Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2013 Jamie Magee
All Rights Reserved
Cover Art by Emma Michaels
Edited Maria Pease
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Where To Find Jamie Online:
authorjamiemagee.com
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Other Books by Jamie Magee
“Web of Hearts and Souls”
Insight (Book 1)
Embody (Book 2)
Image (Book 3)
Vital (Book 4)
Vindicate (Book 5)
Enflame (Book 6)
Imperial (Book 7)
Blakeshire (Book 8)
Emanate (Book 9)
Exaltation (Book 10)
See (Book 1)
Witness (Book 2)
Synergy (Book 3)
Redefined (Book 4)
Derive (Book 5)
Rivulet (Book 1)
Contemporary Novels:
Impulsion
Friction
Deploy
For the lovers who stand the test of time...
“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.”
― Dylan Thomas
EPISODE NINE
Chapter One
If there was one thing apparent about Shade and Gwinn’s relationship, it was their blissful moments were as easily forgotten as their arguments were.
One moment they were both wrapped in sated peace, building their stamina to take each other once more. The very next moment the swamp river filled with ghosts floating down the way, and a dead man who walks among the living was found peering at them from the darkness.
Shade could not figure out why his woman was all but giddy about this turn of events.
One would have thought Mia was some rock star. Gwinn was about to have a come apart at the chance to meet him for the first time, which strummed Shade’s jealous chord.
His protective side was too loud and proud for him to entertain foolish thoughts; they would be there later for him to mull over.
“I said stay,” he growled.
“And who are you to say so?” Gwinn growled back.
They spoke in harsh whispers as if Mia was in the next room. In all truth, he might as well have been, they had no idea what enhanced senses he had.
“Who am I?” he hissed.
Gwinn pushed against his chest. “This is an equal opportunity relationship!”
Shade looked at her as if she had spoken another language, and for all she knew, she had. He’d spent his life nestled deep within the Pentacle Sons ; so the only women he came in contact with were not ones he cared to speak to about any topic.
And Reveca, well , Gwinn was sure the Sons didn’t see her as anyone but one of them.
“You heard me,” she said furrowing her brow and poking her finger at his chest. “If you tell me what not to do, then I get to tell you the same. And for the last week, you have done exactly the opposite of what I asked you to do.”
“Not the same,” he said through gritted teeth. “What the fuck are you doing? Keeping a running tab of infractions?”
“Yes.” At his intense glare she spoke again. “I’m a woman. My memory rocks.”
Shade put his hands on her shoulders and sat her down. “Stay.”
Gwinn was up as fast as he spoke. “What am I, a pet?”
He raged forward, putting his face in hers. “You do not know what I know.”
She bowed her chest, proving her bold claim to him without fail. “Then tell me what you know. Did you not hear the equal opportunity part of this deal?”
“You mean the bullshit chick lit you decided to throw at me now?”
“Why not now?”
Astonishment, disbelief, and maybe a little apprehension masked his expression, as if he was sure Gwinn had lost her mind, and maybe she had—all she knew was she was determined.
“This is our life, Shade. It’s always going to be like this, unexpected turns. That doesn’t mean we push shit away and deal with it in times of peace. Because then there would be no peace.”
“Sounds like a fucking peachy idea to me.”
“What do you know?” she demanded.
“I know he took down Talley then Akan and all the men with him. Last week. In his mortal life he went head to head with Talon in defense of Zale and nearly won—did I mention he was a mortal at the time? Before such time, he was a one-man army, undefeatable. The Charming Death was what the mortals called him.”
Gwinn tilted her head in confusion. Shade ignored the silent question. “He’s brutal and you’re precious.”
“As are you,” she said with a lifted chin, stubbornness waving off her.
As she stared him down, a wind came through the home extinguishing every candle—the doors were sealed, the generators were turned off. “Until next time,” she said with a sly grin as her magic popped and sizzled in the air.
A growl surfaced somewhere deep in his chest. “I say run and you do. Fuck your equal shit.”
He sent a text, to whom Gwinn didn’t know, then he handed the phone to her. “It goes bad, you run, you find the Sons.”
“I’m not leaving you and I won’t have to. He means no harm, I can sense it.”
“Oh you can sense it?” he mocked. “He’s just leering at us—me and you in the middle of fucking nowhere because he was strolling by and decided to take in a peep show?”
“I don’t think he watched.”
“Awesome, your witch sense tell you that?”
“Are you insulting me?”
“I am,” he said gripping her arm and pulling her outside. He was halfway down the ramp before he realized he left his Kut inside, it was too late then—he had to go.
She pulled him toward the swamp. Shade was sure she was about to wave to the dead man across the way as if he was not already acutely aware of them. Shade jerked her toward the bike, finding it harder than he should; she was using her immortal strength and gearing up to use her magic.
“Disrespectful,” he hissed. “We are not crossing those souls.” He nearly shivered at the thought. “We go ‘round.”
Gwinn halted her refusal but kept her gaze on Mia in the distance.
Shade slid on the bike, never letting her go, then pulled her on behind him.
He fired the bike to life then went to turn. As he did, Mia appeared before him.
Mia stood six five; he was stout in the shoulders, which led to a waist thick with muscle. His black shirt was torn in a few places, as if his trek through the swamp had snagged him.
Shadows of dirt accented his high cheekbones. The b
eginnings of a dark beard matched his hair. His brows narrowed over his gaze—his glowing, lavender gaze.
Shade’s feet planted on the ground, steadying the bike. Gwinn ducked around him and grinned at the warrior blocking their path. “We were coming around. It, er, um, seemed more respectful?”
Mia slowly tilted his head to the side as if he noticed Gwinn for the first time and was oddly bemused by her warm grin, if not a bit startled by it. Obviously, it didn’t match the fierce man her petite body was wrapped around.
Shade didn’t want to turn off the bike, he wanted to plow through this dead man, get Gwinn somewhere safe, and come back with his boys—hunt this fuck down.
With his luck, though, Gwinn would use her magic to stop them and this would all go very, very badly.
His only hope was the text he sent Reveca and Rush telling them he had Mia had already alerted the others, and they were on their way here.
Those two made the most sense for Shade to call. He was sure Talon was out cold. Judge was face-to-face with Adair working out their shit. The other guys were more than likely balls deep in some girl, drunk off their ass.
Rush would be alert because he’d stayed that way since he’d come back, and he would be until Talley was at peace. Reveca, she was always alert, for the most part at least—when she wasn’t shot or locked away with King, that is.
But Shade knew when he left the Boneyard tonight everyone was there and settled to stay. Whatever tiff he’d heard flaring up as he and Gwinn left was surely nothing, otherwise someone would’ve called him home to deal with whatever shit went down.
It had been an uncannily peaceful night for Shade and Gwinn, this was the one and only upset, and it was by no means a small one.
Shade killed the power to the bike and in one breath he was before Mia as if he had always been there—his shoulders back, his body tense for a fight.
Carefully he breathed in expecting to taste aggression in the air, the dare of a challenge.
It was the opposite. He barely tasted anything and what he did sense was more of relief.
“Ye have returned,” Mia said in a deep broken voice, one that sounded like it was crawling over gravel, struggling for air.
Me? Shade thought sardonically. He was the risen dead.
“You’ve been here before?” Gwinn asked appearing at Shade’s side. Shade became all the more ridged.
Shade had made a decision.
He did not like Gwinn’s boldness. Not in these situations at least. He liked her safe in the library at the Boneyard nagging him via phone about what should be done.
“Aye, nine moonrises,” Mia said with the same rasp. He glanced to the swamp. “The souls led me. I’ve watched them pass at this hour since.”
Shade was confounded by this revelation. For the past week and a half his crew had been scouring for a way to catch this fool—ultimately bringing Akan home as bait and he was here, watching souls pass. Waiting on Shade.
What.
The.
Fuck.
“And when you were not here?” Shade asked coldly. From where he stood, he could see the haunting chains behind Mia moving on an invisible current. They creeped Shade the fuck out.
No expression came to Mia as he spoke. “Mindin’ my keep.”
“Talley.”
Mia seemed confused Shade knew his name but was also honored.
“Aye.”
“You can control him?”
Mia glanced to his empty chains at his back, and his lip twitched as if he wanted to grin but the circumstance was too grave to allow him to.
“Not under control.”
“Who brought you back?” Gwinn asked, stepping forward. Shade’s arm shot out like a blade keeping her put. She glared up at him but chose to keep his boundary. She feared any use of magic, or even something as simple as her and Shade arguing, would cause Mia to flee.
“The curse,” he answered, his tone less gravely as if he were becoming accustomed to speaking once more. It was weary though, as weary as his lavender eyes that had dulled almost into a blue.
The uncanny resemblance between his gaze and Shade’s intrigued Gwinn and birthed a million more questions.
“Who laid the curse?” Gwinn pushed.
The word escaped his lush lips like an oath. “Zale.”
Shade’s sharp glance down to Gwinn not only told her to use caution but also pointed out that they were dealing with a dead man who was out of his fucking mind.
Zale was dead before Mia rose; clearly Mia was remembering some tiff he had with Zale before he died, over four hundred years before.
“Why did you come here?” Shade asked. “How did you get here?”
The Sons had discovered Talley had risen from his grave, clawed his way out. Mia’s grave was across the ocean, Iceland if Shade remembered correctly, in the general area at least.
How he made it to New Orleans moments after Talley was seen for the first time was a mystery in and of itself.
“I awoke in a city,” Mia wrinkled his nose as if the memory was foul. He glanced over Gwinn’s barely there attire and nodded in her direction. “The women were nude, the men the same, all staggering. The noise, so much of it. Some had their faces painted, or their entire bodies. Jewels of plastic were ‘bout their necks.”
“You awoke on the side of the street in New Orleans?” Shade asked, his tone dripping with doubt.
“Between two buildings.” He lifted his head. “A beast was baying.” He looked around Shade at the bike. “Those horses, their riders came.”
“You were called the second Talley attacked. You are the good,” Gwinn said half to herself, half to them.
She was sure he emerged outside of Adair’s alley more than likely just as Talley attacked and Judge and Thames defended Adair. It definitely took Mia a moment to collect himself to give chase to Talley.
What was not good about this was it stated the balance—Mia was the good, Talley was the bad.
None of the Sons nor Adair would be quick to conceive such an idea.
Mia ignored Gwinn’s presumptions; in all truth, he outright ignored her. She wasn’t sure if it was because in his mind she was “nude” and staring at her would be an insult to her man, or because in his time women were seen but not heard.
Either way, he was focused on Shade.
“You are the Voyager. Of my blood,” Mia said at length.
All the gumption and odd excitement Gwinn was rich with faded, and rightful fear sunk into her bones.
It was one thing to fantasize about Shade’s past, or toy with the idea. To hear such a thing though, and without doubt, jarred her.
In their random conversations over the night, she had mentioned Voyagers to him. He was curious as to why she thought Cashton told her to look into them.
Gwinn had told him the power they had was frightening. Life was hard enough lived once.
The slightest altercation in one soul’s life, in their daily routine could change the course of history. Often they are not the large, well-seen moments that move humanity forward. They’re the tiny moments that seem insignificant at the time; even in hindsight they are barely noticeable.
Gwinn’s preliminary theory about Voyagers was that they not only could travel time, but also were aware of Kairos, fated time. With little effort—barely noticeable to any soul—they could alter the life and fate of all mankind.
That power, in Gwinn’s mind, should only belong to the Creator himself.
Clearly, she needed to research more because what she knew, the little history she read, along with Shade’s story was not adding up—Shade fought someone to the death before he came here. That was not a subtle change in history. It had to be astronomical.
“Who told you this?” Shade asked.
He was sure this was some bullshit Mia died believing, maybe something he heard Evanthe or Zale speaking of. Blood of my blood? Beyond the eyes there were few similarities, if any, between them. Even their builds were different. Shade
was far leaner, more agile, and not quite as tall.
Mia stared at Shade endlessly. “You.”
One word had rendered them all silent.
“This is your witch,” Mia said after a moment.
Shade barely nodded.
“Her sister is in danger.”
Shade’s silent stare was the only answer he received.
“Our time wanes,” Mia glanced to the moon. “More will come if we fail.”
“More dead?” Gwinn asked.
He didn’t answer her.
“The pull is too great. Control is difficult,” Mia said.
He was met with stern silence once more.
“You need my blood,” Mia stated.
No one moved. First of all, Shade was trying to figure out why people kept saying this to him. Chalice and now this dead guy. Second of all, he was trying to figure out how dead men bled and he wasn’t excited to figure it out.
Being a witch and knowing blood was power, and at the very least it would help them track Mia later on, Gwinn pulled Shade’s knife from his belt.
She was ignored again. At this point, it was starting to piss her off.
Mia nodded to the swamp.
He spoke a word barely distinguishable, but clearly from an old language.
Some of the spirits flowing with the current halted their path.
From the center of the swamp, the deepest part of the water began to swirl. The swamp became silent. Then all at once, the spirits lifted a sword and sheath from the water and then another sword.
The weapons were hurled across the swamp, both swords stabbing the moist ground before Shade.
The spirits who had recovered the weapons gently fell back to the current and moved onward. The swamp began its nightly serenade once more.
Mia stepped forward. He pulled a sword from the sheath, allowing it to slice his hand as he did, then he stabbed the ground next to it.
“Haste is needed,” Mia said then turned to leave.
Shade spoke up. “Why did you let Akan go? How did he get you to leave him be.”
Mia’s stare grew colder. “Aleay.”
He vanished into the darkness
“What did he say?” Shade asked.
“I don’t know. Never heard it before.”