Cimmerian Shade: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Collection

by Kiki Howell

  Bereft of the loss of her trail, she clung to the tree and gathered herself to move on.

  As she traipsed through the light dusting of snow over the grounds, Aedan at her side, ever faithful, the woods gave way to a stream of sorts. Skinny, snaking its way through the blanket of snow, moving in a lazy gurgle. The water swallowed each flake that fell in its path.

  “I’ve lost her,” Kyna sighed. “There’s nothing here of her. It's as if she just vanished into thin air at this line of trees. I don’t know what to make of it. And, the guilt, I have this overwhelming guilt. This woman, who didn’t really know me, only loved my mother, and thus me, has sacrificed so much for me already. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to know them both, my mother and my aunt, to learn of this stuff inside me with them to guide me.”

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to say. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling. I’ve nothing at all similar to draw from."

  “I can barely imagine it, and it’s happening to me. So, no worries. You’re here. You’ve been here, every single step of the way, supporting me, hell, sharing my bed without asking for more. I couldn’t possibly ask for more from you.”

  “Whatever you need. You must know that by now, no matter how short our time together,” he claimed in a husky voice that remained soft around the edges

  “I do. Listen, I’m freezing, so you must be, too, but do you mind if we walk to the water before we turn back. I want to try something. Magic out of the house, that is. I want to see what my power feels like out here in the open, if I can control it. On second thought, you might want to stay back here. I’ve nearly burnt Darcaryn in my attempts to manage it, among other things,” she confessed as she contorted her face to show the insanity of her statement.

  “I’ll follow, but stay a step back. How’s that?”

  “That works,” she grimaced, stepping out from the cover of the trees.

  So much energy had built up inside her she thought she’d explode with it if she didn’t use it to do something. The feeling was familiar, in a way. She wondered if the many times she’d gone running for release had been because she couldn’t name what built up inside of her, what had made her feel like she wanted to jump out of her skin.

  “Here goes,” she warned Aedan.

  Placing her hands out in front of her, palms up, she suspended the wind, made it flow just above her head. She watched as the flakes of snow followed the air’s path, and then floated down over an invisible hill above her to fall to her sides rather than on her. Feeling a sense of pleasure, she made them move faster. She swept them up and around so the snowflakes gathered and danced above her head.

  She looked back to see if Aedan watched her and saw the flakes hitting him in the face.

  She giggled, and apologized, but he didn’t move away.

  “I once floated under a boat, in pitch black water, for hours, waiting for the call to come to board a ship and rescue captured military. I can handle a few snowflakes in the face,” he laughed. “Besides, it’s a privilege to get to watch you work.”

  She shook her head, always amazed whenever he shared his SEAL days, even if just snippets.

  “Once this is all over, I want to spend days hearing about your adventures, the good and the bad.”

  “As you wish. What I can share, I will,” he promised.

  She looked back at the water then, and she wanted to control it. But first, as she shivered, she got a more challenging idea.

  Stepping back, holding up her hand to stop Aedan from following, she took off her glove and held her hand out by her side. She let the energy swirl to a heat, one that made her sweat under her layers. The energy warmed her even as she’d been chilled to the bone just moments ago. Releasing the heat, she formed a small ball of light just above her palm, then turned it into flames. While she could feel the heat of it, Darcaryn had trained her not to fear it. This fire of her creation could burn without burning her.

  With a thrill zooming inside her, she shot the ball of flames at the water. The flames dispersed and road the small white caps for a second as the stream went over a jagged rock. It looked as if the water were on fire, before the flames sizzled into smoke and disappeared altogether.

  “Amazing,” Aedan said, coming in closer. “You’re amazing. When this is all over, I shall tell you just how amazing I think you are, in excruciating detail, as I, hopefully, will finally get to worship your body the way it should be.”

  “I so hope we get that chance,” she answered, as a blush, one more of lust than embarrassment, rushed over her cheeks.

  Desire boiled inside of her. She owned it. Her passions fueled it. Unspelled, true, she revealed in the pure heat of her feelings for Aedan.

  “We should head back now if you’re ready,” Aedan suggested, rubbing his gloved hands together.

  “I think I am. There’s a lot I want to discuss with you, once this is all over. But for now, I’m grateful to hold your hand, to have you with me at night, and for the seductive kisses that make me dream of more.”

  He smiled so big it softened some of his rugged lines. The twinkle in his eye ignited the fever inside her further. She smiled at him as they started their way back.

  Just before they got to the house, he said, “Tomorrow the first two of my friends arrive. I hate all the time I have to leave you with Darcaryn even when I’m in the house, but I’ll be picking them up at the airport very early in the morning. I will leave you as you sleep. Will you be okay? Maybe we can get Darcaryn to place a stronger spell over the room, or to come in to watch over you himself.”

  He’d practically spat the last words as if he’d choke on them otherwise.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine in the wee hours of the morning. We’ll tell Darcaryn, but nothing seems to bother me then. I’m sure I’ll be fine alone. Besides, I feel stronger in my magic. He’s been teaching me to protect myself against the mystical visions, hauntings that plague me.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I mean, they’re still there. Cold, dark, and menacing, but, I feel I understand them more. Thus I have some control over my fear of them at times. But, I still want you in my bed. That is, if you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t mind in the least. I want to be there, to hold you, even if the desire for you is maddening,” he groaned.

  He kissed her forehead, and they walked into the house. She swore she could feel the darkness watching her, the same darkness that had chased her aunt into the woods. Residual or real, she couldn’t discern, but she held her head high. She tried to remind herself of all she’d learned in such a short time. Something beckoned to her, and she knew, just somehow knew, soon she’d have to fight it or be taken by it.

  Chapter Ten

  SHE WOKE UP with a throbbing headache and a vague recollection of Darcaryn barging into her room. After that, everything went black. Looking around her, she realized she sat on a blanket in some sort of chair. From the look of the chair across from hers, boards showing through the cushion and stains running from green to black through the tan material, she hesitated to know what the one she sat on really looked like. With her hands tied behind her back, she attempted to stand. A sharp pain shot through her upper arms and shoulders as something pulled her back down. She was tied to something behind the chair.

  In a panicked turn, she saw an old, dilapidated pot-bellied stove, covered in paint chips and plaster dropped from the weather-stained walls. Above her, holes in the ceiling allowed snowflakes to fall on her head. She shivered, despite the fact someone had bundled her up for the storm. Cloudy daylight lit the place. The broken window to her right let the winds howl through, too.

  Just about to yell for help, she paused as she heard a voice outside. Darcaryn. He must’ve brought her here. Though not a big woman, she wasn’t slight of frame either. He couldn’t have carried her to wherever the hell this place was. Her plight filtered into her mind like the storm into this one room shack. An old schoolhouse, she guessed from the amount of
tables and chairs falling apart around her. Books and papers carpeted the floor, too.

  It didn’t make sense. Although, as she mulled it all over, it did if he actually worked for the secret society and had faked his way into employment with her aunt. Her intuition about him had been right. No wonder the group had gotten around her aunt’s wards and security. That was, if a group existed at all. Maybe Darcaryn was the only real enemy. Maybe he’d made the whole group thing up. All of this, everything he’d done, an elaborate plan. Whatever the case may be, she still wondered to what end.

  She wanted to use her power to free herself, as it burned and rolled within her like a volcano about to erupt. Could she burn through the ropes without burning herself? No, probably not. Besides, Darcaryn would smell the smoke. If she alerted him, she’d never outrun him with his magic so much more advanced than hers. She wondered if she could simply imagine the ropes untying, but she couldn’t even see the knot low at her waist. Surely if she knew more, she could free herself. And, surely, Darcaryn was well aware of that fact. Which meant her aunt should have been able to free herself. Maybe she didn’t want to yet. They probably had her better guarded, locked up in a cell or dungeon somewhere. In a place as romantic as Ireland they had those, right?

  A book under her foot made her slip as she squirmed in her seat. Lifting her foot slightly, she read “Molly the Rogue” on the remains of the torn cover. Looking at the image on the cover, she gave a half-hearted smile to Molly. A girl sat in the middle of three boys. The artist had made her larger than them. One skipped away. The other two looked at her. Nothing at all about Molly could be discerned from her image. Regardless, it seemed a sign. Kyna needed to go rogue all over Darcaryn’s ass.

  She shook her head and refocused just as Darcaryn made his way back into the tiny building.

  He stood a step inside the doorway with the wind blowing his long, snow-soaked hair around his face, dressed in simple jeans and his Sherpa-lined jean jacket,. Menacing on all accounts, though. She could feel it now..

  She watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

  With a quick flick of his tongue over his lips, he spoke in a gravelly voice, “This isn’t what you think...or as bad as you think it is, I’m sure. You have to trust me.”

  “I wake up bound to a chair in the middle of a rubble heap, and you tell me to trust you?” she growled.

  Her eyes watered from the icy sting of cold wind. She shivered violently now.

  “Shit. You’re scared and cold. I’m so sorry,” he growled back.

  With a few fluid movements, as if he flew over the mess on the floor, he wrapped his body around hers and started to rub at her arms and back.

  “Stop it. Get off me!” she yelled, squirming as much as her restraints would allow.

  “Shh,” he groaned, his mouth just inches from hers.

  “So help me, if you kiss me again, I’ll bite right through your lip,” she hissed at him, not caring that spit had come from her mouth in the process.

  He pressed his forehead to hers, energy flowing between them.

  She marveled that she could hear his heavy breathing over the pounding of her heart. Her breath came in short pants, as she pushed against the calm he obviously tried to force upon her by magic. All she experienced was an evil and misguided force surrounding her.

  “I hate being in this position. I never thought meeting you would have such an affect on me. You won’t believe a word I say, but I did this for you. To protect you. Let’s get you out of this cold,” he offered.

  He stood and started to push debris away from the floor with his boots. In minutes, he grabbed a handle he’d uncovered, and opened a large door in the floor. Let loose from whatever her ropes had been bound to, she tried to stand on legs stiff from the cold. She gained no ground before he scooped her up. She wiggled to be freed. With every ounce of energy in her, she struggled, moved in an erratic fashion, careless of even being dropped to the floor.

  Just as suddenly as she began her fight, it stopped.

  “There. That’s better. You can’t fight me.”

  She wanted to scream at him to release her, not from his hands, but from the magic he’d used to freeze her muscles. Yet, she couldn’t speak either. Before she could fully appreciate her panic, she found herself in a dark tunnel.

  Darcaryn propped her against a wall and lit a hanging lantern. Then, he closed the door above them, blocking her from the outside world. Her limbs regained the ability to move again, but with her hands still bound behind her back, all she could do was kick him if he came close.

  He moved down to sit beside her, but the urge to kick, to fight, left her.

  “I don’t like to have to do it, but you leave me no choice but to invade your body, your thoughts,” he whispered like a lover would into her ear. “You fighting me will get us nowhere. Just listen to me. I’m going to be completely honest with you. I work for both sides, your grandfather and the society. Your aunt knows, by the way. I originally worked for your grandfather. But, money topping money, this society paid well to put me in their employ, too. I hurt no one, made sure I stayed true to each. I’m a loyal and hard worker. I’ve worked as a dual agent for your grandfather since his death, under his wishes, to learn more, to protect Saoirse. He got in over his head. In the end, I think he knew they only used him for his powers, and they planned to use his family the same. But, you don’t just walk away from this group because you want to, no matter how rich or powerful you are.”

  He paused as he looked into her eyes. Even under his compulsion to stay calm, she could still separate his longing for her to trust him from her true feelings. The blue and silver in his eyes, in this light, appeared animalistic. As if to agree, he sniffed her hair and then ran his nose gently over her cheek.

  She jerked her head away from him.

  He merely hung his head in response, hid his face from her.

  “So, I’ve no idea why she’d go and sacrifice herself to them,” he continued, his lids now heavy, his voice now deeper. “Guess she got sick of waiting for me to do something. Nevertheless, what could I do? I can’t fight them. I just started to play this dangerous game of trying to keep the society happy and your aunt safe. She’s always been a wild card, though, just as her father told me. Her frequently irrational decisions don’t always add up. My loyalty is still to your grandfather. He pays me well from the grave through a trust. You have to understand. The whole reason I got mixed up in this society was at his pleading. He wanted me to accept their invitation, that’s how badly he wanted to break into politics. He craved power, more than his money or his magic could provide him. Truly, I don’t think it would’ve ever been enough with him. He hoped to use me on the inside to get in, to get what he wanted.”

  “What is this society then? If you work for them, surely you know more than you told Aedan, or maybe even my aunt for that matter. Wait? He’s not in on all of this, too, is he? Does he know you work for them? Does he work for them?”

  Nausea rolled in her stomach. Lies. Deceit. Magic. Could she trust no one here? She’d never trust Darcaryn. That she at least knew with the utmost certainty.

  “No. No, he’s clueless, as I’ve kept him,” he spoke with a low chuckle. “Truthfully, the society is so secret, so powerful, even working for them, talking to some of them, I don’t know who truly pulls the strings. It works and meets in levels. I’m low in the rankings. A means to an end in their eyes, I’m sure. They keep most of their members in the dark. What I know for sure is they conspire to control world affairs by masterminding events and planting affluent people in government and corporations to gain further political power. Conspiracy theories abound about these types of groups. Who knows what’s true. They lurk in the shadows and pull the strings of those in the public eye, run the wallets and minds of those who make the important decisions.

  “Don’t mean to sound crazy, but truly, they have their hands in everything. They are dark and ancient groups of elites who control almost ev
ery aspect of life, not only here, but in other countries as well. They are larger than life, and have puppet institutions to make them appear as they want to in whomever’s view. They use people with gifts like ours when money just isn’t enough. They have programmers, psychics, wizards, playing with mind control and satanic circles that trap demons and use their power as well. Nothing is beyond them.”

  “And, my grandfather wanted to be a part of all this?” She asked, taking all the hype he spoke with a grain of salt.

  She figured he just wanted to scare her. He sounded like every other nut job on the Internet.

  “He had grand plans for his life. So, he had grand plans for his daughter’s life as well. He bargained with the devil, basically, to get what he wanted.”

  “I can’t say I understand it all, but I think I’m starting to get the picture. Where did my mom fit into all of this?”

  “I couldn’t tell you, honestly. Sorry. Look, we need to keep moving,” he urged.

  “Where are we going, and why now?” she demanded.

  “The magic in the house, their magic, I know it by its demonic signature. Anyway, it’s getting stronger. I could no longer be sure I could fight it alone. I saw hiding you as my only choice to keep you safe. These tunnels were built by your grandfather. They lead to a safe house. An underground bunker, I guess you could call it. I’m sure the group is aware, but if we just keep moving, maybe we can at least stay a step ahead of them. I didn’t feel you were safe in the house anymore, but Aedan wasn’t about to let me take you.”

  “I don’t trust you,” she spat, trying to control her aching and shaking limbs as he brought her to standing.

  His hands worked her body in more intimate ways than she’d have liked. He stood too close. He held her too hard. He rubbed himself against her every chance he got.