly preparing to back Peter up when he and Mellie headed to the point near the stone circle where she would release her potion into the water. Peter figured it couldn’t hurt to have a few more guys around, helping keep things secure. Especially if the leviathan decided to object, which Peter assumed was going to happen regardless what they did.
Mellie came down the hallway just as the food was finishing cooking. She was rubbing the back of her neck and looked a bit worn down. No doubt, she’d been expending energy—both magical and mundane—preparing for the final steps of the potion she would brew tonight.
“Thank you for cooking,” she said as she walked up to Peter and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry you’ve had to do so much of it just lately, and I promise this isn’t how it will always be. I love to cook, and I’ll dazzle you with my Italian cuisine one of these days.”
“I have no doubt about that, zvyozdochka. But you are busy just now with the potion, and this is the least I can do. I don’t expect my mate to wait on me hand and foot. We are a team now. A partnership.” He ushered her to the table where he’d already set places and was just now placing the final serving platter.
“I like the sound of that,” she told him, smiling as she sat down. “This looks wonderful.”
They didn’t speak much after that, enjoying the meal in relative silence as they chewed and swallowed. Weighty thoughts were on both of their minds. Peter worried for his new mate and the task she would attempt to complete tonight. He supposed she was contemplating the spell she would cast. He suspected they were both concerned about the dragon shifter’s participation.
Although Paul seemed like a reasonable fellow, he was still a bit of an unknown quantity. And his magic was wild in comparison to Peter’s. Bears were strong in their magic, but this dragon was off the charts. Even though Peter had dragon blood far back in his ancestry, and was therefore a little more powerful than most bears, Paul was something completely out of Peter’s experience.
Only Babushka, of all the people in Grizzly Cove, had any experience whatsoever with a dragon shifter, and that had been when she was a little girl. Hundreds of years ago. And the dragon in question had been a relative, someone who cared for her and her safety. Paul had no such ties to this community. While he spoke well and said all the right things, until he actually did something to prove his worth, Peter would remain on guard. It was only the sensible thing to do.
They finished the meal, and Peter shooed Mellie to the couch. “You have about an hour before moonrise. Relax and close your eyes for a bit. Rest up for what comes later,” Peter advised her.
Mellie didn’t argue. She went to the big overstuffed sofa and put her feet up. Peter worked as quietly as he could, cleaning up in the kitchen. The open concept floorplan of the apartment meant he could keep watch over her while she rested.
Forty minutes later, Peter heard the arrival of the dragon shifter as he talked quietly with Urse in the shop below. Urse sent Paul to the back stairs while she greeted her mate, John, and locked the front door to the shop, then she followed Paul toward the back stairs with John in tow. Peter could hear all of this in the quiet of the apartment, his shifter hearing giving him the audible cues that Mellie totally missed.
He went to her and woke her with a kiss. Drawing away, he smiled at her. “Paul, Urse and John are on their way up.”
Mellie stretched as she sat up while Peter went to open the door for the new arrivals. He exchanged greetings with them all as they entered, and soon, all five were standing in the main area of the apartment. Mellie was nervous, but that was understandable. Still, she took charge when it was clear nobody else was going to speak first.
“Paul and Peter, if you’ll come with me into the potion room, we can get started on this. John and Urse, if you wouldn’t mind observing from out here?” Mellie asked politely. The Alpha couple agreed with nods, and Urse whispered a quick good luck to her sister as Mellie turned to lead the way down the hall toward the room set aside for crafting her potions.
Peter let Paul precede him down the hallway, keeping an eye on Mellie as she opened the door. Paul went in after her, and Peter brought up the rear. The small room was crowded with all three of them in there, but it would do.
As before, when Peter had been the one giving blood to the spell, Mellie explained what she would do, and Paul moved into position. At the appointed time, Mellie began her chant, and Paul used his own fingernail—partially shifted into a sharp talon—to prick a finger on his left hand. When the first drop of his blood hit the potion, there was an audible rumble, and the building shook slightly.
Mellie’s eyes widened, and Peter scowled. He could feel the intensity of the magic. This was what had been lacking the last time she’d brewed this potion. This—if it kept growing, as Peter suspected it would—would be a potion to reckon with even the leviathan.
“Um…I think maybe we ought to do the rest of this outside. And away from the center of town,” Mellie said in a hesitant whisper, as if merely speaking too loud might set the earth to rattling again. “Peter, could you drive us down to the point? Once we hit the final stage with this, it’ll probably be way too potent to contain. We’ll have to unleash it right away.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Peter replied immediately, grinning at her, even as he thought through the logistics. “Paul, do you mind relocating this to where it can do the most good?”
“Not at all,” Paul answered politely, his eyes narrowed. “I take it you didn’t expect this?”
Mellie was carefully bottling her potion and preparing to take it on the road, but she spared a glance and a smile for Paul. “I’ve done this potion before, but without the missing ingredient, it didn’t have nearly this kind of whammy. Now, I understand why the recipe is kept only in the grimoire. If an unethical mage had this knowledge, and access to the blood of one of your kind, this potion could do a lot of damage. As it is, I hope it will do a lot of good to protect the people along this coast.”
“You still propose to try and cover the entire coast? Not just your town?” Paul asked.
“I want to protect as many innocents as possible from the leviathan and its minions. If this potion will protect many, then it would be selfish and wrong to keep it for just a few,” Mellie told him.
Paul smiled. “I may have misjudged you, Strega Ricoletti. Forgive me.”
Mellie nodded, and the three of them headed out of the room. Mellie asked Urse to grab a few things on the way out, and Peter noted that her sister didn’t ask questions but started packing a tote bag while Mellie ever-so-carefully made her way down the stairs, keeping both eyes on the extraordinary potion in her hands.
Peter escorted her and her precious cargo to his vehicle and helped her get in. He let Paul fend for himself, focusing on Mellie and barely noticing Paul as he climbed into the backseat. When everyone was secure and the potion was as protected as they could make it, held tight in Mellie’s careful hands, Peter pulled out onto the road, driving slowly and steadily toward the point. Thankfully, the road was still too new to have any potholes, but Peter was extra careful, just in case.
John and Urse followed along in the mayor’s SUV as they all made their way toward the
point. The rest of the team was already spread out around the point, and the guys who had been stationed in town were following, Peter was confident. They took care of their own.
Going off-road was a bit of a challenge when they came to the turnoff that would take them to the circle of stones. They didn’t dare put in a road or even mark a path to the sacred site. This place was not for tourists, and the less humans knew about its existence, the better.
Nevertheless, Peter knew exactly where to head, though he did so at a snail’s pace so as not to shake up Mellie’s potion too badly. Who knew what would happen if that brew got overly excited?
Mellie’s eyes were on the potion bottle in her hands whenever Peter glanced at her. He didn’t blame her. He’d felt the earth tremble at the first drop of the dragon’s blood.
“That’s some potent shit you’ve got in your veins, Paul,” Peter rumbled as they inched toward the stone circle.
Paul chuckled. “I’ve never known anything else. I was born this way.”
“My grandmother said she tried to visit you in the clinic this afternoon, but you were asleep,” Peter told the dragon shifter.
“I’m sorry to have caused her a wasted trip,” Paul said politely. “I was unprepared for my encounter with the leviathan earlier, but I’ve got its number this time.”
“It cannot be killed in this realm,” Peter warned him. “All our experts agree that it can only be banished back to where it came from or trapped in another realm. It can’t be killed, so don’t waste your time trying.”
“Maybe I can’t kill it, but I can certainly teach it a lesson,” Paul growled, his expression darkening as light flickered behind his eyes.
Peter saw it all in the rearview mirror and marveled at the way the dragon’s growl sounded totally different than a bear’s growl. They might both be shifters, but they were worlds apart as far as their beasts went.
“If this works the way I hope it will, I’ll be the one teaching it a lesson,” Mellie piped up, easing the tension in the air. “With your help, of course.”
Paul nodded in acknowledgment of her claim and subsided.
“There are others here,” Paul said a moment later as they neared the site. He was scanning the terrain out the window.
“It’s my team,” Peter told him. “You didn’t think the guys would let us do this alone, did you?” He addressed his words to Mellie, though Paul heard him, too. “We’re a unit, and you’re part of it now, Mellie. You’re my mate, which means every one of my brothers-in-arms will protect you in my place, if necessary. You’re one of ours now.”
“Really?” Mellie’s voice held a hint of awe, and she looked into Peter’s eyes as he drew the truck to a stop just outside the stone circle. Her eyes held traces of wonder, even as they sparkled with unshed tears.
Peter reached out, putting one hand over hers. “Really, zvyozdochka. Now and forevermore.”
The moment was broken by the click of the back door opening as Paul let himself out. Peter sighed, but Mellie squeezed his hand.
“Don’t think badly of him,” Mellie whispered. “I know, from watching Urse with John, it’s kind of hard to witness someone else’s happiness when you’re alone.”
“You have a kind heart, my love. And neither one of us will ever be alone again. Not if I have anything to say about it,” he reassured her, leaning in to place a quick kiss on her lips.
He let himself out then came around to help her down. She was carrying that slightly dangerous potion, and he wanted to make sure there were no mishaps on the way into the stone circle. Gus was waiting for them, already speaking in low tones with Paul.
Unlike the rest of the team, Gus wasn’t armed with conventional weapons. He would go bear if he needed to help defend the happenings in the circle against outside interference.
“Hi, Mel,” Gus greeted Mellie casually, as if she wasn’t holding a half-finished potion that had caused the earth to move.
“Hey, Gus.” Mellie was just as casual with the town’s shaman, though they weren’t really that close. “I’m sorry to barge in, but you felt that a few minutes ago, right?” She had a slightly embarrassed smile on her face.
Gus smiled back kindly. “It was hard to miss. But we shouldn’t have any more trouble if you confine the magic to the circle until it’s ready to be unleashed.”
“Yeah, I probably should’ve done that in the first place, but up to this point, the potion has never been that…um…violent when I brewed it before,” she explained.
Gus chuckled. “Well, you never had the right ingredients before either.”
“Good point,” she agreed easily. “Let me just set this up on the altar and get everything consecrated,” she said, heading into the circle of stones.
Peter and Paul stood on either side of Gus, just outside the circle, watching Mellie set up. Peter was aware of the rest of his unit forming up in a loose circle around them. Most of the guys were armed with the biggest, baddest firepower they could beg, borrow or steal. All bets were off going up against the leviathan and its minions. There was even a Jeep rigged with a fifty-caliber machine gun, like something straight out of the desert combat units they had once fought alongside.
Paul noticed, too, his eyebrows rising. “Your people seem loaded for bear,” he observed.
Gus laughed aloud, and Peter growled. “That’s a term we don’t really like,” Peter told the dragon shifter.
Paul looked surprised, realization dawning. “My apologies. No offense intended. It’s just a saying, you know?”
“We know!” chorused all the bear shifters within hearing, causing Gus to laugh even harder. He, of all the bears from the old unit, seemed to find the oddest things funny. Probably went with being a shaman and spooky-assed spirit bear.
Paul looked around, nodding apologetically and sharing smiles with some of the other guys. “I’ve learned my lesson. I will try not to ever use that expression again.”
This time, the chorus said, “Thank you,” in unison, in a somewhat sarcastic sing-song tone.
Peter just shook his head. The guys in his old unit were masters at breaking tension with humor. Paul seemed like a good sport about it, which was a mark in his favor.
While they had been standing outside the circle, Mellie had been busy within. John and Urse had pulled up right behind them, and Urse had gone into the circle, without hesitation, to help her sister. She’d brought a bag full of stuff that kept the two women busy for a few minutes while John made a round of the guys who were heavily armed and visible around the circumference of the circle.
“Thanks for bringing the stuff, Urse, but now, you have to go.” Mellie faced her sister, expecting an argument, but what she saw instead on her sister’s face was resignation.
“I know, but I don’t have to like it,” Urse protested.
“Urse, you locked me in the apartment when it was your turn to cast spells,” Mellie reminded her older sister.
“That was for your own protection!”
“Maybe so, but it was still a dirty trick,” Mellie insisted, though she’d only just decided to forgive her sister for doing what she’d thought had been the right thing at the time. After the past few days, Mellie thought she understood Urse’s decision a little better.
“I just wish I could help you more,” Urse said, looking around the circle as if searching for something to do.
“You know you can’t.” Mellie went to Urse and took both of her hands in her own. “I probably shouldn’t have let you come this far, but I miscalculated. I had no idea brewing this in town could be dangerous. I should have started out here from the beginning. Only a place like this can withstand the creation of something so powerful without affecting the physical world.” Mellie let a bit of her worry come out in her words. “Even so, I’m concerned. There might be more tremors, or some other physical manifestation. I’m not really sure what to expect, which is why I don’t want you here.”
“I’m a big girl,” Urse insisted. “I can take ca
re of myself, and I promise not to interfere.”
Mellie shot her a look that said it all. “If I were in danger, you know you’d be sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong, in a heartbeat. I love you, Urse, but you’re a busybody. Nonna said neither of us could help the other in their task. You warded me into our apartment to prevent me from helping. I can’t do the same to you, but I can appeal to your conscience. If Nonna said we have to do these things alone, we have to trust her.”
Urse looked like she wanted to argue but knew she was wrong. She reached for Mellie and hugged her tight, emotion in every tight line of her body.
“I’ll go, but I don’t like it. I don’t want to leave you all alone like this,” Urse told her little sister, moving back slightly.
“I’m not alone,” Mellie said softly. “Peter’s here. You know he won’t let anything hurt me. Not if he has anything to say about it. Just like John does for you.”
“Huh.” Urse looked from Mellie over to where Peter was standing just on the other side of the stones and back again. “I’m going to have to get used to you being mated to one of these big bear bruisers.”
“Just like I got used to you snagging the Alpha of them all,” Mellie replied, teasing her sister into a better humor.
“Yeah, but yours speaks dragon,” Urse said, pointing to where Peter and Paul were talking in what sounded like Russian. Gus had left them to walk with John, and the two foreign-born shifters seemed to be bonding a bit.
Mellie laughed, just as Urse had intended.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Peter was intrigued to discover that the dragon shifter was fluent in Russian, even if his accent was of Moscow rather than Kamchatka. They were making small talk about the American bears and how Peter had gotten involved with the U.S. military unit after leaving Mother Russia for good, while they gave the sisters space to say goodbye. John hovered nearby, listening in. Paul probably didn’t realize that most of the guys from the old unit were multilingual. Russian wasn’t even the most difficult of the foreign languages some of them had mastered.