Enchanted Immortals Series Box Set: Books 1-4 plus Novella

by C. J. Pinard

  Jonathan walked in carrying a small box.

  Thomas pointed at it. “Hey. What’s in there?”

  “Your boutonniere,” he answered, pulling the small lavender rose from the box. He set the empty box on a nearby table.

  “It’s purple. I don’t think roses come in purple,” Thomas rambled nervously.

  Jonathan chuckled. “Calm down. Take a deep breath. It’s spray-painted… I think.”

  He carefully pinned the flower on Thomas’s lapel and looked down, pointing at his own. “See? I’ve got one, too.”

  Thomas began to pace. He stopped and looked at Jonathan. “You look nice. I didn’t know they made tuxes in your size.”

  Jonathan looked down. “Yes they do, smartass. You’re lucky you’re getting married or I’d kick your ass.”

  “Funny.”

  Jonathan went over and put his hand on Thomas’s shoulder in a fatherly gesture. “You will be fine. You love Malina, right?”

  Thomas smiled. “Of course I do. I’ve loved her for forty years.”

  Jonathan shook his head. “Then you’re doing the right thing. You two belong together. I’ve known Malina a long, long time. I’ve never seen her like she is when she’s with you. I’ve never seen her look at anyone the way she looks at you.”

  Thomas lifted his eyes and looked at Jonathan. “Really?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, really. Now stop second-guessing yourself and let’s go get you married, my man.”

  They turned to leave the room and Thomas stopped, Jonathan almost bumping into him.

  “Jonathan?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you for being my best man.”

  Jonathan smiled. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world, Tom.”

  They walked out into the foyer of the church and looked in through the glass partition into the gigantic cathedral. Intricate patterns of Biblical characters and symbols were carved into the walls and ceiling and the typical Catholic relics were perched on the back of the altar. There were only about fifty people in attendance.

  Jonathan smiled and said, “Are you ready?”

  “Of course. Let’s do this,” Thomas replied, looking up at him and letting out a large breath.

  Father Bailey was already standing in the front wearing a long white vestment robe. A piano was playing softly to the side of the church. Each of the pews had a large white bow fastened to the end and a small sprig of baby’s breath with a single lavender rose in the center of each bow.

  Thomas walked nervously alone to the front of the church and shook Tyler’s hand, who was waiting for him at the front, also dressed in a tuxedo.

  Taking his place at the front, he looked at the church and all the people in attendance. He recognized a few; acquaintances, really. He marveled at how he really had not become close with anyone since coming to Portland. He had his very small, close-knit group; Malina, Kathryn, now Tyler, and of course, Jonathan. The rest were people he’d met casually along the way such as a few BSI agents, including Jason Swift. He was happy to see Andrew and Lillian from the Los Angeles coven, and two more from the Seattle coven. He looked into the front row and smiled at the eight beautiful sylph queens dressed in their bright colors. They were all looking at him with smiles. He looked at Serina and Kathryn, who were standing on the other side of the aisle, holding flowers dressed in long, lavender gowns. He gave them a sincere smile.

  The music on the piano changed to Pachelbel’s Canon in D and Thomas looked down to the end of the long aisle to see his beautiful fiancée on the arm of Jonathan. Since her father was obviously long gone, she had asked Jonathan to walk her down the aisle. He had gladly obliged and was happy to act as both best man and Malina’s stand-in father.

  Thomas sucked in a breath at the sight of her. The pure white dress was shimmering under the church’s hanging lights. The bottom of the dress was plain, heavy satin and it dragged slightly behind her as she walked, whispering along the thick aisle runner. The top was strapless and straight across the chest with intricate pearl beading that came down to just above her belly, where the lower portion hid her growing secret. Her light olivey skin looked glowing and perfect against the strict white of the dress. Her thick brown curls were pulled up into a twist under her short veil that fell over her face. She had on a diamond necklace that sparkled under the lights, a single teardrop-shaped purple amethyst hanging from the bottom of it. She was barefoot under her gown, deciding at the last minute to ditch the stilettos.

  As she walked into the church and saw her Thomas waiting for her, she had to fight hard not to tear up at the sight of him. He was the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on. His black tux and purple tie set off his sparkling blue eyes, and the flush over his face was barely noticeable against the large smile he wore.

  All the guests were now standing and smiling as they entered the church. Some were already dabbing at their eyes with tissues. Others wore neutral expressions, but most had smiles. The walk up the aisle seemed to take a lifetime, but once they reached the front, Jonathan lifted the front portion of her veil and bent down and kissed her forehead. He shook Thomas’s hand and while still holding it, placed it into Malina’s. Jonathan then walked over to stand next to Tyler.

  Thomas let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He looked down at her and mouthed, “Hi.”

  She grinned. “Hi.”

  Reverend Bailey began the ritualistic wedding rites of the Catholic Church. When it was time for vows, he announced they had each written their own.

  Malina handed off her bouquet of white and lavender roses to Kathryn and faced Thomas, grabbing both his hands and looking up at him. “Life has dealt me a hand I never expected. I never thought love was in the cards for me. My heart stopped when I laid eyes on you; my life, my outlook, my perception changed. I am now looking at the world through love’s eyes, and I promise, as long as we both shall live, I will love you and devote myself to you until my last breath.” She then placed the brushed silver ring on the third finger of his left hand and looked up at him. With tears shimmering in the corners of her eyes, she mouthed, “I love you.”

  Thomas could not control his emotions any longer and let a stray tear leak down his face. He sucked in another deep breath and began his vows. “Malina, I have loved you from the day we met. I spent every day since then regretting the decision not to take you in my arms and tell you how I felt. But life has given me a second chance, and I want you to know that I will never, ever take even one day with you for granted.” He paused, took a deep breath, and continued, “Malina, nothing in this life will ever compare to the joy you’ve brought into my world. I never thought I would find it, but there you were, and here you are, and love will always be enough for us.”

  He turned around and grabbed the ring Jonathan was holding out. The platinum band was a ring of tiny diamonds with three bigger amethyst stones set in it. It looked perfect against her diamond engagement ring. He slipped it on her finger and mouthed, “I love you.”

  They turned to face Father Bailey, who was smiling broadly. “By the power vested in me, by the State of Oregon, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. Mr. O’Malley, you may kiss your beautiful bride.”

  And with that, Thomas lowered his mouth to hers, covering her soft, pink lips with his own and there they lingered as he gently ran his thumb along her cheek. The church erupted in applause.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Joseph O’Malley.”

  More applause as the couple made their way down the aisle, smiling at their guests, and then at each other. They did not take their eyes off each other all the way down the aisle.

  Jonathan put his arm out to Kathryn who looped hers through his and they made their way down the aisle. Tyler and Serina did the same.

  CHAPTER 16

  ∞∞∞

  Gold Camp, Oregon – 1902

  Pascal hated witches, but tonight he was grateful for the food. He had finished all three of them off before they could blink. T
hey weren’t powerful enough to ward him off. And it stopped the annoying screaming. He laughed at his conquest.

  After releasing the last witch down to the dead leaves at his feet, he spotted a cave out of the corner of his eye. He had run across a few during his gold mining days there, but this was one yet unexplored. Filled with vigor and strength from feeding off the magic blood, he snatched the long cotton skirt from one of the witches and went back to his camp to make himself a torch. He ripped the skirt into pieces and wrapped the end around a large tree branch. He lit the end from his campfire and walked to the cave. His eyesight was extraordinary, but he found even he needed a little extra light as the caves were almost always black as pure ink. Plus, the extra light illuminated any gold that might be hiding there.

  Entering the cave, Pascal shone his torch around and something glittery caught his eye. He strode to the shiny object and touched it. Embedded low in the wall of the cave was a large gold nugget. He pulled a pocketknife from his trousers and dug the rock from the rough stone walls of the cave and it came out with a plunk. He held it up to the light of his torch and realized what a true find this was. Standing up, he pocketed the nugget and sniffed the air when he thought he sensed something in the cave with him.

  Shapeshifter.

  He looked toward the blackened end of the cave and saw two yellow eyes peering out at him. Pascal decided he was in no mood to deal with a shifter, and being he had already claimed his prize, he turned around and calmly walked out of the cave.

  The wolf jumped him from behind, knocking the torch from Pascal’s hand, which went sliding along the dirty stone floor of the cave. A small puddle the torch landed in quickly extinguished it, leaving him to fight in darkness.

  Pascal cursed and tried to stand up but the wolf had him pinned down. He reached for the animal’s back leg and bit down with his fangs as hard as he could. The wolf let out a yelp and rolled off the vampyre. In any other situation, he would have stayed and fought to the death with the shapeshifter, but he could not see well in the cave and decided if he wanted a fight, he could do it in the light of the moon. Pascal ran at top speed out of the cave and stood at the mouth of it, waiting for his assailant to follow.

  What exited the cave surprised him. A young, pale, nude man with long, scraggly black hair and even scragglier beard exited the cave. His right leg was a bloody mess at the ankle, causing him to limp. “You stay the hell out of my home, you disgusting bloodsucker!” the young man spat on the ground after his last word.

  Pascal laughed. “Pardon me, but I wasn’t aware that filthy cave was anyone’s home. Figures one of you depraved animals would be living in there.”

  The young shifter narrowed his eyes at Pascal. “What the hell are you doing up here anyway, vampyre? The sun will be up shortly and don’t you even think about entering my home to seek shelter or I will make your body my next meal.”

  “You don’t scare me, wolf. I was just leaving.”

  “Good. You shouldn’t stay here anyway. There are witches and a faerie here. They won’t take too kindly to a vampyre invading their space.”

  Pascal snorted. “Yeah, I met the witches. Charming group of lasses they were. Didn’t see any faeries, though. Do you know where she usually resides up here?”

  Now the young shifter laughed. “Why, so you can eat her? Trust me, you can’t get to her. She uses that disappearing act of hers to get away.”

  “Is that so? Well, I’ve killed one before. They’re delicious.”

  The young man just shook his head and turned back to his cave and yelled over his shoulder, “Leave this place, bloodsucker. It will end badly for you if you don’t.”

  Pascal didn’t take his words very seriously, but he was very curious to find this faerie. He knew all about the sylphs and would love to get his hands on another.

  He stayed at the camp another week and collected more gold nuggets with his mining equipment. On the last night of his expedition, he was quietly exiting another small cave when he saw a beautiful young blonde woman in a flowing blue gown standing in the clearing where the witches had been. He eyed her curiously, keeping still. She was chanting something, and held a large canteen in her hand. She began to walk in circles, dumping an odd-looking aqua-colored liquid from the canteen, repeating her incantation over and over:

  “Enchant these lands, enchant these trees, enchant this grass, enchant this rain. Elements of the sun, elements of the day come this way, powers of the night and day, I call thee, protect these lands, enchant these lands, enchant these trees...”

  She repeated the incantation many times as she walked in circles. Pascal crouched in preparation to spring on her, but before he could even rise to his feet, the sylph turned around, looked right at him, threw her hand in the air, and was gone through her magical doorway without a word.

  ∞∞∞

  Portland, Oregon – Present Day

  The wedding reception went off without a hitch. The happy couple had the perfect wedding, and as Malina changed back into her purple outfit, and Thomas into some khakis and a blue dress shirt, the couple got into the rented limousine and headed for the airport to catch a flight to San Francisco where they would take a five-day cruise to Mexico.

  “Don’t drink the water,” Lillian called out, laughing as they drove away.

  After the reception, all the guests returned to their respective homes and as soon as Jonathan, Kathryn, and Tyler were back in the apartment, Tyler headed for his room.

  “If you can believe this, I actually have a shift starting in an hour. Couldn’t even get a whole twenty-four hours off for my friend’s wedding. Can you believe that?” he asked, shaking his head.

  Jonathan said, “I do. Doctors are in short demand these days. I’m sure you will always have work, my man.”

  Kathryn and Jonathan both changed out of their wedding attire. Kathryn went to Malina’s room and hung her wedding gown in her closet. When she returned to her room and saw that Jonathan had left his and Thomas’s tuxedos on the bed, Kathryn said, “Hang those up. We have to return them tomorrow.”

  He groaned and proceeded to place them into the thick, black garment bags they came in while she hung up her lavender dress.

  “Bye! See you tomorrow!” they heard Tyler call out as he headed for the hospital. They heard the door slam.

  “Bye!” Kathryn yelled from the bedroom. She looked at Jonathan. “He really needs to work less hours if he’s going to help us out. Are we going with Jason Swift later to spy on the vamps?” She paused for a minute and said, “Wait, that’s tomorrow night, right?”

  Jonathan didn’t respond, but instead came up behind her and moved her hair to the side and trailed kisses up and down the back of her neck. A shiver ran down her back and she dropped the dress and turned around. She looked up into his playful blue-gray eyes and whispered, “Kiss me.”

  He looked down at her and pulled the pins and clips slowly out of her hair, letting her blonde waves fall down her back. He ran his big hands through her hair, loosening it further. The gesture gave her more goose bumps. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he gently grabbed her hair and tipped her head back and began lightly kissing her cheek, her jaw, her neck, her collarbone. She groaned her pleasure.

  He placed her on the bed, and since she was still only wearing a strapless white lace bra, matching panties, and sheer white thigh-high stockings attached to a garter belt, he slowly began unclipping the garter belts and methodically rolling the stockings off, tossing them aside. He next worked the bra, which hooked in the front and threw that aside, as well.

  He touched her everywhere, and as she lay there, letting him do everything he wanted, she said, “Look at me.”

  He really didn’t want to move his gaze away from her beautiful body, but he did as she commanded. “Yes?”

  “I love you.”

  He grinned. “I love you, too. May I make love to you now?”

  “Yes, please.”

  He leaned over her, propping himse
lf up on one elbow and used the other hand to stroke her cheek. He brushed her bottom lip with his thumb and began kissing her. He lightly ran his fingertips up and down her belly and sides and up to her breasts.

  They took advantage of having the apartment to themselves, and didn’t take a single minute for granted over the next twenty-four hours. They didn’t even leave the bedroom.

  ∞∞∞

  “This is how it’s going to go,” Brandon started. “I administer the shot while you guys hold him down.”

  Bryan raised an eyebrow. “But he sleeps in there with Angel. She will fight us. She’s much older than we are. She’s stronger.”

  “Don’t worry about her, I have her under control. She won’t be a problem,” Brandon answered, unable to hide the smile at the mention of her name.

  “Really, dude?” groaned Eric, another young vampire, shaking his head.

  “Hey, what can I say? She’s hot, right? Someone’s gotta satisfy her, ‘cause Pascal sure as hell isn’t,” Brandon snorted.

  “Oh, my God. He’s gonna kill you when he finds out!” Eric said, almost panicked.

  Brandon sighed. “Have you not heard a word I’ve said? We’re going to kill him first.”

  Brandon, Bryan, Eric, and two other vampires, a male named Ray and a female, Vania, were all sitting at a picnic table in the backyard of the vampires’ home. They had fixed up the backyard nice with two picnic tables, a volleyball pit, a tetherball pole, and had kept the fruit trees pruned and healthy. It was the middle of the day and they knew the other vampires would be asleep and most certainly wouldn’t venture out there to see what they were doing. They had a deck of playing cards and were pretending to play in case someone looked outside the window. The sun wasn’t fully out, but it had been playing peek-a-boo with the clouds most of the day.