Taken by the Wind

by Serenity Snow

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2017 Serenity Snow

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-416-9

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: CA Clauson

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  TAKEN BY THE WIND

  Windswept, 1

  Serenity Snow

  Copyright © 2017

  Prologue

  The curtains of a large bedroom were tied back allowing the silver glow of moon to wash over the small round stone table. There was a pentacle carved into its center and runes around its edges. Votive candles languished in the glass holders while incense smoldered in a soapstone burner.

  Juliet Hart stood before the altar, a small gold heart charm between her fingers, while to her right, lay the bracelet that the charm would be placed on, and a double-edged knife glinting in the light.

  “I invite love into my life and embrace it with my whole heart.”

  She chanted and the words flowed into a melodious sound for the next two minutes and energy rose in a powerful wave forming a thick pink fog around her. Her aura turned rhubarb pink with green around the edges and faint black veins as her magick emerged in full force.

  She put the heart charm aside and picked up the knife. Juliet pricked her finger and let a drop of blood fall into the pink candle’s wax before putting the knife aside.

  She lifted the heart, her blood dampening the metal as she held it in her hand.

  “I conjure my forever love by the moon’s radiant light.” She held the charm up so the moonlight washed over it.

  The charm glowed as if engulfed by pink flames, but the metal didn’t scorch. The blood burned away and she held the charm for a moment feeling the power thrumming through it.

  She thanked Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, and released the guardians called to protect and guard during the ritual. Then she picked up the bracelet to put the charm on it. Juliet stroked the charm feeling light inside.

  With a smile, she slipped the bracelet onto her wrist next to the gold one with the gold hearts in a circle with the watermelon tourmaline center. The stone had one red tourmaline crystal on either side and had been in her family since the middle ages, a gift from a goddess of war and air.

  She traced the stones and a soft wind brushed her face like a caress. That always happened when she touched the stones and it made her ache for a love so passionate it burned. She assumed it was an echo from the past and thought the woman who’d had that had been lucky. She was still looking for her princess charming.

  However, the stones weren’t just the symbol of a love she aspired to. They were a portend of the power she would gain, the woman she would become once she fully connected with the stones’ energy. And then, she might find the love of her life.

  Chapter One

  The next day…

  “I can’t do it, not one more time,” Juliet muttered as she glared and turned her gaze out the picture window of Alistair’s Deli. Her fingers clenched on the table as she thought of the injustice of the situation. And it wasn’t just this weekend.

  It was her job.

  She worked for her mother who owned a very lucrative wedding planning business, and Juliet got to watch so many brides-to-be flit in and out gushing about how happy they were. She’d thought she’d have her own love by now, but the fact that she didn’t was why she’d cast the spell last night.

  “Calm down, Juliet,” Callie said with a thread of amusement making her tone light.

  She glanced at her best-friend Callie whose normally black hair was auburn this month, the shoulder length locks straight as a poker today. She envied Callie her confidence and nonchalance. She was never ruffled by anything, especially not Beltane and the weekend events both their parents always threw.

  The romance-themed fundraiser always brought in lots of money for Ivory, the women and children’s shelter Callie’s mother had opened seven years ago. Both their mothers demanded their appearance and participation from that Friday morning’s breakfast at the country club to Sunday evening’s ball.

  “It’s for a good cause and it’s usually fun,” Callie said, giving her a smile. “I hear this year your mother is auctioning off a wedding dress complete with bridesmaid dresses.”

  The designer was internationally famous for her wedding dresses, but no one had ever seen the designer’s face. Still, every single woman in America would probably buy a ticket to the Saturday afternoon auction. She was glad she wouldn’t be in charge of it. Her mother only assigned her to handle the Friday luncheon with its giveaways of lingerie, spa packages, and the honeymoon trip to Paris.

  Most of the prizes were paid for by other witch-owned businesses.

  “Along with us?” Juliet demanded darkly. Her mother always did the obligatory human auction on Saturday nights.

  Callie laughed. “My mom has some hot bachelors lined up, so women aren’t on the block this year.” Callie gave her an amused look and patted her hand. “I’ll fix you up with someone,” Callie told her with a serene smile as she reached for her peaches-and-cream smoothie.

  “No.” Juliet tapped her foot on the bar of the stool she was perched on. She pushed the straw around in her drink. “Maybe I’m just a romantic.”

  “Or an idiot,” Callie said giving her an arch look. “I fixed you up with a man most women would kill to have look her way, and what did you do?” She winced and Callie pursed her lips. “Exactly. You screwed it up.”

  “He wasn’t my type,” Juliet complained, poking her lip out. None of them were ever her type not that there was anything wrong with any of the men. They’d all have been perfect if she was straight.

  “Who is? I’m tired of explaining that you’re just picky, girl. And I don’t know how many more men’s delicate egos I can put at risk for you to bruise. But I’m willing to do it all one more time.”

  Juliet rolled her eyes. “How kind of you,” she drawled dryly as she met her friend’s gaze again. “But I don’t need help.”

  “Yes, you do, unless you’re planning on getting a sex change,” she informed her with a grin. “All the good ones will be taken by the time you get your head on straight.”

  She groaned. “You sound like my mother.” Her mother was always on her case about finding a man—no, a male witch with whom she could produce an heir.

  “In this case, I’ll take that as a compliment.” Callie grinned. “Anyway, you’re an only child. Your mother expects you to produce at least one heir”

  “I know this, Cal,” she muttered. “You’re just so lucky not to have all this pressure on you.”

  “Then start seriously looking for someone,” Callie told her. “You don’t have to get hand-fasted right away.” She turned her attention to her phone as it vibrated and danced on the table.

  Juliet blew out a frustrated sigh as her gaze fell on a patron sitting two tables away. Lounging lazily in a chair that faced the door, the light brown-skinned woman’s head was down-bent as she studied something on the round table. The short hair shone coal beneath the artificial lights and the curly strands fell to mid-ear length.

  Then she looked up and her hair seemed to ripple around her face as if a light breeze were blowing it. Their eyes met, held. Juliet’s heart stopped beating and for a moment they were the only two people in t
he room.

  No, they were outside in a wood. To their right, a brook babbled and a soft wind rustled leaves and wiggled vines. The fresh air was faintly scented by the recently cut grass and water violets.

  Juliet had a crown of flowers on her head and her lover leaned back against a thick trunk of oak. The love in her eyes made her breath catch and her mouth dry up.

  The wind ran a hand through the shoulder length black curls just as she ached to do and the fine strands of pale gray shimmered. Those beautiful eyes smiled at her, and Juliet’s heart beat faster even as the corners of her mouth lifted in response.

  It was nice to have her lover home again, but it hurt that she couldn’t tell anyone how happy this woman made her.

  Even though she wasn’t married, there was no one she could tell of this forbidden passion. A woman was meant to love a man, but no man had touched her heart with true love as this woman of the wind had done.

  “But seriously, do you even want a man?”

  Callie’s voice roused her from the reverie or was it a memory?

  It felt like a forgotten part of her, and she ached to know that woman who’d so captured her heart so long ago.

  Men, no, but romance certainly. She wanted a lover who made her hot when she said her name, set her on fire when she looked at her, and made her feel satisfied when she thought of her. “I want excitement,” she murmured as she stared at the stranger.

  As if she’d heard her reply, the other patron’s lips curved into a slow smile, starting Juliet’s pulse pounding and heating her skin to a living flame. Then the woman winked at her. She tingled and her fingers went to her throat of their own volition.

  “Then stop being so damned hard to get.”

  Juliet dragged her gaze to Callie.

  Callie wiggled her brows and leaned toward Juliet. “I’m going to find you a wizard so hot he’s going to make you see sparks.”

  She grinned. Just make that a witch and they were good to go. “Not going to happen.”

  “Oh, yeah. It’s gonna happen. You just need to be open to love,” Callie told her and turned her attention back to her phone’s virtual keyboard. “And you better or you know your mother isn’t going to let you take over the business. She doesn’t think you’re stable without emotional ties, and I mean that in the sense that you have no roots, no reason to not take off on a whim.”

  “I’ve been showing no signs of taking off,” Juliet muttered.

  “But still, you can’t change how she feels, so just date someone,” she murmured.

  Juliet slowly turned her head back and the gorgeous woman was still watching her. Even from this distance she felt the flame in eyes that seemed the color of the sky in the light. Her stomach knotted and there was an ache in her chest that forced her breathing to come out uneven.

  And Juliet dropped her gaze unable to bear the heat making her nipples peak. A silver tie was a safe point of focus. It was knotted beneath the collar of a cobalt blue blouse that looked expensive.

  Meeting her eyes again, almost tentatively, Juliet was caught in her stare, paralyzed by it. She flushed and her skin tingled beneath her bracelets as a light breeze circled her, brushed against her cheek, and then drifted away.

  Her lips parted and a puff of air escaped as her heart beat faster.

  The woman’s brows flicked up before she lowered her gaze to whatever it was on the table she was studying.

  Juliet stabilized her uneven breathing as she ate the other woman up with her eyes. Damn, but she’d love to be her primary focus, the need she couldn’t sate, the sight she couldn’t get enough of.

  It had been more than five months since she’d last been with a woman, last been left well-enjoyed and satisfied, though wanting more.

  Something had been missing from her last relationship—heat—and that was already flickering in her belly just from making eye contact.

  Juliet’s phone rang, and she jumped guiltily. Glancing down at it, she saw that it was her mother and groaned inwardly. “Hello?” she answered quietly.

  “Juliet, I need you back at the office now,” her mother said firmly. “We have a problem.”

  “What kind of problem? Is it the lawyer?” Surely that cow hadn’t changed her mind about something again!

  “I have a problem with the designer who’s doing the dress for the giveaway. She backed out.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?” she asked confused.

  It had been her idea to engage a famous designer to do the dress this year, but her mother had no idea thanks to her cousin, Alice. Juliet had thought it would bring in more money for the shelter and the kids programs the shelter wanted to provide to the women who came to them for help.

  “Juliet, just get your butt back to the shop now,” Samantha ordered.

  “I’m on my way, Mom,” she said and ended the call. “I have to go, work calls.”

  Callie got to her feet. “I’ve got to get back, too. I’ll call you later, and we’ll go out.”

  “I’ll likely be working or too tired,” Juliet said and barely kept from wincing from the lie. She was going to a club Callie wouldn’t be caught dead in.

  The spell couldn’t work if she didn’t do something to help it along, now could it? And going to a straight bar wasn’t going to cut it.

  “Okay,” Callie answered and headed for the door.

  Juliet got to her feet and took her cup to the trash. There, she sneaked a glance back to the object of her hunger.

  Their eyes met again, and Juliet realized she’d seen her before. They’d never met, and she didn’t know her name. However, she’d glimpsed her at the country club and always with another woman. Men speculated she was her lover since she never came with a man.

  “Coming, Juliet?” Callie called, as she pushed sunglasses up on her nose.

  Wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake if she were a good witch?

  The woman gave her a nod and Juliet smiled faintly before following Callie from the deli. She took with her the knowledge that the chances of them doing anything other than having a brief conversation at the club were about the same as a snowball’s chance in the Christian hell.

  Chapter Two

  He continued to study the neatly manicured lawns of the company’s grounds from his office, hands in his pockets as he ignored the knock at his office door. He loved the afternoon when the sun was at its most potent. It reminded him of a demon at his peak, but unlike the fading sun, a demon wasn’t supposed to fade as the day came to a close.

  He raked his fingers through his neatly coiffed hair and considered his own plans and the lengths he’d gone to at reinventing himself, or rather, creating this man people thought he was and the coven Whiteall.

  The coven was a façade of civility and respectability that had opened the doors of the most powerful families in this state to him and his dark brood. No one knew he and his inner circle were pure demons not even the dark breeds he’d brought into the coven to serve him.

  “Voltaire?”

  The underworld was his to rule, but he hadn’t counted on the good witches’ contrivance of the Joint Witch’s Congress which would tie evil’s hands in the end. Tie his hands.

  “Come in, Tucker,” he called. The door slid open, but he didn’t turn. “Is everything okay? Why didn’t you answer right away?”

  He wanted total control of the underworld. Only when he had it could he exact the revenge on those who’d slaughtered his family and forced him to slink away like a school girl with his tail between his legs. The defeat he could overcome, but the devastation those witches had wrought was unforgivable.

  “What brings you here when you should be working?”

  “I was working,” Tucker told him, a chill in his tone.

  Voltaire faced the half-human, half-demon then and looked him over carefully, in his tailored suit, brown eyes snapping with irritation. He despised the incubi breed, referred to as dark ones. They were at the bottom of the demon barrel and wanted control of
the underworld, but if they couldn’t seize it, they wanted to be in favor with the underworld’s leader.

  Behind Tucker was Necron, his second in command, a pure demon who’d taken a more human name and appearance as he had. The purpose wasn’t just to appear more human, but to hide in plain sight.

  “Yes, I can see how hard you are going at it.”

  Tucker sneered at him showing him the contempt went both ways, and he had no doubt Tucker had an agenda of his own. The incubus would knife him in the back the first chance he got. However, he was proving more than useful—that’s why Voltaire kept him around.

  “We’ve encountered a problem,” Tucker told him coolly.

  “Other than you looking shiftless?” Voltaire mocked. Tucker would knife him in the back whenever the chance arose, but he tolerated him because Tucker was just one of his pawns in this game.

  Tucker strolled to the window as if to see what Voltaire had been studying. “Obviously or we wouldn’t be here,” Tucker replied, turning his head to meet Voltaire’s gaze.

  “Do tell,” he invited coldly. He turned his gaze on Necron whose blue eyes held a glint of humor.

  “The stones aren’t in her possession,” Necron told him. “And from what I’ve learned they’ve never been.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered with a grimace. That threw his immediate plans of easily gaining control of the book and the spells inside it that he needed.

  The stones had been bequeathed to humans by the aurai, as the wind nymphs were called. Gaining possession of the wind stones would give him centuries of knowledge of magick, witches, and demons that would allow him to break his enemies.

  “And the bracelet that contains the stones is always on Juliet’s person,” Necron told them and then cursed as his phone rang. He tugged it from its holster at his hip. “Speak of the good witch. I’ll take this in my office, but we’ll talk later Volt.”