The healer looked at the girl and frowned. “That is not a new friend. I believe that is an old one.” Barlaam put a hand on the witch’s shoulder. Jushua still had her contained within his power. “That is Loren. My Rajni’s closest friend. Best put her down and set her free. She has quite a temper, I understand.”
Chapter Nine
Well that was a turn he hadn’t expected. “You know her.”
“Yes, I do. And I can safely say you can put her down without there being a problem. I’m not sure why she was in Dardanos today, but I’d like to find out. My mate has been worried. She has been missing for a while now. We feared her dead.”
Jushua lowered first the mother, and then the girl. Taniss grabbed the mother and steadied her. But Jushua did not take his hands off the girl.
Why should he? She should have just told him who she was. And there was no explanation for how she had known him, was there? She knocked me upside the head a few times. You sure she’s a friend?”
“Yes.” Barlaam reached for her.
Jushua growled, shocking the hell out of himself. He didn’t understand it. He certainly didn’t feel the least bit possessive of the girl. That was ridiculous.
But he did not want another male touching her. Perhaps there had been more attraction between them than he thought?
Or just more foolishness.
Barlaam held up a hand and stepped away. “I see. So that’s the way of it, then. Best unfreeze her. She’s a bit pissed.”
Nalik stepped between them and lifted the girl’s chin. She became animate.
Dammit, how had the reborned one done that? No one should have been able to undo what he had done. That was not the way the world worked for him.
“Barl!” The girl shocked him when she hugged the Healer. “Thank the great stars. I was worried…Jade? Becca?”
“Both are fine.” Barlaam hugged her back quickly and then stepped away. “Why are you here, and not in Levia?”
“I went to Levia. And it wasn’t the best place for a human, so I returned to my mother.”
“I see. Exceptions would have been made for her to join you there. If you had asked. She would have been protected. And there are Tanisses there. You would have been protected.”
“But that was not the way for us. Now is. Although…tell me…Is Jushua the only Dardaptos son who still lives? Kennera, the daughter? The Fates…”
Nalik grabbed the girl’s arm and turned her toward him. Jushua stepped up to her side, just as the mother became animate. “Just who—what—are you? You are not human, yet you are not fully Druid.”
“At times I do not know.” Her expression was sly, and he knew again that she lied.
“And I have a lot of questions. Come. There is much we need to discuss—once we get out of this world. I trust you have traveled by portkey before.”
She smiled, then raised one slender hand. A faint lavender light emanated from her fingertips. “Boys, I don’t need one.”
An opening between worlds grew between them.
The males all stepped back. That was definitely something they hadn’t expected.
The only creature that had ever been capable of traveling between the layers of the worlds so easily was the Laquazzeana Phaenna.
Not even his mother could manage that feat.
So why was a supposedly twenty-something half-human girl able?
“Just what in the Three Hells are you?”
Chapter Ten
Loren closed her eyes and let the power that she had known from that first moment of rebirth almost five thousand years ago fill her body.
She had grown stronger, she knew she had. Every life, the power within her would have doubled from the previous.
It was truly terrifying, and she had always refused to know the full extent of it.
Before.
This lifetime was different. And she’d known that from the moment she’d matured into an adult at sixteen. It was always at sixteen years, two hundred and six days when she came into her powers. In every lifetime.
Because the Dark Sorcerer had killed her when she was sixteen years, two hundred and six days old. It had taken her a few lifetimes to figure that out.
She had traveled to Levia without her mother when the first evacuation order had been given, and had stayed for three weeks. Three weeks too long. She was not meant to be in the world of the deities for too long. She’d known that easily. She was supposed to be at the forefront of the war, not hiding with the rest of the Druids, mixing healing potions and balms while protected by Lupoiux werewolves.
And she’d worried about her mother.
So she’d opened the barrier between the worlds and come home.
They’d lived like refugees ever since.
No more. She would not let her mother worry any more. She had come to Dardanos for a reason, and now she knew what that reason was. Why else would Barlaam be there, if not to take her to the world where Jade was?
She had worried about her friend, and been consumed with thoughts of the other woman, though logically she knew Jade was most likely safe wherever she was. No, it was the Four Fates’ way of getting her to wherever she was supposed to go. She had to trust in that.
Somehow.
The opening between Gaia and the next widened. She looked at the men, all with shocked and wary faces. Her mother’s own eyes were wide. Loren felt a momentary rush of guilt for not telling her mother about this little ability of hers.
The less her mother knew, the safer she was. That had long been Loren’s reasoning.
“Well? Are you coming?”
She held out a hand to her mother. Her mother walked toward her, fear on her face. Loren understood; her mother had never been to another world, though she knew it was possible. But even when scared Renee Nellano faced her fears and kept going.
“Gentlemen? The worlds await.”
Chapter Eleven
She was gone before he could stop her. But the opening remained. He looked at Barlaam and at Nalik. “Care to explain what—or who—that little creature was?”
“Loren Nellano. That’s what Jade and Becca call her.” Barlaam looked at the Taniss brothers. “Marshall? You ever met her?”
“I think so. She may have been wandering around at Becca’s graduation. She looked familiar. I may have seen her in Bec’s photos, or something. I’m afraid I don’t know much about her. I never met all of Becca’s friends. Jase might know more.”
“But first, we must get to her again. Before she wreaks havoc in my living room. What would happen if she just appears there with no warning?”
Jushua thought for a moment. “It probably wouldn’t be good. She already whacked me upside the head; she seems to be the kind to hit first, ask questions later.”
Barlaam laughed. “Yet Jade is probably in that living room. I doubt there will be much hitting today.”
“Still…” Nalik pointed to the dwindling portkey. “I’m curious about this. Shall we?” He stepped through with all the confidence of an all-powerful Laquazzeana.
Jushua followed. He had some serious questions. The witch needed to answer them.
**
She held her mother tightly, knowing the other woman was terrified out of her mind. But Renee Ramsey Nellano was also the bravest woman Loren had ever known. Her mom kicked ass, and didn’t bother taking names. She just kicked; especially where Loren was concerned.
There wasn’t anything her mother wouldn’t do for her, and Loren knew it.
When the ether around them cleared, Loren took one look around and laughed. Laughed so hard she almost fell over.
Sometimes the Fates really came through…
And then she stepped aside, because she knew the men they’d just left would be right behind them.
“Well. So here’s where the party’s been all along. And I must have missed the invite.”
The room was filled with people. Silent people.
Three that she recognized—Jade, Becca, and…Mara.
Her three closest friends. All in one place. Jade and Becca didn’t surprise her—Jade was Dardaptoan vampire and Becca Lupoiux werewolf—but Mara…
Loren had been concerned for her friend when Mara and her family had disappeared months ago. She’d known Mara was part Dardaptoan and had suspected Lupoiux, as well.
But Mara hadn’t known. And it wasn’t Loren’s place to tell her.
The sweet soul that her friend was would have to have been terrified and shocked when she found out. “Mara, thank the stars you are safe. I was worried.”
“Loren.” Jade was staring. “Loren. How did you get here? And where is—“
“Your husband will be along in a minute; he was right behind me.”
“Hello, Mrs. Nellano. It’s good to see you again.” Becca stood and hugged Loren’s mother. Becca had been Loren’s first college roommate. Her cousin Jade had been across the hall, with Mara. The four of them had been friends from their first day at the University of Colorado. They’d traded roommates off and on throughout the four years they’d spent in college, but always they were near each other. Other than her mother, she’d never been closer to anyone in this lifetime.
Like had drawn like, after all.
Loren’s mother had taken to putting Becca’s favorite cookies in the care package she’d sent to Loren once a week. She’d felt for Becca, knowing Becca’s mother had died when Becca was born.
Loren hadn’t had a father, and Becca hadn’t had a mother. And Jade had a father, but an absent mother. Mara’s father had been gone for years. They’d found common ground in each other. And had stuck together for four years.
They and her mother were all the family Loren had.
Tear welled up when she looked at Mara, the smallest and youngest of them all. She had been so worried, especially about Mara.
She’d told herself she shouldn’t have gotten attached. Eighty lifetimes of loss and grief for friends should have made a better impression. But that hadn’t mattered.
She’d still wondered what had happened to Mara. “Mara…”
Loren hugged her friend.
Next thing she knew they were all jumbled together, her, Mara, Jade, and Becca. They were laughing and crying and things started to feel right in her world again.
Chapter Twelve
The sight that met his eyes was definitely not one he had expected.
Women everywhere and crying. Laughing. Hugging.
So…the little witchie had friends among the Dardaptoans. Interesting.
She was on the floor with the healer’s female Jade, and two other women, plus some babes he thought were half Lupoiux. Apparently they all knew each other well.
“As I figured.” The healer said from behind him. “Jade was quite worried. And until she realized Mara was already here that worry was worse. Now, perhaps, that worry will not be in my Rajni’s eyes so much.”
Jushua just shook his head.
He would never understand the females of any Kind.
How was he supposed to reconcile a woman with her obvious abilities with a mere girl fresh into adulthood?
Something was not honest about her.
There was more about her than she allowed to show.
The healer lifted his blonde female from the pile of women on the rug and sat her gently on the seat near him. The rest followed.
The witchie’s mother was silent, but she seemed well when she sat next to the redheaded woman he vaguely recognized as a relation of the Healer’s female. But it was the Druid who held the attention of all in the room.
Jushua was no exception. Something about her would draw the eyes of any male.
He took a moment to catalog the rest of the sitting room’s occupants. Mostly relations of Nalik’s female. She was cousin to Barlaam’s and a few others who were present. There were three young babes in the room as well. One was Nalik’s son, the other two he did not recognize, though from the way one of the women was holding one, he assumed it was hers. And the Taniss who had accompanied them to the other world had immediately picked up another babe. A relation of his, then. It was hard to keep those Taniss cousins—especially the females—straight.
Nalik sat next to his female, who was watching the proceedings with interest. Jushua liked the quiet young Cass a great deal, and he knew it bothered the reborned brother when he teased Cass.
So Jushua made a point of teasing Cass, at the most inopportune times for her mate.
“Loren…” Barlaam spoke. Jushua watched the Druid with interest.
She respected the Healer. It was in how she looked at him, how she spoke to him. Why?
Jushua knew little of the other male, though they had met on many occasions.
Barlaam was of his sister’s tribe of Dardaptoans. They were quite different from Jushua’s. Evolution would do that, especially considering that his people had spent almost five thousand years in a separate world.
His twin had spent much of her time in the world she’d escaped to being cursed and cursing against a wolf god. That god had eventually become her mate, but while they were battling, they had caused irrevocable changes within the beings his sister had created. His twin had always been impulsive and overly dramatic. At least she had been five thousand years ago.
His Dardaptoans had been original to his family line, and still carried traces of his father and mother’s bloodlines.
The ones his sister had created a thousand years after the Dark Sorcerer’s attack had been weakened by her cursing game with the wolf god. And they contained the memories of their origins, not the blood.
In Jushua’s experience, his Dardaptoans were stronger and more powerful than anything his sister had created.
With the exception of Nalik Black, the male who possessed his brother Kilan’s reborn soul. Nobody screwed with Nalik.
Or with his House.
“You are powerful. But you are not fully Druid. Tell me, what are you?” Nalik asked. “You are among friends here, you can be honest.”
“I am always honest.” The witch raised her chin and threw her shoulders back. Did anyone else see the power that radiated off of her? Or was he the only one? “I am Loren Nellano. I was born on the third of November twenty-two years ago. I graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in history. What more do you need to know?”
There was a glint in her eyes that had Jushua suspicious as all three hells. “Truth, girl. What are you?”
“Do not order me around, Jushua. I have never liked that.”
Why did she seem to know him? “Have we met before?”
Now she did smile. “Not in this lifetime.”
“Loren…what’s going on? For real,” the healer’s mate asked. “And how did you get here? Where have you been? We heard you left Levia, that you just disappeared.”
She looked around the room, at the servants coming in and out, at the children. “Not here. We’ll talk, Jade. I promise.”
Chapter Thirteen
She didn’t want to talk in front of her mother, but she knew that was inevitable. And wasn’t it better to prepare her mother for what was coming, rather than just letting her be shocked when something happened? Letting her be unprepared and defenseless?
After she’d requested privacy, Jade’s cousin had basically waved a hand and had a suite complete with sitting room ready for her and her mother to share. Jade led the way, and took a seat. Loren knew she was about to face some hard questions.
But at least Jushua wasn’t there staring at her.
He’d always been her least favorite of the Dardaptos brothers.
Dekimos and Rixne—they had been among her favorites, though she’d been very young when she had known them and hadn’t interacted with the centuries’ older males much at all.
But Jushua had always been around, from the moment he’d been formally betrothed to her sister. And he’d tormented everyone around them. She’d not cared for his ways, not at all. So she’d tried to avoid him whenever she could. Not h
ard, as she was just a girl back then.
But his brother Estacles…he had been her friend. He had been the one to take a teenage girl and teach her to protect herself with a sword.
He had been the second son of Eaudne and Cles, quiet and scholarly, but an extremely skilled warrior. But there had been a sadness about Estacles that had always drawn her to his side. He had been the first great prognosticator.
He’d told her she’d have a great destiny.
And then he’d offered her his sword and told her it would come back to her someday. When it was supposed to. And then he had started teaching her to use it.
She did not know what happened to that blade, but knew it was out there. Waiting. Calling for her and guiding her to the places she was supposed to be.
This was the only lifetime in which she had heard it.
The first time she’d felt the call of the blade was when she was sixteen, before it became clear what she was to face in this lifetime.
She’d thought she was going crazy, thought she was hearing voices. Loren had never told her mother what she had learned during her sixteenth year. How was she supposed to now?
Her mother had come this far with her on simple faith. She did not want to fill her mother with horrific fear now. “Mama, I don’t want you to be scared.”
“Honey, a mother always is.”
Jade was there, her husband, the guy Nalik and Jade’s cousin Cass. Becca, too.
Sometimes it was best to just get things started. “I was cursed almost five thousand years ago. Yes, I’m twenty-two now…but this is my eightieth lifetime. I’ve come to fight the Dark Sorcerer.”
She’d come to die. Again.
Because it was her destiny.
Chapter Fourteen
Jushua left Nalik’s hall and sought out his brother Dekimos and his mother, needing time to process what the girl had said. To decide if he believed her or not. They were all in Thrun City because his mother had decreed it. Said it was where they were supposed to be.
The Witch Page 4
