by Caris Roane
She carried the tray to the dining table and picked up her coffee. She took a sip and enjoyed the feel of the warm, bitter brew sliding down her throat.
Normalcy.
That’s what she wanted. She knew she’d get over Warren, though it might take years. First step, coffee and a small sensation of normalcy.
Out of the corner of her eye and coming from the direction of her bedroom, she thought she saw a brief flash of green light. She set her cup down on the tray and slowly made her way to the hall.
She moved to levitation and glided down the corridor until she reached the threshold of her bedroom.
Oh, God, no.
A man stood staring down into the grotto waters. He was tall and lean with blond hair to his shoulders. Her heart started a terrible, dull thudding.
She thought about running, but she knew it would be useless. Glissane had more than enough power to stop her. He’d already proved as much at Julio’s compound.
“Wizard Glissane. To what do I owe the honor of your company?”
Without having to be told, she knew he’d come to kill her.
~ ~ ~
Warren stared down at the frail shape of his wife outlined by the quilt she’d brought to Five Bridges the night they’d gone through their alter transformations. She’d loved the quilt. It had been in her family several generations.
She wore a white cotton nightgown with ruffles at the wrists. She was barely more than a skeleton now, but the nurses had combed her hair and it lay like blond waves against her pillow.
Her eyes were closed. She didn’t seem to be breathing.
He turned to the fae nurse to his left. “Is she gone?”
The nurse shook her head. “Not yet. But it won’t be long now. You’ve come at the right time.”
He drew a chair close to the side of the bed and sat down. He took her left hand in his and held it. There was little left of the healthy, athletic woman he’d married. She had deep shadows under her eyes and her cheeks were sunken. He petted her hand in slow strokes.
“I’m here Tonya.” There was no movement, no pressure of her fingers. Instead, a breath left her lips in a long exhalation.
The nurse moved to the opposite side of the bed and lifted her wrist to feel for a pulse. Afterward, she used her stethoscope and listened to her heart.
Warren still held Tonya’s hand as he waited. The nurse finally shook her head. “She’s gone, Alpha Warren. I’m so sorry. But please stay with her as long you want.” She then left the room.
Tears stung his eyes. She’d suffered for eight years in this room, in and out of reality. For eight years he’d visited her and had experienced only the occasional moment of recognition and clarity.
A bare remnant of his marriage to her.
Now she was gone.
He held her hand to his forehead and kept it there. He closed his eyes and wished her a swift journey to the afterlife where he hoped she would find eternal peace.
Well, don’t you look sad?
He glanced up. Tonya’s spirit was where the nurse had stood. Warren rose to his feet and a smile touched his lips. This was no misty apparition, but a full-blown ghost. Only this time, Tonya looked as he remembered her. Tonya.
She tilted her head and glanced down at her body. So, I died from that weird, alter condition I had.
You did. But what do you remember?
He rounded the bed and drew near her. She was tall like Kiara.
Not much. A lot of odd dreams, mostly pleasant. You look well, though very sad. How long was I like this? She waved her hand toward the bed.
Eight years.
It’s so odd. It feels as though we arrived only a short while ago, just a few days. She glanced at the bed again. But the way I look, like a skeleton. That couldn’t have happened to me in only a matter of days. She turned to face him more fully. You’ve been through hell, haven’t you?
He wasn’t about to give her a recounting of his life as a wolf, a Border Patrol officer and as an alpha to his pack. Instead, he spoke only of her. I missed having you by my side.
She grew very still and seemed to be listening. She then turned in a complete circle. Her lips parted and for a long time she didn’t speak.
When she turned back to him, she said, I’m beginning to have all the pieces filled in. I’m seeing the past eight years of my life. I’m seeing your struggles as well and how alone you’ve been. You visited me, didn’t you?
Every week.
That must have been hard. It’s strange to no longer be living. There’s no pain on this side. Yet I can feel your suffering. You’ve been incredibly lonely, until very recently.
Her eyes appeared to open wider. I see her. You’ve fallen in love again. Oh, and she’s beautiful, but very different from me. Her name is Kiara. That’s such a pretty name. Will you marry her?
It seemed so strange to finally be talking to Tonya like they used to, yet she was dead. I don’t know. I want to, but life here, in Five Bridges, is complicated as hell.
I’m getting that. She appeared to put her hand to her mouth. Oh, no. Oh, dear God, no. He used me. Repeatedly.
Who used you?
A man who would visit sometimes. He had blond hair to his shoulders and dark eyes. She jerked then shuddered. Her eyes went wide. She reached out to touch him, but her hand glided through his body like air. Warren, he would take over my body, but I didn’t know what he was doing. I fought him, though. I pushed him out of me each time.
A horror began to grow within Warren, profound and terrifying. Glissane had used his wife, inhabited her body, said things to him that weren’t true. He’d also said things to Kiara. Glissane had sent her away.
She put a ghostly hand to her chest. I’ll be right back, but don’t leave.
He’d barely had time to process what she said when she reappeared. She drew close and looked him over for a moment. She held a ghostly hand to his face. I loved being your wife before all this madness started. But I must say good-bye. Thank you for visiting me when I was barely here the entire time.
I loved you so much, Tonya.
I know, my darling. But now, the woman who has done so much for Savage and for the wolves you serve, is dying. He’s killing her, the bad man who took over my body. Go to her and save her. But Warren, don’t hold back, not anymore, not with anything. You’ll need every power you possess to save her and to save yourself. Now go.
Warren didn’t move, however. He couldn’t. He hadn’t had enough time with her, but Kiara needed him.
She smiled. Don’t be an idiot. I’m dead. Good-bye.
With that, his wife faded, offered a serious dip of her chin, wolf-style, then was gone.
He knew in his heart, he’d never see her again.
He was moving before he’d formed the thought. He flew through the building, then once outside shot into the air. He’d never levitated faster or with more purpose than now.
He took his wife’s advice and summoned everything he was not just as a wolf but as a transformed warlock. He felt his storm rising and now understood how completely these strange rumblings of thunder and lightning were wizard qualities.
He kept his wolf close as well, but as much as he could, he brought the two alter creatures together. Kiara had given him this, abilities beyond anything he could have imagined before she’d come into his life.
He didn’t have to search for the refuge. His body knew exactly where it was. He homed in and as he drew near, waved a hand. The spell parted, and he dove for the front door. Getting the rest of the distance to her apartment was an acrobatic move that involved lying flat in the air and zooming across the threshold, down the stairs, along the foyer and straight to Kiara’s security spell outside her front door.
Again, he lifted his hand and the spell gave way.
When he pushed the door open, his wolf hearing picked up Kiara gasping for breath. He flew around her furniture, down the hall and into her grotto bedroom.
Glissane had his hands around her
throat and had bent her backwards over the grotto wall. He saw that green flames rose on his cheeks. The wizard had the added physical strength of emerald flame coursing through his body.
Warren could feel how hard Kiara was fighting him and how fully she’d brought both her wolf and her witch powers forward.
But she was no match for Glissane.
Warren’s thunder rumbled, and his lightning flashed as he launched at the wizard.
But Glissane merely released one hand-hold on Kiara and swept his arm in Warren’s direction. Glissane’s gaze never left Kiara’s face as his power struck Warren full-force. A wave of immense energy threw Warren against the wall to the right of the bed.
He fell to the floor stunned and disoriented. His storm crackled and hissed as his body recovered.
Kiara’s voice was suddenly in his head. Warren, we can’t beat him. He’s too powerful. This was what he wanted, to kill us both. We stood between him and his plans to rule Savage then take over Five Bridges. There’s nothing we can do. Know that I love you. I always have.
He stayed on the floor to think, to figure this out. If he rose to attack Glissane again, the wizard would knock him down again. But he had to do something to get the wizard’s hands from around Kiara’s throat.
She was right, though. Given the situation exactly as it was, he would be able to kill them both.
As she passed out, he knew there was one thing he could do. It would be a brief, temporary fix, but it would at least be something.
He focused all his energy on his storm and when it was at its peak, and with Glissane’s hands still squeezing the life from Kiara, Warren rose slowly. From where he stood, he focused all he had not on Glissane but on the grotto pool.
The water began to move around in a circle.
Just as Glissane started to lift his hand once again in Warren’s direction, Warren sent the water cascading over Glissane and Kiara. The two of them were struck hard by the force of the wave and separated. Warren moved in swiftly, gathered Kiara up out of the water, flew her from her apartment then out of the refuge house.
She coughed and grabbed for air as he rose into the night sky. As soon as he parted the security spell, he put his hand on her head and sent warlock healing into her body. Her breathing evened out quickly.
He flew her to the shrubs where he’d made love to her.
He felt her building a security spell. It wouldn’t hold against Glissane for long, but maybe long enough.
Sufficiently healed and her spell creating a wall against the outside world, he kissed her. They were both wet as she slung her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
But there was one thing they had to do right now. “Kiara, bond with me. I love you beyond words and I want you to be my wife and my alpha-mate. Bond with me.”
He felt the humor in her telepathic voice as she asked, “How? We have less than a minute before Glissane finds us and breaks through my spell.”
“You’ll need to open yourself to me, in the part of your spirit that has become wolf. Can you do that?”
She smiled. “Hell, yeah. But I thought we had to have sex and we don’t have time.”
“We’ll improvise.” Then he smiled. “Damn, I love you.”
“Yeah, me too. But on with it, wolf. He’s coming.”
He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. His storm rose once more, and a vision arrived.
Yes! She cried out within his mind. She’d seen it as well.
In the vision, they joined physically and completed the bond.
He replayed the vision and brought it close to them both so that it felt as real as possible.
As two wolves, they raced through the woods. He brought her down by leaping on her back then biting the back of her neck. They transformed to their human shapes and he penetrated her from behind. He bit her nape again, holding her fast.
Pleasure flowed, and his wolf-bonding hormones flooded his body. She opened herself fully to his wolf then everything he was as a man, and as a wolf, flowed into her.
Ecstasy rose and crested. She cried out in real time and in the fantasy. He roared as well. The bond locked into place.
As the fantasy disintegrated, he opened his eyes and saw that hers glowed with a beautiful silver light. Only this time her eyes were rimmed with gold. She was his. She belonged to him. She was his alpha-mate.
“I love you, Kiara, and I bind myself body and soul to you forever.”
“And I, you.”
He would have kissed her, but right at that moment Glissane arrived and shattered Kiara’s security spell.
~ ~ ~
When Kiara had passed out, her last view had been of Warren knocked flat by Glissane.
Now she was fully bonded to Warren and nothing could have felt better than her new connection to him.
Or more powerful.
She watched as Glissane descended slowly into the small, private space in the middle of the pine forest. His nostrils flared. The wizard was furious.
He glanced from one to the other. “You’ve forged a bond. But, how? You couldn’t have had time to…consummate the act.”
Now standing beside Warren, she slid her hand into his. They were one and her entire body was attuned to his. Her thoughts pressed up against his mind and it would take so little to converse telepathically with him. Yet, somehow, it didn’t seem necessary.
Neither she nor Warren responded to Glissane’s question. Instead, Warren asked, “What do you want, wizard? I’ve never understood. Why bother with Savage Territory or the drug trade?”
Kiara watched a slow smile curve Glissane’s lips. “Power is an addictive substance, more than any drug. I wanted Savage, then Five Bridges.
“Julio and I had plans. Well, I had plans. Julio was happy for me to use him because I promised him control of the drug trade in Savage. He would have risen in the cartel ranks which was all he cared about.”
Kiara wanted the truth confirmed on another subject as well. “You used Tonya, didn’t you?”
Glissane shifted his coal-gaze to her. “Yes, but she wasn’t the most willing host. Apparently, she loved Warren even while demented.”
Glissane was a man without a conscience, without the smallest distress that he caused others pain. In fact, she was sure he fed off that pain.
Because of her bond with Warren, she sensed that together, they might be able to rid Five Bridges of a terrible scourge.
Or they would die trying.
She felt Warren rev up his storm power. At the same time, she experienced a companion vibration within her own body. Besides being a witch, she now fully understood what it was to be a wolf even if she would never actually shift. She could sense the needs of the pack within her like a constant series of thoughts, one after the other. It was beautiful and amazing.
She opened that part of her to Warren and just like that, his storm ability began to glide into her, very quietly and quickly, until she was full of the same power.
In a similar way, she engaged her formidable wave power and she felt these abilities drift into Warren. They were both now storm and wave combined.
Glissane set his jaw as he, too, began to engage his battle power, a ferocious wave ability that outmatched Kiara’s. Except now, she shared that ability with Warren and she could summon her storm as well.
When Warren slid behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, she knew exactly what he was doing. The bond was secure, and she could read his intentions as though they were her own.
Glissane crouched and snarled. He brought the darkest part of his wizardness forward. His black eyes turned into deep pits. “You think you can match me? Either of you?”
“No,” Kiara said. “Not on our own. But we’re a team now as you and Julio once were, though much more complete.”
Her storm power surged as did Warren’s. A wind rose like a tornado in their small piece of the forest. It blew in a violent circle around the three of them.
For the first time, Gliss
ane looked worried. “What is this? What are you doing?”
Warren spoke this time. “Our combined force and we’re sending it to you.”
Kiara felt the wave as though it came from the depths of the universe then pushed the storm in and out of her. She watched as the tornado caught Glissane up into the air, forty feet into the pine forest canopy. She rose with Warren to levitate opposite the wizard.
The storm spun Glissane in faster and faster circles. Warren kept his wave and storm power coming, she released it all through her body. Thunder rumbled, and lightning flashed in brilliant arcs all around the wizard.
Their combined storm seemed to reach into Glissane and draw his own power from his body. He could no longer battle their storm. He screamed and writhed in the air.
The lightning flashed in quicker bursts and the thunder became an ear-shattering series of booms.
Suddenly, Glissane’s body twisted. Even through the storm, Kiara heard a violent series of cracks and he fell limp. The wind continued to whirl and support him in the air, but even she could see the wizard was dead.
She and Warren began withdrawing their storm which allowed Glissane’s body to drift back to earth. Warren released his arms from around her, then took her hand. Together, they descended to the place where the wizard had landed.
When Kiara touched down, she had a hard time looking at Glissane. His spine and neck were twisted and broken in more than one place. His tongue was swollen in his mouth and protruded past his lips. His black eyes were open and had reverted to a light blue, the color they must have been before he started down his dark path.
A great evil had been removed from Savage.
She drew close to Warren and couldn’t stop the tears that coursed down her cheeks. She wasn’t weeping for the man dead on the ground. She wept for those he’d hurt and those who had died because of his evil nature.
“He’s gone.” Warren’s voice was a whisper against her ear. “You’re safe.”
She squeezed his arm. “As are you.”
“I’m going to call and let Fergus know what’s happened as well as Alessandro. I’ll have some of my wolves take care of this.”
