“Nay. You should be bowing before me, queen of the witches. We both know that I have an army at my beck and call.” Reaching beyond where they stood, Bryce found the faerie queen and begged her forgiveness, but said she needed her help. As soon as she appeared before March, the banished faerie fell to the floor. “You come to her aid, but when I needed you, you ignored my pleas for help?”
“I come to her because she has not tried to have me murdered in my gardens. Bryce, a Frost witch of great standing and good morals, hasn’t tried to kill millions of my kind in the name of making herself queen. No, I did not come to your aid because it was a trap—a trap to not only kill your queen, but to kill many of your own kind.” The faerie was changed into her true self. “What did you hope to gain by taking on a witch? This witch in particular? I’m assuming that she asked you to stand down, that she gave you a chance to live another day?”
“You wish to kill me?” That was the only thing that the faerie got out of what she had been asked. Not answering the questions so that she might well live another day but knowing that the queen was actually thinking of ending her life. “You cannot. I will not allow you to take out one such as myself.”
“Noah, come forth.” The man from the castle was suddenly in the room, and with him were Bryce’s mom and another man. “This faerie has caused you much trouble. She has threatened what is yours that you’ve yet to claim. She and her kind have destroyed fields of food for the others. Poisoned waterways in the name of justice—a justice that I do not understand. You have all rights, Noah Farley, Earl of Dragons Keep, Lord to the Sheppard lands, to do with her as you would see fit.”
Bryce was confused. The man was an earl, as well as a lord. Why was he hanging around a castle, that by all rights belonged to him, and not claiming it? Then there was the fact that the queen had said that he’d yet to claim something. When it occurred to her what she might be talking about, her magic holding March slipped.
~*~
Noah didn’t laugh. He wanted to, badly, but he was slightly afraid that if he did it again, she’d do as she’d threatened and knock his head off. Not that she could, but he wasn’t willing to take any chances with Bryce. As Donald, Devon’s physician, stitched up the wound on her shoulder, Noah thought of what she had said to him after the faerie had been destroyed.
“I will not be a mate to you.” Noah had wisely said nothing. At least he had thought it was wise. “Did you hear me? Or did you hit your head harder than I had hoped?”
“You wish me harm? Nay, I don’t believe that. But no, I didn’t hurt my head. I’m simply trying to judge how angry you are so that you don’t hurt me. Again.” She growled at him and then cried out in pain. “You might think that you’re very bad assed when you do that, but I simply find you adorable. Does your mother know how cute you are when you’re upset? Oh, by the way, she’s lying down upstairs. I think all this must have— I cannot believe how adorable you are.”
“Noah, I don’t think you’re helping.” He looked over at Devon, who was also having a hard time keeping a straight face. “She’s saved us a great deal of grief today, and I think perhaps we should be grateful rather than pissing her off.”
“My goodness.” He looked up, being pulled from his thoughts when Grandma Susanna spoke. “I know who you are, don’t I? My goodness child, but you have grown into a great beauty. How are your father and mother?”
“My father is dead.” No one said anything, but the elderly Frost woman hit Bryce on the shoulder. “Well he is, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is, but I think you could say that a good deal nicer. After all, that young man there saved your mother’s life.” Bea huffed before continuing. “And when I asked him why he’d not taken over and kept you safe, do you know what he said? That you had it covered. Well, that should get him points in the right direction.”
“Why don’t you all go away and let me rest?” This time Noah did laugh. “And what the fuck do you find so funny? And I swear to you, Grandma, you hit me again and I’ll go back to the States and hide from you all.”
“Like you could do that. You’re my flesh and blood, child.” Bea stood up and so did he. “You’re a good man, Noah. And I’m sorry to tell you this, but you are going to have your hands full with this one. By the way, your parents—I was very sorry to hear about their demise. That shouldn’t have happened to such good people.”
“Thank you.” He hugged her. When everyone had left the room but Bryce, himself, and Donald, he waited while he finished bandaging her up and left before he spoke again. “I’m assuming that you understand that we’re mated.”
“No—what I understand is that you think we’re mated. I have no desire to be mated. Not at the moment, nor anytime in the future. I have enough going on right now with every fucking witch in the world coming to try and knock me off so they can have my power.”
“I got a part of it too.” She looked at him, and even though she looked to understand what he meant, Noah explained. “I got a portion of the faerie’s magic when you did. I wasn’t sure that there was any to be had, but I got a bit of it.”
“I didn’t want you to kill her. Not just you, but anyone. I doubt that she’d have changed her ways, but I always hope they will.” Noah nodded as Bryce struggled to stand up. He stood to help her, but she waved him off. “This is your home. Why was my grandma able to get it, and why did it go so cheaply?”
“My parents were fucked over, much like your father was. Not by the council, but someone just as much a pain in the ass. They were living their life like they had for hundreds of years, taking in stray dragons that needed a place to stay for one reason or the other, and giving enough of themselves to heal the community, as well as the town itself. One day a larger dragon came through the town, decided that he loved the home as much as we did, and decided to take it. And to do that, he killed my father. My mom died of a broken heart. But in the end, he didn’t get the castle either.”
“You killed him.” He told her that Devon had. “I see. And Devon, he’s something more than your run-of-the-mill dragon.”
“Yes, he’s a marquess.” She asked how that made a difference. “Like you being powerful because of your magic, because of his title and his magic—not to mention money—he was able to take on the man and end his life. Sadly, however, he couldn’t own the castle that was deemed a dragons’ keep, and I could no longer own it because my father, rightly so, lost it when our accountant said he was paying the taxes on it and decided to take off with the money instead.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Noah shrugged and told her that he was sure she had just as many stupid rules of her kind. “Yes, well, you have a point there. I am sorry to hear about them. My father lost his life to a busybody. The council did it—the Witches’ Council—but he lost it all the same. A dragon ended his life.”
“I heard.” He would have heard much more if he’d not been grieving for the loss of his parents at the time. “Your mother—she’s not a witch, is she?”
“No. She married my father as a human. Mom is much more than that now, thanks mostly to what Grandma and I have given her.” She moved out of the room she was in, which also happened to have been his bedroom when he lived here. “I don’t want you hanging around here. You and I—while it sounds great to have you as a mate, I just don’t want you around to have to pick up the pieces after something happens to me.”
“Nothing will.” She was three steps down when she stopped to turn to him. “I didn’t do anything to change you, but you’re not going to be harmed by any witches that come for you. Didn’t you hear what Dawn said about you? You’re the queen of witches.”
“I’ve heard that before.” She continued down the stairs, talking to him as she went. Noah followed, having no choice in the matter. And he found that he didn’t care. Wherever she went, he was going too. In the kitchen, Noah asked her why she didn’t believe it. “Today, when that faerie was ready to remove my head, I had to call on help to
take care of her. Not just for my mom—and thank you for that—but with the faerie herself. I couldn’t have done it on my own.”
“Yes, you could have. And I think you know that. However, it doesn’t make you a weak witch to have to call for help. It makes you a smart one. Also, someone that doesn’t get in over her head about magic.” She snorted at him and opened the brand-new refrigerator. Blue plastic was still covering a great deal of it. “That should be empty, right? Why have one at all if you can fill it at whim?”
“It’s not for us, it’s for nosey people—you, in case you’re wondering. What do you want to eat? I can make you just about anything. I’m having a roast beef sandwich on rye.” He told her that he’d have the same. “I don’t do chips or stuff like that. If, however, you think of something you’d like to have with your meal, it’ll be in the cabinet above the fridge.”
He really didn’t want anything except the sandwich and to be able to sit with her a while and talk. But thinking of something that he’d not had in ages, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to find it in the cabinet just where she’d said it would be. Pulling down the onion flavored rings, he sat down at the table and asked for some tea.
Noah ate about half of his food before he spoke again. He wanted to know all about her and her family but started telling her about his own. When his glass was empty, he started to stand to refill both their glasses when she touched her finger to his. As the glass filled, Noah laughed again.
“You find a great many things humorous, don’t you? I mean, you laugh at the strangest things. Up on the roof, I had a feeling that you didn’t do that much—laugh, I mean. But now you seem to do it all the time.” Noah told her that he’d not had a very good life up until now. “Yeah, me either. I love my mom and grandma. They’ve been there for me when I’ve fallen on my face. But it’s also been difficult where we lived before. Changing ourselves to meet their expectations was difficult, to say the least—our not growing old. I have a feeling that it’s not going to matter all that much to the people around here, is it?”
“No, so long as you don’t hurt them in any way—not with their livelihoods nor their own lives. They pretty much keep to themselves. Devon, he lives nearby, but not within this community. He is a good man, better than his father ever was. Now he was a horrific man.”
“Grandma told me what she’d been able to find out about the dragons around here.” Noah asked her why she didn’t care for dragons. “I think, and you are a prime example of this, they’re overbearing. I guess that’s wrong too. I don’t know. It has nothing to do with the death of my father, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just have never had a fondness for them.”
“And me? Me being a dragon, is that going to be an issue for you?” Bryce asked him why, was he going to change himself? “No, that’s not what I meant. If you’re afraid of me, then I’ll tread carefully when I shift. If you hate my kind, I’ll do the same. But if it’s something that I can change your mind about, then I’d like to be able to do that. If you’ll allow it.”
Bryce stood up, gathering the plates as she did. Instead of washing them or even loading them into the new dishwasher that was there, she simply put then on the counter and they put themselves away, clean and dried.
“Dragons have a great many parts to them that a witch like me could use for casting and such. What do you think would happen if someone came gunning for me, and found out that a very old and powerful dragon was her mate?” He nodded, understanding more than he could explain to her at the moment. “So, this other witch, or warlock, they come here knowing that if they kill me, or my grandmother—who is a great witch herself—then they’d get more than they bargained for; or for that matter, could have thought of getting. What I mean is, they’d have the means to make some very powerful and very deadly magic, because they’d have us both.”
“No, they’d never get past me to get to either you or your grandmother.” Bryce told him he was missing the point. “I don’t think so. I might give you the impression that I’m sort of laid back. But having you as my mate, that’s a game changer for me. Basically, you’d be my priority, over myself.”
“I don’t want that.” Noah told her it was much too late for that. “If you get hurt, for any reason, I’d never forgive myself.”
“Because you feel responsible for your father’s death.” He watched her struggle with what he’d said. He’d known, even before speaking to Laura, that Bryce blamed herself for her dad’s death. “You couldn’t have known that the neighbor next to you wasn’t complaining at all. It was all made up. Black is a liar and a cheat. Killing your father was no more something that needed to be done than him asking for you to leave your mother behind. The other two should have known that. That’s why there is always an alternate to fill the space.”
“But Father’s dead. Because I wanted to be the best there was.” He asked her if she was. “Yes. I’m the strongest witch there is.”
Chapter 3
The gardens were coming along. Bea had started out slowly on them, not wanting to draw too much attention to the fact that she was helping them along. But when Noah had shown up with his faerie William, she had made it just what she wanted, even planting most of the herb seeds that she’d been gifted in the much larger garden.
“You need a tractor.” Smiling, she looked at Laura. “I didn’t think it was this big when you started back here. But I can see now that you have not just a larger garden, but a drying house as well.”
“I do, thanks in part to Noah. Did you know that this was his home at one time? He told me that this garden was a favorite of his mothers. And up the hill there is another one, filled with the wild things that she couldn’t bring down here.” Laura sat on the bench that Bea had put in just that morning. “What brings you away from your new kitchen? I’m assuming that it has something to do with the dragon or your daughter.”
“Both, actually. She’s trying her best to keep him at arm’s length. I don’t think it’s going to work. He’s going to charm his way to her.” Bea didn’t think that would work very well either, but let Laura continue. “I’ve invited him to live in the castle with us. I know that I should have asked you first—it does belong to you—but it seems important to us all, for some reason, that he lives here too. He’s already putting his things in the master suite. Have I messed up?”
“No. He should be here, for no other reason than to keep Bryce on her toes. She’s not going to be happy with you when she finds out. So if I were you, I’d tell her that I did it. She’ll be pissy, but it won’t hurt you so badly when she walks away from you.” Laura said that she could handle Bryce on this. “Perhaps you can. I’ve noticed that about you lately. You’re stronger since coming here. I don’t mean you just standing up to Bryce—you did that before—but you seem able to be physically stronger too. You’ve still not told her, have you?”
“No. I know that she needs to know, but I’m enjoying having her so close to me again. I’m afraid that when she does find out, she’ll have me to every doctor on the planet. I don’t want her doing that either.” Bea could understand that too. Bryce would only want the best for her mother. “I never thought, when I was made an immortal, that it only meant that I’d be around for a long time, but I could still get sick. Cancer wasn’t something that I’d counted on.”
“No one counts on cancer, Laura. I’m sure that everyone that hears that they have it feels the same way that you do about it. It’s a nasty business. I’ve seen firsthand what it can do to a person and their body.” She’d watched a great many women pass from the ravaging disease. Her work at the hospice center had taken its toll on her. “You should tell her. I don’t know what she would be able to do but knowing about it before too much longer will go a long way in having time to deal with this all.”
“Tell Bryce what?” Noah sat down on the bench and smiled at the two of them. “My mom would be so proud of this. And jealous. She always wanted a nice sized garden, but she also didn’t have much in th
e way of time to deal with it. Mom had all these social things that she was working on. Mostly for the new school when it had been built. You don’t have cancer anymore, Laura.”
The change in the subject was quick, and he stood up and stretched before making his way up the little path that she’d found yesterday. It led to the other garden, one that had been in much better shape, as well as size. As soon as Noah was out of sight, Bea looked at Laura’s stunned face.
“Do you think he’s right?” Bea told her that there wasn’t any way for her to know if he was or not. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t have to tell Bryce if he was correct. “What did he do? I mean, obviously he knew that I had it. What do you suppose he did to make it so I don’t anymore?”
“Now don’t go getting your hopes up. He might not be able to tell that you even have it.” Laura looked so crestfallen that Bea felt horrible for her words. “I’m sorry, Laura, but he’s a dragon, not a physician. We’ll have to wait and see.”
“I’m going to go and talk to him.” Laura stood up, and Bea wanted to tell her to see a doctor first. “He might only be a dragon, but there is more to him than I think we see. Or that he allows us to see. At least for now.”
Bea thought that she was right but didn’t get the chance to say anything when Laura took off on the path. Whatever happened would happen, she knew this. And to interfere would mean that someone would have to pay.
Bryce would have taken the cancer away from her mom, Bea knew this. She also knew that Bryce would pay the price of her kind if she did. You could not be selfish as a witch. Never heal yourself, never do things for personal gain, and never, under any circumstances, were you to interfere with the death of a loved one. That, she knew, Bryce would overlook when it came to her mom’s health. She supposed that was the main reason that she’d never gone to her and told her about her mom.
Noah: House of Wilkshire ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 3
