by Bianca D’Arc
No, she probably wouldn’t be able to tell her mother about any of that. Not in this lifetime. Though her folks would figure out that she was getting serious about Ren once she brought him home to meet them. She’d met his family. Soon, it would be his turn to meet hers. She was looking forward to it, though she didn’t really want to subject him to her family’s intrusive questioning just yet. She wanted to enjoy this secret time with him to the fullest extent, first.
Their group reached the castle location by late afternoon, and Katrina was amazed to find that they were actually staying in the castle, instead of some random hotel. It was a magnificent edifice run by a small staff of people and, she was told, the place wasn’t usually rented out for these kinds of events. Sonia had called in some favors to get the owner of the place to let her film here, and he had also agreed to allow some of the cast and crew to stay in the many guest rooms that went unused most of the time.
Katrina soon realized that the people allowed to stay at the castle just happened to be all of the jaguar shifters she’d gotten to know over the weekend, plus a few others, including Sonia. Ren had hinted at Sonia’s uniqueness, but he’d said she wasn’t a shifter. He’d said she was very magical, which implied that other kinds of magical folk existed. Katrina hadn’t had the nerve to ask Ren for details yet. She was hoping things would become clearer if she just watched the director a bit more closely.
Sonia was all smiles when they arrived at the castle. She greeted them in the grand entry as if she were the owner of the place, welcoming them and dispatching her assistants to show everyone to their rooms. Dinner, she promised, was being served in an hour and a half, and their host would be attending. She cautioned everyone to dress for dinner and to mind their manners, which made Katrina wonder exactly what the owner of the grand estate was like, but she supposed she’d learn soon enough.
The long day of traveling was getting to her, so she was happy to find that she and Ren had been given a suite at the top of one of the many staircases in the giant edifice. Their friends knew they were now a couple and had arranged the rooms accordingly, much to Katrina’s satisfaction.
“The view from up here is amazing,” she said, looking out one of the windows.
“We’re actually at the base of the west tower,” Ren commented, coming over to stand next to her. “The forest where we’re filming most of the woodland scenes is just visible from here. See the dip in the landscape? There’s a stream over there that’s going to be where I dump Little John into the water when we first meet.”
She turned into him, reaching up to wrap her arms around him. “You sound just a little too gleeful at the prospect,” she teased. “I don’t know Clive well, but he’s huge. I wouldn’t be too quick to want to mess with a guy that size.”
“Did you know he’s got Samoan blood? There’s a small Clan of jaguars in Arizona that are mostly his size and bigger. They’re monsters,” Ren said, sounding impressed, “but I’m still senior to him in the hierarchy, so I’m not too worried.”
“How does that work? Do you guys vote on who’s in what position?” she asked, puzzled.
Ren laughed outright. “Honey, it’s not a democracy. Shifters work the power structure out other ways. Mainly, it’s a dominance thing. While Clive might be stronger than most physically, he’s still quite young and lacks the experience and confidence to best me. That may change in the future, of course, but for right now, he knows he’d be fighting above his weight if he tried to take me on in jaguar form. Our inner cats know who’s who in the pecking order, even when our human sides don’t, sometimes.”
“That’s kind of fascinating, and a little scary,” she told him, reaching up to kiss his jaw.
Things were just about to get interesting when a gong rang in the distance, and Ren stepped away.
“That’s the warning gong,” he told her. “We have about a forty-five minutes to get ready, and we don’t want to keep our host waiting. These older guys can be tricky about formality and respect. We’re on his turf. We need to play by his rules.”
“Who is he?” Katrina asked, intrigued as Ren went to his bags and started unpacking, looking for something to wear to dinner, she supposed.
Ren gave her a sideways look as he paused in his unpacking. “You might not believe this, but the owner of this castle and pretty much all the land you can see from here is an ancient vampire. A nobleman who was turned centuries ago and has safeguarded this place ever since. Bloodletters—especially the older ones—can be very powerful in many different ways.”
“Bloodletters?” Katrina repeated, unfamiliar with the term.
“What they call themselves,” Ren told her. “I’ve met a few in my travels, and though you can never be quite sure, the ones I’ve dealt with have all been servants of the Light. Of course, they do have their bad apples, so never take an unknown bloodletter at his word unless you know, for certain, where he or she stands.”
His warning chilled her to the bone. She had a lot to learn about the world, apparently, and the people she was working with and encountering on this movie set. A thought occurred to her.
“You said Sonia was magical, but if she’s not a shifter and she’s not a bloodletter, then what is she?”
“Fey,” Ren answered, his head tilting slightly. “Frankly, I don’t know much about them. They mostly left the mortal realm well before I was born, though I hear a few travel back now and again. Some even interbred with mortals and they come back to check on their families, or so I’ve been told. Sonia only came back recently, to help us in the upcoming fight. She’s one of the good guys and highly magical in a way I don’t fully understand.”
Oddly reassured that someone with Ren’s powers seemed impressed by Sonia and that she was on the right side of all this, Katrina nodded. She would have to tread carefully around these powerful beings. She’d already been on her best behavior because Sonia was the all-powerful director who was giving her a big break, but with this new knowledge, Katrina would be even more respectful. She’d have to be on her toes at all times with all these new types of beings she was encountering. Particularly with the vampire. Even if the folklore had it wrong, there was something inherently scary about a being who lived off other people’s blood. She suppressed a shudder at the gruesome thought.
“Will I be likely to run into more of these…um…bloodletters, now that I know about your people?”
Ren seemed to consider as he went back to his unpacking. “Not many, I would think, though we are making strange allies in these dark times.”
“Dark times? You mentioned something about a flare up before. Is it really that bad?”
Ren sighed heavily and paused to look squarely at her. “There’s a lot you don’t know about the world. A lot most of humanity doesn’t know. In ancient times, it was different, but once the decision was made for magical folk to live in secret among the more populous humans, we did our best to erase all proof of our existence from the human record. Anything that remains is put down to legend and superstition.”
“Like the stories about werewolves and vampires,” she said, nodding. It made sense, though she never would have guessed had she not seen the reality of the jaguar people with her own eyes.
“Exactly,” Ren agreed, smiling a bit. “There’s a war going on between the forces of Light—namely us—and the forces of darkness. It’s an eternal sort of war, though our side had won the last round, and we all thought that was it. The main player on the dark side had been banished to forgotten realms from which nobody thought she could ever return. Turns out, it looks like we were wrong.”
“The big bad guy is a girl?” Katrina asked, hoping this was all a big joke but knowing it wasn’t.
“Elspeth is her name. Many call her the Destroyer. She’s fey, which means she’s the next best thing to immortal, and with her mastery of magic and legion of followers, she is effectively unstoppable, except by the concentrated efforts of the most powerful beings on our side of the fight.” Ren looked
grim. “That’s how it happened before, when she was banished at the end of what humans call the Dark Ages. She caused the Dark Ages.” He shook his head and looked angry. “It’s taken humanity this long to recover from the setback she created in the evolution of their society. Magic was fading in this realm until Elspeth. It was supposed to be the time for man to emerge and create their non-magical world. Instead, she threw a monkey wrench into the entire equation and caused the chaos that has rippled out over the centuries to affect us all.”
This was even worse than Katrina had feared. “Wow,” she said softly, her mind struggling to take in all he’d revealed. “So, she’s back, and the battle is happening all over again? Only, this time, humanity knows nothing about it?”
“From what I understand of our history, the non-magical folk of ancient times were aware but really unable to do much in the battle. It was left to us—the shifters, bloodletters, fey, wood and ocean spirits, and the others—to do the actual fighting. It happened all over the world as Elspeth’s followers wreaked havoc everywhere.” Ren selected a suit out of his garment bag and hung it up in preparation for putting it on. “The guy you’ll meet tonight was there, during the last battle. I wouldn’t recommend asking him about it, though. All the old soldiers I’ve met don’t like talking about past battles with the uninitiated, and you’re a babe in the woods in this world. Just answer his questions and let him lead the conversation, that’s my advice, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing, as well. We’re here on his sufferance, and I don’t want to mess this up for Sonia and everybody else involved in this production.”
“Oh, I’ll be careful. I know I’ve got a lot to learn about your world,” she told him. “I had dinner with the governor once, at a charity event my family was involved in, and I didn’t even tell him I voted for the other guy.”
Ren laughed, as she’d intended, and stopped to give her a quick kiss before returning to his preparations. Katrina found the dress she intended to wear and headed for the attached bathroom. After a full day of travel, she needed a quick shower before she would feel refreshed. When Ren followed her into the luxuriously large shower stall, she regretted their lack of time for fun and games. He ducked in, kissed her soundly while lathering them both up—getting her hopes up, as well—then rinsed and left her wanting. The scoundrel.
Katrina rinsed the rest of the soap off and washed her hair. It wasn’t going to look perfect, since she had little time to devote to hair and makeup, but she’d be presentable. She’d mastered the quick change in her years of having to look good as the greeter in her family’s restaurant. She was out of the shower three minutes later and working on her hair with the hair dryer that was conveniently provided. Ten minutes later, she had a dash of makeup on her face as she slithered into the dress she’d brought with her.
It was a slinky number that didn’t wrinkle and folded up small in her bags. It was versatile, and with a strand of pearls and some earrings, she was as ready for a formal dinner as she could be while living out of a suitcase. She stepped out of the bathroom to find Ren, resplendent in evening wear and stopped short. It really should be illegal to be that good looking in person.
Her heart went pitter-pat, knowing that he was hers, and vice versa. She didn’t think she could love him more, and she had the startling knowledge that the feeling went both ways. How had she ever been so blessed? Not only was he gorgeous, but he was a truly kind, honorable and intelligent man. He had all the qualities she valued, and so far, she hadn’t really seen anything she didn’t like.
He came toward her, holding something in one hand. The devilish look in his oh-so-green eyes made her wonder what he was up to. She cocked her head to watch his approach.
“I noticed your pearls while we were on the island, and I asked one of my Clanmates to adjust this for you.” He lifted his hands to the pearls around her neck, lifting the eighteen-inch strand of baroque beauties that had been her grandmother’s prized possession.
A flash of gold and green dazzled her eyes as he attached something between the lowest knotted pair of pearls. When he stepped back, she looked down. There was a golden shape with inset stones now attached to the strand of pearls. An enhancer, she’d heard such things called. She went to the nearest mirror to take a look and caught her breath.
Ren came up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“It’s a jaguar,” she whispered, fingering the delicate golden figure that was studded with black diamonds for the whorls of the jaguar’s coat and emeralds for the eyes.
“What could be more fitting for my mate?” Ren asked, his warm breath brushing past her ear as he squeezed her shoulders gently. “Do you like it?”
“Like it? I love it!” She turned in his arms and reached up to kiss him.
The kiss would have turned into something much more, but the moment it went from thankful to smoldering, a gong could be heard in the distance. Ren pulled back.
“We’re being called to appear,” he told her playfully. “But we’ll pick this up after dinner, okay?”
“Definitely,” she told him. “Thank you for the lovely gift. It’s stunning.”
“No more so than the woman who wears it,” he told her gallantly as he ushered her out of the room and down the stairs toward the main hall, where the company was to gather before going in, together, to dinner.
Chapter Eighteen
Everybody was dressed to the nines. Then Sonia appeared in a gossamer creation that made her look like something out of a magic forest, and Katrina had the thought that she really wasn’t in Kansas anymore. She was in the company of magical beings, and she felt a tiny bit like the ugly duckling. Of course, Ren’s arm around her waist made her realize that she was part of this world now, even if she hadn’t grown up knowing about it.
She exchanged greetings quietly with the gathered shifters that she’d come to know during her brief stay on Jaguar Island, but it was clear they were all waiting for something…or someone. All talking ceased as the doors to a room at the back of the main hall opened wide. A man stood in the space between the two open doors, and Katrina’s breath caught at the air of danger about him.
He wasn’t big or bulky, but he had a darkness about him that made her shiver. Ren tightened his grip on her waist, and she felt reassured by his presence. The man had blue eyes that pierced like laser beams as they scanned over the assembled group, then came to rest on her. She couldn’t look away as the man moved forward, into the foyer, walking right up to her. At the last moment, his gaze went from her to Ren, who stood just behind her. Then, his gaze moved to Sonia, who stood just a few feet to Katrina’s left.
“I see you bring me a dove among the wildcats,” the man said, his voice echoing in the big space.
“She is not for you,” Sonia said, her own voice sounding like musical chimes, ringing in harmony.
A stare-down ensued for a moment until the man smiled and shook his head.
“I can see that. I’d heard the infamous jaguar star had found his mate.” The man held out his hand to Ren. “My congratulations to you, Rendall, and to you, young lady, for finding that which most of us dream of but never find.” His gaze swept from Ren back to her, but this time, it held no danger, merely a hint of a pleased sort of envy that was both harmless and complimentary.
Ren and the man shook hands, and then, he offered his hand to Katrina. She took his but was surprised when he lifted her fingers for a gentle kiss. This guy really was from another era, and there was nothing phony or contrived about the gesture.
“Monty, this is the Maid Marian of our production and, as you surmised, Ren’s newfound mate, Katrina,” Sonia made the introductions.
“This is your honeymoon?” the older man seemed surprised, looking from Katrina to Sonia and then to Ren.
“Actually, yes. In a way,” Ren said, sounding a bit bemused. “We haven’t really discussed all the particulars, but I suspect my mate would like a human-style wedding for her family, and we’ll probably have
to deal with the publicity surrounding our match.” Ren sighed, and Katrina almost gasped. She hadn’t really thought through the idea of joining her life to someone who was already so famous. “But my Clan welcomed her this past weekend, and in the eyes of my people, we are already mated.”
“Lord Montague Whittaker, at your service,” he said formally to Katrina. She felt her eyes widening at his old-world charm and the fact that the man was part of the nobility. She’d never met an honest-to-goodness nobleman before.
“Katrina Valiando,” she replied, flustered into giving her real name. “I mean,” she tried to fix her mistake, “Kat Valiant.” She shrugged and bowed her head slightly. “My agent suggested the change, and I’m still getting used to it.”
“Valiando…” The nobleman seemed to think. “I remember a knight of that name from Italy. A brave fighting man. Though small of stature, he was mightier than most of his kind, and he had strong ties to Rome and the Church. One of his descendants, the last time I bothered to check on the family, which is a hobby I indulge every few decades, was employed in the Swiss Guard, which didn’t surprise. That family was ever pious and military, with an odd engineering bent that showed up from time to time in the generations.”
“One of my ancestors was a Swiss Guard,” Katrina replied, somewhat breathless. “He’s the one responsible for bringing the family to America. He had some trouble in Italy and immigrated. At least, that’s the rumor passed down through the family.”
“Interesting. I wonder if it was Pasquale? He was young when I checked on him, and I noted then, that he had a bit more temper than the others of his line I had met.” Monty shook his head. “No matter. If you are one of the Valiandos I once knew, then it makes sense such noble blood would find its way to my jaguar friends.”
Katrina didn’t know what to say to that.
“Monty, don’t keep them standing out in the hall,” a voice shouted from the open doorway. Katrina looked up to see a young woman standing there with a look of indulgent exasperation on her face. She came forward, smiling.
