Destined Magic (15 page)

Damek waved her back and stepped away from the door, leaving it open a crack. When Garrett and Brenna walked by,
Damek and Gabriella would see them. Gabriella wondered where the other Guardians were hiding.

The chanting stopped
, and Gabriella froze. Damek and Josiah waited, their attention fixed on the room next door. Someone inside the room laughed, and Gabriella allowed herself to relax a little. Damek squeezed her shoulder but didn’t say anything. Now they had to wait. Each second seemed like an eternity.

§

Garrett landed in Gabriella’s leather chair. The door opened, and Brenna walked in with a gun in her hand. “Hello, sister dear. I’m glad you decided to come. I was afraid you might make me chase after you. Finding Venetia’s body must have prompted your obedience.

“Why did you do it, Brenna? Venetia was our mother’s
friend. She wanted only the best for us.” Garrett made sure he reacted as if he were Gabriella, right down to the tears sparkling in his eyes, while inside he was furious. Brenna, was responsible for so much hurt.

“The best for you,
maybe. She always liked you the most. Come on. Let’s get going. My friends are waiting for us in the basement.” Brenna waved her gun, indicating that Gabriella should rise and move to the door.

Garrett hesitated. “What are you going to do?” he asked in Gabriella’s voice.

“Let you make the ultimate sacrifice, of course. Isn’t that what you’re always doing? Sacrificing for my benefit? Tonight, you will give me your magic. Then, I will take your life to feed the darkness. Don’t worry, as the ceremony goes on, I will feel better and better. Isn’t that what you wanted? Me to feel good about myself?” Garrett moved toward the door. Thank the Goddess, Gabriella wasn’t here to experience her sister’s depravity. It would have broken Gabriella’s heart.

“Did you ever love me,
sister?” Garrett had to ask. He remembered the picture of the smiling girl on Gabriella’s bedside table.

“I suppose I did, before I realized how you were trying to control me. Before you pushed
Philip off the cliff.” Garrett opened the door to the alley and stepped outside. Brenna took one arm and pushed him toward the entrance to the basement. She waved the gun toward the door. “Open it. I already unlocked it.”

Garrett opened the door and started down the stairs. “I d
idn’t push Philip. He tried to throw me off and fell. I almost fell, as well.”

“You lie! T
he Red Wizard explained it to me. You need to take everything I love away from me so you can be in control.”

“Brenna, that’s not true.”

Brenna pushed him toward the door at the end of the hall. Garrett knew the Guardians waited to step in. But first, Brenna had to get into the room so they could capture all the cult members together. The Guardians didn’t want to take a chance on one of the culprits porting away.

“
The Red Wizard said you would say that. You can’t help yourself. Don’t worry, Gabby. I’m going to put you out of your misery.”

“Is he coming? This
Red Wizard?” Could they be that lucky to take the leader of the blood cult?

“No, he
put this ceremony in my control. He believes in me.” Garrett felt a moment of disappointment, but didn’t dare show it. Brenna waved the gun at the last door, and he obediently opened it.

Black candles burned
around the room. Garrett quickly counted six black-robed figures wearing dark leather masks standing around the red circle spray-painted on the floor. An altar consisting of a table held a bowl and a metal scythe.

Garrett almost snorted.
Someone had watched too many movies. These cult members liked the show as much as the violence. Maybe, they felt it heightened their victim’s fear. Playing along, he gasped, bringing a smile to Brenna’s lips. She pushed him toward the middle of the circle. He let momentum carry him to the floor, landing on his hands and knees.

Brenna laughed.
Garrett knew what she saw, Gabriella on the floor, her sides heaving, her black hair hiding her face from her captives. “Get up, sister dear. It’s time to finish this.”

One of the robed figures handed Brenna a red robe
, which she quickly put on. “Was she followed? Did you see anyone around?”

“Shut up!” Brenna screeched. “I’m the one in charge here.”

Gabrie
lla heard Brenna’s voice in the hall. She shivered at the malice in her sister’s tone. What ever happened to the girl she used to know? Gabriella turned her head away and covered her mouth, trying not to breathe in the smell of rotting flesh. Couldn’t Brenna sense that her soul was rotting away? Gabriella wrapped her arms around herself, feeling her stomach roil. Now wasn’t the time to be sick.

A
cross from her, the door to another room opened, and Haytham and Safara moved quietly into the hallway and followed behind Garrett and Brenna. Haytham had used his air magic to hide their presence by producing an illusion of an empty hallway.

T
he Guardians and Gabriella all waited, afraid to breathe, while Garrett, in Gabriella’s form, opened the door as Brenna ordered. Luckily for all of them, Brenna left the door open. Haytham and Safara followed Garrett and Brenna closely but waited just outside the room for the other Guardians to take their positions.

Damek motioned
the real Gabriella to follow him, and he crept into the hallway. She realized Damek and Josiah had taken Garrett’s demands to keep her safe very seriously. Josiah followed close behind, his sword in his hands. Nobody was going to get through her bodyguards. They moved as a unit, inching closer and closer to the door.

When they heard Brenna screech
, both Damek and Josiah grabbed Gabriella’s arms, and all the Guardians ported into the ceremonial room. Several black-robed figures stood around the red painted circle on the floor. Black candles were lit around the room. Brenna stood over the prone figure of Garrett, in Gabriella’s form, in the middle of the circle.

The Guardians jumped into action, each team targeting a different
blood-cult member. Josiah held his sword at the throat of one of the robed men. The man raised his hands in surrender. Damek used his magic, and a rock flew through the air and hit one of the robed figures in the head. The man fell to the floor with a groan. Calder and Kendria covered a man in ice, freezing him in place. Tolya shifted to a wolf and leapt on one of the blood-cult members as the man tried to form a fireball to throw at Damek. The man landed flat on his back and quickly surrendered when he saw Tolya’s teeth heading for his throat. Haytham used his air magic to blow a man against the wall, pinning him in place. Safara threw a fireball at the man nearest Brenna. The man’s robe caught fire, and he ran screaming from the room. Soon, the Guardians had disarmed and restrained each black-robed figure in the room.

Screeching,
Brenna reached down and pulled Garrett up by his hair. It was so bizarre seeing herself on the other side of the room. Gabriella couldn’t help herself. “Brenna!” she exclaimed.

Brenna jerked her head up and turned to see Gabriella across the room. “You,” she shouted
, turning to point the gun in her hand at Gabriella. This was exactly like her vision. Everything seemed to slow down. Damek moved forward to shield Gabriella. Garrett reached for Brenna’s arm holding the gun.

Needing to do something to stop Garrett from getting shot, Gabriella
lifted her wand and called on her magic. Power and strength suffused her body as both water and earth magic flowed into her. Earth magic affected metals, and she suddenly knew just what to do. She concentrated her sight on the gun and moved her wand. As if she were heating water, she made the atoms begin to move faster in the metal of the gun.

The gun began to smoke
, as the metal heated, and the oils on the surface got hot. Instead of pulling the trigger, Brenna screamed and dropped the gun. Garrett overpowered her. In moments, a pair of handcuffs sporting a nullifying spell was thrust into his hands. He snapped them onto Brenna’s wrists.

Damek rushed forward
and took charge of Brenna. With the other Guardians, he ported Brenna and the cult members to the nullifying cells at Guardian headquarters. Garrett and Gabriella stood alone in the basement of the Blue Dolphin.

Garrett waved his hands and shifted his shape back to his own.
He rushed up and crushed Gabriella to his chest. “Don’t cry, baby. It’s over.”

Gabriella hadn’t realized that tears streamed down her face. She threw her arms around Garrett. “You’re safe. She didn’t shoot you.”

Garrett chuckled. “That was quick thinking, heating the metal of the gun like that. We’ll make a Guardian out of you, yet.”

“The only person I want to
guard is you.”

§

One week later, the Guardians, minus Elise, sat in the Blue Dolphin pub. Gabriella was behind the bar fixing drinks as fast as her fingers could fly. Loud music blasted over a stereo, and everyone was in high spirits.

Gabriella motioned over a waitress and came out from behind the bar. Garrett rushed over and swept her up for a kiss. Everyone in the pub hooted and hollered. But nothing could take away from the feeling of Garrett’s arms around her safe and sound.

The danger wasn’t over. The Red Wizard was still out there, and Elise and Councilman Brant were still missing. Gabriella didn’t know how she would handle being a Guardian’s wife, knowing that Garrett faced danger every day at work.

But for tonight she put it all behind her. The council had
okayed the reopening of the Blue Dolphin, and tonight was the grand opening. There was a packed house, and money filled the till.

Venetia had
willed the Beach Inn and all her magic items in the workroom to Gabriella. At first, Gabriella worried that Calder and Kendria would be resentful. But they admitted they were glad not to be responsible for their aunt’s property. Somehow, Gabriella would have to split her time between the two establishments. Even without the blood cult, life wasn’t going to be easy.

Gabriella looked up into Garrett’
s amethyst eyes. As long as she had this man at her side, anything was possible. Their life together was a destined one.

Mabel Avery opened the door to her apartment with a sigh. She was tired, more tired than she could remember feeling for the last one thousand years. With a quick flick of her fingers, the door locked and the window blinds closed. Then, she released the glamour spell she’d kept on to hide her pointed ears and otherworldly glow.

Secrets, so many secrets.
She reached up to release her hair. She would be glad when this last assignment was over and she could finally claim her Destined One. If Rodric would have her, that is. He would be angry when he learned she had used her magic to keep their bond a secret for the last thirty years.

But she didn’t have a choice. Her term of duty wasn’t finished until the end of t
he year. The queen of the Fae wouldn’t condone any shirking of duty. None of the witch community knew that Averys weren’t human, or that the original Wish Makers, the ancestors of the witch people, were actually Fae.

Mabel glanced at the clock. She opened the door to her bedroom and pulled the doors aw
ay from a mirror that stood ten-feet high on the back wall. Gilded runes lined the frame. One of her duties as a Guardian was to protect this portal into Avalon, Land of the Fae.

A rogue Fae had crossed over and was even now leading th
e new blood cult. Thank the Goddess, he hadn’t crossed using her portal. The queen wasn’t known to forgive easily.

The inside of the mirror started to swirl with mist
, and for a moment Mabel’s homeland could be seen. An ache filled her heart for the land of her birth, the evergreen country. Voices could be heard whispering magic spells, and
he
stepped through.

“Si
r Ywain.” Mabel greeted the six-foot tall man with light blond hair down to his shoulders. He wore a long silk jacket of sapphire blue over white breeches and hose. His knee high boots were made of butter-soft leather, and Mabel’s fingers itched to run over their fineness. The Fae lord must have come through the portal from the gate in the garden of the queen’s court. A Eurasian lynx rested in his arms. With a wave of his hand, his clothes changed to a black T-shirt and jeans, his boots were now black biker boots. His hair was pulled into a tail down his neck, revealing his pointy ears.

“It’s Owen now
, I am no longer Ywain or Esos, as you are no longer Morgan or Mab. This is my familiar, Hirael. We are here to apprehend the queen’s nephew, Rhaim. You know him as the Red Wizard.”

§ § §

A Siberian Werewolf in Paris

Book Five of the Siberian Volkov Pack Series

Valerii Belikov, Siberian lycanthrope, knew that under the baseball cap and grubby jeans “Little Joe MacDonald” was actually Josephine. He didn’t know why she was hiding, but when the mating bond snapped into place after she was injured, he never expected her to run away. Josie is his mate, the one woman meant to be his, and should have known they couldn’t live apart. He could accept her hiding, but there was no way he could give her up.

Josephine Chevalier knew this day would come. Her father’s killers had found her. To keep her pack mates in England safe, she needed to run. It was time to return to Paris where it all started five years ago. Now if only Valerii, the man she wanted above all others, would stay away. Looking down at the golden cord tying their hearts together, she knew nothing would stop him from coming. How could she keep him safe?

http://www.amazon.com/Siberian-Werewolf-Volkov-Romance-ebook/dp/B00F94M65E/

My Magic Mate

Book Four of the Siberian Volkov Series

Brencis Solovyov, a Siberian lycanthrope, isn’t looking for a mate. When he visits the local metaphysical store, he is repulsed by the owner’s purple hair and combat boots. And when she gives him a potion that accidently poisons him, he fears for his life. The fact that she is his mate can only be a trick of destiny. After she claims to be a witch, he knows she is truly crazy. But there is something magical about the woman, and he isn’t the only one who has noticed her strange powers. Can he keep her safe from the danger surrounding her? Will he get over his prejudice and let his magic mate cast a spell of love on him?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CD9A3OY

My Mate’s Embrace

Book Three of the Siberian Volkov Pack Series

Anton Volkov, Siberian lycanthrope, is following the scent of Laurel Harris, who is running away from her abusive stepfather. When Anton finds her, he is surprised to realize she is his mate, the one woman meant to be his. But the Russian mafia is also on her trail. In order to rescue Laurel, Anton must first get this troubled woman to trust him. Can love heal her wounded heart?

“The Siberian Volkov Series keeps getting better with each book. I found myself totally engrossed in this story.” Night Owl Reviews

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009K99PFI

A Siberian Werewolf in London

Book Two of the Siberian Volkov Series

Grigori Solovyov, Siberian lycanthrope, goes to London to track down a Russian mobster who is stealing from the pack. Then, Melisande Reule walks into his hotel, bringing his wolf howling to the surface. He knows he has found his mate. But when she is targeted by a Russian assassin, Grigori must fight to keep her safe and at his side.

“I absolutely loved this second installment in the Siberian Volkov Pack series. It had everything that made me fall in love with the first one. The story line is great.”

Night Owl Reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Siberian-Werewolf-London-Volkov-ebook/dp/B007JINI96

Alpha’s Mate

Book One of the Siberian Volkov Series

A trip to Moscow brings Siberian lycanthrope, Dmitry Volkov, and his pack members out of hiding. He’s looking for answers to the pack’s breeding problems. But he never expected to find them in the delectable Violet Anderson. With rogue lycans causing problems in the pack, can he bring a fragile human woman home as his mate?

Wildlife photographer Violet Anderson is stopping in Moscow, before she goes on assignment to shoot the elusive Russian Gray Wolf. When she meets Dmitry at a local hotspot, the sparks fly. The animal magnetism tells her she might have just met the man of her dreams. But Violet has a couple of secrets of her own, and following a wounded animal to its lair has never been a safe thing to do.

“This is the beginning of a new werewolf series that promises to be phenomenal.”

Night Owl Reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Alphas-Mate-Siberian-Volkovebook/dp/B006SLZA3M

Shadow of My Heart

The Shadow Walker Romance Series Book One

Raven Darkwood, Shadow Walker, leader, and shaman of the Nuni Nagi Tribe, as well as CEO of Isanti Inc., the conglomerate his tribe owns and manages, is also a spy for the government. His mentor Isanti Quiet Thunder has prophesied the perfect mate for him. But how can he find her when he doesn’t have time to date? And how can he bring an innocent into his crazy violent world?

Cara Hamilton wants nothing more than to be with Raven Darkwood, CEO of Isanti, Inc.. But she quickly finds Raven lives and works in a dangerous world and that is before she learns of his special ability to walk into another dimension. Can she conquer her fear and put her trust in Raven and his tribe?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C0XQ2B6