Although the staircase went higher, we stopped at a second door on a landing. This door opened to the hallway of our apartment, only we came from farther down, where I hadn’t had the chance to explore yet.
My mate carried me up the stairs, into our bedroom, where he gently laid me down on the bed.
His brothers stopped at the door but didn’t enter.
“Are you all right with my brothers being here, eaglet? If not, I can send them away.”
“No. I’m good.” It wasn’t as if I were naked. Though I fully expected the men to ogle me in an overtly sexualized manner, but neither man did.
I felt respected even as I lay there in nothing but my undergarments.
These men truly saw me as family. And that thought warmed my soul.
While I watched my brothers-in-law—no, my brothers—Avalon approached the bed. I turned to watch her when I felt her hands hover above me. She kicked off her sandals, using her foot to move the rug to ground herself.
Her hands didn’t glow, but I felt the heat radiate off them in waves as she slowly moved them above my body, scanning, I thought.
“What happened, Meena?” she asked. “It’s like you’ve been burned.”
“I went into the volcano.” The room suddenly tensed at my declaration.
“What do you mean?” Shadow asked.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you. I heard a voice.”
“A voice?” Rogue moved in closer.
I nodded. “Yeah. But it was faint. Shoes off wasn’t enough grounding, so I took my clothes off and lay down for more contact. That was when I heard it louder.”
“Who was it?” Avalon asked.
“I don’t know. I asked too, in my head, I called to him. One moment I was in the park, the next, I was down the mountain, and the next after—descending inside the volcano. It… He… I couldn’t get to him before you pulled me back, but he’s there and needs my help.”
Shadow looked from me to his mother. “What is she talking about?”
Chapter Eleven:
Coincidences and Reincarnation
Avalon shook her beautiful head of auburn hair. “I’ve never experienced such magic. It’s beyond my boundaries. Though I have heard of this phenomenon before… Roc’s mate. His cries of pain are what first drew her across a desert to find him.”
“I don’t understand,” I said to her, grabbing for Shadow’s hand for support. “Roc’s mate?”
“Yes,” he answered, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze. “Her name was Wilhelmina, eaglet.”
“W-Wilhelmina? Wilhelmina?” I practically shouted. I was Meena and she, Wilhelmina. Meena was a change in spelling from Mina, a nickname derived from the full name Wilhelmina. This was one of those six degrees of separation situations.
“That falls under things you did not want to hear for fear they may freak you out,” said Shadow. “Basking in the afterglow, I believe.”
Grrr… “Shut it,” I ordered, but with no heat behind the words—to my audience’s laughter. The levity helped ease away some of the, well… uneasiness of the situation. “Why am I so much like her? Why are our stories so similar?” There. I finally plucked up the courage to ask what I should’ve let Shadow explain to me after our mating.
The levity of a moment ago vanished the second the last word left my lips. I looked around the room to all the solemn, drawn faces.
“Because, my dear one, she is you.” Shadow squeezed my hand even as I tried in vain to pull it from his strong one.
“No… no. I don’t… I can’t be…” I shook my head vigorously. “no.” I was Meena Anthony, not some… some I didn’t even know what.
“I was a child,” I said. “It might’ve been a crappy one, but I had a childhood that had nothing to do with the Middle Ages or whatever.”
“Of course not, Meena,” Avalon answered placatingly. “You are you, just her soul lies within you.”
Oh, that’s all. Just her soul lies within me. Mmm… okay. “So is Shadow Roc, then?”
“Yes,” she answered right away.
“How? Why?” I asked. Though I could’ve not spoken at all by the way they all ignored my questions.
A look I didn’t understand passed between Shadow and his mother. There was a story here, one my family didn’t seem to want to share with me. Somehow or other that story, that secret had to come out. One lesson I’d learned time and again growing up in the homes, the three Ps: plot, plan, and pick your battles. They might not want to tell me now, and by the way they ignored and talked over me, any attempts to find out the truth now were futile.
But separate, they could be conquered. Of this, I had no doubt. There were days when the only reason Breya and I had survived was thanks to the divide and conquer strategy.
That settled, at least for the moment, I turned to Avalon. “Am I cleared? That man needs my help, which means I need my case.”
I’m not sure what they thought I’d do, but inquire about heading down the mountain didn’t seem to be on that list. At least, not with the puzzled expressions worn by the group around me.
“Well, yes,” Avalon answered.
“Shit,” Rogue muttered in the background.
They weren’t going to stop me before, so they really weren’t going to stop me now. Not when that man needed me, whoever he was. He needed me.
I pushed up from the bed, dislodging Shadow’s hand in the process, pulled on my clothes that one of Shadow’s brothers had retrieved for me, from the end of the bed where they’d dropped them, and walked on more stable legs over to the massive closet where all my clothing and my attaché case had been placed by whatever servants had checked me out of the boarding house.
“Ready,” I announced as I emerged from the closet, attaché in hand.
“We were waiting for tomorrow. For Bracken and Race to go down and scope the mountain.” Shadow stood in a stance of masculine dominance, his feet shoulder-width apart, his arms folded over his broad chest and one incredibly sexy eyebrow raised to stare me down. I was sure most people found it incredibly intimidating. I, however, wasn’t intimidated. What I was, was not in the mood to fight.
Therefore, I raised my eyebrow and stared him down—well, in this case, up. I stared him up because he towered over me. “That was before,” I said. “Now there’s a man who’s in trouble. I can’t sit around and wait while he’s being hurt.”
Oh, he looked ready to let his indignation rip. No doubt, poised and ready. I cut him off before he ever had the chance to start. “Don’t try to stop me. There’s a reason I could hear him.” Then I took a breath and went in for the kill. “Just as there was a reason Wilhelmina heard her Roc.”
He couldn’t argue that point. None of them could. And every eye that refused to look at me told me they knew it too.
Shadow pulled his phone from his pocket, pressed some buttons, and put it to his ear. “Plans have changed. We’re leaving now.”
Avalon hugged each of her sons, then turned to me. “Be safe,” she asked of me before giving me a great big mom hug. The kind I’d never received until meeting her. This time I hugged her back. She shoved a book in the waistband of my jeans. A withered book I never noticed her holding until now. Maybe she’d conjured it? However it came to her, it was nice she trusted me to be the caretaker of the clearly ancient tome.
Before I found myself ready for the separation, Shadow whisked me from his mother’s arms, out of our apartment, and up the staircase at the far end of the hallway—all the way up to the top landing, where we exited into an open area at the pinnacle of the mushroom cap.
There, Rogue, Crest, and Shadow transformed before my eyes to their magnificent bird forms. And more unbelievably, I could tell which man was which. Even if they hadn’t been perched in the same spots they’d stood as men. Eagle Rogue, well, he looked like Rogue in a weird way. The same with Crest. And I could never forget my Shadow.
Crest picked up my case in his talons. Shadow picked me up the same as he had when he’d
first brought me to the city and launched himself out from the turret, followed by his brothers. I tried to pull from Shadow’s claws to collect their clothing, knowing they’d be naked when we landed. He gripped my shoulders tighter in response and I heard in my head, “no need…”
Knowing now it would do me no good, I gave up the struggle to let him get on with it. My ears popped as we made the quick descent down the mountain and I wished I’d had some chewing gum. Halfway down, right as we met the tree line, we were met by Race and Bracken. I could tell them apart too.
We landed, not by the cabin, but farther up the cap of the volcano on the opposite side from the trail I’d followed when first reaching here. It felt like coming home at the same time the quiet rattled me. There were no nature sounds. Sure, there hadn’t been any before I’d gone to Cloud City, but now that I understood so much more had been happening than I had been aware of before, it seemed more worrisome than curious.
All the birds changed back to man as their feet touched the ground and I realized there was a reason he’d brought us here. Backpacks hung from the branches. Backpacks we didn’t bring with us so they had to have been placed here strategically for just such an occasion. Naked man after naked man reached up to retrieve a pack, pulling out pants and shirts and shoes. Wordlessly dressing.
The more I was around them, the less their nakedness affected me. Well, except for my man. In his case, I still couldn’t believe my luck. A natural instinct I couldn’t control had me wanting to pull him down to the ground on top of me and mate with my mate. Though it clearly wasn’t the time, so I checked that impulse quickly.
Shadow put his finger to his lips in a shushing motion. I nodded and waited. His eagle ears could pick up on what my regular—though apparently witch—ears never could.
Once he ascertained our safety, he pulled me into a hug, planting a mother of a kiss to my more-than-appreciative lips. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with the impulse to mate. He ended the kiss by dropping his nose to the tip of mine, running it up the bridge and back down.
“We need to make camp,” Race grumbled. “The dark is almost upon us and we still need a plan.”
“Did Shadow fill you in?” I asked.
“Did you hear us talking?” was his rude response.
“Well, no. But—”
“We cannot communicate through telepathy or whatever you think. God, woman, we are birds, not witches.” The word “witches” he’d spoken with more distain than the situation warranted.
Besides the fact that he clearly disliked witches, I knew his words to be untrue. Shifters could, in fact, communicate in bird form. I paid attention.
“Race.” From the tone of his voice, everyone could hear Shadow’s displeasure communicated through that one word. Not that Race didn’t deserve a browbeating, because I’d never done a damn thing to the man to bring on such ire, but we needed everyone on the same page here.
“Copper,” I cooed. “It’s okay, my love.”
His features instantly softened from my use of the nickname. Well, until his brother spoke.
“If that is how I will look when I pair-mate, please Saēna let me never find her,” Rogue teased. Then an “ouch” hit the air as Shadow, even with one arm still wrapped around me, punched his brother in the shoulder. Hard.
All the men except for Rogue, who stood rubbing his arm a minute longer, began searching out sticks and debris to make a fire. Just off from our little clearing, I spied a dead fir. Deciding I needed to do my bit, I kicked off my shoes to ground my power. According to Avalon, the more in control of my power I got, the less I’d have to kick off my shoes for these smaller spells. Until then, I dug my toes in the dirt and willed that dead tree to fall.
And fall it did.
My mate and his brothers smiled at me. Even Race gave a reluctant nod in my direction. Then the men began breaking the tree into manageable sections, and they did it barehanded. Where regular old human men needed a saw, Roc men tore the damn trunk apart.
And before they knew what hit them, a roaring fire burned warm and bright in front of me, encased by stones and dirt to keep the flames contained, thanks to my witchy powers.
I officially loved the supernatural.
Speaking of the supernatural, before I plopped down in front of the flames to warm my bones, I pulled the book from my waistband. Although handwritten in a language I didn’t know, I could read it just the same. Yeah, that was pretty freaking cool. Knowing I had this power would’ve come in handy in French class during high school.
The binding had withered. The pages yellowed. But the ink still held true and bold: Grimoire. A compendium of physicks and majik.
Physicks and majik?
Carefully, so as to not rip the ancient parchment, I flipped through each page. At first the writings looked like recipes for teas and such, but the more I read, the more I came to realize that Avalon had given me a book of spells and potions. Like a real witch.
The major problem being, I didn’t know what to do with any of it. Coming down the mountain took precedence over Avalon tackling spells as advanced as these with me. Forget about brewing potions… I could only hope it was like cooking. That, I could do.
Deep in thought and study, I felt Shadow slide in behind me, pulling my back to his chest. He plucked the book from my hands to look it over. “This belongs to my mother. She keeps it on her always.”
“She slipped it into the waistband of my jeans before we left.”
“My little witch,” he muttered. “We must talk.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“We found some disturbing news about the wolves. They are planning something big and may have aligned themselves with another immortal faction, though we do not know who as of yet.”
Oh, boy. I let out a slow breath. Not the news I wanted to hear. “What does that mean?”
“It means we could be on the brink of war once again. I fear for my people. The last was brutal and bloody with many casualties on both sides.”
Oh, boy was right.
Too bad he wasn’t finished. “But what I fear far more is for the fate of your people. Our enemy could be going after humans for reasons only they know of now.”
“Do you think it has to do with why they came after me on the mountain? Because that was no ordinary ‘I’m feeling peckish’ attack. We know they wanted me dead.”
Shadow’s breath hitch betrayed his lack of response. He didn’t know I’d been made privy to that information.
“I felt it, Copper. Up on that cap, I felt their hatred for me. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
“There is much in our world that lies beyond explanation, eaglet.”
“I’m scared.”
His arms tightened around me lovingly, yet protectively. “Do not worry. You are surrounded by men willing to give their lives to protect you.”
“I’m not scared for me, or not just me. I’m scared for all of us. Beings on all sides will be killed or injured. ‘The enemy’ is such an abstract concept. Not every human is good and so I have to assume not every wolf is bad. I’m sure the same could be said for every species out there.”
“Your mate is a wise woman, Shad.” Rogue dropped down next to us.
“That, she is.” Shadow pecked my cheek and I felt his pride, though I was merely being myself stating opinions that could’ve just as well have been spoken about humans from countries we’d been at war with in the past.
“What do we do?” I asked. “How do we stop it?”
“First, eaglet, we must find this man you heard calling.”
“I think the high test readings might be linked to the man, Shadow. It’s too, I don’t know, coincidental that there’s a man trapped and calling to me from the bottom of the very same dormant volcano that I was sent here to research.”
“My gut tells me we need to take heed, brother,” Rogue said.
“No truer words.” Crest surprised us by dropping down to the other side of Shadow and me. Although
he spread his legs out long in front of him and leaned back on his hands, he dropped his voice. “Hear that quiet, Meen?”
I nodded.
“Enough,” Shadow warned.
“What? She should know. I’ve only heard dead quiet like this two other times in my life.”
“And when was that?” I asked.
“When the—”
“Stop.” Shadow cut him off, but what the hell? No way. Crest was right; I needed to know this stuff.
“When who?” I asked.
“Blood demons,” Rogue finished.
Blood. Demons? “What the hell is a blood demon? Are you talking like vampires?”
“So much worse, Meen. So, so much worse.”
Chapter Twelve:
Safety Before Blood Demons
I grew up thinking no mythical monster could be worse than a vampire. I mean, they’re freaking vampires, for goodness’ sake. Sure, you had your run-of-the-mill boogie man and a scary step up from him was Slenderman. Werewolves came from Romania to terrorize London. Counts lived in Transylvania. I’d always thought these were figments of some clever writer’s imagination.
Witches weren’t real witches, but political pawns burned at the stake when they disagreed with the property line where Goodman Jacobs erected his fence. Or the old woman who sold teas to cure ailments when the preachers demanded you buy their religion instead.
No one said damn word one about men who turned into giant birds. Yet here I not only found myself mated to one, but that we’d been destined to meet because I happened to be a real live witch, and that all those other creatures lived real lives as well. And if that wasn’t wild enough, there were creatures in this world worse than vampires.
How bad did it have to be to be worse than a vampire?
The old me of only a few weeks ago would’ve said I needed my head examined believing in all this. There was no turning back now, however. New me knew the truth, had witnessed it with my own eyes. Had freaking fantastic sex with the truth. The best sex of my life, to be exact.
Flight: The Roc Warriors (Immortal Elements Book 1) Page 12
