Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  When he met Kit the first day at Sky Mothers, he felt an immediate chemistry. Kit also made it clear that she preferred casual and discreet, two aspects that Oliver generally preferred as well. But the dreams of Dafne left him feeling empty and alone. He wanted someone to fill the void. Perhaps then the nightmares would stop.

  Kit climbed on top of him. She kissed him hungrily. Her mouth moved from his lips to his neck, and he pulled and pushed against her slick, naked body. She was not delicate and soft. Her muscles were taut and close to the surface. She did not make love so much as ravage and use him. He liked it. It allowed him to do the same. Lost in the sensations of her body, Oliver forgot about his dream.

  After Kit returned to sleep, Oliver left the yurt and walked the edge of the cliff. The water churned below and he climbed down, savoring the energy boost of the huge rock wall in front of him.

  ****

  Sebastian stepped into the forest, following the sound of rushing water. He had noticed it the night before when he crept out of the yurt to relieve himself. Abby had joined Matilda and Grace to talk about secret women things. He didn't mind. Sebastian thrived on alone time. He and Abby both needed their quiet spaces to reflect on the ever-changing world around them.

  The forest smelled fragrant and damp. He examined eucalyptus trees and watched for exotic birds. Underfoot, a floor of ferns and tiny brightly colored flowers spread beneath his feet.

  As he walked, the water sound grew louder until it filled his head. The trees opened to reveal a dark lagoon. The water shimmered and reflected the morning sun, and gray rocks filled the pool and lined the edges. A powerful surge of water crashed from the cliff overhead. It dropped in a crystalline sheath and sent a frothy spray into the hot, dry air.

  Without a thought, Sebastian stripped off his shirt and shorts and waded into the pool. He sucked in a breath at the icy water. Gooseflesh tightened his skin, and he sighed, long and deep. It was an ecstasy of sorts, immersing the body in frigid water as the hot air buzzed around him. He went under and surveyed the depths of the shadowy blue lagoon. Points of light streaked into the pool and cast the rocks beneath the surface in glittering silver.

  Breaking the surface, he felt the cold drain from his face and shoulders. He went under again. In and out of the water he dove, and then flung himself back into the dazzling sunlight and warmth. His mind emptied as he moved. The only thing that existed was the sensation in his body, flooding every cell. When he finally ended his game, he climbed onto one of the hot gray rocks and lay back, feeling the rivulets of water snake down his cool skin.

  "Fierce, isn't it?"

  The voice startled him and Sebastian sat up, instantly aware of his nakedness.

  A woman sat on the rock just beside him. She had not been there when he emerged, but had he really been paying attention?

  Wavy sandy blonde hair fell from the loose bun piled on her head and framed her face. She smiled at him, big and open, and her gray-blue eyes smiled too. She wore a simple white robe, Sky Mothers attire, but it was short with a braided hemp rope wrapped around her waist.

  "I'm Hannah," she told him.

  Sebastian discreetly placed a hand over his groin. She watched him, amused.

  "Umm, do you mind?" he asked, gesturing for her to turn around.

  She smiled wider.

  "Of course not." She turned, and Sebastian scrambled off the rock and shuffled into his shorts, feeling the blood rising into his face. He wanted to splash cold water on his skin and hide his blush, but she'd already turned back to him.

  "It's just a body, a nice one too."

  "Thanks," he said, awkwardly. "You're a Sky Mother then?"

  "I am that," she nodded. "And so much more, and nothing at all."

  He cocked an eyebrow and she winked at him.

  She stood and allowed her robe to drop to the rock. He stared at her naked body. Curves and small perky breasts and golden thighs filled his vision before she turned and expertly dove into the lagoon. As she broke through the surface, the reverie vanished and Sebastian looked toward the woods, nervously. He expected to see Abby standing behind him, a mask of fury and hurt etched into her face, but no. Only the forest returned his gaze. He glanced back at the pond, at the ripples still fanning across the surface where Hannah dove in. Before she emerged, he walked into the woods, heading back to the Sky Mothers compound, trying to shake off his guilty feelings.

  ****

  Sebastian found Abby at the eternity pool with Matilda. He paused at the glass doors and watched her.

  She sat perched on the edge of the pool, facing the ocean. Her long golden-brown curls fell down her bare back. He studied the curve of her face, her small pouty lips in profile, and her little perfectly formed ear. He had kissed her ears, her neck, her lips. How many times already in the few short months that he had known her, had he gotten lost in the curve of her neck and the soft hollow of her throat? Watching her, all guilt at having seen Hannah vanished. With Abby, nothing and no one else existed.

  He pushed the door open and she turned, seeing him.

  "Hey there, handsome."

  He kneeled beside her and kissed her shoulder, and then her lips.

  "Has it been enlightening?" he asked, referring to her time with Matilda.

  She nodded and returned her gaze to the ocean.

  "Very. They performed a blessing on the baby and gave me a whole bag of herbs and oils to help with the pregnancy. Matilda also taught me how to create bubbles that carry things. She's a water witch too. Here, watch."

  Abby stood and closed her eyes. Whispering beneath her breath, she drew water from the pool and formed a bubble the size of a beach ball. She opened her eyes, concentrating on the bubble, and slipped her sunglasses from her head.

  "Water, wind, strong as glass

  Help this bubble travel fast.

  Deliver these glasses straight and true

  To Julian who waits for you.

  Blessed be."

  The bubble sailed off toward the compound.

  Sebastian laughed.

  "That's awesome. We never have to trudge through snow to get the newspaper again!"

  "We don't get a paper," she teased him.

  "But now we can."

  She laughed and pretended to push him into the pool.

  "You're already wet," she said, touching his hair.

  "I found a beautiful waterfall back in the woods," he told her, feeling the admission about meeting Hannah on his lips.

  "Abby, we found that cookbook," Grace called, walking toward the pool.

  Sebastian let the information die on his lips.

  ****

  The Sky Mothers cooked together. Nearly every meal was prepared communally, and they invited their guests to join them in an enormous open-air kitchen where they prepared quinoa, roasted vegetables, platters of fried plantains, fresh fish caught from the ocean, and heaps of fresh fruit. Sebastian joined with fervor.

  "To ensure that dinner is edible, I'm going to stick with cutting up pineapple. Care to join me?" Oliver asked Abby.

  Abby laughed and nodded.

  "Yes, my talents don't extend to the kitchen, and honestly, I'm so engrossed by the process that it's hard not to just sit and watch."

  "Well, I'll hold the knife then so you don't lose any appendages."

  A beautiful young witch stood at a butcher block carefully scaling fish. Her wavy golden hair was tied on top of her head and partially covered with a white lace scarf. She wore a white robe that flowed over her shapely body and cascaded to the floor. Abby noticed her because she seemed to be sneaking glances at Sebastian at every opportunity.

  "Who's that?" Abby asked, nudging Oliver and inclining her head toward the woman.

  Oliver glanced at her and shook his head.

  "Not a clue, but she's gorgeous."

  "Yes, she is."

  The woman waved her fingers and the scales swept up and into a trash bin. She picked up another hunk of fish and again her eyes darted toward S
ebastian who worked silently, focused on the enormous bowl of black bean hummus that he was making from scratch.

  Helena and Julian helped Kit fry plantains and Helena laughed gleefully every time Kit blew the tips of her fingers like they were a smoking gun.

  Matilda created a row of floating dishes that she walked from the kitchen toward the outdoor dining table.

  The witch watching Sebastian stepped closer to him, and peered into his bowl.

  "I didn't catch your name earlier. Sebastian, is it?"

  Abby saw a flush turn Sebastian's neck crimson. Her own body tensed and she felt a wave of jealousy. A huge aquarium holding the day's fish exploded. Water and glass spurted in every direction. Both Matilda and Julian threw their arms up and the water and glass froze in mid-air. Together they directed the shards toward a series of wastebaskets.

  The witches stopped what they were cooking and several gasped or cried out.

  "Ouch," Helena murmured, touching her shoulder where a piece of glass had embedded in her skin.

  Kit plucked the glass from her shoulder and pinched the skin together. It singed and closed at her touch.

  "Not a drop of blood spilled," she said triumphantly.

  "Is that a new kind of magic? Exploding aquariums?" Julian asked, smiling, but looking concerned at Matilda.

  "Obviously not," she turned and gazed among the witches. Her eyes rested briefly on Abby, but she said nothing.

  Abby also felt Oliver's eyes, though he did not look at her directly.

  Sebastian left his post and hurried over to her.

  "It didn't hit you, did it?" he asked, scanning her body for abrasions.

  "No, I'm fine," she promised, avoiding his eyes.

  She did not want to admit that her emotions had caused the explosion.

  Over Sebastian's shoulder, Abby saw the beautiful witch watching them. She smiled and turned back to the table.

  ****

  They ate dinner at a long wooden table next to the waterfall that they first encountered when they arrived at the Sky Mother's Coven. The table could sit at least fifty people. An arch of twinkling white lights, braided with bright red flowers hung over the table and created a fairy-like atmosphere that put Abby in a practical dream state. Or a would-be dream state if not for the witch across from Sebastian who took every opportunity to catch his eye.

  Matilda had introduced them before dinner. Her name was Hannah and she clearly had taken a liking to Abby's future husband.

  "This is delicious," Hannah told Sebastian, scooping hummus onto a piece of freshly baked sourdough bread.

  "Thanks," he told her and then directed his attention to Abby.

  "How are you feeling, babe?" he asked, lifting her hand to his lips. He kissed her knuckles.

  Abby glanced at Hannah across the table. She watched them, smiling. Her expression revealed little, but something in her eyes made Abby uncomfortable.

  "Good, great. I feel like we're in a wonderland." She gestured to the twinkling lights suspended just above them.

  "We should do something like this for our wedding. What do you think Helena? Could we recreate this at Ula?" Sebastian called down the table and Abby noticed that Hannah's smile faltered, just a little.

  "You're engaged to be married?" she asked Abby.

  "Yes," Abby told her, studying her face and trying to get a sense of her intentions.

  "And having a baby," Sebastian added.

  Abby knew that he too sensed Hannah's interest and obviously intended to deter her, but something about his eagerness bothered her.

  "What is this arch made from?" Helena asked Matilda, studying the canopy of lights and flowers above them. They seemed to be embedded in a gauzy white fabric, so thin, they could see the stars.

  "Spiderwebs. Look." Matilda pointed and all of the witches craned upward.

  Abby did not exactly see the spiders, but a subtle shifting in the fabric itself. As if the fabric got the chills and shuddered.

  "I saw them at the All Hallow's Ball," she murmured.

  "A journey they didn't appreciate," Kit told her. "We had to send them first class by air. The mirrors are too dangerous for such delicate creatures." She lifted her hand to the fabric and a line of spiders scurried down her arm.

  Oliver recoiled.

  "Sorry, it's not personal, guys," he told the spiders. "But my skin crawls just looking at you."

  Kit smiled and cocked an eyebrow.

  "Do you know that the silk in a spider's web is five times stronger than a strand of steel that is the same thickness? Spiders are magic in nature. These are all female. There are males, of course, but they don't colonize with our beautiful ladies. They just come in to grab a scrap of food now and then."

  "Do you feed them?" Helena asked.

  She watched the spiders with a curiosity that, like Oliver, held an edge of discomfort.

  Kit laughed.

  "Spiders are one of the most adept species on the planet. They've survived well over three hundred million years. What would they become if I fed them? Slovenly, disinterested, eventually extinct. What is wild is meant to be wild, take the creature out of the forest and he is no longer a creature."

  "You've managed quite well," Hannah quipped.

  Kit narrowed her eyes at Hannah but smiled, coolly.

  "This papaya is amazing," Julian interrupted, cutting the tension that had begun to rise.

  "Plucked direct from our own trees," Matilda told him warmly. She glanced at Hannah and her eyes looked stormy.

  ****

  "He can do it!"

  Abby paused. The angry sounding voice had come from behind a closed door.

  "Hannah, you can't possibly know that. Don't you wonder if you're projecting Liam onto this stranger, vainly hoping to-"

  "No," Hannah hissed.

  Abby spun away and slipped behind a huge potted tree just as the door flew open and Hannah stormed out.

  Kit followed, but turned and walked toward the ocean rather than chasing Hannah.

  Abby waited another minute and then crept back into the large hall. The marble floors were cold beneath her feet, but a warm breeze seemed to always flow through the open windows and doorways. She shivered and stared in the direction that Hannah had retreated.

  They were talking about Sebastian, she knew, but why? And who was Liam?

  Chapter 5

  "The day they took me," Adora started and then abruptly stopped. She took another sip of the tea that Bridget had prepared. "I was watching the well from a tree. It started to snow. I could barely see, and then I had a horrible sense they had found Abby in the car. I moved through the trees, and saw her, Abby. She was walking blindly through the snow. I could feel the heat just pouring off her. She began to get sick and then sat down in the snow. I started to go to her when Tobias walked out of the trees. Abby saw him, but her eyes were glassy and vacant like she was dreaming. He held a glass bottle in his hand and he handed it to her, whispering in her ear. I couldn't hear what he said. I jumped from the tree onto his back. I might have had him, but he wasn't alone. Another Vepar attacked me from behind. I remember them dragging me through the snow and my whole body had gone numb. I lost consciousness. When I woke again, I was in a lair. I felt the weight of the earth all around me. I had no power. I don't know how they stifled it, but I couldn't astral travel, I couldn't summon my element. I grew weaker. They were biting me to keep me unconscious, but it was more than that. I had memories of being in my body, memories not from my life. Somehow, they were stealing my body. Does that make sense?"

  "Unfortunately, yes," Faustine admitted. "Continue and then we will fill you in on all that we know."

  "I had memories of running through the woods. I remembered standing on a cliff and watching Lake Superior below me. There were all these black creatures flying in the sky."

  "Skin-walkers," Elda whispered.

  "The memories were brief, snippets really, but I had the sense that each time they used my body, I became weaker. I couldn't
walk, could barely lift my head at one point. I think they expected me to die. The memories stopped and I started to regain a bit of strength. Barely, enough to sit up, and then eventually to stand up. One night, I woke in my cell and my head was clear. It was the first time since I'd been taken that I couldn't feel their venom inside of me. I knew that I had to escape, it was my only chance. I started to draw on my power. It felt like ages before something broke through their barriers. I managed to draw a few shards of rock together and pop the lock. I got out of the room. It was a typical lair, a mind-numbing series of dark tunnels. I felt like I ran through them for hours before I finally smelled fresh air. I raced toward it and emerged on a cliff. I ran into the woods, but I was so weak. I gained as much distance as possible and then I found a little cave that I could fit inside. I crawled in and slept. I recognized Lake Superior. I knew if I could just find the strength to get to the island, to Ula, but I couldn't. I spent weeks in that cave trying to gain enough strength to come here, but I didn't seem to be healing. She touched the red welts on her head. Whatever they'd done to me, my air element seemed almost cut off, like I didn't have access to my power."

  ****

  Matilda led Julian into the greenhouse to collect seeds. They grew a strain of plant that Kit had discovered and named he Peace Keeper. Seeds from the plant, when crushed, released an intoxicating aroma that rendered everyone who breathed it languid and blissful.

  "I am sensing a strange energy from your witch Hannah directed at Sebastian," Julian told her.

  Matilda stopped at a large bushy plant whose dark glossy leaves cascaded over its pot.

  "I tried to create an errand for Hannah during your visit," Matilda confessed. "After Binda told me that Sebastian was a hybrid, I asked Hannah to travel to Sydney to retrieve some elixirs that a friend of mine makes, but she resisted. I believe she sensed the power in Sebastian and wanted a chance to know for sure."