Watcher: A raven paranormal romance (Crookshollow ravens Book 1)

by Steffanie Holmes

  “We won’t,” Cole growled, bending down to kiss me roughly. My heart clenched as I bent up to return the kiss. How was it he managed to make me forget my problems so completely?

  “Come on,” Cole grabbed my hand and pulled me down the steps at the end of the patio. I jogged after him between the flowerbeds as we moved toward the large stone fountain in the middle of the round pool that formed the focal point of the garden.

  “Don’t go too far,” Ryan called after us. “You’re being watched.”

  I whirled around, my heart leaping in my chest as I searched for some sinister looking villain. “I thought this place was protected by charms.”

  Ryan grinned. “It is.” He pointed up at the stone statue of the goddess Diana that fed the fountain. I could just make out the silhouette of a dark shape perched on the statue’s shoulder.

  The bird turned to us, and let out a menacing croak.

  I cried out and leapt back. Cole grabbed me, his strong arms wrapping tight around me. His breath was hot against my ear. “Don’t worry. It’s only Byron. Ryan has allowed him to enter the protected area of the house. He’s making good on his promise to watch out for me.”

  I relaxed a little. “He’s a good brother, then.”

  “If you say so.” Cole glared at the bird as we walked around the edge of the fountain, heading toward the darkened forest.

  “What is this animosity between the two of you?”

  Cole sighed. “Do you really want to know?”

  “Of course I do. I want to understand.”

  “Byron is the older of us, by five years. He’s always resented me running around after him. To him, I was just this annoying kid who ruined all his fun. It got worse after my father died, and as my mother got sicker and sicker. He just didn’t want to be around us, so he would go off with Pax and Poe, and I would be stuck keeping her company.” He saw my face. “Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind staying with my mother. I loved her dearly. She was such a genuinely kind person. You remind me of her.”

  “I hope that’s a compliment.” I beamed.

  “It is the highest compliment. Anyway, after a couple of years, my mother’s illness got so bad she couldn’t work any longer. She wasn’t able to shift to her human form, and her bones started to fuse together. She couldn’t unfurl her wings or bend her neck. It was awful to watch.”

  “Oh, Cole. I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah,” he stared off into the distance. “I’m sorry, too. Morchard, of course, couldn’t bear to have a Bran that wasn’t performing, so he took her into his aviary. At first, he kept up a pretence he was trying to cure her, and I believed him, because I was a fool. I visited her every day when I could get away from my duties, and despite all the drugs Morchard gave her, she got worse and worse. It was so bad she could hardly speak. She couldn’t move. She was trapped inside her own skin.”

  To watch someone you love go through that … it must have been awful. I squeezed Cole’s hand, tears forming in the edges of my eyes.

  “I believe now that Morchard was deliberately keeping her sick and immobile, so he could extract samples from her and experiment while she was still alive. But, of course, I have no proof of that. I thought he was helping her.” He spat bitterly. “One afternoon, he summoned me and Byron to his laboratory. I came right away, but Byron didn’t. He was off with Pax and Poe. Morchard said she was dying. I sat with her for hours, holding her wing and stroking her, waiting for the end, waiting for Byron to show up to say goodbye. But he never did.”

  “Shit.” That explained a lot. Byron was the older brother. He was supposed to protect Cole from that kind of pain. But he had deserted Cole when he needed him most, and Cole couldn’t forgive him. I suspected Byron probably hadn’t forgiven himself.

  “Yeah.”

  A cold silence descended between us. I searched for something else to say, but couldn’t think.

  “Please, don’t think of it anymore.” Cole said. “Don’t let Byron destroy our evening.”

  “Oh, no. I wouldn’t dare.”

  When we were clear of the raised beds and topiaries, Cole grabbed my hand. A warm jolt flicked up my arm. I turned to him and gave a small smile.

  “This is nice,” I said. What I really meant was, kiss me. I wet my lips, gazing up at him expectantly.

  But if Cole understood the message, he didn’t act on it. He stared down at his feet. “I’m so sorry about your bakery.”

  I didn’t want to think about it now, out here with him. “It’s OK. It’s not your fault.”

  “Did you really see your ex across the street the other night? I wish you had said something.”

  “I don’t know what I saw. That’s exactly why I didn’t mention it. It can’t be Ethan. He wouldn’t be so stupid as to show up here and do this. At least, I wouldn’t have thought so. It’s not his style. It’s a bit … sloppy.”

  “That what I was afraid of.” Cole rubbed the line of stubble along his chin. “And that black feather you found was clearly a message. The only thing I can’t figure out is who it’s a message from. Is it Thomas Gillespie, telling me that he knows where you are, and if I don’t submit to him, he’ll hurt you? Or is it Morchard, telling you that he knows you’ve been hiding me? Or is it someone else with some skin in this game who hasn’t made their presence known yet?”

  The same questions had been running around my head all afternoon, but I was no closer to solving them. “I don’t want to think about it right now. We’re safe here, for now. Ryan will try to locate Gillespie in the morning. Maybe we can sort this all out without any more violence.”

  “I highly doubt that.” Cole squeezed my hand extra tight. “I just want to keep you safe.”

  “I’m safe here with you. Now, please. Can we talk about something else?” The night air blew a cool breeze across my skin. I laced my fingers into Cole’s. He ran his thumb over my knuckles, and I loved the way that simple touch made my heart skip.

  “Very well. What made you want to open a bakery?”

  Now that one I could answer. “When I was a kid, my dad travelled a lot for work. He’s white, born in Surrey. He was an executive at a mobile phone company, so we were quite well off. My mother was his PA.” Cole gave me an amused look. I shrugged. “You’re right. It’s exactly what it sounds like. She was twelve years his junior. She’d arrived in England from China with nothing but the clothes on her back and the determination to work hard and find herself a husband to look after her. It was quite the office scandal when their affair became public, but they were madly in love. After they got married, Mum decided to give up her career and stay home to manage the house and look after me. Lots of the other executive kids had nannies, but not me. I had Mum. She didn’t miss the office at all. She even home-schooled me for a time, and she was always coming up with fantastic outings and games for me.

  “Before she married Dad, she’d never even boiled an egg before, but she got really interested in cooking. We used to spend the day together knocking up scones and cakes. She taught me Chinese recipes her mother used to make for her, but we both preferred the heavy, hearty English food and baking. Dad would take the leftovers into work and tell everyone proudly what his daughter had created. I loved spending that time with my mum, and I loved the way fresh-baked bread and pies smelled, and I loved it that my dad was so proud of what I’d done, I guess.”

  “Your parents sound wonderful.”

  “Do they?” My head snapped up. I’d been lost in the memory. I’d almost forgotten he was there. “I suppose they were, at least in the beginning. But it didn’t last. When I was ten, my dad got ousted during a company restructure, and he struggled to find another job. My mum had to go back to work, so that was the end of the home cooking. We were a takeout and nanny family, just like everyone else. My parents were always tired and always fighting, mostly about money. I think my mum resented my dad for losing his job and forcing her back to work, and my dad resented Mum for making him feel bad.

  “O
ur house was such a toxic place to be. I couldn’t stand it. I had to do something, to try to get it back to the way things were. So I took over in the kitchen. I started doing all the cooking. I packed them both lunches every day. After a while my mum just handed me the grocery money each month. I saved them a lot of money on crappy takeout, but I couldn’t save their marriage.”

  “Oh, Belinda. I’m so sorry.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it.” I said, tears brimming in the corners of my eyes. Great, I was crying about everything today.

  “It’s good to talk. It gets the blood flowing for all the other things we’re going to get up to tonight.” Cole brushed his lips across mine, sending a shiver of desire through my body. “What happened next?”

  “They divorced when I was fifteen. Dad stayed in London, and Mum moved us to Crookshollow, where her mother now lived. I finished up school here, went to culinary school in London, came back, met Ethan, opened the shop, got my heart ripped out. Mum met Gary,” I made a face. “He’s twenty-six years older than her. She got Botox. They moved to Liverpool and live in one of those houses that looks like it belongs on Footballers Wives. She hired a cook and got one of those little yappy dogs. I don’t really see her that much.”

  “You sound disappointed in her.”

  I shrugged. “I guess. I just … she’s so different now. I guess I wonder if this was how she always was, and her old playfulness was a show for my benefit. Dad’s no different. He started his own company, doing telecom for corporate clients. He has a string of young, leggy blonde girlfriends.”

  “Can I ask a really personal question?” Cole squeezed my hand again, placing his other hand on top of my fingers.

  “I might not answer.” It was hard to stay guarded when he touched me like that.

  “When Ethan took all your stuff, why didn’t you go to your parents for help? They both sound as though they’re relatively well off. I’m sure they’d be happy to help you—”

  I shook my head so vigorously I wrenched my neck. I winced. “No. I have to do this myself.”

  “Why?”

  “Because. I just do. Can we please change the subject?” I noticed he was leaning heavily on one leg. The leg that hadn’t been injured. “I haven’t asked you how your leg is doing today. Is it feeling better?”

  “It’s fine.”

  “You sound so sincere.”

  Cole showed me his finger. It looked tiny compared to his other fingers; the skin had shrivelled up, and was turning black. I held my hand near the glowing ring, feeling the heat rise from that mysterious metal surface. I sucked in my breath, unable to understand how he was standing upright still. The pain must be excruciating.

  “I hardly even think about my leg,” Cole said. “With this on my finger, sending stabbing pain through my body every few moments.”

  “How do you stand it?”

  “I have to, so I do.” Cole pulled his hand away. “It is a small price to pay to be with you.”

  Tears sprang in my eyes at the thought of him enduring this for me. “Cole, we have to do something. You’ll lose your finger.”

  “Nightingale, it’s OK.” He held my arm with his good hand. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m here to look after you.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one who heard that poor, hurt raven crying for help, or its pathetic whining when I cleaned its wound.”

  “I didn’t whine, and I can fly just fine.”

  “Oh yeah?” I grinned. “Then let me see you fly.”

  Cole stepped away from me, and jumped up on the edge of the fountain, his body moving like a graceful dancer. He turned to me, planting his weight on his good leg, and started to shift.

  Cole’s body shrunk down into itself, his arms pulling back into the sleeves of his shirt, his legs crumpling beneath him. His nose grew out from his face, becoming long and hooked and hard, while his chin reached up to meet it. From his skin sprouted the dark bristles, which fanned out and became jet feathers, folding over themselves in a graceful pattern. His whole body seemed to disappear into the darkened forest beyond.

  “You look ridiculous,” I told him, grinning again. In reality, I found his shift fascinating, and kind of a turn-on. It was amazing to think that a body could perform such a remarkable feat. I would think it some kind of magic, and I guess in a way it was. But it wasn’t the kind of magic I saw on TV shows, with smoke and explosions. This was something much more ancient, much more primal. And it was part of Cole.

  From his elbows extended long bones that grew more skin and bristles, and these great black feathers that became his beautiful wings. As Cole shrank down, he disappeared inside of his clothes, which crumpled into a pile on the edge of the fountain.

  For a few moments, there was complete silence, and then the lump inside the clothes moved, and I heard a faint squawk.

  “Oh, you’re all tangled up.” I reached over to lift off the shirt. With a much louder squawk, Cole bounced out from beneath his clothes, flapped his wings, and took to the air. He swooped and dived, performing elaborate rolls and flips in the air, his streamlined body appearing more like a plane than a bird.

  “OK, I get the idea!” I laughed. “You can change back now. You’re clearly just fine.”

  Cole zoomed past at high speed. I nodded in appreciation, watching him hurtle his body toward the dark trees.

  Suddenly, another black blur emerged from the forest and crashed into him, knocking him from the sky. “Cole!” I yelled, running across the lawn toward them. In the darkness I couldn’t see what was happening, but I heard Cole’s frantic screech. Behind me, I heard footsteps pound across the cobbles as Ryan tore toward us.

  The only reply I heard was a loud squawk, cut abruptly short by a high-pitched, inhuman screech.

  It was Byron. It had to be. That bastard had sweet-talked Cole into getting him behind the protective spells, and then attacked him when his guard was down. I knew it. I’d had such a bad feeling about him, and now he’s hurting Cole. Where are they?

  “Cole!” I cried out, darting across the lawn. I scanned the ground in front of me. Where were they? The screeching grew louder, but it seemed to have more than one voice. It came from all around me.

  Then I heard the flapping.

  My heart pounded against my chest. I whirled around, searching the forest for the source of the sound. The screeching grew louder. I saw what at first appeared to be a black cloud rising over the tops of the trees. As the whirring, flapping noise grew louder I realised to my horror that it was no cloud, it was a massive flock of ravens. Hundreds of them descended upon Ryan’s garden, their dark, beady eyes trained on me.

  As one unit, they launched themselves at me. I turned and ran toward the house. I could just make out the shape of Ryan, now in his fox form, as he launched himself across the lawn. I tried to yell at him to get to Cole, but my words were lost as the black cloud swirled around me.

  The birds flew so close together that they completely blocked out my view of the house. I stumbled forward, completely blind, my arms stretched out in front of me. Where are the steps? Where’s the edge of the fountain? All I could feel as I moved slowly across the lawn was the beating of their wings against my skin.

  “Cole!” I cried out, helpless as the birds swarmed around me, their wings slicing over my skin, their claws digging into my clothing. My shirt tore, and tears sprang to my eyes. Where’s Cole? What’s happening? What are they doing to me? I pictured myself pecked to death, covered with tiny wounds like poor Mikael. I stumbled forward in the darkness, flailing my hands around, trying to beat them off, but the birds only tightened their circle,

  “What’s happening?”

  Panic seized me as my feet left the ground, and soon I was dangling in the air above the graves of the Witches’ Cemetery, my vision a blur of black feathers and cruel, beady eyes. I opened my mouth to scream, only to find myself choking on feathers. The ravens dragged me higher still… calling to each othe
r with excited croaks as they carried me off.

  Their bodies pressed tighter against me, and everything went black.

  TO BE CONTINUED

  Cole and Belinda’s story concludes in Crookshollow Ravens book II, Reaper, which will be released late June 2016. Sign up to Steffanie Holmes’ newsletter to be notified when it’s live, and get a free Crookshollow story!

  Excerpt from The Man in Black

  Love so fierce it transcends even death.

  When Elinor Baxter arrives at the dilapidated Marshell House to settle the estate of her law firm's oldest client, she can't help but feel a little spooked. The creaking gothic mansion is a far cry from her life as an adventurous party girl back in London.

  Then she meets Eric Marshell, a man dressed entirely in black with a wicked smile and the ability to float through walls. Eric was the violinist in popular rock band Ghost Symphony until a hit-and-run accident claimed his life. Now he's trapped inside his mother's house for all eternity, and the only one who can see or hear him is Elinor.

  Eric and Elinor fight their attraction for each other as they dig into the mystery of Eric's death. But when they uncover a dark and sinister plot that threatens Elinor's life, their bond draws them into a world neither of them understands. Can their love transcend the boundary between life and death?

  The Man in Black is a steamy gothic romance by USA Today bestselling author Steffanie Holmes, Set in the English village of Crookshollow, it's a standalone novel of love, redemption, and second chances. If you love clever BBW heroines, crumbling gothic mansions, and brooding rockstars who know what they want, then this book will have you shivering all over.

  Elinor moved her hand, so her palm lay flat against mine. It was so odd to see her fingers nestled right inside my body, and even odder to feel them there, not as fingers usually feel, but as a hot ball of energy, emanating heat to a steady rhythm.

  It took me a few moments to realise the rhythm was Elinor’s heartbeat.