by C. J. Parker
There on the mangled root base of the island stood two Shades of men. Their images shimmered like transparent reflections on water, but their form and features were clearly human. Kangee blinked twice. His brain fought to accept the images before him.
“Grandpa Dutetre?” A longing like he’d never known drew him toward them, a longing for family and acceptance. Kangee struggled against it, not trusting that this wasn’t a trick of the evil spirits to lure him into a trap. The draw was strong, his heart reaching out to accept, his brain not accepting so quickly.
“Come here, Kangee.” His grandfather held his hand outward toward him. “Your father and I can answer your questions.”
“Father?” Kangee’s saliva dried up, leaving his tongue clinging to the roof of his mouth. He wanted this to be true. He wanted to ask questions and get straight answers. Aetheria’s words returned to him in a rush. You’ll have answers to questions you never thought to ask.
The second Shade reached forth his hand, sending a glowing ember of heat that came nearer until it wrapped Kangee in a strand of power. It wound around his legs and scaled upward like vines of ivy reaching for the sunlight, until it interfaced with his chest, bracing his arms at his side. The glowing lanyard felt cool to the touch, he hyperventilated as his fright built. Were they trying to turn him into a Shade, to stay with them? He wouldn’t let them He had to return to Bobbie. “We’re not allowed on Spell Weaver’s Mangrove. I won’t let you take me.”
What would happen to Bobbie if he didn’t return? Would she think he had abandoned her? Kangee’s feet lifted off the boat’s deck, and he found himself drifting forward, hovering inches above the water. He twisted and tugged at the restraint, but resisting the invisible lanyard wrapped around his chest only succeeded in having it tighten around him. Moments later, his feet settled on a solid but uneven surface and the heat dropped away.
“Why are you afraid? You know me.” His grandfather smiled gently.
Kangee hadn’t meant to laugh, but he did. “You’re dead.”
“Yes.” Jock Dutetre’s wrinkled face saddened, and he lowered his dark brown gaze. His grandfather looked as Kangee remembered him—six feet tall, slender and straight of spine, his dark hair streaked with gray at the temples.
“Taken too soon by an Outsider.” His grandfather reached out and touched his arm with hand. Cool, wispy as air, the touch ran a surge of power through his entire body. “A very powerful man who wants to destroy all our kind. One of our own betrays us. A spy lives among the clan. The time of the prophecy has come. The queen’s king must be cleansed as she was cleansed, marked as she was marked. Some want to stop the prophecy. Want things to continue as they are. Even now, they search for you.”
Kangee drew his knife and whipped around.
“Calm yourself. No one will find Spell Weaver’s Mangrove or your boat until you’re ready.” The other Shade stood tall and straight, pride in his stance. His eyes were like black voids of controlled rage, but his expression filled with concern.
“What is your name?” Kangee’s voice shook. If this was his father, why did he keep his distance while he let his grandfather’s cool touch chill his arm? Kangee knew he would be told the truth—according to the laws of the shifters, the Shades could not deceive the living when asked a question. Kangee waited for that truth.
“Ashe Ansgar, Norseman warrior, and your father.” He knelt and bowed at Kangee’s feet. “I did not leave you and your mother willingly. If nothing else, please believe that of me.”
“Mother told me, do not worry about my feelings for you, Father.” Kangee touched his father’s shoulder with his fingertips. “I’m happy to see both of you, but I have to ask, why did you bring me here?”
Ashe rose facing Kangee. “I made the mistake of leaving the village of our people, looking for adventure. I was so sure the outside world and the humans living in it would accept us if they only knew we existed. Second mistake, falling in love with an Outsider named Katherine, a woman married to a man her father chose. Third mistake, letting someone from our village see us together so she could tell Katherine’s husband.”
A wave of suspicion settled over Kangee’s thoughts. “Who did this?”
“Shanay Mansel.” Ashe spoke the name with so much venom it scorched the air with its intensity.
“Omeda’s mother? But why?” Kangee thought he knew the answer before his father replied.
“Shanay wanted to be my mate.”
“Like mother, like daughter,” Kangee muttered. “What happened?”
“Katherine’s husband lost his senses and nearly killed her, and would’ve if I hadn’t come when I did. I killed him. I had no choice.” He hung his head as if expecting Kangee to chastise him. “A year later, Katherine and I had a son and were going to marry, but when she told her brother, he killed her rather than see her joined with a shifter.”
A stab of pity shot through Kangee’s chest for his father’s grief. He didn’t think he could survive if anything happened to Bobbie. “I’m sorry.”
“The boy?” The idea that he had a brother seeped into his thoughts with a mixture of awe and anger. Kangee fisted his hands at his sides, a moment of grief knotting in his gut for a bit of family he’d never been given a chance to know. More secrets. More lies. Why hadn’t Aetheria told him?
“Her brother stole him away.” Grief etched his father’s voice. “I met your mother while she wandered the world trying to hide who and what she was. Aetheria was the sunshine missing in my world after Katherine died. She brought laughter and love with just a smile and a soft-spoken word. We married soon after, and she gave me another son and swore no one would ever take him away from me. I named you Kangee Ansgar. Kangee for the raven you would become, and Ansgar so you would always be known as my son.”
He reached out and laid his hand on Kangee’s shoulder. The touch hummed with Ashe’s power as if he were plugged into a low power electrical socket. “Aetheria was the first to realize you were the raven mentioned in prophecy and knew we had to protect you from any harm. We had a good life for a while.”
Ashe gazed off in the distance as if his past played out before his eyes. “Aetheria and I thought we could hide from the world, from our enemies. But Katherine’s brother found us living in Baton Rouge. I wanted to move farther away, but Aetheria refused to run again. She said it was time to return to my village so you could be brought up among your own kind. So, I sent you and your mother back to the village so you could live your life in peace. I had intended to try¼”
His grandfather stepped forward. “But now the Guardians know about the village and won’t stop until our kind are gone.”
Kangee’s throat tightened as he remembered Bobbie mentioning the Guardians and their plan for the shifters. “Who is this Outsider? And what is my brother’s name?”
“In due time, Grandson. Now you must become Robertina’s true mate.”
Out of the stand of trees, a gathering of Spirit Warriors appeared, each drew a sword from shouldered hilts and surrounded Kangee. Their magic seeped into his skin, a stinging tingle of power so intense Kangee’s knees threatened to buckle. One by one, they stepped up behind him. “Seed from Ansgar, Warrior Norse, Man of the Sword and the prophecy’s edge.” Each touched his long blade to Kangee’s back searing his skin.
When the last of the warriors stepped away, Kangee fell on all fours trying to shift to quicken the healing and stop this torture. The shift would not come. Had they taken his animal away from him? Would Bobbie still accept him if he could no longer shift? He gnashed his teeth together, refusing to scream out. He rose into the air, instantly overcome with vertigo. The world spun, his stomach heaved.
Invisible hands touched his back with cool fingers of death chilling him to his soul. His body twisted and turned, contorting into impossible positions, bones popped, his skin stretched, nearly tearing away from muscle and sinew. He landed hard on all fours, and reached over his shoulder to pull away the hot heaviness that weighed
upon his back. His hand lay flat against his burning skin and was filled with the hilt of a sword. Grabbing the hilt, he pulled it up and forward. Flames flew from its blade in an arc over the warriors’ heads. They knelt before him and the red and blue flames circled the warriors, his father and his grandfather before retreating back inside the weapon in his hand.
“You cannot do injury to any but those who mean you or your loved ones harm, as Robertina cannot call her dragons except in time of dire threat.” His father bowed his head in respect.
Kangee lovingly ran his fingertips over the claymore’s sharp double-edged blade and its hilt, shaped in a perfect replica of Bobbie’s dragons. A moment of pride rush up his spine with spider–like feet.
He and his lifemate were Cain’s Dragons, the protectors of their kind.
They were meant to be at each other’s side forevermore. Happiness like Kangee had never known could exist filled his heart and mind. He’d never be alone again.
“Robertina holds both the power of the sword and the power of peace. Her arms offer the embrace of a mother, her dragons the flame of destruction. Your sword will protect her and those who stand with you.”
The claymore flew out of Kangee’s hand and once again burned itself into the surface of his back, and left shoulder, searing his skin once again. He ran his fingertips over the area¾smooth, no sign of the sword. He raised himself onto his knees and looked around. The warriors were gone, his father and grandfather stood a few feet away. The midday’s sun dappled light though the overhead canopy. He figured less than an hour had passed since he’d been drawn onto the island.
“The sword will be there only when needed.” Ashe stepped forward and gripped Kangee’s shoulder. “We must leave now. Your mother will tell you more. She could not tell you before now. You’re my son, an Ansgar. Reclaim that name.” He looked toward the shoreline where the village lay behind the cover of trees and Spanish moss. “Tell Aetheria I love her, and I wait for her.”
The Shades faded in a shimmer of light. His father’s voice drifted out of the shadows. “Be aware of your surroundings and who is in your midst. Trust few and hold near those whom you do. Some will betray you, some will turn back to your cause. The spy must be purged. The queen’s friends, Fire Maker and Caller of the Dead, are not your foes, and you will need their powers. Never forget I love you, Kangee.”
A dull buzz filled Kangee’s head, his vision darkened and his knees buckled.
Opening his eyes, he saw that he lay on the inside of the boat as it coasted up the outlet leading to the village’s hidden dock. After mooring the boat to a post, Kangee pulled his shirt from the bench and tossed it over his shoulder. He stepped from the boat, turning at the sound of thrashing coming from the hold. He lifted the cover to find it filled with fish.
A noise behind him caught his attention, and he turned to find Cuda and his band of malcontents on the shore.
“So, they sent you out all alone, Kangee?” Cuda’s words preceded his appearance as he ambled into the open. “Do they take me so lightly? Or revere you so highly?”
Kangee stepped onto the pier. “They sent me to gather fish. Does that sound like reverence to you? What do you want, Cuda?” He glanced around, estimating twelve men stood with Cuda. He nearly groaned with fatigue, weary of fighting. “Do you fear me so that you think it will take so many of you to best me?”
Cuda’s followers emerged from the woodland, each staring him directly in the eyes, daring him to attack.
Omeda swaggered to Cuda’s side and ran her tongue over his cheek, all the while staring at Kangee.
Cuda smiled.
Kangee laid his right arm over his chest, touched his left shoulder and grimaced at the sting of the claymore emerging from beneath his skin.
He waved the claymore in front of him, testing the feel of it in his hand. The balance was perfect, it’s weight comfortable. Flames licked the air and hissed. The ten shifters that created a half circle in front of him backed away.
“The Dragon of Cain.” Dexter, a bobcat shifter with less gumption than brains, backed away followed closely by the others. “I ain’t getting mixed up in this, Cuda. This is prophecy shit you’re messin’ with. Besides, my wife, Manny, went out hunting this morning, and she’s not returned. I’m going to go look for her.”
The sword flew out of Kangee’s hands and retreated once more into its sheath. Nearly every muscle in Kangee’s body relaxed. He drew a deep cleansing breath.
Kangee’s shoulders rolled forward, and a fine layer of oil oozed from his pores milliseconds before his feathers sprang forth. He lowered his head and the sound of his bones cracking and scraping against each other grated in his ears. He gritted his teeth against the sting as the feather quills pricked at the still raw wound on his back.
“Run, you damned cowards! I don’t need you to take care of this overgrown turkey.” Cuda jumped forward with an instantaneous shift from human to coyote ripping at his clothing with sharp teeth.
Omeda leaped backward before turning and running into the swamplands. “Kill him, Cuda. If he is dead, that Bitch will leave forever. We’ll be king and queen. Kill him.”
Cuda’s eyes were open wide, his nostrils flared.
“Not so brave when it’s one-on-one?”
A low chuckle hissed between Cuda’s canine teeth. He crouched and leapt into the air to attack. Kangee spread his legs and crouched, ready for the attack but Cuda was body slammed from the side and trapped against the ground with a panther’s teeth clamped around his throat.
“Bobbie!” The pressure in Kangee’s head threatened to crack his skull. “Stay out of this.”
Bobbie shook her head violently flinging Cuda’s from side to side, stopping only when Kangee gently laid his hand on her shoulder. The heat of her anger nearly scorched the palm of his hand.
“Stop. He’s not fighting back, you’ve won.” With a snort and growl, she opened her jaw and Cuda’s limp body fell to the ground and shifted. She slunk backward, still wary. The panther stood on her back legs to her full height, muscles rolled, fur retreated, bones reshaped. Bobbie raked her hair away from her face and stared down at Cuda’s prone body. “Get up. I didn’t hurt you that badly.”
Cuda stood, blood running from his wounds. “I do not obey a queen I do not recognize.” He ran into the woods.
Lexie led Tabatha and Rhonda through the tree line onto the shore.
“Are you okay? Do you need help?” Tabatha ran her hands over Bobbie’s nude body as if checking for wounds.
Bobbie drew a few greedy gasps of air, bent at the waist and braced herself on her knees. “Tab, can you give Kangee and me some privacy?”
Tabatha’s cheeks blossomed red. “This is the thanks we get for running though these damned bushes to find you? If it hadn’t been for Lexie, we’d never have even known where to look. You’re either going to stop running off and leaving Rhonda and me to fend for ourselves or we’re going home. Got it?”
“Got it. But that’s not what I meant.” Bobbie shook her head. “I mean privacy. You know.” Bobbie straightened and waved her hands in an arch around herself.
Tabatha slid her backpack from her shoulders and pulled out two vials. “I added some nightshade plants to the mixture. It should block out everything but a dim amount of light. It’ll only last about an hour.” With a few words and an upward swing of the magical mixture, a dark shaded dome encased Kangee and Bobbie in its center.
Chapter Eight
Bobbie inhaled deeply then released the breath in a slow seductive whisper. “Come here, Kangee.” The adrenaline rush of seeing Cuda ready to attack left Bobbie with too much energy and she know exactly how she wanted to work it off.
Kangee walked the perimeter of the protective shield, running his fingertips against its surface. The muscle in his jaw ticked. He turned his head with a snap. “Don’t you ever do that again, Robertina. Cuda will go back to his camp and tell everyone I couldn’t protect you.”
“Don’t be su
ch a hypocrite.” She ran her fingernails down his chest to his stomach. The late afternoon sun had moved below the treetops leaving the enclosure in a seductive dim glow. “You insist on protecting me. Well, honey, I’m going to protect you right back. Accept it, Captain Kangaroo. I’m as strong and powerful a shifter as you. We are equal.”
Clenching his fists at his sides, he opened his mouth as if to argue.
Bobbie skimmed her hands from her cheek to her throat before continuing down her naked body, pausing at her breast’s taut nipple and tracing it with one nail before moving her fingers’ seductive dance toward her stomach. Her gaze traveled an identical trail along his hard chest down his flat, toned stomach to his hardening erection.
Kangee gasped at the show she performed before him.
“Perfection.” Not a scar, not a blemish ruined his body. “Tabatha said we only have an hour. Do you want to spend it fighting with me? Especially in an argument you know you aren’t going to win.”
His smile was slow to come but warmed and chilled her simultaneously. The anger in his eyes gave way to a tenderness that heated her blood. Bobbie walked closer, coming within reaching distance, but pushed his hands away when he tried to touch her. “Not yet. I want to look at you. Let me explore you. I’ve dreamed of this moment so many times.”
Longing to touch him, she raked her nails in a sensual track down his chest, felt each muscle ripple at her caress. She grasped one of his nipples between her teeth, flicked her tongue in a quick tease then drew his nipple between her lips and suckled. Satisfied with the low rumbling growl deep in Kangee’s throat, she closed her eyes and moved to stand behind him, her face close to his skin, drawing in his manly scent, his taste. She wrapped her arms around his waist and nipped the skin between his neck and shoulder.
Kangee threw his head back, blanketing her in his long black straight hair. He slid his hands behind him and grasped her hips pulling her closer. A trembling sigh escaped his lips. “I…”
“Shh. For once, let a woman take charge, Kangee. Let me love you.” She moved away, though every cell craved the heat of his nearness. Bending her knees, she skimmed her lips down his damp skin until her face was even with his buttocks, kissed each one tenderly, all the while bringing her hand up between his legs to cup him.