The Gifted 2: Passions Aflame (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  No, you just assumed they never would. Meghan pushed away the negative thought. Just proves my point. I haven’t seen the darn show, but just talking about it makes me feel all kinds of negative.

  She focused on her friend. “Could be, if they did, the show would be over. So they won’t ever find any. All they’ll do is continue on their merry way, leaving hurting and humiliated people in their wake. No thanks.” Been there, done that. It was all Meghan could do not to let the depth of her true feelings show.

  She’d spent a lot of time in the last few years learning as much as she could about life in this strange world. She even had found an adage to describe her sentiment of the moment—once burned, twice shy.

  And man, had she ever been burned.

  Who could have known that the world she and her best friends had been sent into could be so completely different than the one they’d been expecting?

  “Okay, I know when it’s time for me to change a subject. Oh, Mom asked me to get another jar of your berry jam and some more of that aloe cream before I leave.”

  “I have a fresh batch of jam that I made just yesterday! I set aside some for her.” Kay’s mom was a sweet lady. She’d welcomed Meghan on first meet and made her feel at home.

  Heather Scott didn’t remind her of her own mother so much as her friend Cheri’s mom. Meghan was pleased with that realization. She could let fondness grow in her heart for the woman without a single bit of homesickness creeping in.

  Well, most of the time, anyway.

  “I was thinking of going to Raleigh for some new shoes. Thought I’d head out tonight, stay over, and shop all day tomorrow. Want to come along?”

  “New shoes? You’re going to need a new closet soon for all your new shoes!” Meghan laughed. Shoes were both Kay’s blessing and her curse. She loved shoes with a passion that left Meghan in complete bewilderment.

  “I’ll take that as a no. Just as well. My sister is meeting me there. I was having a weak moment, begging you to be my moral support. But really, I have to learn to deal with her on my own.”

  “I’m sorry. I know you’d like me there to be a buffer between you two. But I have faith in your ability to stay calm, cool, and collected in the face of her attitude.” Meghan just made sure of that with the teeniest bit of magic. “But I need to get my stuff finished and delivered to Bea’s store. She called yesterday and warned me she was nearly out of some of my best sellers.”

  Bridget Farris, known to all as Bea, owned the Paisley General Store at the other end of the town from where Meghan lived. She’d given Meghan a couple of shelves in her “Home Grown” section that allowed her to offer an assortment of goods for sale to the public.

  Along with jams and creams, Meghan made tiny glass figurines and small clay vases and plates.

  Her items tended to sell at a steady pace. In the beginning, Bea had charged what Meghan had protested was an exorbitant sum for her goods. Time had proven the shopkeeper knew her business, so Meghan left the pricing up to the older, widowed woman.

  “Well, I can’t argue with that. Work does come first.”

  Meghan didn’t, of course, tell her friend there was another reason she wanted to stay behind here at her little home—her sanctuary.

  Cheri has already mated. I could be next, and I just want to hunker down here and wait it out.

  It wasn’t that Meghan was afraid, exactly. Six years before when she and her cousins—her spirit sisters—had been summoned before the Concilium, and had faced the First Mother, she’d accepted the offer they’d made, knowing in her heart that coming here truly was her destiny.

  It was just that the shock of actually living in this realm had been brutal, and she wasn’t completely convinced that, all these years later, she’d recovered from that, yet.

  Before that day, before she’d been bolder than bold and said yes to the unknown, she’d been characterized by all who knew her as being naïve. She’d called it blissfully naïve and had been proud and happy to be so.

  The first year here in this realm had shattered that naiveté forever. Meghan pulled her thoughts away from what couldn’t be changed. The truth was she hungered for her destiny to find her. She’d witnessed firsthand the deep and abiding joy that Cheri had found with Max and Tony, and mother, she wanted that for herself!

  She yearned for her own mates, two men who would love her, accept and understand her, for the woman she was inside.

  Meghan smiled at Kay. “Thanks for understanding. We’ll have to plan a trip into the city together soon. It has been a while.”

  “You’re sweet to come with me as often as you do. I know big cities aren’t your thing.”

  No, they never had been, but that was irrelevant. “I enjoy going there with you.” Meghan grinned. “Now, let’s go inside the house and I’ll get you that jam and cream for your mother.”

  “You have to know that Mama insisted that I pay you this time.”

  Meghan shook her head. She liked the feeling of making her own way, but she really didn’t need the money. “And you tell her that next time I come by a nice piece of her pecan pie is worth more than these few things, as I can’t make a pie to save my soul while hers tastes like heaven on earth.”

  “Then you know she’s going to get baking first thing.”

  “You just have to call me when it’s ready.”

  It didn’t take long for her to load Kay up with more than just a single jar of jam and some moisturizer. She also sent along a tiny glass figurine. Heather Scott had an obsession with the Fay, and especially loved fairies. Meghan had created this particular little figure for Heather specifically. She knew that the woman would instantly love it, and that she’d set it, not in her fancy, lit cabinet, but on the table beside her bed.

  She knew because she’d decided it would be so.

  As she watched Kay’s car head back toward town, an idea occurred to Meghan. She headed for her workshop, the one place no one but her sisters had ever visited.

  Inside the glass room, she used her magic to light the fire. All the supplies for her glass were there—the silica sand, the sodium carbonate and calcium oxide and other chemicals. What she had in mind was a tiny project, so she used small amounts. Next came a touch of lead oxide to add the sparkle, and, because the person for whom these were intended loved red, some of her special formula of chemicals to give it just the right tint. She set the concoction in the kiln to melt.

  Meghan didn’t have the talent to blow the glass herself, so she used that part of her that could do it—her magic.

  Her focus absolute, she was able to take that which she envisioned and turn it into what she wanted it to be—and then set the small pair of red shoes into the annealing oven.

  While she waited for the process to be complete, she very quickly tidied her workshop. With nothing else to do but wait, her thoughts went back on the adventure she knew was in store for her, just around the corner.

  By turns excited and worried, Meghan knew it was impossible to know, until it did, how all this would play out. For all the pure magic at her fingertips, one power was denied her—as it was denied to all living creatures.

  She could not know her own future.

  * * * *

  “Well, that’s just dandy. Jerk. The least he could have done was to tell us he changed his mind before we left D.C.”

  Jeremy’s annoyance as he tossed his cell phone into the car’s console matched his own. Ryan Jones put the car’s turn signal on. They’d just entered a town called Paisley, North Carolina. They’d set off from the nation’s capital before the butt crack of dawn so they could reach Raleigh for a dinner meeting with a man who, by all accounts, was an actual medium, the real deal.

  “I’m as pissed as you are. I’m damn tired, too, not to mention hungry and thirsty.” That was why he’d pulled the car off the road at the Paisley General Store. “Let’s get us something to drink and something to munch on, and then we can decide what we’re going to do.”

  They’
d traded off driving, with Jeremy having taken the first two-and-a-half-hour shift. His brother laughed, shaking his head. “You’re such an optimist, Ry. You’ve already decided what we’re going to do. You want to see if there’s a motel in this town, and then you want to hunker down, get out your phone, and use your powers of persuasion to coax Samuel Kolm into changing his mind and having lunch with us tomorrow.”

  “Yeah. But look on the bright side. I bet we’re no more than an hour or so from Raleigh. If I’m successful, we could theoretically get there before he changes his mind a third time.”

  Jeremy met his gaze. Ryan could tell he was trying not to be a party pooper. But he’d always been able to count on his brother to be the voice of reason. He needed that from Jer. One of us has to be able to be logical.

  “And maybe he won’t. We’ve tried to be impartial with how we present every episode, but the truth is there’re a lot of charlatans out there. I know the supernatural exists. You know it.” He looked to the side then met his gaze once more. “But we may never find proof of it.”

  “I know that. Hell, Jeremy, of course I know that.” He laid his head back against the headrest. “But I don’t know what else to do. This need to search has been in us since we were fourteen. Everything we’ve done has aimed toward this... this quest of ours. I cannot believe that we will never know what happened that day, and why.”

  “Neither can I, bro. So, yeah, we’ll grab a drink and some snacks and see if there’s a place to grab a room in the area. And we’ll try Samuel Kolm one more time. But, brother, we were supposed to be starting our annual hiatus.”

  “As soon as I try once more with Kolm, we’ll take that break. I know we both need it.”

  “Yeah. But right now we both need a drink. You ask at the counter about accommodations. I’ll go hunt up the snacks.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Ryan had been completely honest when he’d told his brother that he couldn’t believe they’d never learn the truth about that day twenty-one years before. What he didn’t say was that, in the last month, the sense had been growing inside him that they were on the very precipice of discovering...whatever it was they were destined to discover.

  He believed Jeremy was feeling it, too, but wouldn’t mention it. Just as Ryan wondered how his brother was going to handle it when they did learn everything. The need that drove Jeremy was different than the need that drove him.

  I’ll be there for him no matter what.

  Ryan was convinced that his own father wouldn’t be alive today if it hadn’t been for Jeremy. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew that both of them had been needed, working together, to save his dad that fateful June day.

  Ryan turned off the engine and got out of the car. He and Jeremy both stretched, the long hours on the road taking their toll.

  “You know, ten years ago, we wouldn’t even be tired now.” Jeremy’s expression gave nothing away.

  Ryan grinned. “Ten years from now, we’ll likely find excuses not to be in the car so long in the first place.”

  “You think we’ll wise up by then? My brother, the eternal optimist.”

  “That’s me. Come on, let’s get a move on.” He clapped his brother on the back, and together, they took the wide steps up to the front door of the Paisley General Store.

  The interior was well lit, clean, and smelled faintly of apples and cinnamon. It was more than that, though. Ryan wondered if the fanciful thought that the place welcomed him was because of where his mind had been just moments before.

  Likely. I need to focus. He put his most sincere expression on as he approached the middle-aged woman behind the counter.

  “Good afternoon, ma’am.”

  “Good afternoon, young man.” She tilted her head to the side. “Indiana.”

  Ryan grinned. “Yes. You have a great ear.”

  “Thank you. It’s a talent, something to amuse myself with. We all have ’em. Talents, that is.”

  “Yes, ma’am that’s something I’ve always believed. I was wondering if there was a motel or inn in the area? My brother and I just had our appointment in Raleigh cancel on us. We thought we’d stop for the day before heading back—if there’s a place close by, that is.”

  “You’re in luck. Heather Scott and her daughter have a B & B over on Elm Street. That’s the third street as you’re heading south. Turn right, and it’s number twenty-two, on the left.”

  “Twenty-Two Elm. That’s great.” Good thing this isn’t Springfield, Ohio.

  “There’s also a restaurant in town that’s open until eight tonight. We don’t have much in Paisley, but we’ve got enough.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  “Ryan? Can you come here for a moment, please? There’s something you need to see.”

  It was the tone in Jeremy’s voice that alerted him. That and a sensation he couldn’t describe. He looked over and met his brother’s gaze. Ryan couldn’t see what had snagged his attention.

  “Something wrong there, young man?”

  Jeremy blinked and then gave the woman a slight smile. “Oh, no, ma’am. I just think there’s something here our mom would like. But Ryan has better luck than I do in picking gifts for her, so I need his opinion.”

  Ryan smiled at the shopkeeper and then headed over to his brother. Jeremy had always been quick with a response...the thought trailed off. He knew what he was going to find even before he reached his brother.

  The glass butterfly was about the size of a shot glass. Beautifully crafted, it sparkled even without the kind of direct light such things were usually displayed under. But that wasn’t what had snagged Jeremy’s attention.

  It was the aura of power that pulsed from it. The longer he focused on the tiny figurine, the stronger the pulse seemed to grow.

  “Do you feel it?” Jeremy’s voice had a slight tremble.

  “Yeah.”

  He nudged his brother because the shopkeeper was approaching. “You’re right. That’s the prettiest thing. Mom will love it.”

  “Ah, one of Meghan’s pieces. I should have guessed. That girl does have a talent.”

  “Meghan.” The sound of her name on his tongue sounded more than right. “Is she a local artist?” Ryan looked from Jeremy to the shopkeeper. “Maybe if she has a studio we could swing by. Our mother collects glass pieces. We could be the best sons ever.”

  “Yes, Meghan is local, though she’s only been in Paisley for about five years. She has her place on this same road, at the other end of town. You can’t miss it. The house looks like a fairy cottage.” The woman smiled. “Of course, Meghan almost looks like a fairy herself. There’s just something about that girl.”

  Jeremy met the woman’s gaze. “She won’t mind if we stop by?”

  “Oh, she probably will. She tends to keep to herself, more than she should in my opinion. And I surely wouldn’t have told anyone else where she could be found.” The woman gave them both a big smile. “But I watch the two of you every Tuesday night on my television, so it’s not like you’re strangers.” The woman nodded once. “I figure if I can’t trust the hosts of Supernaturals Among Us: Yes or No?, who can I trust?”

  Ryan grabbed the sodas and snacks while Jeremy cupped the fragile glass in his hands. At the counter, the shopkeeper, who introduced herself as Bridget Farris, “call me Bea,” carefully wrapped the butterfly in bubble wrap.

  And the whole time she was doing that, the little butterfly hummed to them. And something that had been asleep inside Ryan—inside them both if the look on Jeremy’s face was any measure—began to hum back.

  Chapter 2

  After Meghan set the gift for her best friend inside the house, she decided she should take advantage of the slightly cooler summer day. Some days here in North Carolina were too hot for her to be outside much. Though she could cool herself off with magic, she really didn’t make a habit of using her powers for everyday things. Only because you’re afraid someone is going to see and then ridicule you. Again.

/>   Meghan told her inner voice to shut up. She turned her attention to the plot of land she’d tilled and planted in the spring. It had been a few days since she’d spent time amid the herbs and vegetables. Her garden needed attention, and there was little she loved more than getting her fingers into the rich soil.

  She’d heard and seen a lot in the six years she’d been in this realm about people’s problems and their need for therapy. This right here was all the therapy she needed.

  Meghan knelt at the side of the patch and inhaled deeply. The dark aroma of earth and the verdant scent of living plants filled her soul, calmed her spirit, and made her smile. The hum of life that surrounded her grounded her. She could be back home, right now, working in her parents’ garden. This is my connection to my past.

  Her inner voice did have a point. She tended to only use her magic behind the locked and warded door of her workshop. Except for that one time when she’d made herself the gazebo, of course. But even that she’d done “hidden” from whatever prying eyes might be near.

  She looked around now to ensure that no one was watching her. Then she focused on the end of the workshop and the tiny room that had a door to the outside on the small wall.

  The tools she needed, that she kept in that shed, materialized at her side, within easy reach. She began to weed, gently pulling the tiny shoots and placing them in her basket. She would take them to the edge of the trees and release them, where their energy would return to the earth once more.

  As she worked, her thoughts wandered back to her first year here in this realm. “I never should have settled in a big city to begin with.” She’d been drawn, almost inexorably so, to Indiana and had followed her instincts. The pull of the larger metropolis of Indianapolis—the lights, the sounds, the excitement—had been so different from what she knew, and yet, she’d felt compelled to go there. She had wondered if she was going to meet her mates right away. It hadn’t taken long, however, for her sense of excitement and anticipation to wear off. Life here was nothing like she’d expected it to be.