Minuet nodded. “I no talk Coco. Play now?”
“Honey, go put on play clothes. Do you need my help?” Kelly asked.
“By myself.” Minuet’s statement was left behind as she dashed out of the kitchen at her normal speed.
“Is it safe?” Kelly asked in concern. “Should I call Molly and tell her about this?”
“It’s fine,” Cord assured her. “I can shield an area. Nothing will happen in the backyard I don’t know about. I wouldn’t worry about Molly, she should know all about small animals. She’s much more in tune with her craft than you are.”
The child shedding pajamas and pulling on clothes was easily heard and monitored by both Cord and Kelly. Movement only slowed for the few seconds it took to pull on socks and jam feet into shoes. The soft scrunch of Velcro fastenings pulled tight and she was barreling down the stairs again.
Kelly looked worriedly at the back door as Minuet dashed through it with a laugh for the little dog jumping about in welcome. “Molly and I never talked about it. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, but we’ll ask if you want. Interrupting her and Root Rot should be fun right about now. Or did she call him Wood Rot?”
Kelly smiled and stood up. “Let’s sit on the back patio and you can explain shielding to me. I think the lawn chairs are in the living room.”
“Of course they are. Wouldn’t you rather we unpack while we talk?” Cord asked as he dried his hands.
“Unpacking just dropped to the bottom of my to-do list,” Kelly commented as she turned to the living room to find the folding lawn chairs.
“I didn’t mean actually handling the boxes. I meant commanding the items to go where they belong. We can sit and watch Minuet and unpack.”
Kelly stopped in the door and frowned at him. “How do things know where to go? How will I know where they are? Wouldn’t that cause the explosion of power you’re talking about that would draw attention?”
“Shielding is multifunctional. You’ve got to learn how to do this stuff,” Cord explained, walking up to her. His arms went around his Wind Witch to pull her to the side as lawn chairs floated past her and across the kitchen, out the back door and set themselves up on the small concrete patio.
“That’s the long way of doing things,” he explained while nuzzling her hairline. “Here is the short way.” Boxes in the kitchen disappeared.
Kelly melted into the tall, broad man who gently pulled her into his body. She was aware of the lawn chairs moving behind her and abstractly watched the back door open on its own and the suspended chairs moved through it and settle on the patio. The vanishing boxes were disturbing enough for her to interrupt his nuzzling.
“Hey. I know where the chairs went, but I can barely remember where I put things by hand in this kitchen. Now how am I supposed to know where those things are?”
Cord turned her to the back door. “You think of the item you want and draw it to you. Why are you so resistant to using the abilities you were born with?”
They moved outside. The morning was warm as sunlight splashed over the lawn. Minuet’s laughter lilted on the air as she and Coco raced around, chasing a ball.
“Family roots in New England,” Kelly stated as she sat. “And a religious, fundamentalist family makes for a closed view of what you call talent.”
Cord took a deep breath. There was a world of information she wasn’t sharing in that short explanation. “None of your family are talented?” he pushed.
Kelly shrugged. “If they are, no one is talking about it. I’ve never asked. Until I had Minuet, it wasn’t a concern.” Her smile was a little sad as she watched her daughter plop down and laugh as the border collie bounded up with the ball. The two bodies became a squealing mass of giggles and yaps.
“You moved out here to get away from them?” Cord asked shrewdly. What could make a single mother choose to move away from her family to a place where she had one friend and no one else to help with the burden of rearing a very talented child?
Kelly nodded. “It was safer for everyone. I know whatever is in me is untrained and uncontrollable when I get mad. A mother defending her child is a dangerous type of mad. A child blindly trying to defend her mother could be worse though. It was time to leave.”
Cord nodded and figured he’d have time later to delve into that subject.
The yard was fenced with a short chain link. The fence was shared by two other yards, Molly’s on the right and the other neighbor on the left. Out the back beyond the chain link was a brush-covered strip of land sloping down to a stream. On the other side of the steam was a wooded area.
“Time to start training your gift,” Cord stated. “What does the breeze tell you? Who do you see in it?”
Kelly closed her eyes and tipped her head back. “There are three deer in the woods. Two raccoon dens sorta close,” she stated. “There is a sleeping owl, quite a few types of birds, lots of mice and rabbits behaving normally.”
“Very good. Being aware of how the wild animals are acting is important. They are extremely sensitive to the old ways. Domesticated animals are harder to read. They behave in ways they think their humans want them to. Now pick an animal and try to feel the world through it. Start with a very small one and just touch its mind.”
Kelly frowned, her eyes still closed as she tried to do as instructed. The breeze picked up, turning tree leaves over to show silver backs.
“Easy,” Cord murmured softly. “Go small and gentle. Deep breathes.”
The pull of air quieted and Kelly’s chest rose in a deep but controlled breath as she narrowed her focus. A rabbit was grazing on the other side of the stream. Slowly she flowed around it, feeling her way to see with its eyes. The bunny jerked alert as its long ears picked up a loud banging.
Kelly started and jumped to her feet. The banging was muted when hearing it with her own ears, but it was still there, coming from Molly’s house.
Cord slid down farther in his chair and stretched long legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankle. Hands stacked behind his head, he watched Kelly spring out of her chair with the same alarm the rabbit had felt at the new noise.
“Cord. Do you hear that?” she gasped in alarm.
“Yep.” He grinned.
“It’s coming from Molly’s place. Should we go see what all the banging is? It sounds like a fight.” Kelly hadn’t looked at him as she gazed at her neighbor’s back door.
“Oh, it could be a fight, but I doubt it. Feel the air around the house. Listen to the rhythm of the noise,” he instructed softly. “Do you really want to go over there?”
“Oh!” Kelly backed up a step in surprise and kicked her lawn chair over. “Oh. Ah, perhaps not. Wow. That’s just not right.”
Cord chuckled. “I’m sure it’s very right or Molly’s back door would not be rattling on its hinges. My only fear is they will knock it off the wall and fall out the door.”
Kelly straightened her chair and sat down jerkily. “No. It’s not right that we can tell what they’re doing. We should go inside and um, shield or something.”
Cord did laugh then. “Shield? Can’t be done. The pure emotional power of sex doesn’t allow complete shielding. A sensitive will always know if they are in the area. Those two are not concerned at the moment. Besides, it’s natural.”
“That does not sound natural to me. Good heavens, are you listening to this?”
“Yeah,” Cord purred softly.
Kelly’s head whipped around to look at him.
He raised a wicked brow and half smiled as her eyes swept down his long body. The bulge behind his zipper snagged her gaze. Her eyes jerked up to his face and there was a frown between her brows.
“You’ve changed size physically since earlier. I know you explained that we feed you somehow but…um…does everything change? I mean is there some point you stop expanding? Ah, growing. Getting stronger, taller and all?”
“Not ‘we’. You feed me,” he corrected softly. “In human form, I’ll gai
n a few more inches. Taller,” he tacked on wickedly. “What you’re concerned about is something you’ll have to investigate firsthand. As a shapeshifter, there is no limit to what I can do for you, but nor would I harm you, little Wind Witch.”
“Oh. Um, yes, I mean…I see. I think. Dang it, I’m not little, you know. I’m a very tall person,” she huffed in frustration at her nervous responses.
“If you say so,” he agreed while his smile told her she was his little anything he wanted.
Kelly turned away from the sensuality in his look. Gray eyes were warm pools of steam that beckoned. The close-cut beard promised sensation in the most intimate ways and then there were his lips. If she watched them while he spoke for another second, she’d have to taste them.
Looking away meant gazing at Molly’s house and realizing the noise had gotten louder, the rhythm, womb-clenching fast. Just what she needed, a reminder of how damn lusty these dragons were. Dragons…now there was a thought to ponder.
Glancing at him, she asked casually, “So you shapeshift into a big lizard with wings?”
Cord dragged in a deep breath to savor the spice of her arousal. She was intoxicating. His eyes scanned the yard though he already knew the exact location of child and dog. He needed a moment before he answered.
“I suppose,” he agreed lazily, unwilling to describe the reality of what a dragon looked like or why that form was so different from the current human assumption. “Dragon form is armor. Only engaged when someone or something is about to die. I’ve mentioned we’re hard to kill. In true dragon form it’s been impossible, as far as I know.”
“What about St. George who killed the dragon? I mean, he is a saint and all. What exactly did he kill? Or do you know?” Kelly asked.
“Kelly, George probably wanted to impress a girl,” Cord scoffed. “If there was a dragon involved who let him live, it had to be Harrison, the water dragon. He’d think it was funny. They put way too much dolphin in his DNA.”
“So you don’t think St. George killed anything? He was really a big liar and they made him a saint?”
Cord shrugged. “He might have believed he killed something, but it wasn’t a real dragon.”
The sound that interrupted them was the low rumble of an earthquake. The muted boom of tectonic plates shifting, but it came from the house next door and the earth in Kelly’s yard remained still.
“Seriously?” Kelly murmured as she looked over at the innocent-looking Cape Cod that matched her own. “Everyone in the neighborhood has to know? Every time? That really cuts down on the romance.”
“They are earth creatures. Both powerful in their gifts,” Cord commented. “Wind folk are not the same.”
“Are you saying we’ll not be alerting the township every time?” Kelly demanded. “Because I’m not interested in the public being able to keep score.”
Cord gazed at the disgruntled Wind Witch as her slightly aroused, a little annoyed, mostly curious mood washed over him. She was everything sweet yet spicy with that strong streak of delectable dark-candy danger. The woman was driving him crazy and doing it while sitting three feet away. She had no idea how powerful she was.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he promised with a wicked smile. Teasing her yielded a sexy mix of humor spiced with lusty fear. She fed him without even meaning to. Greedily absorbing her essence was his pleasure, his addiction, his sentence, his prison. Cord closed his eyes and let the smirk shadow on his face for her benefit.
“Humph,” she sniffed. “Do that.”
Minuet raced up to them, leaping into her mother’s lap. “You hear Aunt Molly laughing?” she wanted to know.
“Laughing?” Kelly was surprised but smiled at the innocent interpretation. “Yes, honey. It’s okay.”
“I know. She happy,” Minuet stated with a kiss to her mother’s cheek. “Mommy happy too.”
“Oh?” Kelly questioned. “Why do you say that, honey?”
Minuet cocked her head as she looked at her mother. “Bown all gone. Mommy sparkly.”
“Mommy was brown?” Kelly asked cautiously.
“No Mommy, da airs round Mommy. Now pretty,” Minuet explained. “You know, the pretties laughing are.”
Coco was wriggling at Kelly’s feet, holding her stick and trying to get her playmate’s attention. Minuet hopped down and the dog took off, triggering the game of chase again.
“I didn’t know she sees peoples’ auras,” Kelly said thoughtfully.
“She’s unique,” Cord agreed. “She’ll consider her view of the world normal for several more years. Children do. It’ll not be a burden until she realizes she’s the only one with that view.”
“What can we do for her? How do we make that easier?” Kelly asked worriedly.
“Love her,” Cord answered softly. “Ultimate power is love. Beyond that, she’ll have to make her world.”
Kelly’s worry was a good one. Minuet was amazing, but the magnitude of her gift would set her apart. If they all lived long enough for her to become an adult, would she be alone forever? She had the power to call up the armies of hell and perhaps the power to destroy them, something he’d never seen in one being.
The desperate battle for survival of the human species had been won on the strength of the three elemental witches. They hadn’t been able to kill the dragons. Only disengage them from the power that animated them in a savage sacrifice.
And yet dragon lore whispered around the globe. On every continent, in every culture there were old stories, exaggerated depictions. Humans didn’t believe, but they suspected.
Now there was Minuet. Whatever the outcome, evil would not be denied and dragons might get their second chance as well.
Finding the Water Witch was imperative. Cord was using precious time to allow Kelly and Minuet to grow in their craft, but the ladies had to know their power to use it. Finding the third witch would be useless if no one knew what to do. It was also possible the Water Witch didn’t know her power either. Looked as if locating Harrison was the first priority.
The water dragon shouldn’t be that difficult to track down. Cord already knew where Harrison spent most of his time. Loch Ness, Scotland.
Chapter Seven
Evening shadows stalked the lawn as Cord sat in the kitchen and watched his two ladies discuss supper. Since being released from the long-held fear of experimenting with powers that came so naturally to them, they had spent the day trying everything.
Cord was tired and it was his own fault. Using too much energy to shield their exuberant experiments had drained him. But he couldn’t bring himself to take what he needed. Gorgeous, graceful Kelly was what he needed, and yet watching over her and Minuet was a pleasure he wanted to savor a little longer.
He didn’t even have the freedom to offer them his protection simply because it was the right thing to do. He wasn’t sure when he’d developed hero envy, but there it was. He wasn’t the hero, he was the user. Hiding fatigue, he smiled as Minuet insisted on cooking.
“Mommy taste,” she proclaimed triumphantly as a steaming bowl of macaroni and cheese appeared on the kitchen counter.
“I don’t know. What did you put in this one?” Kelly asked cautiously as she eyed the normal-looking dish.
“I tells it read box and make. Jus like you said,” Minuet insisted.
“No more additions? You’re sure?” Kelly checked as she took a spoon and dipped into the bowl of pasta.
“No chocolate, Mommy said not in mac.”
Kelly put the spoon in her mouth. “Very good!”
“I make, I make.” Minuet beamed at Cord.
“Good job. Let’s have supper,” he encouraged.
Kelly turned her smile on him then sobered as her eyes studied his face. “What is it?” she asked softly.
Cord raised a brow. “What?”
“Something’s not right.” She glided away from the counter toward him.
“How do you know?” he asked, unwilling to let any opportunity slip by that mad
e her more aware of her gifts.
“I feel… You feel…” Her hand reached for his.
As soon as she touched him there was a soft jolt as her power flowed through the flesh on flesh connection. There was no hiding how drained he was. He wanted her to know that. Know what she was to him. He could give her knowledge, skill and protection but only if she let him use her.
So this was need. Her touch was life-giving but apparently that wasn’t enough to ensure his compliance. Of course it wasn’t, he was a dragon. Somehow his creators had programmed his need of this woman in such detail that he wanted more. Perhaps it was just his natural arrogance. Who the fuck knew anymore, but he wanted Kelly to touch him for reasons that had nothing to do with their current situation.
He’d never felt the constraint of intangible needs before and it showed him another side of the woman who’d made him. In the time before, he’d known he derived power from females he seduced. He had excelled at finding willing power sources. Now he understood the intangible emotion he wanted from Kelly was the real strength and the fatal weakness that would shackle him forever.
What the hell had those witches been thinking? They’d come up with an incredibly complex plan that depended on what? Luck? There was no way the three dragons could force this generation’s witches to love them. Love was the ultimate intangible. It could not be demanded, controlled or commanded. If it wasn’t a selfless gift, it was nothing.
Kelly unexpectedly sank onto Cord’s lap. He adjusted for her naturally but raised a brow.
“You’re tired,” she accused.
“Yes.” There was no denying it.
“You should have told me.”
“I’m fine for now,” he stated. His eyes went to Minuet who was setting the table by floating plates and spoons out of the cabinets. “Both of you are doing well.”
“I can feel the hunger. You could have asked,” she continued softly.
WickedBeast Page 7
