Broken Bonds (Valerian's Cove Book 2)

by H. C. de Cossy

  “I agree. I would prefer to be bound in friendship than in debts owed,” Celine declared. Rosalie agreed.

  As soon as they had cleared dinner away, Marissa kissed Celine and headed to bed.

  “I can’t focus. I have no idea how I will manage tomorrow,” she told her mother. “I am exhausted from being on alert all day. I also feel so edgy, I don’t know if I will be able to sleep. I wish I could wake up and have it be all over.”

  “I know, Sweetheart,” Celine pulled Marissa into a hug. “Would you like some chamomile tea? And a hot water bottle? That always helped you sleep when you were little.”

  Marissa smiled. “Thanks, Mom. That sounds great. I’d like that.”

  “You go on up and get into bed. I’ll bring everything up when it’s ready.” Marissa hugged her mother again before heading upstairs. She brushed her teeth, put on her pajamas and climbed into bed. She was just pulling the covers up over her legs when Theo came in, holding a tray.

  “Celine sent me up with a few things,” he smiled at Marissa. He placed the tray on an ottoman nearby. Picking up the hot water bottle, he tucked it down at the end of the bed near Marissa’s feet. He handed her one of the two teacups on the tray, then brought the other with him to his side of the bed. He sat down on top of the covers next to Marissa.

  “This is all so crazy, Rhi,” he said. “I mean, I knew it was coming, but it was still somewhat abstract, you know? It’s so hard to believe that my birth family are from a special bloodline that includes Dragons, and my biological mother’s half Fae, so the kids and I have all this extra magic that we never knew about. And we all are in danger and they might show up tomorrow and no one knows exactly what they will do, but it most likely involves going after me, and maybe you and the kids, to try to use our blood to open a hidden vault that contains one of the most powerful treasures of Faery. Seriously, I think we’ve fallen into someone’s book or movie, and any minute now I’ll wake up and discover I’m really a boring accountant or something.”

  “I hope not, because then you wouldn’t be here with me,” Marissa snarked.

  Theo smiled. “True, there is that. I’ll take you over a boring human life any day. No matter what danger we face. Being here with you, and our children, is the best gift anyone could ever have given me. I want it to last forever.”

  “Even with Dragons and Fae and Crowns, oh my?”

  Theo laughed and brushed Marissa’s wayward curls out of her face.

  “Even with. There’s nowhere I would rather be.” He gently kissed her, their tea forgotten. Whatever happened tomorrow, at least they had this, right here, right now.

  Wednesday morning was sunny and bright. There was a fresh breeze coming off the ocean. Brendan and Luc drove the children and Shari-Beth to school. Emma, Josh, Micah and Aidan met them at the door.

  “There will be an all-school assembly this morning in the gym,” Brendan told everyone. “Then you will all go to your regular classes. You all know what to do if anything happens, right?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  The Valerian’s Cove Pack and several of the Bears were continuing to patrol the school grounds.

  Devra, Declan and Sean stayed at the Casey home, with Celine, Malia and the Fae. The Guardians were all in town, nearby in case Marissa and Theo needed them. Aldona was pretending to be a wealthy client waiting for an appointment in the clinic. As an Empath of some strength, she was the best person to monitor how things were going in Clarice’s session with Marissa.

  Marjorie took Marissa and Theo into her office when they arrived at the clinic for work.

  “We have several Wolf and Bear families coming in for “sessions” today. They have all agreed to act as backup if needed. Two of the Wolf clients are Marissa’s patients. They wanted to help. The others are window dressing. If you find yourself in any danger, either of you, yell if you can. Or kick something. Also, both of you put one of these on.” Marjorie handed each of them a fire agate pendant. “If you are scared, if your adrenaline should spike or your heart rate change sharply in any way, I will know, and we will come. It’s kind of an extra layer of protection, after that fabulous lady out front. I hear that she is quite the accomplished Empath.”

  “She’s the best,” Marissa said.

  “We are lucky to have her,” Theo agreed.

  The three of them went to their offices to prepare for the day. Marjorie had rescheduled all regular clients. Marissa sat in her chair behind her desk. She tapped on the desk nervously with a pen. She couldn’t keep her feet still either. She stood, but there was no where to go.

  Hey, I can feel your anxiety from here, Rhi. Theo thought to her.

  I can’t settle down. I can’t focus on anything. I know I am going to make a mess of this. What if Faith comes in with her? I won’t stand a chance.

  Rhi, you are one of the strongest people, and one of the strongest Witches, that I know. And I am right next door. Aldona is in the waiting room. Marjorie is nearby. The Guardians are just down the street. The entire town is on alert. We’ve got this. You can do this. Remember, you are protecting the children. If she thinks she can’t get to us, she might go for them.

  You’re right. Thank you. I love you.

  I love you too, Rhi.

  I was thinking about this as if Clarice and Faith were coming after me. Marissa thought to herself. But I am just a bargaining tool. They need someone with Thorndike blood. I am doing this to protect Theo, and to protect my children. Marissa straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. Her energy stabilized. I am protecting my children.

  The phone on her desk buzzed. “Your ten o’clock is here, Healer Casey,” the receptionist informed her.

  “Thank You. Please send her in.”

  Marissa took another deep breath. I am protecting my children. She left her office and went to the treatment room that was set aside for her mind-healing clients. The door was partially closed. She knocked, then went in.

  The woman sitting on the sofa did not look like an evil mastermind. She looked like an upper-middle-class trophy wife. She was wearing tan slacks with a pale pink lightweight sweater set. Her blond hair was swept up into a chignon. She had small diamond studs in her ears, and a single gold chain with a peridot pendant hung around her neck. Her hands were bare.

  There were deep circles under the woman’s eyes. Her skin was pale. It appeared that she had not been sleeping well.

  “Clara?” Marissa asked. “I am Healer Marissa Casey.” She offered the woman her hand. “How can I help you today?”

  “I’ve been having dreams,” the woman calling herself Clara began. “Horrible dreams. Every night. It’s gotten so that I am afraid to go to bed at all. I barely get any sleep anymore.”

  “How long has this been going on for?”

  “About six months. My husband was murdered, along with his co-workers. He worked for an exclusive investment company and was in a board meeting when they were magically attacked. It was kept very quiet, so as not to worry the investors. But the entire board was wiped out. There was a major reshuffling. Now there is a new board in place, and everything is very different.”

  “You said they were magically attacked? Are you aware of the details?”

  “Only what we were told when the Enforcers came to tell us that Jack wasn’t coming home. It really wasn’t much.”

  “Tell me about your dreams. What happens in them?”

  “I am running, searching for someone or something, but I can’t find them. And someone is chasing me. I think there’s a fire. It’s smokey. Sometimes I see a figure, but I never get a good look at them.”

  Marissa watched the woman’s face as she spoke. What Clara described was not unusual after the kind of trauma she claimed to have experienced, that of having been told her husband was murdered in such a way. But she recounted it with little emotion. She sounded tired. It just didn’t ring true. Plus, the story and timeline fit the demise of the old Witch’s Council,
with the difference being that it was her uncle, not her husband, that she had lost. She seemed to be building her story on true-ish facts to make it more believable.

  Clara’s eyes had darted around the room as she spoke. As she finished, her gaze settled on Marissa. “Can you help me get rid of these dreams? I need to be able to sleep again. I take care of my mother, and I have to be able to do that. I am all she has.”

  “I am certainly willing to do my best,” Marissa replied. “In situations like this, I find trance work is often the best way to get at whatever is causing your subconscious to send these dream images to you. We can start today, since you have come from the City. Then, if you like, we can set up a regular schedule of appointment for however long it takes to resolve the issue and get you sleeping again.”

  “That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

  “I am going to step out for a moment,” Marissa said. “If you would like some tea while you wait, please feel free to help yourself.” She pointed to the tea kettle and assorted tea bags on the sideboard against the wall by the door.

  Once out of the room, she quickly checked on Theo, who blew her a kiss from his office. Having made sure he was safe, Marissa went into the waiting room. Aldona glanced up from the magazine she was reading.

  “She seems so normal,” Marissa told her mentor. “I haven’t felt any intrusions into my mind. I don’t think she has tried to compel me at all.”

  “Maybe this is a scouting mission, to see if the compulsions are holding? Have you checked on Theo?”

  “He’s in his office. He seemed fine. Has anyone else come into the clinic?”

  “I haven’t seen anyone else the entire time I have been here.”

  “Weird. Maybe we were wrong, and this woman isn’t Clarice at all.”

  Aldona shrugged. “We will find out. If needed, the Fae can search her mind if she doesn’t try anything here.”

  Marissa went back towards her treatment room. She found Clara standing in the doorway of Theo’s office, talking. The floor was carpeted, and Marissa’s shoes made almost no sound as she approached.

  “Come now, Theo, don’t you remember your mother?” Clarice asked.

  “Mother?” Theo replied from inside the office. He sounded odd. Marissa had stopped moving as soon as she saw Clarice in the doorway.

  “That’s right, Theodore. I am your mother. We are going to have such fun together. Come, I want you to meet your grandmother. She is very eager to meet you.”

  Help! Aldona! Marissa yelled inside her mind. She grabbed the pendant that Marjorie had given her that morning. Clarice saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to Marissa.

  “Oh, the girlfriend. Go away.” Clarice flicked her fingers at Marissa as if she was nothing of consequence, and would do whatever she was told.

  “Excuse me? What are you doing here? Why are you in my Bonded’s office?” Marissa played dumb.

  “Bonded? You’re not Bonded. What an idea. As if my Theodore could be bonded to some no one like you.”

  “They are Bonded, and they are under my protection. Thank you for making this easy for me, Clarice,” Aldona said. Aldona sent a maelstrom of pure terror to Clarice. It only took a moment for Aldona to break through Clarice’s shields. Clarice’s mind collapsed under the strain. She passed out, falling heavily to the floor.

  “Well, that was easy,” Aldon said. “It’s almost no fun when you sneak up on them. Huh. Do you think they will allow me to play with her later?”

  Marissa smiled at the bloodthirsty Dragon. “I’ll help,” she said.

  27

  While Clarice was pretending to visit Marissa in order to move in on Theo, Faith made her way to the Academy. The sweet little old woman she appeared to be walked right in the front door and went straight to the office.

  “Excuse me,” she said to the school secretary, who was sitting behind her desk typing on her computer. The woman, whose name, Faith saw, was Mrs. Doyle, according to the nameplate on her desk, looked up.

  “Can I help you?” Mrs. Doyle asked.

  “I was hoping to see my great-grandchildren,” Faith told her. “They just started here this fall, I believe.”

  “Well, they will be in class right now. Perhaps it would be better for you to wait and see them after school.”

  “Oh, I know it’s probably better, but I haven’t seen them for so long, you see. I’ve been estranged from their father for several years, and we have only just reconnected. I’m just so excited to see them. Surely, just for a few minutes? Then I’ll go and wait to see them again after school.”

  She looks so sweet and harmless, Sonia Doyle thought to herself. Is this really the big bad Fae Mage that everyone is so worried about?

  Faith gazed sweetly at the middle-aged Witch before her. You want to let me see the children. I’m just a sweet, harmless old woman.

  Mrs. Doyle shook her head. “I suppose, if they are just in an elective right now, it wouldn’t hurt. What are their names?”

  “Michael and Milena Casey.”

  “Oh, you are their father’s grandmother, I think you said? Unfortunately, the Casey children’s mother has full custody of them, as their father was presumed dead until recently. You would have to have written permission from Marissa Casey. I’m sorry. There is nothing I can do. It really would be best for you to wait to see them after school. I’m sure Marissa would be okay with that. She’s a lovely woman.”

  Faith’s jaw tightened as she clenched her teeth. This was getting annoying. She sent a stronger compulsion at Mrs. Doyle. You will call the children from their classes for me, now!

  Mrs. Doyle was getting a headache. She felt a powerful urge to help the woman before her, but she had been the secretary of the Academy for over a century, and the safety of the children who attended the school was her first priority. This woman had no right to see the children, and Marissa had not approved the visit. Mrs. Doyle shook her head again. She was sure there was something else she was supposed to remember about the Casey children, something about protecting them from someone who wanted to harm them. That couldn’t be this sweet elderly woman, surely?

  Faith upped the strength of her compulsion again. This Witch had annoyingly strong shields.

  In a daze, Mrs. Doyle reached for the intercom system.

  “Mikey and Milena Casey, please come to the office. Mikey and Milena Casey, to the office now please. Thank you.”

  “Thank you, dear.” Faith smiled and settled in a chair to wait.

  Mikey was in math class when he heard the announcement. He looked up sharply at his teacher. Mr. Jones frowned. No one was supposed to go anywhere without a teacher, and he couldn’t leave the rest of the class unsupervised. Plus, given the current situation which all the teachers were well aware of, it was extremely odd that just the two children who were in danger were the ones being called to the office.

  “Sir, should I go?” Mikey asked. “What if something happened to my mom or my dad?”

  “Wait for a moment, Mikey. Let me call the office.”

  All the classrooms had a phone to call the office when needed. Mr. Jones picked up the handset.

  “Hello, Mrs. Doyle? This is Mr. Jones. Could you please tell me why Mikey Casey needs to come to the office? We are in the middle of a test.”

  “His great-grandmother is here to see him, dear. Send him right along, will you? Thank you.”

  Mr. Jones hung up. He was frowning again. Mrs. Doyle did not sound at all like herself.

  “Mikey, stay here. Do you have any way of contacting your grandfather or Guardian Benoit?”

  Mikey nodded. Each of the children had been given a compact hand mirror just in case. Mikey took his out and thought really hard about his Grandpa Luc. Luc answered right away.

  “Hold on there, Mikey,” Luc said. “We are almost to the office. You stay in your class room. Your grandfather was able to reach Milena. She’s staying safe in her class as well. I am sending several of Tony’s Wolves and their frie
nds to you. Stay there, do you hear?”

  “Yes, Grandpa Luc.”

  “Good boy. We’ll see you soon.”

  Luc closed the connection and turned to Brendan.

  “The boy is safe. Let’s see what we find in the office, yes? Shields up?”

  Brendan nodded. They reached the office. Brendan stepped inside first, then Luc. Their eyes swept the room, taking note of the elderly woman sitting in the waiting area, and Mrs. Doyle quietly typing at her desk.

  Mrs. Doyle looked up as they came in.

  “Can I help you, Professor Casey?”

  The woman seated near the door looked over sharply. Brendan didn’t see the movement, but Luc did. Luc turned to face her while Brendan continued to talk to Mrs. Doyle.

  “So, you’ve come to see my great-grandchildren, have you?” Luc growled at the diminutive woman in the pale pink skirt suit. She paled, just a little bit.

  “That’s funny, as the only part of the family not accounted for right now are their traitorous grandmother and her power hungry manipulative Fae mother. Which makes you Faith, I presume?”

  Faith stood and dropped her glamour. She grew two feet, her hair became long and black, her skin pale and youthful again. Her ice-blue eyes flashed.

  “I am Faith of the line of Oberon. Who are you, mortal? How dare you speak to me so?”

  “I am Luc Benoit, Guardian. The children’s mother, Marissa Casey, is my great-granddaughter. Which makes these children under my protection. I think that you will find they are more than adequately protected. They will be going nowhere with you.”

  Faith glared and attempted to pierce Luc’s mind. It didn’t work. Faith tried again. She put more effort into it this time. Luc smiled. He crossed his arms and stared her down. Faith turned to Brendan and aimed a compulsion at his mind. Brendan held his shields. Faith tried again. Brendan frowned. He could feel something sharp jabbing at his brain. His shield cracked, just a sliver. It was enough for Faith to slip in. Brendan watched helplessly from within his own mind as his body took a swing at Luc. Luc ducked, his reflexes still sharp. He turned and punched Brendan in the jaw, knocking him out. Mrs. Doyle continued to type.