Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set

by Multiple Authors

  She made herself ready and willing to learn, fighting against all her instincts to go out roaming Ireland for her lost family, a woman she’d only known existed for days. Thankfully, the men had more practical intellect at the moment.

  Clearing her mind once back down under the house didn’t prove easy, but she tried her best, used each thought of her aunt to fuel her lessons. Darcaryn had gone right to business working with her on elemental magic. He’d called it the most basic, claimed it necessary in all other magic she would use later on.

  They started with air today. Darcaryn made wind blow. He created a breeze capable of whipping her hair right there, underground, in a locked and windowless room. Then he talked her through using the energy inside her to push outside of herself, to feel the air, to mix her energy with it, and to make it move at her whim.

  At first, she only created little blasts of a strong breeze. Powerful, but streamlined, her air currents almost always knocked something over. She had to hand it to the guy, as dark and as intense as he appeared, he didn’t yell or lecture her for her mistakes. Rather, he seemed to delight in her every achievement no matter how small or detrimental to the environment. He spurred her on with endless enthusiasm and direction, gently encouraging her skills into more refined abilities in no time at all.

  Soon, she had papers spinning above their heads, a plant on the floor levitating at eye level, and the fire blown out completely. Despite her success, she only wished she could blow away the sensation of being watched, of another magic, one evil and misguided, mingling with hers. A shiver moved through her body.

  “We better train you to start a fire before we both freeze to death down here.” Darcaryn's attempt at a joke, she guessed, though with the man’s intensity she found it hard to tell.

  He merely flicked his wrist and the fire blazed in the hearth again as if it had never gone out.

  “I have to admit, that while seeing is believing, as is feeling, something in my brain still wants to reject all this,” she admitted. “I have this desire to somehow make it all out to be smoke and mirrors on your part. To make my life go back to the boring normalcy I knew just days ago back in the States as a science teacher. I miss my students and the practical explanations. Static electricity was the most unusual thing I’d encountered, though I thought I had an explanation for even it, and I was simply more prone to it than most.”

  “You felt your power then, even if you had no words, only other sad explanations for it. You probably thought you were one who felt more than others, who could just read others, a non-specific gift you couldn’t explain.”

  “Exactly. Life was easy then. I can’t believe we haven’t heard from Aedan yet.” She sighed as she glanced at Darcaryn’s cell phone on the table.

  Aedan had promised to call as soon as he had any news. Kyna’s stomach sank at what no news could mean.

  “He’s doing his best. These people, they’ve made a career out of not being found. A simple cloaking spell could be all they need to hide your aunt right under our noses. I don’t know if all the military connections in the world could fight against that power. This is why your training is so important. You need to be ready to protect yourself.”

  “How could it possibly matter when my aunt had her whole life to train and couldn’t protect herself? If anyone, she should’ve been able to protect herself. And, you…you should be the one who could break any cloaking spell if you know so much. What we’re doing here just doesn’t add up,!” Kyna exclaimed, her thoughts spilling from her mouth as they formed. “You both told me what to do this morning, and I just listened, reacted. So unlike me. And, look where it’s gotten me. I can blow out fire. What good does that do my aunt? I should have listened to my gut this morning and thought of all of this sooner.”

  Her anger at herself, for not thinking things through, for letting these men tell her what to do and mindlessly responding, lashed out within her. Energy built within her. She thought if she tried to move the air now she could make the whole house crash down around them.

  “Don’t you think I’ve already tried to use a locator spell, that I’ve already tried to take down any cloaking spell I could? I failed,” he practically screamed. “I’ve done and am doing all I can to find your aunt. I care about her. I’ve known her and her father for years. Training you is what I know she’d want in the meantime. So that is what I’m doing to make myself feel useful.”

  His voice had risen to a pitch that made her raise her shoulders to protect her ears from damage.

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized, her voice now shaky and low. “But, you can’t imagine how I feel here, in this strange land, in this huge and unfamiliar house, without the one person here who wanted me to come, who is my blood… To know some powerful people want my aunt and me. And now, just days into my visit, she’s missing. Plus, I have these strange new things my body can do, things that probably put me in more danger to learn, if what you say is true. They want me for my powers.”

  “What would be dangerous is to let them take and train you, to corrupt your powers from the start. Your aunt feared that most. If she’d left you in the States, they would’ve taken you, and trained you to their own twisted desires without you having any knowledge of such things. You need to know some magic basics and some sort of right verses wrong in such matters. Maybe she let them take her to allow time for that.”

  “Let them take her?” Kyna yelled.

  “I don’t know. I can’t explain it any more than you can. She’s the most powerful woman I know. Stop questioning me. Just start doing what she would want in the meantime,” he argued.

  “Okay, I get it. I don’t get much about these things. I’m confused. I’m scared. In this situation I don’t think that makes me weak, but strong and aware. So, I will have to trust you and Aedan for now, that you both have more experience, you in magic and him in covert missions.”

  Somehow, it seemed so much easier to trust Aedan, though. Something about Darcaryn just didn’t feel right. Her ability to read people made him feel untrustworthy, sinister, and up to something. She swore he had some ulterior motive not quite on the up and up. At the same time, regardless of that dangerous side, she still found him sexy. Something in him called to a baser lust in her, though according to him that was some spell.

  “Let’s get back to work,” he huffed. “How about we move to fire, let you get a taste for each element. Then maybe we can throw you into casting a circle, which requires calling upon the four elements. After that, together, using our magic in a combined effort of a locator spell, maybe we can find your aunt. Does that make you feel like what you’re doing here today has more purpose?”

  “Yes. That makes more sense. So, how do I work with fire?”

  They moved on. Apparently, Darcaryn had quickly learned to move back from what Kyna worked on after nearly getting his hair caught on fire from her just lighting a candle. A simple thought had sparked a flame several inches high, one she didn’t know a candle capable of. She saw spots herself for a few minutes after.

  “Your powers have been unused for so long, denied release. Plus, right now you’re overly emotional, and that makes them out of control, too. It’s a good thing you had such a strong mother growing up . One who made you so sure of yourself, so capable, so even-keeled, or you may have burnt a house down without even knowing you did it. Didn’t odd things happen around you?”

  “Um, I guess?” she answered, even as she still thought about it.

  She easily found strange incidents in her memory, like a cup that had broken in her hand, crumbled to bits, one time when she’d been angry. Her mother had claimed she’d had some sort of adrenaline rush, which had given her increased strength for a moment.

  “I guess, maybe,” she stammered. “I mean, my mom always had a reason for things that happened. A logical, scientific reason.”

  Her mind started to flip through memories, and an odd thought occurred to her, unsettled her even more, if possible.

  “I
went into science because there did seem to be so many things I questioned as a child that my mom always had answers for. Sometimes her explanations didn’t set right, so I read to ease my own curiosities. I became this research junkie, always at the library, trying to explain what I couldn’t of my life.”

  “And, did the research appease your questions?” he taunted.

  “No, I guess it never did. So I just kept researching. Even once I had a degree and started teaching, I still studied, went back to college to earn yet another degree.” She sighed as she fell back into the big chair behind her.

  A sudden weight of homesickness started to suffocate her, like having large stones piled upon her chest.

  She missed her mom something fierce. During the odd times in her life that she couldn’t find her own strength, her mother had found it for her. She should’ve brought her on this trip. She would’ve been the better for it. Her mother could have answered questions, maybe, and offered support, helped her to remain standing on her own two feet during all this magic crap.

  “Maybe tonight you could call your mom,” Darcaryn offered. His tone, his thoughtfulness, caught her off guard.

  “You know what I’m thinking?” she accused.

  “It wouldn’t take Einstein, or even a witch, to figure out you’re homesick by the way you fell into that chair and lost a shade of pigment in your skin when talking of home. Not to mention the frown that has practically taken over your face. Come on, we need to get back to fire. Hate to be a slave driver, but who knows what each day, each hour for that matter, could bring.”

  “Good pep talk,” she sighed as she took his outstretched hand to stand up.

  Something sparked between their connected skin. Not a light, but heat, warm and seductive, traveled through her body, woke up parts she hadn’t thought of since last night with Aedan.

  She tried to keep him in the forefront of her mind, but he slipped to the back, fell to the wayside, until her brain fumbled to even remember who she’d tried to think of. Instead, Darcaryn, his body, filled her mind as she clung to his hand harder and harder. She took a restless step toward him, and then another, until heat swarmed between their bodies, a mere inches apart now.

  Again, Darcaryn had sort of dressed up for a magic lesson. Maybe that was just his style. Today, he had on a crisp, white, dress shirt. His sleeves were rolled halfway up, revealing the muscles and veins that weaved through his lower arm. A black, pinstriped vest hung over his slim, but solid build. She’d noticed how good he looked, how designer wizard he appeared, but tried to ignore and maintain the focus she needed.

  Right now, though, all she saw were his eyes, and the crisp contrast of white, black, and ice blue. Forcing her gaze away, she refocused on his short, dark and scruffy beard in stark contrast to the unruly, long copper waves of his hair. Underneath and in between the copper grew an undercoat, if you will, of jet-black locks. It didn’t seem natural, but neither would she believe he’d had his hair colored in such a way. She would believe magic had led to such an anomaly, that he practiced enough to lighten the top layer of his hair. Stifling a giggle, she relaxed into the lightness the absurdity of such an idea brought. That she’d thought it at all showed how much this scientist’s life had changed in such a short time.

  When her musings continued on, each one more inane than the last, she gave herself a mental shake. Her mind had gone on some kind of fritz. Chaos ensued. One notion countered the next, battled for dominance at the forefront of her mind for brief seconds, only to be railroaded by another. This progression continued as Darcaryn leaned in toward her, his lips now inches from hers.

  He grabbed her arms, hard, and pulled her chest to his. She saw the flames on the candles grow to several inches high around them. The fireplace roared to life, but bent to the right as a strong wind blew through the room. She tried to concentrate on the anarchy erupting around them. Books opened. Papers flew. Herbs formed a small tornado of sorts in a bowl on the table. Bottles jumped from the shelves and shattered against the floor as he pressed his lips hard to hers.

  It’s just a spell. She pushed the thought through her brain even as she tangled her hands into the hair blowing across his neck. Not being aware of them moving, he knocked her next breath out of her for a second when her back hit a wall. He seemed to breathe it in as he kissed her again. His hard body pressed against hers, thigh-to-thigh, stomach-to-stomach. Certain parts stiffened in between them. Lightheaded, the lust took over, heightened each nerve ending until they screamed for him. She needed to feel him naked against her, all his hard lines against her soft curves.

  “Stop,” he wheezed as he caught her cheeks in his hands, pushed her face from his.

  His eyes appeared wild, with more depth to the black and added light to the blue. She fell under the spell of such a hypnotizing array of colors. Only the chill that suddenly pervaded between them granted her a shred of sanity.

  She could only shake her head. Her body remained pinned. He still held her arms tight with his large hands.

  “It’s the spell, and I won’t have you that way,” he grumbled. “I want you on your own terms. Only if you truly want me back.”

  She could only blink, shake her head an inch to each side. Cotton for brains, drunk or drugged, were the only terms she could come up with to explain what had come over her. But, here, she supposed she’d have to get used to the concept of being spelled too. Whatever the cause, she hated to be out of control, let alone controlled. Her anger boiled up, healed her to some blessed degree.

  “My true attraction for you lets me see through the spell, the lust that overwhelmed us,” he admitted through gritted teeth. “I won’t have you unless the feelings are true.”

  Her heart broke a little at the hint of sorrow in his voice.

  “That you couldn’t see through the spell tells me you have no true feelings for me,” Darcaryn whispered.

  “I…I don’t know what I feel. How could I?” Anger licked up her spine. The hot and violent flames warmed her neck as she broke away from him. “I’ve never had to deal with any magic, let alone some kind of fake lust cast upon me. How the hell could I know anything of what I feel? I can’t even control the power inside me yet. What is mine to control.”

  A strong need to save his feelings compelled her. The misted look in his eyes, along with the broken tone in his strong, deep voice, tugged at her heart on a real, raw level. She held herself back from throwing her arms around him again by straightening out the clothes that seemed to cling to her in all the wrong places. Restricted, she felt the need to shed herself of them. She didn't trust a single feeling in her entire being right now

  Luckily, a sharp knock on the door broke the whole spell over the room in an instant, just before it flew open.

  “What the hell is happening in here,” Aedan yelled as he observed the destruction around the room. “I could hear things breaking, and a sound like gusts of wind blowing as I came through the last two rooms. Then the door wouldn’t open, even with my key, and I could hear your voices but not make out the words, just the seriousness of the tones. Seriously, what the hell happened in here? It looks like a tornado ripped through the place.”

  All the candles had gone back to tiny flames, but broken glass, herbs, and papers littered every surface.

  “I’m not doing so well with my element training,” Kyna managed to squeak out.

  The words weren’t a complete lie. She, indeed, had issues with her training, thanks to some demented sex spells. Not the time to explain in full, she ignored the seize of guilt, that made her rapid heartbeat become a dull throb in her chest.

  With a quick, furious glance her way, Darcaryn added, “I’d just pulled Kyna over here to protect her from the wind storm she’d accidentally created. I’ll get it cleaned up easily enough. Is there news? Why are you here?”

  Without an answer, Darcaryn lifted his hands and things started to just magically right themselves.

  She stood there trying to catch her breath even a
s she held it, waiting to hear if there was news of her aunt.

  “No, no news, unfortunately” Aedan grumbled. A thousand emotions flashed through his darkened eyes. “This group, I would swear they don’t really exist. The symbols from the letters, there is nothing like them anywhere. Even trying to translate them through a variety of old symbols, nothing makes sense or matches up. It seems like they just put some scribbles on the bottom of their letters to throw everyone off.”

  Aedan started to pace. He touched an object Darcaryn had fixed. A newly put back together bottle, that seconds ago had been shattered on the floor, now sat on the table in one seamless piece. Aedan ran his finger down the glass. He examined his hand, then shook his head.

  “Anyway, since you asked so nicely,” Aedan sighed, his voice dripping with a furious sarcasm, “I came down to see what you think of me assembling a team of old SEAL buddies. Each are retired for whatever reason and working in similar fields of investigation and protection. I think if they were here, helping me to research and to guard, maybe we could find a lead to trail back to Kyna’s aunt. With each of us pulling in favors, combining our expertise, hopefully we could get further on this case faster.”

  “That’s fine. How long before they would get here?” Darcaryn demanded.

  “Not for a few days, unfortunately. They each have jobs to finish up, various loose ends to tie up first. I would give it several days before the first could arrive. At least with the money and resources Kyna’s aunt left me with, travel shouldn’t be much of an issue. Hopefully, we’ll have Kyna’s aunt back by then, but either way, they could be of some great help. Saoirse had said whatever I felt best, whatever I needed, that money was no object, of course. But, still, I wanted to get your opinion on my idea. Thought maybe there was a downside I may have overlooked. I’m a team player, Darcaryn,” Aedan lectured.

  “I pray they aren’t needed, that we have her back sooner, but they could be of use. Why not? I see no downside. I’m sure those are huge favors to ask of these guys. So, thank you, Aedan.”