Soul Mates: Magic (Soul Mates Series) (7 page)

I smiled. Dad always asked a million questions in a matter of seconds. “I’m fine, the training went well, I had a great time with Auberon and Tatiana and no, he didn’t. In fact he stopped training early today, which is why I’m home before one.”

“Max and the boys are coming over to watch the game, are you going to join us? They’re playing the Saints. You know how you love the Saints. Can’t figure out why you love them and not the Colts. It just doesn’t make sense.”

I grinned and flopped down on the sofa in the living room. “The Saints have pretty colors,” I said giving him the same answer I did when I was five.

“Abs, you can’t judge a team by its colors! It’s un-American! It’s just wrong! The Colts have a great team this year! They’ve only lost one game! They haven’t played this well since Manning was with them! The Saints aren’t doing as well as the Colts. You should root for the Colts.”

“Nope, I’m staying true to the Saints, black and gold all the way!” I laughed. “Besides, I can’t give up on Moore! He’s my favorite wide receiver,” I said with a grin.

Dad laughed. “I don’t know how you managed to get hooked on those Saints. I’m blaming Daire for your choice of teams. Just because they beat the Colts on your birthday when you were five…”

“Abbey, phone!” Mom called from the kitchen.

“Coming!” I called back as I got up to pick up the extension in the hallway. “Hello?”

“Babe, are you home?”

I was so tempted to say, ‘No idiot, I’m still at my grandparents’. “Yeah, do you want to come over now?”

“Why didn’t ya call me?”

“I just got home a minute ago, Michael. Come over, we’ll get your homework done.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes then. I’m just around the corner.”

“Great,” I said, not really meaning it.

Chapter
Nine

It was ten after one when Michael showed up, thirty minutes after we’d gotten off the phone. “I thought you were just right around the corner.”

“Don’t be a bitch, b
abe,” Michael said coming in the door.

It took all of my will power not to do something horrid or magical to him. “Let’s get this done. I have family coming over at three.”

“Whatever. So where do you wanna do this? You’re room?” he sounded hopeful.

“I think the kitchen will better suit our needs,” I said leading the way.

“So like I tried to read this and all and it just doesn’t make any sense. Why would this chick like him if he didn’t feed her and stuff?”

“Katherine is sharp-tongued and willful because her sister
, Bianca, is the sweet and unassuming girl everyone wants to marry. So Katherine claims she never wants to marry. Her father though, will not let her sister marry until Katherine is married off. And that is why Bianca and her suitors find Petrucio. He is a man willing to marry Katherine, no matter how shrewish she is. His temper is even worse than hers though, and she learns to hold her tongue and be loyal and loving to Petrucio.” I looked at Michael to see if any of what I said was striking a cord with him. “In other words, she learns that a civil tongue and kindness and lovingness will bring her more happiness than being a witch to Petrucio. You see?”

“Yeah, whatever. Can we finish this up? I’ve got the guys coming over to watch the game.”

I sighed. “Just take my notes, you will find the answers in them.”

“Can’t you do it for me
, babe? I just don’t get this.”

I so wanted to throw him out of the house. “No, I can’t just answer the questions for you. You have to write them yourself. Take my notes and you can do it later. Go home, watch the game, whatever. But I’m not doing the work for you.”

“Fine,” Michael pouted. “You’d think you’d be grateful to have me hanging out with you, it’s not like you’re popular.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So did you ask me out just to get me to help you with your English assignments?”

“Girls are always wanting to help me out,” Michael replied. “I don’t get what your problem is.”

“You know, you’re right. It’s my problem. You can return my notes tomorrow, or not, I really don’t care. Just don’t ask me for any help ever again.” I stood and held open the back door. “You can leave now.”

“I’m outta here. It’s no wonder no guys have ever asked you out, you’re a real bitch you know that?” Michael said grabbing his stuff.

“Oh you have no idea,” I said slamming the door behind him. I don’t know why I did it, except that I was really
, really angry and I probably shouldn’t work magic when I’m that upset, but I made lightening strike the tree overhanging his truck as soon as he tossed his books through the window and I saw him jump back in shock. I charred his books and all of my notes, crushed his truck with the weight of the very large tree. Lightening struck again, destroying everything inside the cab. Of course I didn’t hurt him, even though I really, really wanted to. Then I made it storm. A really bad storm too, with gale force winds and lots and lots of lightening.

“Somebody’s angry.”

I turned to see Daire cautiously step into the kitchen. I could still feel the power of the magic I was creating rolling through me. I didn’t often create storms on purpose, most of the time they were accidental. “Oh I am so past angry. I am absolutely livid,” I said in a deadly whisper. “I should have known better.”

“Michael still alive?” Daire asked with a raised eyebrow.

I smirked. “Yes, but his truck had a little accident with some lightening,” I paused and grinned, “and a tree branch.”

“Was he in it at the time?”

“No, unfortunately,” I said sourly and then I repented and the storm subsided. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just angry. I should have known that he would never have asked me out because he liked me. I’m still the weird girl.”

Daire pulled me into his arms and tilted my chin up. “You are not the weird girl. You are the Princess of Light and Illusion, you are better than any other woman in the world. Not one compares to you,
mo ghrá ach,”
he whispered softly as he caressed my cheek. It was those words again, and I knew I wasn’t hearing him wrong. My heart began to race and then he leaned in as if he were going to kiss me.

I wanted him, his kiss
, more than anything I’d ever wanted in the world. “Yes,” I breathed into him, my eyes fluttering closed and my hands slipping into his soft blonde hair and leaning just a bit closer to him.

He pulled back and laid his forehead against mine. “Princess, I should not take such liberties.”

I opened my eyes, giving him a tender look and reached up to stroke his cheek, “You cannot take what is freely given, Daire,” I said softly praying he would press his sweet lips to mine.

“We shouldn’t…”

“Why?” I asked incredulous that he would try to pull away now, deny what was going on between us.

“Because, you are the Princess…
you deserve
more
.”

“I don’t want
more
, Daire. I want you. I’ve always wanted you. It’s always been you,” I said quietly, pulling out of his arms and turning around.

“I…” Daire started.

“Abs! Bring some chips and your mother’s famous dip in here! The game is about to start!” Dad called from the living room.

“Did we miss anything?” Max asked flashing into the kitchen with Hunter and Ronny.

“I’ll get the drinks,” Ronny called as he raided the fridge.

“I’ve got the chips,” Hunter said grabbing the bag of Ruffles from the cabinet.

“Hey Abs, Daire, you coming in to watch the game?”

Daire and I both nodded, unable to speak.

“Good thing that storm passed quickly. Wow, did you see that lightening?” Hunter asked us.

“I’m sure she did.
I’m betting she’s the one that created it,” Ronny commented, grinning from ear to ear. “What did you do to piss her off, Daire?”
              “It wasn’t him,” I said not taking my eyes off of Daire.

“Well something got you
royally ticked…don’t tell me it was Michael…”

“Bingo,” Ronny said seeing me flinch at the mention of his name.

“Yeah, should have warned you about him sooner. He’s such a user,” Hunter replied.

“I should have known better,” I said softly, still staring at Daire.

“Come on, the game is gonna start,” Hunter grabbed Daire’s arm and pulled him into the living room, breaking our eye contact.

I sighed, grabbed the dip from the fridge and followed the boys into the living room to watch the game.

Chapter Ten

“Did you see that play? I can’t believe the Colts lost,” Hunter said sitting down to dinner.

“I know, who would have thought that Daniels had that kind of arm,” Ronny said shaking his head.

I smiled. I’d known, but they never listen to me. I glanced across the table and caught Daire’s eye. He gave me a half smile and then went back to eating silently. He hadn’t said a word since we left the kitchen. Since I’d told him that he was everything to me. And I could tell he was going to escape before I could get him alone to finish the conversation.

“Well Abs, I bet you’re
happy. The Saints have tied up the season. You think they’ll go all the way? I bet they go all the way if Daniels keeps playing like he did today.”

“Maybe,” I said with a smile.

“Olivia, dinner was delicious, however I must take my leave, if you will excuse me,” Daire said laying his napkin on the table and avoiding my eyes.

“Of course, dear. I’m glad you could join us.”

“I’ll just walk you out,” I said starting to rise.

“No. Stay with your family, enjoy dessert,” Daire replied still avoiding making eye contact.

He knew I couldn’t argue with him without drawing attention to the fact that I wanted to talk to him. I sat back down, gritting my teeth. “Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The evening passed quickly and I went to bed early, determined that I would get to speak with him before school and figure out what was going on between us. I’d love to say that I slept well, but I spent most of the night tossing and turning. I woke with a sl
ight headache and I hoped it would pass by the time I’d finished my morning routine. I climbed out of bed and jumped into the shower. The water felt divine as it poured over me, soothing my head and my heart.

I hurried getting dressed, pulling on my favorite black jeans and a dark green sweater. I gathered my damp hair up and pulled it through a scrunchy into a messy bun. I started to pull a belt through the loops when I felt the hilt of the swords Auberon had given me. I’d forgotten all about them. I hurried to get the belt on, pulled my warm black boots onto my feet, picked up my backpack and rushed down the stairs to the kitchen.

I came around the corner to see Cole sitting at the table instead of Daire and I stopped short. “What the…where’s Daire?”

Cole glanced up from his plate. “He said he’d see you at school. He had something to do this morning before class.”

Okay, he’d done this before. On occasion he’d had Cole take me to school because he’d had a meeting for football or some other activity. But today? Today I think he was still just avoiding me. I slid sullenly into my chair and picked at my eggs. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Princess, you have barely eaten.”

“Not hungry. Can we just go?” I said picking up my bag.

“Of course, Princess, if that is your wish.”

“Bye, Mom,” I called as we flashed to the edge of the forest that surrounded the school.

We walked up to the building, Cole completely glamoured so no one would notice the fierce Fae warrior walking by my side. We were almost there when Cole spun around, glance
d back to the forest from which we’d come. “Princess, go inside, find Daire! Now!”

“Wait! I want to help, what is it?”

“Now is not the time for target practice, Princess, go get Daire, Now!” Cole demanded shoving me into the building and taking off back toward the forest.

I tripped into the building, found my footing and took off for Daire’s locker. I found him hanging out with Meagan and a few other cheerleaders. “I need to talk to you, now,” I said vehemently.

“I’m busy right now, Abbey, can we talk about that stuff later?”

“It’s not that!” I said in frustration. “You know our friend, Cole?”

Daire went on alert, looking around to see that Cole wasn’t with me. “What does Cole need?”

“He’s having trouble, you know, with that thing…”

“Oh, right. I forgot I told him I’d help him out with that,” Daire said pushing away from his locker and starting down the hall. “I’ll be back later girls, gotta go help out a friend.”

“Hurry back, Daire! I’ll save you a seat in English,” Meagan called down the hall.

I rushed after Daire, finally catching up to him at the door. “Wait for me!”

Daire turned on me. “Stay here! It’s too dangerous, I won’t risk them getting to you!”

“And you think I want something to happen to you? I’m going Daire, you aren’t stopping me,” I said fervently.

“It’s not the same thing, my l
ove! I am trained for this, you-”

“If the next words out of your mouth are “You’re not”, you better rethink them. I’m going! Now hurry before Cole gets into trouble!” I said gently pushing him out of the door.

As we ran toward the forest I could tell Daire was thinking up some other excuse to keep me from following. “You don’t have any weapons,” he said when we’d nearly reached the edge of the forest.

“Want to bet on that?” I asked pulling Virtus from my hip.

“Where did…
Auberon
,” Daire said with a frown.

I nodded. “Now can we get on with this?”

“Where is he? I don’t see him!”

“He wouldn’t just leave,” Daire said cautiously. “Stop for a moment.”

We stood still listening for any sound or sign of where Cole could have gone. I closed my eyes and opened myself up psychically and let my conscience search the area. “There!” I said coming back to myself and pointing deeper into the woods.

We ran, swords drawn to find Cole struggling with three very large
, dark, nearly black creatures. My jaw dropped at the sight of them. They were huge, how they managed to navigate the trees was beyond me. They had to be at least ten feet tall, with triangular like heads. They breathed fire, had talons as sharp as any claws, bodies that were massive, like elephants, but they stood on two feet and had giant leathery wings.
Dragons
. And not the nice shifter dragons either. These were to real deal, Black-blooded battle dragons. They were the Queen of Darkness’s pets and very deadly. As my mind wrapped around the sight of the three dragons in our woods, Cole was shielding to keep from being incinerated by their fiery breath.

“Be careful
, Daire!” I shouted as he ran into the fray to help Cole. It was the wrong thing to do because it called the center dragon’s attentions to me. I threw up a shield just in time.

“Abbey!” Daire shouted as he jumped and spun in the air, sword raised and slicing throug
h the scaly black neck of the dragon attacking me. It crumbled to the ground, black blood spewing from it’s now decapitated neck.

“I’m fine! Look out for yourself!” I shouted back as I raised my swo
rd and charged the dragon on my left. I know I shouldn’t have, it was a dangerous thing to do. Did I mention they were massive? But it worked, the dragon wasn’t expecting it and I was able to slice its legs out from under it. I managed to just get out of the way as it fell screeching, but I was now covered in black blood and sinew.

“Move Abbey!” Daire called running toward me. He flipped in the air again, and as h
e came down he took the dragon’s head off and it rolled a few feet.

With two dragon
s down, and one left we turned to see Cole destroy the last one. Daire took out some Fae dust and blew it onto the creatures, causing them to shrivel into nothing and disappear.

“What the hell is that? And why didn’t you use
that
while they were fighting us?” I asked.

“It is dust from Never Never. It send
s the creatures back into Faerie, so the humans don’t come across any new species of creature or rather mythical creature and try to detect their DNA. It only works on the dead, Princess,” Cole said breathing hard and turning on Daire. “How could you let her come-out here? You know she is the one they are after!”

Daire nodded, “I know, she wouldn’t listen to reason! Auberon gave her Virtus and
, I assume, Sapientia, which she chose not to pull.
Typical
. If she had she would have backed off and let us handle it instead of charging in!”

“I’m not some helpless girl! I have been trained by the best Fae Warriors we have, it is not as though I haven’t earned my chance to do my share! And I wasn’t about to let you
come-out here and get yourself killed because of me!”

Daire sighed and pulled me to his chest
, not caring that I was dripping with dragon blood. “You see? This is why we cannot be together,
Mo ghra ach.
You…your safety is our first priority,” he said stroking my hair. “I am your guard; I have pledged to give my life for your safety. I can’t do that if you come charging into the fight, to defend me. Worrying about you will get us both killed,” he said softly.

“Worrying about you, not helping you would kill me,” I replied
. “If anything happened to you…you have no idea what I would be capable of.”

“Don’t you see? That is why we can’t continue with this, you shouldn’t feel this way about your guard, Princess,” he said softly.

“I can’t change the fact that I love you Daire, and I won’t allow you to deny that you love me too,” I said touching his cheek.

Daire looked at me sadly, leaned in and kissed me, softly, passionately. I couldn’t get enough and then the kiss changed to something more, something with an edge to it. As though he were saying goodbye. My heart squeezed tight in my chest and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t even fathom the depth of emotions that ran through me at that moment, but I knew when he let go, he’d be gone.

“Princess, we must go, you are already late for class,” Cole said softly.

I opened my eyes and Daire was gone. Flashed away to goddess knows where.
Again. “I…can’t,” I stuttered dropping to my knees. “Why? Why would he leave me?” I asked, looking up at Cole, begging him for an answer, any answer that made sense.

Cole sighed and pulled me up into his arms. “Because of this
, Princess. He believes he will make you weak. That you will compromise yourself to save him and he can’t allow you to do that. He can’t be the reason you are killed or taken. It is why he has resisted pursuing you, why he has dated so many others in hopes of discouraging you, this feeling between the two of you.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks. “Loving him does not make me weak,” I said softly. “Why can’t he see that?”

Cole shook his head. “I don’t know Princess. Come, we must get you to class, before anyone questions where you have been.”

“I’ve already glamoured the school, they think I’m in class,” I said through the haze that was fogging my thoughts. How could he just leave me like that? I asked myself. Maybe he just needed time, time to work through whatever issues that caused him to think that he couldn’t do his job if he was in love with me. I sent up a quick prayer to the heavens that he would come back to me safely and to give
me the strength to stand up and be a leader of my people even if he didn’t. I stood up with new resolve. I wasn’t going to be defeated. I wasn’t going to let him destroy our love, for some antiquated notion. I could love him, and still be a powerful leader and fighter for our people. I used a bit of Fae magic to clean myself up, took a deep breath and then pronounced, “I’m ready.”

“Are you sure Princess?”

I stared at Cole, and I knew he understood when he smiled at me. “I knew you were no weak woman. However Princess, in the future, please don’t come charging into the fray without a regard for your own safety.”

“My safety is very much front and center of my mind Cole, but I will not stand back and allow you or anyone to fight my fights for me
any longer. I will be a strong leader in all things. I’m not going to sit idly on the throne and allow others to do what I can do for myself.”

Cole nodded. “I don‘t know if you are wise beyond your years, or just foolish, but I will always be here to protect you, Princess,” he said taking my hand and leading me out of the woods.