Yearning: Enchanting the Shifter (Legacy: A Paranormal Series Book 3) Read online

  “You can trust me, Beau.”

  “Can I?”

  “Yes. Always.”

  “We’ll see.

  Grace felt the heat of disgrace every time those words came back to her. Always, she’d promised.

  Or until he told her something she didn’t want to hear or showed her something she didn’t want to believe. Then it was a different story.

  Holy shit. The realization had her putting on brakes in the middle of the road. If she was so afraid of Beau, then why was she letting him around her children or her mother?

  Grace pulled out her phone, intent upon calling Ida and telling her not to go to dinner with Beau, or at the least, don’t take the kids. But even as her finger hovered over the phone, she knew she wouldn’t place the call.

  Because despite what she’d seen and what he’d told her, her fear of Beau wasn’t so much that he was different, but that he had the power to hurt her in a way no one else did.

  And she was more terrified of that than anything.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Grace opened the back door so they could hear the music on the patio. They hadn’t gotten around to eating yet, but had killed a bottle of tequila and were working on the second.

  It’d been a long time since Grace had done tequila shots and she was definitely feeling the effects. She was also having a blast. Mysti, Ravyn, Sabine, and Ily were fun.

  At present, the topic had turned to men. Grace was finding the comments quite interesting and more than a bit risqué.

  “Logan likes it when I show my wings,” Sabine said and stood to twirl around in time with the music.

  “You’re…” Grace squeaked when big, graceful white angelic wings appeared. “Oh, my God, oh my God!”

  “Don’t freak.” Mysti, who sat beside her, took her hand. “Seriously, Sabine, talk about coming out.”

  “Oops, sorry.” Sabine stopped twirling long enough to pour and swallow another shot of tequila and then knelt in front of Grace. “Grace, I’m sorry. I’m an angel. Want to touch my wings?”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Sure.”

  Grace reached over to stoke her fingers over the feathers. “Oh, my God, you’re an Angel. Does that mean you…you know, you know God?”

  “Oh no, Angels aren’t that.” Sabine smiled and stood to move to the chair she’d vacated. Her wings vanished. “We’re not divine. Our race just has wings and some psychic abilities.”

  “Kinda like Ily. She’s a dragon, you know. Well, not always. She’s a Scythian Warrior, a race of women warriors who safeguard royals. When she goes into warrior mode, she develops scales to protect her like armor, and she has dragon wings. She’s amazingly badass.”

  “Dragon?” Grace definitely felt like the girl who’d fallen down the rabbit hole. “Are you messing with me?”

  “No, she’s not,” Ily answered. “But it’s a bit more involved than what you’re being told, so if I may?”

  “Please.” Grace wanted to say she wouldn’t believe a word of it, but, how could she? She’d seen Beau turn into a tiger and had touched an Angel’s wings.

  “To begin with, I come from another dimension, a kind of parallel dimension that exists beside this one. According to science, there are many. But the one I come from is populated by seven races and each has unique characteristics.

  “My people are Scythian, as Sabine said. My mother was Mistress of the Scythe. When I was old enough, I was assigned to guard the king of the Fae, Michael Whitehorse.”

  “Fae? Are in Fairy?” Grace asked.

  “Yes. Anyway, Michael came here looking for his daughter. He’d left her here, hidden by a cloaking spell to keep her safe from his enemies. I begged him to take me with him, but he refused and cast an enchantment on the portal between dimensions. His son, Prince Eldric, gave in to my plea and gave me leave to follow.

  “In doing so, my memories were erased and I spent more than a decade believing in an identity that had been created for me. I didn’t know until this year who I really was, or that my King was dead and the portal has been sealed and not even I can open it.”

  “Portal?” Grace was fascinated despite her fear at the unbelievable tale she was hearing and the knowledge that characters of myth were, in fact, real. “And why not even you?”

  “Scythe have the ability to open the portal. But Michael’s magic was strong. It cannot be opened until his daughter finds the clues that will lead to her discovering who she truly is. When she does that, and discovers her magic, she will be able to open the portal.”

  “And what then?” Grace asked.

  “Then those of our people who wish to return home may do so.”

  “Like you?” Grace asked and then looked at Sabine. “Or you?”

  “Oh no, my home is here,” Sabine answered. “My parents are Angels but I was born here and this is where I call home. Ily is the only one among us who called the other side home.”

  “So, Beau—“ Grace’s hand went to her mouth. She hadn’t meant to bring Beau into this.

  “Ahh, so you know?” Mysti asked.

  “I saw him change into a tiger.”

  “That must’ve been a shock,” Ravyn commented.

  “Scared the hell out of me. Can you do that, too?”

  Ravyn shook her head. “No, it’s apparently just the men of the family. Well, most of them. Jericho can’t shift, but he has mad psychic skills. Mysti and I have some psychic ability so I’m guessing we take after our mother’s side. Her mother was Fae.”

  Grace stood and reached for the arm of the chair to steady herself. “I’m sorry. This is all—it’s—it’s unbelievable.”

  “You’re afraid,” Sabine said and rose. She took Grace’s hand. “I’m sorry, of course you have to be. This must seem like something out of a story or a bad dream and you’re probably scared of us, of what we might do. I’d beg you to give me five minutes to prove that we are worthy of trust. Could you do that?”

  Grace couldn’t do anything but nod. Sabine seemed so honest and sweet. Sabine looked at Ily before continuing. “Ily and I have the ability to…join minds, for lack of a better term, with others. Would you allow us to join minds with you? I’ll share everything about myself with you and you can then decide if I’m worthy of trust.“

  Sabine looked at Ily and extended her free hand. “Are you in?”

  “I am.” Ily got up, clasped Sabine’s hand and Grace’s, locking them hand to hand in a joined trinity.

  “Just close your eyes, Grace,” Sabine said softly. “You’re safe with us. I promise.”

  Grace did as requested and in the blink of an eye, a whirlwind claimed her, spinning her through a dizzying array of images and sounds. She couldn’t make sense of any of it and at first was terrified.

  Then she felt them. Sabine and Ily. They were with her. Holding tight, protecting her. She felt them, the essence of them as they bared their souls to her. She could do no less and laid herself bare.

  It was the most amazing thing she’d ever experienced, but Grace felt them merge and for a brief moment in time they were all one. When the link ended, she felt somewhat empty and opened her eyes to find tears falling from them.

  “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt.”

  “You’re an amazing woman, Grace.” Ily said and gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it. “And because we’re now linked and I’m linked with Beau, if you look inside, you’ll find the answer to your question.”

  Grace felt her knees turn to jelly and quickly sat. Ily was right. The answer was there. Beau did love her and had regretted what happened between them in college all this time.

  She wanted to cry, to laugh, to dance and to scream to the heavens, but she couldn’t move for the wonder of it. Then Ily gasped.

  “He was here. It’s in your mind, Grace. King Michael was here.”

  “No, there was never… Oh my God.” The memory suddenly appeared in Grace’s mind. She was thirteen…

  Grace wa
s sitting at the small table in front of the window, doing her math homework. She didn’t care much for math, but her dad was great at it and he never minded helping. He’d just returned to the counter after checking her answers when the bell on the door tinkled.

  A man walked in and Grace dropped her pencil. She was only thirteen, but she knew what beauty was, and that man was beautiful. He smiled at her and it was like a blast of sunlight striking her in the face after having been in the cold. She was bathed in warmth and could do nothing but watch as he turned to greet her father.

  “It’s been too long, brother,” the man said.

  “I’m surprised to see you, Michael. What brings you here?”

  “A matter of some importance.”

  The man called Michael leaned his arms on the counter and spoke quietly to her father, too quietly to be overheard. Grace watched her father and saw him nod and respond. She couldn’t tell what he said, but he looked upset.

  Michael took her father’s hand and held it for a moment, then turned and looked at her. “Does your beautiful daughter take after our side of the family?”

  “That’s yet to be determined,” her dad said.

  Michael nodded and then left. Grace waited until the door closed behind him. “Who was that, Dad?”

  “Just a man I knew a long time ago, honey.”

  “He called you brother.”

  “It’s just a term of affection. We were very close once.”

  Grace snapped back to the present and gasped. She looked at Ily. “You think King Michael cloaked his daughter and that my father created the spell. The same spell he used to cloak the town for Senator Legacy.”

  “That’s crazy,” Mysti argued. “My mother was in league with the Umbra so they already knew about our family and that my mother was dosing the boys to keep them from shifting. There was nothing to cloak, nothing to hide.”

  “Or was there?” Sabine asked and looked at Grace. “King Michael called your father brother, which would mean that you are part Fae.”

  “But why cloak one Kindred?” Ravyn asked.

  Grace found it amazing that, thanks to joining minds with Ily and Sabine, she understood what the word Kindred meant.

  “Because she’s the one Kindred who has the necessary magic to create the spells and potions.” Ily said and then expounded in an excited tone. “Yes, it all makes sense. The cloaking spell is after all magic, so whoever created it had to be Fae. And the potion made for the Legacy family must have magic attached to it as well. That strengthens it and may be why we can’t replicate it.”

  “I thought it was because of the dragon blood?” Mysti asked.

  “Was it?” Ily asked. “Then let’s test that. We can use my blood.” She looked at Grace. “Will you help me? We’d need to go to my lab.”

  In a million years, Grace never imagined she’d hear herself agree, but she did. These women might be extraordinary creatures who were anything but human, but their emotions and fears and hopes and desires were just like Grace’s. How could she say no?

  “Okay, but I don’t think we need to go to the lab.”

  “Then where?”

  “Where it apparently all started,” Grace answered. “My dad’s shop.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Beau’s hope lifted when he pulled up in front of Ida Summerfield’s house and saw Grace’s truck in the driveway. That hope sank as quickly as it had risen when he accepted the invitation to come in and realized Grace wasn’t there.

  She’d left a note on the refrigerator telling her mother she was at the shop with the girls, whoever they were. Ida offered to fix coffee, but he declined. Theo and Sherri were pulling at each arm, wanting him to play a game.

  What he wanted was to get back in his car and go to the apothecary shop to find Grace, but he had promised the children and couldn’t let them down. An hour later, Ida shooed them upstairs to get ready for bed and Beau took his leave.

  Five minutes later, he pulled into a parking place in front of the apothecary shop, right beside what looked like Mysti’s car. Beau got out and went to the door. It was locked. He tapped on the glass and waited.

  It took a minute before someone pulled back the shade enough to peer out. A moment later, the door opened. Grace looked at him through the screen door. He could see light coming from the direction of the back room of the shop.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I really need to talk to you.”

  She cut a look over her shoulder and then directed her attention back to him. He thought she was about to tell him to leave, so was surprised when she pushed the door open. “Come on in. Everyone’s in the back.”

  “Everyone?” He waited as she closed and locked the door.

  “You’ll see. Come on.”

  Grace led the way. Beau was surprised when he got a look at the occupants of the back room. His sisters, Mysti and Ravyn, along with Sabine and Ily.

  “Girls’ night at the apothecary shop?”

  Ily snorted. “Cute, but seriously?”

  “Then what?” He walked over to the bottles and vials on the worktable. “Is that—“ He pointed to a container that looked very much like it held blood.

  “My blood.” Ily answered and then continued. “I thought maybe if we had dragon’s blood, we could fully recreate the formula Mr. Summerfield made for your mother and if we had that, we could then make progress with a true antidote for the poison.”

  “Did it work?” Beau asked and then held up a hand. “No, wait. Hold on. What do you mean, you used your blood? What would make anyone think that your blood would be the same as a dragon? That’s—“

  “She knows,” Mysti interrupted.

  Beau jerked his head around in her direction. “Pardon?”

  “She knows.”

  “Knows what?”

  “Everything,” Ily answered, and when he turned his attention to her, she continued. “She, Sabine, and I linked minds. She knows everything.”

  “Everything? As in—“

  “As in everything Sabine and I know—all our experiences, memories, everything. And we know hers.”

  Beau’s gaze locked with Ily’s at the last statement and he heard her in his mind. Yes, we know about you and Grace and what happened and we know how she feels about you—but I’m not revealing anything about that. You need to get that from her.

  Beau turned his head to look at Grace and asked the question uppermost in his mind. “Are you okay?”

  He saw the almost immediate welling of tears in her eyes, and it touched something deep inside him. Many people had made fun of her when they were young for her “soft heart,” as it was called. He knew that Grace felt things deeply, and it concerned him how this sudden knowledge was affecting her.

  “Yes. I mean, maybe I’m just crazy but…but yes, I am.”

  “And this concoction?” He gestured toward the worktable. “Did you get it right?”

  “I don’t know. Ily will have to take it back to the lab and test it.”

  “Are you going to do that tonight?”

  “No, I’m going home,” Ily announced and then looked at Grace. “But if it isn’t right, will you continue to help me?”

  “Oh yes, of course. And I’ll look again to see if I can find anything my dad might have written down about the cloaking spell.”

  “Thanks.” Ily gave her a smile and then turned to look at the other women. “You ladies ready to ride?”

  “If you are sober enough to drive,” Mysti replied.

  “Are you serious? I’m a dragon,” Ily said.

  “Then let’s do it,” Sabine agreed. “I’m ready to get back to my baby.”

  Ravyn looked over at Grace. “You need a ride?”

  Grace cut a look at Beau. “No, I’m good, but thanks. And thanks for including me in the evening. It was—amazing.”

  “And we’ll do it again,” Mysti promised and headed for the door. “’Night, little brother.”

  “Good night,
ladies,” Beau replied at the end of the chorus of good-night wishes.

  Grace walked the women to the door, locked it, and then returned to the workshop area. Beau was sitting on the counter, waiting.

  “How are you? Really?” he asked.

  She walked over to him and hopped up to sit beside him. “Not even in my wildest dreams could I have dreamed up the things I’ve seen and heard and—and tapped into the last few weeks. The world… No, I take that back—reality isn’t what I believed at all. It’s so much bigger.”

  “And?” he asked.

  “And I feel small and a little foolish, but amazed and excited and a little scared and…” Her voice faltered when their gazes met. “And ashamed.”

  “Ashamed? For what?”

  “I promised you could trust me and I treated you so badly. I’m sorry, Beau.”

  Beau couldn’t stop himself from putting a hand on her knee and squeezing gently. “Don’t you apologize. You were shocked and rightly so. It’s not every day your childhood sweetheart turns into a tiger.”

  Grace surprised him by chuckling. “You can say that again. I sure didn’t expect you to get naked and go animal on me.”

  “I won’t do it again.”

  “No? Well, damn, and here I had my hopes up.”

  “That I’d shift?”

  “No. That’s you’d get naked.”

  Nothing could have surprised or excited him more. He wasn’t quite sure how to respond and the hesitation had her filling the silence. “Unless you’re no longer interested.”

  “Oh, I’m interested.” With that, he slid off the counter, took one step over between her denim-clad legs and pulled her to him.

  The moment her arms went around his neck, his temperature rose ten degrees. When she wound her legs around his body, molding herself to him from chest to groin, he broke out into a sweat.

  And when her lips parted against his and deepened the kiss, his mind went blank to all but one goal. Make her his. Claim her. Give her what no other man could.

  Grace had never felt anything that felt more right than his kiss. How could she have denied for so long what she felt for him? She pulled back to consider his eyes. “I never did stop loving you.”