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

by Adkins, Heather Marie

  “Elijah,” she took another step closer.

  “If you kiss me right now, witch, I won’t stop this time.”

  She paused and shook her head, the haze of lust swirling in her eyes vanishing. “Why do I want you to kiss me so badly?”

  “If I knew, I’d find a way to stop it,” Elijah spoke with one breath. “I’ve watched you for years, Ivy. I’ve always known I wanted to taste you. I’ve been fascinated by the witch who could draw my eye. You’re beautiful, but that wasn’t why. I couldn’t put my finger on why.”

  “You sound as though you have.”

  “I think I might have. In a short time, I’ve already learned you aren’t just a witch and a very attractive woman. You’re brilliant, though I admittedly fathered as much listening to you strategize in meetings. You’re feisty—not timid or controlling like I initially thought.” He closed his eyes and forced his erection to stop urging him forward. “You’re brave as shit, and after what I saw earlier today, more powerful than I knew witches could be. So yeah, when this is all said and done, we’re going to figure this out.”

  “You mean you’ll make good on your promise to make me scream.”

  Elijah shook his head. They were beyond that. “I wanted to squash Patrick’s head between my fingers with the way he looked at you, and I wanted to protect you from answering anything that would bring you grief. We’re past me fucking you until I can’t any longer. I just don’t know what this is.”

  If the honesty in his words excited her or unnerved her, she didn’t say. “I would say we have a lot to figure out then because you sound awful certain something is going on here.”

  “I trust my wolf and the instincts he gives me.” He reached out and took her hand. “I don’t know if this is three years in the making or some magical shit storm from being stuck with you, but I care about you.” Saying the words surprised him. In the span of six minutes he’d gone from needing to be done with her, to wondering if there wasn’t more between them. Jealousy will do that.

  “Yes, well,” she flushed and cursed. “I need to stop saying that.”

  “I think it’s adorable.” If he didn’t stop soon, he was going to kiss her.

  “Something about a man as impressive as yourself finding me adorable is oddly . . . nice.” She laughed. “This is insane.”

  “No argument here.”

  “We’re ready,” Patrick’s voice came from just behind them.

  “All right then,” Ivy put her hand in his again. “Let’s do this then.”

  14

  Ivy blew out a breath. Nothing about her conversation with Elijah made any sense. Except, it all did. Lita nagged her for months to admit she was attracted to more than just his stunning looks. Ivy honestly hadn’t thought she could be. Elijah was hard, commanding, and a wolf. Yet, when he spoke about their connection she believed him because there was no other explanation for the fury she felt when his life was in danger both in the middle of the night and just moments ago.

  Elijah Vikander had gotten under her skin in less than twenty-four hours, and Ivy detested it. Wanting to fuck the wolf was terrible enough, wanting to protect him and be near him? Her coven wouldn’t approve.

  “You’ll be careful?” Elijah lifted a brow and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I promise. I’ve got a family issue to fix after all this nonsense is done.” She kept her voice low to avoid questions she couldn’t answer.

  “Ladies first,” Patrick jested, signaling with his hand like the regency-era man he was.

  They’d quickly discussed a dual way to open the circle to fit both their styles. All that remained was doing it. You’re going to cast time travel magic—real time travel magic. She nodded and took a deep breath. What doesn’t kill you. “Lady Air, I invite you to this circle.”

  Patrick stepped beside her, and with the snap of his finger, the black candle lit. “Master of fire, I invite you into my circle.”

  Ivy ignored the way Elijah stared at her from where he leaned against the wall. Grabbing the blades of grass, she let them fall through her fingers. “Lady Earth, I invite you to this circle.”

  “Master of Water, I invite you into my circle.” Patrick lifted and then unscrewed the vial of djinn blood on the table.

  Ivy took her queue and slipped the tiny post earrings out of her ear. She set them down and watched as Patrick let the blood drip. He nodded to her when the last drop slipped out. Her hand smashed against the delicate silver earrings, and they cracked under the force.

  The sudden blast of white surprised her. Not because she didn’t remember it, but because Ivy hadn’t been certain they’d pull it off. The shop blurred away into the overwhelming light, and like the first time when it vanished her vision was off kilter.

  “I’m going to be sick,” Ivy spoke to no one in particular before turning her head to the side and retching.

  “Are you okay?” Elijah was there, squatting before her but not too close.

  “I don’t know. That took more power than should have been possible.” She reached into the bag of supplies Mrs. Perrow gave her and pulled out what must have been a healing potion, drinking it in one gulp to settle her stomach.

  Elijah patted the brown satchel on his hip. “Good thing we took a few more potions this time thanks to your friend.”

  Ivy snorted. “Lita Perrow’s mother is not a friend.”

  She glanced up, noticing the subtle changes to the shop. The white wallpaper was gone, replaced with a dull gray paint. The shelves held different products, though Ivy couldn’t identify all the changes. The most significant difference was outside the shop.

  She could see the sky. While the last stop seemed very warm and almost brown in tone. The twenties were as she remembered them, dark and clouded with smoke as more and more cars were on the road.

  “Jesus,” Elijah let out a low whistle. “Seeing this after knowing what the world will become is so... different.”

  Ivy nodded. They both lived through this decade once, just like the one before. “At least we can pretend we’re war re-enactors and not worry about clothing.”

  Elijah chuckled and walked past her to push the shop door open. The little bell above the door chimed.

  “I’ll be right there!” Lita’s voice—well a younger Lita’s voice—called from the back.

  “Come on, let’s go.” Ivy dragged him by the elbow out the door to prevent seeing her friend. Explaining herself once had been enough.

  The city noise pollution made her miss the peaceful quiet of the frontier decades.

  “Grab that stone. I’ll find us a car. We’ll drive around in circles until it lights up if we have too.”

  Digging in the bag Genevieve gave her, Ivy pulled out the hematite energy stone. “Um, we don’t have to.” Touching it, an image of the old church on Ursuline projected into her mind. “I know where he is.”

  “That was fast.”

  “Come on, there’s no time to ask to borrow a car.” She pulled her wand out and flicked in a circle, “Anávo.”

  The classic black Chrysler Model B churned to life.

  “I was going to suggest I hotwire one, but that is a hell of a lot easier.” He tugged the door open, not bothering to help her. “Get in.”

  Ivy shook her head and tugged the door open. “You didn’t open my door.”

  He just stared at her. “I told you I have feelings for you, not that I was a damn gentleman. Get in.”

  Barely holding back a laugh, she dropped into the seat. “The church. I don’t know what he’s doing there since that creepy old place holds vampire history and I don’t think he’d set the same attack up twice.”

  Elijah slammed the pedal to the floor, and the car lurched. “No, but I’d rather not find out what he is planning. That thing only gives off energy locations, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Then he’s doing something, and I’ll be damned if I will let that fucking piece of shit screw up more of history. Let’s leave it the on
e and done. He’s mine.”

  Ivy said nothing, there was nothing she could say. Elijah’s words held a dangerous edge, and she knew she wasn’t in the car with the same man who’d shared a part of himself. She was in the car with a wolf.

  The closer to Ursuline the car got, the more people they encountered rushing frantically in the opposite direction shouting. Ivy clutched her athame, wondering if sharp wouldn’t beat magic against whatever hell Jared unleashed.

  “Elijah?”

  He didn’t so much as turn to look at her. His knuckles were white from gripping the wheel.

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t think I’m going to be able to cast a lot. There just hasn’t been enough time for me to recover.”

  “Then you will stay back,” he took his gaze off the road then, his eye blazing with fury. “I don’t know what he’s done, but I want you safe. Promise me, damn it.”

  “Because I need to take down Jared, I know.”

  “And because I have an undeniable attraction to you that I want to understand.” The corners of his lips didn’t so much as twitch upward in a smile. “If anything happens to me and we get separated, get back to the Hotel Monteleone. Stay in the same room from last night, don’t leave your name with the desk. I will find you.”

  “What are you planning on doing that get could be split up?”

  He said nothing, the tension in his jaw causing a vein to bulge.

  “Answer me.”

  “I do not take orders. I am an alpha. I will do what I need to do to end this right now.”

  Sinking into the seat, Ivy blew out a breath and let herself simply watch Elijah. He was beautiful, but angry. So angry. Tiny little lines pulled next to his eyes because they were narrowed and staring with predator-like intent on the road ahead of them.

  “You can hear them.”

  Elijah slammed to a stop at Decatur and Ursuline. “Get out.”

  They bolted out, not having seatbelts to hold them down. He took off past the French Market location, running headlong in a terrified frenzy. Ivy couldn’t make out the words. Too many shouted voices and stampeding footsteps made it impossible. She needed to know what was coming.

  A man collided with her—similar to outside the hotel—looked at her ,and kept going without so much as a word.

  “Elijah!” She shouted, trying to swallow the fear nagging at the back of her mind. “Elijah, wait!” She managed to stretch her fingers just far enough to tap his forearm.

  When he turned he wasn’t entirely human. His mouth and nose were twisted together as the wolf’s muzzle formed. He wouldn’t be able to answer her, but the simple fact that he shifted in public sent a spiral of terror through her.

  Elijah was the strongest man she’d ever encountered. She’d watched him chase suspects through the Quarter on nights when their paths collided. If he’d shifted again, it wasn’t daylight-walking vampires.

  “Not here,” she hissed, struggling to match pace until he dropped to all fours.

  Did she protect him as he shifted, or run forward to get what she needed and stop Jared? Ivy didn’t know the right answer. She couldn’t possibly know it.

  Yes, you do, go.

  “Run!” A woman shrieked as well as any scream queen in movies ever had as she barreled past them.

  The old white church stood a block away, and from the backside, Ivy couldn’t see a damn thing, but the howl that filled the late afternoon air didn’t belong to Elijah. She pushed harder. Forced herself to run faster as the scene unfolded before her.

  Like the hotel, bodies lined the street. Blood streaked the road and splashed up the buildings on both sides. A gun fired, and Ivy was momentarily grateful the humans could at least slow the wolves down. There was no telling how many, and she slammed to stop as the front of the church came into view.

  The smell of blood nearly made Ivy gag, but she pushed on. Wolves—whether shifter or real she couldn’t tell—and humans lay strewn about the street. No side seemed safe from the attack before her.

  Wolves lay dead on the ground, and Jared stood beside three men with guns, shouting next to their ears as he offered them bullets from his outstretched hand. “These bullets. Silver bullets.”

  “That bastard,” Ivy sneered, dropping the athame in exchange for the wand in her waistband.

  Jared created the attack, and was furthering his mission to destroy peace by telling humans what they fought, and how to fight them.

  “Don’t let him get to you!” Jared screamed into the darkening sky from his perch on the bench.

  The witch spotted Ivy and dropped her hands. She’d been puppeteering the wolves it seemed. Ivy’s stomach lurched knowing the witch was a willing participant.

  All at once, with merely a thought, her wand tip sizzled and crackled with purple fire. Ivy snarled as she lifted her hand in the air and flicked her wrist to send it sailing. The witch threw up a shield, and the ball of fire bounced off and sent chunks of sidewalk exploding outward.

  “No. Not again.” Ivy jumped to avoid a fallen wolf and took off at a run toward the witch. “Traitor!” She screamed, firing off burst after burst of witch’s fire at the other woman.

  “I’ve always wanted to meet the all-important Ivy Lancaster. My name is Caliste, though you won’t survive this meeting for it to matter.” Orange smoke swirled with orange fire between her hands, but just as she went to throw it at Ivy, Caliste choked, blood spilling over lips as she fell to the ground.

  Patrick stood behind Caliste’s body with a smirk on his lips. “You didn’t think I’d seriously forget, did you?” His athame dripped blood. The witches blood.

  Ivy let out a sigh of relief. It was short-lived as the wolf howled once more. Without Caliste controlling him, it was likely his wolf was raging.

  “No,” Jared snarled, jumping off the bench. “I will not be trapped here!” He took off at a dead run.

  The wolf snarled at her, a deadly sound that held her still. She lifted her hands and turned slowly, praying to the goddess she didn’t drop the wand because she could see her onyx athame lying on the street in a pool of blood.

  “Patrick! Go after Jared. Don’t let him vanish. He might be stuck right now, but I’ll bet he finds a way out!”

  Her ex looked at her one final time and nodded, his black hair swishing with the motion. Then he was gone, running after Jared.

  “Please don’t let anything happen to him.” The words were little more than a cry as the wolf snapped its jaws at her. “You don’t want to do this,” she took three steps backward, flinching each time a human’s obviously not silver bullet slammed into the wolf. “Leave! Now.”

  “Sorry, Ma’am, we can’t do that.”

  “If you want to live, leave.”

  The wolf pounced.

  Ivy slammed her eyes shut, leaving her wand out with fire glowing at the tip.

  A squeal followed by a yelp pulled her eyes open.

  “It’s another one!” One of the three men shouted.

  “Don’t touch him!” Ivy shouted, watching on in horror as the guns aimed at Elijah as he tussled with the wolf.

  “Right now, any wolf in the Quarter is a dead wolf.” The thick Cajun accent came from the man in the middle.

  “Págoma.” She let the incantation fall on the men, holding them in place as solidly as any block of ice could. Thankfully, it wouldn’t melt like ice would in this dreary February heat.

  Turning her attention back to Elijah she forced herself to breathe through the terror. Elijah was pack alpha back then. She prayed he didn’t know the wolf he fought. Another howl filled the air followed by sirens blasting through the streets.

  “Elijah, leave him!” She didn’t know if she shouted to keep him from being injured because she cared about him, or simply because he was her partner on this mission.

  Lie. “Elijah, please. You made me promise not to get hurt. Don’t you dare be the one to get injured.”

  The blond wolf looked up for a moment, long enough for
the other wolf to land an attack. Blood sprayed from Elijah’s side and Ivy screamed. Her wand let out a burst of uncontrolled fury magic. Though it didn’t hit the dark brown wolf, it did cause it to jump away, allowing Elijah the moment he needed. He leaped onto the other wolf’s back and twisted his jaws into its neck the way he had the djinn’s stomach. A clump of fur and flesh flew as Elijah shook his head. He stood on two paws, leering down at the other wolf.

  A vision of Canal Street slammed into Ivy. Jared was casting, and he’d moved damn far quickly.

  Elijah continued to shake the other wolf, only now the creature’s eyes were closed. Elijah looked at her, one quick glance, and took off dragging the other wolf behind him.

  In one direction, Elijah ran to complete what he’d started and likely perform the rituals of his people. In the other lay Jared. Ivy glanced to Caliste’s body on the ground. She felt nothing as she stepped over her, making the choice to go after Jared.

  Ivy’s feet slammed into the pavement, each step showcasing how painfully out of shape she’d grown. Pain stabbed through her knees but she pushed on. The sounds of sirens and shouting dissipated as she ran. Good old New Orleans, able to party on one side while murder took place on the other.

  The sounds of a parade peaked in her ears as she ran. Screams were utterly replaced by revelry. The sounds were quieter than she was used to, coming from instruments only and not speakers blaring up the Canal Street parade route.

  “He’s going to use the parade as cover.” She paused for long enough to catch a bit of air and then kept running.

  The streets grew crowded with people the closer she got to the parade route. The tops of the parades, riding on train flat beds if she remembered correctly, could be seen over the crowds.

  “Proteus. Proteus.”

  The crowd chanted the name of one of the parade krewes as they waved their hands wildly in the air.

  All around her, Ivy searched for Patrick’s long black hair or the stupid red coat that she just saw Jared in. Nothing, not even a sign of magic.