“How do you know it hasn’t attacked?” Ferran asked.
“You will know when it does. It is not a thing a man who claims to love Chan would wish upon her regardless of how displeased he is with her need for peace. You shall see why she seeks it firsthand. Her inborn need is to see all to safety so she will attempt to still save him from the pits of hell. It matters not that he is evil, for Chan’s destiny does not afford her the opportunity to pick and choose who she guides. She must guide all to their fate.”
The shadow of the wolf continued to draw her attention. “Come on, it’s okay. Follow me. You don’t have to go with them,” she whispered, putting her hand out slowly.
The dark spirits swooped down and struck her hard, sending Chandra hurtling backwards. She did her best to stop herself, but nothing worked. Ferran reached out to stop her, but the spirits thrust him aside. She struck a table hard, rolled off and hit the floor as the table toppled over on her.
“Gildas, I felt something!” Ferran cried out. “It wasn’t Chan. It felt like....”
“Death,” Grandpa answered. “Do you feel like more of a man now? Does it please you to know that your need to teach Chandra a lesson has now left her in a battle for not only her soul, but that of all souls present?”
“What?”
“Yes, Ferran, you announce that she is a guardian, thinking that all along she had hidden it from you but she is not the type of guardian you think her to be. Chandra is not like others that guard a race of shifters and maintain peace, settle disputes and deliver death to those who deserve it.”
Grandpa sighed before continuing on, “Chandra is a spirit guardian. Her greatest battles are fought with things that know no bounds, have no physical limitations. Should they win and destroy Chan prior to her own spirit guides coming to her aid then they will be unleashed upon mankind. It is why Chan will fight to the death—she has no other choice.”
Fred’s breath caught. “I didn’t mean to... I didn’t know. I thought she—”
Grandpa huffed. “You have always thought my granddaughter to be a bleeding heart. Weak because she does not carry the gene to shift into an animal like you, like me. Weak because she was terrified of what she saw you turn into, Ferran. And I do not mean your shifted panther form. I mean into a man who shows no mercy.”
“How do I stop it?” Ferran asked.
“You, do not. It is a task that she must endure herself or that another of her kind must help with—another soul guardian. Even I am powerless to help her fight the dark spirits.”
Another dark spirit fell from the air, scoring a direct hit. Chan screamed as pain ripped through her upper back. Scrambling to her feet she stood her ground, waiting for them to strike again. To her surprise, they seemed to fixate on the mystery man in the corner, near where her grandfather and Ferran still remained. That was odd. They never normally tried to steal another’s soul when she was still able to fight freely.
“You will not harm him,” she said, in the language only the dark spirits could understand, the language of the dead. The mystery man’s brown gaze flickered to her and she could see the question in them. Had he understood what she had said? No. He didn’t feel like someone with access to the dead. The spirits loomed over him still. “He is mine. You cannot have him.”
To lay claim to another’s soul was something Chandra had never done before. It was something a guardian would only do to protect their significant other, their spouse. But she didn’t think twice about it. There was no way she would let them have the man.
“Mason will come with us,” they whispered, in their native tongue. “We have waited a long time to take him.”
Mason? Who is Mason and what the hell are they talking about?
“Chan, search your heart and you will find the answers to that which you seek,” Grandpa said, somehow managing to break through the state of mind she was in when the spirits were near. It was a testament to his power.
Search my heart?
“What your eyes and mind refuse to see and acknowledge, your heart already knows to be true.”
Closing her eyes, Chandra concentrated on the name Mason. Instantly, the image of the mysterious man filled her mind. He was Mason, the one the dark spirits wanted to take with them. Another image quickly followed. This one showing Mason above her, dropping down and capturing her mouth with his. It was so vivid it felt real.
The dark spirits moved dangerously close to Mason. Her heart pounded in her chest. She ran full force at them, diving into a handspring and tucking her legs to her chest as she went. Undoing herself, she kicked her foot out, sweeping her leg just over Mason’s head and knocked the dark spirits away from him.
Chandra dropped to her feet on the table before him and stood protectively. “I told you. Mason is mine. You cannot take him,” she said, still speaking the only way she could to the dark spirits.
“You shall die, too.” The dark spirits flickered in and out as they did when she wore at their strength. They had a limited amount of time to either get back to the gates of hell with their soul or kill her.
“I will die to protect him, if need be. But know that I will take you with me when I go.”
She searched the room for sign of Fred’s soul, but found none. He was hiding, toying with her. Something growled out and struck her upper back with such force it sent her to her knees, teetering on the edge of the table. Blood ran down her shoulder.
Ferran rushed at her. He tried to bat at the nothingness around her but he wasn’t like her, he couldn’t fight them. They hit him hard sending him hurtling through the air. He landed on a table. It gave under his weight and he hit the floor with a thud.
The dark spirits spiraled back at her. She stood tall and put her hand out. Calling upon her power, her magik, she let it fill her. Something moved up next to her and she went to strike out but stopped the instant she locked eyes with the mysterious stranger named Mason.
“You’re hurt,” he said, reaching out for her. The sound of his voice rolled over her as though it were a power unto itself.
The dark spirits kept coming. Chandra went to push Mason out of the way but found him cradling her to his body. They hit and she released her power. Mason put his hand over hers and held it as the cold energy she held within filled the air.
“We will be back, femgatia,” they whispered with a sickening scream. Chandra couldn’t help but shiver. More and more they were referring to her as femgatia. Since there was no literal translation from the language of the dead to any other, the closest thing she could come up with was she-guardian.
Mason held tight to her. “Then it is you who will perish, for she is mine and you will not harm her,” he answered back in the language of the dead.
She gasped a second before Mason brought his lips dangerously close to hers. “Make her sleep, old man. I know you can.”
Chapter Two
Chandra walked out to find breakfast warming on the stovetop. The smell of bacon and eggs had been what had awakened her. She had no idea that she’d find fresh biscuits and a pot of coffee made, too. There was even a jar of homemade jam open on the table, meaning someone had gone down to the cellar and brought it up. Grandpa tended to avoid the place because Chandra’s tools for laying souls to rest also resided down there and he thought it best not to tamper.
Glancing around the orange kitchen, Chandra smiled. It was perfect. After the night she’d had, she would have been happy with corn flakes in a bowl. Finding this treat was divine. It was heaven, pure and simple. The sounds of classic rock began to fill the house cutting into the euphoric feeling. Puzzled as to why, she followed it. Entering the dining room, Chandra glanced around for signs of someone home, but found none. That couldn’t be right. Someone had taken the time to make breakfast and someone had turned the music on. Granted, the music could have been turned on by a spirit or ghost which did tend to visit her frequently but they’d never cooked for her before.
As she approached the bathroom she found the door
open and the shower running. “Jeanie, I think I love you. With Wesley gone I eat corn flakes for breakfast.” She laughed. “Milk is optional. I also don’t normally sleep as well as I did last night.” Chandra went to the medicine cabinet and grabbed her toothbrush. One of the extra ones she kept up there for unexpected visitors, like Jeanie, was opened and laying on the sink countertop.
“Aren’t you the quiet one this morning.” She put a dollop of toothpaste on her toothbrush and turned the cold water on low. “Hey, thanks for staying with me last night. I hate needing to have someone nearby after it happens. I hate the way it drains me. It’s probably the only time I’m envious that I can’t morph into some superhuman crossbreed and heal instantly. Okay, I was jealous that I couldn’t do that when I twisted my ankle when we were seven too, so I guess I have cat-shifter envy.”
As she brushed her teeth Chandra swayed her hips and danced around to the music, wearing only an oversized tee shirt and her undies. “Hey,” she said, after spitting in the sink and carrying on with her dancing, still brushing her teeth. “How the hell did I get home last night? I remember something taking a bite out of my back and then the sexy guy who wasn’t from around here grabbing hold of me.”
Dancing around more, Chandra thought about the man in question. “Jeanie, I think he was like me. I think Mason can see and hear the dead. In fact,” Chandra exhaled as the realization of it all struck her, “I’m almost positive I heard him speaking the language of the dead. The one I tried to teach you when we were in high school but you opted for German instead.” Laughing, she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to get it to do something extraordinary. It wasn’t cooperating.
“You know, I always love our one-sided conversations,” Chandra said, sarcastically. “Don’t get me wrong. Your quiet moments are wonderful and all but I could really use a springboard this morning. Plus, I’m rarely the one who has guy issues to discuss. Let me have my turn, will you?”
Chandra glanced at herself in the mirror. “Why don’t I have any blood on me? If you let Ferran get me home and clean me up, I will hang you by your pink painted toenails, Jeanie. That son of a....Never mind. I’m not going there today. I still don’t understand how the two of you could come from the same womb.” She put her hands up and danced with her back to the shower.
When Jeanie didn’t respond, Chandra sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry. I know he’s your brother and I know he wasn’t always like he is now. You know, I hate when he throws what happened in my face like I didn’t live it. I don’t need to be reminded I was almost ripped into little pieces by a pack of werewolves. I was there. I’ll never forget it. I’m not asking Ferran to stand and hold their hands singing campfire songs, Jeanie. I’m just asking him to understand that the ones who came didn’t represent the whole. They weren’t acting out the wishes of all werewolves.”
Chandra finished brushing her teeth and pulled her tee shirt up and over her head, not fully taking it off, merely hooking it in her arms. “Hey, Jeanie, can you peek and see if my back is healed. Grandpa must have stayed late working his magik on me. I woke up feeling the best I’ve felt in years. I honestly thought I’d feel like a punching bag until Wesley got home and handled it for me.”
Her brother had an amazing gift for healing and was the reason she was alive today. He’d been the one to tend to her wounds after the werewolf attack, leaving not so much as a scar on her body. “Speaking of Wesley, you do realize that he’s going to try to kill Ferran if we tell him what went on. I’d rather not have any more bloodshed and I’m sure you’d rather not have your brother’s head severed.”
Putting her back to the corner of the shower, Chandra waited for Jeanie to check her. “Jeanie, I, unlike you, am not immortal and I can feel myself aging waiting for you to look at my back.” Thoughts of their time together flooded her and immediately a trip they’d shared to a fortune-teller popped into her mind. Chandra couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Until that big strappin’ man with dark hair, dark eyes, similar gifts as me and a tattoo of an eagle on his lush ass shows up and says ‘let’s spend forever together’ I will surely die of old age in this spot.”
Shifting her weight from side to side, Chandra tried her best to be patient. “For the record, that fortune-teller you made me go to with you was a quack. She got so detailed for a minute there that she almost had me. But come on, tall, dark, and handsome is a bit vague. Granted, the tattoo thing was a bit different, but it’s not like I’m going to walk up to every good-looking guy with dark hair and ask him to show me some ass. And you are not allowed to do it for me, Jeanie.”
Chandra stopped and thought about what the fortune-teller had said. “Didn’t she tell me that my future husband’s and my paths would cross many times before he’d come to me? That we’d know the same people but not know each other when we met? That he’d be in grave danger and our ‘love’ would have to overcome some big obstacles, but he wouldn’t bat an eye at it all?”
Her stomach tightened at the thought of any man showing up in her life with everything she had going on. “What the hell made the lady think I’d want to hear that? What would I even say to Mr. Right? Oh, yeah, head on over. Everyone who lives around me, doing their best to control my every movement is a trained, supernatural, killer but hey, don’t worry, if they do manage to kill you, I’ll fight to make sure you don’t end up in the wrong hands once you’re dead.”
She laughed at her own neurosis. “Remember when she told me something about my dream man, my Mr. Right, and a black wolf? Real funny, the cat and dog thing. You fell out of the chair laughing and I sat there looking like she’d just announced I was pregnant with sextuplets.” Chandra shook her head. “Yeah, that was funny too until she told me I really would have six children. Right. I am not having any, let alone six. What the hell was she thinking? Even a supernatural male would have issues knocking his significant other up that many times. I really need to stop talking about sex. I’ve told you before about how horny I get after using my gifts.”
It was true. After using large amounts of power, Chandra generally passed out and then woke with the urge to have sex. The mere thought of it made her entire body tense. “Damn, I shouldn’t have brought it up. I was actually doing okay until I mentioned it. Now I’m going to be biting my lower lip and wishing I had a stiff one between my legs all day.”
“Where’s Mr. Right when I need him?” Shivering as the shower curtain opened and cool flecks of water sprinkled over her, Chandra bunched her shoulders up. “Can you just image my mystery mate’s sperm? They probably have capes or something and the guy probably has like a zillion other kids out there because of it. Uhh, no thanks. I’ll pass. That’s why I don’t want to put any stock in that dance to draw your mate to you. Everyone here, except you and Grandpa, is convinced that I’m free game for the men here to marry. I’m not. I don’t care if I don’t have the genes to shift. I’m not less of a person because of it, Jeanie. If Grandpa wouldn’t have threatened to bring in human law, I’d already be married to Ferran. Not even Wesley could have stopped it from happening.”
She shuddered. “At least you know Ferran would never allow you to be with someone like him—someone who has let the darkness take him over. He loves you too much to do that to you.
“Until last night, I never understood his protectiveness with you but when I saw the dark spirits over the new guy at the bar, the guy who I’m sure could hear and see the dead, Mason, I couldn’t breathe. The thought of the dark spirits hurting him terrified me more than anything ever has. Is that weird or what?”
Chandra shivered as a horrifying thought hit her. “Oh, gods, did Mason get out okay? Grandpa was hiding what Mason was from me and I’m guessing from Ferran and the others too, but I knew the second I laid eyes on Mason and felt him pushing back against the power on him that he wasn’t human. Did they hurt him?” The idea sickened her. Swaying slightly, Chandra did her best to keep her composure. Passing out wouldn’t do Mason any good.
“Tell me now, Jeanie. Tell me Mason made it out and went on his merry way.” Fear like she’d never experienced before consumed her. Covering her mouth, Chandra shook her head.
“Jeanie.” Tears filled her eyes. “Say something. Tell me that Mason made it out, that Ferran and his men didn’t.... Oh, gods, I can’t even say it. Jeanie?”
A large, warm, wet hand ran over her back causing her entire body to respond. Shocked, Chandra turned fast to find the mysterious man in question staring down at her. “Mason?”
He smiled.
Her gaze instantly began to run over his wet, olive-colored skin. His entire body looked as though it had been chiseled from the finest of marble. The water seemed to run down every path that her tongue wanted to take. She should have been outraged to find him standing there. She wasn’t. No. She was horny and he was just the man to solve that problem.
When her gaze reached his groin, her mouth opened wide in disbelief. Sure, she’d assumed he’d be well-off in the ‘what he was packin’ area but she had no idea he’d be doing that good. His long, thick cock was a shade or two darker than his olive skin. It bobbed obscenely before her, almost touching her stomach as it did. The urge to drop down and take it in her mouth was great. That caught her off guard.
Tracing her way, slowly back up Mason’s body, Chandra found him staring at her with a mix of amusement and fascination. Surging forward, she reached for him. The need to feel for herself that he was safe outweighed her better judgment. “They didn’t hurt you.”
* * * *
Mason stared at Chandra, still unable to believe that he’d not only helped her grandfather get her home but had volunteered to take care of her. He didn’t even trust himself to be alone with her, how the old man had was a mystery to him. Now, as he soaked in the sight of her standing before him, one pink nipple showing from behind the slipping garment in her arms and her tiny panties hiding what he’d already seen, a mound with a thin strip of hair on it, he knew he should have run as fast as he could.
Shifter Fated Mates: Boxed Set Page 30