by Cynthia Eden
Griffin’s gaze darted to the window once more. If she wasn’t back in the next five minutes, he’d hunt her. “We were in the dungeon together.”
“And everyone knows that dungeons are incredibly romantic.” This sarcastic as hell comment didn’t come from Warren. Instead, it came from the bear shifter currently lounging near the door. Elliott Urso gave Griffin a broad smile. “All of those chains, the darkness, and, of course, let’s not forget the delicious smell of death.”
“I was trapped in dragon form,” Griffin snapped. “Valerie said she could help me. For a price.”
Warren whistled. “A mating. Conniving witch. She knew if she was mated to a shifter—the king of shifters—she wouldn’t be put to death.”
“Very smart,” Elliott noted. His golden eyes gleamed, and he sounded admiring. “Good to know she’s as smart as she is sexy. Caught a glimpse of her earlier today. The stories about her beauty are not exaggerations.”
Griffin exhaled very, very slowly. Then he turned to face the bear. “Don’t even think it.”
“What? You said it was a temporary mating. That means, one day, Valerie will be on the market again.”
The hell she would.
But, wait. She would. And that was what he wanted. Didn’t he?
“So if you just don’t fuck her, if the bond doesn’t get sealed by the flesh, then you’re good to go.” Warren clapped his hand on Griffin’s shoulder. “That’s nice and easy. I mean, hell, who would want to screw someone so evil?”
Elliott raised his hand.
Griffin lunged toward him.
***
The raven whispered into Valerie’s ear.
“So if you just don’t fuck her, if the bond doesn’t get sealed by the flesh, then you’re good to go.”
She smiled and stroked the raven’s head. “Well, well, well, my new friend. You just hit the jackpot.”
The raven preened.
“Um…” Rio cleared his throat. “That’s not a shifter, Ms. Valerie. That’s just a bird.”
The raven gave a low, angry caw. “This is not just a bird. He’s my new familiar.” And she’d found him at just the right time. Valerie had been sitting at the stream, her feet in the icy water, and, okay, embarrassingly enough, she’d been moping, when she’d heard the raven’s pain-filled cry.
The poor little fellow had broken his wing.
She’d used a tiny bit of magic to heal him.
After all, she was a rule breaker.
“Go see what else you can learn, darling.” She gave the raven a bit of seed. She’d picked it up just for him in town. She’d be sure to keep some handy as a reward for future tidbits of gossip that he brought her. “Find me later.”
He whispered again to her.
Valerie laughed. “Really? I must meet the bear shifter at the first opportunity.” She extended her arm. The raven flew away. She brushed off her hand and turned to find Rio staring at her with confusion clear on his young face. So much work to be done with that one.
He scratched his neck. “You act like it was talking to you—”
“He. Not it. And he prefers the name Edgar.” What a fun new familiar.
Rio blinked at her.
She smiled back at him. “Edgar was speaking to me.” Her index finger covered her lips, to let him know that she was imparting a secret. “Don’t tell, but I can talk to animals.”
“Can all witches do that?”
Her hand fell. “Certainly not.” Now she was insulted. “Only the very baddest.” It was one of the forbidden powers. And if anything was forbidden, she just had to do it.
“I-I won’t tell.” He grabbed his bag. “And you promise, when you leave, we’ll go together? I won’t…I won’t be alone out there?”
She looped her arm through his. “Henchman, you will never be alone again. Besides, being with the humans is not nearly as bad as you seem to think. I actually quite enjoy them. And they are going to love you.”
He gave her a quick, nervous smile. “Really?”
“Of course. You’re strong, have supernatural reflexes, you’re brave—”
“I—no, I’m not.”
He didn’t think he was. They’d deal with that later. “You’ve got potential. I can see it practically glowing inside of you.” Those words were truer than he probably realized. A secret for another day. “You have all of this without the incredibly unfortunate side effect of sprouting fur and howling at the moon. You, Rio, are what’s called a winner.”
“I want to be a winner.”
“Of course, you—”
“Valerie!”
She sighed. “That man seems to always be bellowing my name.”
“Griffin sounds upset,” Rio mumbled.
“Good. I’m rather upset with him myself.”
“Valerie!” Another roar.
“Oh, for goodness sake!” And she hated goodness. Valerie raised her voice as she called, “We both know you have supernatural senses, Griffin! You can find me easily.”
There was pounding close by. As if something was rushing through the woods. Coming right at her.
Rio moved in front of Valerie.
“Just focus,” Valerie called out, knowing that Griffin was closing in. “And you’ll find me right—”
He burst out of the trees.
She peeked over Rio’s shoulder. “Here.”
Griffin’s breath heaved in and out of his lungs. Was it her imagination, or did he look a little bigger? More muscled in the shoulders and chest? He’d been big before, but now he was—
“You should be home.” He pointed at Valerie. No, maybe he was pointing at Rio. Hard to tell.
Griffin stepped forward.
Rio’s trembling body stiffened. That kid had heart. Hopefully, no one would ever rip it from his chest. She shouldn’t mention to him that very fate had befallen a previous henchman. But Valerie had very kindly put the heart back in the djinn’s chest.
“Valerie…” Griffin seemed to struggle for patience. She knew exactly how he felt. The struggle is real. “You said we’d talk at dinner.”
She had? Valerie totally didn’t remember that promise.
“Darkness is coming. The beasts roam free at night. It’s not safe for you to be out,” Griffin added.
“It’s not? But I thought you told everyone I was off limits.”
“Some of these shifters are…troubled. Too young. If they can’t control their beasts, you could get hurt.”
“Maybe you should have told me that part before.” Was he lying to her? Hard to say. She couldn’t get a good read on him.
“He’s telling the truth,” Rio whispered. As if a whisper would do anything. Griffin would hear him perfectly no matter how low Rio pitched his voice. “When the moon comes out, shifters will shed their skins. And since a lot of them, um, don’t like you—”
Their loss.
Face glum, Rio told her, “You should probably go back to the castle.”
This just sucked. She’d been told not to use magic, but the shifters got to use their claws and fangs? How was that fair?
“Come, Valerie.” Now Griffin sounded too pompous. Probably because he’d gotten his way. “Time to go home.”
The castle wasn’t her home. It was just her resting spot for the next month. But she wasn’t in the mood to argue. She was saving her energy for something bigger. “Let’s go, Rio. We need to make sure you’ve got a good room.” She sashayed around Griffin. Gave him the slant eye as she passed him. “You have given orders that Rio will be given some kind of deluxe suite, right? Because my henchman deserves the best.”
“He…you…” Griffin wasn’t pompous any longer. He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Fine. Whatever you want. Let’s just get out of these damn woods.”
“Griffin’s beast is pushing him,” Rio said in his too loud whisper. “He probably wants to run wild and free, too.”
Griffin glared at him. “Get to the castle, kid. Go find Elliott. He’ll make sure you have a good room. Just tel
l him I gave the okay.”
Rio shook his head. “I won’t leave Valerie unprotected.”
That kid…adorable!
Griffin’s eyes became green slits. “She’s not unprotected. She’s got me.”
Rio still didn’t move. Valerie almost rubbed her hands in glee. Such promise. Great potential. But she didn’t want to see that potential ripped to shreds right in front of her, so she patted Rio on the arm. “I’m fine.” Always. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Get settled now. Get dinner. Multiple portions, you got me?” He looked far too thin. “We’ll plot in the morning.”
Rio marched away, but kept glancing back, as if looking for a threat.
She wiggled her fingers at him.
Griffin caught her wiggling fingers. “What in the hell are you doing?”
She tried to ignore the fact that when he touched her, she felt a hot surge of awareness. A tingle that she might enjoy too much. “I’m making friends with the locals.”
“Why are you moving him into my castle? It’s his turn with the baker. He’s supposed to stay there for the next month.”
“Turn?” She played with that word in her mind. “Why don’t I like that?”
“I give Rio a turn with different shifters, trying to let him learn trades, trying to help him find a family that fits with him.”
Rio was gone. “How long have you been doing this?”
Griffin didn’t answer.
So she knew. “His whole life? And he never found anyone that he…fit with?”
“He can’t shift. It makes it hard to bond with the others.”
“No, I think it makes it hard for those jackass others to look past the surface.”
“Valerie…”
“He fits me. He’s going to stay close to me, and when I leave, I’ll be taking the henchman with me.”
Silence.
She started walking, and Griffin immediately fell into step beside her. He wasn’t talking, but she could practically hear the guy thinking. Trying to figure her out. Trying to understand why she was taking the boy.
Griffin didn’t get it. Sometimes, you didn’t need a reason. Sometimes, you just had to act.
Finally, he mumbled, “You…stayed in the woods a long time.”
“I like the woods. There weren’t any big, bad wolves to bother me, so Little Red was just fine.”
His hand brushed hers. Valerie swallowed.
“You think I’m a wolf?” Griffin asked.
“Aren’t you?” She didn’t look at him. When they’d been in the dungeon together, she’d asked him about being a wolf. He hadn’t answered her. Still, a witch had her suspicions. “I know you can shift into the form of a dragon. But I’m guessing your other two forms are something pretty fierce, too. A wolf makes sense. Not that it really matters. Seeing as how you and I aren’t going to be besties or anything.”
“You’re angry.”
Give the man a cookie. “And you’re not too fast on the uptake.” She stopped walking. Spun to face him. “I thought you didn’t want to be around me. If that’s the case, why come looking for me? I could have gotten back to the castle just fine on my own.”
“I told you, I was worried.”
“Bullshit. You gave the order I wasn’t to be hurt, and I don’t buy for a second that the shifters here would go against your order.”
Darkness had begun to stretch across the sky. Did he know that the dark made her more powerful? Probably not. She certainly wasn’t going to tell him.
“I don’t want you hurt. Not in any way.”
He sounded as if he meant those words. Interesting. Considering now, she looped her arm through his.
Griffin immediately stiffened. “What are you doing?”
“Walking. You wanted me to walk, didn’t you?”
“Your…arm.”
Someone needed to work on making full sentences. “It’s wrapped with yours. You know, so I don’t fall or anything. It’s getting dark, and I can’t see in the dark as well as you can.” Total lie. “If I stumble, I thought you’d help steady me. Seeing as how you don’t want me to get hurt and all.”
He kept walking with her. His arm was very tense and strong.
She slanted him a glance from the corner of her eye. “Are you bigger? Or is that my imagination?”
“I was worried, like I said. So my body may have changed a bit.”
He was bigger. “It’s nice of you to worry.”
“I thought we’d established I wasn’t nice.”
He was many different things. “Where will I sleep tonight?”
“At my home.”
Right. The big, medieval castle. The drafty castle, though it did have all of the comforts of a modern home. “I figured that, but where will you be sleeping?”
He kept walking.
“I want to sleep with you,” Valerie told him.
He stumbled. She steadied him.
“Bad idea,” he said. “Very, very bad.”
“I have to confess something to you.” She didn’t like doing it, but oh, well. “I’m a screamer.”
He swore.
“Oh, wait, not that kind of screamer. The sex kind? Is that what you think?” She stopped walking. Then considered the matter. “Actually, yes, I am that kind of screamer. If the pleasure is good enough.”
“Valerie…”
“But I can also scream at night, when I’m dreaming, in a manner unrelated to sex. Quite powerfully. Quite…terrifyingly, I’ve been told.”
“By lovers?”
She didn’t answer him. Instead, Valerie explained, “I may also occasionally do a wee bit of summoning in my sleep.”
“What? What in the hell does that even mean?”
“It means when you play with dark magic, there’s a price. When I’m asleep, sometimes, I pay that price in my dreams.” She’d thought about this all day. “So if you really want to make sure I don’t hurt your precious shifters, you’d better bunk down in the bed with me. And if I start screaming or levitating or opening the gateway to hell, you can wake me up.”
He shook his head. Over and over.
“I take it that’s a yes? We’re on for sleeping together?” Valerie pushed.
He swore.
She gave his hand a soft stroke. “Excellent. Can we start walking again? I find I’m quite famished.”
He didn’t start walking. “All I have to do is wake you up? And you’ll stop whatever the hell you’re doing?”
“Maybe.” She gave an encouraging nod. “We’ll cross our fingers on that one, shall we?”
“You’re bluffing.”
Her heart slammed into her ribs.
He leaned closer to her. Lowered his head. For an instant, Valerie thought he might kiss her again. Instead, he whispered, “Your heart is racing, and your breath is hitching. You’re lying, sweetheart, and I can tell.”
No, he couldn’t.
“You’ll be sleeping on your own tonight. I’ll give orders that no one is to enter your room. Your games aren’t going to work on me.”
She wasn’t playing a game. He’d see that truth for himself.
When the screams started.
Chapter Six
Her scream pierced the night. Utterly terrified. Heart-wrenching.
Griffin jerked away from his position near the great fireplace, his gaze immediately shooting for the door. Valerie had warned him that she would scream. And he’d warned his guards to stay the hell away from her room if she did.
“I give you five minutes.” Elliott stood just a few feet away, an amber liquid in the glass he held so casually. “And then you’re breaking down the door to get to her.”
Her scream had died away.
“It’s a trick,” Warren snapped. “She is obviously trying to play some mind game with you, Griffin. She warned you about the screams because she thought you’d stay with her. When you didn’t, well, she just decided to use those lungs of hers to make some drama. She thinks you’ll come rushing to the rescue.”
/> Elliott lifted his whiskey in a little salute. “Because he will.”
Griffin snatched the glass from the guy and drained it in one gulp. He barely felt the fire in his throat.
Another scream. Longer than before. Louder.
Griffin threw the glass into the fireplace. It shattered. He stormed for the door.
Warren blocked his path. The shifter held up his hands. “Take a breath. Think about this. She’s playing with you. Do you really think, even for a second, that a woman like her would have nightmares? She is the nightmare.”
“Get the fuck out of my way.”
Warren locked his jaw. “I’m trying to help. The witch is tricking you—”
“A woman who looks like her would never have to trick me into her bedroom,” Elliott offered. “I’d be at her door begging for entrance.”
Griffin turned his head. Glared at the bear. “I told you at dinner—when you were practically drooling on her—stay the fuck away.”
Elliott shrugged. “I can’t help it. I like beautiful women. If that’s a sin, call me guilty. It’s not my fault that she’s freaking gorgeous.”
Another scream. Screw this. The sound of Valerie’s fear was making his dragon claw at Griffin’s insides. He didn’t like her screams. Not one fucking bit.
Griffin shoved Warren out of the way and—
“Help her!” Rio was in the doorway, body shaking. Two guards were at his sides. “She’s screaming. I tried to get to her—it’s what a henchman does!—but they wouldn’t let me near her room. She needs help. She needs—”
The very castle itself seemed to tremble. And the temperature in the place…rose.
“Uh, oh,” Elliott murmured. “That can’t be good.”
Griffin glanced up just in time to see a long crack run the length of the ceiling.
Valerie was in the room above him.
“I’m thinking she may not have been lying about the summoning part you mentioned,” Elliott added, some of the humor leaving his voice.
No, she may not have been lying.
“Uh,” Warren cleared his throat as the crack deepened. “Maybe go wake up Sleeping Beauty?”
Griffin bounded out of the room. He rushed past gaping guards—
“Help her!” Rio’s plea followed him.
Griffin raced up the stairs. He didn’t slow when he saw the room he’d given her. Two very nervous and sweaty shifter guards—a dark-haired male and a blonde female—were stationed at her door. When they saw him, they immediate stepped aside.
