He sniffed her father.
Olorin raised one hand in a sign of surrender. “Take it easy. I'm helping not hurting. I need to stay focused on this wall, so if you could step back it'd be a big help.”
Neeren glanced at Mar with his glorious cat eyes. She signaled agreement by nodding her head slightly. He growled once then continued to pace.
Neeren ignored the storm raging around them. Focused on the evil holding Mar. Locked eyes with it. Darkness clutched its head with rotting hands. Screamed in agony. Mar prayed to the goddess Neeren’s power could kill the thing. But still the wall held.
Isabella’s voice rang out. “Maria, we cannot reach you. Olorin can’t break the wall. With the barrier in place Neeren is unable to fully manifest his power. Magic will not end this. Do not hesitate, child. That thing is not Xiomara, but it is corporeal. Do not be afraid. You must strike the heart while Neeren batters the mind.”
Neeren prowled the barrier. His focus complete. A freight train could barrel down on them and she knew he wouldn’t look away. The creature, this warped version of Xiomara, fell to its knees. Death, darkness—whatever they chose to call it, clutched its head and began ripping greasy hair from its scalp.
On hands and knees, Mar searched for anything she could use as a weapon. A battered tree, its trunk ripped apart, lay two feet in front of her. Jagged edges of birch protruded like swords. With shaking limbs, she scrambled toward it. Prayed for strength. She wouldn't die. She had a life to live. A man to marry. She pulled on one of the broken branches. Tore at it till her fingers bled.
Death continued to scream. Neeren never wavered from his prey.
The branch broke, jolting Mar backward. She twisted. Dragged her battered body back. Raised her arms to plunge the stake.
Death raised her head. “No.”
One word. The stake fell from Mar's hands and she dropped to her knees.
Neeren howled, throwing his great weight against the barrier.
Mar’s knees bled against the sidewalk. Her back bowed. Pain exploded like fireworks in her chest.
Isabella screamed. Smoke poured underneath her clothing as the sun penetrated cloth and burned into her skin.
Olorin rushed to Neeren’s side. His clipped words reaching Mar even as she gulped for her last bits of air.
Olorin slapped the giant Panther in the face, getting his attention. “This isn’t over great beast. Drown them now while the creature is in corporeal form. I can bring her back.”
Neeren roared. The anguish in his howl cascading over her in waves. The ocean crashed against the seawall. Higher. Harder. Beneath her the ground rumbled and shook.
Mar braced herself. She knew what was coming. All around her the earth split. Great slices tore open as though Neeren’s claws were creating gigantic gashes in mother earth herself. Water sprayed up from below. Geysers erupted.
Her mother’s voice broke through the noise. “We'll bring you back. My darling. It's the only way to keep darkness from taking you. We must destroy it now.”
Water rose above Mar’s knees. Her chest. She gulped for air before saltwater covered her head. It stung her eyes as she focused on Neeren. As water filled her lungs.
Darkness fought for breath beside her. Choking on water. Clutching at its face. Its throat.
Mar convulsed. Once. Twice. Then sweet oblivion took her.
~ ~ ~
Her throat burned. Mar choked, gulping great breaths of air into lungs starving for life. She smelled lilacs and mint. And cinnamon. Her stomach growled. She cracked open her eyes to see she was back in her room at Collum’s.
Neeren sat beside her. His head bowed. Behind him stood her mother. Fresh burns covered Isabella’s face. Behind them stood the rest of the guardians, Neeren's mother, and Quinn. She sensed the other ancestors too. Their presence loomed large in the room.
Mar licked her lips. “Kitten?”
His head jolted upright. His gorgeous eyes filled with love. “Do not move. Everything is fine now. You are safe.” His voice flittered over her skin light a gentle mist. Quiet. Confident. Sure.
Mar tested her voice. It crackled and bubbled. “What happened?”
The room stilled.
Pain poured out of Neeren’s eyes. “You drowned. I drowned you. Your mother and Olorin rightly assumed that that creature wouldn't think to erect a barrier beneath the earth. I forced water up from below. Because the darkness was corporeal, it drowned as any being would. This forced it to release its hold on magic.”
He swept his fingers across her cheek. “Once the barrier dropped, your mother struck true.”
Relief flittered across Mar’s chest. “It’s dead? And not in a sent to Valhalla kind of way?”
“Yes. At least we think so.”
Mar looked at her mother. “Where is the real Xiomara?”
“She’s downstairs with the other ancestors. She didn’t want to be here when you woke up. She was afraid her presence would frighten you,” Isabella replied.
“Do we know what that thing was? We can’t keep calling it darkness and death.”
Neeren handed her a glass of warm tea. She wrapped cold fingers around it gratefully.
“I’m sorry, my love. Not yet. We’ll find out. None of us will stop until we know.”
She licked her lips. “Where is my dad?”
Neeren glanced at Isabella before speaking. “He left.”
“What? Why?”
Isabella spoke, “I'll find him. I promise.”
Maria squirmed against the cashmere sheets. “Did I die?”
Neeren hung his head. “Yes.”
Fresh tears streamed down her face. “How did you bring me back? Please don’t tell me you made me a vampire. I'd rather be dead.”
Neeren clasped her hands around the cup. “Never, my love. I would never allow such a thing.”
From the shadows, Sofia came forward. “Please forgive us for not seeing the danger. For not seeing the darkness coming for you.”
Mar sighed. “I don't blame you. I thought I'd wake up as one of you. How am I still alive?”
Her mother placed cool hands on her shoulders. “You were born of Magic. Now you are re-born of it.”
Fear fluttered in Mar’s stomach. “At what cost? Bringing the dead back means taking a life. One for the other.”
Neeren removed the tea cup from her hand, placed it on the counter, and gripped her hands in his. Warmth wrapped around her. “I gave you mine, my love.”
Sorrow tore at Mar’s gut. “Why would you? You can't do that. I need you.”
“I can and I did. I had fifty lives to live. I simply gave you half of them.”
“But . . . What?” Bees buzzed in her head, confusing her thoughts. Mar glanced at her mother. “You don't have the power to do this.”
Isabella blinked once. “It was Olorin. He and the ancestors worked together to unite their power. It was enough. They all agreed. You deserve to live. Too much of your life has already been stolen.”
Neeren kissed Mar’s forehead. “You are alive and will be for many years to come. There is nothing more to fear.”
A soothing breeze stirred the air in the room like a homecoming. Like the goddess welcoming her. Mar had been granted hundreds of years to spend with the man she loved. She forced herself to a sitting position. Kissed her lover. A light butterfly kiss holding a promise of forever. His eyes burned into her, saying without words how much he loved her.
Mar knew before she could start a journey with him she had to understand her mother, her past.
“Mom. Who is Olorin? Why rip me away from him?”
Isabella cleared her throat. “Our tale is one of beauty, manipulation, anger, and sorrow. Olorin practiced dark magic. It's how he knew the spell to give portions of
Neeren's life to you. I loved him tremendously and he cheated. Betrayed us while you were growing inside my womb.”
Pain colored her next words. “Early on in our relationship, when Olorin was teaching me spells we’d should have never touched, darkness poisoned my mind. Over the years, it took on many forms. Many creatures. Sometimes Xiomara. Sometimes others. I was insane. Believed anything it said. Did anything it asked. Everything made perfect sense. Banish Olorin. Become a vampire so he couldn't find me. I faded in and out occasionally. Thankfully I had enough sense to listen to the real Xiomara when she suggested shipping you to the American coven.”
Isabella’s voice took on a pleading quality. “I wandered in and out of sanity your entire life. Six weeks ago, Domhall Taleisin found me and began healing my mind. It's been a slow recovery.”
“Domhall knew?” Mar snapped.
Isabella sighed. “Not everything. But enough to guess what had been done to me. We've been trying to stay one step ahead for weeks. Jumping realms. He located Olorin.”
Mar closed her eyes before speaking. “Thank you for whatever part you had in ending this. But it doesn't make up for years of abuse. I'm not ready to forget everything yet.”
Her mother nodded. “I understand. When you are, I'll be there.”
She kissed Mar's head and swept out of the room. No one tried to stop her. Mar swallowed the feeling of loss aching at the back of her throat.
She leaned into Neeren's chest. “Can we please go home to your island and get married now?”
The room erupted with questions. Neeren explained they were indeed planning on getting married. Mar hurried the explanation and then rushed everyone out the door. Her head hurt. She'd been through a lot. She needed time to rest.
As Neeren pushed Alex out the door, telling her Mar would answer questions later, Mar exhaled with relief. Neeren climbed onto the bed and wrapped her up in his arms. She snuggled in, grateful for the warmth of his body. Grateful for him. For his calm ways. His unflinching demeanor. Neeren grinned and her stomach summersaulted in her chest. His grin melted her. The sardonic lift to the right side of his upper lip. She wanted to lick that lip.
He tilted his head like he knew what she was thinking. “Kiss me, Maria.”
And she did, for all she was worth.
Neeren broke the kiss off before she was ready. He kissed her cheeks and eyes a hundred times before speaking.
“You are everything to me. The wild heart of you brought me back to life. Thank you.”
She wiped a lock of hair off his forehead. “Are you sure about this? You gave up half your life span for me.”
Neeren sat up dragging her with him. “I will not answer this question again. I do not live without you.” He smashed his hands through his hair. “When I thought I might not reach you. And then the drowning. . . I died with you, Maria.”
She grabbed his face. Kissed him again. “How did you know to find me?”
“Isabella. She contacted Olorin and walked through a portal into our apartment to wake me. Your mother saved you.”
Mar placed her fingers over his lips to stop him. “You saved me. Mother would never have reached me alone. It was you. Like it's always been.” She kissed him playfully. “By the way, when you are in full cat/beast form, you're bloody glorious.”
His chest puffed out like she knew it would. Her toes tingled. She shivered with delight.
He wrapped her back up in his arms. “We will leave for the Island tomorrow. The others can join us or not. I'm not letting you off my beach for a long time. We have traveled enough.”
She nudged his neck with her nose. Inhaled his unique musky scent. Let it render her lightheaded. She licked along the muscles under his skin. “Well, until Collum has another mission for me.”
She felt the breath catch in his chest. “You are not still planning on being a Guardian? Let the dragon solve his own problems.”
Mar leaned back. Obviously, they'd have to sort out a few things before the wedding. “Look, kitten. Every single shitty thing that happened to me this past week was because of my family. It had nothing to do with the guardians. I want to use my power to help. I'm not sitting on your island eating bonbons for the next five hundred years.”
“Of course not. You'll help me rule.”
“Uh, nope. I'm not the ruling type. You do your job. I'll do mine.”
“What about when we have children?”
“Children?”
“Of course. At least three. No child of ours will grow up alone like we did.”
Her heart melted. At this rate, she was going to be a puddle of mush in the middle of the bed. Mar clutched his shoulders. “Ever hear of maternity leave?”
“Now, I know you’re trying to fool me.”
Mar flexed her shoulders. “Lover, I'm all yours. Heart and soul. Making babies.” She lifted three fingers. “At least three. Being the best momma in the world. But I'm also going to practice my magic and remain a guardian. We don’t know if that vile thing is dead or not.”
“That doesn't have to be our fight.”
“It's already our fight. I can't walk away from it.”
He shuddered. “I can’t lose you, Maria.”
“You’ll never lose me, you big suck. You’re stuck with me for a couple hundred years at least. Goddess, I’m gonna have fun turning your world upside down.”
Neeren rolled his eyes. “You already have. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Bet your ass, I am. Now kiss me until I can't see straight and then make love to me until I forget my name.”
Mar squealed with delight as Neeren raised one eyebrow, grinned wickedly, and proceeded to do exactly as she asked.
Also from Soul Mate Publishing and Rayanne Haines:
FIRE BORN —
Book One in the Guardian Series
Independent, tough as nails, and fierce to her core, Alex Taleisin can’t quite believe it when she has to fight for her life against something not-quite-human in the YMCA parking lot.
That’s when her aunt lets her in on the family secret. They’re immortal—Elementals to be precise, and Alex is the long-lost daughter of the strongest female warrior of their time.
Her guardian (a freaking Dragon!) and the sexiest man Alex has ever seen gives her a choice. Go with him, learn how to control her fire, and find her father’s people, or try to survive on her own. It’s an easy choice considering she’s only twenty-six. And the Elders may already be on her trail thanks to the fight with the nut job in the parking lot kick-starting her dormant DNA.
Enter an insane grandfather, a shifter with a hidden agenda, and a witch with a shoe addiction, and suddenly loner Alex is wishing for a quiet house in the hills with the dragon she’s falling for.
But a fight is coming and Alex knows the only way to find her answers is to trust her powers and become the warrior she was destined to be.
Available now on Amazon: FIRE BORN
Coming soon:
AIR BORN —
Book Three in the Guardian Series
Quinn Taleisin hates secrets, and shadows, and subterfuge. Which is why she still can’t believe she agreed to become a member of the Guardians, an elite force of immortals tasked with keeping the balance between good and evil in the world.
Sounds great, except, to be a guardian you must agree to live in secrecy. Quinn is a wind elemental. Being caged in by secrecy is worse than death for someone like her. She can’t imagine a worse fate—until she’s asked to work with Lachon Findel, the man she holds responsible for her mother’s death and her father’s insanity.
Lachon is the oldest living elemental in the world. Known as Lachon the Law, he’s an earth element; a man who sees the world in black and white, right and wrong. So maybe once, briefly, a hundred y
ears ago she thought he was a good guy. She knew better now. No way would she fall for his savior of the world shtick.
When the dangers of the past catch up with them, Quinn realizes the only way either of them will make it out alive is if she can put the ghosts of the past behind her and finally trust the flesh and blood man in front of her.
Want to know more? Connect with Rayanne Haines at www.rayannehaines.com
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