From Jennifer Ashley, With Love: Three Paranormal Romances from Bestselling Series

by Jennifer Ashley

  Kelly gave a dainty shrug. “Time to move on.”

  “He was quite angry when Adrian told him to leave you alone,” Septimus said. “I killed him, by the way. He stepped out of line, coming after you, and Adrian had to have a conversation with me. I didn’t like that.”

  Kelly’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

  “I was glad of the excuse. He was a fool.” Septimus rubbed his well-formed hands together. “Now, Adrian, where is this writing you want me to look at?”

  Hours passed. Septimus and Adrian poured over the texts, using the computer to aid them as necessary, Septimus’s fingers moving elegantly on the keyboard. Detective Simon seemed interested in deciphering it as well, though Amber knew he’d been embarrassed by the conversation she’d overheard between him and Adrian. Kelly sat apart from the others, her gaze glued to Septimus.

  After a while, Amber and Sabina wandered down to the beach, staying within the bubble of Adrian’s protection.

  Amber had told Sabina about the demon and why they’d fled Seattle. Sabina said she could feel the protective magic of Adrian’s home as well, so she didn’t argue at the wisdom of Amber staying there. Use an ancient being to stop an ancient being, she’d said philosophically.

  “So you and Adrian,” Sabina said, and sighed. “I really hoped you’d make Detective Simon happy. I mean, he has those blue eyes and that sad smile.”

  Amber kicked off her sandals and dipped her toes in the white-foamed waves. “If you like him so much, why don’t you go for it?”

  Sabina shook her head. “I’ve dated ordinary humans before, and it’s always been a disaster. Do you know how hard it is to explain to a man why you’re compelled to have sex every full moon—a lot of it—oh, and I might morph into a wolf at any second, too?”

  “Most men wouldn’t mind the sex part.”

  “They say they don’t, but then they find out what you really mean.” Sabina trailed off, wrinkling her nose. “And they run. Fast. Far. Nope, no more relationships with non-shapeshifters. Don’t care how blue his eyes are.”

  “I don’t have much luck with non-magical people, either,” Amber said glumly. “Men think me being a witch is cool until they get a taste of real magic. I dated a witch once, but all he could do was talk about the sex magic techniques he’d perfected, which would need three or more people to be effective. Then when it came time for real sex, he always had a headache.”

  “I remember him,” Sabina said. “What a jerk.”

  “The best relationships I’ve had were with a vampire who tried to trick me into being his blood slave, and an Immortal warrior with other things on his mind. My luck is terrible.”

  “Mine isn’t much better. Adrian’s neighbor, now, she seems a little taken with vampires.”

  “I only met her yesterday, so I don’t know,” Amber answered. The ocean water was soothing, the edges of the waves tickling her feet. The moon was nearly full, a sphere of silver, shining with light.

  Amber thought of how Adrian had tried to pass his protection of her to Detective Simon, then the warmth in his eyes when he’d told her he was new at caring. She’d been torn between anger and longing since she’d met him. Men.

  “Hey, who’s that?” Sabina pointed at the house.

  Alarmed, Amber swung around. She relaxed when she saw Sabina gazing at Valerian hulking in the lighted windows of the living room. He threw back his head and laughed at something, the sound reaching them on the beach.

  “Come on.” Amber snatched up her sandals and led Sabina back upstairs and across the deck into the house. “I’ll introduce you.”

  The atmosphere inside had changed. Adrian’s eyes sparkled, not in anger, but excitement. Septimus pored over a page, shoulder to shoulder with Detective Simon, the natural antipathy between human and vampire gone as they jabbered about what a phrase really meant.

  “Did you figure it out?” Amber asked.

  “Almost,” Adrian said, his voice warm. “I’ll need you for the last part.”

  As she raised her brows, Valerian noticed Sabina behind her. “Hey, a werewolf. A cute one, too. I bet you’re the one Amber told me didn’t like to put her clothes back on after she shifted.”

  Amber gestured. “Sabina, meet Valerian.”

  Sabina looked him up and down, and Amber saw a gleam of interest behind her pretended scorn. “What are you supposed to be?”

  “Transportation,” Adrian said.

  Valerian lost his grin. “Oh, no. Don’t tell me you need me to fly you somewhere.” He pointed to his backside. “Do you see an airline logo on my tail?”

  “I’ll maybe need you to fly me somewhere. Amber.” Adrian beckoned to her. “I need you to do a spell. We can almost make out the words, but they’re magically encrypted. We need a spell that lifts obscurity. Can you do that?”

  “I can,” Amber answered. “But are you certain we should try magic with it?”

  “Yes. Magic is exactly what we need.” Adrian’s eyes gleamed and Ferrin, on his arm, sat up to listen. “This is what Susan was doing in the warehouse, not summoning a demon or trying to find Tain—I understand that now. She wanted to clear up the encryption on the text, and feared that she’d bring too much death magic into your house if she tried it at home. She found the text after she’d seen my brother while riding between and wanted to figure out who and where he was. The demon heard her begin the spell to unravel his secrets, so he went to stop her.” He broke off. “What I don’t understand is why Susan didn’t tell anyone. She could have raised formidable protection against the demon if she’d worked with other witches.”

  “Like the Coven of Light,” Amber agreed. She shivered, her heart aching at the thought that Susan had gone off alone, trying to work out the problem without hurting anyone. “But it would be just like Susan to do this alone. She liked to challenge herself, to go beyond her powers, but she didn’t like to do anything that might be dangerous to others before checking it out thoroughly first.” Amber sighed. “She’d never been wrong about her ability before.”

  “This time, Susan was dealing with a demon who knows how to control an Immortal,” Adrian said. “He knows where Tain is, and he’s hiding him from me.” Anger flashed in his eyes.

  Detective Simon cleared his throat. “So if the demon heard Susan using the decryption spell, he’ll know when Amber does it too. And he’ll attack, just as he did with Susan in the warehouse.”

  “Oh, that wouldn’t be good,” Valerian said. “He was pretty nasty in the alley even with all three of us ganging up on him.”

  “This house is protected,” Adrian said. “The magic of Isis is stronger than that of a demon. He can’t enter here.”

  “But he can sneak into my club and tear out a wall,” Septimus said dryly.

  “I said I was paying for that. Amber?” Adrian threaded his fingers through hers. “I won’t ask you to do this if you really don’t want to.”

  He wasn’t speaking about fear. He knew how she’d grieved at losing Susan, and now he was asking her to do the very thing that had gotten her sister killed.

  Amber also knew Adrian could simply make her do the spell. He could try to cloud her mind, as she’d sensed him try to do before, and coerce her to perform the magic. He was promising her he wouldn’t do that, as much as he needed her help.

  Amber kissed his cheek. “See, when you’re not being an overbearing Neanderthal, you’re not so bad. I’ll do it, Adrian. I told you I’d help you find your brother, and I will.” She looked at the table. “I’m going to need a lot of salt.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Adrian had built his house right over a ley line. Amber had realized that fact only abstractly, because Adrian’s power was so great it overlaid all vibrations of it. But when she drew her circle and tapped into the natural earth magic below the house, she felt the line, shining and thick like a vein of gold.

  She set out her stones and the salt Adrian had brought her—crystallized salt in a fancy container. The stones Adrian had charge
d during their journey from Seattle still glowed in the center.

  She drew the circle around the table with herself and all she needed inside. She asked Valerian and Sabina to sit in the circle with her, knowing their strong life magic would help give power to the spell. She didn’t ask Adrian, because she’d never control any power from him she tapped into. The whole circle would explode, maybe taking part of the house with it.

  Septimus had retreated to the other side of the room so his death magic wouldn’t interfere with the spell. He looked pleased to stand as far away from what he termed “goody two-shoes magic” as he could.

  He wouldn’t leave altogether, though, because he was too interested to see what happened. Kelly stood with him, talking to him quietly, and Amber noticed the woman was practiced at not looking directly into Septimus’ eyes.

  Sabina had helped Amber in rituals before and knew when to light the candle and say her lines to call her quarter. Valerian obviously had never participated in witch magic because he kept asking questions and moved the candle and stones after Amber carefully placed them. Sabina slapped his hand, and he glared at her in mock pain.

  Amber piled quartz crystals around the base of a yellow candle, which would aid the spell of clarity and understanding. She began to chant under her breath, words to summon the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, signaling Valerian to light the candle for fire, Sabina to light the one for water. Earth and air she lit herself.

  She asked the Goddess and the God to attend, to send their aid as well as their protection. When the prayer ended, Amber felt an answering tingle inside her which she’d come to recognize as the two deities touching her and telling her all would be well.

  Amber studied the depths of the stones, letting their glow mesmerize her. She built magic energy within her, then reached out to tap the latent power of Sabina and Valerian.

  Sabina’s power, as always, felt sharp and strong, tinged faintly with light blue, as though Sabina’s essence hovered in a constant state of amusement. The essence went with Sabina’s sarcastic sense of humor, which she sometimes used to hide her good heart.

  Valerian had a different sort of energy altogether. His aura was bright yellow, with brilliant flickers of blue and red. Amber had never felt anything like it. The energy that rolled off him was strong, the raw brute strength of a predatory animal. No matter how much he looked human, he wasn’t. His essence was dragon through and through—powerful, hungry, strong.

  The energies of the two were amazingly similar, and Sabina and Valerian kept shooting glances at each other as their auras touched.

  Amber drew their energies into herself to mix with her own, and then called upon the energy of the crystals and the candles. She chanted her spell then picked up the charged crystals and scattered them, releasing the energy of the spell.

  She felt the change at once. Images became sharper in her head; Valerian’s dragon form and Sabina’s wolf form were clear within their insubstantial human shells. The pretty green light in the corner was Kelly, the black smoky thing next to her, Septimus. Detective Simon was blues and purples, a good man at heart frustrated by the evils of life.

  And Adrian . . . She couldn’t even look at him. His aura blazed white and so bright, she was surprised the house could contain it. Adrian had learned to dampen his power, obviously, but it was like gazing at an angel. Amber decided she’d been wise not to have tried to tap into him to do the spell; she might have blown them all into the middle of the Pacific.

  She pulled the notebook to her and focused her new clarity of vision on the pages. At first the lines of demon script swam before Amber’s eyes, then the squiggles suddenly smoothed and she understood them. She snatched up the pen and paper she’d set out next to her and began to translate.

  This was easy. How could she have not known what the script said? The words were so clear. Her pen scratched quickly, her hand barely able to keep up with the phrases pouring through her head.

  But what she wrote troubled her. Verses about sex and erotic satisfaction, some implying that death was the ultimate in eroticism. She wrote of insatiable need mixed with pain and confusion, and the need for both suffering and sexual fulfillment.

  A lament ran: I sit in my prison of ice which has become not a prison but sanctuary. Here I do not hurt, here I am at peace until he comes. But she helps me when he is finished, and I love her, or maybe I love him, I do not know.

  “Prison of ice,” Detective Simon murmured, having moved closer to watch her. “What does that mean?”

  “Ice?” Valerian repeated. “Interesting, eh?”

  Amber kept writing, her hand moving faster and faster, sweat beading her brow. Adrian stood behind her, his white-hot aura touching her.

  North, north, and north, where nothing lives, where the world is death, where I belong, under ice and water and ice again. No one will find me. They will never find me. I am death.

  The words came out at lightning speed, Amber’s fingers cramping. The paper ripped as her pen underlined the last words, though she never told herself to underline it.

  The pen flew out of her hand like a bullet, breaking the nimbus of the circle. Detective Simon ducked as the pen rocketed past him then struck the wall with a splinter of plastic.

  Valerian stared at the ink splotch on Adrian’s pristine wall. “What the hell was that?”

  “What does it mean?” Sabina asked, leaning forward. “Under ice and water and ice again?”

  Amber sat back, breathing heavily and massaged her hand. “I don’t know. Polar ice, maybe? An iceberg? Something underwater?”

  Adrian stepped over the broken circle and sat down next to her. He took her shaking hands in his, warm fingers moving over her skin. Her forehead was wet with sweat, her stomach fluttering.

  Now that the spell was broken, Amber saw everyone’s human form again. Adrian still contained white light, the one that sparkled in his eyes when he was enraged or excited. She doubted she’d ever view him the same way again.

  Amber glanced back at the writing, which was quickly blurring into indecipherable squiggles. But it had tapped something in her, the words holding more magic than the thoughts of the person who’d originally written it. She felt a tug of her body in a certain direction. North, north, and north, where nothing lives, where the world is death.

  She knew who had written the words. Susan had copied them, possibly from something she’d seen while riding between. Then she’d tried to decipher what she’d copied to find the elusive man who haunted her dreams.

  Adrian was staring at the paper in slight disappointment. “That’s it?”

  Amber shook her head and pulled the notes toward her, seeing that her handwriting was wild and unlike her usual neat style.

  “I didn’t just copy out the words mindlessly,” she said. “When I was writing I saw everything. The magic let me envision exactly what the words meant. I wasn’t so much translating as writing down what they showed me.” Amber crumpled the papers in her sweaty hands, unable to keep excitement at bay. “I saw your brother, Adrian. I saw what Susan must have seen. And I think I can take you to him.”

  * * *

  “Are you up to it?” Adrian asked Valerian as they stood with Amber and the others later on the beach.

  The night air was cool next to the ocean, and Amber shivered even in the parka and heavy clothing she’d donned for their trek northward. Amber and Adrian would follow the trail Amber sensed while Detective Simon and Sabina stayed in Adrian’s house to await their return, or to render assistance if needed. Adrian explained that the two of them would be safer here than anywhere. Detective Simon hadn’t looked as though he liked staying put, but he didn’t argue.

  Adrian studied Amber’s crumpled notes by the glow of a flashlight while he waited for Valerian’s answer. Adrian had donned a leather coat, similar to the one that had been ruined by the demon, and he wore jeans and motorcycle boots.

  “I don’t know,” Valerian said. “I fly too far north, my blood
starts to freeze. I’m a tropical dragon. You could take a flight to Alaska and, I don’t know, do sled dogs or something from there.”

  “I wouldn’t ask if there was another way,” Adrian said. “You can help fight the demon if necessary. An airplane full of innocents couldn’t. Even a private plane contains a pilot who can be killed.”

  Valerian sighed then studied the sky with a resigned look, no longer arguing.

  “So why didn’t the demon attack?” Sabina asked. “When Amber did the decrypting spell, why didn’t he attack us? Adrian’s power notwithstanding, he could have just waited for us to come out of the house.”

  “I don’t know,” Adrian answered.

  “Terrific,” Valerian growled.

  “Maybe he is no longer concerned whether you find your brother’s whereabouts,” Septimus suggested.

  Adrian folded the papers and put them into his pocket. “I think he has his own reasons. Are you ready to go?”

  He directed his question at Valerian who stood with hands on hips. Valerian heaved another aggrieved sigh and walked a little away from them down the beach.

  “Don’t stare, I’m bashful,” he called over his shoulder before he started stripping off his clothes. Amber averted her eyes, but she noticed Sabina watching him blatantly.

  Valerian didn’t morph into a dragon like shapeshifters did in movies, body elongating and changing from human skin to scales. One moment he was a man, the next simply dragon, his huge body crouched on the beach, long neck curved to an enormous head with razor-sharp teeth. Leather-like pointed-tipped wings sprouted from his back, which he spread wide to float back toward them.

  “Ready,” he said. “If I freeze like an iceberg and fall out of the sky, it’s your own fault.”

  Adrian didn’t bother to answer. He brought out rock-climbing harnesses he’d pulled from a back closet and now contrived a way to secure himself, Amber, and a duffle bag on Valerian’s back. The dragon muttered and rumbled as they climbed up on him and latched themselves on to his body.