A Curve of Claw
by R.E. Butler
Copyright 2011 R.E. Butler
Smashwords Edition
A Curve of Claw
by R.E. Butler
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
**Cover Design by Kameko Gay, photography for the cover art by Grant Faint and Charriau Pierre**
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those over the age of 18 only.
****
For my angel reader and personal cheerleader Kameko Gay. For B.L. and K.K., thanks for the encouragement. And for my wonderful husband B.B.
Table of Contents
From the Author and Future Titles
Chapter 1
I tapped my pen back and forth absently on the blotter and looked at the door. I could hear Melo clomping down the tiled hallway and knew he would fill the doorway with his bulky body and then he’d fill the room with his shit-eating grin.
As expected, his large leather covered shoulders brushed against either side of the doorway and his curly blonde hair hung in a riot of ringlets around his head.
“Hey kitten, what’s doing?” He drawled, stalking into the room and coming around my desk. His dark eyes looked predatory and expectant.
“Hey, Mel.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. Moving away, he dropped onto the leather couch with a thud; his body sprawled out like he’d been arranged by a photographer.
“Solstice is coming up; Midas wanted me to check in with you for supplies.” Midas was their tiger king and a heavenly hot piece of tiger ass himself, although he was currently shacked up with a tigress from another pride.
As South Corner of the ruling coven for Northern Ohio, and one of only two natural born witches in the Midwest, I was a pretty hot commodity. The other natural witch, north and most powerful, was my grandmother. She’s over 200, but she looked my age. Even if she didn’t act like it. I was technically only 18, although I’d been 18 for 3 years now. A natural witch was also known as a hereditary witch, one that was born from a witch. An unnatural witch was a human that could tap into the supernatural world in some minute way like being able to cast a small spell.
Five were-groups and one very large vampire coven lived in our area. The five were-groups had allied themselves to our coven and the vampire coven had allied itself to me personally. On our solstice celebrations, each group sent guards for the corners, except for the vampires. And being my guard had the lovely perk of often being invited into my bed later. For some reason, I was always a little horny after I called power.
I’d been South Corner for three years, since I first turned 18 and came into my full power. I’d been around the weres and the vamps for long enough that I had some pretty serious standing friendships with them and bedmates whenever I was in the mood. But nothing more than playing, because I wasn’t ready for that life. What I had with the men was casual. Occasional dates, no serious expectations, and no overnights. I didn’t expect to get married for a while. A long while. Mostly because I had this thing called long-life, which in the simplest terms meant that when I came into my powers, my aging slowed down to a crawl. I only aged one year for every twelve years that passed on the calendar. As a natural witch, my grandmother also had that same power, but the unnatural witches in the coven did not and aged normally. So while my grandmother was technically the oldest witch in the coven, she appeared quite young. It happened to be the same way for all were-groups. Vamps, of course, lived forever but had to drink blood and died at dawn. I think I’d rather just age slowly. It also meant that age wasn’t really anything you could gauge. You could think the guy you were boning was 25, but he was actually a few hundred years old.
I swiveled in my desk chair. March 21 was coming up damn fast and I was starting to feel twitchy. That meant that something big was going to happen. Maybe a new member to the coven or a baby being born, or a death of course. Here’s hoping it’s not my death.
“I’d love you to be my guard, Mel, if you’re offering. We’ll need four more, of course, for my grandma and Bitty and Gwen and then the coven as a whole.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t ask me to be anyone’s guard but yours, Elizabeth.” His lush lips split into a wide smile. He was pure male. Sex and power and heat, and a damn beautiful white tiger when he shifted. “Come over here and give me some honey, sweet.”
Although we weren’t alone in the offices that belonged to the coven in the back of the Cleveland Mother Earth Store, aka Witch Central, I couldn’t resist.
Gathering my broomstick skirt as I crossed the small office, I climbed onto his lap and his large hands went straight up underneath the fabric and he gripped my thighs as I lowered my mouth to his. His moan was throaty and deep and it made my body light up like he’d plugged me into a socket. Our tongues tangled, our bodies heated, and he pushed me down onto his denim clad erection, sending a delicious shiver through my body.
His mouth moved down my throat and he growled. “I fucking love how you smell when you’re turned on.”
With the sound of tearing fabric, my panties were toast and he ran his thumbs on the juncture inside my legs, not quite pussy not quite hip, but the promise of wicked things to come. Then I heard the sound of heels clicking on the tile. That meant one of the witches running the shop was coming this way. He growled when I pulled away from him and sat down on the couch to adjust my skirt.
“I liked those,” I pulled the torn panties all the way off and tossed them in the trash.
“I told you I think panties are an inconvenient invention. And I think I also told you that if you have them on, I’ll rip them off on principal.” He palmed his erection and adjusted himself as one of the coven knocked on the doorway.
“Apologies, Mistress, but there’s a young couple out in the store that would like a blessing for their newborn.”
Mortals. I stretched out the kink in my back, wishing that Melo had either not shown up right now or had more time to work out the kink in the center of my body, and said, “Set them up in the reading room and I’ll be there in like ten.”
She nodded and walked away. Our coven ranged in age from late teens to late 80s, if you didn’t count my grandmother. Mortals, aka humans, came into the shop all the time looking for various things. A blessing, a reading for their future, or supplies to try their own stuff.
“Even my fastest quickie is longer than ten minutes,” he groused, unfolding his body from the couch and standing up to his full six foot even.
I tilted my face up for a kiss and he granted it but he wasn’t as happy as he’d been when he’d walked in. I wondered when I’d decided that my guards could just come in and get a lay whenever they felt like it. Maybe there was a meeting and I didn’t get the memo.
“Can I see you later?” He asked.
“I’ll call if I can. Mishka needs to feed and I put him off last night because of, well, my complicated life.”
His lip twitched. “Yeah, and you’re usually too tired after he feeds from you to do anything else.” Except with him, lay unspoken on the air between us.
“Look, Mel, I never promised anything to anyone. I don’t like the guilt trips. They’re not a good color on you.”
His coat swung around his waist as he turned for the door. The pause at the doorway said I wasn’t going to like what he said, and I was right. “Maybe I’m just ready for more than a fuck and a goodbye.”
Well hell. When the playboy of the group was thinking about exclusivity, then all was not right with the world.
Awesome.
Chapter 2
Blessings, by and large, were very simple. Unless the person was particularly evil or had an out of whack aura, of course. Then, mostly, the blessing would be rejected but the humans wouldn’t necessarily know one way or the other. This, fortunately, was not one of those times, and I joined the young couple and their tiny little girl in the reading room, and blessed her and their entire family.
After I finished the blessing, I sat alone in the expansive room where we did most human based business. It was a circular room, with floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with various stereotypical witchy type objects and stacks of old books. The floor was a dark hardwood that was well worn and beautiful with scattered dark wool rugs across the surface. There were several long couches and small tables arranged near a fireplace with a dark stone mantel, and in the center of the room was a round table on an ornately carved base with matching chairs around it. Across the table lay colorful silks and an old stone bowl. This was what we referred to as a “human room”. As witches we didn’t need any of the stuff in the room to do anything simple like we might do for a human; it was all for show. The books were not supernatural in any way; the objects were curios from pawn shops and trips like colorful glass globes, bowls and vases. But if you tell a human that you can give them a blessing on a street corner with no prep, they tend to think you’re a fraud. So the human room helped them to get over their preconceived notions about being taken for a ride.
Palm readings, tea readings, and blessings could all be done pretty much anywhere with little to no prep. Lifting a curse, a real one anyway, or, say, performing an exorcism, were things that had to be done outdoors and usually on a very specific day with special ingredients. I liked the easy stuff. It brought money into the coven and didn’t sap any of my power.
Not that I gave much thought to money. And it wasn’t because I was one of those earth-girl sorts of witches that didn’t wear deodorant and had dreadlocks and thought that materialism was the bane of society. I got weekly manicures, pedicures and facials, completely waxed every two months, and my hair done at an exclusive salon. I took my coffee from Starbucks and my clothes from Saks and my jewelry from Tiffany’s. Just because I was a townie didn’t mean I needed to look like one or dress like one. And a telepath named Auggie that needed help two years ago to lift a curse, had been very gracious to extend his uncanny stock market predicting skills. So the coven, not to mention me personally, was swimming in the green.
I tried to think about the coming solstice, but my betraying thoughts slid to the vampire master. Mishka. Just thinking about him made my blood heat. The master of the largest vampire coven in the state of Ohio, he was over 500 but he looked 20; a damn fine 20 at that. He would give an underwear model a run for his money any day of the week. And he preferred my blood. Coming under the fang, as it was called, meant that a vampire had asked a specific person to be their main food. Mishka asked me the day we met four years earlier when I moved to Cleveland to live with my grandmother. Of course I was too young then; you have to be 18 to feed a vampire legally in the states. So although my teenage heart beat wildly at the thought, I had to turn him down. When I turned 18, I was too busy coming into my full powers and dealing with being a new corner to feed a vampire regularly, and it had taken me almost two years before I even made the time to try.
And then I found out how wonderful it felt. It was just damn erotic. I’d been donating my vein to Mishka once a week because it was all I could spare. A person that was under the fang completely donated nightly and lived with the vampire. I just didn’t have that kind of time.
And it was all very theatrical and dramatic, because that was what he liked so I indulged him. Out of all the men that liked to cater to me in one way or another, Mishka was the only one that made me feel like I was more than a power to be used or a body to bring pleasure; that I was everything that he needed in the universe.
He and I weren’t on all that even of terms at the moment, because I inadvertently spiked his jealous button a few months back. Brone, one of his vampire guards, saved my life and I thanked him by donating a vein to him and I hadn’t wanted to stop. I cared about Mishka. He was sex on a stick and then some. But Brone was a completely different animal. Vampire, yes. Courtly and appointed like Mishka? Hell no. He was the polar opposite of Mishka, and maybe that was what pissed him off.
Brone towered over everyone at seven feet tall, about three of me wide, and all rippling muscle and savagery. He never looked at anyone, he glared. Before he was turned into a vampire over a thousand years ago, he was a warrior in a now dead race of men that were nicknamed The Plague because they annihilated entire towns without cause. He had double fangs, something linked to his vampire sire, the canine and the one just behind it. When they descended in his mouth his eyes changed color, from dark blue to vivid purple that threatened to boil the skin off your bones.
Last night, I begged off donating to Mishka because I was tired and wanted a break, and I’d had plans to eat my dinner and catch up on my DVR recordings. But then Brone appeared at my sliding back door. Scared the hell out of me.
Two words from him as I opened the back door and I was undone. “I. Need.”
I climbed him like a tree and he carried me to the couch and sat down, turning my head gently with his enormous hands before licking the space on my neck where he planned to bite. Unlike Mishka that lulled with his voice and hypnotic gold eyes, Brone’s tongue secreted a numbing essence that smelled like eucalyptus when his fangs descended, and the bite didn’t hurt at all. But unlike Mishka’s bite that healed nearly instantly, Brone’s lingered for several days. Just one of the oddities of vampires and their sires. So I knew for sure that when I went to see Mishka and he saw the mark on my neck, he’d believe that I skipped out on him for Brone, no matter what I said.
Back in my office, I thought about Melo and his angry words, and whether going to see Mishka tonight was a good idea. I wasn’t allowed to think much further, because I smelled lilac and felt power coming down the hallway.
Standing up, I hugged my grandmother when she appeared in the doorway. “How did the blessing go, child?” She asked, sitting down on the couch. She looked much younger than her technical age of 26. For strangers to hear her call me a child when she appeared one herself always made people curious and confused.
She made a delicate face and said, “I take it one of the tigers was here to see you?”
I tried not to roll my eyes. It’s one of my bad habits. “Melo, yes.” Did the office smell like sex or lust? Geez.
She hummed in her throat and ran her fingertips across the leather. “Spring heat. For all the weres.”
Ah. That explained a lot. For the males, if they had even the tiniest desire to mate and have cubs, it was amplified a great deal during the spring and fall heats. And if they were always interested in mating and having cubs, well, then during the heats they’d be very hard to be around. So Melo was just feeling the heat-pinch. That meant I could also expect a visit from the other four groups of weres in the next week.
My grandmother wasn’t one for small talk in the office, so I waited for not only the other shoe to drop, but to be hurled at me. Her face was very carefully blank and that was never a good thing.
“Adriel has requested that you collar a bear.”
I felt my jaw hit the floor. “No!” Adriel was the king were-bear, leader of his den.
She arched her brow delicately. “What do you object to?”
I gathered my wits and tried to take a few calming breaths. “Because I don’t need a permanent bodyguard and that’s what collaring really is.”
“You have a reputation within the community, Elizabeth; I don’t think I need to remind you of that. Collaring a bear will ease that tension from the coven.”
My reputation. I huffed. “They’re just jealous.”
She hummed in her throat. “Perhaps. But it doesn’t change the fact that you are the South Corner of the most powerful coven in the Midwest, and a natural from a very long line. Or that you sit on the North American Council of Elders at 18 plus 3, or that you have alliances with other groups outside of the covens’ own alliances such as your vampire coven and the psychic. You need to start thinking of yourself as something worth protecting, because you are.”
“So this is about my protection and not about curbing my activities?” I figured it was both and I found both ideas ludicrous.
She sighed. “You may look at it how you wish, but I strongly urge you to reconsider. The spring solstice is a time of change. Things that were dead come alive, things that have passed come to pass again. A change is coming, something rides on the air.”
I’d also felt something in the air, so I guess it wasn’t just me. I had a hundred things crashing around in my brain to say, all of them smart retorts, but she stopped me before I could choose one. “My sweet granddaughter. I do not care that you play with the men that you do. You have affection for all of them, they return it to you, and they watch over you during our solstice ceremonies. But by and large you are alone. You never have allowed one of your men to stay over at your home or to do anything except the occasional date because it might lead to more. A powerful, single witch is on everyone’s radar, and not all of them have good intentions. What is it that bothers you about collaring a bear?”
I clicked the top of my pen several times and then just decided to come out with it. “He’ll think he owns me. Because we’re supernaturally tied together, he’s going to want to insinuate himself into my life and I have enough to deal with without adding an entitled male’s input. And more than that, witches that tie themselves supernaturally to men always end up marrying them. I just,” I sighed and rubbed my temple with my thumb. “I just don’t want to lose what I have. I like the way things are.”
Her speculative look made me feel like she was peeling away the layers of my skin to get to my mind. “Did you think you could go on the way you are forever? The weres are getting tense about you. You are sleeping with the prince falcon, the serpent king, the theto of the wolf pack, the tiger king’s personal guard, the son of the bear king, and of course your two vampires. You choose the same weres for guards each solstice but you refuse to make any of them a permanent guard. You hover on the edge of true commitment to anyone and they see your unwillingness to take permanent guards as a sign that you believe their groups to be deficient. I am afraid, my child, that if you do not collar a bear, then the were-groups will grow even more distressed. If we lose their protection, their joint powers, bad things will happen.” She stood slowly, stretching to her full 5’ 2” frame, except she made me feel like she was 10 feet tall. “Consider carefully. You have no idea what the future holds for you, or how much you may very well need a permanent guard.”
She kissed my cheek and walked out, leaving me with my thoughts.
The five were-groups in the area had been in alliance with our coven, and each other, for many decades. Having alliances with the powerful groups in the area meant that we had a ready supply of guards for the solstice ceremonies, which was important. And they had us for support and protection of the wiccan variety. We called a lot of power during those times and sometimes bad people or monsters or other weres sought us out.
Brone saved my life when a warlock from South America had come looking for a bride and thought I was more than powerful enough to help his coven exact whatever wicked sorts of things they wanted to do. If I’d had a permanent guard, I wouldn’t have needed to be rescued because he would have been killed instantly. But even after that flash of terror, I still hadn’t wanted to take on a permanent guard because permanent guards were, well, permanent. They lived together, went everywhere together, and eventually they formed a permanent relationship of the marriage variety. You couldn’t be around someone 24/7 like that and not have them affect you in a sincere way.
But what if I picked wrong? What if I didn’t collar a bear and instead chose another of my boyfriends for a permanent guard? What if I chose Melo, but he couldn’t really give up his playing ways? Or what if Jesuit was so busy dealing with the falcons that he wasn’t there for me like I would need? A permanent were-guard, no matter how furry or feathery, would insist that I stop feeding the vampires, too.
Each celebration, the five were-groups sent five guards. One for each corner, and one for the coven as a whole. When I first stood as corner three years ago, I was so flush with power that I drew the most powerful of the unmated males in each group to me. Since then, I almost always chose those same men. And I did sleep with them. Not just four times a year for the solstice ceremonies, but whenever I felt like it. And adding Mishka and Brone to the mix meant that I was bouncing around seven beds at the moment.
Well, when you put a number to it, makes it sound kind of slutty.
My mother was a prude. Always had been, as far as I could tell. She walked away from her power and the coven for my father, a mortal that happened to be the son of a pastor. As her first born daughter, I came into the world with power and she tried to shame me into not using it, but my grandmother taught me anyway. As soon as I could, I walked away from my parents for my power. I hadn’t spoken to them since.
The were-groups in the area, wolf, bear, tiger, falcon, and serpent, were all run by alpha males. The wolf, tiger, and bear alphas were mated, but the falcon and serpent weren’t.
The falcon prince and serpent king guarded me on the solstice. The wolf third, the tiger king’s personal guard, and the king bear’s son were also my guards. And it was just a good thing that there was an alliance in place, because when you got so many powerful men in one place guarding one person that they had feelings for – aka me – testosterone tended to get so heavy in the air that you could taste it.
My desk phone rang and I answered it.
“My lady.”
“Hey, Jes, I was just thinking about you.” Jesuit, falcon prince, had a head of gorgeous curly black hair and forest green eyes. Lean and tall, he was well muscled and handsome as hell.
“Good things, I hope.”
Debatable. Wonder if he’d like to know I was just thinking about all of the other men that guarded me, too? “Of course. What can I do for you?”
“We’re a week from the solstice and you haven’t contacted me about guards.”
“I know...it kind of snuck up on me. I’d like you to guard me, Jes, of course, if you want, and I trust you to pick out the other four on my behalf.”
“As you wish.” His tone shifted slightly.
“Jes, is everything okay?”
There was a significant pause and I was mentally kicking myself for asking. “I’d like to see you. Are you free tonight?”
“I’m feeding Mishka tonight, so no.”
“Ah. Well, I won’t keep you then.” His tone was royally dismissive. Damn it.
Considering my earlier conversation with Melo and then my grandmother’s bear-bomb, my annoyance radar spiked. “Jes, I’m not going to apologize for being with Mishka.”
“I didn’t ask you to.” With that he hung up and I stared at the phone for several minutes. I had a feeling that more than just spring itches were flaring up.
Here was how my life played out pretty much weekly. One of the six would call me and I’d accept whatever they were asking for if I was in the mood – dinner, a movie, attending a show or event, or just some hot sex – and then I’d spend a lot of time apologizing to the others for not being available. Brone was the only one that didn’t call me. He just showed up and I couldn’t stop myself from doing everything he’d let me do to him, not just feeding him.
So a few weeks ago, I decided I wasn’t going to apologize anymore. It was my body, my time, my life – and while they all seemed to want to be exclusive, they did not seem inclined to ask me for that exclusivity. Except for Adriel, now, who asked me to pick a bear to collar.
Just the thought of collaring one of his men sent shivers down my spine. To collar a bear, a witch first chose him based on any criteria she wanted including general attraction. Then during a ceremony in front of their entire den she performed a collaring ceremony with a spell that basically leashed the two together in an invisible way. The collar opened a pathway between the two and the tie was tight and supernaturally powerful.
I’d never known anyone that collared someone, though, so I didn’t know for sure exactly what the ceremony was like. I did know that you couldn’t be that close to someone and not have it affect everything. And the bears tended to be very territorial with their females, so if he believed that I belonged to him, then the other men in my life would not be welcome.
So that was probably it. Why I was rejecting the idea. Because I liked things the way they were. Didn’t I?
Chapter 3
“If you don’t collar a bear, then we’ll lose that alliance,” Gwen, East Corner, said to me, taking a long drag on a clove cigarette as she stood huddled against the back door of the shop.
I paused mid-step. Drawing on my jacket, I turned around. “I was just leaving, Gwen.”
Gwen smiled in her 72 year old know-it-all-way. “I guessed that. I just wanted you to know that the bear thing isn’t just about you. I don’t think your grandmother told you everything.”
“And you’re going to fill me in?” I folded my arms, my keys dangling.
“I can, if you wish.” She waited for me to say something and I just gave her a nod, dread filling my stomach. “Adriel’s den has grown stagnant. They’re the smallest were-group in the area, and they can’t seem to draw any females and the two of-age in the den are mated. So if you don’t collar one of his men, then they’re going to pull up roots. We’ll lose that alliance, and they’re a very good alliance to have. Having a witch with a personal alliance to the den, especially a corner with your reputation will help the den a great deal. It’s strategic for them as much as it is important for your safety. No one guards their witch better than the bears and that’s the truth.
“And consider this. The den is the only group without a personal witch, even an unnatural. Our coven is personally tied to the other groups besides the alliances except for the bears. This fact has led them to feeling left out.”
“Gwen, the problem isn’t, well, I’m not sure I like Griegs enough to be tied to him for all eternity.” Griegs, Adriel’s son, was number two in command, something they called a Prime Warrior.
“Who said it would be him?” She gave me a long look.
“Why wouldn’t it be him? He’s been my guard for three years.”
“And your bedmate.”
“Sometimes.” A little spring wind blew between us and I shivered or maybe I was thinking about the look that Griegs got sometimes, like it was all he could do to take his clothes off without ripping them at the seams.
“I don’t expect the collar will choose him. He’s fine, handsome and everything, but I don’t think he’s the one for you.”
“I thought I put the collar on the bear that I chose?”
“No, you cast the spell and the collar chooses for you, the bear that is best suited to be tied to you.”
I frowned and looked at her. I didn’t really pay attention to the other males in the den. The den was of Native American descent, so they were all gorgeous in that black hair and high cheek bones and bronze skinned Adonis sort of way. And, honestly, I’d never even been to their den, which was literally a den, dug deep underneath a field owned by the bears. Supposedly it was a huge cavern where the 20 some odd bears had tents and lived and worked underground.
“Would you do it, Gwen?”
She chuckled, her thin lips pulling up to reveal slightly yellowed-with-age teeth. “If I were about 40 years younger, certainly. Bears are very sexual and when they set their sights on a mate, there is little to stop them.”
“Awesome.” I groused, tightening my grip around myself. Stupid holding-on-forever winter weather.
She chuckled wryly. “You have a great sexual appetite, child. Do you think a bear couldn’t keep up with you?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a more uncomfortable conversation in my life.” Was I actually blushing? Shit.
“Did you think that none of us heard you and Melo in your office, when he was asking for your honey and growling?”
“I stand corrected.” I dropped my head to my hands and took a few deep breaths.
She laughed, but it was a happy laugh. “I was not much different than you, child, except I preferred the vampires to the weres. But do not fool yourself about one thing. The collaring is very intimate and the bear you collar will most likely be unable to handle you being with other men. The connection is just that strong. So you may keep him at arm’s length from your body, but you will not keep him from being jealous. And a jealous bear is a destructive force of nature.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Good night, Gwen.”
“Good night, child.”
I got into my Escalade, a gift from Adam, Theto of the wolf pack and my guard and sometimes lover. When my Wrangler needed some work over the summer, the pack-owned dealership gave me the Escalade as a loaner, but then they never gave me back my jeep, and I loved it, especially in the winter. I also had a Viper. The story with that was Mishka had wanted to take me to a show at the Playhouse and one of his guards was going to drive my Escalade for us. Mishka, like most vampires his age, didn’t drive or deal much with electronic gizmos. I had been waiting for him in the second row of the truck when he finally sat down next to me. He had taken a deep breath and then suddenly climbed out.
I had followed, curious, and he was growling and livid. “You had sex in there!”
“Yeah, so?” I had to thank Adam for the truck, after all, and I was very, very thankful.
He cracked his neck. “Did you think I would want to be surrounded by the scent of you and another male?”
“I hadn’t given it much thought.” I said dryly. Vampires were so temperamental.
“Clearly.”
He’d ended the evening abruptly and I was standing there in front of the club that contained the majority of the coven’s daytime resting chambers, feeling like a jilted girl on prom. I’d been a little too pissed to drive myself home, so the guard did, and I refused to see Mishka for a while after that. I didn’t do jealousy very well. He’d made it up to me by buying me the Viper. I knew he’d done it in retaliation for the more than ample room in the Escalade; because the Viper didn’t really hold more than one person comfortably, and many of the men in my life were muscular and tall. That was just my type.
To even consider collaring a bear meant I was heading over the deep end of sanity. No other groups did that particular custom. In the falcon nest, one of our unnatural witches, Eryn, was married to a general in their army by the name of Paul. The vampire coven didn’t have a witch and unless a witch decided to marry a vampire, they wouldn’t. Vampire covens didn’t use witches the way that other were-groups did.
Lit, the alpha werewolf, was mated to Nila, an unnatural witch from our coven. And Manny, a tiger, was mated to Mari one of our unnatural witches, the same as in the serpent nest, with Kai being mated to Gayle our unnatural witch. But the bears had no witch. Adriel’s mate was a she-bear. Just like Midas the king tiger’s current girlfriend was a tigress. Jes, the falcon prince and Tosh, the serpent king, were the only two leaders of the were-groups that were single.
As I turned out of the parking lot of the store, I debated going to my condo or my home. It was still cold out, so the condo would be quiet. My neighbors were the summer-only sorts, and I could use some fresh cool air and a nice view. I set my truck towards Vermilion, and went on auto-pilot, letting my thoughts drift to the den.
By the time I traveled from downtown to my condo in Vermilion, I’d had about 45 minutes to think. If I’d gone to my lakefront home in Bay Village, I’d have had less time, but, then again, I wasn’t really sure it mattered. I hadn’t made any decisions about anything.
I used my condo mostly during the off-season except for those times when I felt like grabbing a boat ride from a neighbor or watching the boats come and go down the river out onto the lake. During the summer, I sought refuge in my home in the Bay Village. The coven owned the development and as a corner, I had the luxury of being lake side. But it was far too bitter there in the wintertime, with no protection from the horrid lake-effect winds. What I’d always wanted to do, though, was cover up every window until it was damn dark and keep a fire burning in the fireplace for the entire winter and never leave the house. I’d stay curled up in front of the hearth on pillows and blankets, covered in furs and kept warm. But that was a strange and silly pipe dream.
As Mishka was going to be waiting for me, and judging by the clock I only had an hour to get ready for our date, I kicked my butt into gear and showered. I had a handful of different body washes and lotions, and each one was tailored to a man that I spent time with. Jes liked vanilla. Griegs liked lilac. Tosh liked cherry blossom. Melo liked a woodsy floral one that he said smelled like the jungle. Adam liked coconut. Brone never said if he liked how I smelled naturally or otherwise. That left Mishka, who preferred cinnamon. Just once, I groused, as I poured a heaping glob of Cinnamon Heaven into my palm, it would be nice if a man liked the way I smelled naturally.
Hanging in my closet was the dress that Mishka sent to my office for me. After I showered, I dried my hair and then contemplated a hairstyle while I put the dress on. As I expected, it was strapless and form fitting on top with a long and flowing skirt. A Ralph Lauren that I was sure cost about two grand, it was solid black cashmere that hugged every curve of my petite frame. I knew that he ordered it custom for my height and measurements. I would be a feast for his eyes as well as his mouth, and probably body as well.
I stepped into a pair of Jimmy Choo open toed embellished sandals. As I looked in the mirror over my vanity, I inspected the still visible marks from Brone. I gave him the left side of my neck, because Mishka always went for the right side, so I decided to do my best to cover them. First, with a good layer of foundation and powder and then I tied my hair to the side in a low ponytail, and used my curling iron to give my naturally straight hair some curl.
My hair was dark brown, like melted chocolate, and my eyes were jade green. When I called power, or when I got pissed, they turned vibrant green like spring grass. I put on my makeup and finished with a layer of burgundy lipstain. I went out to my bedroom to look in the full length mirror attached to the back of my door. Petite and curvy, I topped the ladder at only 5’ 3”, and I could thank at least some of my genes for my flat belly. I was most thankful for my full breasts and the flare of my hips. I knew some women didn’t like hips, but I did. I liked low riding jeans that declared the curve of the waist and didn’t hide anything back. And I liked it when a man grabbed my butt and said he loved digging his fingers into it. My dark hair reached my waist, thick and straight, and my lips were full and I had a small dimple in my cheek when I smiled.
I looked at the girl critically in the mirror. Technically 18 but I felt about 40, going through the motions for a man that I cared for a great deal but did not love. Was that what a loveless marriage felt like?
For testing purposes, I smiled until I saw the dimple. I didn’t think I’d really, genuinely smiled in a long time. The bell rang and I knew it would be one of Mishka’s guards. The guard would drive me to the club known as Fang, that catered to the wealthy elite of Northern Ohio. Vampire and human alike. It was “the” place to be.
I put on my full length faux sable and opened the front door. Donray, one of the vampire guards, waited for me on the doorstep. “Mistress.”
“Donray. It’s nice to see you, as always.”
“You look lovely.” He gave me his arm, a gentleman to the very end, and I followed him down the cobblestone path to the towncar. Mishka preferred to have me waiting for him in the car at the curb of the club so he had longer to get ready himself. I was not sure what our plans were for the evening, but I knew they’d end with me on his lap and his fangs in my neck, and then we’d have sex and I’d…just…stop thinking about it.
My clutch sat heavy in my lap. I only had the necessities: cell phone, mints, lipstain, ID, and emergency credit card. Mishka stood slightly away from the curb at the back of the club, his coven guards around him for protection. But anyone that would come against a five hundred year old vampire had a serious death wish. He may look like an underwear model, but underneath all of that beauty was a lethal, deadly man.
One of the guards opened the door for Mishka and my heart caught in my throat at the sight of him. He was just so damn beautiful. “My darling,” he drawled, catching my wrist and pressing his mouth to it as he sat next to me. I could just drown in his eyes, they were so hypnotic.
A perfect six foot, his face was aristocratically angular, with a straight nose and flawless ivory skin. His hair was a brown-blonde that was probably very blonde before he was shunned from sunlight by his vampire needs. It was lovely, loose around his shoulders or like tonight, drawn back into a sleek, low ponytail. He wore a tuxedo with a black silk dress shirt and a slim tie, and his black embroidered vest fit perfectly over his lean, muscular body.
“You smell delicious, darling.” I smiled at the compliment; but because of my earlier inner monologue, the smile wasn’t real and I wondered if he could tell the difference. “Shall we?”
Apparently he couldn’t.
The car pulled away from the curb and I asked where we were going. “To the Opera, darling. And spare the look, this one is in English. It’s called The Pearl Fishers.”
“I’m sure it will be lovely, Mishka.”
Mishka had a private box at the Playhouse. He preferred it that way and so did I, although I really wasn’t in the mood to sit through an opera, in English or otherwise. The damn collaring felt like it was a blade poised over my neck. Thankfully I had a full eight days before I had to make that decision, since the solstice wasn’t until next Thursday.
As expected, the opera was wonderful, and I kept my eyes very seriously trained on the stage. Every time I let my eyes wander I wondered what my collared bear would be like. Would he understand that I had no intention of taking him to bed or that the number of men currently in my bed wasn’t going to change at all? Would he actually try to win me over, like really date me, or would he not press the issue at all? What if it wasn’t about me keeping him at arms’ length? What if he didn’t like me in that way?
Shit. It’s one thing to reject someone. It’s an entirely different ego-destroying thing to be rejected yourself.
After the opera was over, Mishka and I adjourned to Lola Bistro, a mid-western sort of upscale restaurant. I felt kind of silly, as usual, with Mishka in a restaurant because he didn’t eat or drink anything. He simply sat in the chair across from me and talked while I ate. He’d been a vampire so long he said it fascinated him to watch me eat. I ordered the lamb, and it was delicious; but if I hadn’t thought it would offend him, I would have told him I just wanted to feed him and go home. I was wildly unhappy, and I just wanted to be burrowed under the covers in my bed and unconscious so I didn’t have to think about anything.
It was near midnight when we made it into his chamber. He held my hand on his arm as if I might bolt; I might have considered it, actually, except I was feeling obligated. Where had my bad mood sprung up from? Oh, right, my grandmother. And the bears. And Melo. And Jes. Yeesh.
“Mishka, I’m a little tired, would it be alright if we…if you just fed from me and I left?”
His pretty golden eyes regarded me carefully. “Is that why you’ve been so distracted all evening, or is something else going on? Besides the bite mark from Brone on your neck?”
I blushed hard. I knew he would smell the wound but I’d tried to hide it anyway. In the anteroom, a circular room done in varying shades of white, I sat down on one of the long couches and sighed. It didn’t take but a moment of him curling me into his chest before I told him everything.
“Well, I do not know much about the bears, they’re reclusive with our kind. But if you don’t want to do it, darling, then I don’t think you should. If the coven worries about leaving a sector of their alliances empty, I would step up in their place.”
“The coven wouldn’t allow it, Mishka, you know that.” In the old days, vampires used to hunt witches for their blood. Sweet and powerful, or so Mishka told me each time he fed from me.
Somehow the witches never got over it. Go figure. The alliance with the vampire coven was mine alone but provided protection to the entire coven so they didn’t feel like they had to be guarded against the vampires. But the coven wouldn’t allow a vampire to come in as a guard unless he was married to one of the coven.
In truth, although I cared a great deal about the men in my bed, none of them spoke to me in a married forever sort of way. Maybe that’s what this was really all about. I wasn’t ready to give up my playing for a new man, because I was unable to choose amongst the others. If I was already in a serious relationship with one of my lovers, then the collaring wouldn’t have been brought up to me, and another unnatural witch would have been offered the chance.
He hummed in his throat. “You should not let yourself be ruled by guilt.”
That’s all I’m running on these days. Before I could sigh again, and remind him I was tired which was halfway true, he began to kiss up and down the right side of my neck, slowly, gently. His long arms folded me close to him, and the scent of him, a lingering light floral scent that was his natural vampire scent drifted to me and I closed my eyes and waited for the bite. A tiny pain, like getting a shot, followed by intense pleasure. Normally, the gentle suction of his mouth on my neck would have had my home fires burning in no time, but not tonight.
He disengaged his fangs and licked the marks and I felt them seal and disappear. He gazed at me for a long moment, stroking my cheek. “You are lovely, and I would give you anything that you desired, if you desired me alone.”
Ouch.
What do you say to that? Nothing. He kissed me once on the mouth and set me on my feet and walked me out to the waiting towncar. An hour later I was stripped and under my covers, and I didn’t even set my alarm.
Chapter 4
“Nice of you to show up.” My grandmother chided me from behind the front counter where she was helping an unnatural witch put together a healing spell. Very low level stuff.
I pushed my gold Bvlgari sunglasses up onto my forehead. “I didn’t know I was on a schedule, grandmother.”
“You have guests in your office. And you haven’t told me your decision about Adriel’s request.”
“Well, I have time, I mean I don’t have to do it until the solstice, so what’s the rush?”
She excused herself from the woman at the counter. “No, no, Elizabeth.” She ushered me into the corridor back to the offices. “You must choose today. They want to do the ceremony tomorrow night so you and the bear have a chance to adjust to the collar. We don’t know exactly what bonding with a bear like this will do to your power and you absolutely can’t do it on the solstice when your powers will be at their peak.”
My mouth went dry and my world spun for a minute. “Then I’m going to say no. If I can’t have time to think about something so serious, then I won’t do it.”
She fixed me with her 200 year old stare and I stood my ground and glared at her. “Fine. Then you will call Adriel personally and explain that you’d rather continue idly fucking seven men then take on a personal guard.”
Ugh. “That’s low.”
Her brow arched. “Is it? What is wrong with letting your power choose the perfect guard for you? So what if you fall in love with him? So what if he’s made perfectly for you and you for him? What are you so scared of? Because I can promise you one thing I’ve learned over the years. All the great sex in the world doesn’t hold a candle to making love with a man that holds your heart. Do what you wish.”
She turned on her heels, her long skirt and shawl swirling behind her like a cape and I trudged back to my office. I had thought to find Adam or Tosh with one of their people, come to talk about guarding and the solstice. But instead, I was very surprised to see my good friends and non-witches, Lumia and Freya.
They squealed and jumped from the couch to hug me. Talking fast, they eventually got to the point of their visit - that they wanted to take me out dancing because my favorite Irish rock band, The Begoshes, out of Chicago, was playing at Club 27 downtown.
I sat on the couch with them and let them chatter at me, and I made two decisions. One, I would definitely go out with them tonight, because of my second decision: I would collar a bear. I wanted to go into the collaring expecting it to be strictly business. I had vampire guards with Mishka that I never wanted to sleep with. Even being supernaturally tied to the bear didn’t necessarily mean that I would want to sleep with him. And if he was the jealous sort about my extracurricular activities, well he’d have to get over it quick. Because I wasn’t going to change my life for anyone. Period.
I gave them the key to my condo and sent them away to go shopping for a clubbing outfit for me, and then my day brightened considerably.
“Adriel, I’ve decided to accept your offer to collar one of your bears.” I said on the phone at lunchtime, while I ate a club sandwich and homemade potato chips from a local deli.
“That is wonderful news. My den will be thrilled.”
“What do I need to wear? Do I need to bring anything? Or anyone?”
He sounded like he was thinking. I tried to chew quietly. “Filene will prepare your ceremonial garment and she will bring it to you tomorrow evening. She will arrive two hours before sunset and help you get ready and then you will be brought here to our den. You only need to bring the collaring spell and any herbs you need to perform it. And you must come alone.”
“Have you ever known a bear that was collared?”
“My uncle was collared, but it was before my time. Why?”
“I’m just curious about the ceremony. And afterwards.”
“Ah. Well, all the single males will be around you in a circle and you will be seated next to our ceremonial fire. You will feel a pull to the bear that is meant to be your guard and he will come to you. He will mark you to seal the bond between you, and then we will have a celebration. You’ll stay the night in the den, in his tent. What happens between you is…your business.”
Good to know. Prepare to be kept at arms’ length, bear, I thought. “I’ll be at the condo; do you know where it is?”
“Yes. Until tomorrow, Elizabeth.”
Before I left to go to my condo to get ready to party, I told my grandmother my choice and she thought I was doing a wonderful thing for myself and the coven. At some point during the afternoon, every daylight walking man in my life called and found out my plans for the evening. And then I told each of them that I was collaring a bear. Griegs was happy, but he seemed to believe that he'd be the one that the collar picked. Maybe he would be, but something about what Gwen said made me take a second look at him. And as to the other guys, they were not thrilled; but they seemed glad that I was tentatively saying that I had no plans to make changes in my life because of it.
Tosh said, “I don’t understand why the bears are insisting that it’s you that collars one of their males and not one of the other witches. Your coven has a ton of unmated females that would surely be more willing than you sound.” Tosh, like all the were-serpents trended Asian. He had short raven black hair, midnight blue eyes, and a wicked smile.
“I don’t know, Tosh. I’m powerful. It would be a boon to their den to have the South Corner collar one of their males. Gwen said that they’ve gone stale and can’t recruit females to join the den.”
He sighed. “So you are doing this from obligation to the coven, then? Not because you are lacking in…anything?”
“I’m content with my life as-is, Tosh.” Sort of. “I’m taking on a private guard, but other than partying with the bears for their celebrations and helping them bring more female bear booty into their den, I don’t see anything else changing in my life.”
“I could make you happy, Elizabeth,” he said in a most devastating way. I could picture his up tilted eyes, lowered for embarrassment, and blush coloring his skin pink. Tosh was king of his people and begging for my affection, and guilt flowed easily through me. He shouldn’t be waiting for me to make a choice, because I wasn’t sure I would choose him anyway. Or any of my men. Hell. Hell’s bells!
Blissfully, I was saved by the proverbial bell as my phone buzzed and it was the front desk asking for help. “I need to go, Tosh. I’ll see you next week at the solstice.” Before he could pile more guilt on my shoulders, I hung up and practically ran out to the front as if the phone itself were possessed.
My friends didn't disappoint me with the shopping excursion, and several outfits waited for me, spread out on my four poster king bed in the master suite on the third floor of my multi-level condo. I tried on all the outfits, and in the end, I opted for the gold sequined mini skirt, paired with a black snakeskin halter corset that laced up the back. I put on a pair of studded stiletto sandals and let Freya go to town on my hair and Lumia on my makeup. By the time our chauffeured towncar arrived, courtesy of my credit card and Freya's crafty planning, we were all ready to go.
I stopped to glance at myself in the long mirror and was shocked. Just last night for Mishka I looked like a proper society girl going out to the Opera. Tonight, I looked like I belonged on the back of a motorcycle or hanging off a stripper pole. My makeup was much darker than usual, and my hair was twisted back in sections from the top of my head and clipped securely several inches back. The rest of my long hair had been painstakingly curled and then fluffed within an inch of my life. She'd even gone so far as to clip in alternate colors so I had splashes of neon pink and green here and there. And Lumia did my nails, black with white tips. On my neck was a choker, which they thought was hilarious, and I had bangles on my wrists and I switched out my belly button ring for one that had dangling crystal half moons and stars.
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-25 show above.)