by Quinn Loftis
“What are the consequences, Perizada?” This time Lucian’s voice was out loud.
Peri grumbled under her breath and let out an exasperated huff before she answered. “In order for us to get a lock on the gypsy healers, Rachel and Sally both will have to open their bonds up to the magic of the other healers. They will create a mental link with them.”
“Why?” he asked, clearly unhappy about her explanation.
“If we weren’t mated it wouldn’t work,” Rachel answered. “There has to be a mental bond connection. Because we already have that opening through our mate bonds, we can use it to latch onto the magic that lives inside the minds of the healers.”
“There is no other way?” Lucian asked.
Rachel shook her head. “Not that I could find.”
“How does your mate feel about this?” Costin growled.
“He isn’t happy but he’s accepted that it is part of the role I play as a healer.”
“Costin,” Sally’s sweet voice seemed to bring the growing tension down several notches. “They will all be female. And it’s not like they are going to know that there is a mental link open. They aren’t going to hurt me.”
“It’s sacred, Sally mine,” Costin’s voice lost most of its growl as he talked to his mate. “It’s only supposed to be between a male and his female.”
“Well, I’m sorry but you aren’t just mated to a female, you’re mated to a healer.”
Their eyes stayed locked and Peri could tell they were using their bond to speak privately. She turned to look at Rachel and saw that she had was almost finished setting up an assortment of plants and liquids. It looked like some elaborate experiment. Which, Peri supposed in some ways it was.
“Peri, please let him in,” Sally turned to look at her. “He’s not going to keep me from doing what I need to, but he needs to be in here. Please.”
Peri looked at Costin who was still staring at his mate. The longing in his eyes was desperate enough to even pierce Peri’s usually impassive heart. She knew it had been cruel to keep Costin from entering, especially when weeks ago he had watched his mate die before his eyes. Costin had become a tad clingy since Sally’s death. Thanks to the Great Luna, she didn’t stay dead long, but it had been enough to do quite a number on the young wolf.
She waved her hand and the invisible barrier was gone. Costin was through the door way wrapping his arms around Sally before she could even blink. Lucian also entered, though in a calmer fashion than the other male. He walked straight over to Peri, ran a gentle finer across her cheek before turning and facing Costin, keeping his body between his mate’s and the emotional male wolf.
“Sally, are you ready?” Rachel asked.
Sally gave Costin a reassuring smile before walking over to stand next to the other healer.
“You two will not interfere,” Peri narrowed her eyes at Costin and Lucian, who had turned slightly so he could see her while still keeping Costin in his sights.
“Don’t make it necessary for me to interfere,” Costin challenged.
“I will only stand for so much disrespect towards my mate, young one.” Lucian’s voice was low as he watched Costin. His words and the effort in which he spoke them were calculated and even had a chill running down Peri’s spine.
“Enough!” Rachel growled. “We are not in danger. Costin, I understand that you are especially overprotective of Sally, but please trust me.” She turned to the other problem in the room and huffed, “Peri, quit baiting the wolves.”
Peri shrugged, looking bored as she leaned against the counter and proceeded to watch as the two healers began to mix the herbs and liquids.
Twenty minutes later both healers held small glasses of smoking liquid.
Sally looked at the glass in her hand with a pinched expression. “Well,” she held the glass up, “bottoms up.” She downed the fluid in one big gulp and then slammed the glass down onto the table. She shook her head as her mouth took on the tight look of someone who had just sucked on a lemon.
Rachel followed suit and downed her own drink, and held her own sour face when the liquid was gone.
Peri waited, standing as still as a statue along with Costin and Lucian. They stared at the two females, waiting—for what they weren’t sure.
“How do you feel, Sally?” Costin spoke up finally, his eyes imploring his mate to be unharmed.
“Aside from a nasty taste in my mouth, I feel,” Sally was on her knees with her hands pressed to her head before she could finish what she was about to say. Rachel was right behind her. Both women let out cries of pain and Costin was by Sally’s side in an instant.
Peri started towards Rachel but was pushed out of the way by a large form. Gavril had come crashing into the room like a gale force wind. Peri backed up quickly and found herself pressed against a familiar chest.
“Are they going to be alright?” Lucian whispered in her ear.
“I,” Peri started but then her mouth snapped shut. She didn’t know what to say. She and Rachel had no way of knowing what would happen when they performed the spell. Magic was sometimes volatile and unpredictable, but usually gypsy healer magic wasn’t dangerous.
Sally squeezed her eyes closed as she struggled to gain control of the thoughts ripping through her mind. After the initial onslaught she had figured out what the pain was. It was emotions, too many all at once bombarding her brain like a deadly assault. She needed to just slow everything down and then hit the mute button. She tried to focus only on the thoughts and images in her mind and gradually the pain began to subside and she was able to use her own magic to compartmentalize the new information.
“What is that?” Costin’s voice broke through her concentration.
“You can hear them?” She asked him.
“Female voices, too many of them,” he confirmed.
“Five to be exact,” Sally clarified.
“Yes, well, that’s five too many. There should only be yours.” She felt Costin’s hand on her back rubbing her gently and she leaned into his touch. She found she was able to handle the chaos of the voices much better when he was touching her.
“You could have just told me you wanted me to touch you more, beautiful,” he teased, “You didn’t have to go and open up our mental bond to a bunch of strangers to get it.”
“That just sounds so bad,” Sally groaned out loud and felt her cheeks warm.
“Whatever do you mean, Sally mine?”
“Costin, shut up,” Sally said dryly.
He grinned at her, his dimple making an appearance as he pulled her into his arms. Sally looked over at Rachel who was also in the arms of her mate. Their eyes met and Sally could see that Rachel was experiencing the same sort of invasion that she was.
“You alright?” She asked the other healer.
Rachel nodded. “I forget how busy the minds of adolescents are.”
“It worked,” Peri piped in seeing that the two healers where no longer writhing in pain. “You connected with them?”
Both healers nodded.
“Great, where are they?” Peri asked as she stepped away from Lucian and rubbed her hands together eagerly.
Sally rolled her eyes. “That’s not how it works Peri.”
Peri huffed. “Fine, tell me how it works then, Sally, because I need five healers as of yesterday. So could you please enlighten me as to how we figure out where they are?”
“We’re going to have to do a little digging in their minds because short of them thinking my name is Jane Doe Healer and I live at 500 Easy To Find Avenue, the information isn’t just laying out there on the surface.”
Peri’s head tilted to the side as she eyed the young healer, she let out a snort of laughter. “I think death agreed with you because you are a lot funnier since you came back.”
Costin let out a low growl.
“Oh put a bone in it flea bag,” Peri waved him off, “It was compliment, and she isn’t going to just drop dead because I brought it up.”
“Peri please try and play nice,” Sally begged.
“Nice is so over rated,” Peri grumbled. She turned away from Sally who was consoling her mate and noticed that Lucian was staring at her. “What?” She asked him.
“You’re breathtaking,” he told her simply.
Peri didn’t know how he did it, but just two words from him and she found the ache inside of her for him growing painfully larger. His lips tilted up ever so slightly and she knew that he completely understood the effect he was having on her.
Movement on the other side of the room caught her attention and she turned away from the mesmerizing gaze that was her mate.
Rachel had grabbed a piece of paper and handed it along with a pen to Sally, and then gathered the same for herself. They both stood, leaning over the table with pen and paper, their eyes closed clearly concentrating. Sweat broke out on both of their brows as they began to feverishly write. Several minutes of silence went by when Gavril finally said, “Enough, Rachel.”
It was then that Peri noticed that Rachel had blood dripping from her nose. She stood up straight and Gavril pressed a handkerchief to her face to help stop the bleeding. Sally too had blood coming from her nose and Costin was attempting to help her staunch the flow.
Peri waited as patiently as she could as the two women collected themselves.
“Okay, for now this is what we have, Peri,” Rachel spoke up. “Basically I told Sally to find a name and once she had a name she wrote it down. I then thought of that name until I connected to the mind it went with. We both focused solely on that one female and sought out as much information from her as we could without alarming her to our presence in her mind and without separating ourselves from our own bodies.”
“Is that a possibility?” Peri asked.
“I didn’t think so, until I actually tried to search inside of someone other than my mate’s mind. Now I believe that it is a distinct possibility, especially with our bond so stretched,” she explained. “If these females were aware of the magic that lives inside of them they could use it against us with the mental bond open between us.”
“Well, let’s try and keep them from ever being aware of your presence then,” Peri agreed. “So, now that we are aware of what not to do, tell me what you got.”
Rachel looked down at the piece of paper and began to read what she had written. “Anna, New Orleans, Little Shop of Horrors, lonely.”
“I feel like I should respond to that with something like; What is an American gypsy teenager?” Peri said with a snort.
“Well it’s not like she thinks in complete sentences or full paragraphs. Basically we were pulling stuff out of her memories,” Rachel told her.
Sally nodded. “We’re lucky we got that much. Her magic is strong.”
Peri looked from Rachel to Sally as she took in the information she’d just been given and realized she was going to have to make a change of plans.
“Okay Sally, I understand that you want to be here to take care of Jacque,”
“Peri we aren’t going to go over this again,” Sally interrupted.
Peri held up her hand to stop the healer from saying anything more. “As I was saying, I understand that you want to be here for Jacque because of the pregnancy and I agree a healer should stay but I don’t think it should be you.”
“I agree,” Rachel spoke up. “You are an American, and you are young enough to be able to relate to these girls,” Rachel continued. “It only makes sense that you would be the one to help Peri convince these girls to trust her. I mean let’s face it, Peri by herself will most likely have the girls running in the opposite direction.”
Sally laughed at that. “Too true. Okay,” she let out a deep breath. “I understand what you’re saying and I can’t say that I disagree with your logic. So Rachel, you are going to stay here and take care of my best friend?”
“She is pack, Sally. I will always take care of pack. You need not worry about her,” Rachel reassured her.
Sally turned to look at Costin who still had his arms securely wrapped around her. “How do you feel about taking a little vacation to America?”
“I’m always up for an adventure, brown eyes, as long as you’re by my side then I’m game. I can get someone to cover for me at the bar.”
“Alright then, we meet in the dining room at lunchtime and we’ll leave from there. Adam and Elle will be joining us along with their mates. There is really no need to pack anything because unlike the times before when we’ve traveled, this time we will be flashing to where we are going.”
Sally raised her hand and Peri clucked her tongue at her. “Sally, how many times am I going to have to tell you that you don’t have to raise your hand when you want to ask a question?”
Sally shrugged. “I’m a product of the public school system, old habits die hard. Now, what I was going to ask was, is flashing across large distances that include bodies of water safe?”
Peri grinned. “I can promise you it’s safer than a huge, heavy, steel, cylinder held up in the air by the engineering of fallible humans.”
Sally frowned. “I know that should reassure me, but it also insulted my species so I’m having a hard time feeling reassured.”
“You’ll get over it,” Peri said flippantly as she took the hand Lucian was holding out to her and let him pull her from the room.
Sally shook her head as she stared after the retreating fae. “Does he even realize what he’s in for by being mated to her? I mean I seriously think she is going to be worse than Jen.”
Costin chuckled. “I would agree, but I would also bet that Lucian, who has been alone for so very long, does not care how much of a handful his mate is bound to be. He, like all of us males who have true mates, is just overjoyed to have found her.”
Sally continued to stare at the now empty doorway, still sitting in her mates’ arms. “I just hope Peri will realize her own worth. For all of her flashy confidence that she portrays, she truly doesn’t believe she is worthy of having a mate.”
Costin kissed her hair tenderly. “Don’t worry, Sally mine, Lucian will be more than happy to show her just how worthy he finds her. I think you know from firsthand experience just how much we males like to prove your worthiness to us.” Sally pinched him and blushed causing him to laugh as he picked her up in his arms.
They waved to Rachel and Gavril who had been quietly talking and headed to say their goodbyes to their pack mates, before embarking once again on another mission. This one they both hoped wouldn’t turn out to be as dangerous or deadly as their past experiences had been. But then they both also knew that you had to expect the worst in the supernatural world, and then jump for joy when something less than the worst happened.
Chapter 6
“I’ve constantly spent my life waiting for the other shoe to drop. With every corner I turn I’m always expecting to be smacked in the face and with every new person I meet I’m always waiting for them to yell You’ve been punked. Call it superstitious because I’m a Gypsy, or call it paranoia because I watch way too many Supernatural Saturdays on BBC, or you can just call it the ugly truth; I’m not normal.” ~Anna
“I’m sorry but we’re closed,” Anna called from the back of the store. It had been a slow day and she had dozed off and slept right past closing time, also known as lock the door so the crazies don’t come in time. When no one answered her she grabbed the can of Mace spray she kept at the counter and made her way around the book shelves and display racks.
Her feet came to a sudden halt causing her black Converse to screech on the dingy linoleum floor. Her mouth dropped open only to then close again as she stared at the odd group of people standing crowded together at the entry way door. She knew something was off because unlike most shoppers who walk in and immediately start browsing, this group simply stood there. They weren’t looking at anything in the store, but instead were staring right at her.
“Okay, before you spray us with that can of burn your eyes out, perhaps you can just l
isten to what we have to say?” The tall woman, with long white hair that shimmered as though it were lit by thousands of tiny lights spoke up. Though she was tall, Anna noticed that she wasn’t big by any means. She wore a simple blue dress that cinched at her waist and then flowed down in layers to her ankles. The sleeves were long and see through in the same color blue as the dress and hung gracefully off her shoulders. Her frame was thin and delicate looking but the ancient look in her eyes betrayed that delicacy. This woman was a predator. Her hands were held loosely in front of her, clasped together. Her shoulders were relaxed and her lips were turned up in a slight smile, but all it took was one look in those pale green eyes to know that she was deadly.
“I take it you aren’t here to buy a voodoo doll?” Anna asked nervously.
The white haired woman laughed and the sound was so light and beautiful that Anna wondered if it was real. “Only if you have them in the shape of wolves,” the woman answered.
A low growl emanated from one of the others but Anna couldn’t tell which. A young girl about her age cleared her throat and quickly stepped forward. She was average height with long brown hair, golden tan skin, and huge brown eyes. She was wearing shorts, a sleeveless shirt that tied in the front and sandals. She had a very gentle look about her, and Anna would never have put the brown eyed beauty anywhere near the deadly white haired lady. Just then a large, obviously strong arm wrapped around the brown haired girl’s torso pulling her back against a large chest. Anna looked up to see who owned the arm and her breath caught when her eyes locked with shockingly hazel ones set against tan skin and a face too handsome for words. Anna was sure he couldn’t be more handsome, but then he grinned and a deep dimple appeared and she was wrong.
“Shuck a duck,” she muttered slowly under her breath.
“You’re going to give him an even bigger ego if you keep that up.” Anna’s eyes snapped away from the handsome man back down to the brown haired girl standing in front of him. “Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not upset, I mean let’s just be honest, he’s gorgeous. But if you keep that up he’s going to be impossible to live with.” A small smile formed on the girl’s lips. “I’m Sally Miklos, this is my husband, Costin,” she motioned to the GQ model standing behind her. “And I’ll introduce the rest of our ragtag bunch as soon as you understand that first of all we aren’t here to hurt you. Do you believe me?”
