FIRE AND ICE

Triple Trouble -0.7

Tymber Dalton

This one’s all for Sir. He knows why. Thank You.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This book is a prequel in the Triple Trouble series about the wolf shifter Lyall triplets, Ain, Brodey, and Cail, and how the dragons came to be part of their timeline. Dragon shifter twins Jan and Rick Alexandr, along with their mate, Lina, her Watcher, Zack, and Zack’s mate, Kael, make their first appearance in the story Boiling Point, available in the Tasty Treats Vol. 3 anthology. They make their second appearance in Steam. Both of those are also prequels to the Triple Trouble series.

This book takes place immediately where the events of Steam leave off, after Lina and her group’s return from Yellowstone, where Bertholde, the dragons’ Seer, was murdered. It is also the prequel to Trouble Comes in Threes (Triple Trouble 1). All available from Siren-BookStrand.

PART I

Chapter One

Now

Lina looked out the window at the night as they rode home from Tampa International.

Some fucking vacation.

Definitely not her idea of fun. Starting with a ton of boring meetings, then being abducted by a psychopathic cockatrice, fortunately rescued by wolf shifter Brodey Lyall, except then they were running for their lives from a forest fire and had to survive cold Yellowstone nights, having her binding Ceremony with her two dragon shifter men, then caught up in a criminal investigation when Bertholde, the dragon shifters’ Seer, was murdered…

It made her head hurt to think about it all. In a way, it made her heart hurt, too.

She could still smell Brodey Lyall’s scent on her from when they’d hugged good-bye.

Not that it wasn’t permanently embedded in her soul from their time spent together at Yellowstone.

As she tipped her head onto Rick’s shoulder, she closed her eyes and felt her mind slip.

The scene changed. She stood on a cold, chilly moor, watching two groups of kilt-clad Highlanders gathered around a raging fire and discussing a woman standing to the side.

Ysimel. Lina didn’t know how she knew the woman’s name, but she was certain of it.

When the image ended, Lina’s eyes popped open. Oh, fucking fantastic. This was like having funky cable that blipped in and out without a channel guide.

She stared out the window and watched I-75 slip past in the darkness. She hoped Brodey could hold on to his newly found peace until he and his brothers met their One. Lina would see them again in a couple of days, when she and their whole posse drove down to Arcadia, to the Lyalls’ ranch, for a confab.

Let’s add crazy visions to the discussion syllabus. Just what she didn’t need, more freaky powers. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the energy to think about it. She felt exhausted, and the gentle rhythm of the van proved too much. When she closed her eyes again, she let her mind drift and realized that even though Brodey was heading in the opposite direction with his brother and cousin, she could still clearly sense his presence. As if he were now a part of her, in a similar but different way as her mates, Jan and Rick, were part of her.

The way Zack was part of her.

She loved Brodey, without a doubt. Not the same way she loved Jan and Rick, and definitely not the same way she loved Zack, but what Bertholde told them rang through her memory.

“Before all here, let it be known they are bound. The Goddess and her men, her Watcher and his love, and the protector and friend who returned her safely home. An unbreakable bond, a completed circle. The wolf and his Clan are, from here on, considered part of us and ours.”

If only she could get five uninterrupted minutes and a few straight answers out of that frickin’ Baba Yaga woman. It wasn’t as though anyone had given her a Goddess instruction manual when they dumped this gig on her.

You’d think the damn woman could at least take me out to Starbucks for a latte and tell me how not to randomly blow things up.

The sounds and feel of the van completely melted away around her. When Lina opened her eyes, she realized she sat in a living room, on a simple, but comfortably stuffed couch. The room appeared to be some older kind of cottage, with plaster walls and wood furniture. A cheery fire roared in a large stone fireplace.

Lina heard a noise behind her and turned to look. Standing in what looked like a very modern and well-appointed kitchen was Baba Yaga in her matronly form. “Coffee, Goddess?”

Lina fought the urge to roll her eyes, but she stood and walked over to the counter. “Yes, please.”

Apparently, Baba Yaga had all the modern conveniences. If the outside of this place still looked as dumpy as Lina remembered, it was a great disguise to discourage robbers. No one would ever suspect she had a top-of-the-line Capresso coffeemaker sitting on her counter.

Lina scanned the room. And what looked like a fifty-inch plasma TV hanging on the wall across from the fireplace.

“Wow. You really have all the conveniences…here. Where exactly is here, anyway? I never got that answer last time. I was too worried about getting Zack unkilled and all that.”

Baba Yaga smiled and slid a cup of coffee over to Lina. “Cream and sugar?”

“Yes, please. With a side of answers, thank you.”

The woman chuckled as she walked over to her fridge. Also stainless, like the coffeemaker, stove, and dishwasher. “Patience, Goddess. Let’s enjoy our brew. This is far better than Starbucks.”

“Is this some sort of time warp where the guys don’t even know I’m gone? Or am I still physically in the van, but I’m mentally here?”

“Either. Or both.”

“You really know how to confuse the hell out of me, do you know that? It’s starting to piss me the hell off.”

“Then do something.”

“Like what? Blow you up like I did psycho chicken?”

“Cockatrice. Send yourself back to the van if you don’t wish to stay and talk with me.” She shrugged. “You are the one who came here seeking answers.”

“You’re telling me I brought myself here?”

“Now you’re starting to catch on, Goddess.”

“Forgive me, but it’s been a craptastic week.”

She nodded toward Lina’s mug. “Drink your coffee.”

“Is this really coffee?”

Baba Yaga smiled. “Yes. It’s really good coffee.”

“I certainly hope so. Giving me crap coffee would just be adding insult to injury, ya know.” She added cream and sugar, stirred, then lifted it to her nose for a tentative sniff. It certainly smelled like really good coffee. A careful sip proved it was really good coffee. “Thank you.”

Baba Yaga smiled and slipped onto another barstool across the counter from Lina. “I was wondering how long it would take you to figure out you could come talk with me.”

“Gee, thanks for the heads-up.”

Baba Yaga shrugged. “You must be able to do these things. I cannot interfere.”

“Not even little hints? And, oh, by the way, why the hell can’t you interfere? You brought Zack back to life after Edgar shot him.”

The other woman smiled. “Because I brought you and Zack together. It wouldn’t be fair of me not to keep you together when it is meant to be. Especially when I promised.”

“Because you…” Lina had a thought. “Waaaait a doggone minute. You would have saved Zack’s life regardless, wouldn’t you?”

Baba Yaga didn’t answer. She simply sipped her coffee.

Lina spotted the sly smile she tried to hide behind her mug.

“You won’t answer me, will you?” Lina asked.

“Answer what, Goddess? You have the answers you seek. To that question, at least.”

Lina tried to hold her simmering temper in check. “If you won’t give me the answers I do want and need, then what can you tell me?”

Baba Yaga set her mug down on the counter and cupped it between her hands. Lina felt something in the very air of the cabin shift. A sense of deep grief washed over her. Before her eyes, Baba Yaga transformed into her maiden form, appearing close to Lina’s own age.

This woman looked deeply saddened, world-weary, and worn. Without even thinking about it, Lina reached out and touched her hand. A nearly overwhelming wave of sadness threatened to swamp Lina.

Baba Yaga closed her eyes. “There are many entwined threads in this tapestry, Goddess,” she softly said. “They start so very long ago in the past. How much have you willingly recalled in your memories?”

When Lina mated with Jan and Rick, memories of her past lives had flooded back into her brain. Memories Zack, as her Watcher, had consciously held throughout all their lives together. Lina still chose not to actively pursue those memories in her own brain.

Lina sniffled as her own eyes watered. “I remember a lot, but there’s a lot more I haven’t even tried to remember. It hurts too much.” She really didn’t want to think about her previous lives with Zack. While she knew there were lots of happy memories with him, it also meant recalling the sad. People she had known and loved.

Their children…

Baba Yaga sadly sighed. “Let us start at the beginning, then, child.” She gently squeezed Lina’s hand before disengaging herself. She stood and motioned to Lina with her coffee mug. “The sofa will be more comfortable. We’ll be here a while.”

Chapter Two

Then

Two as one, halves of a whole.

Two different minds, one mingled soul.

Love in every life, in every heart, forever,

Until finding of twin love does sever.

Death impermanent, after battle won

With love renewed under future sun.

The lovers three will sisters call

At Goddess’ lead at risk of all.

Etched in stone by sacred well

Her powers scribed in triad spell.

Dark Gods in vain bring forth the fight

Only to fall to Lovers’ might.

Pride and ego and power sought

By Dark Gods for evil purpose comes to naught.

The lovers three will vanquish all

Although two, then one, certainly fall.

Last to sleep, the Watcher lay,

To rejoin his love soon another day.

Life and life and life again,

The two as one always begin.

When two return and Dark Gods wake

With evil intent and lives to take

The two shall find her, in prophecy new

And Watcher again shall step from view.

Until then in every life

Watcher faithful shall claim his wife

After thirty-five years have come and gone

And together, two once more joined as one

Will have their joy, Goddess unaware

That Watcher alone their past keeps care.

—Ancient Slavic Prophecy

The woman held her baby close to her breast as her husband helped her climb the treacherous stone steps. Nine days’ journey on foot had brought them here.

To their destiny. To their son’s destiny.

To, hopefully, their people’s destiny. This was what their Seer had told them. They could not in good conscience refuse the journey.

Thick stands of fragrant pine trees shielded their view of what lay ahead. When they finally crested the valley wall, they found themselves in a clearing. The cottage, primitive, small, and dingy, sat in the middle as they’d been told. Foul grey smoke billowed from the chimney. As they walked toward the white fence surrounding the yard, they realized with chilling fear that the pickets were human bones. Bleached human skulls lit from within by an eerie supernatural flame topped the fence every so often.

The cottage’s rough-hewn wooden door opened, and an old crone tottered out. She wore a black robe of coarse material. The smile on her face sent tendrils of fear through the wife’s heart.

“Ah, good. You arrived on time,” the crone said, smiling. Unfortunately, the gesture didn’t impart any joy or good humor to her features. “That is very good. Is this the little one?”

The wife nodded.

The crone met them at the gate and held out her arms. “Let me see him.”

When the woman hesitated, the crone cackled. “I swear to you I will not eat him. I wish to see if he is as special as I believe him to be.”

After her husband nodded to her, she carefully handed their son over.

The crone softly mumbled something in a strange language to the baby. The baby smiled and reached for one of her fingers.

“Very good. He is the one.” She looked at the couple. “You understand the destiny of your line?”

The couple nodded.

“Excellent. I need to borrow him for a few minutes. I promise you, he will not be harmed. Wait here.” The crone carried the baby inside her house and shut the door behind her. She closed her eyes and transformed into her matron form, appearing to be a beautiful middle-aged woman. Then she disappeared, reappearing inside a room in a castle.

A nursemaid sat dozing in a shaft of sunlight by the open window while dust motes danced on the beams. The woman smiled at the baby boy in her arms as she walked over to the ornately hand-carved cradle in the other corner of the room.

Inside the cradle lay a beautiful, chubby, red-haired baby girl. The girl smiled when she spotted the woman holding the baby boy.

The woman lifted her finger to her lips and smiled. “Hush, little one,” she whispered. “Do not wake your nurse.”

From a pocket in her gown, she withdrew a silver dagger and carefully laid the baby boy in the cradle next to the baby girl. She traced a finger over the girl’s left palm in an intricate pattern as she muttered under her breath. She repeated it with the boy’s right palm then used the dagger to duplicate the pattern in their flesh that her finger had just traced.

Both babies watched her, but because of the spell, neither felt the blade’s bite.

She pressed their palms together and held them in place. “Together forever, little ones,” she whispered. “Eternity. You’ll love each other in every life, in every heart. Forever. Goddess Zaria and your Watcher. You have many prophecies to fulfill together, starting with this life.”

When she parted their hands, the little girl looked like she wanted to sniffle when she realized she was losing her new friend.

“Shh, Zaria, do not fret. You will get him back soon enough. He is your very special friend and he always will be.” She pulled a small stoppered vial of charmed water from another pocket. Using a clean, white linen rag, she wiped their hands free of blood. Only a faint line remained behind on their palms, proof of their joining.

She picked up the baby boy. “Come now, Zachary. Let us return you to your mother before she worries herself to death.”

She returned to her cottage, shifted into her crone form once again, and walked outside to the parents where she handed the baby boy to his relieved mother. “Bring him back here in five years. Meanwhile, go to the flagyer stronghold in Abruzzia. Ask for Donatello Capricci, their leader. Do you know how to get there?”

The father nodded.

“Good. Take him there, and live there with them, tell them Baba Yaga said they are to offer you sanctuary and protection and to escort you back here at the appointed time.”

“He is the one? The Watcher of the Goddess?”

She shifted into her matronly form again because it tended to frighten people less, although people usually took the crone’s words more carefully to heart. “Absolutely. Your little boy will help fulfill not just the most important prophecy, but many others. He will save your people. Not only in this life, but in every life to come.” She reached out and stroked the boy’s arm. He smiled at her.

Baba Yaga felt her heart twist at the sight of his toothless smile. She wanted to cry, but steeled herself.

The mother anxiously nodded and nervously smiled. “He’s a good baby. He never fusses, never cries.”

Baba Yaga forced a smile. “Of course he is a good baby. He is the protector of a Goddess. No mere colic can darken his temperament.” She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Now go. Straight to Abruzzia. You may never return home or his life might be in peril.”

The parents solemnly nodded and hurried off. As they disappeared down the path, she straightened and shifted into her youngest form, of the maiden. It was most comfortable, a twenty-something body she by all rights should have lost claim to countless millennia earlier.

Perk of eternal life.

As Baba Yaga turned toward her home, she started at the sight of a woman standing behind her. “What was that all about, eh?” the woman asked.

“None of your business, Cailleach,” Baba Yaga angrily said, pushing the other woman aside and striding toward her home. “Why aren’t you busy shagging some poor guy senseless? Last I heard, you and Brighde had some sort of wager. Wasn’t it to see how many men you could use to death before winter solstice?” She had no use for either of her two younger sisters. Neither were sensible nor helpful.

Cailleach followed her into the cabin, which was actually much nicer and larger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. “That sounds intriguing, sister.” She tossed a long, blonde lock away from her forehead. Sometimes the woman preferred to take on the appearance of a ginger-headed beauty to look like a local in the lands she ruled.

Sometimes she just liked to show off her gorgeous looks, like today.

“You have your work to do,” Baba Yaga snarled. “So do me the courtesy to leave me to mine. I have people I tend to and care for. They and their business are no concern of yours.”

Cailleach flopped down into a soft chair and twirled another unruly flaxen lock around her finger. “The more you push me away, the more it interests me. Come on, tell me what’s going on, Babs.”

Baba Yaga spun around, a ball of flame forming in her palm. “Do not call me that,” she said with a growl.

Cailleach’s eyes narrowed as a smile split her face. “It’s got to be about a man, isn’t it? You don’t really care about these people at all. Someone finally breached that damned rocky heart of yours, didn’t he?”

With a howl of rage, Baba Yaga flung the fireball at her younger sister. Cailleach didn’t even flinch as she waved her hand in front of her. The fireball harmlessly dissipated across an icy mist before Cailleach also waved that away.

She stood, her green eyes sparking as she advanced on her older sister. “You can’t fool me, Old One. Just because you are the eldest by quite a lot and then some, it doesn’t mean I don’t know more than you in some things. Who is he?”

With a cry, Baba Yaga burst into tears and crumpled to the floor. After overcoming her momentary shock, Cailleach stooped beside her older sister and gathered her into her arms. No matter what their differences in opinion or temperament, they were still sisters.

“Tell me,” she softly entreated.

Unable to speak his name, Baba Yaga could do nothing but sob her agony against her sister’s shoulder. So many ages of loneliness just to find love and have it snatched away so quickly that even her powers could do nothing to save him. If only she’d been able to reach him sooner.

Finally, she could tell the story. “He was of the dragon line.”

“When did he die?” Cailleach gently asked.

“Over a hundred years ago.”

“You lost him that long ago and never summoned us?”

“To do what? Look at a rocky cairn and talk about a man you never met?”

“Why is that child so important?”

Baba Yaga sat back and wiped her eyes on her skirt. “I made a promise as I buried him. I told him I would not let his line die out. We met when he came to me, entreating me for help to save his people. Willing to sacrifice himself to me to do it. I couldn’t harm him. I fell in love with him.”

Her face darkened. “Those damned cockatrice killed him. Before I realized what had happened, they’d…they’d…” She began crying again, the memory of the horror of the discovery of her lover drawn and quartered too much to bear even this many years past. A drop of time ago in her long life despite outliving many mortals time and again.

Cailleach brushed the hair from Baba Yaga’s face. “There was nothing you could do?” she softly asked. “Even summoning us would not have helped?”

Baba Yaga closed her eyes and shook her head. “His soul had already departed into the Ether.”

“But why is this child so important?”

Baba Yaga couldn’t speak it. She’d already bent enough rules as it was.

Cailleach gathered her close and held her, rocking her. “I’m so sorry, sister. Is there anything I can do to help? I swear to you, if there is, I will give my all to do it.”

For once, Baba Yaga sensed absolute sincerity from her younger and usually self-absorbed sister. “Actually, if you really mean it, yes. There is.”

Chapter Three

Five years later

Zaria looked up at her nursemaid. “Amma, who are all those people?” She pointed out the window to the large party, at least thirty people, who had arrived in the castle’s courtyard.

The old nurse gave her a smile that Zaria saw right through, even though she was only five years old. “It’s a party, little Sunshine. Come, it is time for your bath. We will have guests wishing to see you later.”

Zaria didn’t want any part of a bath but knew the fastest way to get it over with was to cooperate. The little girl obediently let her nurse bathe her. As soon as her bath was over and Amma had dressed her, she raced out of her room and downstairs to investigate the fuss firsthand.

Amma chased behind her down the stairs as fast as her elderly legs would carry her. One of the knights stopped Zaria before she could bolt out the door.

“Where you going, little one?” he asked.

“I want to see what is going on!” Zaria jammed her little hands on her hips and stared up at him with a fierce look on her cherubic face.

He laughed and picked her up as Amma hustled up behind her, red-faced and out of breath. “You will see what’s going on soon enough,” he told the little girl. He handed her over to her nurse. “King Elsleng sent me in to fetch you, as a matter of fact.”

Zaria’s petulant glare turned to one of wonder. “Really? Father sent for me?”

“Really. Follow me.” He led them outside to the courtyard. Several knights surrounded someone, but whoever they guarded couldn’t be seen through their solid wall of manflesh. Zaria’s mother and father stood to the side, talking to someone who appeared to be an old woman, but her back was turned to Zaria.

Amma set Zaria down. She raced over to her father’s side, grabbing his hand and turning to look at the strange old woman. Zaria recoiled at first, until she spotted the clandestine wink the old crone gave her.

There was something familiar about her. Whatever it was, Zaria instinctively knew that while every single adult here feared this woman, she would never hurt her.

“Ah, there she is,” the old woman said. She knelt down and stared into Zaria’s eyes. “Show them your left palm, little one.”

Confused but trusting, Zaria held up her palm. Every now and then she felt a funny tingle in the lines across her flesh, but they never hurt, and she never thought anything of it before.

Her mother, however, gasped with surprise.

“Bring him!” the crone ordered.

The guards led over a young boy about Zaria’s age, followed by a nervous couple that must be his parents. Zaria brightened as the boy smiled at her.

The crone laughed. “See? They know each other. Zachary, hold up your right hand.”

The little boy smiled and held up his hand. The crowd went silent at the sight of an identical sign on his palm.

In wonder, Zaria released her father’s hand and walked over to her new friend. They compared the marks on their hands, then linked fingers. It felt like a missing part of her was now returned.

Her father nodded, stunned. “What exactly is it that you need, Baba Yaga?” he softly asked. “It is yours if I can give it.”

“You have it wrong.” She nodded at Zaria and Zachary. “It is what these two will give your people when they are older. And then again later, eons from now. The prophecies cannot be denied.” From somewhere in the depths of her cape, Baba Yaga produced an ornately carved wooden tube and handed it to him. “I cannot influence the course of the prophecies. You know this. Only humans can do that. What the Seers scribe is not up to me. They are guided by the Universe, the Goddess of all, not by me.”

Stunned, the king stared at the wooden tube in his hands. “But…if this is true, and she is the Goddess, does that not make her more than human?”

“While she is a goddess, she is not the Goddess. The Goddess is eternal. Zaria is human born. Perhaps saying she is ‘human’ isn’t the correct word, then. Let us say she is ‘mortal.’” Baba Yaga sadly smiled down at the two children. “Teach them well. They will be the salvation of your kind several times over.”

Baba Yaga left the king and queen with clear instructions before her departure. Never forcibly separate the two children, even when they were older and others deemed their closeness improper. Train Zachary well, especially in arms and defense, but always return him to Zaria’s side every evening.

To never force Zaria to marry, because she must be free to follow her heart, no matter how improper it might appear to others at the time. Once she found her love, whatever form it took, she must be allowed to pursue it.

Their very survival rode upon their adherence to these things.

As the children grew, it wasn’t difficult to see their close bond. They could even finish each other’s sentences. Both children proved highly intelligent, and schooling them was a pure joy to their instructors. The children excelled in their scholarly studies, becoming voracious readers. Zaria accompanied Zachary to his lessons at the hands of the king’s most highly skilled knights, and she, too, learned how to shoot an arrow straight and true, how to wield a sword, and how to fight.

It was Zachary who comforted Zaria when her mother succumbed to a fever when she was ten. No adult could console her, but she would sit for hours with her head in Zachary’s lap while he softly sang to her. Anyone could see the children were perfect for each other. Some even suspected they might eventually wed each other.

For the most part, peace ruled her father’s land. As the children grew into young adults, rumors of violent attacks began filtering in from the outmost boundaries of the kingdom.

* * *

Their eighteenth birthdays, only weeks apart, were celebrated together by the king and his people with a great festival. Both Zaria and Zachary refused gifts, instead asking their people to share with less fortunate citizens in the land. Their generosity of spirit was yet another reason the people loved them.

One afternoon while Zaria napped, Zachary took a walk through the king’s apple orchards. He loved to explore the grounds and took simple pleasure in the peaceful feelings it brought him.

He’d stopped to eat an apple in the shade of a tree when he knew he wasn’t alone.

Turning, he spotted the crone. While she’d never come to him in the flesh before, she frequented his dreams over the years.

“Hello, Zachary.”

He nodded. “Baba Yaga.”

Before him, she transformed into her matronly form and sat on the grass in front of him. “Do you know why I’m here?”

He suspected. He’d seen and read all of the prophecies she’d left with the king, although no one knew he had. He’s snuck into the king’s drawing room late at night when everyone slept and spent hours poring over them. He knew them by heart. “Is it time?”

“You are very perceptive. Time draws quite short. Do you understand your purpose in this life?”

“I am the Watcher of the Goddess.”

“Yes. I know you love her, but she is to be no more than your Goddess in this life. Believe me when I say you will find the sacrifice painful, but worth it.”

He studied the grass in front of him, finding the strength of the woman’s stare overwhelming. “I love her. She loves me, too. I do not understand why I cannot have her.”

Baba Yaga reached over and grasped his hand. “Because for her powers to develop, she must mate with the dragons.”

He looked up sharply. “Dragons? As in more than one? What do you have planned for her?”

Baba Yaga shook her head. “It is not my plan. It is what the prophecy decrees. If it is not fulfilled, the cockatrice will win. That cannot be allowed to happen. It is for a greater good that you must put aside your personal feelings, in this life.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Saying what?”

“‘In this life.’”

“She will be yours for too many lives to count until the next prophecy. Even then, when that eventually happens, you will still find love and happiness. So please take comfort in that. Great pain precedes childbirth. Consider this a birth, of sorts. You will always remember her and how much you love her. I want you to know that the pain you will feel will soon be overshadowed by all the joy you will reap.”

She released his hand and stood. “Keep her safe and loved, Zachary. She is the key.”

With that, she disappeared.

He leaned back against the trunk of the apple tree. He didn’t want this responsibility. He didn’t want to hurt. He only wanted to love his sweet Zaria.

* * *

King Elsleng and his knights gathered in the large drawing room, the blazing fire doing little to take the chill from his heart. Five more villages destroyed in the last fortnight, all of the residents brutally slaughtered.

“Cockatrice,” Sir Ahglad spat. “These heathen cowards must be eliminated.”

The king nodded. “We will,” he said. “The prophecy guarantees it, but we have yet to find the key to their weak spots.”

The door opened. Two young, tall, brawny men were escorted in. One swarthy and dark, the other pale and blond. “Perhaps we can help,” the blond one said.

He stood. “Who are you?”

The two strangers shared a glance before the blond one spoke again. “We ask first, your Majesty, for future amnesty from unjust persecution for our kind.”

Several knights reached for their swords, but the king stayed them with a raised hand. “What is your kind?”

The dark one spoke. “Our people have also been slain by the cockatrice. Not just men, either. Women. Children. Innocent babes. Many of them used in the performance of dark and evil sorcery that is against everything our people believe in. All for the sake of wiping out resistance to their sinister forces so they can take over the land. Take over your holdings. To slay the Goddess Zaria and steal her powers.”

“I’m listening. State your piece.”

“We are dragons, your Majesty. Shape-shifters. The cockatrice have taken up arms against all shifter races who have tried to peaceably coexist with humans for eons. Wolves. Felines. Bears. Selkies. All have fallen before the cockatrice. They are saving humans for last to enslave you.”

An uproar circled the room at this revelation. The blond one held up his hand. “Baba Yaga came to our flagyer’s Seer and told her of the Goddess Zaria and her Watcher when they were born. We were told Baba Yaga can verify what we say is truth. That your prophecy as well as our own bears us out.”

The room went silent and still, all eyes now on the king.

Finally, he slowly nodded. “Before we bring Zaria here, I will know your names. And you will swear allegiance to me.”

Both men, in movement faster than anyone could follow, dropped to one knee, offering their swords hilt first to the king with upraised hands and bowed heads.

The blond one said, “I am Stribog. I hereby pledge allegiance to the death to King Elsleng.”

The dark one followed. “I am Svarog. I hereby pledge allegiance to the death to King Elsleng.”

Stunned, the king took Stribog’s sword and touched the tip to one shoulder, then the other. “I hereby accept your allegiance and decree you to be a knight of my kingdom.” He repeated it with Svarog. “Now stand, both of you. I wish to see proof of your claims of being dragons.”

The men shared a glance. They quickly disrobed and, with a shocked gasp from the other knights, they shifted into dragons before them. Stribog turned into a beautiful bluish-green dragon with a long neck and tail. He lowered his head to the floor, at the king’s feet.

The king smiled, then laughed. Svarog, now a reddish-orange dragon of stouter build, followed suit. “I see what I see.” He looked at his other knights. “Do my eyes deceive me?”

Stunned, the other knights slowly shook their heads.

“Return to us, my two newest knights!”

The dragons shifted back into their human forms and began dressing.

“So now,” the king said, “the question is, do the rest of your kind, and other shifters, pledge allegiance to me as well?”

“We can speak for the dragons when we say yes. We do not speak for other shifters, but it is our understanding that they wish no humans harm. They only wish to live their lives in peace. They will ally with humans and other shifters against the cockatrice threat. There are more on the way, and they can speak for themselves when they arrive.”

“Very good then. I hereby decree that from this day forward, unless proven to have committed a crime, no shifter except a cockatrice shall be molested by humans. They shall be allowed to live in peace as long as they are living peaceably.”

The knights nodded.

* * *

Zachary and Zaria were quietly talking in their chamber when her maid knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Zaria called.

The woman walked in, her head bowed. “Beg your pardon, but your father wishes you both to join him in the large drawing room.”

The two exchanged a glance. “Both of us?” Zachary clarified.

“Yes, sir.”

A chill settled over his soul. “We will be right there,” he said.

The maid curtsied, then left them.

Zaria looked frightened. He hated that. He wanted her to feel nothing but joy and love in her life.

He also hated that he felt frightened. Tales of more massacres had filtered to them through the servants’ whispered discussions in the scullery and back corridors. How much truth could be found in the stories had yet to be determined.

He grasped her hands in his and squeezed, raising them to his lips to kiss them. “My sweet, beautiful Goddess. I love you.”

She smiled. Their usual ritual, even though they both knew their love would never take flesh in this life. “I love you, too, Zachary. I always will.”

He nodded. “In every life.”

“In every heart.”

“Forever,” they whispered together.

He helped her stand. “Come. We cannot keep the king waiting.” Arm in arm, they headed out the door to whatever fate awaited.

* * *

She’d never seen so many of her father’s knights gathered in one place before. Not even at the annual games.

That they all bore identically grim expressions didn’t bode well.

She squeezed Zachary’s hand more tightly. “Father? You summoned us?”

He nodded and walked over to them, standing behind them, his hand on each of their shoulders. “We are suffering from dire times, my child. Many of the prophecies are finally coming to fruition. There is evil advancing across our lands.” He lifted his hand from her shoulder and motioned two strangers over.

She stared, entranced by the handsome men. One, with blue eyes, blond hair, and a fair expression. The other, exact in build, but with swarthy skin, amber eyes, and brown hair. Her heart fluttered at the sight of them. She’d never seen men so handsome before.

The two men dropped to one knee before her and bowed their heads. “The Goddess, Zaria,” they said together.

With a speed she never knew he possessed, Zachary drew the sword from the scabbard of the knight closest to them and stepped between her and the two strangers, with the point of the sword at the throat of the fair one. He also seemed to have grown nearly a foot in height.

“You get no further,” his voice boomed, “unless you prove to me you are the ones.”

Neither stranger moved, but the fair one spoke. “We follow our prophecy, Watcher.”

“Do you promise to protect her?”

The darker one spoke without looking up. “With our lives. We swear it.”

“Then say it. Speak the words of the prophecy.” He pulled the tip of the sword back so both men could look up at her.

Her heart melted. With a set of blue eyes and a set of amber eyes both impaling her soul, the men spoke in unison.

“Forever in our hearts, eternity in our soul, our one and true we shall cherish and love and defend. Everything we have and are, is yours. But this we swear, our love will never waver, and we will protect you forever and forever, with our lives, we swear to you we will.”

She suddenly felt faint, swooning. Somehow, without losing his sword, Zachary caught her with one arm and kept the strangers away from her.

With her arms draped around his neck, she met his gaze, which suddenly appeared very, very sad. “What happened?” she whispered. “Who are these men?”

He handed the sword off to her father and caressed her cheek. “The prophecy must be followed.” He kissed her forehead. “In every life.”

She closed her eyes and realized that her future lay with these two strangers. Already, the pull of the two strangers in her soul couldn’t be denied. “In every heart,” she responded.

“Forever,” they both said.

Zachary made sure she was steady on her own feet and motioned the two men closer. “What are your names?” he asked.

Neither man looked at Zachary, their eyes only on her. She realized she couldn’t take her eyes off of them, either. Both were stunningly handsome, and taller than her by nearly a head.

“Stribog,” the fair one replied.

“Svarog,” the swarthy one said.

Zachary took her hands in his, and with a final, tender squeeze, he placed her hands in theirs.

The breath rushed from her. It felt…so right. In a different way than Zachary being with her all the time.

She looked at Zachary. He nodded. “It is the prophecy, Goddess.” He stroked her hair, then spoke to the men. “She will take you to her chambers.”

“But where will you sleep, Zachary?” she cried. She’d never spent a night apart from him. The thought frightened her a little, although a new feeling of pleasant anticipation grew deep within her at the thought of these two men being her husbands.

“I will find other quarters. I will have the maid move my things. These are your men, as the prophecy said. If we are all to live, if our race is to survive, then we must follow our fate.”

He turned to the king. “Sire, call the abbot in to bless their union.”

The king looked shocked. “Their union? Surely you can’t mean—”

Zachary stepped in close. “Sire, are you saying you will defy Baba Yaga and the prophecies and condemn us all?”

All the knights’ discontent grumblings over the latest development immediately silenced.

Zaria fell silent, too. That Zachary dared to stand up to her father surprised her most of all. He seemed different, changed. Hardened.

Her father’s gaze narrowed. Then he slowly nodded. “Aye, you are right, Zachary. We were warned of this.” He looked at her. “Daughter. Take these two men to the antechamber hence.” He motioned to a small doorway off to the right that she knew led to his private sitting area. “Talk with them. In ten minutes, I will summon you to give me your decision. You alone have the final say.”

This was racing too fast. “Wedding? To them both?” She studied all the faces surrounding her and felt the world go black as she fainted.

Chapter Four

Zaria came to in Zachary’s arms, aware that she was lying upon the chilly flagstones. “What happened?” she asked.

Zachary stroked her face. “You fainted, Goddess.”

Stribog and Svarog anxiously looked down at her as Zachary helped her sit up. “I’m all right.”

Her father, now standing with the frowning abbot, spoke up. “We need to settle this, Zaria. Are you truly all right?”

She nodded. “I’m fine.” She looked at her two suitors again as Zachary helped her to her feet. “I think we need to go talk.”

Zachary kept his arm around her waist until he guided her out of the room and into her father’s chair in the antechamber. The two dragons hesitated at the doorway. When Zachary tried to step away, she held fast to him.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I do not want to lose you.”

He sadly smiled and stroked her cheek. “I love you, too, Goddess. But there are prophecies to heed.” He knelt in front of her. “Do not fear what your heart tells you. Follow it. Do not worry about me. I will always be here for you. In every life.”

She sadly smiled. “In every heart.”

“Forever,” they whispered together. He stood and kissed her on the forehead. Then he walked to the door and motioned the two dragons in before he stepped out, shutting the door behind him.

She nervously looked at the two dragon shifters. What should she say?

They knelt in front of her, staring up at her in wonder and love. “Goddess,” Svarog said, “we never believed the prophecies until we saw you in the flesh. Please believe it when we say we love you.”

Stribog nodded. “Absolutely. We are rarely in agreement on anything. On this, we agree. You complete us.”

She’d never been with a man before, and yet here were the two most handsome men she’d ever laid eyes upon, and they wanted her. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

They both nodded. “So are we,” Svarog admitted. “We are afraid you will refuse us.”

“What? No! Why would I refuse you?”

“Because we’re dragons,” Stribog said. “We are not humans.”

She shook her head. “That doesn’t matter to me.” She opened her arms to them and they both laid their heads in her lap. She stroked their hair. Stribog’s blond hair was slightly wavy. Svarog’s straight, dark hair felt softer, finer.

A warm wave of energy seemed to wash off the two men, a loving glow she wanted to spend the rest of her life basking in. This felt right.

“I have never been with a man before,” she bashfully admitted.

Both men looked up, smiles on their faces. “We will have fun teaching you,” Stribog gently said.

The men looked up at her. She kissed Stribog, then Svarog. As she looked into their loving eyes, a sense of peace the likes of which she’d never before experienced settled over her. This was her fate.

These men were her fate.

In their hands, they held the future of their people.

She would not refuse them or the task placed upon her by the prophecies. “Let us call Father, Zachary, and the abbot in.”

* * *

The abbot’s sour expression didn’t improve during the brief ceremony, which was held out in the main gathering room before all the other knights.

“This is the prophecy,” the king said after the abbot had joined the three lovers. “Regardless of anything else, we must believe in it. It is our future, our people’s salvation.” He took Zaria’s hands and kissed them. “Go with your men, daughter. We shall talk on the morrow.”

She turned to Zachary and hugged him. “I love you,” she whispered in his ear.

“I know, Goddess. As I love you.” He kissed her forehead and gently disengaged himself from her. He offered her a smile. “Your father is right. This is the future. Do not be sad.”

She turned to the two men who were now her husbands. Fear and excitement pleasantly blended with another emotion in her belly.

Desire.

* * *

The maid, obviously forewarned, had prepared Zaria’s chamber. Fresh linens on the bed, a hot bath drawn in the washtub, and no trace of Zachary’s things remaining in her room.

On that last point, Zaria felt a melancholy pang of sadness. She could not remember a time when Zachary wasn’t in her life. They’d shared the same chambers since children, never spent a night apart.

As the door closed behind them, she turned to study the men. So alike, yet so different. “What are your powers?” she nervously asked, forestalling the inevitable.

Stribog smiled. “We are dual elemental dragons,” he said. “I am ice and water, along with earth.”

Svarog nodded. “I am air and fire.”

“May I see what you look like as dragons?” she timidly asked.

“Of course,” Svarog said. The men quickly stripped. Zaria blushed at seeing their manhoods, which looked ample in size. But before she could spend too much time considering that, both men transformed into dragons before her.

Fortunately, she was standing at the end of her bed. Her knees gave out and she sat, her breath shallow and limbs shaky. Before her stood two magnificent beasts approximately seven feet tall, beautiful creatures that looked nothing like the maligned monsters of the myths.

Stribog’s blue and green scales delicately shimmered like rainbows across his smooth body. His neck, longer and more graceful looking than Svarog’s, arched as he lowered his head to the floor and made a sound not unlike the purring of a cat.

Svarog’s stouter body was covered in reddish-orange scales in all the hues of a beautiful autumnal forest. With a powerful body she could easily imagine spouting fire, he, too, lowered his head to the floor and purred.

When she felt she could stand without fainting, she stood and slowly approached them. Then she sat on the floor before them, carefully reaching out to pet their heads. Neither dragon moved. In fact, they both closed their eyes and continued their contented purring.

Svarog’s flesh felt far warmer than that of his brother. Neither felt slimy, like a fish. Both felt smooth and silky on the surface, but with an underlying strength and a rippling of well-defined muscles beneath.

After a few minutes, Zaria nodded. “Please, change back.”

Almost before she could finish the statement, both men knelt before her.

Naked.

She blushed.

“Can you also fly?” she asked while trying very hard not to stare at their cocks.

“Yes,” Svarog said. “That is our smallest dragon form. In our largest form, we have wings and can fly.”

Perhaps Stribog sensed how nervous she was. “May we bathe you, Goddess?”

She blushed again, but nodded. Not that she didn’t want to sleep with them, because she felt pleasant tingles in her nipples and clit that she’d never felt before. However, she was nervous.

Not bothering to don clothes, the men stood, helped her to her feet, and led her over to the bathing tub. She closed her eyes as they helped her disrobe and carefully step into the perfectly warm water.

As she sank below the surface up to her neck, she looked at them again. They knelt on either side of the tub, Svarog on her left, Stribog on her right. As Stribog kissed her, Svarog picked up a washcloth and soap and began to bathe her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the taste of Stribog gently exploring and tasting as he kissed her with deliciously cool lips.

Svarog’s warm, strong hand tenderly stroked her flesh, slowly, getting her used to his touch. As she relaxed and her body responded, Stribog also slipped a hand beneath the water and caressed her.

Never in her life had she felt like this. Now she understood the meaning of desire. Her body felt alive in a way she’d never known. Instinctively, she reached up and hooked her arm around Stribog’s neck, holding him close, holding on to him.

Svarog cupped and caressed her breasts under the water, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her nipple and making it tightly peak.

She softly gasped at the sparks surging through her body at the sensation.

Stribog reached lower, his hand caressing her belly, lower. As his fingers slipped between her legs and through the soft nest of curls at the juncture of her thighs, her legs opened wider for him.

He parted her labia and found her swollen clit. Gently, he began stroking it with his fingers as she moaned into his mouth.

Svarog’s hand also stroked lower, caressing down her thigh and back up, one finger gently working between her labia and into her virgin pussy.

Stribog turned her slightly in the tub, relinquishing her mouth so Svarog could kiss her. His mouth, as did his touch, felt far warmer than his brother’s. Zaria felt her hips involuntarily begin to thrust against their hands. Stribog was doing delicious things to her clit, making her want more, want everything.

Svarog’s finger explored deeper until he worked it inside her tight channel. Slowly, gently, he began to thrust it back and forth inside her until a sudden explosion rocked her body. She cried out as pleasure, the likes of which she’d never experienced before, engulfed her.

When she could open her eyes and look at them, both men bore identically pleased expressions. “Did that feel good, Goddess?” Svarog asked.

She blushed, but nodded.

“Good,” Stribog said. “Let us do it again.”

She wasn’t sure she could survive another one, but this time, Svarog worked his finger even more deeply inside her, eventually adding a second. As Stribog rubbed her clit, his other hand began tweaking her nipples and as her next orgasm hit her, Svarog suddenly plunged his fingers hard and deep inside her. She felt a moment of excruciating pain, which was overtaken and pushed out of the way by endless waves of pleasure.

“That’s it, Goddess,” Stribog whispered. “Let us please you.”

She could barely think, much less move in the water as the orgasm after orgasm swept over her like winter squalls. When the men finally let her relax, she remembered the pain. “What was that?” she fearfully asked. “Why did it hurt?”

Svarog kissed her. “We took your maidenhead, Goddess. Now, when it is our cocks inside you”—he wiggled his two fingers, stirring another flutter of pleasure deep inside her—“we won’t hurt you.”

Stribog moved his hand, making her whine in disappointment. He chuckled and kissed her. “I am not going anywhere, do not fret.” Svarog’s thumb took up where Stribog’s fingers had played with her clit. His warm hand soon had roused her passion again, her hips rocking in time to his movement.

Stribog changed position and reached into the tub again. This time, he pressed lower, pushing her legs open as far as the tub would allow, his cool finger searching for entrance in her virgin ass.

Zaria froze, but Svarog reassured her. “Please relax, Goddess. This will feel good.” Well, so far everything else had. She closed her eyes as Svarog’s tongue stroked her lips. Her mouth parted for him.

Stribog slowly circled the tight rim of muscle with his finger, occasionally pressing against it, relaxing her and adding a degree to the pleasure Svarog’s hand in her pussy was reviving in her once again. Would this ever stop?

She prayed it never would.

Zaria arched her back, giving both men’s hands better access to her nether regions. When Stribog slowly pressed for entrance, she instead focused on the relentlessly slow circles Svarog’s thumb was now drawing around her clit.

Stribog’s finger fucked her ass in time with Svarog’s fingers in her cunt. As one would press in, the other would withdraw, creating a delicious seesaw that soon had her cresting the edge of another glorious climax that they wouldn’t grant her.

“Please!” she gasped. “Let me come!”

Svarog chuckled. “Not yet, Goddess. I feel how your body is grabbing at my hand. Hold it and wait for just a moment.”

Stribog’s hand withdrew, making her whine in complaint until it quickly returned, this time with two fingers. Her desire ricocheted, climbing, straining. It wasn’t until Stribog had worked a third finger deep inside her ass that Svarog did something magical with his fingers inside her body, hooking them up slightly and hitting a sweet spot she never knew existed. At the same time, he rubbed her clit faster.

“Come for us, Goddess!” Stribog said.

It felt like her body unhinged. Her back arched as she cried out in pleasure. And this was only their hands and not their cocks? She sobbed with the exquisitely delicious sensations rolling through her, the wonderfully full sensation of their hands on and in her. When she finally came back to her senses, she lay limp in the water, panting and trying to regain her mind.

Svarog scooped her out of the tub as if she weighed no more than a wet cat. Stribog swaddled her in dry towels and they carried her to the bed. They dried her off then stretched out on either side of her, both of their cocks now hard and jutting from their bodies.

She closed her eyes as Stribog kissed her. Svarog’s hot mouth did delicious things to her nipples as his brother’s cool kiss stoked her fires. Then Svarog sat up and worked his way lower, until he pushed her legs apart and bent his head to her pussy.

If she thought their hands were skilled, that pleasure paled in comparison to their mouths. His lips and tongue teased and swirled around her clit, flicking at it and quickly driving her passion again until she screamed into Stribog’s mouth as another orgasm ripped through her.

How could any one person survive this kind of pleasure? Would it kill her?

What a glorious death that would be!

Zaria lost track of time as the men took turns worshipping her body with their hands and mouths, refusing to rush, giving her too many releases for her to keep track of. Finally, she got to a point where she would be refused no longer. She rolled Stribog onto his back and straddled him, his stiff cock rising from his body.

With her juices dripping from her body, she carefully eased herself down onto his shaft, moaning with pleasure as he stretched her in a way Svarog’s fingers had not.

Now I understand why they prepared me.

Svarog grabbed a jar of lotion from the table and began to work it into her ass. First one, then two, and three fingers deliciously stretched her rear passage as Stribog’s cock impatiently twitched inside her pussy. She wanted to ride him, but the men forced her to be still. Svarog slicked his cock with the lotion, then knelt in position behind her.

When the hot, engorged head of his cock pressed through, she gasped as a wave of pleasurable pain bit through her orgasmic haze. As she adjusted to him there and he started to move, she relished the full sensation of them both inside her.

Once they were both fully seated inside her, they took over, repeating the seesaw rhythm their hands had earlier used to bring her to passion. As she felt her body taking over from her brain, she closed her eyes and relinquished all control to their lead.

“Yes!” she gasped.

“Come for us, Goddess,” Stribog said. “Let us feel you.”

Svarog nipped the back of her neck. “We want to feel your body’s pleasure.”

They didn’t have to wait long. A rapid ascent into a pleasure akin to madness took her over the edge. It felt like white-hot energy exploded from them, engulfing them in a cloud of orgasmic sensation that bordered on pain in its intensity.

Both men let out loud shouts of pleasure as their cocks reacted to her body’s grip on them. She felt them, Stribog’s cool release in her pussy and Svarog’s hot seed in her ass, and yet another orgasm slammed into her like a landslide.

The world changed. Zaria saw a series of images flash through her brain. Baba Yaga and two other women…a battlefield…a victory.

Her eyes popped open as one more climax made her entire body shake before she collapsed on top of Stribog.

They tumbled into sleep as a tangled pile of limbs.

Chapter Five

Zaria stood at the window and shivered in the early-morning chill. Their slumber had been disturbed the night before when a wounded rider had arrived late, bloodied and exhausted, his mount lathered and trembling. The injured man had collapsed into the arms of the guards at the gate and reported on the latest siege, less than a day’s ride away.

Cockatrice.

Their dark army included not just the cockatrice’s kin, but some renegade creatures as yet unidentified. Some rumored demons, some claimed orcs or goblins. And humans who had allied themselves with the horrific forces with promises that they would reap the rewards of the battles.

“What troubles you, Goddess?” Svarog softly asked as he stepped in close and enveloped her in his arms.

She held on to him tightly. “Our people are dying. And yours. How can you ask me that? Is it not obvious?”

He kissed her neck. “Aye. That is why we must defend the lands as best we can. To the death.”

“I know.” She sighed.

He turned her in his arms. “Come back to bed and love us. Today, we plan. Tomorrow, we do battle and win.”

“And then we celebrate,” Stribog sleepily mumbled from the bed. “Come, lovely. Join us. The sheets are warm, the bed is soft. We do not have to arise yet.”

She managed a smile. “Even in the face of possible death, you cannot manage to quell your libido?”

Svarog nipped her shoulder. “Not when you are near, we cannot.”

“Later. We must go.”

“Go where?” Stribog asked, looking a little more awake.

“To the sacred spring. The one called Rachel’s Well.”

“What are we going to do there?” Svarog asked as she slipped from his grasp.

Zaria turned to them. “We have things to do. We are going to fulfill the prophecy.”

“You aren’t going to let us sleep in, are you, lovely?” Stribog asked.

“No. Sorry.”

“Ah, oh well.” He climbed out of bed. “What are we to do?”

She smiled at him. “We will ensure the cockatrice cannot get the upper hand. If we follow the prophecy, we shall vanquish them.”

* * *

Zachary was in a near panic when he couldn’t find the three the next morning. The news of the latest attack had reached him. He was nervously pacing in front of the stable when Stribog and Svarog returned at midday…without Zaria.

“Where is she?” Zachary demanded.

Both men looked troubled. “She would not tell us where she went,” Svarog said. “She sent us back to the castle.”

“She said we could not follow her,” Stribog said.

“And you let her go?” Zachary asked incredulously.

“What were we to do?” Svarog said. “She is the Goddess. Her word is law!”

“Idiots!” Zachary muttered under his breath. “Go see the king,” he ordered. “He is preparing the plans for battle.” He ordered a horse be readied for him and set off in search of Zaria. After ten minutes of riding, he caught sight of a flash of fabric at the edge of the woods and changed his course. There she was.

He pulled his mount up short beside her. “What in the name of Heaven do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. He jumped off and quickly examined her for any sign of injury. “Are you all right?”

She looked startled to see him. “I’m fine. Did the men return safely?”

“Yes, but what did you think you were doing going off alone?”

“I had something important to do.” She grabbed his arms before he could object. “We had to fulfill the prophecy.”

He wanted to object, but he let out a deep breath and nodded. There was something different about her, something changed, and not simply because she now belonged to her two dragon lovers. “Let’s get you back to the safety of the castle. Now.” He mounted then helped her swing up behind him.

Ignoring the sad pang inside his soul over countless memories of them riding like this in the past, he turned his horse back toward home.

* * *

Zachary followed Zaria into the hall where the king and his men had gathered. Not a single smile could be found, although there appeared to be more than a little relief when Zaria took her place beside her men.

“We have received unsettling news, Zaria,” the king said. “Scouts have returned with word that the cockatrice and their forces are on their way here. They are laying waste to everything in their path. They will reach our outer boundaries by morn. We have sent out riders to warn our villagers to flee the area.”

“Do we have reinforcements coming?” Zaria asked.

The two dragon men nodded. “They are on the way and will be here before sunset,” Svarog said.

“Good,” she said. “We have a lot of planning to do.”

Zaria felt recharged. She couldn’t explain what happened earlier. It was as if during the ceremony by the sacred spring another presence, wiser than herself, had taken residence inside her soul. It wasn’t until after she returned to the castle that she felt as if she was once again alone in her own body.

Not that she’d ever tell anyone about the experience. Not even Zachary. She didn’t know what had happened or how to even explain it. Perhaps it was simply a result of now being mated to her men.

It didn’t matter. There were more pressing matters to attend to if they were to survive the morrow. Unfortunately, she suspected the prophecy already foretold their fate.

Chapter Six

A phalanx of sixty dragons arrived early that evening, before dark. They caused quite a stir when they all landed in the castle’s courtyard, each dragon clutching a large rucksack, which held their belongings and weapons, in their talons.

Stribog and Svarog greeted their kin and made introductions. The leader of the group, Rossleo, knelt before King Elsleng. “We pledge allegiance to you, Your Majesty.”

The king smiled. “Up. I declare you all my knights. Now, let’s prepare our battle! When can we expect the others?”

“The wolves,” Rossleo said, “are on their way, perhaps a few hours behind us. They are travelling on horseback. They can’t shift and carry their belongings like we can. There are also bears and some felines with them, as many as we could all summon. And quite a few humans, as well.”

The other forces arrived as expected, and were updated on the plans. Zaria had exchanged her usual garb for one of Zachary’s shirts and a pair of his trousers. When her father protested her intent to join the fray, she once again reminded him of the prophecy.

“My power comes from my men,” she said. “I will not send them and our allies out to fight a battle that is every bit my war to wage as well.” She patted a sword sheathed on her hip. “They will find me every bit as fierce as any man out there.”

The king loudly sighed, but with a proud smile. “I cannot fault your logic, daughter.”

Two scouts returned before dawn the next morning to sound the alarm. They’d spotted the approaching dark army. With no people to kill, they were making faster progress. The good news was that the warnings to evacuate had been heeded by nearly all the residents, greatly lessening the loss of life.

The king stood before the gathered forces, human and shifter alike, and raised his sword to call for silence.

“We face a great foe,” he said. “There is no guarantee any of us will be here by the time the sun sets tonight. However, regardless, we will show them how fierce we are, and how they cannot expect to take our land, or our lives, without dire consequences.”

A roar of approval went up throughout the warriors. When they quieted, the king continued.

“We have the Goddess above on our side,” he said. “We have the Goddess Zaria on our side. We have the prophecies on our side. We have right and decency on our side. We only want peace, but if our foes wish a fight, we shall bring it to them!”

Another roar of approval rippled through the forces.

“It is a shame that it has taken sorrow such as this to bring all our peoples together as a united, unstoppable force. I pledge that from this day forward, we shall all be brothers, united and living peaceably together. Be they human, or wolf, or dragon, or other peaceful shifter, we shall all be kin.

“So to all of you, I say, ‘Merry meet.’ And good luck to all of us. We shall all assemble here upon the completion of our task, upon the defeat of the evil which seeks to destroy us. Then, we shall celebrate. I cannot see how such a great assemblage of spirit and strength cannot do anything but vanquish our enemies.”

They set up their positions. The smaller, swifter shifters were sent to the north and south, to help pen in their opponents, who were marching in from the east. They would close in behind them, and upon commencement of the attack would begin taking apart forces from the rear, hopefully dividing and slowing their advance. From what they could tell from the scouting reports, the weaker humans and other beings were trailing at the back of the forces.

They would also slaughter any who decided to retreat from the battle.

There would be no quarter given, no surrender accepted.

There would be no mercy given, since they gave none in return.

They would battle to the death.

Zaria took her men by the hands. “Join hands,” she softly said.

“What are you doing?” Svarog asked.

She closed her eyes. “What I feel is right. Join hands,” she repeated.

The men complied. Zaria felt it when the brothers joined hands, like a circle completed. As the earliest traces of dawn kissed the skies to the east of the hills behind the marauders, Zaria pictured the tablet they’d created the day before, as if it hung in the air before her face.

“Goddess above, Goddess below. Goddess within, Goddess without. Cast clouds of doubt across the skies behind our foes, and cast into their minds the feeling of woe. Remove from them their spirit strong. Replace their will with our victory song.”

She raised her arms to the skies above, still holding their hands and feeling power building amongst them, circling, flowing, growing.

“Goddess of All, Goddess of Light. Take from them their power and feed well our might!”

She felt a fireball of brilliant, golden energy explode up from the center of their triad.

Around them, she heard everyone gasp, but no one fled. As she opened her eyes, she watched as the fireball arced over the countryside, falling back to earth beyond their view, behind the tree line. A glare brighter than the sun blossomed across the distant land, growing and coalescing. Before their eyes, the skies behind the hills clouded over, concealing the sun and preventing them from being blinded by the glare of sunrise over the trees.

An earth-shaking explosion made the ground tremble as a thunderous crack ricocheted back to them. A blue energy wave struck them, knocking them all to the ground.

As Zaria regained her footing, she felt stronger than she ever had in her life. In amazement, every warrior stood, stretching and smiling as their fear quickly turned to wonder and determination.

Stribog looked at her, then grabbed her and kissed her long and deeply. “It worked! I feel it! They all do!”

Svarog next grabbed and kissed her. “We shall vanquish,” he said. Then, with a loud, echoing cry, he lifted his sword and rallied their forces.

The warriors lifted their weapons in a responding cry and began their charge to the east.

Zaria held back for only a moment as she watched their forces advance. Zachary made his way to her side. “This is how it ends?”

She sadly smiled and kissed him deeply, in a way she’d always wanted to and knew she’d never have a chance to again. “Forever,” she whispered.

He smiled and nodded. “Forever.” Then he drew his sword. “Shall we, my sweet Goddess?”

She drew hers and grinned. “With pleasure.”

Together, shoulder to shoulder, they turned and followed their fellow warriors.

* * *

It didn’t take long for the first of their enemies to fall. Most humorous, as well as a huge ego boost to their forces, was the fact that when one of the lead cockatrice tried to transform, he was unable to shift into his more powerful guise.

Startled, several of his comrades fell back as the dragon forces fell upon the hapless cockatrice and quickly killed him. When other cockatrice tried to shift, they, too, were unable. As they turned to flee, they were slain.

“We have them outmatched!” Stribog yelled, rallying their forces as they waded into hand-to-hand combat.

Zaria stayed on the outskirts of the battle, slaying stragglers that tried to escape through holes in their defenses. As the morning wore on, it was obvious that while the cockatrice were fierce fighters, without their ability to shift they were no match for the dragons and other shifters.

The still-obscured sun lay high in the sky when two groups of dragon warriors shifted and took to the air, using their powers to divide sections of the cockatrice combatants and turn them toward awaiting allied troops to either side. Fires broke out as the fire dragons used their natural weapons against their prey. Smoke and the smell of roasting flesh drifted across the countryside.

It wasn’t until Zaria felt a darkness descending that she realized they had a big problem.

Cries of agony from some of their own troops reached her ears. She turned to find a dozen demons had joined forces, formed a circle, and were attempting to use their dark skills to take out shifters one at a time. Though weakened, combining their energies they still proved themselves a powerful force. Any fighter that reached the outer ring of their powers was struck down immediately. Orcs, humans, and ogres used the diversion to trap shifters between their physically greater force and the demons’ metaphysical one.

“Stribog! Svarog!” Zaria cried out. “Come here!”

Her two men finished off a huge orc they’d been battling and raced to her side. “What is it?” Stribog asked.

“Join hands, quickly!”

They did, and she focused the force of her powers into her men.

Goddess of All, please guide my way.

She closed her eyes and envisioned feeding all of her energies into her two men, to form a protective shield around them. Despite her earlier power surge, she realized the extended fighting had taken a greater toll on her than she first realized. Ignoring that, she thrust every bit of power she possessed into her men.

Releasing their hands, she screamed, “Go! Now!” They turned and attacked the demonic circle. As she sank to her knees, she lost sight of them as other shifters poured into the breach behind them.

The entire war now seemed centered on this battle. Shifters forced their way through behind Stribog and Svarog, with blood-covered swords hacking away at the dark forces.

Then she felt the first blow to her men, as if her own shoulder had been struck.

“Stribog!” she screamed. Another pain in her neck nearly made her black out as she felt his energy snap back into her.

“No!” She dug her fingers into the ground and struggled back onto her knees, desperate to get to her men. Several shifters surrounded her, facing out and protecting her from attack, but blocking her view of the nearby struggle against the demons.

Then, just as she’d nearly regained her footing, she felt a pain in her gut as Svarog fell. Her visceral scream rent the air as she collapsed to her knees again, driven down by the force of Svarog’s energy also rebounding into her.

Fortunately, it seemed the two men had done enough damage to the demons’ cabal that the other shifters were able to break them apart and began slaughtering them.

Zaria’s heart and mind shattered. Sitting back on her heels, she looked to the heavens and let out an echoing, thundering roar of rage and grief that stopped everyone in their tracks. She raised her hands to the heavens.

“Goddess Above,” she screamed, “I give my all! Take from me, make our enemies fall!”

* * *

Zachary used the distraction to run his sword through a human that stank of the cockatrice before turning to view the brilliant light emanating from Zaria. It flowed from her and spread out amongst the warriors, striking dead their enemies while leaving their allies untouched.

A high, keening wail of anguish rolled from her like the scream of the wind in a hurricane. The impact knocked him off his feet as he tried to make his way to her side. He looked around, trying to locate Stribog and Svarog. Then he spotted their still forms strewn amongst the carcasses of demons, cockatrice, and other dark forces.

After what felt like hours but was only a few minutes, Zaria let out a final, gasping cry. As the light flowing from her died, she collapsed to the ground. Stunned, he stared at her as their dazed comrades slowly climbed to their feet and began cheering when they realized all their enemies lay dead around them.

With a choked sob, Zachary stumbled to his feet and ran to his Goddess. He dropped to his knees beside Zaria’s still form. He felt her dying, her immense expenditure of powers saving them all, but ripping her apart without the dragons’ supporting energy to feed her.

He ignored the tears rolling down his cheeks as he gently cradled her in his arms, rocking her, brushing the red tresses from her forehead.

“Zaria,” he whispered, kissing her lips, her cheeks, her forehead. “Zaria, my sweet, beautiful Goddess. Please don’t leave me.”

Her eyes fluttered open as more pain rent him from the inside out. He ignored it as he stared into her gorgeous green eyes. “Did we do it?” she whispered.

He nodded. “You did it. You beat them. You saved everyone.”

“Not everyone.” Her eyes teared up. “I could not save…”

He choked back his sob. “They sacrificed themselves to save you. To save us all. You saved our people, Zaria. My sweet, beautiful Goddess. I love you.”

A faint smile curved her lips. He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his lips, kissing it.

“I love you, too, Zachary. I always will.”

He tearfully nodded. “In every life.”

“In every heart.”

“Forever,” they whispered together.

Zachary saw the shadow fall across them both but didn’t look up from Zaria’s face. He didn’t want to miss a single breath.

“Well done, my children,” Baba Yaga’s matronly voice softly said. “Rest, Zaria. Your job is done. For now.”

Zaria nodded and saved one last smile for Zachary. “Forever.”

He nodded, this time sobbing aloud. “Forever, Goddess.”

Her eyes fluttered closed. He was aware of crowds of cheering warriors running across the battlefield toward them, yet already he felt the end coming soon for him.

Baba Yaga knelt beside him as he couldn’t take the pain and grief anymore. With Zaria clutched to him, he fell to his side on the ground, screaming Zaria’s name as his tears flowed unabated.

“Zachary,” Baba Yaga soothed, “do not fret. This is not the end. This is only the beginning. From now until the next prophecy is fulfilled, she will be yours in every life. You are still, and always, her Watcher.”

He listened, but couldn’t quit crying. The agony in his heart and soul crushed him under its weight. How could he ever live without her?

He didn’t want to live.

“Shh,” Baba Yaga soothed, pressing a comforting palm to his brow.

He was vaguely aware of the King, bloodied but not mortally wounded, running up and pushing through the crowd with several of his knights. He pulled up short when he saw Zaria’s still form and Baba Yaga kneeling beside them.

“Is she…”

One of the knights placed a staying hand on his king’s arm. “Aye, Sire,” he sadly said. “She is at peace. I suspect brave Zachary joins her and her dragons soon.”

Zachary’s vision swam, colors fading as he stared at Zaria’s closed eyes. Sounds from the crowd faded out of his awareness until only Baba Yaga’s voice filled his ears.

“Fret not, Zachary. In every life until the next prophecy, she will be yours until she is reunited with her dragons. Even then, she will still be in your life. You are always her Watcher. I swear it.”

He was vaguely aware of Baba Yaga pressing his and Zaria’s hands together, as she had when they were babes. “You will always remember, in every life, although she will not until she is reunited with her dragons. So fret not and rest now, child…” He felt the warm tingle between his palm and Zaria’s as the last breath left him and his world went black.

Chapter Seven

Six years later

From the deep shade of the willow tree, Zachary watched the little red-haired girl playing by the creek. He knew her name to be Zarina, even though he’d never met the redheaded child. He knew her age to be the same as his—five.

He opened his right palm and stared at the faint lines embedded there in his flesh. He also knew the little girl bore the same markings, only on her left palm.

When he felt the presence behind him, he didn’t need to turn to see who it was. “Hello, Baba Yaga.”

“Hello, Zachary.” In her matron form, she settled onto the ground beside him. “Did I not say it would be true?”

He nodded. “You did.” His earliest memories in this life were of wondering how long until he found his sweet Zaria again. Now he had, although her name was slightly different.

“Just remember, thirty-five years. Then you will get to be together. Until then, be her friend. Encourage her. Look after her. Protect her. She will love you.”

He felt so much older than his youthful body. “Does this get easier?”

She smiled. “You cannot tell people you remember past lives now, can you, little one?”

He glared at her.

She obviously didn’t care. “Now, now. Such a look you give me for one your age. And remember what your age should be. Just because you will have your memories doesn’t mean you shouldn’t embrace your current life.” She took his right hand, turned his palm face up, and traced the markings with her finger. “Live for now, Watcher. In every life. Enjoy your life. And trust that you will have more than your fair share of joy now and in the future.”

He nodded before turning to the creek again. He watched the girl lose her balance, her arms pinwheeling as she gave a little shriek and fell into the water with a splash.

Like a shot, he raced down to the edge, reaching out and grabbing her arm to safely pull her back to shore.

The little girl clung to him and sobbed as he held her, consoling her. “It’s okay, Zarina,” he soothed. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”

* * *

Baba Yaga watched the two children huddled on the shore. She heard a man’s shout and several villagers ran up, praising the boy for saving the girl. Zarina was the village leader’s daughter, and the cherished little girl of a very large family of boys. When both children’s mothers soon joined the crowd, the girl’s mother embraced first the boy, then the boy’s mother.

Baba Yaga smiled. Sometimes, it would be Zachary born to privilege and wealth. Sometimes, it would be the Goddess.

She was a patient woman. These two had nearly completed her oath to her own deceased love. One day, they would finally carry out the last of the revenge. As she stood and brushed the dirt off her skirts, she watched the villagers carry the children back up the road to their houses to get them dried off.

She sighed. “Live well, my sweet Zachary.” Never again would she hold him in her arms. In some ways, it saddened her that he would never have memories of their time together, when he first came to her looking for a way to save his dragon kin from the cockatrice.

The least she could do was to give him as much joy and pleasure as she could now and in the future to make up for not being able to save his life.

She took some small comfort in that.

With the villagers gone, Baba Yaga disappeared and reappeared before a stone cairn. She dropped to her knees in her maiden form and placed her hands on the rocks that she’d laid herself. “Zachary,” she whispered. “I promised, and I shall make it so.”

As always, her tears fell, staining the rocks until she cried herself to sleep there by her deceased lover’s final resting place.

Chapter Eight

Almost now

Lina looked up as her mom called out to her from the front porch. “Where do you think you’re going, young lady?”

“There’s new people next door, Mommy!”

Her mom walked down to the curb to join her. Sure enough, a moving truck and strange car were parked next door. A frazzled-looking woman directed the movers, while a young boy about Lina’s age played around the front of the garage.

“Can we go meet them?” Lina asked.

Her mom indulgently smiled. “Sure. Why not?”

Lina raced ahead to meet the little boy. Something about him drew her. He looked special. She’d been looking for a special friend for as long as she could remember. She didn’t know why, and both Mrs. Jones, her teacher at kindergarten, and her parents scolded her for being choosy, but she couldn’t help it.

Something inside her always said she needed a special friend. One who would be with her for the rest of her life. That’s what the old lady’s voice always told her.

But she’d learned early not to mention that. It made her mom look frightened when she talked about the old woman’s voice.

The little boy looked up. He had brown eyes. She skidded to a stop in front of him with a happy smile on her face. “Hi! My name’s Lina. What’s yours?”

He smiled back. “Zack.”

“I’m five. How old are you?”

He dropped the car he’d been playing with. “I’m five, too. Can I be your special friend, Lina?”

She gasped, happy shock making her squeal with excitement. “Yes! Yes, you are my special friend!” She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly as she jumped up and down.

By the time their moms found them in Zack’s backyard ten minutes later, Lina knew for certain this was definitely her very special friend. She kicked and screamed and cried when her mom said they’d have to go back home. Fortunately, Zack’s mom welcomed Lina’s mother’s invitation for Zack to come over and play while the moving continued. Hearing that, Lina grabbed Zack’s hand. Together the kids ran to Lina’s house and upstairs to her room to play.

Zack’s mom, Martha, watched them go. “Thank you so much, Karen,” she said. “I’m sorry about the intrusion.”

“No, not a problem.” Karen shook her head. “Honestly? I’ve never seen Lina so excited to meet another kid. She’s usually really standoffish and doesn’t make friends very well. I think Zack will be good for her.”

“Zack is an old soul. I thought maybe it was because of his deadbeat dad up and leaving when he was born.” She leaned against the fence. “If he’s a bother, please, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

Karen waved her off. “It’s okay. My husband will be home in an hour. He’s great with kids. He’ll keep them busy all evening. Hey, listen. I have lasagna in the oven. More than enough. Why don’t you and Zack join us for dinner?”

“Really?”

“Really.” She smiled. “You and me can come back over here with a bottle of wine after dinner, and I’ll help you unpack while we escape all of them.”

Martha laughed and gave her a high five. “You’re on!”

* * *

Lina and Zack played upstairs in Lina’s room. When she heard her mom call them down for dinner, Lina grabbed Zack’s hands. “Are you still going to be my special friend tomorrow?”

He smiled. “Of course. In every life.”

Lina’s mind felt a little fuzzy, but she said without thinking, “In every heart.”

Together, they both said, “Forever.”

She slung her arms around him. “I love you, Zack.”

“I love you, too, Lina.”

Somewhere, Lina was sure she heard the old woman chuckling. She noticed Zack looked up.

Lina gasped. “Did you hear her?” she whispered.

He smiled. “I hear her.”

Lina squealed. “You are my special friend forever!”

Together, they jumped up. Holding hands, they ran down the stairs to the kitchen.

Over the years, Lina eventually stopped hearing the old woman’s voice. By the time she was a teenager, she’d forgotten about her altogether, and barely had any memories of how she and Zack first met. It felt like Zack had been in her life forever.

But Zack still stayed her special friend.

Chapter Nine

Now

Stunned, Lina sat on Baba Yaga’s couch. It felt like she’d sat and listened to Baba Yaga spin her yarn for days. Yet she knew if she wanted to, she could open her physical eyes and find only a few seconds had passed in the van carrying her and her men home from Tampa International.

She stared at the faint, ancient scar etched into her left palm. She knew Zack bore an identical one in his right hand. How in all these years had she never questioned that? And despite all this knowledge, it still felt like she was missing something. Like there were a couple of huge, gaping holes she should be seeing in that tale, but wasn’t.

“In all lives?” Lina asked.

Baba Yaga nodded. “In all lives. Now the threads in your tapestry have merged again, from where they were scattered in the past. You are here, able to face down the threat. Your men will stand strongly beside you.” She smiled. “Even the wolf and his clan.”

Lina felt herself blush despite not really being there. “Brodey, you mean.”

“Yes. And others. Although they do not know it yet.”

Lina had a question she really wanted answered and hoped Baba Yaga would…or could. “When Brodey and I were overcome by the fire at Yellowstone, when I built the ice shell around us? I saw something. A vision or a dream, I don’t know what. I saw him and his brothers find their One. Was that true?”

Baba Yaga nodded. “If you saw it, it is true, or will be. Such are your gifts.”

She let out a deep, relieved sigh. “Then they will be happy?”

“That I cannot guarantee or promise for their future. But in that instance, yes, they will happily mate with their One.”

“Good. They deserve happiness.” There was more, so much more, that she wanted to ask. She now understood why Baba Yaga couldn’t tell her all she knew.

But perhaps…

“You don’t have a problem showing me things that have already happened.”

The other woman tipped her head in curiosity. “Some things, Goddess.”

In a quiet voice, Lina asked, “Can you show me how my parents died?”

Baba Yaga’s gaze narrowed. “I can. But are you sure it’s something you truly wish to see? Things such as that cannot be unseen.”

Lina picked at her cuticles. “I know Edgar killed them. I want to know exactly how. I want to see how someone who pretended to be my friend and care about me all those years could do something like that.”

“You want to fuel your rage.” Her lips curled in a knowing smile. “Do not lie to me. I have seen far too much in my life to be taken in by simple artifice.”

Lina met her gaze. “I want to make sure there’s no way in hell I will ever forget what those bastards are capable of. I want to make sure that I don’t misplace my mercy when the time comes.”

An amused grin crept across Baba Yaga’s face. “My dear, you are wiser than your years.”

They were suddenly standing beside a desolate rural road, just after dusk, but before full dark had settled in. A dense, purple light clung to the landscape. The air felt thick, soupy, still.

A typical August night in Florida, much like the night her parents died.

She turned, studying the area.

It was where her parents died. She knew the road, had struggled for years to take any possible route to avoid driving past the spot.

“How soon?” Lina asked her.

She nodded. “Very soon. We are just observers. We cannot interfere.”

“I understand.” The evening settled around them. “Why can’t I just figure everything out at once if I’m a goddess with all these powers?”

“You cannot harness what you don’t understand. And you are mortal-born. Goddess, yes. Powerful, yes. Omnipotent and omniscient? No. No one being, mortal or not, has all those powers. Only the Goddess of us all, and she’s not about to share her powers, I’m sure.”

“That sucks.”

“Yes, it does. Unfortunately, it is life.”

“So what was that vision I saw first before I came here? Those people on the moor. Who the fuck is Ysimel, anyway? That woman in my vision?”

Baba Yaga smiled. “Information for you to store away for later, Goddess.” Her expression hardened. “Forget nothing.”

They waited. A few minutes later, Lina spotted a large, beat-up, four-door land yacht of a sedan, a huge clunker that looked three feet from being ready for a crusher. It pulled up, turned in at a dirt crossroad, and turned around. It stopped a few yards short of the road, where it couldn’t be seen by any vehicle coming around the turn.

Lina took a deep breath and waited. She knew the driver.

Edgar.

When she saw headlights sweep over the trees lining the curve, she knew it was about to happen. Steeling herself, she watched as Edgar gunned the engine of his car, which weighed at least three times as much as her parents’ small two-door Honda.

Then his back tires kicked up a rooster tail of dirt as he pulled out and hit them at a sharp angle on the driver side, sending the small car rolling.

Lina choked back a sob. Despite her parents’ car being totaled, Edgar’s car was still drivable. He put it in park, got out, and walked over to the Honda, which now lay on its roof in the ditch, crushed against a tree.

That was one thing the FHP could never figure out, how another car could hit them and still get away.

Now, she knew.

Baba Yaga softly spoke in her ear. “Do you wish to go see them?”

She shook her head. “No, this is close enough.”

Edgar stooped down and reached into the driver-side window. After a moment, he nodded and went around to the other side.

She couldn’t help but see as he passed through the beam of his own remaining headlight that his hand was covered with blood.

After checking on her mom, Edgar wiped his hand on the grass, got back in his car, and left.

Lina took a long, shaky breath and slowly let it out again.

“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ve seen en—”

She opened her eyes and found herself in the van with her men. When she looked out the window, she realized they’d driven less than a mile from when she first joined Baba Yaga in Wherever-the-Hell-That-Was-Land.

She closed her eyes again.

* * *

When they reached the house, the other men started hauling their bags inside. Zack grabbed Lina’s wrist and arched an inquisitive eyebrow at her.

She let out a sigh. She never could keep anything from him.

No wonder. He’d seen all her moods countless times, throughout many lives. She tipped her head toward the house. He followed her inside, through the house, and out the kitchen to the back patio to what she was beginning to think of as their “talking bench.”

She leaned against him, and he slung an arm around her, pulling her close.

He kissed the top of her head. “Paid a visit to old Baba Yaga, did you?”

“How’d you know?” His insight didn’t even surprise her anymore.

“I felt you check out there in the van for a little while. Did she bring you there, or did you go on your own?”

“She says I went on my own, but I’m still not quite sure how.”

She sensed Jan stick his head out the back door. Upon seeing her sitting there with Zack, he quietly retreated.

They did learn fast, she had to hand it to them.

“Aaannnd?” Zack asked.

She choked back a sob. “She told me the whole story. About our first lives and the cockatrice and the dragons. Everything. And she showed me how we died. How they died.”

He nuzzled the top of her head. “And?”

She quietly said, “I asked to see how Mom and Dad died. I wanted to see for myself how Edgar killed them.”

“Oh, sweetie.” He held her tighter as the floodgate exploded. Her grief and agony and pent-up anger, her loneliness without them and their love.

After she cried herself out, she asked a question she hoped didn’t come out wrong. “Why couldn’t you tell Edgar was one of them? Or Lenny?”

He shrugged. “I’ve been asking myself that question, too, sugar. Kael thinks maybe it has something to do with that book. Maybe they’re using spellwork, or dark sorcery, or something. I sure as shit didn’t like Edgar from the moment I met…” His voice trailed off.

“What?”

“Oh, shit,” he whispered. Then he bolted to his feet and ran into the house.

Slightly irritated, she followed. He was yelling for Kael, Jan, and Rick to join him in the kitchen. He pulled the ancient book out of his carry-on and laid it out on the kitchen table, open to the dog-eared page they’d discovered in Yellowstone.

The page that marked the ritual used to murder Kael’s family.

“What?” Lina asked again.

He shook his head as the other three men entered the kitchen. Zack’s finger scrolled down the page as his lips silently moved while he read. When he reached one passage, his jaw dropped in shock.

“Holy fuck.”

“Zack, please,” she said. “What is it?”

He looked at Kael, then Lina. “Edgar and Lenny used Kael’s family for an occlusion spell.” He slammed his fist against the table, making the large, heavy piece of furniture shake. “That’s how they did it. The fuckers used Kael’s family for the occlusion spell. But they needed one more victim to do a third person.” His gaze once again fell on Kael. “There was at least one more person in on this. Were you supposed to be home that day?”

In obvious shock, Kael nodded. “Yeah. I’d gone out hunting with some of my friends. But I was supposed to be home. Normally would have been home.”

“Son of a bitch,” Rick said, sitting at the table and spinning the book to get a better look at it. “So they had at least one accomplice.”

“Yep,” Zack said.

Lina reined in her irritation. She refused to lose her cool when they were talking about Kael’s family. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make heads nor tails out of the book’s text. Although most of the pictures were fairly gruesome and gave her a pretty good idea of the meaning of the accompanying text.

“What is an occlusion spell?” she asked. “What did they do to his family? How do you know for sure there’s another accomplice?”

Zack glanced at Kael, who nodded. In a soft, sad voice, Zack explained. “The spell they used—the whole book, really—isn’t just black magick or dark spellwork. It’s evil sorcery at its worst. When Jan said this was like a metaphysical cookbook from Hell, he wasn’t far off.”

He took a deep breath. “An occlusion spell allows someone to pass themselves off as someone or something else. It might not make them totally look or smell or whatever like their intended target, but at the very least it nullifies them so that they appear ‘normal’ to whoever it is they’re trying to fool.”

“Okay.”

Zack took another deep breath. “I’m guessing, based on their victims, that they were trying to pass for dragons. Or at the least, to pass the sniff test with dragons. This spell requires an equal exchange of an adult for an adult, or if it’s a child victim using more than one, for the spell to be effective. They killed them, and then both drank and bathed in their blood.”

Lina felt the world spin. Jan and Rick rushed to her side and helped her into a chair.

“Get her a bucket,” Zack told them. “Looks like she might urp.”

She felt like she might urp. When she got hold of her nervous stomach, she looked at Zack. “Okay, so how do you know there were three murderers?”

Kael heavily sat in another chair and scrubbed at his face with his hands. “Because those notes they made in the margin to modify the spell is to occlude three people, using not just my sister, but me, too.”

Chapter Ten

Zack watched as Kael composed himself. He finally sat up and shook his head. “I think we now have a prime suspect in Bertholde’s murder,” Kael said.

Not wanting to disagree with him, but knowing he had to speak up, Zack stepped behind him and put his hands on his lover’s shoulders. “But not the only suspect, unfortunately. We don’t know if Lenny had help or not in Yellowstone. The fire destroyed his camp and his truck, including all evidence except for what Brodey and Lina brought back with them.”

Kael laid a hand over Zack’s. “I know.” He sounded beyond weary. “But I can hope. How many of these fuckers can there still be in the world? They’re antisocial as fuck, normally. Their powers are diluted from years of inbreeding with each other and breeding with humans.”

Lina nodded. “Lenny was already dead when Bertholde was murdered. It can’t be coincidence that the knife she was stabbed with is identical to the one we brought back.”

Zack, playing Devil’s advocate, shook his head. “It doesn’t mean the third conspirator was the one with the knife, or that they were working in tandem with Lenny. It could have been a coincidence. He never said anything to you about it, did he?”

“No.” She let out a frustrated scream. “I want these assholes found!” Lina exclaimed. Then, her face went blank.

Zack watched as Lina closed her eyes. With her elbows propped on the table, she clutched her head in her hands. Jan and Rick started to intervene, but he stopped them.

“No, wait. Leave her alone for a minute.”

She sat there, slowly swaying back and forth for several minutes. When her eyes popped open, she looked around, startled. “What happened?”

“You tell us, babe,” Zack said. “Was that a vision?”

She slowly nodded. “Everything looked blue.”

“Something to do with the cockatrice?”

“Yeah. I think so. I’m not sure.” She reached for the book and paged through it, pausing near the back of the book. She pointed at a drawing. “There. That. I saw that. It was etched in a flat rock.” The illustration showed three spirals interlocking with each other and surrounded by various arcane symbols.

The men gathered around the book. “What the fuck is that?” Jan asked.

Rick shook his head. “Damned if I know.”

Kael smiled. “I know exactly what that is. It’s the Tablet of Trammel.” He reached across the table and squeezed Lina’s hand. “And better yet, I think I know where it is. Or, at least, I know how to find it.”

“Well, do you feel like sharing?” Rick asked.

Kael leaned back, looking happy for the first time since they found out who was responsible for his family’s murder. “I need to make a phone call and track down my old drinking buddy, Blackie.”

* * *

Lina had a thousand questions more, but Jan, Rick, and Zack insisted it could wait until morning. Jan and Rick herded her upstairs, while Zack followed Kael to their wing in the house.

“Drinking buddy, huh?” Zack teased Kael once they were alone in their room. “Is that code for ‘fuck buddy’?”

“No.” Kael unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it in the hamper. “He’s a wolf. I haven’t seen him since a little after…” His expression darkened for a moment before he shrugged. “He was one of my hunting buddies back in the old days. When we couldn’t find them, I went to Ireland for a while before coming here. I lost track of him and the rest after that.”

Zack suspected the “since a little after” thought Kael didn’t finish was his family’s murder. “I thought you said he was a drinking buddy?”

“That, too. That wolf could drink nearly everyone else under the table, no shit.” He pulled Zack into his arms. “But he was also arrow-straight, my man.” Kael kissed him. As always, Zack felt like the world melted away around them. “He could never hold a candle to you,” Kael breathed in his ear. “No one can.”

“Then take me to bed and show me.”

“Gladly.”

He fell backward onto the bed, pulling Zack with him. Zack laughed. “Should we get naked first?”

Kael laced his hands behind his head. “Be my guest. You know I love watching you unzip me.”

“Mmm.” Zack sat up and worked on Kael’s belt, then on the button and zipper of his jeans. Kael wore boring tighty-whities. They perfectly highlighted the prominent bulge of his hard cock straining against the fabric.

Zack bent his head to the bulge, gently nibbling on him through the fabric. Kael’s head fell back onto his pillow as he softly moaned. He stroked Zack’s head. “Don’t tease me.”

“I love to tease you. You know that.” He didn’t stop, running his teeth over his cock through the fabric and driving Kael frantic.

“Please, Z. Do it!”

With a chuckle, Zack hooked his fingers in the waistband of Kael’s briefs and slowly pulled them down. His cock, now freed, sprang up, rigid and engorged. A single glistening, pearly drop of pre-cum dotted the head of his cock.

“Mmm.” Zack’s tongue flicked at his slit, scooping up the drop. “That’s what I like.”

Kael’s cock jumped. Zack wrapped his fingers around the thick member and slowly started circling the engorged head with his tongue. Taking his time, he swiped his tongue over the smooth head, along the sensitive ridge, lightly flicking at his glans.

“Yes!” Kael breathed.

Zack shifted position so he knelt between Kael’s legs. He still hadn’t pulled his jeans off him. “Tell me what you want.”

“Jesus, Z, I want you to suck my cock!”

Zack wrapped his lips around the head of Kael’s member, swirling his tongue around it as he took it deeper into his mouth, until it hit the back of his throat. He bobbed his head up and down slowly, using his tongue as well as his lips to massage every inch of his flesh. With his left hand, he reached between Kael’s legs and cupped his sac, gently squeezing and massaging his balls the way Zack knew he loved.

Kael moaned and tried to thrust his hips up to force his cock faster and deeper into Zack’s mouth. When Zack pinned his legs down, he grabbed Zack’s head and tried to take control.

Zack reached up and pushed his hands away. “Stop it. I’m driving. I can make this last all night.”

“I don’t want to wait all night!” Kael’s plaintive tone made Zack chuckle. “I want to come!”

“You will, baby. You will.” He knelt back to his work, enjoying the warm, tangy taste of his lover’s pre-cum. Kael’s cock grew even more rigid under firm strokes from his tongue and the suction of his mouth. He loved making him come. Even more, he loved drawing it out, tormenting him in the best way possible, until Kael was frantic and begging for release.

This time was no exception. Zack’s own cock throbbed, almost painfully, inside his jeans as he worked over Kael’s member. His lover moaned and squirmed and tried to wriggle free, but Zack relentlessly kept him pinned to the bed as he used his lips and tongue on him.

Finally, as he felt Kael’s cock grow even harder and his sac draw up tight. Kael’s entire body stiffened. Zack went deep and long, ready when Kael’s juices exploded into his mouth. He swallowed every drop of his hot stream of cum as it shot down his throat.

As Kael trembled, Zack continued gently licking and sucking until he rested his cheek on Kael’s abs and held his softening cock in his mouth.

Kael stroked Zack’s hair. “That was fantastic,” he whispered. “That was absolutely fantastic.”

Zack smiled and lifted his head after applying a last kiss to his lover’s cock. “Now we can get naked.”

Kael laughed. “Yep.”

They shucked their clothes and climbed back into bed, this time with Zack on the bottom and Kael between his legs. Kael immediately swallowed Zack’s rigid cock deep into his mouth and enthusiastically began to suck on him.

Zack happily moaned. “Yeah, that’s right. Hard and fast, baby. Hard and fast.”

Kael knew better than to try to drag it out for Zack too long when Zack was this horny. If he made him come hard and fast, he nearly always regrouped in a few minutes for a second round…with his cock buried deep inside Kael’s ass. Which was exactly where Kael wanted it.

He paused just long enough to wet one finger and press it against Zack’s ass. That’s when the fireworks happened. Zack let out a loud, happy groan, roughly grabbed Kael’s head, and took over driving. He started fucking his cock deep into Kael’s mouth, faster and harder, until his orgasm took him and he rewarded Kael with a mouthful of cum.

They lay there for only a moment. “That was great, but I bet I know what you want, don’t I?” Zack asked in a teasing tone.

Kael laughed. “Um, yeah.”

Zack let go of Kael’s head and laced his fingers behind his head. “Then get me hard again, baby, and I’ll fuck that sweet ass of yours.”

With a grin, Kael started going down on him again. It didn’t take him long to get Zack worked up and hard again.

Zack sat up. “Get in position,” he said. “I’ll get a towel and the lube.” He lightly smacked Kael’s cute ass as he rolled off the bed and headed to their bathroom for a towel. When he returned, he found Kael crouching on all fours in the middle of their bed, cute ass in the air.

He wiggled it at Zack. “Like this?”

His cock twitched. It wanted to be buried inside that ass. “Oh, yeah. You’d better believe it.” He climbed up on the bed and knelt behind Kael. After lubing him, he started working first one, then two fingers into him.

Kael dropped his head to the bed and moaned.

“You like that, baby?”

“Uh-huh!”

With his other hand, Zack reached around Kael and slowly pumped his cock. It only took seconds for him to be throbbingly hard in Zack’s hand. Kael flexed his hips against him, trying to work himself back and forth between the dual sources of pleasure.

Zack squeezed him hard with his hand. “Gonna fuck you hard, baby. Just like I know you want me to.”

Kael moaned and wiggled his ass in response, making Zack laugh. When he knew Kael was ready, he withdrew his fingers and replaced it with his cock. He slapped Kael’s ass. “You know what to do.”

With another happy moan, Kael arched his back and thrust against Zack, impaling himself all the way on Zack’s rigid cock.

Both men let out groans of pleasure. “Oh, yeah,” Zack said, his voice hoarse. He grabbed Kael’s hips and started slowly fucking him. This way, since he’d already shot one load, he could last as long as he wanted.

And he wanted his cock buried in his lover’s warm, tight ass for a while.

He fucked Kael, sometimes hard and fast, sometimes long and slow, interspersing it with slaps on either side of his ass. When he finally had Kael begging him to make him come, he reached around and grabbed Kael’s dripping cock. “Go ahead and come for me, baby.” He didn’t get more than three good pumps in before Kael’s cum covered his hand. Zack didn’t stop, using the extra lubrication to tease and torment his lover’s sensitive member until he knew he’d coaxed every last drop out of him.

He paused to wipe his hand on the towel. “My turn, baby,” he said in a growl. Kael’s hands fisted the sheets as Zack dug his fingers into Kael’s hips. He started slow, bottoming out at the end of every stroke and withdrawing until just the head of his cock was still tightly fisted by Kael’s ass. Then he picked up speed, harder and faster, until his balls slapped against Kael’s rump with every stroke.

“You want it?” Zack asked.

“Yes!” Kael gasped. “Give it to me!”

Zack pounded into him, holding back as long as he could, until his cock practically ached from the strain. When he let go, he slammed hard and deep into Kael one last time, happily groaning at the satisfaction of shooting his load deep inside him.

Both men collapsed onto the bed. Zack didn’t want to move. “You okay?” he mumbled.

“Uh-huh. I can’t believe we haven’t fucked each other’s brains out yet.”

“I thought we just did.”

Kael chuckled. “I meant completely out of our bodies.”

Zack kissed his shoulder before slowly rolling off him with a grunt. “Now I’m ready for bed.”

Kael kissed him, then left the bed to clean up. He brought back a washcloth for Zack, and then they curled up together, with Kael spooning Zack, his arm thrown around his waist.

“I love you,” Zack mumbled.

Kael smiled and nuzzled his ear. “I love you, too.”

* * *

Kael lay there long after Zack fell asleep cuddled against him. He couldn’t help but smile at his lover. Their relationship had too many dynamics to begin to count. Although he was physically older than Zack, and a dragon, Zack was mentally and emotionally far older. They switched back and forth in bed and in life, each seamlessly taking the lead when necessary. Like tonight, he knew Zack had wanted to do the driving, and he was happy to give it to him.

He also didn’t begrudge a second of the time Zack spent with Lina. Zack had a calming, soothing, peaceful aura about him. Just sitting with him and talking always relaxed him.

He could only imagine how much of that calming presence Lina needed on a daily basis to keep her from losing her mind over the recent events.

Zack let out a soft snore and shifted position, snuggling even closer to Kael.

Kael had given up on ever finding love. If it wasn’t for Bertholde insisting that Andel send him to Rick and Jan to help out with the prophecies, he might never have met and fallen in love with Zack.

Given the recent events, he suspected that’s exactly why Bertholde insisted specifically on him. Not just because of his past experience with hunting the cockatrice, or his translation skills, or even because he was cousins with Jan and Rick through their mothers, but because she’d seen in a vision that he’d fall for Zack.

He smiled. I wish I could thank her.

He’d spent the first decade after his family’s murder seething with rage and hunting down the people who had killed them. Too wrapped up in his anger to even think about really grieving. Then as it became more and more clear that unless something changed he might never find the killers, depression set in.

He wouldn’t deny he’d even considered killing himself a time or two just to be out of misery.

Finally, it was Bertholde who’d slapped some sense into him, literally, at a small dragon Gathering at her home. She’d cornered him in her kitchen and laid into him about how his parents wouldn’t want him to end his life or spend it entirely in search of their killers.

Then she’d slapped him. Hard.

With her eyes glittering in anger, she said, “You dishonor their memory by simply giving up! You let the killers win if you do not live for happiness. I’m not saying do not remember them or grieve for them or sometimes feel sad. But to waste your life because you are too entrenched in grief to find your way out is not what they would have wanted!”

He’d barely heard her words, because the slap, while not terribly painful, had shocked the crap out of him. As had her harsh tone. Bertholde, while feisty, never acted like that.

As he tried to recover, she grabbed him, pulling his head down and cradling it to her chest. “Grieve, but live.”

Just as shocking, he burst into tears. She sat with him there in her kitchen, holding and rocking him as he cried in her lap while she softly talked to him in a loving, soothing tone. Finally, when he regained his composure, she’d wiped his tears away and offered him a loving smile.

“There is my sweet Kael,” she said. “You are a good man with a loving heart. You will find the man you are destined to meet. Have faith.”

That, alone, had shocked him more than anything. He’d assumed he’d hidden his sexual orientation from everyone. She smiled. “You hide nothing from me, little dragon,” she said. Then she kissed his forehead. “Your mother and father loved you very much, and they would not have cared one bit about that. Anyone your heart told you was your mate, they would have welcomed him in.”

From that moment on, even though he didn’t get to see her very often, he’d made a point of giving her a big hug every time he did.

Wiping away his tears, he let out a sad sigh, rolled over, and tried to go to sleep.

Chapter Eleven

Lina stood in the shower under water as hot as she could stand it. Jan couldn’t stand it for long and quickly lathered, rinsed, and escaped with no repeat after giving her a quick kiss.

“I’ll wait for you in bed, lovely.”

She smiled. “No problem.”

Rick, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of the hot water or his showering companion. He wrapped his arms around her and nibbled on her neck. Her fiery dragon loved the steamy heat. “Want company, love?”

She sighed, leaning against him. “Yes, but just company for now.” Her mind was too full of everything she’d learned at Baba Yaga’s to think about being romantic right at that moment. “Nothing personal.”

“Fair enough. Care to share what your talk with Zack was, or was it personal time?”

The twins had quickly grown to not only like Zack, but trust him. They also trusted that Lina needed her personal time with him, both as Lina and as the Goddess. She had an unbreakable bond with Zack that only strengthened her love for her men without threatening them in the slightest.

“It was Goddess stuff, but I don’t mind sharing.” She turned in his arms and looked up into his face. Now, with the old memories called to the surface, she realized he looked nearly identical to how he had in his first life.

He just couldn’t remember their life together before this one, even though it was fleetingly short before the battle with the cockatrice.

“You look troubled, love,” he said, his own brow furrowing. “Anything I can do?”

Might as well fess up. “I paid Baba Yaga a visit.”

He frowned. “When?”

“While we were in the van. I closed my eyes and found myself there.”

“But you never left the van.”

“It was in my mind. But it was real.”

“Ah. And?”

She rested her head on his strong shoulder. “We have to stop the cockatrice,” she said, her tears flowing. Would she ever stop crying? She hated feeling helpless. “We have to stop them this time, or they will kill us all. Along with a lot more innocent people, like Kael’s family.”

He tried his best to console her. “We will, love. I swear we will.”

“It’s going to get really bad,” she said, sniffling. “And it’s going to involve a lot of others, too. The worst thing of all is I have no idea how to stop any of it. I have all these powers and not one single freaking clue on how to use them.”

He kissed the top of her head. “You worry too much. According to Brodey, you were perfect when it came to saving you both from the fire in Yellowstone.”

“Ahem. Pine tree flambé strike a memory?”

He smiled. “That was an aberration, I’m sure. Besides, you were mad at us for arguing. If you haven’t noticed, we’ve made a distinct point of not arguing.”

“Around me.”

“Well, we are brothers, love. Don’t expect perfection from us.”

She giggled. “Sometimes I enjoy your arguments. Not all of them. Just sometimes.”

“Oh? Do tell. Which ones?”

She wiggled her hips against him, stirring interest from his cock in the process. “Like when you two argue over who gets which end. Or which side.”

“Mmm. That sounds like an invitation.”

“Take it however you want.”

“I’d rather take you.” He nipped her ear.

“Go ahead.” Heck, maybe getting laid was exactly what she needed to take her mind off of everything she’d seen.

Sure as hell couldn’t hurt.

He kissed her, taking his time, refusing to rush. As she melted into his embrace, she felt his cock hardening against her hip. She absorbed his natural scent, which always reminded her of sandalwood, for some reason. Jan’s scent always invoked mental images of an evergreen forest in spring after a cleansing rain.

Rick’s hands slowly skimmed down her wet back until he spread his fingers across her ass cheeks, squeezing hard and digging in, bordering on painful pleasure as he kneaded her flesh. He spread her ass as he massaged her. “Are you saying you want my cock…here?” He slipped one finger between her cheeks, pressing against the puckered rim of her ass, teasing but not entering.

She moaned against his neck. Her clit throbbed as moisture soaked her pussy. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Tell me.”

“I want your cock there.”

“Where?” He nipped her earlobe again. “I want to hear you talk dirty. I want you to beg for it.”

Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she prayed her knees didn’t give in. “I want your cock in my ass and Jan’s in my pussy at the same time.”

“Oh, baby!” He groaned, his cock twitching against her leg. Then he chuckled. “Why don’t you want my cock in your pussy?”

“I don’t care whose cock is where as long as one of you is in my ass and the other is in my pussy!”

“That’s my girl. Let’s get rinsed off and hit the bed.” He let go of her, and she nearly fell. Her wobbly legs didn’t want to hold her as passion had diverted nearly all her blood flow to her pussy.

He chuckled and reached out to steady her. “Hold on there, slugger. We don’t want you getting a concussion.”

“Don’t they say most household accidents happen in the shower?” she joked.

Lina thought a smile that sinful shouldn’t be outlawed, it should be made mandatory for every man’s facial expression repertoire. “I can’t imagine how.”

“I think I just found out how.” She finished rinsing, stepped out, and grabbed a towel. “From getting mauled by a horny dragon.”

He shut the water off. “Hmm. Must be a lot of horny dragons in the world. I didn’t know we were so prevalent.” He stepped out and dried off. When she tried to leave the bathroom, he dropped his towel and snagged her arm to scoop her up and carry her into the bedroom.

“I can walk, you know.”

“This is far more fun.”

He dropped her onto their bed, where Jan was stretched out, naked, and watching The Big Bang Theory. “There you are. I was beginning to think he was going to hog you all night.” He put the TV remote on the bedside table and rolled over to face her. “Hi.”

She giggled. “Hi.”

Rick climbed into bed behind her. “Guess what our naughty girl told me in the shower?”

She felt her face flush, but Jan grinned. “What did she tell you?”

Rick trailed his hand down her belly, letting it come to rest on her mound, where he cupped it, his fingers deliciously brushing against her clit. “She told me she wants to be the filling in a dragon sandwich tonight.”

Jan’s grin widened. She suspected if he got any happier his face would freeze like that. Not to mention his cock might explode. “Oh, reeeeallly? Well, I say we take care of that for her, brother.”

“Just what I had in mind.” Rick brushed her damp hair out of the way and nibbled the back of her neck while his fingers played with her clit.

She moaned, spreading her legs to give him better access. Jan bent his head to her right nipple and sucked it between his cool lips. It immediately drew into a tight peak in his mouth. She grabbed his head, weaving her fingers in his hair.

“Oooh, please don’t stop!”

“Who are you talking to?” Rick asked, his voice full of humor.

“Both of you, dammit! Don’t stop!”

Jan responded by gently biting down with his teeth and flicking her nipple with his tongue. That only served to inflame her need, each pulse of sensation sending an electric jolt of desire straight to her clit.

Rick slipped two fingers inside her cunt and slowly started stroking them in and out. “Wow, you should feel how wet she is already, and we’ve barely started the foreplay.”

Jan lifted his head from her breast, releasing her nipple despite her vocal protests. “I’ll get there eventually. I’m not done here, yet.” He leaned down and took her left nipple into his mouth and began giving it the same delightful torment he’d bestowed upon her right one.

Lina rocked her hips against Rick’s hand. He wasn’t thrusting hard or fast enough to get her over, just enough to tease her into a frenzy and get her even wetter.

He pulled his fingers from her drenched channel and touched them to her lips. “Open, lovely.” She did, licking her juices off his hand. She felt his cock throbbing against her ass. “Oh, you are so sexy when you do that!” He grabbed her chin and tipped her head back. His lips crushed hers, his tongue rasping against her lips until she gave way and he thrust it into her mouth, exploring, teasing, tasting.

With her mouth busy, he let go of her and returned his hand to her pussy. This time, he didn’t stop. He finger-fucked her until her body tensed between them. Then he rolled her clit between his fingers, sending her over the edge.

She moaned into his mouth as she ground her ass against him. He pinched her clit harder, intensifying the electrifying orgasm rolling through her. She tried to wiggle away from him, but he wouldn’t let go until he knew he’d wrung every ounce of climax out of her.

When he finally released her, he laughed and rolled her on top of him effortlessly, impaling her with his cock. With her swollen and oversensitive clit still throbbing, she moaned as the base of his cock rubbed against her.

“Get the lube, brother,” he said to Jan with a sly grin on his face.

Jan had already rolled over to the side of the bed. “I’m on it.”

“So am I,” Lina managed to mumble with a giggle. She wiggled her hips.

Rick lightly slapped her ass. “Hold still or he’ll miss the target.”

“Since when. He’s got the accuracy of a heat-seeking missile.”

“I’ve got your heat-seeking missile right here,” Jan quipped.

“Oh my god, I’ve fallen into a bad romance novel.” She groaned. “Hurry up and fuck me senseless again before your purple prose kills me.”

He drizzled lube down the seam between her cheeks and started working it into her ass. “Quit complaining. You don’t mind it when we skewer you with our purple swords.”

She lifted her head. “Keep talking like that, buster, and when I learn how to not-so-randomly blow shit up, your ’nads will be first on the list.”

“One thorough fucking, coming right up,” Jan said.

She moaned as he worked one, then two fingers into her, effectively silencing her. Well, silencing her speech, although the incoherent sounds of pleasure rolling from her were anything but quiet.

“That’s it,” Rick said as he took a long, slow stroke inside her. “You just lie there and enjoy it. We’ll do all the work.”

That was fine with Lina. Her tender nipples rasped against the fine, dark hair dusted across Rick’s chest. All she wanted to do was lie there and enjoy the feeling of two cocks inside her.

As soon as Jan hurried up and got his inside her.

She felt him spread her cheeks. Then the head of his cock pressed against her rim. “Is this what you want, lovely?” he asked her.

“Uh-huh!”

Rick’s fingers dug into her ass, holding her still and spreading her wide. “Tell us,” he ordered in the sexy Alpha tone that always melted her.

“I want your cock in my ass, Jan!” she gasped. “I want you both fucking me!” She already felt more pleasant tingles in her clit as she tried to rub it against Rick’s body. Hot and cool, she knew the contrasting sensations would send her skyrocketing into another powerful orgasm without any assistance from a tongue, finger, or battery-operated boyfriend.

“Hold on, I’m working on it,” Jan said. He slowly pressed forward, hesitating as his cock passed through her tight ring of muscle.

She moaned against Rick’s chest. “Do it! Please, fuck me!”

“Better do it,” Rick teased. “She sounds serious.”

She tried to hump their cocks, but Jan pressed a hand down in the middle of her back, holding her still. “Just wait, baby. Give me a minute.” He slowly worked his cock in deeper. She loved the sensation of one of them in her ass. Being impaled between them was a delicious sensation she wished she’d indulged in sooner.

When he bottomed out inside her tight ass, he sat up and grabbed her hips. “You feel so good!” He gasped as he took a long, slow stroke.

She moaned, squirming between them, wanting more, wanting to be fucked hard and fast.

Beneath her, Rick started thrusting, picking up a rhythm that hit her clit perfectly every time as he drove his cock hard and deep inside her pussy. Lina felt time slow and stretch. It felt like every nerve ending in her body had lit up.

As her climax approached, she threw her head back and moaned. “Yes!” When the first tingles started, her vision went blue.

Suddenly, she was no longer in bed with Rick and Jan. She was standing in the doorway of a small shop on a narrow, cobbled village street. She couldn’t read the signs around her, but they looked like they were in French.

A heavyset, older man wearing a dour expression emerged from one of the shops on the other side of the street. She couldn’t clearly see his face due to the hat smashed down on his head. He headed off down the sidewalk. Lina knew she had to follow him, but didn’t know why. As she stepped down from the sidewalk to cross the street, her climax slammed into her, ripping her from the vision and pulling her back into her body.

“That’s our girl,” Rick said with a grunt as he picked up the pace. Above her, Jan pounded into her, drawing out her orgasm until she finally collapsed on top of Rick, feeling like a puddle of melted flesh.

Rick came first. Lina shivered at the delicious sensation of his hot seed filling her. When Jan came, she shivered again at feeling him empty his coolly soothing load in her ass.

As they all lay there catching their breath, Jan leaned forward and kissed the back of her neck. “You still alive, lovely?”

“Mm hmm. I had another vision.”

“We make her see stars,” Rick joked.

“No, I’m serious.” She lifted her head. “I had another vision. I saw an older guy in some foreign city.”

Rick frowned. “I’m not sure I like triggering that in you. I’m afraid it might hurt you.”

She shook her head. “No, don’t feel like that. I like it. It’s like it’s allowing me to open a different energy channel.” She reached behind her and patted Jan’s side. “Not to mention it feels sooo good.”

Jan carefully withdrew from her and went to the bathroom to clean up. He returned with a warm, wet washcloth and a towel, cleaning her up before she rolled off Rick.

“Feeling a little better?” Jan asked her.

She nodded as she wiggled into a comfortable position next to Rick. “Definitely. I needed that.”

Jan returned to bed. “Rick has a point. We need to be careful. I would hate to trigger something in you that you can’t control that harms you.”

She grabbed his arm and laced her fingers through his. “Don’t worry about it. What Goddess says goes, right?”

Rick snorted with amusement. “Right. That’s probably safest for everyone involved.”

Chapter Twelve

Physically sated and totally exhausted, Lina crashed into sleep snuggled safely between her two men. It felt good to be home, in her own bed. A little normalcy in a wacked-out week. She just wished she had definite proof of who killed Kael’s parents, and Bertholde.

Alas, she opened her eyes in a forest clearing.

Fuck.

She immediately knew this had to be another…well, she didn’t know what the fuck to call them. The visions made her sight go blue. This was different, like replaying the things she saw from the past while with Baba Yaga.

A well-trodden path led from the clearing. She suspected this was the way she had to go, although every cell in her body told her she wouldn’t like what she found on the other end. She reached out to touch a tree alongside the path and her hand brushed right through it, although to her, she looked solid.

Alllrighty, then.

The path wound through the woods, ending at another clearing that opened onto a pasture behind a small stone house with a wood-shingled roof. Next to it was parked an old pickup truck. Well, it looked new, but vintage. A gravel drive led down to a dirt road about a quarter mile away. She watched as an old-fashioned milk truck drove past.

Okay, so I’m in the past. The front door of the house was closed, but that didn’t stop Lina. She walked right through it.

She wished she hadn’t. Inside, three robed, hooded figures had the occupants tied up. A man, a woman…

And a young girl.

Panic set in. Lina raced over to the captives and tried to untie the ropes, her efforts futile. Two of the robed figures turned from where they’d been kneeling in front of the hearth. They dragged the man, who started screaming, over to the hearth. Lina tried to free him from their grip, but her hands passed through the attackers with no effect. Two of the figures held his arms down while the third plunged a knife into the struggling man’s neck.

The woman and little girl screamed, crying for him. His eyes went wide then glazed over as the killer pulled the knife from the victim’s neck. One of the other figures held a pewter goblet under the man’s neck to catch the flow of blood as the killer shed his robe, revealing him to be naked underneath.

Edgar.

Lina watched as he drank from the goblet. Then, reciting a spell she couldn’t understand, he smeared his body with the dead man’s blood.

Repulsed, Lina looked away.

That’s when she got a good look at the knife lying on the floor next to the victim. The ornate handle was the same as the two knives from Yellowstone. Trying to avoid looking at the victim, who was now in the process of being eviscerated with Edgar’s bare hands, she realized the other two killers also had knives tucked into the rope belting their robes shut. As best she could tell, they bore the same pattern of engraving on this one.

Okay, at least it’s proof.

She still couldn’t make out the other two killers’ faces. When they finished with the man, they pulled him away from the hearth and discarded his body in the corner. Edgar stood, smiling in evil glee and stretching as he pulled his robe on.

Anger surged within her. She rushed him, screaming, and tried to hit him. Except for a flicker across his expression, her efforts proved useless.

Meanwhile, the other two men dragged the screaming, struggling woman over to the hearth as the little girl plaintively cried for her. The second attacker, who turned out to be Lenny, repeated with her what Edgar had done to her husband as Lina screamed and cried, helpless to stop it, helpless to look away.

When it came time for them to kill the little girl, Lina felt like her sanity would come unglued. She recognized the older man who raised the knife, even though in real life she had never seen him before.

He was the man from her earlier vision, the man she saw in the street. Only he looked a little younger and a lot thinner.

Lina tried placing herself between him and the little girl, and his hands plunged through her without effect. But when he raised the goblet to his lips to drink, Lina screamed at him, swatting at the goblet.

To her shock and his, the goblet flew from his hands, blood spraying from it in a ruby arc, splattering the wall while the goblet bounced off an old-fashioned floor radio and hit the hardwood floor with a clang.

Lina froze, as did the three men.

Edgar and Lenny proved to be as spineless and self-centered in the past as they were when she knew them. “We need to leave. Now,” Edgar said.

“But the ritual!” the third man complained. She detected a slight accent in his voice, but wasn’t sure what.

“Forget it!” Lenny said. “It wouldn’t have worked anyway! She was just a child. We needed the son. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to fool the dragons or the wolves like we do. Let’s get out of here!”

They gathered up their stuff, including the spell book from Yellowstone. They cleared out, leaving a sobbing Lina kneeling over the girl’s body. The child looked so much like Kael.

“I’ll figure it out,” she promised the little girl. “I will, I swear.” She reached out, even knowing she couldn’t touch the child, to close her eyes.

To Lina’s shock, she could feel her. When she lifted her hand, she realized it was now covered with the girl’s blood. Lina started to scream when Jan shifted in his sleep next to her, accidentally bumping her with his elbow and startling her awake.

As she tried to calm her racing pulse, she looked at her hand.

Clean.

With tears drying on her face and her heartbeat slowing, she settled between her men tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Lina stumbled downstairs while her men still slept. Zack was already in the kitchen, the delicious aroma of coffee brewing making her sigh with relief. She plopped down at the table without a word while Zack poured her a mug, fixed it the way she loved, and slid it in front of her.

“Thank you,” she said with a content sigh. She wrapped her fingers around the warm mug and lifted it to her lips for a sip.

“Of course, sugar.” He joined her at the table with a mug of his own. “Anything wrong?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“What’s got you frowning, girl?”

“This seems so unreal.” She looked at him. “How does your mom handle all of this?”

“All of what?”

“All the prophecy crap?”

He laughed. “Honey, she doesn’t know.”

“But before Edgar attacked us at my house last year, you said you came from a long line!”

He nodded. “I did. Just because we’re a long line, doesn’t mean she knows anything about it. I’m the one with the memories, not her.” He tapped his temple with one finger. “Now, you have your memories, too. The boys up there still don’t remember shit, but you know as well as I do they are the spitting image of what they used to look like.”

“How is your mom, anyway?” Soon after Lina had met her men, Zack’s mom had gotten a promotion and taken a transfer to Los Angeles, a dream job for her.

“She’s fine, Little Miss Avoiding-the-Subject.” He arched an eyebrow at her.

Lina felt heat flood her face. She suddenly found her coffee mug very interesting.

“Well?” he asked.

“Well what?”

“You so cannot lie to me, Lina. Spill it.”

She didn’t want to think about the nightmare. Her stomach flipped at the memory. “I saw…something bad last night.”

“Bad how? Missed a Best Buy sale bad, or ran over a blind kid with a Seeing Eye dog bad?”

“Bad.” She sipped her coffee, not wanting to revisit the scene, even in her mind. She looked at her hand. Clean, not a trace of blood. “I saw Kael’s family get killed.”

His mouth gaped. “Holy shit,” he whispered.

She started to cry. Somehow, he made it around the table before she could blink. He cradled her in his arms as she let out her grief on his shoulder. “I couldn’t stop it,” she moaned. “I saw it all, heard it…I couldn’t change it!”

That’s where the three dragon shifters found her moments later when the sound of her anguished wails reached them all. Jan and Rick nearly collided with Kael as they all tried to race into the kitchen at the same time.

When Zack finally got her calmed down, he said, “Okay, sweetie. I know you don’t want to talk about this, but you need to go back and tell us everything.”

“It was just a bad dream though, right?” she asked them all more for her own comfort than anything.

“Maybe,” Jan said, “but maybe not.”

Kael patted her shoulder. “It’s okay, Lina. We need to hear it.”

She took a deep, shuddering breath and related what happened. As she got to the point where she knocked the goblet from the third man’s hand, Zack stopped her. “They said he didn’t need to fool the dragons or the wolves?”

“I think so. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that’s what Lenny said.” She didn’t want to think about the gory scene.

She didn’t want to rehear the screams and cries.

The sound of the knife plunging into their bodies.

The sound of their guts being ripped out.

At least the third killer hadn’t gotten that far, his ritual interrupted. He certainly hadn’t aged well, if she could believe her other vision of him.

“Would you recognize the third man if you saw him again?” Kael asked.

“Absolutely,” she said. “He looked like he was in his fifties or sixties. He had mostly grey hair and brown eyes. But…” She did the math in her head. “Wouldn’t he be dead by now? That happened eighty years ago.”

“Not if he’s a shifter,” Kael said. “And I’d bet money on that. And the fact that you saw him in another vision lends credence to that theory.”

“Could you tell if the third man was the same person who killed Bertholde?” Rick asked.

“No. In that vision, I never saw his face.” She went quiet, a thought hitting her. “Hey, wait a minute. My vision at Yellowstone was blue. Like I was looking through a filter. And so was the vision last night about the tablet. And about the third guy.”

“So?” Jan asked.

“When I was with Baba Yaga looking at the past, and again with my nightmare, they looked normal.” She stood up, disengaging herself from Zack’s protective embrace. “If something’s already happened, I’m just seeing it. But if it hasn’t happened yet…” She went quiet, thinking.

Her men learned fast. They remained silent while she circled the kitchen, pacing, her concentration intently focused inward. They stayed out of her way until she stopped and looked at them. “We haven’t found the tablet yet. I wasn’t seeing the past, I was seeing the future. We will find it.” She walked to the table, where the book still lay in the center and flipped it open to the page with the drawing of the tablet. She turned the book to face Zack and pointed to a few passages next to the picture. “What does that say? Read it to me, please.”

He pulled it closer. When he stumbled over a word or phrase, one of the three dragons helped him. “The artifact of Trammel was spirited from the battlefield of Hilmelgamos after the defeat of our forefathers. It is said the three crones helped the adversaries capture our life force with it, dispersing it across the Ether, beyond our reach, robbing a number of us of the mighty abilities we once had. Recapture it at all costs.” He looked up at her. “What is it?”

Lina slammed her fist on the table. “That fucking bitch!” She looked up at the ceiling. “All right, lady! I want a fucking word with you!”

Chapter Thirteen

Lina literally blinked and found herself in Baba Yaga’s garden. The woman, in her matron form, knelt weeding a small patch of lettuce. Lina stormed over to her. “Okay, spill it, lady!”

“Spill what, Goddess?”

“The rest of the story. The parts you left out from yesterday’s little blast from the past about what happened when the cockatrice were defeated the first time. I knew there were some holes in that narrative. Not to mention, what’s the deal with the tablet?”

“I keep telling you to follow your instincts. When will you listen to me?”

“Why the hell didn’t you just tell me!”

She brushed her hands off, pulled off her gloves, and sat back on her haunches. “You needed to figure that out for yourself. My sisters and I sorely strained the patience of the Goddess as it was by interfering as much as we did.”

“Well, this is one goddess right here and now that’s pretty pissed off and impatient, too, ya know.”

Baba Yaga smirked. “Nice pajamas.”

Lina looked down. She was still wearing the lavender Eeyore pj’s she’d slipped on before heading downstairs to the kitchen that morning. Lina let out an irritated scream and jabbed a finger at her. “Now, you look here, quit changing the damn subject! Why didn’t you tell me about the tablet?”‘

Lina didn’t know if the smirk or Baba Yaga’s calm voice infuriated her more. “What have you learned since we last spoke, Goddess?”

“What?”

“What. Have. You. Learned?”

Lina took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, fine, Obi-Wan. I learned that blue visions haven’t happened yet. Any dreams that look normal are in the past.”

“Very good. What else?”

“That there was a third person at the murder of Kael’s family, and they’re probably the person that murdered Bertholde. I also saw him in a blue vision, so that means I’ll probably run into him again.”

“That’s not what I meant, but all right.”

She thought for a moment. “That’s all I’ve got.”

“How did you get here, Goddess?”

“I—” She pulled up short, a smile slowly spreading across her face. “I brought myself here?”

Baba Yaga nodded. “Now you’re getting it.”

“I brought myself here, huh?” She plopped down on the grass, allowing herself a moment to bask in her success, however small it might prove to be. “Cool.”

“Yes. To answer your question, I left that part of the story out on purpose. I am not allowed to force events to go a certain direction. Especially since you bear the memories in your mind, although Zachary does not because he was not present when the tablet was created. Now that you have discovered the existence of the tablet, I can tell you about it. Unless you’d rather look back at the memory.”

Lina started to say lay it on me, then thought for a moment. “You’re saying I have the answer about the tablet?”

Baba Yaga nodded. “You just need to find the strength within yourself to revisit the past. It will hurt, I won’t lie to you. But that kind of pain only makes you stronger in the long run.”

Lina sighed. “What you’re saying is that I should put on my big goddess panties and get it over with?”

“Yes. Eloquently stated.”

“Sarcastic bitch.”

The other woman laughed. “So say my two younger sisters. Hasn’t stopped me yet.”

Lina closed her eyes. At times like this, it was hard for her to garner any kind of positive feelings for the woman despite her saving Zack’s life. “Then I need to get home.” She opened her eyes and found herself sitting cross-legged in the middle of the kitchen table. The men all jumped back.

“Holy fuck!” Rick said. “How the hell’d you do that?”

She extended her hands to Jan and Zack for help getting down. “I’m thinking about taking the act to Vegas. Open for Penn and Teller.” She headed out of the kitchen. “I need a few minutes of alone time, boys. I’ll be right back.”

Upstairs, she closed their bedroom door and plopped down into the center of the unmade bed. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and let her mind drift, not sure how to go about finding the memories she sought. Eventually, fuzzy images swam into clearer focus as she made herself face the past. She thought about the trip down memory lane the night before with Baba Yaga on the way home from the airport.

Then she realized she’d found the missing part.

The morning after her first night with Jan and Rick—Stribog and Svarog, she reminded herself—the three of them met with Baba Yaga beside a sacred spring. Lina stood in the cool shadows at the edge of the clearing and watched her past self, much as she had the night before with the retelling, instead of experiencing it as an actual memory.

It made it easier to bear, somehow.

Lina remembered. She’d gone through the prophecy for any clue to defeat the cockatrice and called upon Baba Yaga for assistance. She watched as her past self talked with Baba Yaga.

“What is the stone?” she asked the crone.

The crone smiled. “It is whatever you want it to be, Goddess. You have powers beyond your ken. Unfortunately, you do not have time to adequately develop them.” The crone glanced at her two men. “The three of you prove a powerful triad.”

“Is it your sisters I need to call upon?”

The crone smiled and transformed into the maiden. “If it is your will, Goddess.”

Lina watched her past self straighten. “I call upon you and your sisters to assist us in making the…tablet.”

Baba Yaga raised her hands to the sky and chanted, calling forth two swirling pillars of cloud and light that took form on either side of her as women. Once they had completely materialized into solid flesh, she introduced them. “Brighde, Cailleach, meet the lovers three of the prophecy.”

Lina watched as she and her two men sat, a blank stone tablet appearing in the center between them. “What do we do now?” her past self asked.

Baba Yaga smiled. “You are the Goddess. You will feel it. Draw upon your men. Call upon the strength you know to be…present.” Lina could swear Baba Yaga turned around and winked at her, where she stood at the edge of the clearing.

Like belly flopping into a pool, Lina now sat in the circle, her past and present selves merged. She remembered. She remembered seeing Baba Yaga turn, as if looking at someone else they couldn’t see.

And deep inside her, she knew. Ignoring the fact that she was about to commit a temporal anomaly that would make Carl Sagan’s head explode were he still alive, Lina closed her eyes as the three women surrounded them.

Memory and vision merged as one. “Put your hands on the tablet,” she said to her men. She felt them do it. She laid her own hands on top of theirs, the blued image of the tablet of her vision fixed in her mind.

“Goddess within, Goddess without,” she chanted. “Goddess above, Goddess below. I summon Baba Yaga, Brighde, and Cailleach, hear our plea.” Her hands tingled. She imagined channeling the energies from the Universe down through the sky, through the three women now circling them, through the hands of her men, her energy merging and mixing with theirs, down into the tablet. “The power of three, past, present, and hence. The powers of these three, and evil banish hence. With every drop of blood that I pour into the ground, may the Goddess of all take heed to this sound. As strong as this stone, unbreakable cast, this spell guarantees our strength o’er evil, long may it last.”

She felt the wind pick up around them but didn’t open her eyes. She knew the three incarnations still circled them, feeding their called-upon powers into the stone.

Lina’s voice grew stronger, surer, more confident. “Goddess above, Goddess of all. We take now their evil and banish it all. The evil they sowed, the results shall they reap. We so do will it, so shall mote it be.”

White-hot lightning impaled her from the crown of her head, through her arms, into the stone. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but the negative-light image of the tablet from her vision. Then, like that, the feeling disappeared. Her body went limp as she collapsed backward onto the grass.

She heard the anxious cries of her men as they crowded around her. When she finally could open her eyes again, she saw the three of them were once again alone in the center of the clearing. The plain stone tablet now bore the same markings from her vision.

Lina didn’t stop to consider the ramifications. Her body felt like it would explode, sizzling nerve endings on fire in a good way. She grabbed Stribog and planted a kiss on him. Startled at first, it only took him a moment to return the kiss as Svarog nibbled on the back of her neck. “Take me, now!” she gasped. “Both of you! I must have you both!”

She struggled to remove the tunic she wore. Finally, the two men helped her out of it and quickly shed their own clothes. There beside the spring, she pushed Svarog onto his back and fiercely kissed him. She barely had time to think about how they even tasted and smelled the way they did in the present before she shoved rational thought out of the way.

With her pussy already drenched with her own juices, she impaled herself on Svarog, moaning as his hot cock drove deep inside her. She rode him only for a moment before Stribog grabbed her hips and forced her to relinquish his brother’s cock. “Wait for me,” he said, driving his cool shaft deep into her pussy and making her moan. He only thrust a couple of times, enough to coat his cock in her juices before he withdrew.

Using a finger, he scooped her moisture onto her rim, getting her wet there before allowing her to once again ride Svarog’s cock.

Stribog gently entered, stopping as she adjusted to his size. In this way, it didn’t feel like it did in the present. She frequently took her men in the ass and loved the feel of anal sex.

With both of them inside her, Lina closed her eyes, threw her head back, and howled at the sky as she fucked them hard and fast, her body out of control and her mind teetering on the edge of madness. The electricity inside her flowed between her pussy and her men, back and forth, to her nipples, to her fingertips.

As her orgasm swept over her, she cried out to the Goddess, the men’s groans of pleasure as their cocks emptied inside her sending her into a new plateau of release she didn’t know if she could survive.

The burst of energy now gone, she collapsed onto Svarog and blackness took her.

* * *

Lina extricated herself from the men and pulled on the old-fashioned tunic. At first confused with the laces, she finally figured out how to make herself presentable. She had to deliver the tablet.

Now.

She kissed her men. Svarog stirred and tried to stand, but she stopped him. “You cannot follow me. Meet me back at the castle.” She grabbed the tablet and ran for the horses, fumbling a little as she mounted without dropping the bulky stone. Then she raced through the woods toward the only person she knew she could trust as much as Zachary and her men.

Her old nursemaid, Trammel.

Lina smiled, a near-hysterical laugh escaping her…

And she opened her eyes to find herself sitting in the middle of her bed at their house in modern-day Florida. “Amma,” she whispered. That’s what she’d called her nurse when she was a young child, because she couldn’t say “Trammel.”

Lina flopped back on the bed, laughing and crying at the same time. The old woman hadn’t let her down. She’d been barely able to walk, but she quickly packed a small satchel while Lina had rigged up a saddlebag to hold the tablet. Then, with some tearful laughter between them, Lina had forcibly hoisted the woman onto her own horse.

“Take it far away, Amma,” she’d said. “To lair of wolf, or flagyer of dragon, or den of bear, it matters not. But keep it safe and deliver it into the hands only of someone trustworthy. If it falls into the hands of the cockatrice, we are all lost.”

“Aye, you can count on me, Goddess.”

Lina had watched the woman ride off into the woods before she herself turned and hurried, on foot, through the woods and back to the castle.

And then by late the next morning…

She sighed.

The next day, they had defeated the cockatrice. And all four of them were dead.

But how the hell had an illustration of the Tablet of Trammel ended up in a hellacious book belonging to the cockatrice?

Chapter Fourteen

Lina walked back downstairs. The men immediately stopped talking as soon as she appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Oh, quit doing that, would you?” She grabbed her coffee mug and took it over to refill it.

“Sorry,” Zack said. “Force of habit. Well?”

She waited until she’d refilled her mug and got a sip of coffee before answering. “How old is that book?” She tipped her head toward the table, where the ancient spell book lay.

Zack shrugged. “I don’t know. At least four hundred years old, but there are newer notes in there, written in ballpoint pen. Why?”

“They had the book with them when they killed your parents, Kael.”

He grimly nodded. “I suspected that.”

“And that picture,” she pointed, “was from my vision.”

“Yeah? So?” Zack asked.

“I know how the tablet was created. I know when it was created. I also know how it was sent away to safety before the battle. The cockatrice got that part of their story wrong.” From the change of expression on Zack’s face, she knew she didn’t have to explain which battle.

It still didn’t answer all his questions. “But I don’t know anything about the tablet.”

“Who was Trammel?” she asked him.

He thought for a moment while Jan, Rick, and Kael silently looked back and forth between them during the exchange. Confused, they wisely chose to keep their mouths shut.

He finally came up with it. “Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “But I thought she died before the battle?”

“A lot of people did. She was old enough to be dead. She lived outside the town. And the morning before we all…” She couldn’t say it. “Before the battle. I called upon Baba Yaga, Cailleach, and Brighde to help us overcome the cockatrice.”

Rick’s eyes squeezed shut in confusion as he rubbed his forehead. “What battle?”

“Shh,” Jan said, slapping his arm. “Let them talk it out.”

“And that’s when the tablet was created?” Zack asked.

“Yep. Hence the three spirals.” Now, with the memory fully restored, she knew what the symbols represented. She walked over to the table, turned the book to face her, and traced the picture with her finger. “The elements. The Horned God and Goddess. The spell we used to remove the cockatrice’s power and bind them. It didn’t work totally, only on the forces that attacked. Which, fortunately, were most of their strongest fighters. Meaning the good genes died that day, leaving only the weakest ones. It also took out some other species that were with them that day, which explains why some of them faded from memory.”

“And they think finding that tablet will help get their powers back?”

She nodded. “Yep. I think so.” She looked at it. “That’s why Edgar and Lenny were both hot to get into my pants. They thought that would help reverse the spell and take the power of the triad.” She looked at her men, then Zack. “We have to find that tablet.”

Zack frowned. “How do they know what the tablet even looks like?”

She touched her finger to her nose then pointed at him. “That’s the million-dollar question.”

* * *

After breakfast, Lina grabbed a shower and changed into shorts and a T-shirt. Just her luck, the PMS she’d suffered in Yellowstone had finally delivered. Her period had started.

Well, at least I had a good night of hot sex before it did.

Even though it was Monday and they’d already planned to not go into the office, she had things she wanted to get done before the men remembered Brodey’s warning that they should keep her locked up tighter than a virgin on her first spring break at Mardi Gras.

She grabbed her purse, keys and sunglasses, and shouted, “Going to the post office. I’ll be right back!” over her shoulder before bolting out the front door to her car. Sure enough, when she glanced in her rearview mirror halfway down the drive, she saw Jan and Rick standing outside the front door.

Most likely debating the wisdom of chasing me down. She hoped they were smart enough to keep their asses home. Especially since the post office was only five minutes away. She arrived there close to ten and waited in line to collect their mail and cancel the hold they’d placed during the trip to Yellowstone. The clerk frowned when she looked at Lina driver’s license.

“What’s wrong?” Lina asked.

“So that package is for you.” She returned Lina’s license.

“What package?” Her Spidey senses weren’t tingling. She hoped that meant it wasn’t bad.

“An overseas package arrived for you today. Let me go get it, and your other mail.”

Lina felt her stomach churn. It wouldn’t be a mail bomb, would it? The clerk returned a few moments later. She balanced three bundles of mail held together with rubber bands on top of a box at least three feet long and two feet across. She set it all on the counter with an audible thump and sigh of relief to be rid of it.

“Sign here, ma’am.” The clerk handed her a claim slip.

Eyeing the box, Lina signed the slip. She’d brought a cloth grocery bag with her for the mail and dumped it inside. When she picked up the box, its heft shocked her, and she had to put it back on the counter to adjust her grip. It had to weigh over thirty pounds.

Then she spotted the return address. It’d been mailed by one Bertholde Ann-Marie Marsziewnski from somewhere in France.

Lina swallowed hard. “Thank you,” Lina whispered. She once again grabbed the box and hurried out of the lobby to her car. She didn’t have to resist the urge to open it. She wanted to wait until she got home.

Rick and Jan were waiting for her, feet tapping and arms crossed, identical glares on their faces. When she got out of the car, they immediately swarmed her, talking all over each other.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

She held up her hands. “I’m fine.” She took a deep breath. “One of you, I don’t care which one, please bring that box into the kitchen. We’re also going to need Zack and Kael.”

Jan reached the passenger side first. “What is—oh, crap!”

“What?” Rick asked, shouldering his twin aside. “Holy shit.”

“Okay, are the expletives out of the way, boys? Because I’d really like to open the fucking thing.” She stormed into the house. She didn’t need to holler for Zack and Kael. Seated at the kitchen table, they were going over the evil spell book and taking notes.

“Hey, babe,” Zack said. He paused and studied her expression. “What’s wrong?”

She dropped the bag of mail on the table and pointed to the doorway, where Jan was carrying the box into the kitchen for her.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know, Zack,” she said. “That’s what I’d like to find out.”

Kael and Zack looked at the return address. “Holy shit!” they said.

“Yeah. Fine. Great. We’ve got that covered. Someone get a knife, please.”

Rick produced a pocketknife and carefully slit the tape holding the box closed while Lina examined the postmark.

“According to the date, she mailed this about a day or so before she left for Yellowstone.”

Rick pried the flaps open. Inside, on the very top, lay an envelope addressed to Lina with her name written in a very fragile-looking scrawl. Beneath it were several objects wrapped and padded with a French newspaper.

The men all stared at her. “What?”

“Well,” Zack drawled, “are you going to open it, or stare at it all day and hope the stuff jumps out onto the table for you?”

She tentatively reached in and withdrew the envelope. The back of it had been sealed with red wax, using a small shield emblazoned with a dragon.

“That was her seal,” Kael said.

Taking a deep breath, she carefully slid her finger under the flap and broke the seal. Inside lay a folded piece of fine parchment, written in the same handwriting as on the envelope. Fortunately for Lina, the letter was penned in English.

Dearest Pavlina,

By the time you read this, child, I will have gone to the Ether beyond. It is my time. I have seen it several times in my visions, and nothing anyone has done has changed the course of my fate. I have lived a long time, experienced many things good and bad. I have no regrets and await it as a new journey. It is not that I wish to die, or even wish to stop living, but this is what the Universe has in store for me. You cannot fight the Goddess of All when Her mind is made up.

The Sisters Three will be your allies. This much I have seen. Love the wolves and even other shifters as the kin that they are—and they are. The good wolves. There are some wolves out there who are not so good. Listen to your kin and they shall guide you well. You can and should trust your kin. They will never fail you.

Do not fear the past. It can only help you now. Listen to it, for you will find many clues to the answers you seek. You are the next in a long line of Seers. And since my brother is older than I, he will most likely follow me soon. (Naturally, however, it would seem from my visions.)

You are the future. You and your dragon men. As in the past, you will save not just our kind, but others from the Dark Gods. Only this time, Goddess willing (for it has not been shown to me yet) you will have many countless happy years together.

My will is also enclosed, as well as some things you will need in your search for a certain item I cannot take the risk of naming in writing in case this should fall into the wrong hands. I have already discussed everything with my brother, and he is in total agreement that it should be like this. Anything I wished him to have, I have already sent to him.

Be well, and blessings to you all.

Bertholde.

P.S. - If Andel gives you any grief, tell him I said to go get fucked. (I have always wanted to say that to him!) He is a pompous blowhard who needs to remember his ego has grown like a flatulent pig over the past few hundred years. Although I do love the little twerp.

Lina couldn’t hold back the laugh. It started as a burping hiccup of a snort, rolled into belly-aching guffaws…then transitioned into sobbing on Zack’s shoulder. She handed him the letter. He held it up so the other three men could also read it.

They all laughed at the same point she had, so she knew they’d finished it. Peeling herself out of Zack’s lap, she ripped off a wad of paper towels from the roll and blew her nose. Then she tucked into the rest of the box.

Books. And more books. Ten in all, seven of them handwritten journals, most of which appeared to be in French.

“Great,” she groused. “Someone overnight me a Rosetta Stone course.” There were also four small, carefully wrapped stone carvings, one of a wolf, one of a dragon, another of a bear. The fourth Lina couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a lion or a tiger or some other sort of big cat, but they all agreed it was feline. Then there was the large manila envelope that contained Bertholde’s will, as well as other papers, including a set of keys on a ring.

The last item in the box was a mystery. Literally. An intricately carved wooden puzzle box, approximately two feet long, six inches wide and high. She played with it for a moment, then shrugged and handed it over to Jan, who eventually passed it on to Rick, then Kael, then Zack. None of them could open it.

She handed the manila envelope from legal hell to Jan. “You deal with it. Tell me what to do and where to go and come with me.” She felt exhausted, and not just from the trip to Yellowstone. Even more from all the emotional developments of the past twenty-four hours. It wasn’t even noon yet.

Lina grabbed the three books that were in English, or had English content, the stone figurines, and the puzzle box, and tromped up to her room. She put everything on her bed and nearly ran into Rick on her way back down to get her laptop.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m not institutionalized in Chattahoochee, yet, so that’s something. However, the day is still pretty dang young.” She pushed past him, found where she’d left her laptop bag in the study, and hauled it back up to their bedroom. She closed the door behind her.

She’d taught her men early that was the sign for, “Knock first, or die.” She put on music for background noise, fired up her laptop, then settled in to read what she could of the books.

“Oh.” She did a little research and ordered herself a Rosetta Stone course in French.

Never hurts to learn this shit.

The first book she picked was a hardcover journal that had a handwritten date of 1925 inside the front cover. It looked it, too. Green, but the cover was threadbare and battered. Inside, Bertholde had made copious notes in the margins of the yellowed paper over the years in different colors of ink and pencil markings. Some of the ink from a ballpoint pen, and some from a fountain pen. The original entries were written by a variety of people and detailed first- and secondhand accounts of dealings with the cockatrice.

These suckers were assholes. Not that the fact had escaped Lina after her dealings with Edgar and Lenny, but it was nice to have extra backup. They made the mob look like a bunch of tree-hugging sweethearts.

Murder. Destruction. The occasional raping and pillaging. More murder. And, ah, yes, that perennial favorite, murder.

Unfortunately, none of this gave Lina even the slightest clue as to how the cockatrice managed to find out what the tablet was, or what it looked like.

She put the book aside and started skimming through the others, hoping something, anything, would jump out at her.

Nothing.

Well, not nothing. She learned more than she ever hoped to know about the damn cockatrice, and some of the other races that had allied with them against the humans and other shifters.

After two hours of reading, she heard a polite knock on the door. With a sigh, she put her book aside. “It’s okay. Come on in. guys.”

Jan and Rick poked their heads in. “Are you all right, lovely?” Jan asked.

She nodded. “I’m just…coping.” While she hadn’t known Bertholde for very long, she’d immediately liked the woman. It sucked losing her after only knowing her for a very short time.

The men entered and perched on either side of her on the bed. Rick held the paperwork from the manila folder. “Lina, I don’t know how to break this to you other than to say it. She left everything to you.”

“What do you mean, everything?”

Jan shrugged. “Everything. She made you the executrix of her estate, and left everything to you.”

Lina tried to let that sink in. “Everything?”

The men nodded, but didn’t reply.

She chewed on that. “Define everything,” she finally said.

“Well, we made a few calls. We were able to contact her attorney in France. Her estate is worth over eighty million dollars.”

Lina fell back on the bed, laughing in disbelief. Money wasn’t an issue since meeting her men. She had her own income, a result of Edgar’s overconfident planning, which left everything to her after she ended up killing the treacherous bastard, who turned out to be a cockatrice, in self-defense. Jan and Rick had their own money.

“Are you shitting me?” she finally asked when she could find her voice.

“No,” Jan said. “And yes, Andel is having a fit. He wants access to her estate and papers for the other Seer and the attorney won’t allow it, even though it’s her brother. From what I gathered from my conversation with her attorney, her brother could care less. It’s Andel that’s raising a stink. So, guess where we’re going?”

“Outer Mongolia?”

“Right,” Rick said. “France.”

“That wasn’t my guess.”

He stroked her cheek. “I can read your mind, love.”

“Cheater.”

He grinned. “You aren’t mad at me.”

“No, I’m not mad at you.” She let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Jan. “I just want an easy life. Is that too much to ask? I didn’t ask to be a goddess or a Seer. I just wanted a normal life.”

Jan propped himself up on one sexy elbow next to her. “Complaining, lovely?”

She gave him a frustrated groan. “No. Of course not. Well…yes, I am. Fuck.” She stared at the ceiling. Before she met Jan and Rick, she’d been convinced she was going to die an old maid as Zack’s fag hag. “Has Kael tracked down his friend about the tablet, yet?”

“No,” Jan said. “He’s working on it.” He glanced at Rick. She suspected they’d already talked about something and were in rare agreement. “We think it’s best we head down to Arcadia today instead of waiting.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Rick said, “we don’t know who is responsible for the murder, and while circumstantial evidence points to the third killer of Kael’s family, we don’t know for sure. There could be more than one person out there. They could have had other coconspirators. Like whoever provided Lenny with those special cuffs that we couldn’t get out of. Not to mention, if the third guy was a common shifter race, like a wolf or cat or something, that makes him even more dangerous. We already called Brodey and his brothers. They invited us to come down sooner. In fact, Brodey insisted upon it.”

“Because I need to be guarded.”

“Lina, please don’t fight us on this,” Rick said. “We only want to keep you safe. Whoever is responsible for killing Kael’s family, and maybe even Bertholde, they’re hiding something from the wolves and the dragons.”

“We don’t know which wolves.”

“True,” Jan said, “but Ain Lyall is pretty high up in their pack order. He’s going to talk to their pack Seer about bringing you to Maine. She might be able to help you with some of your powers.”

Okay, that plan she could easily get behind. “When are we going to France?”

“After we handle this here, first.”

“Okay.”

They both looked a little shocked at her immediate agreement. “Okay?” they said together.

She smiled. “Okay. I’m not going to fight you guys. You have a point.”

“Wow,” Rick said. “I think hell just froze over.”

She threw a pillow at him. “Watch it, buster. I’m still able to randomly blow stuff up.”

Before they were ready to go, Lina stopped by the kitchen for a soda and caught Zack sitting at the table, staring at the book, the two knives, the remnants of the handcuffs Lenny had used on Jan and Rick, and some of the other items Brodey had grabbed from Lenny’s tent.

She really hadn’t paid much attention to the other stuff, because between the knife and the book, she already felt overwhelmed.

“What are those things, anyway?” She pointed to the five small stone carvings. They’d been on the makeshift altar Lenny had set up in the tent.

Zack shrugged and touched one. Three inches tall, it looked like a malformed creature of some sort, a crudely shaped beast carved from reddish stone. “I have no clue. Some sort of talismans, I guess.”

She picked up the one Zack had touched and nearly dropped it again. She shuddered as she put it back on the table.

“What?” he asked.

“Blech! That thing…” She wiped her palm on her shorts, then went to wash her hands. “I don’t know what that damn thing is, but it’s, like, slimy or something.” The others were different shapes about the same size, but looked like they were carved out of the same material. No way in hell was she touching the others.

He picked it up and held it, frowning. “It feels like stone to me.” He put it back down. “Maybe it’s got some weird residual energy in it you’re sensing.”

“The only thing I’d like to sense is what it feels like crushing it under a sledgehammer.”

He smiled. “After we figure out what they are, knock yourself out. Until then, I think we need them.”

Chapter Fifteen

At least Lina had time to get her laundry done before she had to pack again. Since she didn’t know how long they’d be gone this time, she packed several weeks’ and climates’ worth of clothes.

She might not have a wolf and a soggy bear to keep her warm if she got lost in the woods again like she did back in Yellowstone.

They decided to caravan down in several cars. Lina, Rick, and Jan in her car, and both Kael and Zack following in their own vehicles. Lina sat in the backseat and took in the scenery. She didn’t feel like talking. The fact that there was someone out there capable of the despicable acts she witnessed in her vision made her sick. Even worse, that the person might have also killed Bertholde and still be out there, gunning for her as well.

Add to that the things she’d read about in the books from Bertholde, and she didn’t need convincing that the cockatrice were not a group of people she wanted to include on her Christmas card list.

It took them four hours to reach Arcadia, including a stop for a late lunch. When they pulled into the yard in front of the Lyalls’ house, Brodey, Cail, and a third man she assumed was Ain from his looks all stepped onto the porch. Brodey immediately smiled and swooped in to give her a huge hug when she got out of the car.

“There’s the Princess.”

“Goddess.”

“Whatever.” He flashed her a big smile and turned her to the third brother. “Ain, this is Lina.”

He walked over and shook hands with her. “Nice to meet you.”

She wasn’t expecting the surge of emotion she felt from him through their simple handshake. Gratitude mostly, which surprised her. Affection of a cousinly kind, even though they were strangers until this moment. Protective.

She looked into his eyes. “Thank you,” she softly said.

He appeared startled. “For what?”

“For offering to keep me safe.”

He smiled. “Hey, we protect our kin, by blood or adopted. And you and Brodey have apparently mutually adopted each other.”

Jan and Rick walked up. Fortunately, she didn’t sense any jealousy or tension from either of them. “Guys,” she said, “this is Brodey’s brother, Ain. Ain, this is Jan and Rick Alexandr.” The men all shook hands, and the next several minutes were spent unloading and schlepping luggage inside into the appropriate rooms. The old Florida ranch–style house felt warm and inviting, and looked neat and tidy despite it being occupied by three bachelors.

They cooked steaks outside on a huge, professional-looking grill. Gathered around a fire pit on their back lanai, Lina felt truly at ease for the first time since her abduction in Yellowstone. She found herself able to relax, and her men relaxing as well, knowing that, at least for now, they were all safe.

How long that would last, she didn’t know and didn’t want to think about.

“Another beer?” Cail offered.

She smiled and accepted the proffered bottle. “Thank you.” Normally, she wasn’t a big drinker, but tonight was special. Tonight, she could let everyone else take the driver’s seat and she could chill the frak out.

“Hey,” Kael said. “Do you guys know a wolf by the name of Daniel Blackestone? We called him Blackie back when we ran together in Europe. I’ve called around to my other contacts, but no one knows him or where he is.”

Ain contemplated for a moment. “Name sounds familiar. I’ll call Jocko Connelly up in Maine at the clan compound and ask him. If anyone’ll know, it’s him. Why?”

“It’s…complicated,” Zack said.

Lina tried to tune the men out as they explained to the Lyall brothers about the tablet.

“I think,” Kael said, “that if anyone can give us a lead on the tablet’s last known whereabouts, it’s Blackie. I remember when we were young, we’d gone out drinking one night in Brussels. We heard this drunk guy holding court in one corner, a bear shifter, bellowing about how no one can get the drop on them again because of some tablet. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but Blackie went real quiet. His face got all dark, like he was really pissed off. He says to me, ‘Come on, we gotta get this guy out of here. Now.’ So I follow him, he threw some money on the bar to cover the drunk’s tab, and we drag the guy out literally by the scruff of the neck.

“So we get him outside, and there’s a park one block over. Lots of trees and cover and it’s night anyway. Blackie starts muttering under his breath and dragging this guy along like he weighs nothing. The guy’s fussing and fighting and I’m just going along wondering what the fuck, but helping Blackie with him.

“When we get to the park, Blackie pulls back and slugs the shit out of the guy. Says, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, running your mouth like that?’ The guy said his father had told him about the tablet. He was all drunk and pissed off because some asshole had welched on a bet and now the bear couldn’t find him to get his money out of him.

“Blackie tells him, ‘Forget the fucking tablet, dude!’ and his eyes went really dark, nearly black. Told him if he ever heard about him mentioning the tablet again, he’d come eviscerate him and make him eat his own entrails. The bear freaked out. Said okay, man, sorry. Sobered him right the fuck up.”

Lina shivered. “Nice guy.”

Kael laughed. “Actually, he is. Let me finish. So the bear dude runs off. I asked him what the fuck was that about? Blackie asked me, ‘You’ve never heard about it? You’re a dragon.’ I said no. Long story short, he tells me about the tablet, the battle against the cockatrice, yadda yadda. He said he personally wasn’t sure the legend of the tablet’s powers wasn’t more than a fairy tale, but since his own parents were murdered by cockatrice looking for the tablet, he takes it damn personally. Then we went back to his workshop. He drew a rough sketch of the tablet out on a piece of paper, then burned the paper. Told me he knew where it was, had helped conceal it the last time, but that they’d have to kill him to get the info out of him.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Lina said.

“He meant the bad guys. There’s a few people in the world who know about the tablet’s true existence and whereabouts.”

Lina thought for a moment. “That would put Bertholde in the running for that job. Is that why would someone kill her?”

Ain shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe she wouldn’t tell what she knew, so they killed her so she couldn’t warn anyone else to move it.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Lina agreed. “Makes as much sense as any other theory we currently have.”

“So back to your mystery object,” Cail said. “I like puzzles. Can I see the box?”

Jan went to fetch it from their things. Cail played with it for nearly a half hour while they talked. Then both Brodey and Ain took a shot. None of them could open it.

Ain returned it to Jan. “That’s a wicked one.”

“Yeah,” Rick said. “Tell us about it.”

“I’ll get in touch with Jocko in the morning.”

“I think she definitely needs to go see Lacey,” Brodey said.

Cail and Ain both nodded.

“Who’s that?” Lina asked.

“Our pack’s Seer,” Brodey said. “Like Bertholde. And, honestly? There are few places safer to be than a pack compound. Especially ours.”

When Lina yawned, Zack chimed in. “I think she’s worn out tonight, guys. Let’s call it a night and decide on our plan in the morning.”

“I’m okay,” Lina protested.

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Hey, I’m still your Watcher, lady. Listen to me.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, fine. You know, one of these days, I might decide to charbroil you, ya know.” She smiled.

“Promises, promises, Goddess girl. Go get your tushy into bed.”

She did.

Chapter Sixteen

Early the next morning, Ain closed himself in Cail’s study and placed a call. A sleepy, brogue-thick voice answered.

“Aye? Better be good, wakin’ me this early.”

“Hey, Jocko. It’s Aindreas Lyall, down in Florida.”

The older man grunted. “Hold on, boyo.” It sounded like Jocko laid the phone down. Ain heard coughing and a horrific hacking noise. A moment later, the sound of water running. When Jocko finally returned to the phone, he sounded a little more awake. “Sorry, had to hit the loo. What’s up?”

“I need to locate someone.”

“Do I look like the Yellow Pages?”

“He’s a wolf. Daniel Blackestone.”

He didn’t like the wary tone that cropped up in Jocko’s voice. “Why?”

Ain gave him the short version of everything that had happened and sensed Jocko’s distrust ease. “Ah. Makes sense, now. I’ll look around and let ye know.”

“The sooner, the better. We’ve committed to helping them. If Lina’s vision is right, the cockatrice might have plans for us, too.”

“Feathered bastards. Always did hate ’em. I’ll track him down. Ye said yer heading up here to see Lacey?”

“Brodey is. He’s coming with Lina and her men. Cail and I are going to stay here and hold down the fort.”

“All righty, boyo. I’ll let you know when I find him. Have Brodey stop by with yer guests when he gets here so I can meet ’em.”

* * *

Lina awoke the next morning, alone in bed and with sunlight streaming through the bedroom window into her eyes. She knew her men had slept with her, because she remembered snuggling between them at some point and their pillows had obviously been used.

Groaning with exhaustion she knew had to be the effect of the trip to Yellowstone, combined with her new revelations, not to mention her period, she dragged herself upright into a sitting position and tried to wake up. She heard men talking in low tones somewhere in the house.

She got out of bed, pulled on a robe, went to the bathroom, and then padded out to the kitchen where she found Brodey, Zack, Kael, Jan, and Rick talking at the kitchen table with the book, cuffs, puzzle box, knives, and the strange stone talismans in the middle of the table.

They fell silent at her appearance.

“Okay, fuck that shit. What’s up?”

At her appearance, Zack had stood to pour her a cup of coffee. He handed it to her, as well as a couple of Motrin for her cramps. “Nothing, babycakes. Why? Are you paranoid?”

“Yes. Don’t you think I’ve earned the right to be after all that’s happened?”

“She’s got a point,” Brodey said with a smile.

She downed the Motrin and gave both Rick and Jan a kiss before she joined them all at the table. “Do we have to have those creepy thingies out?”

“Which creepy thingies, dear?” Zack asked. “The creepy book, knives, cuffs, or statues? Or Jan and Rick?”

“Hey,” Rick said with a smile.

“Just kidding, Smokey,” Zack said.

“The statue thingies.” She shuddered.

Jan grabbed them and put them back in Zack’s knapsack. “Better, lovely?”

She sipped her coffee. “Yes. Thank you.”

Brodey looked thoughtful. “You know, there has to be something about those things. None of us get the same feeling you do when you touch them. I mean, they’re intrinsically creepy, sure, because they were Lenny’s and no doubt had some kind of dark purpose. But they just feel like stone to us.”

“I don’t care. They’re slimy and I don’t want to touch them.”

“We get it,” Zack said. “Don’t worry.”

“Yeah, we have other things to worry about,” Brodey said.

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like helping you learn how to defend yourself.”

* * *

After breakfast, Brodey loaded Zack and Lina in one of their work trucks and drove them across the ranch to an isolated section of pasture adjoining a wooded area. Jan, Rick, and Kael stayed behind to discuss their various options with Ain and Cail.

They wouldn’t clarify exactly what options, but Lina suspected it was ways of keeping her safe.

“What are we doing here?” Lina asked as they climbed out.

Brodey started stripping. He laid his clothes in the truck bed. She wanted to blush, but found she couldn’t force herself to look away, either.

He laughed. “It’s okay, sugar. Feel free to look. I got over being bashful a century ago.”

Zack whistled. “Glad you don’t mind, because you are nice eye candy, Brodey.”

Brodey laughed again. “Sorry, you’re not only taken, you’re not my type. You want to fill her in, or do you want me to do it?”

“It was your idea.”

Lina felt herself growing frustrated. “Fill me in about what?”

Brodey turned to her. “Remember how in Yellowstone you did that out-of-body thing to talk to me when I found you?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s practice doing that again. We wanted to come out here where there’s not much in the way of distractions.”

“You being naked is a huge distraction, Brodey,” she snarked.

“You’ve got that right,” Zack agreed as he tugged at the bulge in his jeans.

Brodey snorted in amusement, but continued. “I’m going to shift. You try to figure out how you did that and come talk to me.”

“But I don’t know how I did it.”

“That’s the point,” Zack said. “You need to figure it out. No better time than now. Instead of wasting time trying to eliminate what you can’t do, let’s focus on strengthening what we already know you can do.”

Lina and Zack sat on the tailgate. They watched as Brodey shifted and headed out into the trees.

“Any suggestions?” she asked Zack.

“Nope. Sorry, sugar.”

She stared at the woods, in the direction Brodey headed. When she’d done it in Yellowstone, she’d been tied up in a tent and drugged, barely conscious when she sent her mind out and talked to Brodey. It’d been more an accident than anything.

A thought so stupidly simple occurred to her that it made her laugh.

“What is it?” Zack asked.

“Shh.” Remembering how she ended up at Baba Yaga’s, she closed her eyes and focused her mind and thought about seeing and talking to Brodey.

Instantly, she felt herself step outside her body. She turned and looked at the truck. She still sat there next to Zack.

Okay, so to find Brodey. She turned toward the woods and followed his path. Instead of walking, she envisioned herself floating, picking up speed as she moved until soon she was zipping along at a pretty good clip. It only took her a few moments to catch up with him. He was sitting in a small clearing, still shifted into his wolf form.

Lina stopped next to him. “Brodey, can you hear me?”

He didn’t react.

She reached out to pet him and envisioned her hand touching the fur on his head, as if solid. “Broo-deeey.”

He cocked his head, listening.

She tried again. This time, she could feel his fur under her hand. Brodey jumped away from her and shifted back into human form.

“Holy fuck, Lina! You scared the crap out of me!”

“What?”

He pointed at her. “You’re here.”

“You told me to do it.”

“Mentally. You’re actually here here.”

In the distance, they both heard Zack yelling something.

“Oh, crap,” she said, looking at her hands. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Brodey laughed. “Okay, so do we want to work on you dematerializing instead?”

She snorted with laughter. “At least I didn’t randomly blow something up. Like you.”

“And for that I am extremely grateful, kiddo. Let’s head back to the truck before Zack blows a gasket.” He shifted and took off at a run.

Hmm. Well, let’s try it again. Lina closed her eyes and focused on going back to the truck. When she opened her eyes, she was still standing in the middle of the clearing.

“Well, fuck a duck.” With a disappointed sigh, she trudged off after Brodey through the woods.

By the time she reached the truck, Brodey had already donned his clothes and had calmed Zack down.

“There you are!” Zack said. “You scared the crap out of me, disappearing like that.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she said.

Brodey snickered. “You might want to practice that in an open field. You don’t want to accidentally materialize halfway through a tree or something.”

“Jesus, give me something else to worry about, why don’t you?” Zack quipped. He shook a finger at Lina. “Quit scaring me like that!”

“I wasn’t trying to scare you,” she said, suddenly feeling very weary. Would she ever master these funky powers?

Did she even want to?

Brodey’s expression looked concerned. “You okay, kiddo?”

“I’m exhausted,” she said.

“Why don’t we head back?” he suggested.

She shook her head. “No. I can’t give up just like that.” The men slid over and made room for her on the tailgate. She leaned against Zack. “I just feel overwhelmed.”

“I would, too,” Brodey agreed. “Do you want to try the materialization thing again? Just a few feet this time?”

She nodded. “Sure.”

He walked several yards away, out in the middle of clear ground, and turned to face her. “Try to come to me.”

She sat up straight and took a deep breath. She still wasn’t sure how she did it before. After five minutes of trying without any luck, she slumped against Zack. “I’m the worst goddess ever.”

Brodey returned to the truck. “Stop that. You just need to figure it out, that’s all. Don’t expect to learn all this stuff at one time. Maybe you’re trying too hard. Maybe we should start with much smaller things, like making stuff move or something.”

“Or barbecuing chicken?” she snarked.

He laughed. “Now there you go. You’re great with that. We can skewer a few birds and let you go to town with the fireballs.”

“I wish I could have been there to see that,” Zack proudly said. “I bet it was a sight.”

Brodey shivered. “Dude, that thing was so fugly, I would have had to tie a pork chop to it to get Wally to go after it. And he’ll eat damn near anything when he’s shifted.”

“Speaking of Lenny,” Zack said, “we should probably have someone check his place out.”

“Do we know where he lived?” Lina asked.

“Kael found out his last address was outside of Boston.”

“Hey,” Brodey said, “that’s near Wally. I can have him go check it out. He’s a PI.”

“Well, isn’t that coincidental,” Zack said.

Brodey shrugged. “He’s about three hundred years old. He’s worked for Scotland Yard, Interpol, and the original Pinkertons. He likes to stay in the same field.”

“Can you call him for us?” Zack asked.

“Sure, but the number’s at the house.”

Lina climbed off the tailgate and stretched. “Okay, so we need to go to the house—”

The words caught in her throat as she found herself standing in the Lyalls’ living room. Jan, Rick, and Ain all let out startled shouts as they looked up from the dining room table.

“Um, hi,” she said, her face reddening.

Worst. Goddess. Ever.

Ever!

“What are you doing here, babe?” Jan asked.

“Fuck that,” Rick said. “How did you get here?”

She started to answer that question when her cell phone rang. She knew it was Zack from the ringtone. She answered. “Yeah, sorry about that,” she said. “I’m at the house.”

“How the fuck did you do it?” he practically shouted in her ear.

“I don’t know!” she said, bursting into tears. Jan and Rick huddled around her as Ain took the phone from her and spoke to Zack.

“Yeah… Sure. We’ll keep her here until you two get back.” He hung up the phone and handed it back to her. “Your Watcher decrees your lessons are over for today due to his needing a stiff drink and a tranquilizer for his nerves.”

“I suck at this!” she wailed against Rick’s shoulder. “I can’t do anything right!”

“Shh, lovely,” Jan soothed, “it’s all right. You’ll get the hang of it eventually. Maybe you’re just trying too hard.”

They got her mind off of her less-than-Goddessly skills by talking about sending Wally to search Lenny’s. Ain and Cail both agreed that was a solid plan. Brodey went to fetch his friend’s number. Lina had never searched Edgar’s place because she didn’t want to deal with anything related to him. She’d told the attorney to turn the contents over to Lenny.

In retrospect, she kicked herself in the ass for doing that. Brodey related all this over the phone to Wally, who was more than happy to help out Brodey. He promised to go do it that afternoon.

PART II

Chapter One

Now

“Jeez, Callie, what the frak is up with you today? You act like you’re about to bounce out of your skin.”

Callie looked across the table at her friend, Shawna. “What?”

“You drinking espresso shots before you even get to the coffee shop, or what?”

Callie realized she’d been anxiously tapping her foot and willed it to stop. “Better?”

Shawna raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. “Not really. Purple? Really girlfriend, you’re shitting me that’s not a wig, right?”

Callie stroked her hair. “I was in a mood.”

“A mood? Is that code for drunk?” Shawna’s mocha skin looked flawless, as always. Her shoulder-length hair had, no doubt, suffered an hour’s torture of straightening for her to achieve the casually mussed look she sported. She wore blue jeans and a gorgeous maroon blouse that set off highlights in her brown eyes. She pulled the look together with stiletto sandals that gave her five-three frame an extra four inches. If someone didn’t know she held a law degree and was the head of the Mid-Atlantic Conservancy Trust for the Performing Arts, a position she inherited when her wealthy parents died and left her the job in their will, they’d never know she was worth over forty million dollars. She still insisted on driving her fifteen-year-old VW Rabbit to work every day at the “MacTrippa” office, as she called it.

“I was not drunk.” Callie examined the result in the chromed side of the napkin holder. Her green eyes, one aspect of her appearance that never changed, stared back at her. “I was experimenting.”

“Girl, you flunked that experiment. Leave the mad scientist crap to Dr. Frankenstein, and get your ass back to the hair stylist.”

“I did it myself,” Callie mumbled. “I like it. You’re my friend. You’re supposed to support me.”

“You’re what, thirty-five? Time to leave purple hair behind.”

“Thirty and holding,” Callie mumbled. Sort of the truth, although Shawna didn’t need to know that.

Shawna snorted in derision. “Embrace your age. You’re a hot woman. You don’t need to go purple to prove it.”

“It’s not like it’s all purple. Just a few streaks for highlights.”

Shawna arched an eyebrow at her again. “More like you were lit high or something.”

Callie looked around for any sign of her intended mark. Three years of coming to this Charleston coffee shop and time was growing short. So far, all she’d picked up was Shawna as her friend, and a caffeine addiction. But her sister had insisted events were already in play, and literally any day now, she’d find him.

Why her sister couldn’t just hand over his name, address, and phone number beat the hell out of Callie. But Babs insisted it didn’t work that way, that mortals’ free will must be maintained, otherwise the prophecies wouldn’t be fulfilled, blah, blah, blah.

Always complicating shit. Just like her.

Shawna sipped her latte. “We still hitting the opera tomorrow night?” She grinned. “I saw the publicity stills of Salzari, the lead.” She let out a low whistle. “A Saturday night at the opera never looked so sweet. Two words, honey—tight leather pants.”

“That’s three words,” Callie pointed out.

“Uh-uh. These pants look like they’re painted on him, making ‘tight’ and ‘leather’ eligible for one-word status. Hyphenated, at the very least. And he’s definitely got the bod to wear them. How often do we get a hunk like that singing Puccini here in Charleston?”

“Not very.” She sipped her cappuccino.

“Uh-huh. Exactly.” Shawna started to say something else when she let out a low whistle. “I’ll take one of him to go, and hold the wrapper, puhleeze.”

Callie turned to look. The coffee shop sat on a corner, with doors opening to both streets. The man had walked in through the coffee shop’s far side door, not the main entrance in front of the counter. His jet-black hair brushed his shoulders but looked right on him, like he spent a lot of time out of doors doing hard, honest labor and didn’t have time to get it cut. His grey-green eyes bore a hint of amber in them. He carried a copy of The Post and Courier tucked under his right arm, likely just purchased from the paper box right outside. Faded, tight blue jeans over worn work boots, and a collared blue knit, short-sleeved shirt highlighted his trim, lithe body. She guessed him to be around six foot and one-eighty.

Mmm. Yummy.

Callie was vaguely aware of Shawna clearing her throat. When she turned, she spotted Shawna’s playful smile. “Girl, I’ve got guys falling out my asshole. Go get him. This one’s on me.”

She’d already jumped up from her seat and taken three strides toward where he had queued in line to order when she realized who he must be.

Fuck!

Okay, well, if she had to hook up with a fleabag, there were far worse looking ones. He was almost as hot as the Lyall triplets down in Florida who Babs had warned her to stay away from.

She stepped into line behind her mystery wolf hunk. He didn’t turn around, but she stared at the back of his neck and enjoyed his warm, earthy scent.

There won’t be anything hard about this job. Well, except hopefully Mr. Hunkalicious’ cock.

When it was his turn, he stepped up to the counter and ordered a large, black coffee, with an extra shot of espresso.

My kind of guy.

When he turned around to step to the end of the counter where the pickup area was located, their eyes locked. For the first time she could ever remember, her mouth went dry.

After what felt like forever, she managed to speak. “Um, hi.”

The hint of a smile curved his lips. She saw the wolf lurking under the surface.

So this is what it feels like to be prey.

“Hello,” he said.

“Ma’am, did you want to order?” the clerk asked.

Callie fought the urge to evaporate the multiply pierced clerk where she stood. “Um, can I get an extra napkin?” she asked without breaking eye contact with Mr. My-What-Big-Eyes-You-Have.

He smiled.

“Ma’am,” the clerk said, exasperated, “the extra napkins are on the tables.” She looked past Callie, who struggled against the desire to make the girl’s head explode. Callie finally rationalized that the girl’s piercings would cause shrapnel and possibly harm innocent bystanders. “Can I help the next person in line?”

“We’d better step out of the way,” Wolf Man suggested.

“Uh-huh.” Callie knew she shouldn’t be reacting like this. No other man had ever made her react like this.

Then again, she’d never fallen for a shape-shifter before. At least, not a wolf.

I am sooo going to kill Babs for this.

She followed him to the end of the counter, where the man stuck out his hand. “Daniel Blackestone.”

She hoped her hand didn’t feel clammy. “Callie Maher.”

Another clerk set his order on the counter. “Large black coffee. Extra shot.”

“That’s me,” he said with a smile, his gaze never leaving Callie’s.

Callie nodded.

“I need my hand back,” he said with a deliciously raised eyebrow.

Oh, you stupid fuck! she chastised herself as she let go. “Sorry.”

He pulled out his wallet, fished out a business card, and handed it to her. Blackestone Construction. “That’s my cell,” he said. “I’m on my way to a meeting, but give me a call. If you’re free later, maybe we can grab something to eat?” One dark eyebrow deliciously arched again. She wished he’d stop doing that. Every time he did, it made her panties even more squishy. “Unless you’re not available?”

“Oh, I’m available!” The words tumbled out of her mouth in a frantic rush. “Anytime!”

“How about we meet at five this afternoon at Prachett’s? My treat.”

She nodded dumbly.

“Do you know where that is?”

“Over on Highway 5.”

He smiled. “See you at five, Callie.”

“Okay.” She watched him pick up his coffee and stroll out of the shop.

It took every ounce of her strength not to follow him.

Shawna’s laugh brought Callie back to the present. She looked over at her friend, who was beckoning her back to the table with a crooked finger. In a fog, Callie returned and plopped down in her chair. Shawna plucked the card from her hand and studied it before letting out a low whistle.

“I’ve heard of him. Honey, you just hit the jackpot if you don’t let him get off the hook. Rich businessman. His company makes a generous donation to the Foundation every year.”

Callie took the card back as her pulse struggled to slow its racing pace. What have I gotten myself into?

* * *

When Callie finally made it home, she walked into the master bedroom, into the large walk-in closet. She stepped through it into her sister’s dooryard.

Babs, in her maiden form, knelt on the ground next to a small vegetable patch. A little pile of weeds lay next to her.

Callie angrily strode over to her. Babs never looked up. “Okay, sis. What. The. Fuck?”

Baba Yaga still didn’t look up. “Cailleach, you show up at my house unannounced, uninvited, and using that tone of voice with me? That’s very risky.”

“Risky my ass!” She ran a hand through her hair. “Damn it! You set me up! You didn’t say anything about me falling in love with this guy or him thinking I am his mate!”

Babs finally sat back on her heels and looked up at her sister. “I take it you met your wolf?”

“My wolf? Oh, no. Fuck, no! Wait just a freaking minute. You know damn well I’m not out to get hitched.”

“Then walk away from him.”

Baba Yaga’s calm tone infuriated Callie. She sputtered, angry and indignant, until she realized walking away from the man whom she’d just met wouldn’t be possible. Dejected, she plopped down onto the grass. “What am I going to do? This wasn’t what I signed up for,” she wailed.

Babs finally smiled. “You’re going out to dinner with him tonight.”

* * *

Daniel Blackestone sat in his pickup truck, eyes closed, and waited.

Nope, not going away.

The rock-hard erection he’d developed upon meeting Callie Maher wasn’t getting any better. In fact, as he thought about her, his member throbbed, practically trying to claw its way out of his jeans to go find and fuck her.

To claim her as his One.

Despite all the bullshit he’d been raised on, part of him never expected to meet his One. At least, not like this. Not in line in a coffee shop in Charleston. He certainly never expected this kind of reaction from his body or his soul.

She wasn’t even a wolf. He didn’t know what the hell she was, but human wasn’t among his top thousand choices. She wasn’t a shifter, either. At least, not any shifter breed he’d ever met. Definitely not wolf or canine, and not feline. The only reason he’d let her walk away was because from the way her pulse had raced, and the way her scent suddenly overwhelmed him, he knew she felt the pull, too. She wouldn’t miss their dinner.

She couldn’t any more than he could.

Her scent reminded him of cold, wet spring on a moor in Scotland. When he shook her hand, he had to fight the urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her right there. No woman had ever affected him like that before.

The only thing that kept him from doing it was the fact that they were in public, and that he suspected whatever she was, she had the power to fry him where he stood.

He eventually opened his eyes, resigned to walking around in discomfort all day. Tonight. We have dinner tonight. Then she’ll either be mine, or she’ll kill me in my tracks.

He started the truck and backed out of his parking space. Either way, I will get rid of this boner tonight.

Chapter Two

Callie spent two hours trying to decide what to wear. Another hour trying different hair styles and colors until she went back to the purple streaks.

If he doesn’t like it, fuck him.

Although she strongly suspected she would be fucking him tonight. And well into tomorrow, if she was lucky.

She hoped he didn’t get some silly wolf idea about her being his mate, or whatever the heck it was those wolves did.

Although, if she was truly honest with herself, she realized she might not have a choice. She’d never reacted to any man, human or not, the way she’d reacted to Daniel Blackestone. The flaw in the slaw, so to speak, was the fact that she sensed he was a full-on Alpha wolf, not a man to be dominated. One thing Callie had learned in all her years was she belonged in the driver seat. She didn’t care what Baba Yaga said. She wasn’t looking to get hitched.

This could be interesting.

Her stomach tensed as she drove to the restaurant. A little out in the country, but a homey place with excellent food and a hangout for locals. She sat in the parking lot and tried to talk herself out of this.

I could call his cell and cancel.

Even as she tried to make herself do just that, thinking it the perfect answer to her problem, she grabbed her purse, got out of her car, and locked it before heading inside. Scanning the dining room, she spotted him in a corner booth, his back to the wall and facing the door. He raised his hand in greeting. Totally ignoring the hostess, Callie felt like her feet drifted a few inches off the floor as she coasted over to him.

He stood at her approach and offered a hand. “I’m glad you made it.” His playful smirk told her more than she needed to know. He felt something, too, and he thought he was running the show.

“Thanks.” She shook with him and it took every ounce of will she had to finally disengage her hand and sit in the other side of the booth.

He sat after she did and leaned in across the table. His scent filled her nostrils. She barely managed to choke back a hungry moan.

“Would you like to do this the easy, non-bullshit way?” he asked. “Or do you want to dance around the subject?”

She swallowed, hard. He’d made her. She nodded, not trusting her voice to not squeak.

He smiled. Damn, her panties were already soaked, and she hadn’t even kissed him yet.

I’m sooo going to kill Babs for this.

* * *

Daniel studied Callie as she walked across the dining room to join him at the booth. He just hoped she didn’t see his throbbing erection straining at the zipper of his jeans when he stood.

Fuck it. Time to cut to the chase. Whatever she was, she knew it, and he wasn’t going to waste precious time or loss of blood flow to his brain pretending they weren’t what they were just to uphold social norms.

He wanted his cock deep inside her pussy, and he wanted it now.

Fortunately, she agreed to his suggestion to quit wasting time with a tentative nod.

He smiled and prayed she didn’t think she was prey. He glanced around before lowering his voice. “What are you?”

“That’s complicated.”

“Uncomplicate it.”

She shook her head. “You first. You’re a wolf.”

“Give the lady a prize. Now answer my question.”

She glanced down at the table. He got the impression she was not a woman used to feeling outnumbered or overpowered. “Do you know who Baba Yaga is?”

He snorted. “Let me guess, you’re her?”

She shook her head again. “Her younger sister.”

That stopped him in his tracks. He’d always assumed Baba Yaga was a myth.

Then again, so were shape-shifters.

“Her younger sister?”

“You might know me as Cailleach.”

Now that name he knew. His Scottish grandmother had scared him by invoking her plenty of times in his youth, a good hundred and fifty or so years earlier. When he’d wish for warmer weather, she’d say, “Daniel, ye ken better than that. Don’t make the Cailleach angry by wishin’ her away too soon, now. Ye hear me, laddie?”

“But…” He looked at her, dumbfounded. “What?”

Now she smiled. “Yes, I’m Cailleach. Or the Cailleach. Callie’s fine.”

“But you’re human.”

Before his eyes, her hair changed to ginger. “So are you. Just consider me a different kind of shifter.”

He sat back, appraising her with a new eye. “I have to be honest with you—”

“Yes, you do.” She smiled.

“As I was saying, I think you’re my One.”

“You think, or you know?”

“I know.” He leaned forward and dropped his voice. He could smell how wet she was, how much she wanted him. Her cool-as-winter act wasn’t fooling his lupine nose in the least. “I’m going to take you home, fuck your brains out, and mark you.”

He watched the beautiful muscles in her neck work as she swallowed hard. Good. Her composure was on shaky ground.

He suspected that was the only advantage he had over her.

“What exactly do you think you’re going to turn me into?” she asked.

“What you know you are. What you already feel. I’m going to make you my mate.”

“I belong to no man.”

“I’m not a man. I’m a wolf.”

* * *

Unfortunately, she couldn’t argue with that logic. And she also couldn’t argue with the fact that, if it wouldn’t get them thrown in jail and irrevocably emotionally scar some of the children and adults in the dining room, she’d fuck him right there on the table without a second thought.

Wasn’t the kinkiest thing she’d ever done in her existence, but it would rank somewhere in the top fifty.

“True. But I’m not your average woman.”

“I never said anything about you was average,” he quietly shot back.

Callie suspected the verbal Ping-Pong match would have continued had the waitress not returned to take their drink orders. Alone again, Callie once more leaned in close. “If you think I’m just going to go home with you and submit to you and be a good little wifey, think again.”

He matched her tone and posture. “If you think I’m going to let you walk out of my life without a fight, you’d better think again.”

She sat back, her throat dry. She took the opportunity of the waitress returning with their drinks to slip out of the booth and practically sprint to the bathroom. Fortunately alone, she locked herself in a stall and turned, closing her eyes.

She opened them in Babs’ kitchen. Babs sat at her counter, in her maiden form, a vintage Vogue magazine from 1968 before her.

“What the fuck is going on, sis?”

Baba Yaga didn’t look up from her magazine. In fact, she flipped the page. “You’ve just gained yourself a wolf for a mate.”

“Argh! I don’t want a ‘mate.’ A fuck, a fuck buddy, hell, a friend with bennies, sure thing. A one-night stand, no problem. I don’t want, or need, a ‘mate.’”

That’s when Baba Yaga looked up, her eyes burning. “You said you’d help.”

“Yes, I did! Brighde and I both helped you with the ritual. But this—”

“This is helping. He and his kind are needed. You are an important part of the prophecies. Without you, evil will reign.”

Callie let out another scream of frustration and irritation. “What if I don’t fucking care?”

“But you do care.”

“You made me fall in love with this guy—”

“No.” Baba Yaga shook her head emphatically. “I didn’t do that. That was Fate. He is as much your mate as you are his. Your perfect match. There is one small issue, however.”

“‘One small issue’?” She looked incredulously at her older sister. “Only one? Because falling in love with this dude was not on my life plan for today!”

Babs smiled. “When you mate with him, you must submit to him. Willingly. He cannot and will not take you otherwise. It is their way. And if you don’t have him, you will spend the rest of your life miserable, as will he. Not to mention—”

“I know, I know! The whole end of the world, blah, blah, blah, problem.” She heavily sat on one of the barstools. “What is it about him?”

Baba Yaga shrugged. “It’s love. What can I say? It makes us all crazy.” Her older sister’s face clouded with deep pain. “If it’s any consolation, if you mate with him, you are fated to be with him longer than even I can see.”

* * *

Unless she slipped out through the kitchen, there wasn’t a back door to the restaurant. Daniel sat there, considering if he should follow her or not. When he glanced out the front windows, he could see her car still sat in the parking lot.

So she hadn’t run…yet.

The thought of giving chase to her set his blood boiling in a good way and made his already throbbing cock so hard it almost hurt.

Although he suspected if she truly wanted to disappear, she probably could.

He tried not to glance at his phone every thirty seconds to check the time. He could still smell her scent in the other side of the booth. He knew he wouldn’t be able to force her to become his mate—she could probably kill him where he sat if she wanted to—but he could tell from her scent she wanted him, even though he could also sense she was as shocked by that revelation as he was.

Time to burn my little black book. He’d never had a relationship last more than a few months, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to go a couple of years without a girlfriend. He had his work, pack obligations, and…

Well, work. In his younger days he’d been a wild pup, running crazy with some of his friends. Partying hard, playing harder. He finally realized finding a woman who could keep up with his sexual appetites wasn’t in the stars, which made every encounter he had even more emotionally empty than the last. He had a lot more fun going out to dinner and sitting there, talking for the whole night than he did from most of his sexual encounters lately. He was lonely.

He could not care less about sex. If he wanted to get off, he could always rub one out. What he truly wanted was a mate.

He fought the urge to drum his fingers on the table. After seven minutes and twenty-four seconds, Callie returned from the bathroom, a morose look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. He wanted to pound who or whatever had put that sour look on her face.

She shook her head as she reached for her iced tea. “Nothing.”

He smelled something odd on her. “Where did you go?”

She blushed, something he suspected wasn’t usual for her. “I had to go talk to my older sister for a moment.”

“Not in the bathroom.”

“No.” She glanced at him, then looked at her glass. “It’s…complicated.”

He laughed. “No shit. This whole thing is twenty kinds of complicated.”

The waitress returned to take their food orders. When she left them again, Callie leaned in. “You don’t want me for a mate.”

He fought the urge to laugh at her transparent attempt to talk her way out of something he could tell she wanted as much as he did. “Oh? Why is that.”

“I’m stubborn and pigheaded and have a really bad temper.”

“So?”

She stared at him. “I’m jealous and pushy and bossy. I have to be in charge.”

* * *

His handsome smile not only crinkled his eyes, but she felt it at the very depths of her soul. “Then we’ll have an interesting night together, won’t we?” he suggested.

She tried again. “I’m a pretty kinky chick,” she said. “I don’t get off on just any old vanilla, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am missionary sex, you know.” She hoped when she picked up her glass of tea that he couldn’t see how badly her hand was shaking.

He leaned a little closer across the table and quickly flicked the tip of his tongue across his teeth in a sexy way. “Then guess what, chica, you’re about to get the fuck of your life. I have yet to find a woman who can keep up with the real me. A woman I don’t have to hold back with.”

She knew he heard the soft, plaintive mewling sound that rolled from her throat over that statement. “I don’t just mean reverse cowgirl, buster.”

He crooked a finger at her to lean in closer. He whispered in her ear, “I’m going to take you home, put cuffs and a collar on you, and tie you facedown across my spanking bench. I’m going to redden your ass with my bare hand while you’ve got a butt plug up it and a vibrating egg inside your pussy at the same time. When you’re begging me to fuck you, I’m going to take the egg out and fuck your dripping wet pussy while the butt plug is still in you. Then, as you come, I’m going to sink my fangs into your shoulder and mark you as mine. I’m going to make the top of your head explode. While you’re recovering from that, I’m going to move you to my bed, tie you on it spread eagle, and lick your clit all night long until you forget you ever had another man before me.”

She tried to find a reply and settled on, “Is that all?”

He chuckled softly, giving her earlobe a playful nip. “No. We’ll start the next morning with you giving me a nice, long blow job. On your knees with your hands cuffed behind your back and the vibrating egg up your pussy, and the butt plug up your ass. I think you’re going to need maintenance spankings every morning, too.” He gently blew into her ear. “You don’t just like kinky. Admit it. You’ve spent your entire life looking for a man who could take you on and make your dirtiest fantasies come true, haven’t you? And I’m either going to make them come true or die trying to convince you of that tonight.”

Damn him! Her clit throbbed, on fire, her asshole clenching as she imagined the pleasant feel of the burning pinch of the butt plug and spanking she hadn’t felt in way too long. Under the table, she felt him nudge her legs wide apart with one booted foot. When she tried to close them, he used both feet to push them apart.

And firmly keep them there.

She nearly melted in her seat.

“So what do you say to all of that, hmm?” he asked.

She cleared her throat. “Can we get the check now?” she whispered with a tremble in her voice.

“No.”

She did a double take. “What?”

He sat back with a devilish smile. “I’m hungry. Since this could very well be my last meal, I’m going to eat it.” His gaze narrowed, impaling her. “Then I’m going to eat you.”

* * *

He did his best not to burst out laughing at her wide-eyed blink of surprise when he told her no. He suspected she was a woman not used to hearing the word from others when she wanted her way. Especially when she was wound up and horny the way she now was.

This is going to be fun. Although he did feel more than a little worry over the truth of the situation, that he intended to mate her…or die trying. He held no illusions that if she didn’t want to be his mate, she wouldn’t allow it.

Which was fine with him. He knew if he couldn’t have her, he’d rather die. He would never in his life meet another like her. He’d yet to meet anyone like her, ever, in his one hundred and fifty-nine years walking the earth.

If tonight was going to be the night he met his maker, he damn sure would enjoy himself.

Starting with a good dinner.

Chapter Three

After dinner, where Callie spent more time trying to figure out how to get Daniel to eat faster, Callie pulled up in the driveway next to Daniel’s truck. The garage door finished running up, exposing a workspace so neat and tidy it would make a good Dexter kill room.

She didn’t know if she should admire him or keep 911 on speed dial.

Not that I need it.

She got out and locked her car. Glancing around, she realized the area was totally dark. Other than the usual sounds of the night, it was quiet.

“Ten acres,” he said, as if reading her mind. “Not nearly big enough, but it’ll do.” He leaned against a sociopathically clean workbench. “Having second thoughts about me?”

She smirked. “You talk a big game, tough guy. I think you’re trying to back out on me.”

With speed that surprised even her, he grabbed her, spun her around with one of her arms locked behind her back and one of his pressing against her throat.

Her pussy pulsed almost painfully, sending another flood of wetness through her cunt.

“Admit it,” he growled in her ear. “You could kill me where I stand without a second thought.” She struggled to hold back her needful whimper. “But let’s set some ground rules for tonight. You don’t kill me. You want me to stop anything I’m doing, at any time, no matter what it is? You just say ‘red’.”

She tried to wrench her head back to look at him, but he had too strong a grip on her. “Red?” she asked for clarification.

She nearly fell over as he let go of her. When she regained her footing, he was lounging against the workbench again with a playful and devilishly handsome grin on his face.

“Just like that,” he said. “Deal?”

Callie instinctively knew she’d end their night begging him to mark her, or mate her, or all-of-the-above her, just to keep feeling like this.

Excitement.

Anticipation.

Good, old-fashioned, lustful need.

Yeah, she could turn him into a pile of mangy wolf hide if she wanted. But she didn’t want to.

It was the last thing she wanted.

“Deal,” she agreed.

He walked to a door she presumed led inside the house and hit the button next to it to make the garage door roll down. He smiled. “Welcome to my lair, Cailleach.”

“My, what big teeth you have.” She stepped past him into a well-appointed kitchen.

He laughed as he dropped his keys onto the counter. “Do you have any idea what a relief it is to be able to joke with you like that? To be able to be myself?” He snagged her arm and pulled her to him, his gaze burning into hers. “I mean in all ways. Not just the wolf ways, either.”

He reached up and grabbed a firm fistful of her hair, slowly pulling back until he had her chin tipped up. He leaned in close. His pupils appeared huge, his eyes the dark green of emeralds, and she felt an impressively hard bulge straining through his jeans.

She wanted to drop to her knees in front of him, but he wrapped his other arm firmly around her midsection, keeping her on her feet, her body pressed against his.

“Do you know what I mean?” he whispered. “Do you understand what I’m talking about?”

She couldn’t nod. She managed to squeak out an, “Uh-huh!”

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t speak.

Her heart raced. He was waiting for a different answer. She wanted him to kiss her, but suspected he wasn’t going to do anything but stand there all night until he heard what he wanted.

Duh! The answer finally struggled its way through the lust-soaked portions of her brain and made it to her vocal cords. “Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

His smile nearly made her come right there. “Good girl,” he whispered, so close his breath brushed against her lips. Then he kissed her. He tasted like a sweet, dark lager, earthy and mellow. She moaned into his mouth and wrapped her hands tightly around him, wanting more, wanting him to totally own her.

He’d read her mind without even trying. He knew her heart’s desire. And no, he couldn’t really beat her in an unfair fight. However, if she didn’t blast him, under normal circumstances she knew he could keep her in line and would value the opportunity to do it.

“Can I trust you?” she fearfully asked.

His expression softened. “You are my mate,” he whispered. “I would die for you. Even if I wasn’t bound by the Code of the Ancients to take care of you, I would do any- and everything in my power to keep you happy. I only need one thing from you, and you have to willingly give it. I couldn’t force you if I wanted to.” He relaxed his grip on her hair, instead stroking it. “I don’t want to force you.” His smile regained just a hint of mischievous evil. “Well, I don’t want to force you to submit to me. Maybe I will force you to do other things.”

She had a feeling she’d enjoy every second of those other things. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t answered her question. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with someone who suckered me in for one night of hot sex and can’t deliver for the rest of my life.”

He tightened his arm around her as he brushed his lips across hers. “I want a mate, a partner, a wife, a friend, a lover. But I need that woman to be all those things and be my submissive, too. Someone strong enough not to be a doormat. Someone who only gets on their knees for me. Someone who will submit to me willingly, but who also has a spine of steel.”

Her knees felt like jelly already.

He smiled. “I won’t wake up tomorrow and find you to be a puddle of goo, will I?”

“Probably, but not in the way you mean.”

He laughed. “I also need a partner in life who has a good sense of humor.”

“Did you happen to notice the purple hair earlier?”

“I did. I thought it looked beautiful on you.” He ran her red hair through his fingers. “So does this. I think I prefer this. I know what would look better, though.” He grazed his teeth across her throat, making her moan.

“What?” she gasped.

“Your clothes on the floor and my cuffs on your wrists and ankles.” He gently nipped the hollow of her throat. “And my collar locked around your neck.” He nipped her again. “And you will wear my collar.”

Oh, Goddess! She wanted it. She wanted it more than anything, wanted to believe he could and would follow through.

He suddenly released her. Callie almost lost her footing and grabbed for the counter so she didn’t hit the floor. He went to the fridge and started rummaging through it. “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked.

“Huh?” She couldn’t think. She didn’t want to think. She wanted more of that.

More of him.

He held up a can of soda. “I have Coke, tea, milk, water. Want anything?”

She swallowed hard and shook her head.

He closed the fridge. Smiling, he popped the tab on a can of Coke and took a couple of swallows. Then he walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

On trembling legs, she followed him. He sat on the couch, picked up a remote control, and turned on the TV.

She stood there in disbelief. “What are you doing?”

He smirked. “Relaxing.” He patted the couch. “Come here.”

She did. She wanted to pounce on him, rip all his clothes off, and fuck his brains out, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t let her do that. She managed a glance at the bookshelves lining the wall holding the forty-two-inch TV. A wide variety of books, a few pictures, and quite a few carved items were neatly lined up on them.

“What are those?” she asked, pointing.

“What? The carvings?”

She nodded.

He shrugged. “I wanted a hobby. I like making stuff like that.” She loved his playful grin. “That’s not what you want to talk about though, is it?”

She shook her head.

He leaned in close. “Let’s not waste any more time. I won’t force you to submit to me, even if I could. But if you give your submission to me, I promise I’m more than man enough to keep you in line.”

She tried to kiss him, but he grabbed her by the hair with his free hand and pulled her back with a playful smile.

“If you want me,” he said in a dangerous tone that totally soaked her panties, “then you need to get on your knees and ask me.”

“What about calling red?” she gasped.

“That’s for when we’re playing. I could easily do things the old-fashioned way and chase you down, but honestly? That doesn’t appeal to me. I want to know you want me. I want your submission to be willingly given to me. I want you to beg me to do every nasty, depraved thing to you that you’ve ever wanted done. Maybe even a few things you never knew you wanted done to you. Once I know all of that, from that point on, I can do all the chasing I feel like. And I will catch you every time.”

She stared into his eyes. She’d never wanted anything more in her life.

And that was a pretty damn long time.

She nodded.

He released her hair and pointed at the floor in front of him. “On your knees, facing me,” he quietly said.

All right! One blow job, coming up!

When she tried to reach for his zipper, he laughed and gently pushed her persistent hands away. “Did I tell you to do that?”

“But—”

He grabbed her chin. “Stop. Turn your mind off. Follow orders.”

With a frustrated sigh, she sat back on her heels in front of him.

* * *

He tried not to laugh. She looked nearly frantic with need. “Very good.” He suspected no one had ever dared tell her no before.

She’d have to get used to it. He would keep her on a short leash at first, give her a taste of the control he knew she craved.

Who was he kidding? He wanted to slake his thirst to have a total submissive all his own who wanted every bit he could give her and then some. Someone he didn’t have to hold back with, physically or mentally.

“Hands on your knees,” he quietly commanded.

She glared up at him while she complied.

“Good girl.” He reached over and stroked her hair, slowly fisting it and tipping her head back so he could look deep into her eyes. “Don’t try to lie to me and tell me you don’t want this,” he softly said. “I can smell how wet you are. I can hear your heart pounding. Don’t worry, you’ll get all the orgasms you can handle and then some, but only when I’m ready to give them to you. Do you understand me?”

She licked her lips. Then, sounding less sure of herself, she whispered, “Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl,” he cooed.

He made her sit there and watch him while he took his time sipping his Coke. Her eyes never left him while he did his best to not drag her into the bedroom and make love to her immediately.

When he finished, he handed her the can. “Please take this into the kitchen for me and set it in the sink.”

Now she looked puzzled, but she took it. “Yes, Sir.”

When she returned, he stood. “Time to show you the playroom,” he said with a smile.

* * *

He led her to the back of the house, where he’d turned a bedroom into a dungeon. When he opened the door, she thought her knees would melt right out from under her. He didn’t just have a playroom. He had a dungeon so well equipped it would make most Doms drool with envy.

She stepped past him into the room. There was a small carpeted area with a futon cushion and pillows. Aftercare, if she had to guess. A padded spanking bench. A St. Andrew’s Cross. From the ceiling, eyebolts held two lengths of chain from which a horizontal bar was securely attached. One wall rack held an assortment of riding crops, beautiful canes made out of wood and synthetic materials, whips, paddles, floggers, slappers, straps, and other implements.

The highlight was the rolling cart holding the most well-equipped violet wand setup she’d ever seen in her life. When she started to walk over to it, he grabbed her by the hair and reeled her back in.

“Nope. You don’t get to play with the toys until I say so. Got it?”

She started to nod then remembered her place. “Yes, Sir.”

He grinned. “Such a good girl you are,” he softly said.

Another flutter straight to her pussy. She didn’t need a fresh change of panties, she needed a NASA-worthy adult diaper to contain the flood of moisture this wolf had inspired in her.

He snapped his fingers and pointed at the floor. Without hesitation, she dropped to her knees, hands on her knees.

“Good girl,” he cooed. He turned and opened a cabinet. She couldn’t see everything inside it, but it looked like it held vibrators, dildos, restraints, rope, and other items no well-stocked dungeon should ever be without. He returned with a set of leather cuffs for her wrists and ankles, as well as a black leather collar.

He put the collar on her first. While it had a locking buckle, she noticed he didn’t put a lock on it. “This isn’t your permanent collar, don’t worry. I’ll get you a day collar, one you’ll wear all the time. Understand?”

She shivered. She’d never worn a collar before. The feel of it around her neck reminded her of the feel of a hand, just firm enough to invoke visions of strong fingers gently curled around her flesh. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl. Wrists.”

She held up her hands and he fastened the soft, supple black leather cuffs around her wrists.

“Stand up.”

She did.

“Strip.”

Meeting his green gaze, she did, slowly unbuttoning her blouse before letting it drop to the floor. Then her bra. She kicked off her shoes and pulled down her jeans and sodden underwear, stepping out of them.

She felt the corner of her mouth curl in a smile at his sharp intake of breath as she stood before him completely naked.

“Good girl,” he said.

* * *

Goddess! He wanted to bend her over the bench and fuck her right then and there. She was breathtaking. Creamy skin, a solid body with curves in all the right places, a gorgeously spankable ass, and breasts just the right size for him to cup in his hands, and while not shaved, she kept her pussy closely trimmed.

Perfection.

A wave of her sweet, musky scent hit him when she kicked off her pants. If he wasn’t mistaken, she’d totally soaked her panties through with her juices. That was fair, because he was pretty sure when his jeans came off there’d be a matching wet spot inside them.

“Ankles,” he commanded as he bent over. She lifted first her left foot for him to fasten on the cuff, then her right. He motioned for her to follow him over to the corner where the carpet was. Then he spread his arms. “Undress me.”

Smiling, she stepped forward, looking up into his eyes with a smoldering, passionate gaze as she worked on his shirt buttons. He didn’t miss how she gently raked her fingers across the light hair on his chest before she moved to unfasten his belt. He pulled off his boots so she could get his jeans off his legs.

On her knees again, he let her rest her forehead against his hip, one hand buried in her hair and keeping her from wrapping her lips around his stiff cock. If he let her do that now, he’d never be able to stop himself from coming. Instead, he rubbed his thumb across the slit of his cock and collected a few drops of pre-cum from the head.

“Open,” he commanded.

She did, her eyes on his as he popped his thumb into her mouth.

Her tongue did delicious things to the digit that made his cock throb even harder at the anticipation of being next. She softly moaned as she sucked every bit of pre-cum and then some off his thumb. Finally, he pulled his thumb from her mouth, hooked a finger through the ring on the front of her collar, and tugged.

“Up, pet.”

He didn’t miss how her eyes flashed at that. In anticipation or irritation, he wasn’t sure, but he’d nip resistance in the bud. He pulled her close. “You are my pet, Callie. That is what I will call you. My mate, my wife, my lover, my slave. Above all that, my pet. Understand.”

Her breath quickened.

Ah, anticipation. Good.

“Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

“Good girl.” He used her collar to keep her from latching on too hard when he brushed a kiss across her lips.

Leading her to the spanking bench, he laid her facedown on it and used clips to attach the cuffs on her arms and legs to it. He knelt in front of her. “You are mine, understand?”

“Yes, Sir.”

* * *

Had her heart ever raced so hard and fast in her life? She didn’t think so. She was dying to suck his cock, feel him fuck her, but even more than that, she wanted to feel the bite of his cane in her flesh.

He returned to the cabinet and retrieved a few items. She couldn’t see what, but when she heard the unmistakable snap of a glove, she suspected what was coming next.

Callie felt him rub cool lube against her ass, pressing first one, then two fingers for access when he heard her moan and felt her relax for him.

“My little pet likes anal, does she?”

She felt her face burn. “Yes, Sir.”

“How long’s it been?”

“Too long, Sir.”

He fucked her ass with two fingers before adding more lube and a third. She moaned, trying to thrust her hips in time with his movement but unable to get as much traction as she’d like due to the restraints.

Then his fingers disappeared. Her pulse amped up with expectation. Sure enough, she felt the cool, firm press of a butt plug. “You shouldn’t have any problems taking this one, should you?”

She winced just a little as it reached the widest part of the plug, breathing through it, then that pleasant fullness as it seated home.

Another flood of moisture rushed to her pussy, and she moaned in pleasure.

“We’re not done yet,” he said. She felt him insert something in her pussy. Then a click, and the vibrating egg started.

“Ooohhh!”

“Don’t you dare come,” he said in a fierce Alpha tone.

She whimpered. His tone of voice had nearly made her climax right then and there.

“Yes, Sir,” she whispered as she squirmed against her restraints.

She heard him strip off the glove and throw it away. Then he returned, his warm, strong hands caressing her ass.

“Ready, pet?”

“Yes, Sir!”

He didn’t hold back. From the first stinging slap until she almost thought she couldn’t take it anymore, he spanked her harder than any human man ever had, with his bare hands, along her ass, down the backs of her thighs, and her upper arms.

When he stopped and stepped away, she didn’t know whether to cry in relief or disappointment. The pain had helped keep her mind off the pleasure in her ass and cunt. Now her orgasm was trying to work its way back without the spanking to keep it at bay.

He returned and she felt him lay something across her ass. “Next toy,” he said. “One of my favorites.”

She barely had time to process the szwipp sound of him swinging the riding crop before it struck her exactly in the crease where her ass met her upper thighs. The burning sting radiated from her flesh through her body, making her cry out and shoring up her defenses against her impending orgasm.

“Yes!” she whispered as the first tears started. No man had ever been able to make her cry.

In fact, no one had ever been able to make her cry, one of the few human experiences she’d always envied others, including her sister, Babs.

He spaced his strikes along her ass and upper thighs just far enough apart she had time to process them before landing the next one. Tears running down her face, she wanted to laugh, to cry, to scream for mercy and beg for more.

When he stopped she took a deep, gasping breath and broke out sobbing again. He knelt in front of her and cradled her face in his hands.

“Give me a color,” he said.

“Green, Sir,” she whispered.

He smiled. “Good girl.” He wiped her tears away with his thumbs and planted a kiss on her lips before stepping behind her again.

She felt him lay a cool, flat, hard implement against the burning flesh of her ass. “Paddle, pet.” The first stinging slap arched her back and drew an anguished howl from her. Instead of the expected next impact, he said, “Color, pet.”

“Green!”

“Good girl.” He spanked her several more times with it, until she was howling with pain, sobbing, and loving every second of it.

He walked over to her head and grabbed her hair, lifting her head. “Who do you belong to?”

“You, Sir!”

“Do you want to be My mate?”

“Yes, Sir!”

He smiled. “Do you want to be My slave?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Whose collar do you wear?”

“Yours, Sir!”

He knelt down in front of her. “You have to ask me. Beg me to submit to me.”

“Please, Sir! I submit to You!”

“You will submit in every way?”

“Yes, Sir!” Anything, everything, just so he wouldn’t stop, so he’d reignite the stinging in her ass.

So he’d make her cry again.

So he’d make her feel again.

“What are you asking Me, pet?”

“Please, Sir! I submit to You! I want to be your wife, your mate, your pet, your slave. Everything. Please!”

He smiled. “Good girl.” He gently released her hair and stepped around her. She felt him switch off the vibrating egg and pull it out, but he left the butt plug in.

She shivered with anticipation as she felt his thighs press against her red, welted ass and legs. The swollen head of his cock slipped between her labia. He grabbed her by the hips.

“Mine,” he growled, sounding like the wolf lurking just beneath the surface.

“Yours!” she gasped.

He slammed home, renewing her happy sobs as he fucked her, hard and fast. “Come for me, pet,” he ordered.

As her orgasm, the most powerful one she’d ever felt in her immortal life, ripped through her, he leaned forward and sank his teeth into the back of her shoulder. The pain rippled through her pleasure, intensifying it, tripling it.

“Yes!” she screamed as another orgasm flowed through her.

He let go of her shoulder and picked up the pace of his thrusts, the entire spanking bench scooting across the floor. Then he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.

“Come!” he growled in an Alpha tone.

Her body immediately responded. He slammed home one last time, and she felt his cock pumping his seed deep inside her, marking her inside and out as his. As he collapsed on top of her, sweaty and winded, he kissed her shoulder where he’d bit her.

“Mine,” he whispered, his voice no longer growly.

She closed her eyes, feeling a peace the likes of which she’d never experienced before. “Yours, Sir,” she whispered back.

* * *

He unhooked her from the bench but left the cuffs and collar on her. He did let her remove the butt plug, but when he got her into his bed, he immediately replaced it with his cock, fucking her hard and fast until he emptied his balls inside her there, too.

Callie couldn’t believe his stamina, not that she was complaining. They moved to the shower, where he took his time soaping up every inch of her body. When his cock hardened, she dropped to her knees and enjoyed the feel of his fingers lightly digging into her scalp as he fucked her mouth. She dug her fingernails into his ass and silently chuckled as it made him growl and explode yet another stream of cum into her body.

She licked her lips and looked up at him. “Good, Sir?” It felt right calling him that. She never thought she’d ever enjoy submitting to someone. Bottom? Sure. She loved a good beating.

But handing herself over to someone else?

Guess I have no choice now. Not that she was complaining.

He pulled her up into his arms and kissed her, deeply exploring her mouth with his tongue. “I love you,” he whispered when he finally ended their kiss.

She smiled. “I love you, too, Sir.”

He grinned. “You are a fast learner.”

“I should hope so. I’m old enough.”

He turned her so he could see his mark on her shoulder. Brushing his thumb over it, it had already healed, just red, raised bumps where his teeth had broken her flesh.

A permanent mark.

“What do we do now, Sir?” she asked as he pulled her back into his arms.

“First, we go to bed because my cock’s already getting hard again. Then we’ll see how many times I can make your eyes roll back in your head. Then I’m going to get one of my canes and stripe your ass with it.”

“That’s all, Sir?” She grinned.

He laughed. “Then we have to take a road trip up to Maine.”

“What’s up there?”

“My Pack.”

Chapter Four

Daniel groaned as he rolled over. A sound had disturbed him. Callie still lay sound asleep next to him, facedown but one arm possessively draped over his chest, and her red hair draped in a beautiful spray across her shoulders and on the pillow. They’d arrived at his cousin’s house at the pack compound in Maine late the night before, exhausted from two days straight on the road.

How did I get so lucky?

She’d run him through the wringer, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Then that damn sound again, the one that woke him up. Fucking cell phone. He’d forgotten to turn it off.

He fumbled for it on the bedside table and was going to hit ignore when he saw who the caller was and that it was nearly noon. He answered.

“Jocko?”

“Yeah, listen. Got a question fer ye, boyo. Ye know a dragon shifter by the name of Kael Dalca?”

Daniel sat up, sleep draining from his system. “Yeah? What’s wrong?” He’d heard rumblings of something bad happening to the dragons’ Seer at the Gathering in Yellowstone, but he didn’t know the details.

He’d been too busy nailing himself a… Well, he didn’t know exactly what the hell she was. Only that she was now his mate.

“Ye really know him?” Jocko asked, his tone insistent. “Yer sure? This is important.”

“Yeah.” He scrubbed his face with his free hand, final vestiges of sleep melting from his system. “Haven’t seen him since…” He thought about it. “Since after his family was killed. I went to the funeral. Helped him try to hunt the killers down. We were drinking buddies back in Brussels in the old days.”

“Okay. I need to know where the hell ye are. I need yer carcass back at the Maine compound yesterday. Hear me?”

He suppressed a laugh. “Um, no problem. We got here yesterday.”

“Eh?”

He glanced at Callie and stroked her arm, the smile on his face almost painful. “Me and my new mate. We got in late last night. We’re at my cousin’s house. Josh Favis.”

“Oh. Oh! That’s great! Congratulations, boyo. I know where Josh’s place is. I’ll be right over.”

Before Daniel could ask him why he was coming over, Jocko hung up.

With a sad sigh and knowing he was probably saying good-bye to his morning blow job, he gently roused Callie. “Honey, we need to get up and throw some clothes on. We’re getting a visitor in about five minutes.”

“Mefurcfe?” she mumbled into the pillow.

He gently rolled her over. “Try again, pet.”

“Before coffee, Sir?”

He leaned in and kissed her. “I’ll go start the coffee. Get dressed.” He threw in some tone just to make it interesting. “Now.”

Her eyes popped open. He smelled her getting wet at the Alpha tone of his voice. He was ready for her when she threw her arms around him in an attempt to molest him. Laughing, he peeled her off him, forced her out of bed, and delivered a sweetly stinging slap with his open palm to her deliciously curved backside. “Go.”

She smiled over her shoulder at him. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl.”

Fuck, now my cock’s hard. With a disappointed sigh, he pulled on a pair of jeans and carefully tucked everything in without catching himself in the zipper. Hopefully, he could get the conversation with Jocko done and over with soon and still get his morning blow job. Josh would be at work until at least six that night.

Plenty of time for fun.

Jocko arrived six minutes after the phone call. Without formalities, he blustered through the front door. “There ye are. Listen, we’ve got a serious problem.”

Callie, still looking half asleep, emerged from the bedroom. At least she’d managed to get clothes on. “Coffee, Sir?”

He smiled. Even half asleep she still remembered protocol. “Kitchen, sweetheart. Bring me one, too, please.”

“Yes, Sir.” She disappeared into the kitchen.

Jocko watched her walk out of the room, then he turned to Daniel with a sly smile on his face. “Good fer ye! How’d ye finally manage to find someone to put up with ye?”

He arched an eyebrow at Jocko. “She’s my mate. Now what’s this all about?”

“Cockatrice. I don’t have all the details, but somehow, Brodey Lyall and his brothers are now mixed up with the dragons. Cockatrice tried to kidnap one of their mates, who’s now their Seer, too. And their old Seer was murdered at the Gathering.”

“You asked me about Kael.”

He nodded. “Aye. He’s the one who recommended we find ye and bring ye in.” Jocko glanced at the kitchen and lowered his voice. “It’s about the tablet.”

Daniel frowned. “What tablet?”

“Don’t bullshit me, boyo. Ye know damn well which tablet.”

Daniel scrubbed his face with his hands. “When can we get together?”

“We’re all meeting tonight at Patrick’s restaurant. Seven o’clock. We’ll figure it all out then.”

Callie returned with their coffee. Daniel took his from her and gave her a kiss. “Thank you, pet. Callie, this is Jocko Connelly, one of the Pack elders.”

She shook hands with him. “Pleased to meet you.”

He grinned. “Pleased to meet ye, too.” He slapped Daniel on the arm. “I’ll leave ye alone, then. Tonight at seven, though. Both of ye.” He let himself out.

“He’s…charming,” Callie snarked. “Let me guess, he’s from New York?” she joked.

Daniel laughed. “A good chunk of us came here via Scotland. He was born and raised there and even though he’s been here for over a hundred years, he’s never lost his brogue.”

“So what do we do until seven?”

Daniel grinned. “Oh, I have some ideas.” He took her coffee cup from her and looked down at his zipper before looking back up at her.

She grinned and dropped to her knees. She had his cock out and in her mouth before he could set the coffee mugs down on the nearby table. “Christ!” he hissed. “You are too good at that!” He grabbed her head and held on, letting her set the pace but reminding her who was in charge. She knew how to flick her tongue perfectly along his glans before swallowing him to the root and sucking firmly.

He didn’t bother trying to hold back. He let his orgasm roll out of him from his balls down his cock until he rewarded her with a mouthful of cum.

She gave him a happy little mumbling noise in return as she swallowed every drop, laving his cock with her tongue to retrieve every last drop until he finally had to pry her off him with a laugh. “Enough, pet. You’re done.”

She pouted. “I want seconds, Sir.”

He pulled her to her feet by the arm and slapped her on the ass. “Then go get naked and wait for me on the bed.”

Like a shot, she was gone.

He grabbed his coffee mug and followed her.

Yep, he could keep himself busy aaalll day.

PART III

Chapter One

Walter Medved, known as Wally to his friends and family, sat in his car across the street and three houses down the block from his target, Lenny’s address. He’d anticipated taking another week off following his trip to Yellowstone, but this was more important. He’d grown up in the old country hearing nightmarish stories of the cockatrice and what they’d done to his kin, as well as kin of other shifter races.

No way in hell he wouldn’t help out, even if it’d been someone besides Brodey calling him for the favor.

After an hour, he was reasonably sure there was no one else in the house. He grabbed his clipboard holding fake political surveys and headed for the house. The tiny front yard wasn’t exactly a jungle, but large, unkempt bushes concealed the front windows and shielded a good chunk of the front porch from view of the street and sidewalk. The house had chipped and peeling grayish paint that looked like it might have once been a shade of pale green.

He knocked, loudly, and waited. Knocking again just to be on the safe side, he waited. Receiving no response, he pulled on a pair of gloves, slipped a lock pick set out of his jacket pocket, and let himself in.

The deadbolt wasn’t locked, just the knob. He found out why upon stepping inside and closing the door behind him.

“Holy shit,” he whispered. The place looked trashed. Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn’t a robbery because a sixty-inch plasma TV was still firmly attached to the wall, as well as all the electronics were still there.

Everywhere he looked in the small house, drawers were pulled out, closets were emptied, and stuff was dumped on the floor. The searchers had even pulled apart heating vent grates to look inside for whatever it is they were after.

He had a good suspicion what it was they were after. Fortunately, the old book was safe in the dragons’ hands. After a half hour, Wally knew he wouldn’t find anything useful. Had there been anything, whoever ransacked the house had beat him to it. He let himself out, locked the door behind him, and hurried on his way.

* * *

Brodey got off the phone with Wally.

Lina didn’t have to use any freaky powers to read his mind. The result could clearly be seen in the frown on his face.

“Well?” she asked anyway.

He shook his head. “The place is totally trashed. Looked like someone turned it upside down, inside out, and hit frappe.”

“We have no idea if they found what they were looking for, do we?”

“We damn sure do know what they were looking for,” Zack said, slapping his palm on the book. “Unlucky for them we found it first.”

Brodey retook his seat at the table. “I have to agree. Whoever was in on this with Lenny had to know about the book.” He looked at his brothers. “I’m going to take her up to meet Lacey. Wally said he’d meet us up there for backup.”

Ain nodded. “Good idea. This is going to get messy really fast, I’m sure.”

“When do we leave?” Lina asked. “I’m up for a road trip. I think.”

Zack smiled. “You do realize you’ll have to fly to get to France, right?”

“I refuse to think about that now.” She shivered. “I’m sure we can find a doctor who will prescribe something to knock me out.”

Brodey laughed. “We have to get you over your fear of flying, kiddo.”

“Yeah, but there’s no rush, right?” She looked at Jan and Rick for backup. “Right? Please tell me we can drive up to Maine?”

Jan smiled. “Yes, we were planning on driving. But it won’t be a leisure trip. It’ll be straight through.” He looked at the others. “I suggest two vehicles. Can we leave one of our cars here?”

Ain nodded. “No problem. Hopefully, by the time you get up there, Jocko will have an answer for us on Daniel Blackestone’s location and know how to get in touch with him.”

Lina breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.”

Chapter Two

They left the next day, taking two vehicles. Kael, Zack, and Brodey took one, following Rick, Jan, and Lina. Driving straight through, it took them nearly two days. After checking into a hotel on the grounds of the Pack compound, Lina spent the better part of a day sleeping.

The next morning at breakfast, she asked Brodey, “So when do we go see Lacey?”

“Today. I called her when I got up.” He looked at Jan and Rick. “I think it’d be best if Zack and I take her. We don’t need to overwhelm Lacey or Lina.”

Rick looked like he wanted to bristle at that, but Jan immediately nodded. “That’s fine.” He turned to Rick. “She’ll be fine.”

Rick grumbled a little under his breath, and Lina thought she spotted a wisp of smoke emerge from his nostrils, but he agreed.

They pulled up in front of an old wood and stone cottage that looked like it had been built at least fifty years earlier. A white picket fence surrounded a lush flower garden that perfectly seemed to fit the casual mood of the house. Brodey led the way to the front door while Lina followed and nervously clung to Zack’s hand.

He leaned in and muttered in her ear. “She’s not going to eat you, sweetie.”

“I know. I’m just…nervous. What if she doesn’t like me?”

Brodey turned with a snort. “Honey, if Lacey doesn’t like you, I’ll ask Jocko to run her to the doctor for testing.”

A woman Lina could only describe as grandmotherly opened the door. Shorter than herself, and no telling how old, but the bright spark in her brown eyes and straightness of her posture told Lina there were still a lot of years, as well as a lot of strength, left in her body.

“I heard that, Brodey Lyall,” the woman said, smiling. “How are you, son?”

He tipped his head to her. “Very good, Lacey.” He turned and motioned Lina and Zack forward. “This is Lina and her Watcher, Zack.”

Lacey cocked her head in an appraising way as she shook and held hands with Lina. “You are also your flagyer’s Seer now, aren’t you?”

Lina blushed. “Yes, ma’am. That’s what they tell me.”

Lacey laughed. “You don’t need to call me ma’am. Well, come in, come in, all of you.” She led them into her kitchen. The delicious aroma of bread baking filled the air. “I’m terribly sorry about Bertholde,” she said. “We were friends for a very long time. I shall miss her.”

“Thank you,” Lina said, struggling not to tear up. How the hell was she supposed to learn everything she had to learn? Who would teach her?

“I know I’m not a dragon,” Lacey said, “but I have met many other Seers, from wolf packs as well as other races. Always feel free to come to me for advice. Or if nothing else, a friendly ear.”

Lina nodded, hugging herself. “Thank you.”

Lacey studied her for a moment. Then she grabbed Lina by the hand and led her to the back door. “We’re going for a walk,” Lacey said. When the men stood to join them, she held up a hand. “I didn’t mean you two. Lina and I need some alone time. We’re perfectly safe here in the compound.”

Lacey donned a shawl that hung on a hook by her back door. She glanced down at Lina’s shoes. “I’m glad you’re wearing sneakers,” she said with a smile. Then she led Lina out the back door and off the porch. They made their way down a winding path through Lacey’s beautiful herb and flower garden.

“This place feels so peaceful,” Lina said.

Lacey nodded. “Thank you. I have worked very hard over the years to cultivate only that which pleases me and causes me no stress.” She glanced at Lina. “And your men are stressful to you right now. I know they mean well, but their efforts to protect you are misguided. You are feeding off their nervous energy, which in turn only serves to heighten your nervous energy.”

Lina let out a snort. “You’ve got that right.” The path seemed to be going downhill. “Where are we going?”

“My special thinking place. I want to show it to you.”

They continued on for several minutes through green woods. Lina thought she smelled salt air and heard the sound of waves. “We’re close to the ocean?”

“Yes. Very. We’ll get even closer.”

The path gave way from dirt to rocky outcroppings as the woods thinned. They rounded one last turn and the path opened up to rocky coastline. They came to a stop atop an overlook where a steep, rocky path led down to a secluded beach.

“This is beautiful,” Lina said. “I’m used to the Gulf of Mexico, not this.” They were looking across a calm inlet. If Lina looked to the east, she could see where the mist almost totally obscured her view of the open Atlantic Ocean.

Lacey smiled. “We’re not done yet. Let’s go down to the water.”

Lina wasn’t sure that was a good idea considering how treacherous the path appeared, but Lacey started down the path with the sure-footedness of a mountain goat. Lina followed and found the going far easier than it looked from up top. When they finally reached the beach, Lacey led Lina over to a flat-topped rock where they both sat. Their perch afforded them a peaceful view of the inlet.

“This is where I do my best thinking,” Lacey said. “Since this part of the compound is deeded to me, no one but me comes here.” She grinned. “There are perks to the rank and age.”

Lina laughed. She bet Lacey was a pistol in her younger years, considering how fiery she appeared now. “I can see that.”

“When you consider what we do,” Lacey said, “it’s only fair.” Her face grew sad. “I don’t wish this job on anyone.”

“Yeah, I’m getting the idea this can be a real drag.”

“That’s one way of putting it, dear.” She stretched out, leaning back on her elbows. “There are a lot of hard times ahead. For all of us. I’ve been seeing it for a while. This is only the start, believe it or not. It’ll come to a serious head a few years from now. What we’re going through is only the initial skirmishes.”

“How do you see things? Do you dream them or what?”

She nodded. “Usually. Sometimes I have visions when I’m awake, but for the past few hundred years, it’s mostly been while I sleep.”

“Then how do you know what’s a vision and what’s a real dream?”

She let out a snort. “Oh, believe me. I know. There’s a clarity to them, and I completely remember them when I wake up. I rarely dream-dream, the normal kind. When I’m lucky, I can go weeks without any sleep disturbances. But like now, when they come, they’re hard and heavy. Every Seer is different. Some have waking visions only, some sleeping only, some both. Some can only see the future, some can see the future and past.”

Lina picked up a pebble and rolled it around in her hand. “I hit the lottery, I guess. I can see past and future, both asleep and awake. I finally figured out that stuff in the future looks blue. Stuff in the past looks normal.”

“Very good. You’re learning fast. You’ll need that. There are some who would love to have your power.”

“What did Bertholde do to me? Did she give me her powers or something?”

“No, dear. It doesn’t work like that. This life, you just happened to be lucky enough to be born a Seer. She saw your coming from nearly the day you were born. Bertholde had very strong Seer abilities, but she was also dragon-born. She couldn’t shift, but both her parents were shifters. If I’m not mistaken, what she did at your ceremony was take advantage of the circle of love and trust surrounding you to send a sort of psychic jump start to you. She reached out to you, when your powers were the highest and you were most receptive to it, and gave you a nudge, in a way. As clichéd as it sounds, there are few things more powerful than love. You were surrounded by it then.”

“Couldn’t she have just sat me down and talked to me about it?”

Lina sighed as she stared out over the water. “She didn’t know who she could trust. She ordered her brother to stay home because while she thought, based on her visions, that he would be safe, she wouldn’t take any chances. She felt she didn’t have any other choice.”

“You two were pretty good friends, huh?”

“Yes. For over five hundred years. Although when phones, and then the Internet came along, it made communicating very easy.” Lacey closed her eyes and tipped her head back as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and bathed them in a warm shaft of light. “Ahh. The simple pleasures, Lina. Treasure them. Especially now. If what you think you are about to go through is difficult, it pales in comparison to what happens in a few years.”

Lina was scared to ask this. “What do you see happening?”

“Nothing specific about you and your men,” she said without opening her eyes. “I just see the bigger picture in regards to that.” She smiled. “And the Lyall boys find their mate.”

Lina let out a snort. “Yeah. I saw that, too.”

“They’re good boys.” She opened her eyes and looked at Lina. “But I don’t have to tell you that, do I? Especially now that you’ve all adopted each other.” She playfully smiled. “You went from orphan to one of the pack.”

“Yeah, lucky me. I wish it’d been under better circumstances.”

Lacey sat up and shrugged. “We don’t get to choose our path, sometimes. Even though we fool ourselves into thinking we can. We have free will, of course. But unfortunately, sometimes our will is stymied by the facts of life. You could go run and hide under a rock for the rest of your life, but it would only make you miserable and fearful. And then the forces against you have still won, at that point. Along with taking countless innocent lives.”

“So why can’t I just sit down and wish for the answers to all this bullshit?” Lina asked. “All this power seems pretty darn worthless if I can’t control it.”

“You’re both a goddess and a Seer. But you are mortal-born. Unlike Baba Yaga and her kin, you don’t have your own powers. Your powers come from being part of the triad with your men. Your visions come from being your flagyer’s Seer. You cannot see what you do not know.”

“But what about the stuff about how the tablet was made?”

“You helped make the tablet. You were involved in that. You might not have personal knowledge about who in the cockatrice forces laid their eyes on the tablet at some point. You might not have been present when that happened. Perhaps you cannot see what you did not see. Does that make sense?”

“But Baba Yaga took me to when my parents died. She showed me that.”

Lacey shook her head. “You’d have to ask her if that was her doing, or using your own powers to take you back to watch the events. Like it or not, you’ll have to form some sort of tenuous truce with her.”

“I saw Kael’s family get killed. I wasn’t there for that.”

She shrugged. “Again, you need to ask Baba Yaga. Perhaps you have the power to travel back in time as a witness. Or it was a vision. I don’t know.”

“So what’s with the other powers? The goddess stuff?”

“I’m far from an expert in that area. Focus on what your men can do. That might give you a clue.”

“I can change into a dragon?”

Lacey laughed. “No, not quite. But fire, ice, you should be able to control those things. You can control how you communicate with others. You can transmute yourself from one place to another.”

Lina thought about that. “That means in Yellowstone, I could have blinked myself home and saved everyone a lot of trouble?”

“Doubtful. You had no idea you could do that. Plus your powers are still so new, it’s likely you couldn’t have done it even if you had known how. You only recently realized it was possible.”

Lina had so many questions. Too many. Her brain spun with them.

“I still don’t understand how I helped make the tablet.”

“What do you mean, child?”

“I saw the vision about the tablet when we were at home. It was in blue, meaning it hadn’t happened yet. Then I found the picture in the book. If the memory I have is correct, it was the me from the present that went back and told the me in the past how to create the tablet. How could I have created it if someone else didn’t do it? How could I possibly have done that?”

That actually made her brain hurt.

“I can’t answer that, child. Perhaps you had help you didn’t recognize.”

“But I…” Her voice trailed off as she realized what it meant. “Can you wait here just a minute?”

“Of course.”

Lina closed her eyes and opened them again in Baba Yaga’s kitchen. Lina took a second to feel pretty damned pleased with herself over that.

The maiden sat at her counter with a cup of coffee in her hand.

Lina stalked over to her. “You made the tablet, didn’t you?”

Baba Yaga’s eyebrows arched in a wide-eyed innocent stare. “Me, Goddess? I clearly remember Zaria and her men making the tablet.”

Lina shook her head. “It’s not possible. You did something. I couldn’t come back from the future to the past to make something I made from seeing it in the future if it wasn’t made yet! When I first saw the tablet in my vision, it all looked blue, so it had to be from the future!”

The maiden smiled. “You make no sense, Goddess.”

“Argh!” Lina threw up her hands in aggravation. “Explain exactly why I haven’t blasted you to kingdom come yet?”

“Because you like me. You also need me. Not to mention you couldn’t even if you tried.” Baba Yaga waved her hand. Lina found herself back at Lacey’s side.

“How long was I gone?” she asked the Seer.

Lacey smiled. “Merely a blink. Literally. How is Baba Yaga? I haven’t dealt with her in eons.”

“Aggravating.”

“Ah. Nice to see she hasn’t changed. You will grudgingly come to like her. She has her way of doing things, but she is ancient and has earned the right to be grouchy.” Lacey patted Lina on the thigh. “I know she can grate on you sometimes. Believe me, I’ve had my share of run-ins with her in the past. Just understand she, like you, has a job to do. She is bound by her own set of laws, just as you are. Her way of helping sometimes seems less than helpful. Just keep in mind she is on the side of humanity. Sometimes, even to her own detriment.”

“She and I will be butting heads a lot, I guess.”

“Probably.”

Lina shivered. “I don’t like this job,” she quietly said. “I didn’t ask for it.”

“None of us did, or would. That’s what makes us best suited for it. Anyone who would want this job, willingly, is someone who should not be in it.”

“I saw those assholes kill a family. Kael’s family.”

Lacey stared out over the water. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.” Lina briefly told her about it. “Even worse, I couldn’t do anything about it. Well, I tried. The only thing I managed to do was knock a goblet out of the third guy’s hand.”

Lacey looked shocked. “Really?”

“Yeah. Was that something to do with my goddess powers?”

“It must be, because I’ve known a lot of Seers, and none of them could ever do anything like that.”

“Great.” Lina thought for a moment. “So, have you seen anything that might be of use to me with this situation? Like did you see who killed Bertholde? Or any chance you know who the third guy might be?”

“No,” Lacey said sadly. “I’m sorry. I’m not going to be of any use to you there. I wish I could.”

“Do you know anything about the tablet?”

“Oh, yes. I helped hide it a few centuries ago.”

Lina hoped her jaw hadn’t gaped. “So you know where it is?”

Lacey laughed. “Heavens, no. It’s been moved several times since then. My guess is that Bertholde left you several clues as to its whereabouts, and that you’ll find it near her home. As she grew older, she kept it closer to her for safekeeping. Several of the keepers had been killed over the years.”

“Who are the other keepers?”

“That I don’t know. Once I left Europe for Scotland, I took myself out of the running. I do know as of last year, at least, that it was safe. Bertholde physically laid eyes on it at least once a year.”

“Is it possible one of the other keepers killed her?” Maybe it was a clue.

Lacey shrugged. “Anything’s possible in this day and age. I highly doubt it, though. From what she told me the last time we talked, about a week before she went to Yellowstone, all of the other keepers were much older than herself and not in very good shape. She talked about passing the torch, but I didn’t know for sure what she meant. I assumed she was talking about a new keeper for the tablet. So very few of our kind even know about its existence anymore.” She looked sad. “Now, I know what she meant. At least I got to have a good talk with her.”

Lina stretched and felt her back pop. “What did you really bring me out here to discuss?”

A coy smiled curled Lacey’s lips. “I don’t know what information Bertholde left for you to give you a history of our kind. Seers, I mean. There aren’t a lot of us. You’re basically born to the job.”

She pointed at Lina. “You were born to the job. You don’t find it coincidental that your father’s family hailed from Eastern Europe?”

“I—” Well, Lina had never given it much thought before. She considered it. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Seers are sometimes born into knowing families. Families with active shifter lines. It’s not exactly a secret you can keep hidden, especially once a child grows into adolescence and feels the urge to shift. Seers were originally their own lines. Back in the days before history, our kind realized that by pairing up with shifters, our own kind could be protected. As Seers began to mingle and mate with shifter breeds, eventually the Seers became one with the shifter races they joined.

“But sometimes, someone from a shifter line who doesn’t come from a knowing family, call it a recessive shifter gene, if you will, will pop up.”

“You’re saying I’m a shifter? I thought I wasn’t?”

Lacey smiled. “One of my skills that I use for my pack is when a baby is born to shifters, they bring it to me for me to see if it’s Alpha or not, or if it’s even a shifter or not. You, my dear, come from a shifter line. Dragon line, not wolves. I don’t even have to know your history to know this. Bertholde told me she extensively researched your family line. You are from dragons several generations back, on your father’s side.”

Lina didn’t know what to say to that. She had to let it sink in for a few minutes. Eventually, she settled on, “So I’m, what, the baby shifter whisperer?”

Lacey laughed long and hard. “I’m not saying you’ll have that same skill, dear,” she finally managed to get out. “But there’s also something else you should know. It’s not uncommon for shifter lines, by that I mean the shifter races, to intermingle from time to time. For a wolf and feline, for example, to mate. The dragons and wolves have always been close. I don’t know exactly what your origins are, genetically speaking, but it wouldn’t surprise me, based on what Bertholde told me, to find out you have a wolf or two in the woodshed, so to speak.”

Lina blinked in shock, unsure what to say. Finally, she settled for falling back on the rock, staring up at the sky, and screaming until her voice cracked and her throat felt raw and hoarse.

Lacey simply sat there, looking out over the water.

After Lina got it out of her system, she looked at Lacey.

“Feeling better, dear?” Lacey asked.

Lina snorted, then laughed, rolling onto her belly and laughing until tears rolled down her face and her humor had transformed into gut-wrenching sobs.

Lacey gathered her up and let her cry against her. “It’s all right, child,” she soothed. “Let it out before it eats you alive. It is a lot to take in. It must feel like the world has been dropped onto your shoulders.”

“No, it feels like the world just dropped me with a flying kick and then ripped my head off and shit down my neck.”

Lacey laughed. “You are going to give Andel fits. Bertholde would be extremely amused and proud of that.”

“What is the deal between them, anyway?” She told Lacey about the postscript in Bertholde’s note to her.

Lacey laughed. “Andel is her nephew. She loved him, but he surely tried her patience over the years. He once set fire to her house when he was a teenager.”

“Oh. Wow. I guess that would piss a person off. How’d he do it? Matches? Candle?”

Lacey snorted with amusement. “He’s a fire dragon.”

“Ah. Oh.” Lina got the giggles again. “Did she give him the scar on his face? Smack him upside the head for breathing too hard?”

Lacey shook her head. “No. A cockatrice did that.”

That pulled Lina up short. “Oh. Whoops. Glad you told me.”

Lacey looked out over the water again. “They killed many in his family. Not the same way they killed poor Kael’s family. It was in a territory dispute. The cockatrice wanted dragon land and decided to come in one night in a sneak attack and try to take it the good old-fashioned way, by slaughtering the residents of a small village.”

“Nice to see they’re consistent assholes,” Lina grumbled.

“Yes.” They sat there in companionable silence for a few minutes while Lina digested that latest information. “Is there anything else you’d like to ask me?” Lacey asked.

“Yeah, there is. Why does Zack have all his memories and I didn’t get mine back until after I met my guys? And why don’t the guys have their memories of our first life together?”

“That, unfortunately, I cannot help you with. Those are questions for Baba Yaga.”

“Crap. I was afraid you were going to say that.”

They stayed for a while longer, Lina reluctant to give up this valuable time with Lacey. The Seer gave off a loving, peaceful, confident, generous aura Lina felt totally at home in. She only hoped she could achieve that level of peace when she was that age.

Hell, she just hoped she reached that age.

Finally, Lacey stretched and climbed off the rock. “Time for us to go, dear. Your Watcher will have likely paced bare spots through my carpet.” She smiled.

Lina laughed. “I’ll make sure he pays for the damages.”

The climb back up the path to the top of the overlook was a little wearing, but not as bad as Lina feared. Once they hit the path, Lacey linked arms with Lina.

“You’ll do fine, child. What everyone keeps telling you, no matter how trite it might seem, is true. Trust your instincts. Do not second-guess yourself. If you learn to ignore the doubt, you will soon learn the sound of your gut leading you the right way. Don’t get overconfident, of course. Pride truly does precede a fall. Yet don’t let anyone try to convince you that you are anything but a Seer. You were born to this for a reason. Never forget that.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.”

“Ah, it is nothing. And anytime you are here, please come to see me. I welcome the chance to talk with you. I rarely get a chance to meet with other Seers in person. Besides, you’re technically part of my extended family now, anyway. And my own children have long since departed this world.”

Lina felt sad about that. “Are any of your immediate family still alive?”

“Oh, yes. Many. But they are scattered to the wind and rarely get back to the compound for visits.” She patted Lina’s arm. “But it’s all right. Plenty have adopted me as their mother or grandmother. So I’m not lonely, if that’s your worry.”

“Do you mind cross-species adoptions?” Lina snarked.

Lacey laughed out loud. “Not at all. I would consider it an honor.”

As they approached Lacey’s back porch, she spotted Zack’s nervous face in the window of the back door.

Lacey laughed and softly said, “Do not fear, Lina. He truly is happy. Well, and worried like a nervous mother over your health and well-being. Baba Yaga did keep her end of the bargain. Your Zack is right. Baba Yaga does like to mess with people’s minds.”

Lina stopped and gasped. “You know all that?”

Lacey smiled as she tapped her temple. “I am a Seer, dear.” She tugged Lina’s arm. “Come along. I’ll make us all lunch. As long as Brodey hasn’t devoured all the fresh bread. Those wolves tend to eat like hyenas sometimes.”

That gave Lina another thought to ponder. “So what do hyena shifters eat like?” she only half joked.

“Oh, they eat like wolves.” She smiled.

Laughing, they stepped onto the porch.

Chapter Three

After lunch, Lacey asked to see the items from Yellowstone. “I don’t know if I can help, but I’m willing to take a look at them.”

Zack, who’d taken to always carrying the items in a knapsack, laid them out on her table.

When he pulled out the little statues, she recoiled. “Those you can put away, thank you.”

Confused, he put them away. “What is it?”

The Seer rubbed her arms with her hands. “The simple answer is they’re made of catlinite. Pipestone.” She noticed their blank faces. “It’s the same kind of stone Native Americans used to carve ceremonial pipes and stuff out of.”

Lina couldn’t wrap her head around that. “Huh? You’re saying Lenny was a Native American?”

Lacey shook her head. “No, I’m not saying anything of the sort. Anyone could have carved the stone.” She pointed at Zack’s bag. “But what I am saying is I’ve seen something like that before. Several hundred years ago. The cockatrice soaked them in blood during a ritual. You said that’s a spell book?”

Lina nodded.

Lacey reached for the book and started to page through it. They all silently watched her. Nearly ten minutes passed before she nodded. “Ah ha.” She laid the book, open to a page, and pointed at a specific passage. “Right here.”

It was in French. Zack spun the book around and read it out loud in English.

“‘The blood of our enemies captured in stone guarantees victory against others. Use them wisely and well.’ Then it details how to do the ritual to soak the statue in the blood.” He looked a little ill. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not read that part.” He closed the book and laid it on the table.

“There’s probably no way to figure out who carved those,” Lacey said. “No telling how old they are. But I can’t imagine too many of their kind knew how to do it.”

“They sure are sneaky bastards, aren’t they?” Lina snarked.

“They had to be,” Zack said. “King Elsleng banned their existence. He sanctioned their being hunted down and destroyed after…” He took a deep breath. “After Zaria and her men died, he sort of went on a rampage. He wanted revenge. The cockatrice went underground into hiding. They had to.”

“I guess that’d give me a complex, too,” Lina said.

Zack shook his head. “Don’t even go there. Their kind was small in numbers to begin with, and they chose their path. There was never a case of a cockatrice waving a white flag and saying, ‘Hey, I’m on your side, these other fuckers are nuts.’ They have always tried to start trouble. That’s why they were shunned way before that massive showdown in Hilmelgamos.”

“Don’t start none, won’t be none,” Brodey quipped.

“Exactly,” Lacey said. She looked at Lina. “I know you have a good heart, but remember, there is a very valid reason why the cockatrice have always been persecuted. They brought it on themselves. They have throughout the eons perpetuated a culture of hate and revenge throughout their kind. Less than two hundred of them survived in the entire world following the battle at Hilmelgamos, a majority of them women and children. Most of their virile men were warriors and killed in the battle. That’s another reason their powers declined so greatly. In their race, the lines are passed through the men, not the women. It’s not like any other shifter race. A woman can be born a cockatrice shifter, but she won’t pass the genes down to her children. There was a lot of inbreeding by them to try to replenish their race.”

“Break out the banjoes,” Brodey said. “You ain’t getting me in no canoe. I can tell you that.”

The laugh helped ease the tension.

“But that is why,” Lacey continued, “they have relied so heavily on dark magick throughout the centuries. They are mentally and spiritually deficient. Morally bankrupt.”

“That also explains why Edgar said he hounded Zack and me through several lives,” Lina said. “He made paparazzi look like playful puppies.”

Zack nodded. “Fixated. Obsessed.”

“Whackadoodle,” Brodey said.

Lacey smiled. “Yes to all of the above.”

“Wait,” Lina said as a thought struck her. “Do the cockatrice have a Seer too?”

Lacey shrugged. “I don’t know. They have always been an outcast race. There are several versions of the story, but they all basically tell the same tale. That when the shifters were created, the cockatrice demanded to be put in charge of all shifters, and when that was refused, they decided to wage a campaign against the others.”

“‘Created’?” Lina asked.

Lacey shrugged. “We have a lot of history in our lines, oral and written. But however the shifters came to be, it happened well before the birth of anyone still alive on this planet. Perhaps even before Baba Yaga and her sisters.”

“So, what you’re saying is cockatrice have had major bad attitude from the beginning of time?” Lina asked.

“Yes,” Lacey said. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. That’s what makes them so dangerous. They feel they have nothing left to lose, and everything to gain. They will stop at nothing, as you’ve already seen, to get their way.”

* * *

Lina, Zack, and Brodey rejoined the others after lunch at Lacey’s. That evening, they returned to Lacey’s house to pick her up and arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early. Apparently expecting them, the hostess led them to a small, comfortable private back room filled by well-padded booths and a few tables, and with beautiful pictures of Maine landscapes hanging on the walls.

Lina wasn’t sure what to expect from Jocko. Lacey was a sweetheart, the grandmother she wished she had in her life.

Well, hell, I guess she’s my adopted grandmother, now.

In fact, with the exception of Zack in her life after her parents died, she’d felt more like part of a family than she had in years. Not that she didn’t feel loved with Jan and Rick, because she did. But knowing there were now a bunch of other people who had her back and welcomed her with open arms was…

Overwhelming in a good way.

She burst into tears.”

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Jan asked.

She sniffled. “I’m sorry.” She looked at all of them. “It just finally all hit me at once how much family I now have.”

Brodey laughed. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, kiddo. Wait’ll the next Gathering. You’ll have wolves falling out your ears as well as dragons.”

Lacey nodded. “We take care of our own, Lina. You and yours are one of our own.”

Rick laid a hand on Brodey’s shoulder and squeezed. “You have no idea how thankful we are.” He sounded a little choked up. It warmed her heart to see her men welcome Brodey and his brood into their lives.

“Hey, she’s special,” Brodey said. “I don’t mean hockey helmet special, either,” he added with a playful wink in her direction.

“Nice. Thanks.” She grinned, sniffling her tears away.

“Hey, what’s a big brother to do if not to pick on his little sister?”

“Just remember I can randomly blow things up.”

“Uh-uh. You promised me no roasted wolf, remember?”

She laughed. “Dang, you would remember that, wouldn’t you?”

“Uh, hells yeah.”

Wally entered. Lina immediately recognized the immense man despite him now being clad in jeans and a long-sleeved, blue chambray shirt.

She stood to embrace him and found herself engulfed in a bear hug inside his huge arms. “There’s our girl!” he said in his thick Boston accent. “How ya doin’?”

“Good, Wally. Thank you again.” She couldn’t help but like the guy.

“No problem. We stick togetha.” He circled the room, eschewing handshakes for crushing hugs with all the men, and an only slightly less heavy-handed hug for Lacey.

Jocko blustered into the room a few moments later with a hearty hello and big hug for Brodey. A tall, large, rotund man, his scraggly red hair was barely touched by grey. “Hello, Lacey,” he said with a deferential nod of his head in her direction. Then he turned to Lina and the other men, giving them an appraising look. “And who be ye?”

“This is Lina,” Brodey explained, introducing everyone else from Lina’s group, too. He already knew Wally.

Jocko tipped his head in deference to Lina the same as he had to Lacey. “Nice to meet all of ye,” he said. “The Lyalls speak well of ye.” He looked at Kael. “And ye be the dragon that wants to meet with Daniel Blackestone?”

Kael nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The older man pulled out a chair and heavily sat. “I can’t say I’m surprised that the cockatrice are coming after people now. Their kind’s been brewing trouble longer than I ken. They’re worthless, they are.” He shook his head. “One of the few creatures worth less than them no-good Abernathys.”

Lina didn’t have time to ask who the Abernathys were. They all looked at the door as it opened again. Lina immediately pegged the handsome, black-haired, green-eyed man that walked in as a wolf. He held the hand of a red-haired woman who…

Lina stood. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” she asked without thinking. She didn’t know if it was her freaky new Seer powers or what, but the woman’s very essence screamed power. Then she recognized her. She definitely was one of Baba Yaga’s sisters. She’d been there at the making of the tablet, even though she looked different then. Her energy, however, was unmistakable.

The woman looked startled. The man instinctively pushed her behind him, stepping protectively between them. “One of what?” he practically growled.

Lina shook her head. “Baba Yaga. Whatever she is. You’re one of them. One of her sisters.”

Both of the newcomers visibly relaxed. He stepped out of the way. “You just can’t catch a break, can you, sweetie?” he teased. “No more undercover work for you.”

Neither of them offered clarification for that comment. The woman swatted him on the shoulder before returning her attention to Lina. “Babs is my older sister. And who are you?”

Kael stepped forward. “She’s with us.”

The man’s face lit up. “Kael!” He stepped forward and embraced Kael. They clapped each other on the shoulders. “How the hell are you?”

“I’m fine. Everyone, this is Daniel Blackestone. Blackie, you look good. Who’s this?”

Daniel grinned. “Everyone, this is Callie. My mate.”

Now Lina knew for sure the woman’s identity—Cailleach.

“Yeah,” Jocko said. “We’d all long ago figured the boy wouldn’t find someone. Then here he comes, dragging home this poor woman.” He laughed. “He’s lucky she didn’t kill him in his tracks.”

Daniel looked down at the woman with more than love and affection in his eyes. Lina recognized amusement. “I sure am.”

Callie pushed him aside. “Back off, buddy. I need to give this woman a hug.” She stepped forward and engulfed Lina in a hug before she could step away. “Thank you,” Callie whispered in her ear.

Lina returned the hug. “For what?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you later.” She stepped away, leaving Lina both pleased and confused at the same time. Just like her handshake with Ain Lyall, her hug with Callie left Lina filled with the feeling of gratitude. She was glad all these people felt grateful.

She just wished to hell she knew why.

“So,” Daniel said, “what’s going on?”

They gathered around a table and between them all, told the tale. Daniel looked thoughtful. “So, the cockatrice want the Tablet of Trammel, huh?”

“Apparently,” Lina said. “Although I have a feeling they won’t get the results they’re looking for even if they do find it.”

“But we want them to keep looking, don’t we?” Daniel asked.

She smiled. “Yep. The longer they keep looking, the longer it’ll take them to form an alternate plan.”

Callie laughed. “Slick. I like you, girlfriend.”

“Even better,” Lina added, “if we can locate the tablet, we can protect it and then send the cockatrice on a wild-goose chase and try to figure out who’s involved in their plan.”

Daniel scratched his head. “I haven’t seen the tablet in over a hundred years.”

“Do you know where it is now?”

He shook his head. “No. Bertholde didn’t leave you any clues?”

“Not in the box of stuff she sent. I don’t know if there’s anything at her house. That’s our next stop.” She had brought several of the books to the confab with her. Kael and Zack were translating them for her. She pulled them out of a backpack and set them on the table, as well as the puzzle box and the stone figurines. “We’ve been going through her journals and it’s great background information, but no clues.”

Daniel picked up the puzzle box. In three quick movements, he opened it and handed it back to her.

The room went silent. Lina finally closed her gaping jaw and took the box from him. Inside lay a scroll.

“How the hell did you do that?” she whispered.

He shrugged. “I made it for her. She told me what size she wanted. Didn’t tell me what she wanted it for. Made it for her, oh, over a hundred years ago.”

Kael looked stunned. “Well bend me over and frost my bacon.” Everyone stared at him. His face reddened. “What?”

Zack rolled his eyes. “Yes, he belongs to me. Any questions?”

Brodey cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt or anything, but can someone please take a look at the scroll?”

With trembling fingers, Lina removed it from the box. The bleached parchment felt new, not old. Lina laid it on the table and carefully unrolled it. Written in the same hand as the letter from Bertholde, it was in French.

Jan translated for her.

Dearest Lina,

If you are reading this, you have either met Daniel Blackestone, broken open the box, or some third party has intercepted this.

Although I suppose you might have figured out how to open the box, but that is unlikely since it took me several days to remember how to open it.

Anyhow, your suppositions are correct. I did exactly as you suspect. (Trust your instincts!) You know exactly what I’m talking about. The answers you seek are exactly where you suspect they are. For obvious reasons, I cannot state all here. You are the sole caretaker now, you and your men.

Enjoy your journey, and take care to watch your back, as they say. Lacey’s clan will love and protect you as one of their own. Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to talk with her by now. If not, do so immediately.

I apologize in advance for the squeak.

(And Andel, you can still go fuck yourself. My, I do love saying that! And yes, he knows I still love him.)

Love to you and your men,

Bertholde.

Lina laughed, but the cryptic note didn’t make things clearer. “Okay, so I’m guessing we’ll find the clue to the tablet’s location at her house?”

Brodey nodded as he read the scroll over Jan’s shoulder. “Yep. And I’m guessing she also means she moved it from wherever it was last hidden, so none of the other keepers know its location.

“What the heck does she mean by the squeak, I wonder?” Lina pondered.

Lacey, however, had a wide ear-to-ear grin on her face. “I know exactly what she means.” She looked at Lina and winked. “As soon as you get to her house, call me on a cell phone and I’ll tell you. Any time, day or night.”

“Why a cell phone?” Zack asked.

Lacey shrugged. “We don’t know what we’re up against. I wouldn’t put it past anyone to bug her phone. Don’t worry. Even if they ransack her house, they won’t find what she left for you. I guarantee it.”

* * *

Jocko called a brief recess in their discussion to call the server back in for their orders. “While this place is owned by one of our Pack, it still pays to take precautions,” he said.

Daniel ordered a drink and sat back in his chair with a sad look on his face. Once the server left, he said, “I hate those goddamned bastards.” Lina knew if she reached out and touched his hand, she’d feel a wave of sadness from him.

“What happened?” she asked.

“They killed my family and half the goddamned village we lived in. Wiped them out. Everyone except me, my sister, and one of our neighbors.” He finished his drink in three swallows. “She’d just started shifting and my parents had asked me to take her out one night on a run. Keep her safe. We got back just before dawn and found everyone dead. The three of us managed to catch up with one of their stragglers, an orc who’d thrown their hat in with them.” His expression hardened. “We finally let him die the next night after we knew we’d gotten all the information out of him. Unfortunately, by the time we got word to other shifter strongholds and they sent reinforcements, the cockatrice had skittered into hiding like the fucking roaches they are.”

She thought about what Lacey had told her about Andel. “That sounds like a common theme with these asshats. They like to pick on people who can’t defend themselves.”

“It’s definitely one of their calling cards,” Daniel agreed. He looked into Lina’s eyes, then around the rest of the room. “They thought we had the tablet. They’d found out, somehow, that my father was one of the guardians of it.”

“But they didn’t get the tablet?” Kael asked.

“Nope. The tablet wasn’t in the village. Back then, it was never kept anywhere near where the guardians lived.”

“How did you find out where it was?” Lina asked.

“They made me one of the guardians,” Daniel said.

She looked at Lacey. “I thought you said all of them were old?”

Daniel interrupted. “I’m not a keeper of the tablet anymore. I bowed out when I left Europe.”

“Oh,” Lina said, mollified.

Zack opened up the knapsack he’d brought with him and put the book, the figurines, the two knives, and the remnants of the charmed handcuffs Lenny had put on Rick and Jan on the table. “Any of those look familiar to anyone?”

Brodey said, “Sorry I didn’t think to bring the ones he’d used on Lina with us.”

Callie held her hand out, a frown on her face. “Can I see those?”

Zack handed them to her. Now mangled and broken from when Jan and Rick broke the chain before Brodey helped free them, their charmed powers were gone.

Callie ran her fingers over the marks etched in the silver cuffs. “This looks familiar. There used to be a guy in Brussels who did work like this. I thought I’d heard he died, but this sure looks like his handiwork.” She returned them to Zack.

“What about these?” he asked, holding the catlinite figurines.

Lina shuddered at the very sight of them, but Callie took them, turned them around in her hands, and handed them back to him with a frown. “They’re soaked in dragon blood.”

“See?” Lina said. “I told you they were squicky!”

Callie thought for a moment. “There was an artisan, also in Brussels, who used to make all sorts of magickal carvings and talismans, if I remember correctly. In the older days, Brussels was a very popular central location for vendors to set up shop who had dealings with fey races.”

“Fey races?” Lina asked.

Callie nodded. “Nonhumans. Shifters, that sort of stuff.”

“Well,” Zack said, “we can make Brussels our second stop after we get done at Bertholde’s house.”

Chapter Four

As they awaited their flight out of Bangor to JFK in New York, Lina nervously looked at Zack. “I can’t do this,” she said, tears close to the surface.

He squeezed her hands. “Yes, you can. We’re all here for you.”

“But what if I accidentally set fire to the plane or something?” she fearfully whispered. “I don’t want to kill everyone!”

Brodey sat down beside her and slung an arm around her. “Listen, Goddess girl. Remember how scared you were flying to Yellowstone?”

She nodded.

“Remember it was okay?”

She hesitated, but nodded again.

“Okay, then. Do you honestly think we’ll let anything happen to you, or let you do anything to anyone innocent?”

“But what if I can’t control myself?” she whispered.

Blackie stepped over. “Move aside, guys,” he said, offering his hand to Lina.

She reached up and took it, then let him lead her off to the side, to stand beside the windows near their gate.

With his voice calm and low, he looked into her eyes. “I hate to fly, too. I really do. But do you know what I do?”

She shook her head.

He offered her a kind smile. “I have a little ritual. When I get to the door, I always put my hand on the outside of the plane and say to myself, ‘Just one more flight, please. If not, it’s a good day to die.’”

“But I don’t want to die!”

“I know,” he soothed. “Sometimes, however, things are beyond our control. Right?”

She finally nodded.

“Who’s with you today?”

“Huh?”

“Humor me. Who is traveling with you today?”

“Jan and Rick. Zack and Kael. Brodey, Wally, Jocko, and you and Callie. Why?”

“So the people who either love you, or who care a great deal about you, right?”

She nodded.

“You’re surrounded by love. Not many people meet their maker getting to say that. Right?”

“Um, morbid, but sure, okay.”

He chuckled. “You’re a goddess. If you’re really that worried, just envision us having a safe, uneventful flight to JFK.” He snorted. “Then pray that Wally doesn’t rip out someone’s throat in hunger if we’re stuck on the runway while waiting too long for takeoff there.”

That got her laughing.

“Deep breath.”

She took one, then let it out.

“Better?”

“Not really.”

He leaned in close and hugged her. He took the opportunity to whisper in her ear. “We’re flying with Baba Yaga’s sister. If you don’t think Callie is going to make sure we land safe, rest assured Baba Yaga most likely will. That alone should comfort you.”

She laughed, this time taking a deep, relaxing breath. “Okay. I’ll give you that point.”

“So, better?”

Another deep breath. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. Just follow my lead and you’ll be fine.”

When they called for boarding, Lina watched as Daniel did, in fact, pause at the plane’s door and pat the airplane’s skin beside the doorway. Then he turned and sent her a wink before stepping inside.

“What’s that about?” Zack asked.

She paused at the doorway and did the same thing. “Never mind,” she said as she stroked the plane’s skin before crossing the threshold and stepping inside.

Fortunately, the flight went smoothly, and they even landed a few minutes early at JFK. Daniel smiled at her from across the aisle as she waited her turn to get out of her seat and retrieve her carry-ons.

“Okay?” he asked.

Lina nodded. “Okay.”

Callie laughed. “Don’t worry when you’re flying with me,” she said. “Perk of the rank.”

Lina could only hope she’d one day have that level of confidence. “Thanks.”

“The only fear you should have,” Brodey softly quipped, “is Wally eating all the food on board before we’re halfway across the Atlantic.”

Wally snorted as he dragged his bulk out of his seat. “Hey, I resemble that remark, fuzz face.”

* * *

Not only did the “flight across the pond,” as Jocko called it, go smoothly, Lina managed to get a couple hours’ sleep before they landed in Paris the next morning. The attorney met them at baggage claim and faced a few nervous minutes of careful scrutiny from the men in their group, who would take no chances with Lina’s safety.

Only Zack and Callie stayed back with Lina. “Do you think they’ve grilled him enough?” Lina snarked.

“No,” Zack said. “He doesn’t seem to have shit himself yet.”

Callie evilly grinned. “I could take care of that. Although Wally looks like he’s holding his own.”

Lina laughed. “I don’t think we need to go that far, but thanks for having my back.”

With Rick, Jan, Jocko, Brodey, Daniel, Wally, and Kael finally convinced the man was, in fact, Bertholde’s attorney, they gathered their luggage and followed him to the large rental van he’d obtained for them.

Lina wasn’t sure what she expected, but the drive to a small village east of Paris, near the La forêt Domaniale d'Armainvilliers, was beautiful.

Then they pulled up to a gate in a high wall surrounding an estate. Another car waited there, and the driver and Uncle Andel stepped out. Andel looked aggravated.

“He looks like he’s in a pissy mood,” Rick softly snarked as the lawyer got out to talk with Andel. After a moment, the lawyer unlocked and opened the gate, then drove through and pulled to the side of the gravel driveway to allow Andel’s car to get by. When they passed, he closed the gate behind them, relocked it, and followed Andel’s car up the long, winding drive. The rolling grounds were thick with large shade trees and lush grass.

As the house came into view, Lina felt the breath sucked from her lungs. “That’s mine?”

“Yep,” Jan said. “Lock, stock, and barrel.”

“How big is this?”

“Twenty-five acres,” Jan said. “Not a bad little hovel, huh?”

She playfully shoved him from across the seat.

Made out of reddish stone, the huge three-story house looked nearly as big as the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone. A covered portico one story high and at least three cars wide sheltered the front entrance, but the two vehicles parked in the gravel driveway. Three men and two women awaited their arrival on the front steps when they all climbed out of their vehicles.

The attorney, whose name was James Rieucheaux, motioned Lina over and spoke in very rapid French to the workers. Without her realizing it, Jan stepped in behind her. He started whispering a translation into her ear. The attorney was introducing her and the others, and informing them that they were, under no circumstances, to take any orders from Andel. Andel looked indignant and perturbed at that, but he kept his mouth shut.

Crap. No telling when I’ll get my Rosetta Stone stuff.

“Ask him how far away the hotel is,” she snarked.

He shook his head. “We’re staying here. That’s what he just told them. Frankly, I think it’s a good idea. We can protect you better here, plus no telling how long it’ll take to find the tablet.”

She tipped her head back to look up at the house. “This is all mine? Seriously?”

Jan laughed. “Yes, sweetheart. All yours.”

“Ugh.”

“Very ugh.”

The staff showed them all to their rooms. They didn’t bat an eye over her and Jan and Rick sharing a room, or over Zack and Kael. Apparently the house had twenty bedrooms, and the one Lina and her men were given was the largest and on the second floor, but it wasn’t the one Bertholde had used, much to Lina’s relief. Despite the age of the house, modern IKEAesque furniture decorated their room. Sleek, honey-colored wood dressers and matching bed frame and end tables formed the center of the scheme. A matching armoire held a large flat-screen TV, DVR, and cable box.

“Cable? We have cable?” Lina turned on the TV, disappointed to quickly realize most of the programming was in French.

“Crap.”

Rick laughed. “Sorry, sweetie. Don’t worry, we’ll be too busy for TV most of the time anyway.”

“And he doesn’t even mean sex,” Jan added. “Between finding what we came here for and looking into matters, we’ll be busy.” Lina hadn’t missed that Jan didn’t specifically mention the tablet.

“Who says I don’t mean sex?” Rick said as he pulled her into his arms.

“Watch it, buster. I’m crampy and crabby.”

He kissed her on the nose and released her. “Your wish is my command, love.”

The attorney stepped into the room and got Jan’s attention. They spoke briefly, then the attorney left. “Your presence is requested on the first floor, madam,” he playfully said. “He wants to open Bertholde’s room.”

“What do you mean open it?”

“It was sealed.”

They assembled downstairs in a hallway outside a door. Not only was it locked, but the keyhole had been covered with red wax and sealed with the same seal on the letter Bertholde had sent Lina.

She fought the urge to tear up. “She knew,” she softly said. “She did this before she left for Yellowstone.” She reached out and touched the wax.

Jan translated for the attorney. The man nodded. “Oui,” he said, handing her a brand-new, sharp utility scraper. He motioned for her to break the seal.

She did. He handed her a key, and after taking a deep breath Lina unlocked the door and opened it.

The light was dim. Heavy curtains had been pulled across the large windows. When Rick went to open them, he laughed. “Hey, look at this.” He pointed at the window sills. Bertholde, apparently wanting to make sure no one could get in unnoticed, had also placed several drops of wax at various locations on the windows.

All of them looked intact.

Lina sadly smiled. “Smart lady. She wanted us to know for sure we were the first ones in here since she left.”

Andel glanced around and turned to the attorney, then spoke to him in French. This time, Rick translated the exchange for her. Andel wanted to know when the will would be read, and the attorney assured him it would be in a few minutes, and that Bertholde had indicated that Lina had a message for him from her.

Lina looked startled. “I do?”

Jan turned, an eyebrow arched at her. “The scroll and the letter?”

“Oh.” She dug into her messenger bag and pulled them out, then let Andel read them. First, his face grew red as he read the letter, then he exploded in laughter and had to sit down.

He shook his head. “I loved her very much,” he said when he composed himself. “She put up with a lot of grief from me when I was young.” As he smiled, Lina patted him on the shoulder and felt the wave of melancholy and grief from him. No, he didn’t have anything to do with his aunt’s death. She’d bet her life on it.

She also still felt that grey fog around him that she’d first noticed when they were in Yellowstone.

He looked up at her and smiled after reading the scroll. “Very well, this is her wish. As you are our Seer, I defer to you.” He looked at the attorney and spoke to him in French. She didn’t need a translator to interpret the relieved smile and nod the attorney gave Andel in reply.

He’d obviously told the attorney he would offer no more objections to the proceedings.

Lina looked around the room, which definitely felt like Bertholde. No nonsense, nothing frilly or froufrou about it. But warm and inviting nonetheless. Soft, deep-blue carpeting covered the floor. The double bed was made up with several decorative pillows and a warm, fluffy comforter. One corner of the room was a reading nook, with floor-to-ceiling shelves full of a variety of books in several languages. This room had a fireplace, as well as vents for modern central heating and air-conditioning. She walked over to one shelf, where pictures and knickknacks shared space with still more books. On one shelf holding a collection of carved stone knickknacks, she saw an open gap. Closer inspection revealed four clean spots in the light coating of dust that no doubt would perfectly match the four little carvings tucked into her purse.

“It used to be the library,” Jan interpreted for the attorney. “She got tired of climbing stairs.”

Lina turned her attention from the shelf. A doorway opened into a large bathroom. It was obvious from the newer style of door and framing that it had been added later, after she’d decided to turn the room into her master suite. Another door, which from its location Lina assumed led to the hallway, was locked with a sliding bolt from the inside. No way someone could have snuck in that way, especially since the hinges were on the inside of the door.

Lina turned. “Let’s get this done,” she said. “I want to get the will read, then I need to eat and sleep.”

“The staff is preparing brunch for us now,” Rick said.

The attorney led them into what appeared to be the new library from the quantity of books lining the walls. They sat. As Rieucheaux started to read the will, with Jan translating for Lina, a wave of aggravation overcame Lina.

“I can’t believe I can do all this shit, and I can’t understand a fucking word he’s saying!”

She froze as she found herself in Baba Yaga’s kitchen.

“Holy fucking crap on a cracker, are you kidding me?” Lina screamed.

Baba Yaga, in her matron form, was sitting on her couch and sipping something out of a mug while watching Dirty Jobs on TV.

“What?” the matron asked. “I happen to like Mike Rowe.”

Lina let out another frustrated screech.

“What exactly is the problem, Goddess?”

“I didn’t ask to come here! I was sitting there listening to the attorney read Bertholde’s will. All I said was I couldn’t believe with all my powers that I can’t understand French!”

“But you can.”

Lina blinked.

Then she blinked again. “Huh?”

Baba Yaga smiled. “What have I been telling you?”

“Can you just tell me, because if I have to sit here and recite everything, it’ll be all damn day, and frankly I’m too fucking jet-lagged and crampy to think about it right now.” Her stomach chose that moment to grumble. “And I’m hungry, too!”

Apparently, Baba Yaga either had a DVR or was watching a DVD. She picked up her remote, hit pause, and Mike Rowe froze just as he was taking a step into something that looked horribly disgusting.

“I’ll simplify it for you. Your answers are in your past.”

“What?”

“You’ve spent several of your lives speaking either French or an older style of French. You’ve spoken many languages. German, Dutch, Japanese, Mandarin—shall I continue?”

“So?”

“So, sit down, clear your mind for a moment, with Zachary guiding you if necessary, and think back. You’ll no doubt be rusty at first, but I’ll bet if you open your mind, you’ll soon see you do understand French.”

Lina jabbed her finger at Baba Yaga and started to yell at her when she found herself standing in the library, shouting at the corner.

Everyone else let out a startled exclamation. She took a deep breath, turned around, and said to Rieucheaux, “Excuse me for a moment.” She grabbed Zack by the shoulder of his shirt as she passed where he was sitting, and he barely had time to get to his feet and follow her.

She shut the library door behind her and leaned against it.

“Okay, sweet cheeks. What happened? Another Baba Yaga interlude?”

“Yeah. Get this, she says I can understand French. And a bunch of other languages. She’s flipped!”

Instead of agreeing with her immediately, he stroked his chin. “Well,” he finally said, “that does make sense. Some of my languages are rusty, like I haven’t spoken Vietnamese in over two hundred years, but we were in France in the late 1900’s.”

As exhausted and stressed as she was, Lina felt tears of frustration spring to her eyes. “Help me, please? She said you might be able to.”

“Oh, sweetie. Come here.” He enveloped her in a hug as she sobbed against him.

“I’m sooo tired. I’m worried about all of…all of this, whatever this is. I’m hungry and I just want a bath and want to go to bed after I eat and that bitch is driving me crazy, and—”

He stroked her hair. “Honey, shhh, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” He sat on a nearby loveseat and pulled her into his lap. “Relax.” He held her so her forehead rested against his. “Close your eyes and listen to me…”

He took her on a journey to the past, telling her some of their life together, their younger days growing up in a small village outside of Lyon. Of how their parents were best friends, how they grew up together.

“I called you mon ange,” he said.

“My angel,” she whispered.

“Very good.” His voice grew softer as he told her stories. In a few minutes, he said, “Est-ce que l'aide?”

She smiled. “Oui. Oh, holy crap! I understood that!”

He laughed and helped her up, out of his lap. “Let’s go in and test you, kiddo.”

Everyone went quiet as they returned. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Je regrette.”

“Holy crap!” Rick and Jan said together.

She smirked. “Yeah, I now remember how to speak French. I think. Let’s get this over with.”

The attorney warily eyed her, but continued speaking in French. This time, Lina understood nearly everything he said. If there was something she didn’t understand, she had one of the men translate it into English for her.

The reading of the will didn’t take long. Everything—the house, all its contents, and all her assets—went to Lina. There was a sealed letter for Andel, which the attorney handed over to him.

And that was it.

“Are there any other questions or concerns?” the attorney asked.

She glanced at him, then at Andel. “Is he…one of us?” she softly asked him in English.

Andel smiled. “James is from dragon lineage, if that’s your question.”

“Ah.” She started to ask Andel something else, but he politely raised a hand to stay her. “Let me read this first, please. Then I will spend all day and night answering anything you wish to ask me.”

Lina nodded. “Of course.”

He broke the wax seal on the envelope and withdrew the single page. As he read it, his eyes brimmed with tears. Then he burst into laughter. When he finished, he smiled and returned the letter to the envelope. He produced a handkerchief from his pocket, dried his eyes, and blew his nose. “I’m sorry, my dear.” He looked around. “There is…an object we need to discuss.”

“The tablet.”

He looked startled. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to discuss this openly.”

Daniel arched an eyebrow at him. “Andel, you’re about the only one in this room, with the exception of Perry Mason, here, who hasn’t been in the loop about the tablet.”

That seemed to confuse him even more. “What?”

Jocko waved him down. “Relax, Andel. It’s under control. Get comfy, it’ll be a whopper of a story.”

* * *

Lina let the others do most of the talking. She didn’t want to talk. She only wanted to eat and sleep. Sitting still for more than a few minutes in her fairly comfy chair, she found herself dozing off.

A gentle nudge to her shoulder startled her awake. Callie. “Hey, want to go eat? We’ll let the guys finish up here.”

Lina wearily nodded and hauled herself out of the chair. They followed the delicious smell of food through the first floor until they found the dining room, where a long sideboard had been covered from one end to the other in chafing dishes and platters full of nommy goodness.

“They must have told them Wally and the wolves were coming with us,” Callie joked.

As Lina grabbed a clean plate from the stack at the end of the sideboard, a ridiculously stupid thought hit her.

She turned to Callie. “You’re Baba Yaga’s sister.”

A puzzled smile crossed Callie’s face. “Yeah?”

“Her sister.”

Callie nodded. “Uh-huh. You okay?”

Lina blamed it on accumulated stress, exhaustion, jet lag, and her period. “I’ve spent all this time bitching about her, when I’ve got you right here!”

Callie’s eyebrows arched as she realized where Lina was going with her point. “Ah. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but while yes, I do have powers, my powers are far less than Babs’. On a scale of one to ten, she’s a ninety-seven, and I’m around twenty-five. Now Brighde, our other sister, she’s older than me, but younger than Babs. She’s about a forty-two.”

Lina blankly stared at her for a moment as the disappointing news sank in. She burst into tears.

Callie looked alarmed. “Hey, it’s okay.” She put her plate down, took Lina’s from her and put it down as well, and hugged her. “Hey, I’ll help you as much as I can. But this is Baba Yaga’s gig, honey. I can only do so much. I’m also bound by certain laws, anyway. If I went willy-nilly, I’d get slapped down in a big way.”

“I thought I was so close to answers!” Lina sobbed against her.

“Hey, believe me, no one has all the answers. Not even Babs. She’s as hamstrung in a lot of ways as any of us are. She’s just…a lot sneakier.”

Without a word, one of the housekeepers brought Lina a cloth napkin and left them alone again.

Lina laughed and blew her nose. “They’re efficient.”

Callie laughed. “Seems so. How’s it feel to be the lady of the manor?”

“I don’t know yet. Ask me in a few weeks, if I haven’t been committed to an asylum.”

They filled their plates and settled in at one end of the long table. The housekeeper filled their coffee cups and water glasses for them and silently disappeared again.

“I wonder if I change my hair color,” Callie said, “if it’d spook her?”

Lina nearly choked on her scrambled eggs as she laughed. “You can do that?”

Callie snorted and, before Lina’s eyes, went from a curly redhead to straight black hair with purple highlights.

Lina’s eyes widened. “Holy crap!” she said.

“Yeah, but—”

“Ahem.”

Callie flinched and turned to see Daniel standing in the doorway, a wry expression on his face.

Lina wondered at the immediate change in Callie’s demeanor. Callie lowered her head. “Sorry, Sir,” she softly said.

He laughed and walked over to her. Smiling, he gently tipped her chin up so he could lean in and kiss her. “It’s okay,” he said. “I heard Lina’s comment. I know you were just showing her.”

Relief filled Callie’s face. Her hair immediately changed back to its previous deep-red hue and curly texture. “Thank You, Sir.”

Lina’s eyes narrowed. “Not that it’s any of my business, but what the hell’s going on here?” She immediately felt protective of Callie. The irony wasn’t lost on her, since Callie was probably far more powerful than Lina could ever hope to be.

Callie laid her hand over Daniel’s, where it rested on her shoulder. She smiled at Lina. “It’s okay. Do you really think a wolf could do something to me that I didn’t want done?” She looked up at Daniel with love in her eyes. “He’s my Sir. I love Him. He’s the first man in my entire life who understood what I wanted and needed.”

Lina knew that look. Lovesick puppy. Every man in her house wore that look at one time or another. Hell, she probably wore it a few times herself.

That wasn’t a look easily faked.

“You’re into, what, that freaky stuff?” Lina asked.

Daniel laughed. “Yeah, and having two dragon mates is totally vanilla. What we do is totally consensual. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it out alive from our first date. I only knew she was my mate and I loved her.” He looked down at her and stroked her hair. “I’d kill and die for her, believe me. Just like I’m sure your mates would for you.”

Lina’s face reddened. “Okay, I got it. Touché. Sorry.”

“No, it’s all right,” he said. “I appreciate that you feel protective of her like that. That’s the mark of a good friend.” He reached out a hand to Lina to shake with her.

Lina accepted it. “I think she’s probably going to do more to save my bacon than the other way around, but thanks.”

Daniel walked over to the sideboard to fill a plate. Callie smiled at Lina and leaned in close. In a low whisper, she said, “Besides, Sir is fucking hot in the sack.”

“I heard that,” he playfully said from the sideboard. “Wolf ears, pet.”

“Who says I didn’t mean for You to hear it, Sir?” she innocently shot back.

His amused laugh vaguely reminded Lina of a wolf’s howl.

* * *

The rest of the group, minus the attorney, made it into the dining room a few minutes later. Zack took point on the discussion after they sat down. “We figured you’d probably want to get some sleep first,” he said. “But after that, I’m guessing you want to start that search?”

Lina nodded after glancing at the housekeeper, who silently stood inside the doorway, ready to refill drinks or food. She didn’t need him to hit her over the head with a sledgehammer. They would ixnay the alktay about the ablettay while the staff was around. “Yeah. After I’ve had a nap would be good.”

Her men didn’t need to ask her if she was in the mood to fool around. They were asleep almost before their heads hit the pillows. She lay there for a moment staring at the ceiling. This felt surreal. A week ago, she was in Yellowstone. Now, she was in a house—her house—outside of Paris.

Okay, their house, because even if it was hers, she considered it theirs.

She closed her eyes. Immediately, she found herself standing along the side of a rural road. She got the distinct feeling from local trees and vegetation that she was in Florida, confirmed when she spotted the wrecked car on the other side of the road. The tag on the back was for the Sunshine State.

It looked like the accident had just happened, from the way steam still rose up from the front end. As she approached, she realized there were two occupants in the front. Both appeared dead.

The scene changed. She was still there at the wrecked car, but now there was a tow truck driver preparing to winch the demolished car onto the back of a flatbed wrecker. Three men who looked identical and distraught stood there, talking with a Florida Highway Patrol officer. The Lyall brothers…

Lina opened her eyes. She was safe in bed between Rick and Jan.

She was way too tired to think about it right then. What she wanted was sleep. Just good old dreamless, boring sleep. She closed her eyes again.

By the time Lina awoke seven hours later, she felt reasonably human again. Jan and Rick were still softly snoring on either side of her. She carefully climbed out of the bed via the end and made her way into the bathroom. There, she drew herself a hot bath and settled in for a relaxing soak. She’d already finished and dressed when Rick and Jan dragged themselves out of bed.

“I’m going down to Bertholde’s room,” she said.

“Do you want us to come with you?” Rick asked.

“No. If I’m not safe in this house, then I’m pretty much screwed. I want some alone time there.” She took her cell phone with her. Around her, the house felt quiet, no sounds of the others stirring yet. She made her way downstairs and found Bertholde’s room again.

She shut the door behind her and threw the curtains open to let light into the room. She sat on the bed and called Lacey. The Seer answered immediately.

“There you are. I was beginning to worry.”

“Sorry. I had to sleep.”

“Where are you?”

Lina looked around. “I’m in Bertholde’s room. Sitting on her bed.”

“Good. Get up and go to the back staircase.”

Lina stood and walked out into the hall. She didn’t know where the back staircase was. She assumed it was in the opposite direction of the main staircase.

“Let me find it.”

“Okay, tell me when you do.”

Lina made two more turns and found it. “I guess this is it.”

“Is it anywhere near the kitchen?”

“I don’t think so, but then again, I’m lost.”

Lacey laughed. “What’s it look like?”

“Stairs.”

“No, dear. Carpeted, banister color, that type of thing.”

“Oh. No carpet, just wood.”

“That’s it, then. The service staircase by the kitchen is carpeted. Slowly ascend the stairs. One step at a time. Do not rush.”

“Um, okay.” Lina took the stairs one at a time.

“Anything?”

“What am I looking for?” Various pictures and photographs lined the wall. Was it something hidden behind a picture?

“Listening for, Lina. Listening.”

Ten steps up, she heard it, a slight squeak. She continued on to the top of the staircase. It was the only step that squeaked. She returned to it and sat on the step below it. “I think I found it.”

“Grab the step and pull out.”

She did. With a little tugging, it gave way. Inside the riser she found a secret compartment containing an envelope sealed with Bertholde’s wax seal.

Lina lifted it out and closed the step.

“Well?” Lacey asked.

Lina’s name was written on the envelope in Bertholde’s handwriting.

“I found it,” Lina softly said. “How did you know?”

“She must have planned it. She mentioned to me at least five different times the last several times we talked about that squeaky step. Obviously, she was leaving a clue for you and for me. Good luck, dear. Call me if you need me.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Lina hung up and stared at the letter. Instead of opening it there, she found her way back to Bertholde’s room and locked herself in.

She opened the letter. In it, a very short message.

Put the animals back on their home. Carefully. And exactly.

Lina sat there, thinking. Then her eyes fell on the gap on the shelf. That has to be it. She said “on” their home.

She bolted upstairs for her room, ignoring Rick and Jan’s questions as she rummaged through her shoulder bag for the little figurines. Finding them, she ran back downstairs, nearly plowing over Zack in the process. He followed her back to Bertholde’s room and watched as she painstakingly put the little figurines back on their matching dust spots, exactly as they had been aligned.

“What’s that supposed to do?” Zack asked.

She shushed him and stood there, looking at them. They were, from left to right, the wolf, dragon, unidentified cat, and bear. Lina studied them from various angles.

Nada.

After ten minutes, and Jan and Rick arriving and silently watching after Zack shushed them, Lina sat, dejected, on the bed.

“What, exactly,” Zack said, “are you doing?”

She handed him the note she retrieved from the step.

“Where did this come from?”

“There was a secret compartment under a step. That’s what she meant by the squeak in the other letter. Lacey knew what the squeak meant and pointed me to it.”

“Oh. That’s clear as mud.”

“The step squeaked.”

“Okay.”

The four of them stared at the animals for another ten minutes. Lina felt close to tears. “I don’t understand what she’s trying to tell me!”

“Calm down, lovely,” Jan soothed. “We’ll figure it out.” He studied the figurines, then turned, slowly looking around the room, his eyes scanning from floor to ceiling. He stopped, a wide smile breaking across his face. He looked back at the shelf, then at Lina.

“I’ve got it.”

“Well, explain it to me, please.”

He walked over to a bookshelf on the far side of the room. On a shelf exactly across from the figurines sat several pictures. Jan reached over to one and picked it up. A group picture, it featured Bertholde and four older men, apparently taken at some sort of meeting, or maybe a past Gathering.

Jan carried the picture over to Lina and handed it to her. “That’s Jim Aruks, Paul McThomas, Jayden Aslo, and Davis Cannady.”

“Yeah, so?”

Rick grinned and pointed at each man in turn again. “Wolf, dragon, panther, and bear shifters.”

She stared at him, then turned the picture over and popped the back off the inexpensive frame. Behind the picture, she found a small piece of paper.

“This is getting old.” She took it out and unfolded it.

On it, a single, hand-drawn symbol.

%

“What the fuck is that?”

Zack took the paper, smiled, and walked over to the windows. He looked outside for a moment, then turned to them. With a fake, pompous British detective accent, he hooked a thumb under his armpit and said, “I do believe, Watson, that I have solved the mystery.”

“I’m hungry and crampy, Zack,” she groused. “Don’t piss me off.”

He laughed. “It’s the apothecary symbol for the ounce.”

She blinked. “Huh?”

“Ounce. You know, ‘O-Z. Oz.’”

“Sorry, Zack,” Jan said. “I’m not following you, either.”

He grinned and waved them over to the window. “‘Follow the yellow brick road,’” he chanted.

Outside, a path of pale pavers with a yellow hue to them led the way to gardens behind the house.

“No,” she said. “You really think she’d keep it that close to her?”

He shrugged. “Maybe she moved it without anyone else knowing.”

They all headed outside. The paving stones didn’t look big enough to be the tablet. And there were literally thousands of them.

“This will take forever,” Lina said.

“Look,” Zack interrupted, “let’s eat dinner first. Keep this to ourselves until we have a chance to fill in everyone else. Once our tummies are full, we’ll come back to it.”

* * *

Before dinner, she had time to get Brodey alone for a few minutes. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

He gave her an appraising look. “I’d hope so, sugar, after all we’ve been through.”

“Feel free to tell me to go fuck myself, but how did your parents die?”

His face clouded. “Car wreck. Highway Patrol declared it a one-car wreck.”

“But you aren’t convinced?”

“Nope. Why?”

“I had a dream.”

“Did you see who did it?”

“No. I saw the immediate aftermath. But there’s got to be a reason I saw it in the first place. It was just a brief flash. I wanted to know if it was your parents.”

“Okay. If you see anything else—”

“Absolutely.”

He nodded and gave her a strong hug, then hurried outside for some fresh air.

She suspected he wanted to get himself under control.

After dinner, they led the others outside to the pavers. Zack explained. “We’re not even one hundred percent sure this is the place she was pointing us to, but we’re going with it.” They spread out and took separate sections.

It was nearly dark when Lina found it. At the edge of the walk, half concealed by a bush, lay one paver set a little differently than the others. Lina called for the rest of their group. Brodey knelt down and pulled it out of position, flipping it over.

A roughly chiseled V had been embossed in the bottom.

“What does that mean?” Lina asked. “What does ‘V’ stand for?”

Zack shook his head. “Put it back exactly the way you found it, Brodey.”

He did. “Now,” Zack instructed, “tip it up, toward the bush.”

He did. Now the V pointed down the path. Lina set off ahead of the others. At the end of the walk was a gravel circle ringed by low bushes. In the middle of it, a sundial. On top of it sat a V-shaped pointer.

“I don’t get it,” Lina said.

Callie laughed and stepped over the bushes and into the circle with her. Carefully tipping the sundial over off its pedestal, she then moved the pedestal. Beneath it lay four pavers surrounding a fifth, which had totally been concealed by the sundial’s pedestal.

Daniel joined them in the circle and pulled up the center stone. He turned it over and held it up. “Is this what you’re looking for?” He grinned.

In his hands, he held the Tablet of Trammel.

The entire events of its creation rushed back into Lina’s mind.

Lina fainted.

* * *

Lina awoke in a sitting room. Someone had carried her inside and laid her out on a comfortable sofa. Zack knelt next to her and placed a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. “What the hell was that about, sweetheart?”

She felt woozy. “I don’t know.” She seemed to have developed an annoying habit of fainting unexpectedly. “I hope I’m not turning into one of them damn fainting goats,” she grumbled.

Jan and Rick, standing nearby, both laughed. “No chance of that, sweetheart,” Rick said.

She carefully sat up. “The tablet? Where is it?”

“Right here,” Brodey said. Someone had brushed the dirt off of it. It now sat on a towel in the middle of a table.

Lina stood, wobbled on her feet for only a moment before she felt steady again, and made her way over to the tablet.

It seemed hard to believe that just a few days earlier, she’d taken part in the creation of it. It looked weathered, some of the engravings a little smoother than they’d originally been, but in good shape overall. Running her fingers over it, she felt none of the power present at its creation.

It was just a rock.

The giggles started deep in her throat, bubbling and rising up until she had to lean on the table for support she was laughing so hard.

“Um, you okay?” Zack asked.

She nodded even as she continued laughing. It was several minutes before she was able to regain her senses. “We’ve been worried…about…that!” She broke out into another giggle fit.

She realized everyone was exchanging worried looks. She waved them away. “I’m not crazy, I swear.” She took a deep breath, let out one final round of snickers, then turned to face everyone. “It’s just a rock now. At the time, it was a powerful spell, yes. After the battle ended, it became meaningless.” She ran her hands over it again.

Nope, nothing. She could get more sensation from concrete block. Still…

“We need to take it back to America with us,” she said. “We can hide it in the Pack compound in Maine.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Zack asked. “You want to hold on to it that long?”

She nodded. “What are they going to do, steal it and break it?” She picked it up. Part of her wanted to drop the damn thing on the floor and watch it shatter. The other part of her wanted to honor the memory of the three lovers who’d given their lives to save their people.

Even if she was one of the three lovers.

She handed it to Zack. “Please keep it safe for me until we get it back to the States.”

“Do we tell people we found it?”

She smiled. “Found what?”

“I hope you have a plan,” Jan said.

“I do.”

Later that night, before heading to bed, she found Zack. “Bring the tablet,” she told him. He went back into his room. She heard him briefly speak to Kael, then he returned with the tablet.

“What are we doing?”

“Come on and I’ll show you.” She led him downstairs and outside to the garden, to the path of pavers. She pulled one up a few yards down from where they’d found the paver with the ‘V’ etched on it. She flipped it over so she could see the dirty side.

“What are you doing?” Zack said.

She knelt down, smiling as she ran her hands over the smooth stone. “Looks pretty close to the original, doesn’t it?”

He looked puzzled. “Um, well, not really. It’s larger, it’s a slightly different color, and has no writing on it.”

“Ignore the color. What if it had the same writing on it?”

He snorted. “Fine. Do you know someone handy with a chisel who can do rock forgeries?”

She grinned. “I don’t need a chisel.” She stood, grabbed the real tablet from him, and laid it on top of the other paver.

“What are you doing? Or do I even want to know?”

“Watch and learn, grasshopper. Watch and learn.” She closed her eyes and ran her hands around the edge of the tablet. This felt right. Really right.

Baba Yaga told me to follow my instincts.

She traced the edges of the tablet with her fingers, touching the stone beneath it as she moved her hands. Then she ran her fingers over the surface of the tablet, smoothing them over the etchings and envisioning the rock below taking on the same appearance.

She knew even if the cockatrice did manage to find and destroy the real tablet, it wouldn’t render the spell obsolete. It would take the spell being reversed.

And the people it had affected being not dead.

Since she had no desire to reverse the spell, and even if there was a way to resurrect the dead she wouldn’t do it, there was little to no chance of that happening. The tablet itself, however, no longer contained any power even though the cockatrice believed it did.

The power was in her, the Goddess, and in her men.

Lina, however, didn’t like to take chances. Maybe, just maybe, there was a slim chance of the cockatrice stopping their slaughter of innocent people in search of this hunk of rock if they got their hands on it. Well, on the forgery. Which they wouldn’t know was a forgery.

Lifting the original tablet, she returned it to Zack. Then she examined her handiwork. It looked nearly identical to the original. All anyone who wanted it would be interested in was if the runes and symbols matched.

She took a deep breath and let it out as the memory of the original spell returned to her mind.

Instincts.

She smiled and let her mind guide her. She placed one small extra symbol on the duplicate tablet.

May the destruction of this duplicate only serve to further solidify the original spell.

Hee hee hee.

She flipped it facedown and returned it to place in the path where the paver with the V on it had been laid. The paver with the V, she put in the place of the modified paver. To the average eye, no one would notice anything amiss.

Lina stood and brushed the dirt off her hands.

“Happy?” Zack asked.

“I will be once we stop these fuckers.”

Chapter Five

Callie, Daniel, Brodey, and Wally set out to do some investigations and run down some information on the cockatrice first thing the next morning after breakfast. They got a rental car and would join the rest of them later at the hotel in Brussels. Everyone else loaded into the rental van with their luggage and hit the road with Uncle Andel following in his car. With a stop for lunch, the drive took less than five hours.

They checked into their hotel in Brussels. Lina tried to steel herself for the meeting with the other shifter bigwigs. Many of them hadn’t made it to the Yellowstone gathering. It took them an hour to drive to the estate outside of Brussels, which made the place she’d just inherited from Bertholde look like a cheap-ass slum.

A crisply uniformed butler led them through the house to a large drawing room. There were already twelve men there, one of them who looked older than dirt. He sat, shrunken by age and dwarfed by his wheelchair, but his flinty grey eyes looked hard, cold, and fully aware.

Without any formalities, Andel started. “The cockatrice are back with a vengeance,” he said. “They’re behind the murders of several people, including our Seer, Bertholde.” The room rumbled, but silenced when he spoke again.

“They’re after the Tablet of Trammel,” he said, which started another round of grumbling.

Lina watched the old man in the wheelchair. She didn’t like him, even though he hadn’t said a word yet. When his eyes fell on her, she didn’t blink and refused to back down. Eventually, he looked away.

Her gaze narrowed. Good, you should fear me, old man.

She didn’t understand why she felt an instant dislike for him, but she damn sure wouldn’t cower before him.

After a brief retelling of the recent events, leaving out the part about them finding and relocating the Tablet, the old man spoke.

“We are in modern times,” he said with a strong voice that totally didn’t match his withered body. “The Tablet is a myth, nothing more.”

Jocko got in the man’s face. “Ye’ve seen the bloody thing yerself. And ye ain’t modern, who ye kiddin’?” He jabbed his finger at the man. “Don’t ye bloody bastards still have an outstanding blood oath against yer own kind, this many centuries later?”

“That’s none of your business!”

“Anythin’ affecting my Pack is my business, Rodolfo Abernathy!” Jocko fiercely growled. “An’ I’ll tell ye somethin’ else. Ye come sniffin’ around my Pack or my Clan, I’ll take yer bloody nose off!”

There were assorted grumbles and growls from around the room, but Jocko squared off against them. His massive form commanded attention. “I’ll tell all ye the same thing, too. I’ve lost too many good, innocent people over the years. To the cockatrice. To damn blood oaths. To sheer idiocy and greed. Ye all have, too, but apparently I’m the only one with the stones to stand up to this stupid old man. It stops here, and it stops now!”

“You do not tell me how to run my Pack,” Abernathy said.

Jocko wheeled around on him. “I will tell ye to stay outta my Pack!” He stood over the other man, his voice low and growly. “I know damn well ye had somethin’ to do with the deaths of Charles and Ellie. Ye were pissed off they helped people escape yer dirty clutches. And when I prove it, I’ll rip yer damn throat out myself!”

Andel grabbed Jocko by the arm and pulled him back, whispering to him to calm down. With Zack’s help, they got him settled in chair in the far corner. Lina decided if she was the Seer, it was time for her to nut up or shut up.

She stepped forward, ignoring Abernathy. “With or without your help, we are going after the cockatrice.” She glanced at Abernathy. “Anyone who gets in our way will be dealt with. Don’t piss me off. I’m hormonal and emotional and looking for an excuse to blow someone up.”

After twenty minutes, it was obvious none of them had much in the way of helpful information. Well, Lina suspected Abernathy knew more than he said, but he wasn’t giving it up if he did. Jocko and Andel were able to pull together some information from the other shifters that might prove helpful on finding the local cockatrice nest.

Just as she was about to go after Abernathy to find out what he was hiding, Callie and the others showed up.

With some relief, Zack pulled Lina aside with a suggestion. “Why don’t I take you back to the hotel now that they’re back?” he said.

Callie spoke up. “I’ll do it.”

“Cool. Okay, thanks.”

Out in the car, Lina looked at Callie. “We’re not really going to the hotel, are we?”

She laughed. “Hell, no.”

* * *

Callie found a place to park in an old part of town. They walked for a few minutes as Callie got her bearings.

“This looks familiar,” Callie said.

Lina followed Callie down a dingy, narrow cobblestone street. “You sure this is the right way?” Lina nervously asked.

“I think so.” She slowed at a corner and studied the buildings. “It’s been a long time, but these buildings are really old. It looks right.”

“You realize Rick and Jan are going to want to spank me for coming out here without them, right?”

Callie turned and grinned. “You lucky girl.”

Exasperated, Lina groaned. “Some of us don’t like to be spanked!”

“Hmph. Well, that’s all right. You have other nice qualities.” She took off down another street.

Lina rolled her eyes and followed Callie. After three more turns and ten minutes of walking, Lina grabbed Callie’s arm. “Explain to me again why we aren’t driving?”

“Narrow streets. Crappy traffic. And last time I was here, there weren’t any cars and we traveled on foot or horseback. Wait! That’s it!” She pointed to a wood and whitewashed plaster building kitty-corner across the street from where they stood. Callie took off with Lina in tow.

Outside the dingy front window, Callie looked at a dusty display of stone and wood statues in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and subjects stacked on several risers covered with a velveteen black cloth covered in what looked like cat hair. Lina looked up at the sign. It was in French, but she didn’t understand it.

“What’s that mean?”

Callie looked up. “Loosely translated, it’s ‘Carving Artisan.’ Come on.”

An anemic-sounding bell tinkled when they stepped into the cramped showroom, but no one appeared at the small counter in the back.

“Bonjour?” Callie called out. Lina didn’t miss how when Callie stepped forward, she seemed to instinctively keep Lina directly behind her in a protective manner.

No one answered her call.

Slowly weaving through dusty displays to make their way to the back of the shop, Lina felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. She grabbed it and answered. It was Zack.

“Where the hell are you two?”

Lina gave him the address. “Callie says this is the place.”

“I’ll be right there, give me five minutes. Do not move.”

“Where’s Rick and Jan?”

“They and the rest of them went with Kael to check out a lead on the nest.” He hung up on her.

Callie glanced back at her. “Mother hen?”

“Yep.” They stood at the counter.

Callie tapped a small bell set on the corner of the counter for getting the clerk’s attention. “Bonjour?” No response.

Callie arched an eyebrow as she stared at the closed curtain covering the doorway behind the counter.

“Stay here,” she said. Before Lina could stop her, Callie had quickly stepped around the counter and through the curtain.

Lina wanted to call out a warning to her to be careful, but then she heard her friend’s gasp. “Lina, come here.”

With dread, Lina made her way to the back of the shop. The small, cramped work space held three benches covered with various tools Lina assumed were used for carving. A small grinding machine was set up on a stand in one corner. There were also several saws and tumblers she guessed were also used by the artisan.

She also assumed the dead older man lying curled on his side on the floor in a pool of his own blood was the artisan in question. “Shit.” From his color, and the fact that the blood had started congealing and drying at the edges of the puddle, she guessed he’d been dead a while.

Callie knelt down to try to get a better look at his face. All Lina could tell was he looked to be in his seventies and had grey hair and a walrus mustache. “Do you know him?” Lina asked.

Callie shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. This isn’t the guy I knew. Might be his son or other relative.” She looked up and pointed at one of the shelves. “Look at that.”

Lina stepped around the dead man. She wondered that she wasn’t getting upset over stumbling on a dead body, but then she suspected she knew exactly who had killed this man. And why. On a top shelf, partially hidden by some small boxes, sat raw chunks of catlinite.

Callie stood and looked around. “Well, we’re not getting any answers out of him. Let’s see what we can find.” She opened a file cabinet and started rifling through it.

Lina looked around, not sure what she was looking for. When the front doorbell rang a few minutes later, she jumped. They both looked at each other. Callie had started for the curtained doorway when they heard Zack call out.

“Lina? Where are you?”

“Back here,” she called.

Seconds later, he ran through the doorway and barely had enough time to skid to a stop so he didn’t step on the dead man. “Holy shit!” He glared at Callie. “What the hell did you do that for?”

She gave him a disgusted look and planted her hands on her hips. “Why the hell do you just naturally assume I did anything? We found him like that. He’s been dead for hours. Duh.”

“Oh.” Zack did, in fact, look more closely. “Sorry.”

“Believe me, when I kill someone, it’s a lot more creative than stabbing them in the heart. Besides, that’s a typical cockatrice trick. Signature move.”

Zack and Lina exchanged a look, and at the same time said, “Son of a bitch!”

“What?”

Zack said, “I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that whoever killed Bertholde killed this guy, too. That’s how they murdered her. They stabbed her in the heart.”

“They didn’t leave a knife this time,” Lina pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter,” Callie said. “Stabbing someone in the heart is something peculiar they do. I never learned what the significance is, but it’s just their thing. Like the mob leaving a horse’s head in your bed.”

“Great,” Zack said. “We should get out of here.”

“We haven’t finished tossing the place yet,” Callie pointed out.

“I don’t care. We can come back later and do it. I want Lina out of here.”

“Lina’s a big girl,” Callie said. “We’ll keep her safe.”

“Hello,” Lina said. “Lina is right here.” She waved her hand in Zack’s face. “Goddess wants to stay and play Sherlock Holmes,” she snarked. “I’m tired of feeling helpless.”

“Fine. Let’s do it fast and get the hell out of here. What are we looking for?”

Lina grabbed an empty plastic shopping bag and retrieved the uncarved catlinite. No surprise, she felt nothing when she picked up the stone.

Into the bag she dumped it. Callie handed her some papers from the file cabinet before she started rifling through the desk. After ten minutes, Zack smacked himself on the forehead. “Anyone look at his wallet?”

The women stared at him for a moment. “Just fucking shoot me and get it over with,” Lina said.

Callie smacked herself on the forehead much as Zack had and stooped down to rummage through the dead man’s pockets. She stood up, his wallet and phone in her hand. “Let’s take them. He’s not going to need them.”

Lina wasn’t sure she liked the dark humor, but she also couldn’t disagree with the logic. Into the bag they went.

Callie returned to the desk, and when she reached the bottom drawer on the right-hand side, she found it locked. “Fuck this,” she mumbled, and put her hand on the lock.

With a bright flash of light and puff of smoke, the lock exploded. Callie opened the drawer and started exploring. After a moment, she emptied the drawer onto the desk and tapped the bottom of it. “Hmm.” They heard the sound of wood cracking, then Callie let out a low whistle.

“What?” Zack asked.

“Boys and girls, we’ve hit the jackpot.” She pulled something out and turned so they could see it.

It looked like an exact copy of the cockatrice spell book.

“Fuck me,” Zack said.

There was also an address book and a small journal inside the false bottom. They took them, returned the drawer to its place, and dumped the remaining items back inside before closing it. “Now let’s get the hell out of here,” Callie said.

“Agreed,” Zack concurred.

They started for the curtain when they heard the bell on the front door tinkle. The three of them froze. They stared at each other, holding their breaths.

After a minute, they didn’t hear anything. Zack shrugged and peeked through the curtain. “No one there,” he said.

They all stepped through the curtain. Sure enough, the showroom was empty.

“Weird,” Callie muttered. “They must have changed their mind about coming in.” She led the way to the door and peeked through it. With the way apparently clear, she opened it and they filed out, Callie taking the lead and Zack bringing up the rear.

They turned the opposite way of how they arrived. “We came that way,” Lina said, tapping Callie on the shoulder.

“I know. I’ve got a feeling. We’d better go this way.” In fact, she led them across the street and as she started to pick up the pace, Lina had a flash.

“Wait. Hold up.” She pulled Zack and Callie into the doorway of an empty store and peeked out, down the street.

She felt dizzy. With the exception that it wasn’t blue, it was the scene from her vision of the third killer.

“This is it,” she whispered.

“What?” Callie asked.

“Lina, honey? You’re scaring me,” Zack said.

“Shut up,” Lina ordered. They stood there, waiting. A few minutes later, an older man, heavyset and with greying hair, emerged from a wine store a few doors down from the other shop.

It was him. She’d bet her life on it. He looked older than he had when he’d committed the murder, and had packed on some pounds, but it was him.

Lina poked Zack in the arm and frantically motioned to him. He carefully peeked around the corner. The man started toward the artisan’s store but Lina felt anger overcome her as she remembered how Kael’s family had died. Before either Zack or Callie could stop her, she shoved the bag at Zack and stepped out of the doorway.

She screamed at the man. “Hey, fat boy. Remember me?” She felt rage coiling and building in her gut.

The man stopped. Then, as he got a good look at her face, shock and fear washed over his expression.

“That’s it,” she said as she crossed the street, oblivious to the cars that screeched to a stop to avoid hitting her. “Stand right there.” She raised her right arm. This felt right.

Really right.

Let’s see if I can not-so-randomly blow something up. Like barbecued bastard.

She felt the fireball congealing in her right hand when he seemed to regain his senses. He drew a revolver from his pocket and started shooting at her.

Letting out a frightened squeak, she immediately waved her left hand in front of her. A wall of ice formed, sprouting cracks where the bullets harmlessly bounced off it. “Hey! That’s assault with intent, fat boy!”

Lina was vaguely aware of Zack screaming her name when the guy turned and ran. She waved her hand and the ice disappeared. The bullets harmlessly hit the cobblestones. A car pulled around her and she tried to vault over the hood, but she stumbled on the other side and hit the sidewalk flat on her face.

By the time the three of them reached the alley the man had turned down, there was no sign of him.

“Son of a bitch!” she screamed.

Callie turned, startled, as the sound of sirens reached them. “Gendarmes. Come on. We need to go!” She grabbed Lina’s arm.

Lina tried to shake her off. “We need to go after him! That’s the guy I saw help kill Kael’s family! And he was probably at Yellowstone!”

Zack grabbed her other arm. “No, we need to get the hell out of here before we’re arrested.”

“What about the car?” Callie asked.

“Fuck it, we’ll get it later, when things calm down.” They hurried down the street, breaking into a run as they rounded the next corner.

Callie took the lead. “This way.” She led them down a series of allies until they emerged inside a market. They stopped as she got her bearings. “Come on.”

At a small café next door, they got an inside table and nervously watched out the front window. After twenty minutes and eating a light lunch of cheese and soup, they relaxed. “I think we’re safe,” Callie said, low enough no one else could hear.

Zack looked down at his cell phone. “Jan and Rick are on their way in the rental car to pick us up. They’ll pull up out front.” He motioned for the check. “Let’s sit here until they say they’re close.”

They timed it perfectly. Jan and Rick pulled up to the curb, and the three of them dove into the backseat. Rick, behind the wheel, got them turned around and heading away from the café.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on?” he asked. “And do the three of you have anything to do with the hellacious roadblock a few streets over?”

Lina blushed. “Um, sort of.”

Jan shook his head. “Don’t tell him while he’s driving. He’ll get us killed. We’ll be back at the hotel in a few minutes.”

Zack pulled the books out of the bag they’d taken from the shop. “Well, at least we have one question answered. If not the dead guy, someone in the shop had something to do with carving those statues.”

“What dead guy?” Rick yelled.

“Shut up and drive,” Jan snapped. “I asked you not to do that, Z.”

“Sorry. He was already dead when the girls got there.”

The car swerved a little as Rick tried to look into the backseat. “What? Why weren’t you with them?”

“Stop it!” Jan yelled.

“Who are you yelling at?” Zack asked.

“Both of you! Let’s get back to the hotel safely then we’ll talk.”

Lina thought she saw tufts of steam wisping from Rick’s nostrils, but he clamped his jaw shut and pressed down a little harder on the accelerator as he wove through traffic.

* * *

They looked over the books. Callie, Zack, and Daniel took the address book, cross-checking addresses and info with the Internet to see which ones were still good.

So far, they were striking out.

“He obviously didn’t make the cuffs,” Callie said as she sat back and stretched. “He wasn’t a silversmith. I didn’t see any evidence of it there at his shop.” They’d sent Wally, Brodey, and Jocko to the man’s house to scope the place out and were waiting to hear back from them.

Lina was pouring through the small journal. The first entry was dated 1 March, 1879, and it had been only sporadically updated from that point on. The last entry was only three years prior from the current date, and at least a quarter of the pages were still blank.

Most of the notes didn’t make sense. They seemed to be formulas, or material lists, or even random comments. She finally handed it off to Jan and Rick, who’d been working the phones with Andel to get more backup.

“My brain’s fried,” she said. She flopped back onto the bed. “I can’t handle this. I can’t believe I couldn’t fry Fat Boy’s balls. I am such a sucky Goddess! That fucktard is still running around loose out there somewhere!”

“Stop it,” Jan said. “Quit talking like that.”

“Well, that’s exactly what happened. He got away because I didn’t fry his ass. No telling how many more people he’ll kill.”

Uncle Andel sat down on the bed next to Lina and shooed Jan away. “Lina, listen. No one is blaming you for anything. You are expecting far too much from yourself. Quit beating yourself up so much.”

She looked at him. His amber eyes focused on her. She tried not to focus on the scar splitting his face from between his eyes to below his chin. “How can you say that to me after what they did to you?”

He kindly smiled. “Listen to me, what happened to me and mine happened many, many years before you were born. You bear no responsibility for that. The cockatrice are to blame, pure and simple. From what Zack and the Cailleach—”

Across the room, Callie cleared her throat at that.

“Excuse me. From what Zack and Callie told me—”

“Thank you,” Callie said.

“—you performed admirably.”

“I let him get away.”

Zack let out a celebratory hoot. “I think I found something!”

“What?” Callie asked.

“I think I found our silversmith. And good news, looks like he’s still here in Brussels.”

* * *

They all piled into the rental van and headed for the address. The house was located just outside the city, in a rural area. On a couple of acres of land, it was relatively isolated from its neighbors.

Just as they pulled up to the drive, Jan’s phone rang. “Yeah… Crap. Okay. No, we’re out on an errand. We’ll meet you back at the hotel in a little bit… Okay, thanks.” He hung up. “That was Wally. They struck out. The house was ransacked, and they barely got out of there before the police arrived.”

They all looked up the drive at the house. “We need to do this,” Lina said, anxious to get up there, to obtain any clue to finding Fat Boy again.

“Yeah, but we don’t want to walk into a trap,” Zack said.

Uncle Andel let out a sigh. “I’ll do it.” Before anyone could stop him, he hauled himself out of the front passenger seat and walked up the short drive. At the front door he knocked, waited, and knocked again. After a minute, he walked around the house, out of their sight for a moment. When he returned, he waved them up.

“Here we go,” Rick said as he pulled the van up to the house.

“Yeah, this isn’t inconspicuous,” Lina snarked. “We look like a geeky SWAT team.”

They all piled out. Andel tried the front door and found it unlocked. “You two stay here,” he said to Lina and Callie.

“Excuse me?” Lina said.

“He’s trying to be chivalrous,” Zack said. “Give him the win.”

“Fine.”

The men disappeared into the house while Callie and Lina kept watch. After just a moment, Zack called out to them. “Come on in.”

They walked in and stopped in the foyer. The house was a disaster. And not in a Hoarders: Buried Alive kind of way, either.

Lina was afraid to ask. “Is he…?”

“Yeah,” Zack said. “Very.”

Callie and Lina followed the sound of his voice. A man lay dead on the kitchen floor.

Lina didn’t want to see. She walked outside and got into the van, Callie on her heels. She felt numb.

Christ.

A few minutes later, the men wordlessly returned to the van. Rick climbed behind the wheel and they departed.

“Find anything?” she finally asked.

He shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

“I…” Lina shut her mouth. She suspected what they didn’t want to tell her. “How many kids?” she whispered.

Zack found his fingers suddenly very interesting. “Three,” he softly said.

“Was this our guy?” Callie asked.

Rick nodded. “Yep. No doubt about it. He had a setup and tools in his basement. He was definitely a silversmith.”

They rode back to the hotel in silence. When they reached their floor, Lina headed for their room. Zack tried to stop her, but she shook his hand off. “Please, I just need to be alone for a while.”

“Okay.”

She let herself into the room and collapsed facedown on the bed, where she cried herself to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, after breakfast, they all gathered in Zack and Kael’s room. The men looked grim. “We think we know where one of the cockatrice are, based on info we recovered,” Kael said. “He lives about twenty minutes away. Name’s Gunther Hodgson.”

“We’re working on locating the nest,” Jocko said. “We think we’re close.”

“Nest?” Lina asked.

“That’s what they call it,” Kael said. He looked like he’d eaten something sour. “You know, like a nest of rats, or roaches.”

“How do we know this guy is one of the cockatrice?” Lina asked. “Are we sure? Did you see him sprout feathers?”

“Don’t worry,” Kael assured her. “We won’t hurt him unless we’re sure.”

“I can tell,” Callie said. “Send me in.”

“Without a doubt?” Lina asked.

She nodded. “Without a doubt.”

Lina refused to be left behind. She didn’t want to risk missing Fat Boy again. “We’re going to kill him if he is, aren’t we?” she asked. Part of her had a hard time wrapping her head around that notion.

Part of her wanted blood when she thought about the nightmare of Kael’s family’s murder.

Zack nodded. “Yeah, honey. We are. Cockatrice are worse than mobsters crossed with cockroaches. They have no priority except self-preservation and reproduction. If you don’t stomp them out completely, they keep coming back. That’s the only thing that stops them.”

“But only if we’re sure?” she asked.

Callie nodded. “Only if we’re sure.”

“Then let’s go.”

They took both the van and the car. Kael, Daniel, Callie, and Wally went in first. That left Lina sitting in the van with Jan, Rick, and the rest of them and nervously drumming her fingers on her thigh.

“Why haven’t we heard back from them yet?” she nervously said.

“It’s only been five minutes,” Zack said. “Calm down, sweetie. They’re fine.”

They waited another five minutes. Finally, Zack’s phone rang. “Yeah?... Okay. We’re on our way.” Jan started the engine and they drove to the house.

The older house looked run-down. Weeds and scraggly bushes controlled what little yard there was.

Inside, a young, angry-looking man she assumed to be Gunther Hodgson had been tied to a chair. His left eye was swollen, and someone had put duct tape over his mouth. Callie stood next to him, flexing her right hand. “You punched him?” Lina asked.

She smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Felt good, too.”

“Did he tell you anything?”

Kael emerged from another room, a cell phone in his hand. He held it up. “Contacts are in here. He’s one of them.”

“You’re sure?”

He nodded and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Go look. We didn’t even need Callie telling us he was to know.”

She walked back into the room he’d emerged from. A laptop stood open on a desk. She bent over and looked at it. The screen showed his e-mail, which was open to a message dated yesterday.

Whoever had sent the e-mail was confirming that both the carver and the silversmith were dead.

No witnesses.

Apparently Fat Boy’s a liar as well as a killer. He’s covering his ass about us seeing him.

They spent the better part of an hour there, going through Gunther’s contacts and cross-checking them to the information they obtained from the carver’s phone book and information they’d retrieved from the silversmith’s house. Several of the contacts in his book were also in the carver’s phone book, only this guy had updated information.

Lina pulled a chair up in front of him and ripped the duct tape off his mouth. “Why can’t you assholes just give up and live in peace?”

He spit in her face.

Before Lina or any of the men could react, Callie punched him squarely in the nose, hard. His head rocked back. “That’s why,” she said as she wiped his blood off her knuckles onto his shirt. “Because they are animals. Worse than animals.”

Lina wiped the spittle off her cheek with a wet cloth Zack brought her. “Why hasn’t he shifted yet?” Lina asked. If she was perfectly honest with herself, she was hoping he would so she could try firebombing his feathered ass.

“He’s a younglin’,” Andel said.

“Fuck you!” Gunther yelled.

Callie decked him again.

“Cockatrice,” Andel continued as if not interrupted, “aren’t like the rest of us shifters. Every other shifter, as long as nothing has prevented their shifting, start when they’re adolescents. Late teens at the most, usually. Cockatrice have to be mature to start shifting, at least fifty or sixty years old, usually. He might not ever be able to shift if his genes are weak. A lot of their kind can’t shift anymore, even though they have other abilities.”

Gunther started coming around again. This time, Lina punched him.

Callie high-fived her. “See? It’s fun, isn’t it?”

Lina shook out her fist. “Yeah, it sort of is.”

“Can we kill him now?” Callie asked Daniel.

“Not yet, my bloodthirsty little mate,” he said.

Kael walked over and slapped Gunther so hard his head rocked back again. Kael started questioning him in something that sounded like rapid-fire German. Lina realized she could understand a little of it, but Kael was speaking far too fast for her to understand it all.

Gunther sneered at Kael.

Before she realized what he was doing, Kael reached out and grabbed the man by the throat. A blank, unreadable expression on his face, Kael squeezed harder and harder until Gunther’s eyes bugged and he tried struggling in the chair against his bonds.

Then, with a sickening pop, Kael’s fingers punched through the man’s throat. Gunther’s shoes beat a quick, staccato beat on the hardwood floor for just a moment before he went limp. Blood flowed down his neck from the wounds, where Kael’s fingers impaled him.

Kael’s cold expression nearly frightened Lina. He let go of the cockatrice and wiped the blood and gore off his hand on the dead man’s shirt. Without a word, he left the room. They heard the sound of water running, followed by the unmistakable sound of retching, followed by Kael’s gut-wrenching sobs.

“I’m on it,” Zack said, a grim look on his face as he hurried after him.

“I suggest,” Andel said, “that we grab his computer and any other information we can and get out of here.”

Daniel nodded. “Yep.” He went after Zack and returned a moment later. “I gave him the car keys. Let’s let them have some time. They’ll come back later. We can all fit in the van.”

Quietly, they all returned to the van with the gathered items and drove back to the hotel, where they assembled in Lina’s suite to go over everything. As far as they could tell, neither the carver nor the silversmith were cockatrice. They were, however, longtime associates of theirs, paid well for their work. Now with Edgar and Lenny both dead, and with the other shifters races out for vengeance, the cockatrice were cutting their losses to protect their nest.

Zack and Kael returned an hour later. “Where are we at?” Kael quietly asked.

“Actually,” Jan said, “we think we have another lead on the nest. They’re running drugs.”

Zack snorted. “Doesn’t surprise me.”

“I have an idea,” Callie said. She looked at Daniel. “I need Sir’s permission, though.”

He looked at her oddly, but nodded.

She smiled. Before Lina could blink, Gunther stood before them. “How’s this?” Callie asked, but it was Gunther’s voice that came out.

Wally’s eyes widened. “Fuckin’ brilliant!”

Using Gunther’s cell phone, Callie placed a few calls and arranged a meeting with some of Gunther’s cohorts later that night. With the calls complete, she sat back and they were once again staring at Callie.

Daniel grinned and walked over to her. “And who says you’re not a shape-shifter?” he said with a laugh.

She arched an eyebrow at him. “I never said that. I’m not a wolf.”

“I couldn’t care less if you’re a damn drunken fruit bat,” Wally said, “that was amazing.”

She shrugged. “Perk of the rank.”

Chapter Six

Despite Daniel’s reservations, he let Callie, disguised as Gunther, go in with Wally, who she passed off as an American supplier. Andel and Jocko had called in reinforcements. They had two dozen wolves and dragons awaiting the signal to attack. The meeting was being held at a warehouse in an industrial section of town that would be nearly deserted that time of night.

As Lina sat in the shadows of a nearby shipping container, she closed her eyes. She found herself in Baba Yaga’s kitchen.

Apparently expecting her, Baba Yaga stood there in her matron form. She slid a mug of coffee, already prepared, over to Lina.

“Here you go, dear.”

“I can’t be here right now. I need to be ready.”

“You will be, don’t worry. Drink your coffee.”

Lina took a sip. Perfect, of course. “Tell me we’re doing the right thing?”

Baba Yaga shrugged. “I will not usurp free will.”

“Zack told me they’re like cockroaches crossed with mobsters.”

The matron smiled. “That is not an inaccurate description.”

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to kill innocent people.”

“Like the three children and the man’s wife killed at the silversmith’s house? They weren’t involved in his dealings, yet the cockatrice, or their accomplice, didn’t hesitate to kill them.”

“I know.”

“Your parents?”

Lina clamped down on the seething rage that threatened to overwhelm her. “Yeah.” She took another sip of coffee.

“There are others. Believe me. You said you wanted to see how your parents died so you wouldn’t ever forget what the cockatrice are capable of,” Baba Yaga reminded her. “Remember that?”

Lina grimly nodded. “Yeah.” She took another sip of coffee and set her mug down. “Thank you.”

She opened her eyes to find Zack looking at her. “So, how is Baba Yaga tonight?”

“Helpful.”

Zack smiled. “Good. About damn time.”

Daniel stood up from his hiding place closer to the front entrance and waved his hand. Around the building, the signal was passed and everyone advanced. Lina pushed her way to the front of the attacking force despite Zack’s best efforts to grab and hold her back. She shouldered Daniel out of the way and charged through the door first.

Callie—disguised as Gunther—wheeled around and saw Lina charge through the door. Callie let out a squeak and grabbed Wally. She pushed him down to the ground and threw herself on top of him. Lina, seething with rage by the time she spotted the eight young men there for the meeting, hurled two large balls of icy mist at them.

The blast knocked all of them off their feet and coated the warehouse’s concrete floor in ice. Before they could regain their footing, they’d been swarmed and disarmed by the shifters.

Zack put his hand on Lina’s back. “Babe? You okay?”

She set her jaw. “I will be shortly.”

Callie, who was now back to looking like her normal self and helping Wally to his feet, shouted at Zack. “Get her out of here. Now! She’s going to kill them!”

“There’s a problem with that?” Lina asked as she shook off Zack’s arm.

“Yeah, that’s a problem,” Callie said. “We need to interrogate them first.”

Lina felt her rage dissipate. “Good reason.” She allowed Zack and Brodey to lead her outside.

“Wow,” Brodey said. “I think you’re getting the handle of this Goddess gig,”

Zack agreed. “I think you’re overthinking stuff. When it comes to needing to do something, you seem to instinctively know what to do—”

A shout of surprise from inside was all the prompting Lina needed. Before Zack and Brodey could stop her, she dodged past them and back inside the building. One of the cockatrice was trying to shift while Wally and one of the dragons wrestled with him.

Instinctively, Lina raised her right hand. A fireball formed over her palm. The cockatrice completed his shift and now stood nine feet tall. He slung Wally and the dragon off him. As the cockatrice raised his head to howl, she hurled the fireball at it, vaporizing him before the final echoes of his cry even silenced. Nothing remained of him except a sooty pile of ash that settled gently on top of his discarded clothes and shoes.

All the other cockatrice and most of the other shifters froze and looked at Lina.

She had another fireball ready in her palm. “Any of you other fuckers want to try something like that?” she said to the cockatrice prisoners.

The remaining seven cockatrice shook their heads. They all looked young, even younger than Gunther.

She let the fireball dissolve. Wally and the dragon both climbed to their feet. “Glad you’re on our side, Lina,” Wally quipped.

They interrogated the other cockatrice. When they finished, Jan and Rick looked at Zack and Brodey. “Take her back to the hotel,” Rick said. “We’ll handle this.”

“I want to help!” Lina protested.

“We don’t want you helping,” Jan said. “You don’t need to see this. I’m afraid what it’ll do to you.”

She started to argue with him when Callie grabbed her arm. “I’ll take her.” Lina was going to argue with her, too, when Callie dug her fingers into her upper arm. “No, you listen to me,” Callie said, storm clouds brewing in her expression. “The guys are right. Let them handle this. Please.”

Something in the way she said it brought Lina around. She quit fighting her. “Fine.” On the way back to the hotel, Lina said, “I thought you were on my side.”

Callie smiled. “I am. Do you really think we’re going back to the hotel? Have you learned nothing from me yet?”

Lina stared at her for a moment before she broke into peals of laughter. “Where are we going?”

Callie’s face turned grim. “To the nest.”

They drove for twenty minutes, into a dark rural area that looked like it was more farmland than anything. Callie switched off the headlights as she turned onto a dirt track that didn’t resemble a road so much as it resembled a really long, rutted mud puddle. She let the car coast to a stop and shut it off.

“What are we doing here?” Lina asked.

Callie smiled and reached up to switch off the dome light. “Hope you don’t mind a short hike.”

Lina followed Callie out of the car and across the darkened field. Clouds obscured the moon and stars, but as Lina’s eyes adjusted, she easily found herself following Callie.

After a few minutes cross-country trekking, they hunkered down behind a low stone wall near a farmhouse. Inside the house was dark with the exception of a light in one window on the end closest to them.

“That’s the nest?” Lina whispered. It looked like a normal house.

She nodded. “Sir’s going to spank the crap out of me for this, but it’s worth it.” She looked at Lina. “I saw this address come up in the stuff we got at the carver’s. It was there again in the silversmith’s stuff. Delivery address. And one of the phone numbers we pulled off Gunther’s phone is registered to this address.”

“Do we tell the guys?”

She grinned. “Fuck, no. Why do you think we’re here? This is their next stop, but I have a feeling if those yokels at the warehouse don’t report back sooner rather than later, these assholes are going to bug out.”

They crept across the farmyard. Lina’s heart pounded in her chest. She was armed with a sadomasochistic immortal, sarcastic wit, and unreliable fire and ice skills.

She was no longer sure this was such a great idea.

Callie pointed up to where an electric line entered the house near the roof. Lina wasn’t sure what Callie wanted her to do. Then Callie made a motion at it like she was tossing something.

Lina got it. Taking a deep breath and trying not to think about it, she held out her palm as if holding a softball and envisioned throwing a fireball at the wire. To her shock and amazement, it worked.

With a shower of sparks, the electric line burst into flame and fell from the wall, where it started arcing on the ground.

Inside the house, they heard several male voices shout. Callie whispered, “I’ll get the front door,” before dodging around the house.

Lina waited there. As two men rounded the corner from the back of the house, she threw fireballs with both hands. One took out one man, the other went a little wide and caught a barn on fire.

“Ooops!”

She didn’t have time to think, because the other man immediately began to rip his clothes off as he shifted into a cockatrice.

Answers that question. No doubt about his identity. She lobbed another fireball at him, which he dodged. Then she was standing face-to-face with a fifteen-foot-tall cockatrice even uglier than Lenny and Edgar had been.

“Fuck!” She heard Callie engaged in a fight on the front side of the house. She tried another fireball, which the cockatrice ducked. Then she had an idea and lobbed an icy mist at its feet.

It laughed at her, but when it took a step it slipped and fell right on the downed power line, which still arced in the grass.

The cockatrice let out a horrific screech as it shuddered and shook, the current frying the evil clucker where he lay.

Lina dusted off her hands and with a pleased smile turned to help Callie.

A really angry looking woman stood there behind her. Before Lina could react, the woman launched herself at Lina, swinging with both hands and screaming epithets in something Lina thought was Dutch, but she couldn’t be sure.

Lina fell to the ground under her assault. As the woman sat up to punch Lina in the face, a shot rang out and a hole appeared in the middle of the woman’s forehead. She fell back, dead.

Lina scrambled out from under the woman’s body and turned, ready with a fireball in her hand. Zack ran up carrying a rifle.

“I’d kick your ass for this,” he said, “but I suspect Rick and Jan are going to beat me to it. Come on!” Before she could ask him how the hell he’d followed them, he dragged her around the back side of the house.

He chambered another round in the rifle. “Callie’s got two on the front side of the house she’s wrangling with. You go around the far side, I’ll go this way, and we’ll pen them in between us. Got it?”

She nodded, her adrenaline pumping and her body on automatic pilot. With a fireball in hand, she took off running around the far side of the house. By the time she rounded the corner, Callie was actually engaged in battle with a third cockatrice, who’d shifted, as well as two men who hadn’t.

“Hey, cluckhead!” Lina screamed at the shifted one. When it turned its feathered head to her, it had just enough time for its eyes to widen in shock before the fireball engulfed its head. Zack shot one of the men, and as the other turned to flee into the house, Callie kicked his feet out from under him and bashed his head in with a rock.

They all stood there, no noise except for the sound of the barn behind them engulfed in flames. Then, Zack started to laugh. Callie joined him.

Lina, not sure what was so funny, finally caught the giggle bug from them both and sat down, unable to stand she laughed so hard.

“Come on,” Zack said to Callie. “Help me pull them into the house.”

“Why?” Lina managed to ask as Callie stood to do it.

“Because,” Zack said, “you’re going to burn the house down.”

Ten minutes later, they were trudging back to the car with the sky behind them lit in a golden glow from the house burning. A motor scooter was parked behind the car.

“So that’s how you trailed us?” Lina asked.

“Duh. It belonged to one of the guys at the warehouse. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t keep tabs on you, sweet cheeks?”

Callie smiled. “I knew he was back there. I saw him tailing us.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” Lina asked.

She shrugged. “Why? What was there to say? ‘Hey, your Watcher is right behind us’? Duh, he’s your Watcher. It’s his job.”

Lina was going to say something when the shakes hit her as an adrenaline crash set in. She collapsed to the ground, trembling, then crying. Sobbing was more like it, and both Zack and Callie surrounded her and tried to comfort her. That’s where they were five minutes later when Jan, Rick, Kael, Brodey, Jocko, Andel, and Daniel pulled up in the rental van.

Her mates ran over to her. “What the hell’s going on?” Jan demanded. Other shifters also pulled up in different vehicles. “Lina, are you okay?”

She nodded and sobbed even harder as she collapsed into his arms. He and Rick took over the job of comforting her while Daniel eyed Callie.

“Anything you want to say, pet?” he sternly said to her.

She looked down. “Sorry, Sir?”

He started to shake his head. Then he laughed and opened his arms to her. She raced to him and he engulfed her in a huge hug.

“Okay, so what the fuck happened?” Kael said, pointing at the burning house across the field. “That’s the nest.”

“Not anymore,” Zack said. “We took care of it. Or, I should say, Callie and Lina took care of most of it. I just helped with the cleanup.” He winked at Lina.

She guessed he was going to leave out the part about him saving her bacon so as not to freak out Jan and Rick.

She winked back.

* * *

Later, back at the hotel, everyone reconvened in Lina’s room. “The bad news is,” Brodey said, “with the place burned to the ground, we lost any intel evidence they might have had.”

Daniel shot Callie a dark look. “It was Zack’s idea,” she said, pointing at him.

“The barn was already fully engulfed,” Zack said. “I figured it was only a matter of minutes before a fire brigade or someone showed up to investigate. Hell, you could see the fire from miles away.”

Andel nodded. “He has a valid point. Besides, we got plenty of evidence from the ones at the warehouse. This was only a small nest, and its sole purpose was running their drug operation in this area.”

“We still haven’t found Fat Boy,” Lina grumbled. Try as she might, she hadn’t been able to produce any more visions of him. When she’d tried asking Baba Yaga, the matron had dismissed her with a smile and a wave of her hand.

Callie had tried to explain it to Lina. “She isn’t allowed to get in the way of free will.”

“I’m not asking her to deliver him to me. I just want his fucking name. Is that too much to ask?” She looked at Callie. “Can you find out his name?”

“Not the way you’re thinking. I don’t have the powers she does. I told you that. I’m as hamstrung as you are.”

“Why couldn’t he have been one of the assholes at the nest?” Lina griped. “That would have made life easy.”

“Because I don’t think he’s part of that nest anyway,” Kael softly said. They all looked at him. “He’s one of the three who killed my family. We know this because of Lina’s visions. The group we took out today were mostly younglings and half-breeds, but they were all cockatrice. Fat Boy, as she calls him, isn’t even a cockatrice. Cockatrice won’t let outsiders into their nests. They might have to work with outsiders, but their nests are sacrosanct. They’re too distrustful and closed off to allow any non-cockatrice in. Even humans they’re mated to.”

Lina looked at Callie. “What do you think he was?”

“I was too busy trying to keep us from getting arrested or run over to pay attention,” she said, “but no, he wasn’t a cockatrice. They have a distinct…aroma. Well, to me they do. I don’t know if you all can smell them the same way I can.”

Brodey smiled. “They smell like chicken to me,” he quipped.

Lina snorted with laughter. “Crispy?”

He gave her a high five. “You know it, girl. Definitely crispy. The crispier, the better.”

Chapter Seven

Before they returned to the States, Lina wanted one last talk, alone, with Uncle Andel. She met with him for coffee downstairs in the hotel restaurant before she and the others headed for the airport. Andel would head home from there by train.

He gave her a sad smile. “Seer, you have a specific question for me?”

“How could you tell?”

He shrugged. “I suspected.”

She looked down at the table, where she slowly turned her coffee mug around in her hand. Their coffee wasn’t as good as Baba Yaga’s.

The thought nearly made her laugh, but she clamped down on it.

“When we first met in Yellowstone,” she said, “I noticed this grey cloud sort of surrounded you. It’s still there.”

He nodded, a sad smile on his face. “Yes. It doesn’t surprise me.” He took a sip of his coffee.

“And?”

He let out a deep breath. “I’ve had a lot of good years on this earth, Lina. Seen a lot of things, had more than my fair share of love. I’m tired. And, unfortunately, I’m not immune to things.”

“Cancer?”

He nodded. “It’s in my bones. Metastasized. I’ve had it for a couple of decades now.”

“Decades?”

“Being a dragon, it’s slowed the progress of the disease. Being half human, however, left me vulnerable.”

“You can get treatment though!”

He snorted, amused. “I’m part dragon, Lina. I don’t intend to spend the remaining years of my life locked up and being experimented on, or in hiding.”

“But, don’t we have doctors or something who are one of us? Or who are at least shifter of some sort, who can help you?”

“Sure we do. And I was given the option of trying treatments in hospitals where they couldn’t guarantee my safety, or living my life the way I wanted. I would rather the cancer take me with dignity than die as an experimental lab rat.” He glanced around and lowered his voice. “My wife, Ella? She was a beauty. We had a lot of good years together, more than any human ever has a right to expect. Our kids grew up and left home. Do you know how I lost her?”

Lina shook her head.

“She died in the bombing of Hamburg in 1943. She was trying to help her cousins escape.” He looked down at his coffee cup. “I spent a lot of years feeling bitter and angry. At the Nazis. At the Allies. At everyone. We didn’t have a side in the battle, we were simply trying to survive and keep our families alive. I found out about the cancer twenty-three years ago, when my first grandchild was born. Beautiful little girl. They named her after my Ella.”

He looked back up at Lina. “I made an active choice to live for that little girl. The Nazis are long gone. So are the RAF and others who bombed Hamburg. They are no threat to my little Ella. There are many dangers in this world, but there is only one danger that has directly sworn to try to kill her and others of our kind, as well as other shifters.”

“The cockatrice,” she whispered.

He nodded. “My hate is directed only at them now. I will do everything in my power to keep our people and others safe from those bastards. I will die fighting them, if I have to. Once I decided that, I felt a peace in my life I haven’t felt since losing my Ella.”

“Does anyone else know? About your cancer?”

“Bertholde did. She promised not to tell anyone. She’s the one who came to me and told me to get it checked out. That I was sick.” He shrugged. “I will die a happy man if all Ella has to worry about in the future are the same things the rest of the world usually must worry about. Only the cockatrice are deliberately out to harm her.”

“I won’t tell anyone.” Lina reached out and laid her hand over his to give him a gentle squeeze. Instead, her vision went blue. She was standing with Jan, Rick, Zack, Kael, and several others in a funeral home. She turned and at the front of the chapel she spotted a bronze urn. Next to it sat a picture of Andel looking a few years older than he did now. She realized she held something in her hand and looked down.

The program. On the front, the same picture of Andel, a made-up birth year that put his age approximately right, and the date of his death.

In seven years.

Her vision cleared and she was once again sitting in the booth in the hotel restaurant with Andel. He stared at her, curiosity on his face.

She let go of his hand and quickly tucked hers in her lap, under the table.

He laughed. “Don’t tell me. You saw how long.”

She forced a smile and nodded.

He sat back with a sigh. “I don’t want to know when. I’m guessing not right away?”

“No. There’s a while, yet.”

“Good. Plenty of work left to do.” He finished his coffee and left money on the table to pay their bill. He climbed out of the booth and helped her to her feet, giving her a hug. “Take care of those boys of yours,” he said with a smile. “The fanged as well as the furry ones. I’ve got to get checked out of the hotel and to the train station so I can go home. Safe journeys, Goddess.”

She smiled. “Safe journeys, Uncle Andel.”

He laughed. “See? Family is family. Adopted or not.”

She headed back to her room where Jan and Rick were struggling to get all the luggage stacked on a cart so they could make it downstairs in one trip.

“What are you two doing?”

Rick looked up. “It’s not obvious? We’re taking rumba lessons.”

“I’m the Goddess of Snark, buster, not you. I meant why not take two trips?”

Jan grinned. “I bet him he couldn’t do it in one.”

She rolled her eyes. “You two are like a couple of kids, you know that?”

“And you love it,” Rick said. “We’re never boring.”

“Nope, boring isn’t even on the top twenty list of adjectives I apply to the two of you.”

At the airport, before they boarded, she glanced at Daniel and took a deep breath as she stepped up to the doorway.

Just one more flight, please. If not, it’s a good day to die.

She stroked the aircraft’s skin as she stepped through the doorway. Daniel smiled and nodded to her when she glanced back at him awaiting his turn to board.

* * *

Lina had to admit she loved it at the Pack compound. She sat on the thinking rock and stared across the water. This early in the morning, the rising sun threw beautiful colors on the sea mist and gave her a gorgeous show.

She heard something at the top of the overlook. When she looked, Lacey waved down at her. Lina waved back and sat there as the Seer made her way down to the rock.

Lacey climbed up next to Lina and smiled at her. “I wondered if that was your car,” she said. “I take it the tablet has a new home?”

Lina smiled out at the water. “Yep.”

Lacey laughed. “That old thing has certainly been a pain in the ass, hasn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“Was it worth it?”

“Was what worth it?”

“Whatever it was you had to do to take out the cockatrice nest over there?”

Lina felt a cloud descend on her thoughts. “It had to be done.”

Lacey nodded. “Unfortunately, I believe you’re right.” She frowned as she stared out over the water. “It’s going to get bad.”

“Yep.”

“You see it, too?” Lacey asked.

Lina nodded. “Yep.”

“Do you want to talk about it right now?”

“Nope.”

Lacey chuckled. “Fair enough, dear. We do have at least a couple of years to worry about it.”

“Yep.” Lina sighed. Two years, if her latest visions were right. How much happiness could she cram into that time before the shit started to hit the fan again?

She decided she would start with getting to know her adopted wolf family better and spending more time with all her chosen family and not at work. She didn’t need to be at the office every day. Paula could run the place without her and Zack there.

After a while, Lina’s stomach grumbled. She’d set out on her task before breakfast, driving over to Lacey’s by herself before dawn, doing what she needed to do, and then coming down to the thinking rock.

“I baked some banana bread before I came down here, dear. Would you like some?”

Lina smiled. “Yes. I’d like that very much.”

They strolled back to the house together. On the way, Lacey stopped in the back garden. “Oh. I didn’t notice that before.” She stared at the sundial Lina had set up on a pedestal, the assembly sitting on several stone pavers. “Did you bring that?”

Lina smiled. “It’s a present.”

Lacey hugged her. “Thank you, dear. It’s lovely.”

Lina shrugged. “Time’s short, even in a really long life. I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. Thank you for teaching me that. Bertholde, too, but she’s not here for me to thank.”

Lacey cocked her head at Lina, curious but apparently not wanting to quiz her any further. She smiled. “You’re welcome, dear.”

They headed inside to eat.

PART IV:

Epilogue

Chapter One

“So, Old One. Are you proud of yourself?”

Baba Yaga turned from her stove, where she was cooking herself a pork chop, to look at Brighde. It wasn’t uncommon for her sister to appear in her home, but she wasn’t expecting her today. “What do you mean?”

Brighde sat on one of the barstools. “You know quite well what I mean. Cailleach told me about the day she visited you, when you first selected the Goddess’ Watcher. About your lost love. How much ire do you think you have you brought upon yourself from the Ancients for bending the world to your will, Old One?”

She hated it when Brighde called her that. “I followed the prophecies. And when I revealed the past to Lina, I didn’t show her everything, even though it was in my memories.”

“By whose hand were those prophecies written, hmm?” Brighde arched an eyebrow at her. “You even forced Cailleach into a mating you knew she didn’t want to serve your needs.”

“I forced her to do nothing. She fell in love with that wolf.”

Brighde waved her objections away. “You placed her in a position where she couldn’t refuse her heart. I should count myself lucky you didn’t bend the prophecies to include me in your matchmaking efforts. You picked her because you knew damn well I don’t give a flying fig about the prophecies because I know they’re bullshit. And if I was to walk away from them, you know the humans will follow suit.”

“They are not bullshit!”

“Oh, please. You got the Seer drunk and told him what to write. I watched you do it!”

Baba Yaga’s gaze narrowed. “Are you saying I was wrong?”

Brighde shrugged. “We are all masters of free will. At any given time, any of them could have chosen not to fulfill the prophecies. Then they would have seen them for what they are, empty pieces of paper with words of your choosing on them.”

“I swore an oath of revenge. I will not walk away from it.”

“So I see. And at what cost to others, hmm?”

“Those who fell in love did so because they felt it, not because I bewitched them. I simply set up events allowing them to more easily meet and fall in love with each other.”

Brighde laughed. “Call it what you will, Old One. Lie to yourself if you wish, but know this. You play a dangerous game with lives over your revenge. It’s not right.”

“The cockatrice have decided to wage war, not me. Had they simply faded from existence, then none of this would have come to pass.”

“True. It’s the only reason I haven’t stepped in to stop you. Know this, however. If you continue taking steps to deliberately manipulate people and usurp their free will, I will stop you. I will expose this entire plan. You walk a very dangerous path, Old One.”

“It is almost done. The cockatrice chose their way and I simply made it easier for the other shifter races to ally against them to protect themselves from the threat.”

Brighde stood. “Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep better at night. I didn’t mind being used for the spell to create the tablet, but I will be watching. I am not as loose with my heart as our little sister is, Old One. I shall not be as forgiving if you try to interfere with my free will.”

Baba Yaga let out a snort of derision. “Don’t worry. I doubt there’s a man in the world who could thaw that block of ice in your chest.”

Brighde rolled her eyes. “You just keep thinking that you are the expert on love and loss and your hubris will get the better of you, sooner or later.” She wagged a warning finger at her older sister. “I will be watching.” With that, she disappeared.

Baba Yaga plated her meal, took it over to the counter, and stood there, eating. Her sister had no idea what she was talking about. She’d always been a cold, frigid bitch. Ironic, considering Cailleach’s usual domain of the icy realms.

It certainly wasn’t her fault old Reygland, the Seer, couldn’t hold his mead very well back then, countless eons earlier. Or that he happened to plagiarize the poem she recited to him.

Never mind. Her job steering the course of events had ended. She felt a lot of guilt over Bertholde’s death, but she had placed more than enough warnings in her old friend’s path that the Seer could have chosen not to go to Yellowstone.

Lucky humans. They could die and pass on to new lives, usually with no memory of their past hurts or joy. A fresh slate.

She was granted no such reprieve. No way to forget the pain of loss, to erase the picture of her lover’s body ripped to pieces.

No way to erase the longing for a love she would never again know.

Lucky humans.

Chapter Two

Lina stared out the passenger window of the rental car. She’d never been to Washington State before. Despite the grey and dreary day, the green, lush landscape they passed struck a resonant chord in her.

She didn’t know if she’d ever find the nerve to deeply explore all of her past lives.

She didn’t know if she truly wanted to, despite Baba Yaga and Bertholde’s warnings that she’d have to if they were ever to defeat the bastards wanting to destroy all of them. Although things had quieted down in the two years since their big showdown and cockatrice ass-kicking in Brussels, Lina knew it was only a matter of time before it heated up again in a big way.

She could see it.

In fact, the irony wasn’t lost on her that she was the flagyer’s Seer, and had grown more comfortable with the job in the past couple of years, yet she still resisted looking at her own past. That’s why she’d asked Zack to bring her here. To face things, one small step at a time so she could learn to be brave enough to look at all of it.

Zack reached across the seat and laced his fingers through hers. “You okay, sweetie?”

“Yeah.” The landscape fascinated her. She’d spent her life in Florida, and topography such as this helped keep her mind off the building sadness within her.

“Listen,” he softly said. “We do this my way. And if I decide this is too much for you, then we stop. Understood?”

She nodded. She wouldn’t fight him.

He pulled off the interstate outside of Seattle and wound through hilly neighborhoods until they pulled into the cemetery. When he parked and shut the car off, she looked at him.

“How do you know this is the place?”

He shrugged. “I looked up the obits. It had the info.”

Without further conversation, they both exited the car. She waited for him outside the office. When he emerged a moment later, they joined hands again, and she let him lead her down a path that wound through the rolling cemetery. A few minutes later, he turned left and slowed as they walked down a row of headstones.

Then he stopped in front of a double one.

Lina took a deep breath and looked.

Martin and Amelia Fisher - Beloved Parents

Their dates of death listed a day apart but over forty years earlier.

“How many?” she softly asked. She knew she could search her memories and find out for herself, but she wasn’t ready to do that yet.

He didn’t give her any grief about it. “Three. Two boys and a girl. One son still alive. He lives here in Seattle.”

It didn’t feel real. Her and Zack, from their former lives, dead and buried before her.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “I…I can’t explain it. I just needed to see.”

“I know. It’s okay. I’ve never wanted to, but I had all my memories. I didn’t need the concrete proof.”

She took a deep breath before slowly blowing it out. “Tell me this gets easier. That I’ll be able to look back.”

He pulled her to him and hugged her. “I’m sure you will, sweetie. In your own time and way. It doesn’t have to be right now.”

The events of the past couple of years threatened to swamp her as it was. “I hope it doesn’t. There’s still a lot to do. They won’t stop until we stop them. They’re just laying low and regrouping.”

She didn’t have to clarify who she meant. “I know,” Zack said. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

They returned to the car. He headed into downtown Seattle and found them a parking spot at a pay garage. Without questioning him, she let him lead her a few blocks away to a scenic side street filled with older buildings instead of monstrous skyscrapers.

A store tucked away on the second floor of an old, brick building and accessed by a staircase, was their destination.

She read the sign.

Fisher Books and Collectibles

He stopped at the door. “You okay?”

She nodded.

When they entered, a bell tinkled above the door. Floor to ceiling, the bookshelves were stuffed mostly with books, but also some small displays of baseball cards and other items.

An elderly man, grey and stoop-shouldered, looked up from his book. He glanced over his reading glasses at them. “Hello, welcome. Here to browse, or may I help you find something specific?”

Zack offered him a smile and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. He handed it over. “I’m looking for this. Any chance you have it?”

The man studied the paper and turned to his computer. “Let me check.”

Lina wanted to hug the man, to say something, and found she couldn’t. Her gaze fell on pictures on the wall behind him. The man, approximately twenty years younger, with a woman and some grown children and what appeared to be grandchildren.

Then Zack nudged her and tipped his head, indicating another photo.

And old picture, a man and a woman. The man slightly resembled this one, but she knew it wasn’t him.

Zack squeezed her hand as her breath caught.

It looked nothing like them now, and yet…it felt familiar.

The man shook his head and looked up from his computer as he returned the paper to Zack. “Sorry. I don’t have this one in stock.”

“That’s quite all right.” He shook hands with the man. “Thank you for your time.”

Lina reached across the counter to shake with him, too. As she did, a flood of memories, clear as yesterday, slammed into her brain. Holding him in her arms when he was born, their youngest, three weeks early but healthy. Zack’s tears as he also looked at him. His tenth birthday, when their dog ended up with birthday cake frosting all over his whiskers. His wedding. The birth of his first child…

The sorrow on his face as she closed her eyes and knew it would be the last time she would ever take a breath.

The man’s eyes widened in shock.

She let go and stepped back, grabbing Zack’s arm for support. “Thank you for your time, Robbie.” She practically dragged Zack toward the door.

As it closed behind them, she heard the man’s stunned voice. “Wait! How did you know my name?”

She pulled Zack behind her as she headed toward the parking garage. He finally dug his heels in and stopped her, stepping into an alley and grabbing her in a bear hug.

She struggled for all of two breaths before she started sobbing.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” he whispered in her ear. “Let it out.”

She relaxed against him, letting his strong, warm embrace support her as she released her grief.

When she was able to compose herself, he kissed the top of her head. “It’ll be all right. It’s just a shock.” He smiled. “Maybe you should name this one after him.”

She stepped back, alarmed. “What?”

He smirked and laid a hand on her stomach. “You’re pregnant, sweetie. Nearly six weeks along. Believe me, I’ve seen all the signs with you enough times. That’s another reason you’re so volatile right now.”

“But…I can’t…not right now!”

“Yes, right now.” He kissed her forehead and pulled her close again. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

“But I’ve only been with them a couple of years!”

“I know. The Universe willing, you’ll have eons more.”

They started walking again when they passed a Starbucks. She was about to suggest they go in when her vision went blue. She clamped down on Zack’s hand for support, then the Seattle landscape disappeared, replaced by a place she knew well from their many visits over the past couple of years.

The Lyall ranch.

She saw the gathered guests, including her and her men, preparing for a celebration. And she saw the same woman whose face had appeared to her in the vision back at Yellowstone when she and Brodey escaped the fire.

Like that, it was gone. Zack looked worried.

“Well?” he asked.

She smiled, then laughed. “Let’s get our coffee. Then we need to get our asses home to Florida. We’ve got a wedding to attend.”

“Um, whose wedding? And don’t forget, we have to meet up with Andel and the flagyer mucky-mucks in Brussels in two weeks.”

She frowned. “Crap. I forgot about that.” She closed her eyes as the last traces of the vision wisped away. “Oh, okay. We have a couple of months yet.” She laughed as she opened her eyes. “Brodey is going to be shocked as hell to see me. I’ll be as big as a house.”

She realized what she just said. “Oh, fuck.”

“What?”

She glared at him. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me it’s twins?”

He grinned. “I wanted there to be some surprise, sweetie.”

She was going to step inside the coffee shop when yet another vision hit her. Zack pulled her out of the way of other pedestrians and held her until she came out of it.

Her happy joy had evaporated.

“What’s wrong?” Zack asked. “Lina, fucking talk to me!”

“We have a little side trip we have to make,” she said. “We can’t tell anyone. We have to go. Now.”

“We’re supposed to fly home—”

“No.” She shook her head. “We need to get to get our stuff and head to the airport. Now.”

He took one last, longing look at the Starbucks before leading her toward the parking garage. “Rick and Jan will have a shit fit, you realize that?”

“I don’t care. We have to go. Now.” She knew if they didn’t, it might be too late.

They reached the car and before Zack started it, he asked, “Do you mind telling me where we’re going, exactly?”

She closed her eyes and thought about it. “Bolivia.”

“What the fuck? Are you shitting me? Bolivia? What the fuck’s in Bolivia?”

She swallowed hard as she met Zack’s irritated glare. “It’s going to get bad,” she whispered, barely able to get the words out. She’d not only seen what she had to do, but what could happen if she didn’t. “We have to get to him before anyone else does. If we don’t, and they get to him first…” She didn’t want to say it.

He rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. End of the world as we know it.” He backed the car out of the space. “You’re explaining this to Rick and Jan when we get home. They’ll want to castrate me for us taking off like this.”

“They can’t know.” She stared at the city as they passed through it. She’d hoped to have a couple of days here to sightsee and relax with Zack.

Now, that couldn’t happen.

Crap. A goddess’ work is never done.

Chapter Three

They collected their bags and stepped outside the tiny airport terminal at San Miguel. They had packed light, anticipating a weekend in Seattle and not a multi-continental journey to South America.

Zack looked around, doubt on his face. “Are you sure about this, sweetie?”

Lina shook her head. “I’m not sure about anything, except that if I don’t eat soon, I’m gonna not-so-randomly blow something up in a very flaming, barbecue kind of way. Like a cow or a pig.”

They threaded their way through street vendors and pedestrians, Lina cursing the heat with every step. Not even Florida felt this hot. The very air bore a damp, aromatic funk she hoped she never smelled again.

They finally found a restaurant nearby that didn’t look too condemnable. When the waitress walked up, Zack took over.

“Dos Coke, por favor.”

“Sí.” The waitress laid menus on the table before she turned and headed to the counter.

“I wanted water,” Lina griped.

Zack shook his head. “Not unless it comes from a bottle.”

“Oh.” She glanced at the menu then dropped the sticky, grungy thing onto the table. “You order for me. You know what I like.”

He smiled. “No problem.”

When the waitress returned with their cold, unopened cans of sodas, Zack chatted with her in Spanish, got her smiling. Then she wrote on her notepad and walked away.

Lina recognized only a few words of the conversation, like sandwich and pork. “What are we getting?”

“Oh, don’t you want to be surprised?”

“Not really.”

“Relax.”

Ten minutes later, the waitress returned with two delicious-smelling plates laden with pork sandwiches, rice, beans, and fried plantains.

Lina tore into hers. “Zack, this is delicious!”

Zack laughed. “Oh, ye of little faith and mucho incendiary powers. Not Cuban food, but still pretty good.”

They finished eating a little while later. With Lina’s tummy happily full, Zack herded her out of the restaurant and toward a hotel two blocks down.

“This looks ritzy,” she griped. Although compared to America, it was maybe as nice as a one-star hotel that hadn’t suffered a vice raid in the last forty-eight hours.

“It is. And if you think I’ll stay anywhere else, you’re crazy. They grow bedbugs as large as monkeys down here. This is the closest we’ll get to not needing a delousing before we clear Customs in Tampa when we leave here.”

After check-in, Zack spoke to the desk clerk before they headed to their room. “What was that about?” she asked.

“He’s going to get us a car.” He smiled. “And he gave me some info.”

An hour later, Lina had bathed, changed into jeans and sneakers, and felt reasonably more human. When their room phone rang, Zack answered.

“Sí? …Bueno. Gracias.” He hung up. “Let’s go. Our chariot awaits.”

Downstairs, she stared at the car. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” The rusted black Land Rover looked like it had seen far better days.

“Hey, we don’t want flashy,” he said after thanking and tipping the clerk. “Flashy will get us the wrong kind of attention.”

She climbed into the passenger seat. “Well, I hope you don’t consider AAA the wrong kind of attention because this thing looks horrible.”

He slung an arm across the back of her seat and turned to look at her. “Do you trust me, Lina?” he softly asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course I do,” she mumbled.

Zack was in full-on protective Watcher mode. “Then you need to let me do my job, Goddess.”

She bit back her protest over the title. “All right, fine.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Good girl.”

She growled, but the sound of his laugh drowned it out as he put the car into gear and they drove off.

Just outside of town, he pulled off to the side of the rough dirt road and studied the map. “Give me a clue, babe.”

She looked at it, then let her instinct guide her. “There.” She pointed, touching her finger to a spot on the map.

He took the map back and studied it, frowning a little. “Oookay. This might involve some overland hiking. You up for it?”

Lina settled back into her seat. “I guess I have to be. I hate this stupid gig,” she grumbled. “Why didn’t Bertholde pick someone else?”

“Because you’re the Goddess, like it or not,” he countered. “We might not always agree with the prophesies, but if you try to run from them, I promise you, things will not turn out to your liking.” He glanced at her. “The Universe has a way of keeping people in line to keep the natural balance of things. And the Universe’s way is usually a lot worse than doing it ourselves.”

Lina knew he was right. She turned to the window. There wasn’t much in the way of landscape to look at. Mostly what she would consider muddy hovels just beyond the ditches. When there were ditches.

They drove on for several hours, winding up roads Lina didn’t think could possibly get worse and yet continued to prove her wrong. The further they traveled, the clearer it became to her why Zack rented the Land Rover. Locals barely paid them any attention when they passed, and while cosmetically a wreck, it was obvious the owner kept it in mechanically good condition. They needed to use four-wheel mode for most of the trip.

Finally, they pulled into the yard of an old mission church. The white stucco walls had obviously seen better days.

Lina didn’t want to contemplate if the missing chips in the façade were really pockmarks from bullets or not.

“Stay here and keep the doors locked,” Zack said before she could protest. He was out and striding across the yard, dodging a couple of chickens and a curious pig on the way to a small shack on the far side.

He knocked and waited. A moment later, an old, stooped man opened the door.

They stood there, chatting, for several minutes. The old man pointed up the hill behind the church, where a barely visible path disappeared into a dense stand of trees.

Zack nodded and handed a couple of bills to the man, who looked pleasantly surprised to receive them. He genuflected over Zack before motioning him to wait. Then he disappeared back into the shack, leaving the door open. Zack turned to Lina, smiled, and gave her a thumbs-up.

The man, who was apparently the padre, returned with a large canvas duffel bag. He could barely carry it, but Zack shouldered it with ease and nodded, then shook hands with the man. The padre watched as Zack returned to the Land Rover.

Lina unlocked the door for him. “Well?”

He smiled. “From here, we hike.”

“What’s that?” She pointed at the duffel.

“He asked if we’d deliver this since we were heading that way anyway. It’s apparently his supplies. He comes down every couple of weeks.”

“Great. Now we’re UPS.”

“Come on, Goddess Girl. We’re wasting daylight. Remember, it was your freaky vision that brought us here.”

She sighed. “I know, I know.”

It was apparently okay to leave the Rover parked there. They locked the doors and Zack pocketed the keys.

She didn’t miss that Zack had somehow acquired a gun. In the cooler weather at the higher altitude, he donned a jacket and clipped the holster to the back of his belt.

He noticed her watching. “Just in case,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to randomly or purposely blow shit up without a little extra firepower.”

“Did I mention I hate hiking?” It brought back bad memories of Lenny and Yellowstone.

“Move your cute tush, honey.” He shouldered the bag’s strap messenger-style across his body and headed for the trail behind the church.

She followed him. “How far away are we?”

“The padre said if we hustle and don’t spend too long there, we can make it back here before dark.”

A bird chose that moment to sound off in the trees right above them, scaring the crap out of Lina with its haunting, screeching call. “Then let’s move it,” she grumbled.

They made good time. A little over an hour later, with Zack unerringly following a trail that, most of the time, Lina could barely make out, they emerged at the edge of a small clearing nestled against the rocky side of a hill. A wood-and-tin shack, barely larger than the Land Rover, precariously hugged the rock wall behind it. A nanny goat tethered with a long chain attached to a collar on its neck didn’t look up from where it grazed in the center of the clearing.

Zack stood up a little straighter and held out a hand to stop her.

“What?” she asked.

“We’re being watched.”

The goat lifted its head and bleated before returning to its grazing.

She didn’t miss that Zack’s right hand slowly slid behind his back, where his fingers wrapped around the gun.

“This is stupid,” she said. “Liam Pardie!” she called out. “My name is Lina Zaria-Alexandr. We need to talk to you.”

“Holy shit,” Zack whispered. A large, dark-brown wolf slowly stepped to the edge of the clearing, his body still half concealed by vegetation. His unblinking green eyes, a different shade than Brodey Lyall’s but just as intense, warily watched them. He was every bit as big as the Lyalls in their wolf form.

She shook off Zack’s arm when he tried to stop her. She stepped forward. “Liam, please. We need to talk. I have some important news for you about your daughter.”

The wolf didn’t blink, didn’t move.

She heard Zack swallow hard behind her. “Bring the bag,” she told him.

He slowly stepped forward, carefully unshouldering it and setting it in the middle of the clearing. He finally found his voice. “Padre Sanchez told us how to find you. We’re not with the Abernathys, we swear.”

The wolf snorted, but whether it was in derision or not, Lina couldn’t tell. Still, he didn’t move from his place at the edge of the clearing.

She pulled a piece of paper out of her back pocket, unfolded it, and laid it faceup on the ground next to the bag.

“What’s that?” Zack asked.

“Proof,” she said. “I printed it up in the business center while you were checking us out of the hotel in Seattle.” She grabbed Zack’s arm, and they stepped back to where they’d entered the clearing. “We’re friends of the Lyalls. I have something you need to look at. See for yourself,” she called to the wolf.

He warily tested the air with his nose before slowly advancing to the piece of paper. They watched as he read it…

And suddenly, a tall, beefy, naked man with dark-brown hair and green eyes the same shade as the wolf’s was crouched in front of it. “Jesus wept,” he whispered as he sat back on his haunches with the paper clutched in his trembling hands. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

Zack let out a soft whistle. “Hellooo, baby,” he whispered.

Lina nudged him, hard, with her elbow. “Stop that. You’re married.”

“Hey, Kael doesn’t mind if I look.”

She shot him a silencing glare.

He shut up.

They watched as Liam stared at the picture on the paper for several long, silent minutes. Then he looked at them. “Ye know her?” he asked, his voice choked with emotion.

Lina took a deep breath. She had to agree with Zack. The guy was hunky. She’d yet to meet an ugly wolf. “Not exactly.” She nodded toward his shack. “Can we please go inside and talk? Maybe with you clothed?”

He finally seemed to realize he was naked. “Oh, eh, right. Sorry.” He stood and grabbed the bag, carrying it to the shack. They slowly followed him, and by the time they’d reached the doorway, he’d pulled on a pair of jeans. He sat on a low bunk, the paper in his hands.

He couldn’t take his eyes from the picture, a printout from the Venice TV station’s staff directory on their webpage.

“She’s beautiful,” he said. “Looks just like her mum, she does.” Now Lina could hear his Irish brogue. He looked up at them. “So what’s this about? Is she all right?”

Lina nodded. “It’s a long story, and it’ll take me a while to get through it. But please keep an open mind. You’re a wolf shifter, so some of what I’m about to tell you won’t sound far-fetched.”

He laughed, but it sounded like the humorless wolf snort they’d heard earlier. “My life’s a feckin’ hell, it is. I couldn’t protect Maureen. I’d promised to love her, protect her, and see what happened? My mate, dead because I had to leave, and our baby girl raised by someone else.” He looked heartbroken. “If I go back and they get wind I’ve returned, they’ll hound me to hell and back to find my baby girl.” His expression turned vicious. “I’d rather have my throat ripped out than put her in jeopardy.”

“But that’s just it,” Lina said. “She’s already in jeopardy. And so are the men she’s destined to mate with.”

“Men?”

Lina took a deep breath. “Let me start from the beginning. Get comfy.”

* * *

Three hours later, with shadows lengthening over the tree line and all hope of returning to the car before dark right out the damn window, Lina finished the tale of what had happened. Liam hadn’t interrupted her. Zack, who’d managed to find a comfortable position to sit in along one wall, had dozed off. She suspected he wasn’t deeply asleep, and her last, final revelation would certainly awaken him.

Liam looked stunned. “I was right that those bastards are the ones who killed Charles and Ellie Lyall?”

“Yes. And who the hell is Ysimel? I saw her in a vision.”

Liam looked startled. “She’s the reason for the blood oath. It was what her clan demanded for her mate to be able to claim her.”

“Ah.” A lot of things clicked into place and made sense now. “That answers a few more questions.”

Liam chewed on everything for a moment. “I’m still confused. You’re telling me you’re involved because you think those damn cockatrice are partnering up with the Abernathys against the dragons and wolves?”

“Sort of.” She took a deep breath. Zack would kill her for not revealing this factoid in Seattle, when the last of the miniswarm of visions had hit her and confirmed for her what Lacey had told her. “My mates’ last name is Alexandr, but spelled with a ‘dr’ and not a ‘der’ at the end. Your wife’s maiden name was Alexander, spelled ‘der.’ She was actually a distant cousin of the Lyalls.” Zack’s left eye popped open.

She had his full attention now.

Liam nodded. “Aye. I knew Maureen was related to the Lyalls. That’s why I went to speak with Charles and Ellie. I was hoping their pack could protect her. Charles and Ellie had a reputation of doing stuff like that. So?”

“Jan and Rick Alexandr, my mates, are also distantly related to the Lyalls, and to Maureen. As am I, through my father. So you see, this really is a family matter.”

Zack stared at her. “Fuuuck me, kiddo. Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t know for sure until that very last vision in Seattle. Lacey told me back when I first met her that it was a possibility, but she wasn’t sure.”

Liam looked confused. “But why are ye telling me all this?”

“Because you need to get your ass back to Florida, to the Lyall ranch. Major shit is going to happen soon, and they are going to need your help. Specifically, your daughter is going to need your help.”

“Do the Abernathys know who she is yet?”

She shook her head. “Not yet, but she’s going to meet the Lyalls really soon. That’s when they figure out who she is. I can’t see everything, unfortunately. I only see what the funky vision fairy, or whatever it is, lets me see.” She smiled to lighten the moment. “Besides, your daughter deserves to have her dad give her away at her wedding.”

* * *

Liam shifted into his wolf form and led them safely down the trail until they were only a hundred yards away from the church. Lina knelt down to stare into his eyes. “Go soon. The sooner, the better. The Abernathys are in too much disarray now to track your return. By the time they know you’re back, they’ll have already located your daughter. And then she and her men will need all the help they can get. Okay? We’ll see you again really soon. You can trust the Lyall clan, I swear it.”

Liam nodded. He nuzzled her hand and let out a soft chuff of thanks before turning on his heels and sprinting back up the trail.

Lina sighed and let Zack lead her the rest of the way out of the jungle. Back in the Rover and heading toward San Miguel, Zack shook his head. “Jan and Rick are not gonna believe this.”

“Especially since you can’t tell them. Or Kael, or Uncle Andel, or any of them.”

He looked surprised. “What the fuck? Why not?”

“Because they can’t know. Any of it. Not yet, anyway. Only you and I are strong enough to keep this secret. If any hint of Liam’s whereabouts gets out, his life is in danger. He has to get to Florida safely. The cockatrice are already plotting their next move. If the Abernathys find out too soon how deeply we’re aligned with the Lyall wolves, it could bump up their timeline. We can’t have that happening. That’s still the one biggest advantage we have over them and the cockatrice. The cockatrice think the Lyalls’ pack involvement is limited because of the stuff that happened with Bertholde and Lenny back at Yellowstone.”

“Then why couldn’t Liam come back with us?”

“It’s not the right time. He has to make the journey on his own.” She settled back in her seat to try to nap. She felt a little nauseous and chalked it up to misplaced morning sickness. Dammit, she couldn’t even enjoy being pregnant without all this bullshit.

“Then when is the right time?”

“After the Highland Games.”

“The what?”

Lina felt exhaustion suddenly take her over as her adrenaline rush of the past several hours sent her crashing. “The Arcadia Highland Games. That’s when they meet Elain. Now get me the hell out of this place. I need a Big Mac and a latte, stat.”

“And who is Elain?”

“She’s their One.”

“Okay, ask a stupid question—”

“Zack, please!”

He let out an aggravated sigh. “Sorry. Fine. I’ll drop it.” He went quiet.

She glanced at her left palm. In the dim light from the dashboard, she could just make out the faint lines of the ancient scar Baba Yaga had etched into her flesh so many lives ago. She rested the back of her hand against Zack’s thigh as he drove. He reached down with his right hand and laced his fingers through hers, with their palms pressed together. She felt a slight, pleasant tingle pass between them.

Somewhere, in the distant recesses of her mind, Lina thought she heard the crone’s pleased cackle.

Chapter Four

Lina sat on a bench in the baggage claim area at Tampa International and waited with their luggage while Zack retrieved their car. Thank goodness they’d brought his car to the airport and left it in long-term parking instead of having Rick or Jan or even Kael drop them off.

That reminds me. She pulled off all the luggage tags from Bolivia, routing them through Miami International on the return trip.

That would be hard to explain. She dumped the tags in a garbage can next to the bench.

Zack pulled up and shooed her into the car. “I’ll deal with the bags, Momma Goddess. You go sit and look pretty.”

She groaned. “I have to tell the guys.”

“That’s not a bad thing, you know.” He dumped their bags into the trunk, climbed behind the wheel, and pulled out into traffic to exit the terminal.

“They’re going to want to baby me.”

“Again, that’s a bad thing how?”

She shot him a dark look. “Since when do I like being babied?”

“True. But I’d be willing to bet after a few months you’re going to enjoy the crap out of it.”

She put her hand on her still-flat belly. “Why’d it have to be twins?”

He grinned. “I get to be an uncle! Spoil them rotten, get them all wound up on sugar, then hand them back off to you.”

“Whose side are you on, anyway?”

“The side of fun.” He grinned.

They reached the house an hour later, just after dark. Rick, Jan, and Kael all walked out to greet them and help with the bags. “I made dinner,” Kael said.

Jet lag and leftover morning sickness nearly upended Lina’s stomach. “Thank you, sweetie. But I think I just want a shower and lie down for a while.”

Jan frowned. “Are you all right, lovely?”

“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. Fuck it, might as well get it over with. “No.”

“What?” Jan and Rick said together.

“I’m pregnant.” She shot a look at Zack. “Twins.”

Jan and Rick’s eyes widened. “What?” they exclaimed together.

“Pregnant. Twins. What part didn’t you understand?”

They immediately engulfed her in a hug that nearly smothered her. She finally pulled free. “Seriously, guys. I’m sorry, but I’m not in a lovey-dovey mood right now. I’m sweaty and tired and my stomach’s not doing so hot. I need a shower and a few minutes to myself. Okay? Please?”

“Okay,” they both echoed. But they hovered inches behind her all the way up the stairs to their room and were annoyingly attentive.

When she stripped to get in the shower and they both started getting naked, too, she held up a hand. “Guys, seriously. Please? Just ten minutes alone? Okay?”

They both looked crestfallen, but nodded. She kissed Jan, then Rick. “I don’t think either of you want me throwing up on you,” she tried to add for humor.

She stepped into the shower and scrubbed, shaved, and washed her hair. Then she stood there and let the water sluice over her. It felt so good to be home.

She found both of them sitting on the bed when she emerged from the shower with a towel wrapped around her. She felt bad about being so short with them before.

“Guys, I’m sorry I’m in a bad mood. It’s not y’all’s fault.”

“Aren’t you happy you’re pregnant?” Jan asked.

“Yes, I am. I’m just tired and it was a shock.” Okay, need a better explanation than that. “Going to Seattle was emotional. I needed to do it,” she quickly added, so they wouldn’t bust Zack’s balls for the trip, “and I wanted to do it. And it was sort of a shock learning about my pregnancy from a vision.”

Rick frowned. “What kind of vision?”

Sin of omission. “Stuff is about to start happening again in a couple of months. We have a lot of things going on, and I guess it just wasn’t the fairytale revelation I’d thought it might be.”

She hugged and kissed Rick, then Jan. “I love you both. Yes, I’m happy we’re having…babies.” She sighed. “That was a shocker, too. I wasn’t expecting twins.”

“Twins run in our family, lovely,” Jan said. “We told you that.”

“I know. I just wasn’t expecting it to happen to me.”

“Can we get you anything?” Rick asked.

“Some peppermint hot tea and a grilled cheese sandwich would be nice, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Both men jumped up to do it, making her laugh. “Please don’t hurt yourselves fighting each other to take care of me.”

“We’ll be right back,” Jan said.

She smiled and stretched out in their bed after locating the remote. The shower had gone a long way toward making her feel better. Truth be told, she’d missed the heck out of her guys and did want some snuggle time.

Ten minutes later, she heard them pounding up the stairs. Rick carried her sandwich. Jan had her tea, made exactly the way she liked it.

She sat up and gave them a smile. “Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.” She had to fight not to giggle as they intently watched her while she ate.

When she finished, she set her plate and mug on the bedside table before patting the mattress on either side of her. “Come here, boys.”

Rick launched himself over her and landed on the far side. Jan stretched out next to her.

I am a lucky woman. Despite the difference in their hair, eyes, and skin tone, they were nearly identical hunks in build. “Don’t you think you want to undress?” she playfully asked them.

They both jumped out of bed and shucked their shorts and T-shirts before returning to their previous positions.

She grinned. Both of their generous cocks stood erect from their bodies. “How about we start out slow,” she suggested. “I think I’m in the mood to scratch an itch.”

Rick grinned. “One itch scratched, coming right up.” He crawled down the bed until he reached the juncture of her thighs. Jan wrapped his arms around her and nibbled on the side of her neck while cupping her breasts in his hands.

Rick’s warm hands pushed her thighs apart. His eyes turned deep amber in color, smoky from passion, as he flicked his tongue out and drew lazy circles around her clit.

She let out a little whimper. He loved to tease her, to make her beg for it. Jan’s cool hands found her sensitive nipples and started tugging on them, drawing them into taut peaks, serving only to fire her need.

“Does that feel good, lovely?” he whispered in her ear. He nibbled on her earlobe.

“Mmm hmm!”

Rick used his thumbs to part her pussy lips. His took a long, slow swipe along the length of her clit with his scorching tongue, making her moan. She felt her juices flowing, between what Jan and Rick were doing to her.

She tipped her head back so Jan could kiss her. She eagerly let his tongue part the seam of her lips. Hooking an arm around his neck, she arched her back, pressing her breasts into his hands.

“You like that, don’t you?” he asked.

“Uh huh!”

Rick chuckled between her legs. “You’ll like this even more.” He grabbed her clit between his lips and lightly sucked on it. At the same time, he pressed two fingers inside her wet pussy, slowly finger-fucking her with them.

She spread her legs even wider. “Yesss!” she hissed.

Jan’s erection pressed against her ass. She wanted them both tonight, at the same time.

Rick continued sucking on her clit, alternating sucks with flicks from his tongue that finally drove her screaming over the edge to orgasm, with the walls of her cunt sucking at his fingers. Jan smothered her cries with his mouth as he pinched her nipples the way she loved, only serving to increase the sensation.

When she finally came down, Rick sat up and licked his fingers clean. “How was that, sweetie?”

“Uh huh!” She grabbed him and kissed him, tacking him back on the bed and mounting him. He laughed until she got his cock lined up and sat down on it, hard, with a satisfied moan.

“Oh, baby!” he groaned. “You’re in a mood, aren’t you?”

She looked over her shoulder at Jan. “What are you waiting for?” she asked. “Get the lube!”

He grinned. “Of course, lovely.”

While she waited for him, she started rocking back and forth on Rick’s cock, hard, slamming down on him the way he loved.

He held on to her hips. “Slow down,” he said through gritted teeth as he tried to maintain control. “I’ll explode if you don’t.”

Then she felt Jan’s hand in the center of her back. He pushed her down flat on top of Rick, who could finally get his arms around her.

She squirmed against him. “Fuck me!” she whined.

Jan laughed. “Hold on. Let me get ready.” She fell still as he drizzled lube down between her ass cheeks, then pressed a cool finger through her rim.

Lina closed her eyes and moaned. “Yes!” The two of them together, filling her, riding her, always gave her an explosive orgasm.

Usually gave her a vision, too, but she wouldn’t complain. She was suddenly so horny she couldn’t see straight.

By the time Jan had worked three fingers into her ass, she was begging him to fuck her. Finally, he withdrew his fingers and lined the head of his cock up with her puckered rim.

“Hold still,” he playfully chastised. Then he grabbed her shoulders and slowly pressed forward.

It was only Rick’s arms around her that held her still. She wanted to be fucked and fucked hard. It wasn’t until Jan’s cock was completely buried inside her ass, his balls touching her, that they finally let her move.

“Okay, sweetie,” Rick said. “Use us as your sex toys.”

She pushed herself up on her arms and started moving. The men let her set the tempo, and when they started moving in time with her, she felt her orgasm quickly building.

“Yesss!” she softly hissed.

“Ride us,” Jan said. He reached around her again and started pinching her nipples.

That was all it took. She closed her eyes and felt her pussy contract as the first wave hit her, squeezing their cocks inside her and intensifying the orgasm as she started riding them even harder. It felt like her body would turn inside out when the second wave hit her, making her shudder.

Then the vision hit. She opened her eyes and the world looked tinged in blue. She was no longer in bed with the men, but at a wedding. She turned around, but before she could tell whose wedding it was, another orgasm slammed into her and she was back in bed and riding the waves of her climax.

Rick grabbed her hips and thrust up hard into her, letting out a deep, satisfied grunt. She felt his hot seed filling her a second before Jan’s cock swelled in her ass, grew hard, and then his cool and soothing juices filled her ass.

Panting and now sweaty, she collapsed on top of Rick and tried to catch her breath.

“Wow,” she whispered.

Rick kissed her sweaty brow. “Yeah, wow is right.”

Jan laughed, but was slow to move. “Holy crap wow is more like it.”

Exhausted, she was about to drift off to sleep when she felt Jan finally withdraw. He went to the bathroom and came back with a washcloth to clean her up.

“I’m not moving,” she mumbled.

Rick laughed. “You have to, sweetheart. I need to use the bathroom.”

She groaned in protest, but let Jan help her up off him and into his arms, where she comfortably snuggled against him.

He kissed her forehead. “Good?”

“Great,” she whispered with a smile.

She was barely aware of Rick crawling back into bed on her other side. She’d almost dropped off to sleep when his voice came to her.

“What’d you see, sweetheart?”

She sighed, sleepy. “A wedding.”

“Whose?” Jan asked.

“Don’t know. Don’t care right now. Hasn’t happened yet.” She was almost asleep again when the answer hit her. “Oh. Probably Brodey and his brothers. Hasn’t happened yet. It was blue.”

Although, somehow, that didn’t feel quite right.

“Not ours?” Jan teased. They understood she didn’t want to get married on principle, because she couldn’t marry both of them.

“Shut up,” she growled.

“Sorry, lovely.”

She was almost asleep yet again when Rick’s voice came to her. “We’re going to need a bigger house.”

“No, we’re not. This house is fine.”

“But if you’re having dragons—”

“Go. To. Sleep.”

Jan chuckled. “She’s pregnant, brother. I wouldn’t piss her off.”

“You’re a wise man,” she said. “What he said, Rick.”

Rick chuckled. “Sorry, love. Please, just don’t fry our balls in the delivery room.”

“No promises.” But she smiled as she drifted to sleep. She was going to be a mom. And they were going to be good dads.

And how many kids were lucky enough to have a bunch of wolves as adopted uncles?

THE END

WWW.TYMBERDALTON.COM

Content

FIRE AND ICE
Triple Trouble -0.7
Tymber Dalton

AUTHOR’S NOTE

PART I

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

PART II

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

PART III

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

PART IV: Epilogue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four