Passion (Shifters Forever More Book 5)

by Elle Thorne

  Realization glimmered in Oiddras’s eyes. Matteo studied those eyes, so much like his own, if he were not wearing contacts. Gold striations that burst outward through the irises, like sunburst. “You care for her.”

  Matteo acknowledged this with a terse nod. “And you have not explained.”

  “I’d rather tell her first,” Oiddras countered.

  “Tell her what? That you are her father?” Matteo knew he was making a wild stab at this, but…he had a feeling.

  “I’m going to see her.” The large dragon shifter limped toward the steps.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jolie was burning to join Matteo. She turned away from the castle, ready to talk Samara and Blaise into going inside. “He’s taking too long.”

  Samara’s gaze was focused beyond Jolie, toward the castle. “That’s not your dragon shifter friend.” Next to her, the wolves growled.

  Jolie whirled around. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Oiddras. She began to run toward him, at the same time studying the face of the man who used to watch over her. Her attention was turned to his gait. He was limping.

  “Oiddras,” she gasped, running even faster. She could hear Blaise panting behind her. Suddenly, Jolie was passed by the two wolves who were loping toward Oiddras, teeth bared.

  Still at a breakneck speed, she looked back at Samara. “Tell the wolves not to bother him,” she screamed.

  Before her, Oiddras had paused and was beginning a shift to his dragon. Adrenaline rushed through her, catapulting her into greater speed as she gained on the wolves, then was in front of them. She whirled to face them and held her hands out.

  Jolie couldn’t have said how it happened, but the bubble appeared around her. She was buckling time! She stared at the wolves. They were frozen in midstride. So were Samara and Blaise. She turned around. Oiddras was standing still, in his dragon, and behind him, not too far away, Matteo was also mid-step.

  Jolie walked toward Oiddras and put her hand on his dragon’s shoulder.

  The dragon reared his head back.

  “It’s me,” she told him.

  He glanced about, his dark and gold-striped eyes taking in their surroundings.

  “You’re safe.” She wrapped her arms around his scarred, thick dragon neck. “Shift back. Gods, I’ve missed you. Shift to your human.” Tears were falling from her eyes, completely uninhibited. “I thought you were dead.

  With her arms still around him, Oiddras shifted into his human form, complete with the sounds of shifting. The creaking of bones, the stretching of sinew.

  He stood before her. The man she’d loved above all others, her guardian.

  “You learned how to manipulate time, my little time mage.”

  She leaned back, though her arms were still around his neck. “You knew what I was?”

  He nodded, kissing her forehead. “Of course.” He sighed, a mighty gesture, causing his chest to swell then to deflate against her.

  “I have a story to tell you.” He studied the rest of the party.

  She turned to look at them as well. Something seemed different about them. The wolves had moved. Infinitesimally, to be certain, but still, they’d moved. So had Matteo. “I thought buckling time would have frozen them.”

  “Not completely. Not every time. A time mage can slow time down to almost a complete stop or, sometimes, slow it down just enough to do what they need.”

  “You know about time mages?”

  “Of course, I do. I knew your mother, who was a time mage herself.”

  Stunned, Jolie could only stare at him in disbelief. Words didn’t come. They wanted to. She had questions. And accusations. But nothing would come out.

  “Let’s go.” He took her arm. “Come. I want to talk to you. And I’d rather not do it with those wolves close on my heels.” He gazed beyond the wolves. “Is that a blood elf?”

  Jolie nodded and worked to form words. Not the ones she’d wanted to initially, but she strove for conversational, sure the other thoughts would be released soon. “It is a blood elf. And those are her wolves. She brought me here.”

  “Blood elves can do that rather well. I knew one or two in my day.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Eons, child. Eons.” He led her past Matteo to a stone bench at the foot of the steps that led to the castle’s main door. “I met your dragon shifter friend.”

  “Matteo.” She refused to acknowledge the questioning inflection in the way he’d said the word friend. She had far more questions than he did. And hers were a priority. At this moment, she didn’t owe Oiddras an explanation about her life, relationships, or choices.

  He sat down and patted the stone for her to join. “I have a lot to share with you. How long can you keep the time still for them?”

  She frowned. “This is the third time I’ve done it. I can’t control when it comes and when it ends. I thought it would end when I felt the danger had bypassed, but somehow, it’s still in effect.”

  “Let’s take this opportunity to talk. What I have for you is for your ears alone. After that, you can decide who you wish to share with. You know you aren’t a sorceress, but rather a time mage, so at least I don’t have to cover that. I’m not sure where to start.” He rubbed his jaw. “Let me begin with the more recent history. I was on my trek through Romania. I’ll tell you the why behind that later. I ran into a group of nomads. Gypsies, they were called by many, back then. I’d known them once before. I’d known the daughter of the leader. Her name was Kezia.”

  Jolie didn’t mention to him how his voice changed with that one name, but perhaps he would tell her one day. Or maybe today. But for now, she wasn’t going to interrupt to ask him about his feelings for this Kezia.

  He shifted his weight on the bench, leaned forward, hands clasped. “This wasn’t an ordinary band of nomads. They hid what they were. Wolf shifters and time mages. Kezia was your mother. She wasn’t a wolf shifter. How that came to pass, I don’t know, but for whatever reason, though maybe she carried the gene.”

  Jolie was still reeling. He had known her mother! She was bursting with questions.

  “But see, this time when I ran into them,” Oiddras continued. “Kezia was no longer with them. She’d died and left behind a baby girl. A blonde-haired two-year-old little one that was passed from relative to relative, or so one of Kezia’s cousins said. The leader was gone, he’d been banished. Why, I don’t know.” He clenched his hands into fists. “But they weren’t taking good care of Kezia’s child. She didn’t even have a name.”

  Jolie gasped. He was talking about her. She didn’t have a name and she was passed around, unwanted? She had no memory of this. And no memory of any life, outside of the coven. She thought of her party and glanced about, checking on Matteo, Blaise, and Samara. They’d all moved several inches, including the wolves, but still had a long way to go, before they were a threat again, so she turned her attention back to Oiddras.

  “So who named me?” she broke her silence.

  “I did. You were my daughter, you see. Kezia and I—” his voice broke, though his face remained stoic. He cleared his throat. “Kezia and I had been together. I was coming back for her. Instead, I took you. And we ended up here. I thought you would be well-hidden among sorceresses. I didn’t think anyone would attack seeking sorceresses. They took you by mistake. Four of you. But now I only see you and Blaise.”

  Jolie reverberated with the knowledge that Oiddras was her father. In a way, she’d always felt a father-daughter relationship with him, but to know now for sure he was related to her, it was overwhelming. She pushed away from the topic for now. “The other two didn’t make it.” She wasn’t ready to tell him they took their own lives. It was clear he felt responsible enough. “So the time mage thing, that’s from my mother’s side of the family?”

  He nodded. “It seems you did not take any of the dragon shifter from me. Or has anything surfaced to the contrary?”

  “No. Nothing shifter related. Not wolf or drag
on.”

  “I thought as much. Speaking of dragon shifters, what’s with you and that one?” He tipped his head toward Matteo.

  “I want to hear more about my mother. About you.”

  “When I brought you to the coven, I’d asked them to give you cover. In exchange, I offered Dragespire and my protection.”

  “You own Dragespire?” The very castle on which grounds they were on.

  “I do. I have for centuries. The sorceresses put you on the registry as a sorceress but with bloodlines unknown. The Synod of Sorceresses keep a registry of the world’s sorceresses, but it is not shared with anyone. Not even the Circle of Witches. They are discreet and low-key. I had you registered to keep anyone from asking questions about any other parts of your ancestry. The sorceress in charge of Dragespire when I first brought you here put an enchantment on you to keep you from being discovered as a time mage.”

  “Would that enchantment have kept me from using any time mage powers?”

  “It would have. I can’t imagine why it’s faded, unless she’s died. She left here the year after I brought you. Moved to join the Synod as a leader.”

  Jolie’s mind was whirling with all the new revelations. “Would you—”

  Her words were interrupted by a melee of activity as time was no longer buckled and all came out of the spell.

  The wolves were howling and looking around, disoriented. Matteo had already seen where she and Oiddras were sitting and was approaching.

  Blaise appeared dumbfounded, and Samara wore a grin of sheer delight, as though she’d enjoyed the experience.

  “The wolves!” Jolie yelled to Samara.

  The blood elf pursed her lips and released a shrill whistle which brought the wolves back to her side, panting and snarling.

  Matteo reached her, concern in his eyes. “You did it again, didn’t you?”

  “It happened when I thought the wolves were going to hurt Oiddras.”

  “How long?” Matteo took her hand, studying her face. “Are you okay?”

  “Minutes,” she responded. “Maybe twenty? I’m fine.”

  He glanced between her and Oiddras. “I suppose I missed a few things.”

  “We caught up,” Oiddras said.

  He gave Matteo a look which spoke volumes, but Jolie wasn’t sure what it meant. Had something transpired while they’d been inside the castle itself when Matteo was checking it out?

  She raised a brow at Matteo. He owed her an explanation. He, in turn, gave her a small smile, just a tiny curve of his lip, then, as though realizing he still held her hand, he released it.

  “We should go inside,” Oiddras said as Blaise and Samara reached them.

  Samara clicked her tongue. The wolves shifted into ferrets and scampered up her legs to rest on her shoulders.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The five of them, plus Samara’s two familiars, sat in front of a roaring fire at the hearth in the great hall of the castle. All had been introduced, though Samara and Oiddras had not been as forthcoming when it came to talking about themselves. Though Oiddras did spend a few moments catching everyone else up to the revelation that he was Jolie’s father and that her mother was no longer alive. That her time mage skills had come from her mother’s bloodline.

  Naturally, then Blaise had to be brought up to speed, after which, Jolie had turned inward for a bit.

  Ghosts of bittersweet memories growing up here revisited Jolie as she enjoyed a glass of ale Oiddras had pulled from down the stairs. She remembered how he kept barrels there, amongst the long out of use dungeon cells.

  Oiddras had told her how he’d stayed at the Dragespire even though it had been empty of sorceresses. Or anyone else for that matter. That he’d managed alone, without any help from any of the villagers, though he’d been in hibernation for more than a year, recovering from the injuries inflicted during the attack. And when he’d awoken, he’d preferred to grieve alone, for he was certain no one had survived.

  Jolie, with input from Blaise, had briefed Oiddras, and by default Samara and Matteo, on their life after being seized. How they’d been captives of Orkney, chained with enchanted shackles, stripped of their mana repeatedly, to keep them weak and to enhance Orkney’s powers. Jolie expanded on the subject, adding that she was certain there were several in charge. That the place was large. Like a small hospital kind of large. And that experiments were conducted there.

  Matteo had wondered how they’d managed to have a population of captors and captives and kept such a secret.

  Oiddras had scowled, explaining they were probably under the protection of sorcery. Massive obfuscation spells would do that, though they’d need a lot of mana.

  “Which explains why Orkney was taking our mana,” Jolie had added.

  “I think so, too,” Blaise had said.

  The matter all talked out, with Jolie and Blaise tired of the topic, they’d fallen silent for a few minutes.

  Samara ended the silence. “What are your plans?” she asked Jolie. “Now that your home is standing, and you’ve got your guarding dragon here.”

  Jolie looked up, for at first, she thought Samara was referring to Matteo, then she saw her waving toward Oiddras. “I hadn’t thought of it,” she said in earnest, noticing Matteo’s dark gaze on her.

  “I want to stay here,” Blaise said.

  Oiddras nodded. “You are welcome here. This is your home. It always will be. And I will put in place better means for protecting those here. I won’t fail twice.”

  “You didn’t fail,” Jolie told him. “Who could have predicted what would have happened?”

  “I’ll set up better fortifications. Rest assured of that. I’ll bring in stronger sorceresses. Powerful wards and enchantments.”

  Samara took a long swallow of her ale then set it on the floor near her feet. She cleared her throat. All turned her way. “Would you have room for a blood elf? One who is descended of sylvans who were exiled after giving birth to blood elves? And then in turn, was cast out herself for saving the life of a shifter?”

  Sylvans, Jolie knew, were creatures of the woods. Elves that lived among the trees. Not ones prone to blood spells or dark arts. The rest of Samara’s history had been a mystery. Most of it clearly still was.

  Oiddras tipped his head slightly, studying her. “You saved a shifter?” He stroked his jaw. “I see no reason to turn you away. So long as those blood arts which your kind practice do not bring destruction among my own.”

  “I can vouch for her,” Jolie said, though she reminded herself she needed to ask Samara to remove the blood bond.

  “What about you?” Blaise ask Jolie.

  Jolie shoved her hair back, leaned forward, put her elbows on her knees and her chin on her fists. “I have a desire. A dream.” She stared at the fire, watching the reds, yellows, and oranges glowing, flickering, dancing to and fro.

  “Tell us your dream,” Matteo encouraged.

  She would leave out the part where she wished he was in her dream. But she could definitely share the rest. She stood and put her back to the fire, facing her friends, old and new. And her father. “When I was in America, I found a place which sought to make a community of shifters and other supernatural beings. A place which was like a family. Where they all looked after each other. They welcomed newcomers.”

  Realization dawned on Matteo’s face. “You want your own version of Bear Canyon Valley, but here? At Dragespire?”

  She nodded furiously, her hands behind her, catching the warmth of the fire. “Exactly. I’d love it if we could make this the same. Oiddras can be like Griz. Or Salvatore—” Remembering, she leaped forward, in front of Oiddras. “You used to know a Salvatore, didn’t you?”

  Long hair draped over his shoulder, Oiddras rubbed his head. “I did. A long time ago. A dragon shifter named Salvatore.”

  “He’s in Bear Canyon Valley,” she exclaimed.

  “I have not seen him in more than a century. I wondered if he’d died. Have not seen any other dra
gons since him. And now Matteo of course.”

  Matteo smiled. “There were nine of us at Bear Canyon. Until I came here.”

  “Nine dragons. In one place,” Oiddras was marveled by the notion, clearly. “And no one sought to eradicate you?”

  Matteo smirked. “I’m sure if some knew, they would. They are working to find an antidote for dragonstrike. Perhaps hoping that if there is one, then the world of shifters, witches, and other beings won’t see us as such a threat.”

  “I would not mind seeing Salvatore again.”

  “Then we should go there, if only to visit,” Jolie suggested. She’d welcome the opportunity to touch base with them again. She slapped a hand to her forehead. “I forgot. I can’t believe I forgot.”

  Matteo watched her, puzzled. “What is it?”

  “The USB. I stole one when I escaped. When I went through the hospital wing—they had one, you know,” she told Blaise. “It was a level above the place we were held. And—did you see the hospital wing?

  “No, there was an opening that led to the forest. Selene told me to go that way. I think she created it. Somehow. She’s very powerful, you know. But she can’t leave. He has some sort of binding on her, maybe.”

  “Selene? You mean Nameless? You remembered her name?”

  Blaise laughed. “I do. And I would like to see her freed. And the others.”

  Matteo reached forward, taking Jolie’s hand. “The USB, where is it? What did it have on it?”

  Jolie shrugged. “I don’t know what it has on it, but it’s on the nightstand at Mae’s, behind the lamp.”

  Matteo leaned back, pensive. “I wonder if the place you escaped from is Crossroads. Did they ever tell you two where you were being held?”

  “No,” Jolie confirmed after a glance at Blaise, who was shaking her head. “Never. I think Griz needs the USB. Maybe he can find something of importance on there.”

  Matteo pulled a cell phone from his pocket. “I’ve got enough juice for a call. And I have a signal, too.”