The Mating Season: Werewolves of Montana Book 6 (21 page)

He gave her a quick, startled look. “Here? Now?”

Giving a philosophical shrug, she went on. “I can’t think of a better time or place. You came here after you died. Show me what it was like for you. I need to know what you endured.”

She spread out her arms. “I feel as if none of this world affects you.”

“It once did,” he said quietly. “You do not want to see what happened. You already watched me die, once.”

“I do want to see.” She gathered her courage. “Because nothing, absolutely nothing, could be as horrible as watching them torture and then kill you.”

A cynical look entered his eyes. “Very well.”

Tristan waved a hand and suddenly she was transported to a dark forest. She saw him, wearing the clothing he was executed in, wandering among the trees. Blood streamed down his face and his clothing was stained with it.

“Nikita!” he screamed. “Nikita! Nikita!”

Her own name, shouted over and over again, cut through her like a blade. Then the dream-Tristan sank to his knees, rocking back and forth.

He shifted into a silver wolf. The wolf, his fur matted with blood, lifted his head and howled, the sound so piercing it hurt her eardrums. Niki winced and plugged her ears with her fingers. She could not bear to hear it.

Tristan waved his hand and the image vanished. The fine angles and planes of his handsome face tightened.

“You have seen what I endured, Nikita. Now you know.”

“That was your life here after you perished? For how long?” she whispered.

“Days, perhaps. Or weeks.” He squatted down, scooped sand into his palm and let the grains fall through his fingers. “My time here was like an hourglass. An hourglass marking each minute, each second, in a hell I could not escape. Not a true hell, but a hell of my own because I lost you. And I will not lose you again.”

Tristan stretched out his hands. “I am the Silver Wizard, and I have the power now to keep you safe. And once we enter Tir Na-nog, we will come together again in passion as it was before, and create a baby to replace what we both lost.”

He might as well have been making a speech to an audience for all the authority in his tone. He wanted to command her fate, as much as he’d wanted to command the army that fought in the Drakon War.

She sensed he hid behind his power and might, and the mask of imperviousness because he didn’t want to fully share himself or care about her that deeply again. Niki felt her chest tighten. Love screwed things up because loving someone could really hurt. Her own love for her identical twin, who had worried about her leaving, had trapped her in that basement as much as fear of the prophecy had.

But she wasn’t a vessel for his pleasure, or his purpose to create a child. She was living flesh and blood, with dreams and hopes of her own. Sex, yeah, she longed to be intimate and swept off her feet into an erotic bliss she’d never experienced. But not left cold and alone afterward, with no one to share her life with, no mate to be there for her, to grow old with, and watch their grandchildren play.

It was as if he guarded his heart against her. She thought she’d grown closer to understanding him, but that glimpse inside him barely flicked the curtain.

The wizard was a cement wall, and she’d had enough brick walls surrounding her.

She sat on the sand. It was neither hot nor cold. It was neutral, like Tristan’s expression, when she felt only frustration and grief that he’d shut himself away from her after the little glimpse she’d seen of how much he had cared.

“We must go.” He looked around. “It is too dangerous here. You are too vulnerable in the open.”

No use protesting. Tristan, looking grim again, pressed onward. Scrambling to follow, she tried to quiet her rapidly beating heart, certain it was audible.

They left the outcropping of stubby, distorted trees and entered the open sands once more. Niki’s head felt foggy and her thoughts cloudy with anger and frustration. Clouds rolled in overhead, reflecting her darkened mood.

He glanced upward and then back at her. “The weather is changing. I did not do this.”

“It’s probably me. Watch out, because it will storm next, with the way I’m feeling.”

“Control your emotions, Nikita,” he said tightly. “They will not serve you well here and you are still alive, not a spirit manifestation like the Others here. Negative emotions will attract negative beings eager to siphon away your energy.”

Barely had they gone more than one hundred yards when a thick mist rolled over the sands. Tristan immediately tensed. “Get behind me.”

What now? Could it be worse than becoming trapped inside her own mind, in a box that held her captive?

And then the mists cleared and all around them sprang up a rich, green forest. Dead leaves swirled at their feet and the air was ripe with an underlying smell of decay.
And I thought the desert was bad…

Tristan’s nostrils flared. “Stay back.”

Mist rolled through the black trees and then the wisps of fog took shape. Four creatures, the size of large grizzly bears, stood before them. With black pits for eyes, red slashes for nose and mouth, and spindly bodies of gray flesh, they looked like a nightmare sprung to life.

Tristan glanced back at her.

“Not me,” she screamed. “I imagined vibrators with tentacles, not this!”

“Nikita Blakemooooore,” one creature hissed, showing razor sharp claws. “We have come for you on the bidding of our mistress. She wants your beating heart.”

“Nikita, conjure a weapon,” Tristan snapped, spreading out his arms to shield her.

But her horrified mind could only imagine the plastic toy swords she’d seen her older brothers play with as children. Instantly a plastic sword appeared in her trembling right hand. Trembling, she held it outward, hoping plastic was effective in this world.

The wraiths moved forward, and then rushed past Tristan, aiming for her. Niki fought them with the short blade, but succeeded in stabbing only one. It vanished soon as her sword sank into its chest.

It seemed the material of the weapon did not matter, only her aim. Filled with more confidence, she slashed at the creatures as they tried clawing at her with their razored hands. She sliced off one hand, but it regenerated.

“Aim for their chests,” Tristan shouted, as he cornered one wraith.

“You cannot destroy us, Silver Wizard!” it sang out.

“I may not destroy you as the Silver Wizard, but I can fight you as a Lupine.”

Tristan shifted into a large silver wolf. Snarling, he leapt at the creature, which backed up against a tree. Jaws snapping, he tore apart one wraith, who vanished with a loud pop of air.

But as he turned for the other, it picked up the silver wolf by its neck.

A bone-chilling snap rang through the stale air as the creature broke Tristan’s neck. The wolf tumbled downward onto the forest floor.

No!
Shock immobiled her.

Then panic and grief squeezed her insides.
Tristan, oh Tristan, you can’t be dead!

She saw the wolf rise, its head at an awkward angle. It was alive…with a broken neck. No time to contemplate that, for the wraith advanced.

Snarling, she lifted her sword and started to rush the creature, which swiped at her with dry, dead razor claws.

Then the wolf shook its head, straightened his neck with an audible
pop
. He lunged forward and sank its teeth into the creature’s hindquarters. It screamed and tried to shake off the wolf, but Tristan tore its leg off. Slimy yellow fluid gushed out onto the forest floor.

The wolf lunged for the creature’s throat and tore it apart. The wraith vanished with a howl and a rushing of air.

The sword trembled in Niki’s outstretched hand as the wolf shook its mighty body and loped over to her. Tristan shifted back to his Skin form, clad in his customary black. The forest vanished, leaving them standing in the desert again.

“Mara must really hate me,” she said in a shaky voice.

“Hate is a mild adjective,” he murmured.

“How could Mara control these…things…here?” What kind of power did the Fae possess to be able to conjure wraiths from the afterworld?

“She must have sold her soul to the Keeper of the Dark Lands, a Dark Fae who holds a key to this world and can send other creatures to torment Others. It’s the only explanation.” Tristan rolled his head, cracking and popping bones. “Damn, that hurts.”

Nausea roiled in her stomach. She dropped the sword and watched it vanish. “He broke your neck.”

“Yes, but as I said, I’m immortal. And I have a tough neck.” He winked at her, but she could not even summon a smile.

This world was far too scary. How could she even get out of here?

Glancing again at the sky, he nodded. “We have enough time. I could not affect your journey until you faced your darkest fear. I am allowed now to transport us to a safer location, closer to Drust.”

Tristan drew a pattern in the air and a doorway suddenly appeared. Taking her hand, he walked with her through it.

The dark forest was gone. She stood in a quiet glen, as peaceful as the one back on her ranch. Birds chirped in the oak and maple trees, and in the distance, she heard horses whinnying.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“It is an illusion I created to keep your emotions happy, and the negative energy away. Like a bubble surrounding us until we reach Drust’s cave.”

“How did you manage to leave here, Tristan? What’s the secret to finding a way out? Can we truly get out of here?” She looked around, deeply rattled.

“We can, just as Prince Alexander can return to Earth. Come Nikita, we must continue walking. I know the way.”

He started down the gravel pathway cutting through the glen into the woods. Soon they were in another forest, only the sunlight dappled the trees and the air was less heavy here.

She took a deep breath. Wow, she felt winded lately. Was it this new area they now walked?

“I just saw this…thing…break your neck. You may be immortal, but I’m not and I’m scared. I need to know what happened to you here.”

“What happened to me here is not something I wish to discuss.”

Niki pulled at his arm, stopping him. “I need to know, Tristan. I have a pretty big decision facing me and I need facts! How do you expect me to move onto the future with you, to have a life with you as an immortal, with our child, when I don’t know all of your past, especially the past when you were stuck here?”

His gaze shuttered. “You have a point. If it will help you make your decision about taking the potion…”

“It will.”

Instead of answering, he bent down and touched his hand to the earth. Tristan took a fistful, and let the dirt spill through his fingers, as if grounding himself. Then he stood and dusted off his hands.

“I was drowning in self-pity, Nikita, totally consumed in my own misery, thinking only of what Drust had taken away from me. I longed to make him suffer as I had suffered. And then I conjured a suit of armor and phantom dragon soldiers to fight, soldiers who resembled Drust. It became pointless.”

He drew in a deep breath. Staring at the horizon, he seemed lost in the past. “I needed to heal my broken spirit and find peace. I needed…purpose. I met two Lupine shifters who had died in the Drakon War. They were even more lost and wretched than I. Using the knowledge I’d gained in my time here, I helped to guide them through the Shadow Lands.”

“You found a new purpose,” she said gently, watching his body stiffen with tension.

Tristan stretched out his hand and drew a pattern in the air. Marveling, she watched as a vision—like another mirage—appeared before them—a shining gold gate wreathed in green leaves.

“After helping five of them, I realized my actions manifested the hidden gate to access Tir Na-nog. I could have stepped through it and left this world behind. But I did not.” He glanced at her, and then closed his fist. The vision of the gate vanished.

“I could not leave them behind, but the gate would only allow entrance for a few moments at a time.”

“You sent them through instead.”

He nodded and waved a hand again, manifesting a silver sword in his hand. “I was a mere mortal who had died, so it was not forbidden for me to help. I taught them to fight the evil manifestations of their negative energy, and each time they succeeded, the gate appeared again. I sent through many shifters, Lupines, cougars, bears.” He gave a rueful smile. “Even dragons. I helped create worlds for them in here where they could learn to deal with their innermost demons, conquer them, and then move on to the next plane.”

Tristan stepped forward and sliced at the trees, which suddenly vanished. She stared in amazement.

They were at the beach again, the beach she’d longed to visit. Only this time it was peopled with Others, sitting on lounge chairs, or swimming in the ocean. Children built sand castles at the shoreline or played with bright red beach balls.

The dark coldness was gone. This was the beach she’d longed to visit, and explore.

She shot him a questioning look. “This is the beach I wanted to imagine.”

“And you could not imagine it thus until you conquered your innermost fear.”