“I’m not your average dragon. I can see and communicate with the dead,” Shannon stated. “Your cousin Freydis has not passed on to Valhalla.” She kept her posture relaxed and her tone compassionate. “She is confused and remains stuck between worlds. Both she and Sigrunn are.”
Kodran cocked his head and considered what she had said. She could tell it both saddened and surprised him. But at least she finally got through to him because his anger and distrust dissipated and he lowered his blade.
“That does not sound good,” Kodran murmured. “How do we help them?” He took her hand and reeled her closer, concern in his eyes. “And are you all right? It cannot be easy having such an ability.”
Touched by his compassion, she was about to respond but froze when Matthew issued a low growl and came against her back. It didn’t take her long to figure out that his actions were a warning to Kodran.
Don’t pull her any closer.
Shannon bristled. That was the best word she had for it. Bristled. Not in the way most people would think. She wasn’t angry. It just felt like every tiny hair on her body stood on end, almost came alive, and it had nothing to do with the man in front of her but the one behind.
God help her, Matthew needed to stay away.
Far, far away.
He was too much.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her inner strength. What had always kept her calm. How she dealt with people in all walks of life and death. But what he invoked, the lustful part of her inner dragon, was something she had no experience with. A part she couldn’t even begin to manipulate.
“Back up,” she finally managed between clenched teeth as she looked over her shoulder and straight into his eyes. “Back up now for my daughter’s sake.” Her heart beat faster, her voice suddenly too breathy. “She does not deserve to see…”
Matthew backed away so quickly that she didn’t need to finish her sentence. Based on the look in his eyes, she knew he was sorry. He would never intentionally put her in a position that might affect Emily adversely. Which made her realize, he was as equally caught off guard by his possessive behavior. He had not meant to do it.
Their eyes held for a moment before it occurred to her that Kodran and likely everyone else was still waiting for answers. So she refocused and explained to them what she had so recently told Matthew.
“I’m not entirely sure how Sigrunn and Freydis ended up in the twenty-first century more-or-less haunting Sean and Svala’s boat, but I have a theory,” she said in conclusion. “They followed Matthew when he traveled to the future, but became confused when he left.” Her eyes met Matthew’s. “And I think that’s because a part of your spirit was still attached to that boat.”
Emily’s eyes widened, and she nodded. “That makes good sense, Mama. Especially considering the little boy that was on it.”
“What little boy?” Matthew murmured, troubled.
“You,” she said softly. “Somehow, because you’re a reincarnate I’m sure, and maybe even a medium, like me, you have a foot in both worlds.” She shook her head. “Yet something’s not quite right. Though I know you were conceived in that boat, your younger self shouldn’t be haunting it. It’s…unnatural.” Her eyes held his. “And it’s affecting you adversely.”
He eyed her for an uncomfortable moment before he said, “You mean to say I’m haunting the boat as…a child?”
“No, not anymore,” she murmured. “Now you’re haunting Emily’s new boat. You hopped aboard right before we traveled back in time.”
Matthew didn’t respond, just kept staring at her as he tried to process everything.
Kadlin put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Do not think too hard on all of this right now, Cousin. Come, hunt with me and clear your head.”
“No,” he murmured. “I do not want to be too far from Shannon and Emily until I know they’re back at the fortress safe.”
Shannon was touched by his devotion in light of everything he had just learned. What he must be feeling.
“Please, go hunt,” he said to Kadlin. “The rest of us will prepare a fire and get settled.” His eyes went to Kodran. “Perhaps you would like to hunt too? Get out some aggression?”
Kodran shook his head. “No, I would prefer to stay.”
As soon as everyone set to their tasks, Shannon gestured to Cameron that she would be right back and took Emily aside. A lot had happened in a very short span. It was time to have a heart to heart and make sure her daughter was okay. But where to start? Probably with what she had discovered more recently.
So she sat on a rock with Emily on her lap and met her eyes, her tone gentle and curious. “How long have you been able to see Freydis and Sigrunn?”
“For a while,” Emily said. “We don’t talk much. They mostly just speak to each other.”
“They don’t scare you, right?” Shannon asked. “Ghosts don’t scare you?”
Though she already knew the answer based on how calmly Emily had dealt with little Matthew, she had to ask. She had to be sure.
“No, not at all,” Emily confirmed. “Though some make me sadder than others.”
“I understand. That’s normal and means you have a kind heart.” Shannon kept her eyes with Emily’s. “I’ll start working with you soon so that it’ll be easier for you to cope with it all. Until then, if you ever want to talk about it, you know I’m here for you, right?”
“I know, Mama,” she said, her voice a little off.
She was holding something back.
“What is it, Emily?” She looked at her with concern. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Yes.” She nodded as her eyes filled with tears. “But I don’t want to make you sad.”
“Don’t worry about me, sweetheart.” She brushed hair back from Emily’s face. “If something’s upsetting you, I want to know.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.” She wiped away one of Emily’s tears. “Always.”
“Okay,” her daughter whispered. “I see daddy too. He visits me.”
Her eyes widened. This shouldn’t surprise her yet it did.
“Oh, honey,” Shannon whispered and wrapped her arms around her. “I wish you had told me so I could help you deal with it a little easier. All of this.” She tilted Emily’s chin until their eyes met. “Never forget that we’re a team, baby girl. You and me. Always.”
“I know, Mama,” Emily said. “I’m okay. Really. As long as you are. It’s nice to see him.” She teared up a little more. “But I’m kinda worried now. Do you think he’s stuck like Freydis and Sigrunn? He doesn’t seem like it, but do you think he’s confused or maybe even angry like they can be?”
Yes. At one time anyway. His mood fluctuations had gradually lessened since Cybil first traveled back in time and all of this began. They still happened, but rarely. So when she reassured her daughter, it wasn’t all that far from the truth. And evidently he must be okay when he visited Emily, or she wouldn’t have asked.
“No, I think daddy’s just fine,” Shannon said as she pressed her lips together and willed away her own tears. “You’re his little girl, and I think he just likes to spend time with you. He loves you very much.”
Emily nodded. “I know. I love him too.”
As to Anthony being trapped like the Viking women, she suspected he was. He should have passed on by now, but even with Shannon and Cameron’s help, he hadn’t. Something was holding him back. Perhaps it was how violently he died. Yet Emily didn’t need to know that.
“It would be sad if he were stuck,” Emily continued, her eyes narrowed as she contemplated. It seemed she wasn’t letting this go. At least not yet. “If he is maybe it’s because you’re with Uncle Cameron so much and now you look at Matthew like you do…”
She bit her lower lip. Oh no. How exactly did she look at Matthew? She thought she had been doing well not looking at him in any certain way. But apparently, Emily saw something.
Shannon held her daughter’
s gaze and kept her expression gentle. “All I do is try to coach Uncle Cameron and help him deal with what he sees. Nothing more. My feelings for your uncle never have been and never will be anything more than friendship.” She searched her daughter’s eyes. “You understand that, right?”
Emily nodded slowly. “I understand, Mama.” Concern flickered across her face. “And I know he can see things too. But he has an awful lot around him. Good and bad stuff. Did you know that?”
“Yes,” Shannon said softly. “That’s why I try to help him. He’s very connected to the other side, and I help him sort through and manage it all. He has a lot to deal with.”
“Okay, but be careful,” she whispered.
“I will, honey.” Shannon continued stroking Emily’s hair. “I’ll be very careful all the time.”
“Even around Matthew?” Emily murmured. “Because it seems like he makes you act not so careful.”
If her daughter only knew. But then it appeared she might have an inkling.
“What do you mean?”
“I can just feel it,” Emily murmured. “The air changes when you’re close to him. Your body temperature increases.” Her eyes slid to Shannon. “And you never looked at daddy like you do Matthew.”
This time it took almost more than she had to keep her expression neutral. This was about the last thing she could have imagined talking about with her little girl. There could be no questioning that Emily’s dragon was strong and surfacing. Because when all was said and done, Emily shouldn’t be able to remember how Shannon and Anthony looked at each other. She was too young when he died.
There were all sorts of ways she could handle this but decided to start with what she was most curious about. “Is that why you dislike Matthew so much? Because you think I look at him differently than I did daddy?” She tilted her head in question. “You think I want to replace daddy with him?”
Emily nodded, teary again. “I know that dragons need their mates.” Her lower lip trembled. “And I know Matthew is your dragon mate.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” she whispered. This time Shannon couldn’t stop a tear from falling as she pulled Emily’s cheek against her chest and held her tight. Her little girl was taking on too much far too young. Though tempted to deny her daughter’s words, she just didn’t understand the dynamics of everything going on and didn’t want to lie. So she said, “Even if Matthew and I…became mates, he would never, ever, replace your father.” She cupped Emily’s cheeks and met her eyes. “Do you understand? Not ever.”
“Okay, Mama,” she whispered, clearly trying to fight back tears. “But what about me? Dragon mates are for life. Maybe even eternity. What happens to me if Matthew’s your dragon? Does that mean I’m not your baby girl anymore? Does that mean you love him more?”
Oh, God. Her poor heartstrings.
Shannon shook her head. “No, never. You will always be my baby girl.” She kissed her forehead. “You will always be my soul mate.”
“Can you have more than one of those?” Emily murmured. “Soul mates?”
“I think you can,” she whispered. “No, I know you can.” She pressed her forehead against her daughter’s. “And no matter what happens, you will always be mine, got that?”
“Got it,” Emily whispered.
Shannon met her eyes with a small, comforting smile. “Yeah?”
Emily offered a wobbly smile. “Yeah.”
“You know how much I love you, right?”
“I know, Mama.” Emily wrapped her arms around Shannon’s neck. “And I love you too. A wicked lot.”
Before they rejoined the others, there was one more thing she wanted to discuss. So she took Emily’s hand and met her eyes. “As to you discovering you’re half dragon—”
“I’m so excited,” Emily blurted, cutting her off. “I can’t wait to shift for the first time!”
Shannon was just fine with waiting for Emily to shift. The idea terrified her. Mainly because she had no clue how to help her, teach her...keep her safe.
“You could’ve told me what we were sooner, Mama,” Emily continued. “But I understand why you didn’t.” She gave Shannon an I’ve-got-this-figured-out look. “You didn’t want me to be frightened and have questions when you didn’t have answers.” She nodded. “That makes perfect sense.” A smile blossomed on her face. “Now you don’t have to worry because we have lots of dragons around us.” She wrapped her arms around Shannon again. “Now we can learn how to become dragons together. And if one of us shifts first, we can tell the other all about it!”
Shannon couldn’t help a chuckle. She may be wary of Emily shifting, but she loved seeing her this happy. So she hugged her and said, “Sounds like a plan, baby girl.”
After that, they chatted for a little while. Not too long because she knew Sven was standing guard just outside their cave.
Later, as everyone sat around a fire talking while Matthew remained silent, she couldn’t help but wonder how he was adjusting to his own set of circumstances. She knew he was coming to grips with what she had shared. With what had happened. And she was pretty much doing the same in regards to the conversation she’d had with Emily. She remained amazed by how much her daughter knew. How astute she was.
Which brought her eyes back to Matthew.
If he was in her mind now, which she knew he sometimes was, had he followed everything she and Emily discussed? Most especially the part about him? A strange sensation washed over her. Why was her daughter so certain they were dragon mates? And what did that really mean?
As if he heard her speculations, and may very well have, his eyes met hers and held. Yet he still seemed a million miles away. Soon enough, she learned how right she was.
“How do I help my sister and wife?” he said. “How do I help them move on to Valhalla?”
All grew silent at his soft words. At the turbulent strain in his voice.
“I’m not sure, but we’ll figure it out.” She met her brother-in-law’s eyes briefly before looking at Matthew again. “This is the sort of thing Cameron and I help spirits with all the time, so you’re with the right people.”
Matthew nodded and said nothing more. At least not aloud.
“I tried to give you privacy earlier when you were with Emily, but it was difficult,” Matthew said into her mind. “It is hard for dragons to control a connection such as ours once it begins.” His eyes stayed with hers even as he took some meat from Kodran. “So I know all about Cameron and why Emily is uncomfortable with him. That she senses more spirits than usual around him. I am sorry I judged him so harshly before. I was concerned he might have hurt her.”
“No worries. I appreciate you looking out for her.” While pleased with his honesty and even his apology, her mind was elsewhere. Or should she say her body? Because it was damn hard to repress the arousal invoked by the sound of his voice in her mind. It was the most indescribable feeling and touched places she was unfamiliar with. Which, naturally, led to her next question as she honed in on what else he’d said. “What do you mean, a connection such as ours?”
“I mean fellow dragons,” he said, purposefully vague. Yet she didn’t miss the flare of his pupils when she pulled her fur tighter around herself and squeezed her thighs together. This couldn’t be a more inappropriate place to be getting turned on.
Matthew said nothing more, but she knew he wanted to. He had other questions but realized that talking telepathically was making her uncomfortable. And something told her by the way he wrapped his fur he was suffering from his own discomfort.
Best to refocus and keep her mind occupied.
Emily remained enraptured and fully entertained by Sven, Kadlin and even Kodran, so Shannon joined Cameron to see how he was doing. It had been a hell of a day. A hell of a few years actually.
“I’m good, Shannon,” he assured her before he took a sip from a skin of mead and glanced with uncertainty at the Vikings. “Just glad that I’m with you and Emily so I can keep an eye on you.”
Sh
e didn’t blame him for being wary. Though he was tall at six foot two, Kodran and Matthew had him by another five inches or so. And though Kadlin was tall and lithe for a woman at around five foot eleven, it wasn’t her height that likely daunted Cameron. No, she’d say it was Kadlin’s battle-ready mentality. She was, just like Emily said, a true warrioress. And Cameron? He was just a modern day medium with more on his ethereal plate than most. Yet like Anthony, he had the sort of swarthy good looks that drew a woman’s eyes, and it seemed Kadlin wasn’t immune to that.
Not based on the way she kept eying him over.
“She looks like she wants to eat me alive,” he muttered under his breath.
“Naw, she’s just trying to figure you out.” Shannon bit back a smirk. “But watch out, I’d say she tends to get what she wants.”
Cameron’s brows knit together and his eyes fell to the daggers at her waist. “I can see that.”
“Those blades aren’t what I’m talking about.” She winked at him. “And you know it.”
Cameron had always had a thing for tall, beautiful blondes and Kadlin certainly fit the bill.
“You can’t be serious.” He shook his head. “No way. She’s too…Viking. And then there’s the whole dragon thing.” He chomped into his meat and shook his head, but she didn’t miss the way his eyes kept finding their way back to Kadlin.
“So you’re sure everyone who needed to pass on from the funeral parlor did before you came here?” she said softly. “You’re positive?”
“Yes,” he assured. “For at least the tenth time, all is well. You didn’t hear back from me before you left because I was on the road heading your way and lost cell signal.”
Shannon nodded. “Yeah, okay.” Then she frowned. “And you headed my way because Anthony told you I was in trouble? But he didn’t say why?”
It was really no surprise that her husband haunted his own brother, especially considering he visited her and Emily. She couldn’t help but wonder, though, did he visit her twin sister, Erica too? The woman whose apartment complex he was pulling out of when he got hit by a car. For years, she had thought he might have been having an affair with her, but now she wasn’t so sure. Not after what Einar, or Erica herself, had shared when they visited Maine.
Fury of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 4) Page 8
