Pema's Storm: Rowan Sisters' Trilogy Book 1 (13 page)

After several attempts, he was on all fours and limping back to his truck. As he reached the door, he closed his eyes and pictured Pema laughing with her sisters. She hadn’t laughed for him yet, and he wanted that as much as he wanted to claim her. He loved her, and wanted to tell her. He wanted a life and cubs with her. Gathering his strength, he managed to shift and grab his cell phone. He dialed Hayden then oblivion closed in.

*****

Ronan abruptly awoke, enveloped by cold water. He inhaled several lungful’s of the liquid before he sat up and coughed, expelling the water. His vision was blurry, but he heard familiar voices. Hayden was there with Jace and a couple of Hayden’s lieutenants. Where was he and why didn’t he remember anything? He blinked, clearing his eyes and focused on Jace, who was hovering over him. He tried to stand up, but he was weak as a cub and fell back onto his ass. Memories of the fight with the hellhounds came flooding back as the pain in his body registered.

“Hey, Ronan, don’t move. I need to get these wounds sealed and stop the bleeding. I will have to stitch some of them, but I need to get you cleaned so I can see what is what. You are covered in blood and…demon slime?” Jace’s voice lifted at the end in clear question, as he laid his warm hands on Ronan’s side.

“Pema,” Ronan croaked out. “How is she? Is she safe?” He had to know that she was alive and safe, nothing else mattered.

“Relax, she is doing well. Better than you, I’d wager. I was able to heal all her injuries and she is with her sisters at Zeum,” Jace replied continuing his assessment.

“She warned us that something was wrong with you before your call came in. I just spoke with her and let her know we found you,” Hayden added from the side of the stream. Only then did he realize that he was in the stream and that Jace was knee deep in the cold water with him.

“We need to move you to the truck. Your shoulder and side will have to be stitched. Unfortunately, my healing power does nothing against the venom in the wounds. What did you encounter out here?” Jace asked the question directly this time.

The nod sent pain winging through his skull and he almost lost his dinner. Jace reached down and helped him stand up. “Thanks. I had just let my bear out for a run when a foreign magic caught me off guard. It was the oddest thing, appearing between one breath and the next. Anyway, I followed the malignant magic and the stench and came across two hellhounds. I didn’t know what they were, but my bear somehow did. Long story short, we battled, I won. Their remains are about ten minutes north-west of here.”

“Any landmarks we can use to find them?” Hayden asked.

“That direction,” Ronan pointed over his shoulder and hissed at the agony the movement caused. “Follow the stench, you can’t miss it.”

“We’ll take care of it and meet you back at your truck,” Hayden said.

Ronan and Jace were walking out of the stream, closing the distance between them. “Sure thing, but, if you’re here, who is with Pema?” Dizziness almost had him passing out and he shook his head to clear it.

“Pema is fine. The Vampire King and several Dark Warriors are with her. And, there is a contingent of shifters surrounding Zeum. You will be with her soon enough,” Hayden related before he headed off through the trees.

Back at the truck, he sat on the tailgate and watched Jace retrieve his medical kit. As the healer prepped everything, Ronan closed his eyes and focused on the fact that he was going to be with Pema soon.

Pema tossed a broken jar into the trash and took in the destruction that surrounded her. She wiped her dusty hands on her blue jeans, tears filling her eyes. The store she and her sisters had worked so hard for was in ruins, and it was all because of her and her mate.

It was her job to take care of her sisters, and here she was the reason they nearly lost their lives. It made her feel even worse that they didn’t blame her, but were planning to avenge her. She glanced over and saw Isis was near the front, sweeping the safety glass into a pile while Suvi held a shovel like a dust pan.

“Are you kidding me Suvi?” Pema asked incredulous, noticing for the first time what her sister was wearing.

“What?” Suvi paused and looked up.

Isis stopped, as well, and leaned on the broom with a smirk on her face. “The shoes, Suvi. Only you would wear platform sandals to clean up after a bomb blast,” Isis said with a chuckle.

Suvi picked up her foot and turned it this way and that. “These are my everyday-schlepping-around-shoes. Plus, my toes are drying. I just had a pedicure.”

“No, those would be my going-out-on-the-town-shoes.
These
are everyday shoes,” Pema said as she pointed to her black and white Converse.

They all burst out laughing before resuming their tasks. Pema glanced around and walked over to the destroyed RockCandy jewelry display. She wanted to burst into tears when she saw that they had lost everything. She knew her sisters were watching her and talking about the same, but she ignored them or she would lose it.

Claire’s name caught her attention and she listened to them plotting which instantly dried her tears and spiked her anger. Claire had tried to kill her again! This time, she had enough evidence to provide the elders with proof of her culpability. Thank the Goddess she caught sight of the car and license plate number. The partial, along with the make and model, allowed Killian to work his magic on the computer and connect the car to Claire. That was enough in the Tehrex Realm to convict her of attempted murder. Things in their world didn’t work like they did in the human world.

She refused to allow Claire to ruin her life, which was why she and her sisters had refused to stay at Zeum any longer. They needed to get back to business and to do that they needed to clean up the ruins of Black Moon. Of course, a contingent of shifters and Dark Warriors had followed them. The Vampire King had refused to take any chances with their safety. She didn’t object, wanting all the help she could get with the repairs.

Ronan had found her knee-deep in rubble two hours ago. Automatically, her eyes traveled back to her sexy shifter. Ronan’s lithe body and bulging muscles rippled in his tight red t-shirt and low-slung black jeans as he and Hayden hung plywood over the empty window frames. The sight made her heart race and her abdomen clench with need as her core ached to have him fill her.

She noted that his injuries weren’t healing as they should have been and cringed when she recalled him telling her about his fight with two hellhounds. Realm leaders were worried that there were portals between realms appearing and disappearing. Apparently, the Vampire Prince, Kyran, had been running from a burning house and slipped through a portal, vanishing into thin air with a human female over his shoulder. No one had heard from him since, or knew where he was.

This latest appearance of hellhounds had the leaders deep in discussion. There had been a huge battle between Dark Warriors and numerous demons and hellhounds, and it wasn’t a good sign that there were still demons coming through the veil to earth.

Pema refocused on the activity around her. Ronan had put significant effort into making sure their shop was restored. She fell more in love with him. No one besides her sisters, had ever worried so much about her, and it was nice. She was beginning to understand some of what her mother must have felt. She didn’t want to sympathize with her mom and was still angry that her father was hurt, but it was there, nonetheless.

After the wood was in place, Ronan turned, sensing her eyes on him, and crossed to her side. Like always when they were together, the rest of the world dropped away. They stood there silently staring at each other, his gaze revealing all the desire and love he felt for her. He reached out and wrapped her in his arms and cupped her cheeks. It was one of the most intimate moments of her life, and she realized that she loved him.

She inhaled his wonderfully masculine, pine scent. It went straight to her head, making her body molten and her arousal instantly painful. She needed him more than she needed to breathe, and for the first time she
wanted
to complete their mating. Ronan was a passionate male and it was obvious to her how much he loved her. The biggest factor in his favor was that it wasn’t merely the biology of the mating compulsion driving him, he truly saw
her
. She feared opening herself to loss, but realized true loss would be not having him at all.

But first, she had to take care of Claire. She wasn’t going to live with that danger hanging over them.

Ronan rubbed his thumb across her jaw and leaned down, kissing her lightly on the lips. “I can see your wheels churning. While your determination is sexy as hell, put whatever you are planning out of your head.”

Irritation blazed through her. He may be her mate, but he still had a few things to learn about her. She wasn’t putting anything aside or letting anything go. “That’s not going to happen, but you don’t need to worry. Everything will be fine. My sisters and I will handle it.”

“I don’t like the sound of that, love. I don’t want you doing anything crazy,” he gazed intently into her eyes, “like challenging Claire. I’m told that she and her mother are very powerful witches. Don’t do anything on your own. We have people to help us deal with them. I couldn’t stand it if you were hurt.”

He brought his lips back to hers and this time he kissed her soundly. She gave herself over to the wet slide of their tongues, wanting more when he stopped and pulled away. His eyes were bright cognac with his desire for her. “I love you, Pema. You are my life.”

She stood there stunned beyond belief. Through their connection, she felt the sincerity of his words and tears sprang to her eyes. “I love you too, Ronan,” she declared, shocked by the truth of her words, “but I need to finish this before we can be together.”

“Those three little words have never meant more to me than coming from you. What we have,” he said, gesturing between them, “is the most precious gift the Goddess bestows, and you can’t jeopardize that by doing what you are thinking. You are talented, yes, but you aren’t invincible. Claire’s mother has centuries of untold experience. You risk yourself, and understand that if something happens to you, I can’t be responsible for what I would do. I would destroy the world if you weren’t in it,” he replied, wrapping her in a hug and holding her tight, as if he was afraid she would bolt on him.

She gently cupped his stubbled cheek and met his warm chocolate gaze squarely. “You underestimate me. Besides, I have something they don’t. The power of three, baby,” she boasted, nodding to her sisters.

“Hell yeah, she does,” answered Suvi, moving her neck around to punctuate her words.

“Together, we are the most powerful witches alive, Ronan. United, no one can beat us. And I, for one, have some payback to mete out. That bitch almost killed my sister twice and she wrecked our shop,” Isis vented through gritted teeth.

Ronan glared at her sisters and picked her up. She gladly wrapped her legs around his hips, resting her hands on his broad shoulders.

“Mark my words, I will not risk my mate’s life, end of discussion,” Ronan told her and her sisters. She felt him tremble with his emotions, and knew she couldn’t push him on this.

“Mark my words,
mate
, everything is up for discussion.” She kissed him feverishly and pulled back when the others began hooting and hollering. “But, I promise not to do anything that will put me in danger.” With her sisters on her side, she had no worries about facing Claire.

*****

Several hours later, Pema stood back and perused the containment circle she and her sisters had set into the earth of the Japanese Garden. It had been a gamble when she had stolen Ronan’s cell phone and used it to send Claire a message asking her to meet at this location.

She felt guilty for deceiving Ronan and placing him under a sleep spell, but she didn’t feel like she had any other choice. He wouldn’t allow her to do what needed to be done, and she didn’t want him caught in the middle. She and her sisters were going to try and get a confession, but Pema knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

This battle was going to be about magic, not brute force. Ronan had no way to protect against it and Pema would be too distracted, worrying about what might happen to him. She needed all her focus on the coming battle. Taking care of Claire was the only way for them to proceed with their mating.

The circle was hidden, and since Claire wasn’t a strong witch, hopefully she wouldn’t detect anything before she was trapped in the middle of it. Pema tucked her wand in the back waistband of her jeans and zipped up her jacket, shielding herself against the cold of a fall night in Seattle. She was nervous about doing this spell without her usual accoutrements. There would be no candles, herbs, altars or athames. They had to rely solely on their power, and the fact that it was close to a full moon. A full moon would have given them more power, but Pema didn’t want to wait even one more day.

“Tell me again why we can’t just kill her? Why the truth spell?” Isis glanced around the park expectantly. She had disagreed with this whole set-up, saying they should eliminate her altogether.