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

by Kiki Howell

  “And the Cats?”

  He hesitated a second. “That is another story. I don’t think things are going to be okay with the Cats for a long time to come. But the Alliance is dealing with it. In any case, it’s nothing for you to worry about. I promise, I will keep you safe from now on. This dragon has finally found a treasure worth hoarding, and I will protect it with my life.”

  Lucinda rolled her eyes and smiled at him. “You dragons and your treasures!”

  .

  Epilogue

  FOUR MONTHS LATER

  The billowy white lace gown lay in a discarded heap at the foot of the bed while Lucinda called out in rapturous pleasure. Dominic drilled into her over and over, sending her soaring on wings of ecstasy as he lost himself in her yet again. He loved the way his name dropped from her lips as he plunged deeper and deeper into her. It was as though she were cheering him on, begging him for more of the same, and he gladly gave her what she wanted, pounding into her with abandon as his own grunts of pleasure mingled with her cries.

  “Ooh, yes. Dominic, yes!”

  Her body trembled beneath him as he gave one final series of thrusts before resting his weight on top of her.

  “Fuck, you feel so good, baby,” he panted into her ear. He turned and flopped back onto the bed, starring up at the ceiling as Lucinda crawled into his arms. When she held out her hand and wiggled her fingers, he chuckled at her. “Regretting it already?”

  Lucinda gave him a playful jab in the ribs and propped herself up on his chest. “No! I just like looking at it. I think it’s the prettiest ring I’ve ever seen,” she said, her gaze still admiring the sparkling diamonds on her finger.

  “On the hand of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He stared into her eyes as he gently ran the back of a single finger over her cheek. “So what are you going to do now, Mrs. Draco?”

  Lucinda frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, are you going to keep singing torch songs at my club every night?” Dominic laced his fingers through hers as he asked the question.

  “Unless you’re firing me, I am.”

  She looked indignant as she stared at him, and Dominic smiled at her. “Now, would I fire my wife?”

  “I should certainly hope not!” Lucinda pouted as she looked at their entwined fingers. “Although you don’t really have to pay me anymore. Just let me sing.”

  Dominic grinned until he realized she was serious. He cocked his head and studied her for a moment. “Of course, I’m going to keep paying you, Lucinda. The money you make at the club is yours to do with as you see fit. Keep it in a separate account from our joint one, buy yourself something nice. Or better yet, do nothing with it and let it accumulate. Build yourself a nest egg. That way, should anything ever happen to me, you’ve got a little cushion on top of everything that I’ll leave to you. Then you won’t ever find yourself in a desperate position again, like you were when Jonathan died. I don’t ever want money to be one of your worries again, baby.”

  Lucinda stared at him as the warm glow radiated from within her. This man truly loved her.

  “Besides, you’ll have enough to worry about taking care of our brood.”

  His words brought her up short, and her silly smile morphed into a puzzled frown. “Brood?”

  “Brood,” Dominic repeated as he stared into her eyes. “You know, children. Fledglings.”

  “Yeah, I know what it means, I just ... um. So how many fledglings are we talking about here?”

  Dominic stifled a smile, loving the expression of uncertainty on her beautiful face. “Oh, I don’t know. Not many. Like maybe ten or twelve. Just a nice round number.”

  Lucinda stared at him. He wasn’t smiling. Surely he was joking, right? “Okay, cool. That’s super. But um, I was thinking like maybe ... two.”

  “Two?”

  “Two! Three, tops. Maybe four, but honestly, dude ... that is all you’re getting out of this portal,” she said as she gestured down to her female regin.

  Dominic burst out laughing – a deep hearty belly laugh that Lucinda was overjoyed to hear, for more reasons than one. She loved it when he joked with her, even when she couldn’t immediately tell if he was pulling her leg or not. She swatted his chest and joined in his laughter.

  “I love you, Dominic Draco. Now and forever.”

  Dominic shook his head as though he couldn’t imagine why. “I love you, Lucinda. I love you more than you could possibly imagine. But part of me can’t help but wonder what Jonathan would think of this day. I don’t imagine he would be too happy for us right now.”

  Lucinda caressed his face and looked down into his eyes. “You’re wrong. My father loved you, Dominic. You know what your friendship meant to him. He would be happy that you are now officially the son he never had.”

  He took her hand and kissed her palm. “I hope you’re right, because you are the only woman I’ve ever wanted by my side. I spent so many years trying to fight that, but not anymore. You are stuck with me now, Mrs. Draco.”

  Lucinda rolled her eyes as a huge smile broke out, lighting up her face. “Finally!”

  THE END

  About the Author

  LASHELL COLLINS IS an American author of romantic suspense, paranormal romance and rockstar romance. She walks to the beat of her own drum, but that’s okay ’cause she’s got a pretty good sense of rhythm. Basically, she’s a geeky, quirky, laid-back, rocker-loving kinda girl who’s married to a retired cop, motorcycle-riding, bad-boy alpha all her own, and she likes to write about sexy police officers, werewolves and rockstars, or some inventive combination of the three. Between her book characters and the ones she knows in real life, her plate stays pretty full. But she loves to hear from readers, so drop her a line sometime.

  .

  Where to Find More Lashell Collins:

  Website: http://www.lashellcollins.com/

  Newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/m8tzmqn

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LashellCollinsAuthor/

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/LashellCollins

  BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lashell-collins

  The Kelly Family Series (Romantic Suspense)

  The Smoking Gun: A Kelly Family Novel

  The Lunar Falls Trilogy (Paranormal Romance)

  Secrets of Lunar Falls

  Lies of Lunar Falls

  Redemption of Lunar Falls

  Exiled: A Lunar Falls Novella

  The Rock Shifter Fairytales (Rockstar/Paranormal Romance)

  Soul Stealer

  Lion Tamer

  Rogue Moon Series (Paranormal Romance)

  Rogue Moon

  Fated Moon

  True Romance Rocker Series (Rockstar Romance)

  True Romance

  .

  Ethereal Witness

  by Angelica Dawson

  Acknowledgement

  Thanks to Deadra Krieger of Krieger Creations for her hard work and keen insight.

  Ethereal Witness

  by Angelica Dawson

  Magic just became real for Paige Brown. Since she helped her roommate cast a spell, she has wanted to explore her new-found talent. Flashbacks to her ancestor give her clues, specifically to a love spell that she hopes will snag the professor she has been fantasizing about. Both Paige and her previous incarnation, Jane, find that controlling magic is more than a simple recipe. Will Paige be able to break her own spell? Will she discover the love that is closer than she knows?

  Chapter One

  PAIGE LEANED FARTHER over the sink, holding the small plastic bottle blindly above her.

  “What’s that smell? Summer? Are you mixing something?” Gwen’s voice preceded her. “Oh, Paige. What are you doing?”

  “Relaxing.”

  “Ew, what smells?” The back door opened and Paige turned her head to see the owner of the house and her ghost companion enter.

  “Nothing magic,” she said with a sigh. “Relaxing my hair. I normally get it done at the salon, bu
t I’m short on cash.”

  Gwen moved to Summer’s side and mirrored the other woman’s puzzled expression. Gwen’s fine, blonde hair, lay straight, and Summer’s brown locks curled gently. Geoffrey, the ghost, wore a shocked expression, eyes bulging. He leaned closer to Summer and whispered something.

  “I don’t know,” she told her shadow. “Paige? Do you need help?”

  “Ew, who lit a cigar?” The fourth and final woman of the house entered the kitchen. “Oh! Paige, here.” Ember didn’t ask questions, taking the bottle from her hand. “Turn around and lean back. You do your whole head, don’t you?”

  Paige followed Ember’s directions, easing her lower back. Knuckles pressed to it, she stretched, her ribs spreading. Sighing, she let her head fall back into the sink.

  “What is it?” Gwen asked, picking up the box Paige bought at the drug store and turning it over.

  “A perm. Permanent.” She bent back further when liquid touched her scalp. Thanks to the lotion she applied first, it didn’t burn. “You use it to keep curls or lose them.”

  “Is there a second bottle?” Ember asked.

  “Uh, yeah.” Gwen turned the box over and passed it on.

  “So, this will straighten your hair?” Summer wondered.

  “For a while. Permanents aren’t as permanent as the name implies. Good for a few months.”

  Ember rubbed and squeezed Paige’s hair, working it into the tight black curls. “There. I think that’s it.” She grabbed the rag Paige had left on the counter and wrapped it around her damp hair.

  “It must be magic.” Geoffrey rose on his toes, eying the bottles as though they might bite. After living and dying at the time of the witch trials here in Salem, chemistry would appear magical to him.

  “No. It is sulfur. When you burn hair, it stinks because there is sulfur in it. This breaks the bonds, and then they reform the way you’ve set them.”

  Ember wound one of her red curls around a finger. “I’ve done it a couple times. Take some of the wild out.”

  Geoffrey backed up to Summer again. “Now what?” he asked.

  “Now I brush it, then I wash it out and apply the neutralizer.” She slipped into a chair while watching the ghost. Although he’d been in the house as long or longer than Paige, he’d only been visible for a few weeks.

  The coven had cast a spell to bring justice down on the creep that took advantage of all three of her roommates. Geoffrey appeared the next day. When Summer suggested the spell, Paige assumed her friend had lost a screw or two, but she’d never teased Paige about her obsession with the old house and finding something ancient in it, so she accepted the proposition without questions.

  She was still positive that something old and valuable hid squirrelled away somewhere, and took a bit of time whenever she was home alone to hunt for that treasure. So far, nothing, except some Christmas decorations. Since casting that spell, she felt certain what she sought was something witchy. A cauldron or spell book or something.

  If you’d asked her before Halloween if she believed in magic, she’d give an emphatic no, but something had happened the night they cursed Duncan. She wasn’t just an accessory to Summer’s coven, she had actively added to the magic. It had filled and poured over her.

  Running the brush through her hair in small segments, she asked, “Is there a spell I could use? Could I”—she waved a hand—“disguise my hair, make it look straight?”

  Summer smirked. “I know how to hide a zit, or make yourself extra bright, but it only works on a few people at a time.

  “So I couldn’t use it on my entire class.” She blew a raspberry.

  “No.”

  “Show me anyway?” She really did want to learn how to use her newfound powers.

  Ember headed for the stairs. “I’ll pass. Need to finish a paper.”

  Gwen made to follow. “I’m curious and want to try some other spells, but I’m too distracted right now.”

  “What do we need?” Paige moved the brush faster so her hands would be free.

  “Nothing really. It’s all about focus; using yours and directing theirs. Which of those do you want to work on first?”

  She winced when her brush hit a knot, but kept pulling to get through it. This was going to be harder than she expected. She’d hoped for a powder or some magic words. Something that went poof, done. Of course, she wouldn’t be enrolled in nursing if she was scared off by work. “Mine,” she decided in the end.

  “Okay. This is going to sound obvious, but picture yourself in your mind, every mole, every eyelash. I can get a mirror.”

  Paige shook her head. “No, I’ll have to head up there anyway. So, once I have that, I change something, right?” She squinted, trying to imagine her hair straighter.

  “Pretty much. Just make sure that first picture is complete.”

  Sighing, she stopped trying to hold onto the vision. It was too big a change. “And what’s the basics of the other part?”

  Summer grinned. “That part is easier. Pull your attention, your power to one thing that is constant. Eyes are best. When they focus on that, they don’t notice the other things.”

  “Cool. Thanks. I need to go kill the chemicals eating my hair. My eyes are burning.”

  “I notice everything about you,” Geoffrey told Summer. Paige held her tongue and tried not to roll her eyes

  “JANE! COME HERE!” CRACKING and sharp, the cry carried through walls, impatience held in quick, clipped consonants.

  Paige hurried to the woman dressed in black, flinching at the anger in her voice.

  “Where are my rings?” Her dark beady eyes zeroed in on Paige, which made her palms damp.

  “In your trunk, Ma’am.”

  Scowling she pawed at the contents. “Where? I don’t see them here.”

  Paige lifted out carefully crafted tapestries, china dishes, and silverware. Her fingers itched at the wealth, but she continued to the bottom where an ornate wooden box lay nestled among colorful scarves. Opening it, she revealed gold and silver jewelry set with a variety of gems.

  “The ruby. Where’s the one with the ruby?” The woman seized a ladle from among the silver and struck Paige across the shoulders. “You’ve stolen it! You thief! Where is it?”

  Paige covered her head and blows spread across her back. “I don’t know, Ma’am. I didn’t open this box before now. I swear.” Her voice sounded strange, thick with an accent.

  “Thief!”

  “I swear, Ma’am. Please!”

  “What’s going on in here?” A male voice boomed over them.

  “Jane stole my ruby ring!”

  The master of the house filled the doorway, tall with broad shoulders. Regarding the women, he shook his head. “Are you still looking for reasons to beat her? You gave the ring to Anne for her birthday.”

  The woman’s face, at first pale against the black dress she wore, flushed a deep red, almost purple. “I won’t stand for it!”

  Stepping inside, the master took Paige’s arm and pushed her toward the door. “Go on, now. Leave my wife to me.” The man slid his hand down her arm and brushed her waist before he turned on the other woman. “Lydia, please. You’ve turned the last three slaves purple. What does it take to satisfy you?”

  Paige closed the door behind her, leaning on it. One of these days Master Charles wouldn’t be there to rescue her.

  PAIGE WOKE FROM THE dream with a start, catching the end of a snort. She wiped at her cheek. No matter how she went to sleep, she inevitably ended up on her side, saliva slipping from the corner of her mouth. That had been horrid, bowing to that white woman and being beaten by her.

  She turned on her lamp and rubbed her eyes, examining herself in the mirror. Her black skin shone in the light, however the whites of her eyes bore streaks of red around dark-brown irises.

  “I am no slave,” she told herself, clenching one hand into a fist. “I’d beat that woman to a pulp.” It didn’t stop her shaking. In the grasp of the dream, she had been a
slave, terrified.

  “Summer,” she muttered. Her roommate had experienced similar dreams, ones in which she was her own ancestor. Jane must be one of her own. Jane was weak, though, not a witch like Mary Parker, the woman Geoffrey had died trying to protect. “Stupid house.” It was part of the problem, all old and mysterious.

  At least the relaxing had worked. Thanks to Ember it was uniform, straight but thick. It still took a large elastic band to hold it back, but after some brushing, she could braid into two simple tails, one over each shoulder.

  Smiling, she headed for the bathroom, thoughts of slaves and witches replaced by schedules and deadlines.

  Chapter Two

  “GOOD MORNING, DR. GONZALES.” Paige slipped past him into the theatre.

  “Miss Black.”

  She turned back to him, smiling. “Paige.” She tried to use Summer’s trick to bring his attention to her eyes.

  “And I’ve told you to call me Jose, Miss Black.”

  Heat filled her cheeks and she hurried to find a seat. Once there, she dropped her head to her books, letting it thump against them a few times.

  “No progress with the handsome doctor?” Eunice took the seat beside Paige. When she patted Paige’s hand, the slight difference in shade was discernable, but neither would be called anything but black.

  “He’s just being nice to the spaz in his class.”

  Eunice laughed, braces flashing. Her teeth looked straight to Paige.

  “Those coming off soon?”

  “Yes! Over Christmas. God, it’s been so long.”

  “I can imagine. Anyway, Dr. Gonzales only has eyes for that clique.” She pointed to the blonde and brunettes that wore designer jeans. She could scoff and claim they would all be wallflowers once in scrubs, but she’d seen them. It wasn’t fair for them to look so good in pants with a drawstring.

  Burying her envy, as she’d practiced doing for years, she opened her book. She directed all her attention into the matter at hand—contusions and other scalp maladies.