Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Adkins, Heather Marie

  The gray mists from the ghost roads welcomed us and we stepped inside.

  The ghost roads were completely different to the dream plane.

  Completely different in every way.

  I’d never experienced anything like it and quite honestly never had the desire to go back.

  I’d do it for her though. I would, and I was doing it.

  My Gabrielle. I hoped she was safe. I prayed we would find her.

  The further we walked the bleaker and grayer it all became and the portal closed behind us.

  “If anyone ever told me I’d be walking this path with you today I wouldn’t have believed them,” I said to Lucian.

  “Me neither.”

  “So, are you going to tell me what could have possessed you to walk these roads for months? How did you come back and not get lost in the ether?”

  “Love.” He answered like it was so simple. I looked at him.

  He was staring straight ahead as we walked.

  “Love? Want to explain a little more?”

  “No.”

  “Come on man, I’m curious. You have to tell me.”

  He frowned at me then returned his gaze ahead. “My wife. I was looking for her.”

  “Didn’t know you were married.”

  “This was a very long time ago, before I became alpha wolf. It was in the days of your father and uncle.”

  “What happened?”

  “Her sister tried to seduce me, she thought I slept with her because we couldn’t have children. So she killed herself. I went to the seer who told me I might have a shot at bringing her back if I could find her on the ghost roads.”

  “Shit, Lucian that’s deep. Did you ever see her?”

  He shook his head. “She died thinking I didn’t love her. I haven’t been with anyone since.”

  “I’m sorry. I guess there’s a lot about you I don’t know. You aren’t all that bad though.”

  “Nor you vampire. How do you think we’re going to do this. We don’t even know where we’re going?”

  “I’m just following the compass.” It pointed north. That was where we were going.

  I just hoped this would indeed work.

  It had to. I had to find her and get her back.

  It was strange I was so taken with her when I first saw her on the dream plane. I wanted her to be mine.

  I wanted her to be mine from back then and I just kept going back to her every night. My guilty pleasure. I had something for myself that no one else knew about and I wanted to keep her that way.

  Then I didn’t want to hide her, or hide my feelings for her.

  I started to feel for her and the minute I saw her in real life I knew I had to change things up.

  I hoped I’d get the chance to show her how I truly felt.

  13

  Gabrielle

  “Wide awake,” Abram taunted.

  My eyes fluttered open but felt heavy like I had weights attached to the lids.

  I pulled in a steady breath and moved my head from side to side, looking around me.

  I cringed when my gaze landed on devilish looking creatures that looked like gargoyles but with a more nightmarish appearance. They were all around us.

  “Don’t worry about them. They don’t tend to bother you if you don’t bother them. They’re Shades. They just guard the mouth of hell.” Abram chuckled.

  I didn’t know if that was an attempt to calm me down. If it was it sure as fuck didn’t work.

  I tried to move but realized my hands were frozen at my sides. Looking around more I noticed that I was pinned to something tangible, but invisible. I didn’t know what it was.

  It gave the appearance like I was just in the air.

  “Let me go!” I screamed.

  The memory of what happened came flooding back in my mind. Everything. All of it.

  Claire…

  She was my mother.

  “Not gonna happen. In fact get used to your new home. No one will be able to find you here and as soon as I leave the Shades will do what they see fit with you. The etherstone is what’s keeping them under control. And of course because of the spell my Transcluce friend cast your guardians still can’t see shit.”

  “You selfish bastard. You fucking evil prick.”

  “Your words can’t hurt me girl. I have the power here. All of it.”

  Tears ran down my cheeks because he was right. He did have the power and I was going to stay here forever and die.

  Tristan…

  I’d never see him again.

  I should have just stayed with him. He would have protected me from all of this. Instead I did what I thought was right and it was a foolish mistake.

  “How did you know Claire was my mother? How?” It was closure. I wanted to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, and I thought I at least deserved to know who my father was.

  “I knew from the minute you arrived. I suspected it all along, suspected from way back when that she was pregnant with a child that wasn’t mine and when she told me she lost you I changed the law. I changed the law because having a being like yourself around, a combo of all manner of powers rolled into one, is like a disaster waiting to happen for my brethren in the society. Your unpredictable. And a being like that on the side of good is not good for us. Never mind the fact that people would know I wasn’t your father. They would know. You don’t even look like me, and you don’t look like Claire either. You look like your noble vampire father who stole my wife away from me.”

  “Who was he? At least tell me. you’re going to leave me here to die, at least tell me.”

  “His name was Neo. He was Tristan’s uncle, part of the last leadership of The Order of Raphael.” He smiled. “Back then I thought he was just fooling around with my wife. One day a hell breech just happened to open up near a chasm and it just happened to kill him.”

  Oh my God. It was him.

  “You…You killed him.” I shook my head.

  “Not with my hands. The demons did. The wraith demons. When you came back to us, you with your guardians, it was a dead giveaway that Claire must have done what I feared. I just had to check things out. it was what I couldn’t find that gave the game away. Erasing your past, the bloodline that would trace your parents. That was what gave the game away. there’s only a handful of witches and mages that can work such powerful magic and they don’t do it for any old reason. Usually it’s to hide something very, very precious. You are precious to her because of who you are and because of what you are. She knew the minute you started exploring your powers I’d see and know you were the baby she told me she lost. Terrible story really. Quite bad with a sad ending, for you.”

  He lifted his hands and started floating moving higher and higher up. Just like earlier he flicked the etherstone over in his hands showing me, making sure I could see it. Making sure I could see who had the power.

  He looked up but then stopped abruptly in his tracks, stopping midair as we both beheld a bright red light piercing through the blackness that covered over us.

  The shades scattered the brighter it got.

  “It cannot be,” Abram snapped, enraged. “Hell fiends, beast, demons, fallen ones come forth.”

  My soul quaked when out of nowhere all manner of hell fiends did indeed appear. It looked like a scene from all the horror films I’d ever seen rolled into one terrible vision before me.

  The dark essence was strong it tore away any hope I may have had.

  That red though gave me something to hang on to. it was my piece of thread. I was hanging on to a piece of thread and that was it . whatever it was got Abram all riled up. it got him all worked up.

  A hole…

  A portal hole suddenly ripped through the blackness and a massive werewolf came through. A werewolf who roared and blasted a number of the demons and beasts back with a lighting bolt.

  Next came my angel. My Tristan.

  My vampire.

  He came for me.

  Tears of joy streamed
down my cheeks and I no longer felt weak.

  Like always this man did something to me that gave me comfort and strength. The spell may have stopped me from tapping into my emotions but I could feel all the love I had for him.

  That pure love that filled my heart.

  And, my soul. Giving me hope.

  * * *

  Tristan

  * * *

  I almost thought all hope was gone then the compass started glowing red.

  We seemed to be walking those ghost roads forever and the nothingness sucked the life out of me. Nothingness and desolation.

  Deadly combo’s for anyone.

  I couldn’t imagine how Lucian had walked the roads for months.

  The hours I’d spent previously were just me looking around and trying to learn what I could. When you had someone you loved, who needed you to save them, it became a whole other matter.

  Abram, that bastard he’d taken Gabrielle to the mouth of hell.

  No wonder no one could get a read on her.

  She was literally off grid.

  I could see her suspended in the air. Her eyes staring at me with so much love and desperation.

  I came to her aid but really she was the one with the power here.

  It was definitely going to take her power to get out of this situation. A winged demon flew to me and breathed fire at me. I turned it to stone. Next came a hell hound. I blasted it with a fire.

  Abram, that mother fucking bastard was in the air too. Up there watching Lucian and me fighting for our lives.

  Lucian giving as good as he got and me holding my own. But… there were too many of them. We could have done with some help, definitely done with some help.

  Abram threw a lightning bolt at me but I managed to evade it and Lucian hit him with a bolder sending him flying to the ground. I used the opportunity to get to Gabrielle. I levitated right up to her and saw she was being held on a prism.

  “Tristan! There’s a spell. The guardians can’t see the danger and I can’t use my powers,” she cried.

  Shit!

  “Gabrielle…” I looked at her and saw the terror in her eyes from everything going on around us. But there was some hope. “You, all you need is you. Think. There’s so much more to you than you realize. So much power. Just explore it. There’s all these people afraid of your power, baby, for heaven’s sake my lady give them something to worry about.” I smirked, seeing her, finding her had instilled a little of my humor. But just a little.

  The hint of a smile tipped the corners of her lips and side tracked me.

  A blast sent me flying to the ground. It was Abram. He rushed over to me and held his hands out, between them was a black ball of energy.

  It crackled and sparkled with pure evil.

  “Want to feel the way your dear old uncle felt when he died?” Abram taunted. Although my body felt like it was broken I didn’t miss what his taunts revealed. “This is the power of the wraiths!”

  I closed my eyes as he launched the ball at me.

  * * *

  Gabrielle

  * * *

  Everything froze before me…

  I thought of freezing time so I could stop this and it happened.

  Tristan’s inspiration snapped me into focus and I thought of the spell stopping me from accessing my powers and imagined it gone.

  Just like that, and it too snapped away from my mind allowing me the freedom to reach my emotions. It was my mind though that was my strength.

  I had the power to manipulate perception and reality. Think something and make it happen.

  That was what I did to freeze time and everyone in its path.

  I’d channeled all the emotions that swirled within me right into the thought and it happened.

  Everything froze.

  That was when I remembered how I first called on my guardians.

  It was that dream that something was trying to steal my soul. Thinking back it must have been some sort of a demon. I was in the dream plane and came across it. It could be that someone sent it after me, or maybe I just stumbled across it. When I saw it I wished I had something to protect me and that’s when the guardians came.

  I unlocked a portal to where they came from and that same portal led Eric to Pandir.

  I thought it and then it all happened. The how and the where and the what’s were the mechanic that I couldn’t think about right now, interesting as it was.

  What mattered was that I got it. I learned.

  Learned enough to make it all work.

  What made it snap into action was seeing Abram before me, about to kill my love.

  I moved my arms now on command, freeing myself from what magic bound me there and I made my descent down, down to where Abram stood.

  I took the etherstone from his jacket pocket, no problem.

  Frozen like a statute his face showed all the evil in him.

  Evil things came from hell. Evil things belonged exactly there.

  He killed my father. It was his fault why my life was as it was, and regardless of the fact that I loved my adoptive parents to no end, I had a potential life in this world that was taken away from me.

  So he could fuck right the hell off and go to where he belonged.

  I thought of somewhere …

  Dark….

  Deep…

  Dark…

  Deep …

  Dark…

  The darkest, deepest place in hell. That’s where I thought of and sent him straight there. Abram disappeared from before me with his energy ball.

  I could have unfrozen everything but had a much better idea. I thought of home. I thought of being back at the castle. Tristan, the werewolf, and me.

  The space around us shifted and shimmered. When the books in the library came into view I smiled and my smile widened when I saw Claire, Pru, Juliana, Ivan and Virgil.

  They were here. We were here.

  Tristan stood up and the Werewolf transformed into Lucian.

  My attention however was drawn to Claire who came up to me, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her arms stretched out toward me.

  I fell into her embrace and the instant I touched her I saw it all.

  Her as a young woman and a man who looked a little like Tristan.

  They kissed under the moonlight, and it was so clear they were in love.

  I saw them torn apart then together again years later. Claire’s hair was shorter. They were planning to leave. He pressed his hand to her belly and I kicked. He told her he loved her and she told him the same. He was killed the same night by the wraith demon and he loved her with his last breath.

  She went to her sisters who helped her to erase my lineage. It was a blood spell. They gave me the guardians. Then and only then she went to the humans and a part of her died as she gave me away.

  I saw it all.

  She pulled away a little to cup my face.

  “I’m so sorry,” she wept.

  “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

  “I feel like… I failed you and your father.”

  I shook my head. “No, he loved you so much, you were the last thing on his mind before he died.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  Another power. Something else crossed my mind as I touched her and I reached up to her neck and touched the edge.

  “Reveal to me the kiss of love…” I chanted and the glamor she’d placed over the bite marks on her neck became visible.

  I didn’t know how I knew to do that, or the words to say but I did. I felt it.

  She was my father’s soul mate.

  “I loved him too.” She told me.

  “I know.”

  There was so much to accept and get used to, but I was looking forward to it now.

  Like Tristan said I was going to have to feel my way through. At least I got the chance to.

  I looked to him as he came to me and moved to the warmth and protection of his arms.

  “I l
ove you,” he whispered into my ear.

  “I love you too.”

  Epilogue

  Gabrielle

  On Month later…

  I sat with Claire in the sitting room. We were having our last daily catch session over a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

  I’d had the kind of month I expected when I first got to the coven. Me learning all there was to learn and me exploring my powers. There was still so much to learn, but it was time to make some changes.

  Tonight I was leaving the castle to move in officially with Tristan.

  “What now? What happens now?” I asked.

  “Well, we have a council to rebuild I suppose. I think though that its’ time to allow the younger generation to take things over. Shake things up a little bit. Bring in the modern and roll with the times as you young ones say.”

  The first council meeting since the very last dramatic one I was at, was scheduled for a week’s time. I knew it was going to be difficult in light of all that happened with Abram. Various investigations had taken place over the last few weeks.

  “You’re not old.” I smiled.

  “I’m over three hundred years old. That’s old child.”

  This was nice. It was nice spending time with her. “I’m twenty eight and I think that’s old.”

  “No, it’s not. You’re still a child and you have so many years to look forward to. A long time Gabrielle, make it count.”

  “I will. I promise I will.”

  “Are you sure we can’t convince you to stay here for a little bit longer. It’s not like Tristan can’t teleport in and out when he wants to see you.”

  “I feel like I’m home when I’m with him. Besides I can teleport in and out whenever I want to see you, which is going to be all the time.”

  “You’ll come?” She looked worried.

  “You’ll get tired of seeing me.”

  “Never.”

  “Us too, will you come and see us?” Pru asked from the door. She and Juliana stood in the frame looking at me. Juliana still looked a little wary.