“Seriously, that minor difference is all it takes?” I asked dubiously.
“Yes and no. If I understand what’s going on here correctly, from what you’ve just told me and from the information Rose gave me, you take on an entirely new persona when you go to her as Nick. She’s never seen Nick, so she doesn’t know that you are one in the same, giving you a loop hole in the spell. Although, such a thing is rare and it only happens when something interferes with a mating. The fates always find a way. Is the woman your mate, Jackson?”
The room went silent as everyone stared at me.
I didn’t answer her question. I looked down at my blank palm and thought about what she said. It all seemed far-fetched, even in my world, but stranger things have happened.
Finally, I nodded.
“Can you break the curse?” I asked Myrtle, ignoring the women around me.
“I can try. I’m old and whoever’s doing this is powerful, so I make no guarantees.”
“I won’t hold you to anything as long as you try.”
“All right. I need a second witch,” she turned and said to Rose.
Thirty minutes later Tamera was standing in my living room removing the glamour that hid my mating mark. Myrtle said that my denying Valerie gave the spell more power than it would otherwise have because it worked with the spell.
Once the glamour was gone, Myrtle and Tamera were able to see the spell more clearly, so Myrtle sent Tamera and Stephanie off with a locator spell in search of the witch who had cursed me. If she couldn’t break the spell, she was going to force the witch who had cast it to break it.
Myrtle was just settling into chanting a counter spell when Stephanie’s voice shouted through the mirror above my sofa. “Jackson, Rose, come quickly. The bookstore is on fire.”
In an instant, I was in wolf form and running full-speed toward town.
36.
~~~Valerie~~~
Since the incident at the library with Azure and the new kids at the orphanage, Azure swore to me often that the kids were leaving her alone at school and that she didn’t believe I had anything to do with her parents’ deaths or the virus. That did not mean, however, that she didn’t wonder if other humans were involved. We discussed that idea at length, and I was honest with her when I said anything was possible, but that I knew nothing about such a conspiracy.
I watched her for any signs that she was unhappy living with me but saw none. Our daily routine continued. She was happier when her uncle and grandmother were around, so I tried to incorporate them into our lives as much as possible. Having Jackson over wasn’t just about making her happy, I’ll be honest. I felt better, more relaxed, settled, and safe when he was around.
The night of the fire, our day had gone on as usual, but the later the day got, the antsier I felt. My spine tingled as if someone was watching us, but all of my exploration in and around the bookstore was fruitless. Azure felt what I felt, though neither of us could figure out what was causing our unease.
“Should we call your uncle,” I asked her while we ate supper that night.
“Yes, but we can’t. Jackson and Grandmother Rose are in a meeting with an out of town witch tonight. From what I gather of the conversation I overheard, it’s an important one. I’m sure we have guards watching the store. He wouldn’t leave us unprotected.”
“You think so?” I asked, moving the food around on my plate.
“I know so,” she said with a confidence I didn’t believe was sincere.
We finished our meal in silence and cleaned up in silence. I left her alone in the apartment to do her homework and get ready for bed. The apartment was too small for me to pace properly, so I went downstairs to walk the stacks.
I was flipping through a classic I had never read when in rapid-fire succession three of the downstairs and two of the upstairs windows shattered. Seconds after the windows blew in, the bookstore was up in flames. I screamed, then heard Azure scream. I was turning toward the stairs to get her when something hit me in the back of the head, I stumbled, hit my forehead on the banister, then face-planted at the foot of the stairs.
I must have passed out for a few minutes because when I came to Azure was no longer screaming and the entire store was on fire. I stumbled to my feet and scanned the room looking for a way out but saw nowhere to go. The stairs were ablaze as well. That didn’t deter me. Azure was up there, and I had to get to her.
Pulling my shirt up over my mouth and shielding my eyes from the flames, I started up the stairs. I only made it up a few steps when one of the steps gave in, and I nearly fell through. Strong arms wrapped around me and yanked me up and out of the hole. In a blur of movements, the person holding me had me out of the store and on the sidewalk across the street. The entire time, I screamed for the person to stop, to carry me back, to let go of me.
“Valerie, Valerie, you’re okay. Look at me, stop screaming,” a male said.
My eyes focused, shifted to the naked man standing in front of me. For a second, my brain registered that Jackson had saved me and was talking to me, shaking me before I remembered that Azure was in the building.
“She’s still in there,” I said and burst into tears. “Please, save her.”
When the last word was out of my mouth, the back windows burst out, and I screamed Azure’s name, jerked from Jackson’s arms, and ran back to the building.
Jackson grabbed me before I could get too far from him, handed my screaming, kicking body to another male, and ran back into the building. Two more people ran in behind him. I couldn’t stop screaming, crying, begging the person holding me to let me go so that I could go after my child.
More pillars of smoke erupted from the building. What felt like hours passed. Animals and naked people surrounded the street. Water nymphs were there summoning water from a hole in the ground in an attempt to put out the fire.
I was in a ball in the middle of the street, hoarse, praying that everyone would come out soon…alive. At first, the cry of cheers from the people around me didn’t register, until the man holding me said, “Oh, thank the gods.”
My head jerked up to see Jackson coming around the side of the building, carrying Azure. I leaped from the man’s arms and rushed to Jackson.
“Is she alive? Azure, talk to me, sweetie,” I demanded, pushing her hair from her dirty face.
She turned her head slightly to look at me. “Valerie?” she asked and coughed.
“I’m here. Are you hurt?” I asked.
“Her leg’s broken. She breathed in a lot of smoke. Nothing a few days in the hospital and a shift into her Collie form won’t fix,” Jackson informed me.
I didn’t even look at him.
Azure reached up and touched my head where I hit the stair railing. “Are you okay,” she asked with tears streaming down her face.
“I’m going to be just fine. I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean for anything to happen to you.”
“This isn’t your fault,” she said.
I leaned in and hugged her the best that I could.
“Thank you for saving her,” I said to Jackson.
On impulse, after letting her go, I rose, reached up, pulled Jackson’s face down to mine, and kissed him hard and long. With that kiss, I knew he was my mate, and I felt certain he knew it as well.
When I finally let go of him, I looked deep into his eyes and waited for him to say something. All he was able to do was smile at me before a woman showed up to take Azure from him. The woman laid her on a gurney and rushed her down the street.
“Where is she taking her?” I asked Jackson.
“Where you need to go,” he said, scooping me into his arms and following the gurney.
“What?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his neck in fear that he may drop me.
“You need a healer to look at your head. You hit it,” he said.
“Twice,” I admitted.
“Twice?” he asked, speeding up.
“Yeah, something hit me in the back of th
e head causing me to stumble and hit my forehead on the banister.”
In a blur, he was bursting through the doors of the healers’ house. They didn’t have hospitals, but small clinic-like buildings where witches and other creatures with healing magic stayed to help those supernaturals with injuries that their magic couldn’t heal.
He sat me on a bed in a large room beside Azure, who looked to be asleep. Her posture scared me, but the healer attending her said she was fine. Another woman rushed into the room at Jackson’s command.
“Her head is the most important thing, but check her for other injuries,” Jackson instructed, reaching for my feet to start taking off my shoes.
He and the healer, I’m sure he called her Maggie, had me nearly naked before I realized what they were doing. I opened my mouth to point it out, but a man entered the room and opened his mouth to say something. A terrifying snarl from Jackson caused the man to backpedal out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Jackson straightened, walked to the head of the bed, cupped my face, and said, “I’ll be right outside. I promise that I’m not leaving this building.”
“If you’re needed elsewhere, I…”
“I’m not leaving this building without you,” he said, cutting me off.
I nodded. Jackson kissed my forehead and turned to leave. That was when I remembered he was naked. No one else in the room looked at him at all, which was good, because I think I would have killed them. Their behavior showed that these people were used to shifters and weres being naked. That didn’t matter to me. I was not comfortable with other women seeing him naked.
“Jackson,” I said, unable to take my eyes off his ass.
“Yeah,” he said, turning to me. I tried not to look down, but I couldn’t help it. His cock twitched and stiffened slightly at my gaze.
Shaking myself, I lifted my eyes and said, “Put on some clothes.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You heard me,” was all I said before helping the healer remove my bra for her to examine a red mark that ran between my breasts.
I didn’t take my eyes off him, and I could see both desire for me and anger at the woman touching me in his eyes. He started to step toward me, but the man outside said his name.
37.
~~~Jackson~~~
“What?” I demanded of Caiden, one of my guards who was supposed to be hunting down the people who had set the fire and not in the clinic taking away my time from Valerie.
Caiden stood in the hall wearing only a pair of sweats. He held out another pair to me while trying not to smirk.
Damn.
He’d heard her command. By tomorrow, the entire pack would know that my mate, and she was my mate and everyone who’d seen us together outside her store knew it, had ordered me to put on clothes in front of a room full of people. The thought was embarrassing, but it would tell them that she was a strong-willed woman who could stand by me and keep me in line.
Grudgingly, I took the pants and put them on. I didn’t ask again what Caiden wanted, only raised an eyebrow and made sure my expression said that if he didn’t start speaking soon, he’d be in trouble.
“We think we caught them all. They’re all kids from the orphanage. Four of the newer ones and three of ours. We have them locked up, waiting for you to question them.”
“Kids, huh? That explains how you found them so quickly,” I said. The fact that kids had been the ones to attack my mate shocked me. The extent of the damage was so thorough that I just knew it had been professionals.
“Most of them haven’t learned how to mask their scent, so yeah, they were easy to track. The kids are all in the basement holding cells, awaiting your interrogation.”
“Good. Is the bookstore salvageable?”
“I don’t know yet. Morgan said that he didn’t want anyone inspecting the building until tomorrow. He wants to make sure he knows what the kids used to set the blaze, though I’m sure it’s witch fire. Pixie fire wouldn’t be strong enough, and we spell our gas to keep it from being flammable.”
Morgan was a highly intelligent wizard with amazing investigative skills.
“The water fae have put out the fire.” Caiden continued. “So Morgan will do his thing bright and early, and when he’s done, I’ll put some guys to work on seeing if we can rebuild. Are you sure you want to rebuild?”
“Yes, owning a bookstore is Valerie’s dream, so I want it up as soon as you can get it up.”
“You want it just like it was before?”
“Yes…no. Salvage what you can, then clear the lot. We’ll let her design her building.”
“All right. Do you want to talk to the kids tonight or wait until tomorrow?”
“I’m not sure. Give me a minute.”
I went back into the room to check on Valerie and Azure. Azure had a broken leg, shoulder, and a few cracked ribs. The healers had the breaks set and ready for her to shift once her lungs were clear and she had enough strength to make the change. She was sleeping at the moment.
Valerie lay naked under a thin sheet. She had a few minor burns and scratches on the leg that had gone through the step that the healers were able to heal. Her head injury was what worried me.
When I approached her bed, I saw her closed eyes, so I asked the healer in a soft voice, “How is she?”
Valerie’s eyes opened at the sound of my voice. “I’m going to be okay. They’ve healed a few of my minor burns and the bump on the back of my head, but this one…” she said, raising her hand and eyes up to where both healers, looking exhausted, hovered over her head, chanting.
“I’ve told them to rest,” she said, turning her gaze to me, “but they won’t listen. I don’t know how their particular brand of magic works, but I can tell they are about to drop from exhaustion. I feel better than I did. The rest can heal on its own.”
Neither woman turned to me, but they stopped when I agreed with Valerie. The healers informed me that she needed to stay awake as much as possible for the next few hours. I could tell by their drained expressions that they weren’t up to watching her.
“I need to find someone to stay with you for a while. I want to interrogate the kids who did this while they are still terrified, but I’ll come back to you as soon as possible,” I told her as the healers left the room.
“Can I go with you?”
“You aren’t in any condition to move.”
“I’m fine. I want to hear what the kids have to say.”
Knowing I would regret the decision, I nodded. I stepped back to the door where Caiden waited and asked him to find Valerie some clothes.
“And Jackson a shirt,” she said loud enough for Caiden to hear, but not so loud that she would wake Azure.
Caiden smirked at me. I growled at him. He chuckled and left the building. I turned back to Valerie, shaking my head.
“What?” she asked, sounding all innocent.
“Nothing.”
“That head shake isn’t nothing. Why are you shaking your head at me?”
“I find your obsession with clothing me amusing. Most people around here don’t think twice about the naked form. We are born seeing each other in the nude.”
“Well, I’m not comfortable with other women seeing you that way,” she said. The flush that colored her skin suggested that she hadn’t meant to say that.
“I promise, being naked isn’t a big deal.”
“Really,” she said before throwing off her blanket. “When your guard comes back, invite him in so that I can meet him.”
For a full minute, my mind didn’t register what she had suggested. I couldn’t take my eyes off her body. She was pale, smooth, and full. Her nipples had hardened either from excitement at having me look at them or from the cold air of the room. Fearing the latter, I grabbed the sheet off the floor, but I couldn’t bring myself to cover her.
I reached out and tracked the light pink mark of the burn between her breasts that I had seen earlier. I heard her gasp at my touch, and I
wanted to hear the sound again. I reached out to touch the mark on her forehead, and our eyes met. Everything in me froze, lost in her. Of its own accord, my body was leaning down, sending orders to my lips to kiss her—then Caiden knocked on the door and turned the knob as if to come in.
In a blink, I threw the sheet over Valerie and rushed to stop him from opening the door all the way. Yanking the clothes from his hands, I told him to wait for us outside.
“Okay with seeing each other naked, huh, then why didn’t you let him in while I lay here naked?”
“Point taken,” I said and moved to help her sit up. It took everything I had in me not to fondle her while I helped her dress. Never in my life had watching someone put on clothes been such an erotic sight.
Once we were both dressed, Valerie went over to Azure’s bed, leaned over, kissed her on the forehead, and whispered that she loved her and would be back to check on her in a bit.
I knew then that I made the best choice I could for Azure when I agreed to let her live with Valerie. When she reached the open door where I waited, I took her hand. She gave me a shocked look but didn’t pull away.
At the front door, I informed the guards who were waiting there that the two healers and Azure were resting, and that I didn’t want anyone disturbing them. The two, a man and a woman, both wolves, looked from me to Valerie and back again. I thought for an instant that I saw relief in their eyes before both nodded and took their positions.
The holding cells were only a few blocks up, but I worried that Valerie wouldn’t have the energy to walk the distance after all that had happened to her, but she kept pace beside me, not that I was walking at my normal stride, but I did see her flinch a time or two.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Valerie,” Caiden said, causing her to stop and look back at him. “I didn’t think. We don’t require shoes. I should have grabbed you a pair. Wait right here. I’ll…”
Marked (Valeterra Series Book 1) Page 15
