Claimed by Fae_MMF Paranormal Romance

by Lisa Gardiner

  “Pffft. That fire you got around him is gonna die out. You can’t maintain it much longer. You’re losing energy.”

  “Not that. I don’t mean that.” Desperation turned her voice to a whine. “I can help him control his shifting, dammit! Listen to me.” Seeing the surprise on Jay’s face, Duvessa grew more confident. “I’ve been watching you for some time. I’ve seen your face in my scrying bowl.”

  “Why have you been watching me?”

  “I have a right to keep track of my own daughter’s whereabouts.”

  “So, what does any of that have to do with Arlan’s shifting?”

  “I can take the bulk of the curse off him.”

  Keeping the gun on her, Jay glanced at Arlan behind the flames.

  The curse removed. Arlan no longer at the mercy of random shifting. Arlan’s heart’s desire fulfilled?

  He glanced over at August.

  “She spent years studying everything about magic. She could lay her hands on him.” August shook her head. “She’s pretty clever with magic. Hell, some people say she’s a genius.”

  Jay didn’t miss the touch of irony and bitterness in her voice. He ached thinking of all the pain she’d suffered. The envelope of light around August’s turquoise pendant brightened. “Arlan needs this, Jay, doesn’t he? He needs control over his shifting.”

  “Right, what is that magic pouring from her necklace? And why is she glowing? Can you answer me that?”

  Duvessa froze. “Fuck,” she whispered. “That’s the blue spirit stone.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Duvessa’s jaw clenched. “It means the little do-gooder has found her fated mates. That’s what it means. I’ve spent my whole life looking for mine or hoping one of my obedient daughters would find theirs, and she finds them. God dammit! Anyway, I can take part of the curse off Arlan, okay? So, don’t shoot.” She sounded desperate. “You can stop pointing that goddamn thing at me.” She began to hum.

  Jay still didn’t trust her, and as great as the temptation was, he didn’t turn to check out Arlan when she started to hum. He kept the gun trained on her, and maybe that was what made her humming so frantic.

  The louder Duvessa hummed, the brighter the red light pouring from her hands became. When Jay dared a glance out of the corner of his eye, a rooster-red halo of light surrounded Arlan’s head.

  Arlan spluttered and coughed. He was in his human form at last, and the wall of flames that had surrounded him flickered and died in an instant. Duvessa had stopped exerting power over the illusion.

  “Jay. Fuck! Lookup.”

  Jay turned. August stared up at the sky. He followed her gaze to see pale blue and orange streaks stretching across the horizon.

  Morning.

  Then a hunting rifle flew through the air toward Duvessa. Jay stepped back. “What the fuck?”

  “She must have magicked it from the trunk of her car,” August shouted.

  The hunting rifle did a nice swirl in a circle before it landed in Duvessa’s hand.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Clever. The little swirl the gun did through the air was a nice touch. A little flourish to show off her power before sealing his doom. In the distance, Jay could see a large troop of about thirty baboons loping along on their hands and feet. He fought not to give in to the primal fear crawling in his gut.

  Duvessa slapped at a mosquito on the back of her neck with her free hand. “Oh, August, August.” She shook her head in mock sadness. “You should have known better. Really, you should have.” Her mouth formed a satisfied smirk as she aimed the rifle at Jay.

  “So, you were faking. You couldn’t take the curse off Arlan,” August shouted. “You aren’t really powerful enough to remove a curse like that?”

  Her daughter’s desperate attempt to distract her from Jay only made Duvessa smirk. “No. I took the curse off your sainted Arlan. He won’t be transforming into a lion anytime soon unless he chooses to. I know my kind’s magic. Silvara’s more powerful than I am, I must admit it. I wish to God I could pull off a curse like that. But, yeah, I know how to undo that kind of thing.”

  “You can’t shoot Jay. I get that you’re furious with him, but you can see now, the three of us are fated mates.” August clutched the glowing pendant in her hand for emphasis.

  There was a tightening under Duvessa’s eyes. August spoke quickly “You want the sex magic to work, right? Well, trying to fix Arlan and me up with Johan would ruin everything. You have to see that now. The three of us have far more power together. Come on, Mom. You know I’m right.”

  Jay could read the combination of avarice and envy in the dark fae’s expression. She wanted their power, and their money and their…their love connection. She craved that for herself.

  Duvessa was furious. And she was also trapped. Because surely August was right. Duvessa didn’t lower the rifle.

  “Mother if you want the sex magic to work, if you want to find the witch doctors’ tower, then you’ll let us go and let us do this by ourselves, our way. You’ll know when it’s done via your magic right? And you can do…” August waved her hand, “…whatever dark magic you feel you have to do in relation to it. Killing Jay is the last thing you want to do, if you ever want to see that tower.”

  Her mother was going to kill them all. She would never feel Arlan’s arms around her again, or Jay’s. She would never know their love. It struck her that the two of them made her feel whole, made her feel real, in a way she never had before. Even the universe was trying to tell the three of them that they were fated, that they were meant to be together. But her mother would snuff the life out of their union before it even began.

  In the distance, an elephant and the mopane trees were black silhouettes against the red-gold dawn of the morning sky. Her mother’s beautiful Grace Kelly face didn’t change, but her lips grew white.

  Jealousy.

  Duvessa blew her bangs off her face. “I haven’t found even one of my fated mates.”

  “I know, Mother. I’m sorry.”

  “My father never let me have pretty things. You know that, August? He never let me have anything cool. I would have worn shabby clothes to school. I would have been an outcast if I hadn’t been able to magic up a few things.” She slapped a mosquito off her cheek. “I’m never going back to being poor.” Duvessa’s lip quivered, something August had never seen before. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? Your fated mates are billionaires.” She gestured at Arlan, then at Jay with the gun. “You think you’re superior to me.”

  “Are you in some kind of financial trouble?”

  Duvessa’s eyes suddenly shone with unshed tears. “I should have known better than to trust an idiot human. But he was supposed to have this great reputation for financial planning. My investments have tanked. We could lose everything.”

  Her mother gazed at her with such vulnerability, all her usual bravado stripped away like leaves in an autumn gale. “I’m your mother. I gave you the breath of life. You owe me.”

  No, I don’t.

  But Duvessa held the hunting rifle directly at Jay.

  Bile rose in August’s throat. She gave herself a little leeway because her mother was terrifying to nearly everyone. But she was so tired of kowtowing to Duvessa’s crazy demands, to backing down and submitting. “I do owe you, Mother. We will do what you want. Johan just wasn’t the right person. Jay is the right person.”

  “Jay threatened me with a pistol. Why would I trust him now?” From the grass, Willem gave a whimper. “And look at what you did to poor Willem. You could go to jail for that. I never thought you had that in you.”

  “There are two witnesses here who will say it was self-defense.” Jay’s voice was surprisingly languid.

  “It wasn’t self-defense. Willem was trying to kill a man-eating lion with that pistol.” Jay glanced over at Arlan. “I saw Willem about to kill a man.”

  “You lying piece of filth.”

  “Duvessa.” Arlan wiped the soot f
rom his forehead with his shirt. “Willem is still alive. Put the gun down and call an ambulance on your cell phone, and he might be saved. In fact…” Jay bent and pulled a cell phone out of the man’s shorts. “I’ll call them myself.”

  “Drop that fucking thing!” Duvessa pointed the gun at Jay again.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  A brown-headed kingfisher flew over the river. Its shrill whistle echoed across the plains. “I said drop it.” Duvessa’s whisper was almost drowned out by the barks of the large troop of baboons coming their way.

  Jay dropped the cell on the ground and raised his hands. “Guess you don’t care about your friend after all, Duvessa.”

  “Never mind that for now. I need you to promise you’ll help me.” She waved the gun around. “I need money, dammit.”

  She’d seen her mother almost like this before, and this was when she got the most crazy and unpredictable.

  She’s cracking up. She’s losing it.

  “Mother,” August choked out, “we will. We want to. We want to help you. Any way we can.” She consciously tried to make her voice as soft and undemanding as possible. “Please, put the gun down.”

  Duvessa’s eyes shimmered with tears of sadness or rage, but she didn’t lower the gun.

  August had to think of something to distract her mother from shooting Jay. “Look at all those baboons back there, mother. Their scientific name is Papio cynocephalus cynocephalus. Look, they’re foraging for bulbs and grass roots. They’re probably drinking at the river.”

  “What? What are you even babbling about? You know I’m not interested in your stupid animal obsession.” Duvessa didn’t even turn her head. She focused on Jay. “She was always so nerdy, unappealing and short. Practically a dwarf. I didn’t think any man would be interested in her. It’s not right, you know. In fact, it’s ridiculous, that while I’m facing bankruptcy, she finds her fated mates. And you two are rich as Midas.” Some of her normal cunning returned to her face. “But maybe I don’t even need the sex-magic. Maybe I don’t need to call up that stupid tower to get power and money.”

  August’s gut clenched. Duvessa had played with identity theft in the past to illegally get her hands on extra cash, but that had been with the death certificates of already dead people. “You’re talking about murdering Jay and stealing his identity? That won’t work, Mother. You won’t be able to kill me, for a start. You’re the one who said I was immortal. You failed to kill me with that dark dust in my food as a child. You’ll fail again.”

  A muscle twitched in her mother’s jaw. “I won’t fail.”

  August tried to make her voice soft and placating. “We can use this power to help you. Don’t be jealous of us. Just let us help you.”

  “Jealous.” Duvessa whirled around and pointed the hunting rifle straight at August. “God damn, you ungrateful brat.”

  The gun made a slick mechanical sound as Duvessa chambered a round. Fumbling with the safety catch, she fired.

  At the last millisecond, August swerved to the side. Her shoulder stung and a screeching noise rose up behind her. The sinking in her gut hurt more than the small nick of the bullet. That her own mother would actually, really shoot her filled her within describable sadness.

  August clamped a hand on her shoulder to stop the blood and tried to ignore the pain.

  Arlan raced to her side. The combination of rage at seeing her hurt and concern about the swarm of baboons fogged his mind. Only yesterday he’d read in the news about a couple of tourists attacked by baboons looking for food. He shook his head, needing to concentrate on August first. He pulled his shirt over his head and pressed it to her shoulder to stem the trickle of blood, it wasn’t serious.

  “It’s just a nick. I’m okay.”

  Arlan nodded but kept the shirt in place. He gestured at the baboons with his other hand. “Probably river guides and tourists have made them used to humans. They know they leave food around. There are an awful lot of them but if we all leave them alone they’ll leave us alone. Just let them do their thing.”

  Yellow baboons swarmed the Land Cruiser, climbing and jumping on the roof. Others tugged at the doors. About five others, led by a large male, were heading straight for them.

  Duvessa still held the gun on them but seemed shell-shocked at the sight and sound of so many baboons. One of them, a smaller one, probably a female, grabbed the back pack lying on the ground.

  “Oh, the sandwiches.” August laughed.

  “My wallet’s in there!” Duvessa screamed, grabbing at the straps.

  “Don’t fight with her! She’ll hurt you,” August shouted over the barking.

  The stupid woman continued playing tug-of-war with the baboon. “There’s two hundred dollars in there.”

  In a blur of yellowish grey fur and fangs, the biggest male rushed at Duvessa to protect his female. Leaping and baring his fangs, he slammed her head sideways with the back of his hand, then slapped her again and again, dragging her down until he was able to bite her neck. Her low scream of pain tore through the air. Duvessa stepped backward a few times, then slipped on a small rock, shrieking and falling into the Zambezi with a splash.

  It all happened so fast, Arlan could barely believe it. A hint of glistening gray-green scales rose from the water before a snout appeared. Then a crocodile grasped Duvessa’s thigh in its jaws and pulled her under.

  A dozen or more green-gray crocs appeared, but the dark fae was no longer in sight. She’d been dragged clear under the shimmering surface of the Zambezi.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Are you, all right?” Arlan whispered in her ear. August shuddered. Her whole body was still trembling. He’d insisted on doing everything for her since Jay had gone to work—made her a light dinner, run her a hot bath. Now she was sleepy. She loved sitting curled up like this in his lap. She stared out her bedroom’s large window at the azure blue of the African sky and the panoramic view of the savannah beneath.

  “Look at me.”

  She turned her head and met his gaze.

  “Are you sore anywhere but your shoulder?” He lightly touched the edge of the bandage. “I have some mild tinnitus from the sound of the gun going off, but that’s all.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had that too, but it’s not bad. Better leave off the caffeine for a while. I heard it makes it worse.”

  “Why can’t I stop shaking? It’s been hours.”

  Concern crossed his face. “It’s hardly surprising after all you’ve been through, baby girl. Listen, maybe this is still the wrong time, but I need to ask you something important. Something we’ve talked about before.”

  “You can ask me anything.”

  “Good. Okay. Do you fully believe we’re fated mates? The three of us. Or were you putting some of that on for your mother?” His voice was so sincere and full of love, it brought tears to her eyes. “Because we both just have to work on Jay now.” His eyes shone with love. “We could even make the bond stronger, maybe with a wedding.”

  “I can’t think about all that.”

  “I see. Okay.”

  But he didn’t seem okay. Anxiety churned in her belly, fear that he’d misunderstood. “I don’t think you do see. Arlan, excuse me for being a little messed up after everything that’s happened. It’s really not about you.”

  His gaze softened, and he threaded his fingers gently through her hair. “I see how much she hurt you. Every time I tell you that you’re beautiful, every time Jay or I compliment you, I see in your sad smile that you don’t believe us. You and Jay both keep putting off what the three of us could have together. There’s no reason to put it off anymore. And I think if all three of us could commit, we could make the magic work. and save those kids.” He was silent for a moment. “Do you believe I love you, August?”

  She drummed her fingers on the bedside table and stared out at the darkening blue of the sky. She was in love, but she couldn’t cope with his questions. “I do believe that you love me. But I have no idea where that leav
es the three of us, considering Jay’s issues. And it’s just really difficult not to think about my mother right now. Do you understand?”

  “Not really.” His tone was as blunt as his words. “She’s worthless.”

  “If it turns out she’s alive, I still have to deal with her.”

  He gave a slight, disappointed nod. She laid her hand on his. “I do love you. When I thought for sure she was going to kill us, I…” She gulped and pushed her shoulders back. “I thought about how you’d never touch me again. How I’d never have either of you touch me again.” She shook her head. “I swear I was more bothered about that than I was scared of dying.”

  “You’re immortal.”

  “We don’t know that for sure. My mother said she couldn’t kill me with dark dust, but I don’t know for sure that I’m immortal. But, anyway, I do love both of you. I do want to help you make the magic work. But until I know what’s happened to my mother and whether Willem is still alive, I’m not going to be able to concentrate on anything else.”

  He pulled her into his arms, pressed a kiss to her cheek and shuddered out a breath of his own. “Let us love you, hon.”

  She couldn’t find words. A tight knot twisted in her stomach, wanting release. It wasn’t easy for her to find words to respond to his compliments or his protestations of love.

  She heard Jay’s footsteps. “Jay’s home.” Arlan nodded.

  “Arlan, whatever happens, I don’t want to come between you and Jay. I couldn’t stomach that, okay?”

  “That’s not…” He trailed off when Jay entered the room.

  The foolish dread that had been waiting launched itself into her throat. “You’re home. What did the police say? Did they manage to track anything down? Did you ring the hospital about Willem?”

  A muscle in Jay’s jaw twitched. He sat beside her, touched her arm. “Yeah, we did. Sorry, baby, it’s as we thought.”

  “They’re both dead?”