Possessed (Book One of the Hollow City Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (3 page)

“Do well for yourself out there,” she said. “It’s a big world, so be slow and find your way.”

Before Gillian could stammer out her thanks, Marceline was gone, leaving her alone with Nebpu and Shayne. She hastily bid goodbye to the sphinx, hurrying out to the sidewalk with Shayne.

“If you don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here,” she said bluntly. “My work is too important to be threatened by people who see this as an onerous duty.”

He looked surprised and then irritated. “I gave my word to your coven master that I will protect you, make sure you go where you need to, and come back. My word means something to me.”

She nodded, if reluctantly, since she didn’t have much choice. “All right.”

He led her to a sleek black car that was double-parked not far away. When she handed him her bag, he tossed it into the back seat before climbing in as well.

“Hold on,” was all the warning she got before he sped down the road.

After a moment of surprise, she made a delighted sound that made him risk a quick look at her.

“I learned combat driving in the Middle East a few years ago,” he offered. “Hard habit to break, and sometimes it spooks people.”

“It doesn’t spook me,” she said cheerfully. “I’m someone with a need for speed.”

He grinned at that, his eyes on the road. It would be three hours at least, so she settled in to watch for cop cars. Though LAX was an international airport, there was an airfield outside of Palm Springs that was used exclusively for Wiccan purposes. The drive mostly passed in silence, though Gillian found it repeatedly on the tip of her tongue to ask him whether he remembered her at all.

At the almost deserted air field, Shayne parked near a metal hut. They climbed out as a no-nonsense young woman with purple hair and dressed in coveralls came out to meet them.

“Granger and Savatier?”

“That’s us,” Gillian said. “We’re headed to Port Ilya.”

The woman checked her smartphone.

“Sounds good. If you two want to board, I’ll only be a minute.”

Gillian was about to start for the plane when it seemed as if a rock fell out of the sky. She barely prevented herself from shouting when the bird flared out its wings, braking before it hit the ground. Then it fluttered up again to land on Shayne’s shoulder.

“Is that a hawk?”

“A peregrine, to be precise. Her name is Vlasti. Be careful, she’s not fond of new people.”

The words were barely out of his mouth before Vlasti decided to take matters into her own claws. With an irritated cry, she swept across the space between them and landed on Gillian’s shoulder. Gillian flinched, expecting the talons to dig in hard, but Vlasti’s movements were as gentle as sunlight. For a moment, Gillian held her breath as the small fierce bird settled. Then she smiled as the bird nibbled on her ear with a sharp beak.

“So, not fond of new people?”

“I don’t…” Shayne’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “What’s that in your pocket?”

“Oh, I guess he woke up.”

Gillian moved slowly, but the disruption still caused Vlasti to make an angry hissing noise before hopping back to Shayne’s shoulder. Gillian pulled a large black rat from her coat pocket. He was the size of a small kitten. When he realized that he had been removed from his warm, dark place, he looked around, bright-eyed and alert.

“This is Max. He’s pretty friendly.”

Shayne held a tentative finger out to the small animal, letting Max sniff him. On his shoulder, Vlasti stirred restlessly, her natural prey in sight. But familiar did not attack familiar.

“I wouldn’t have expected a rat from you,” he said. “Perhaps an owl or a falcon, like Vlasti here.”

Gillian wondered if she should be insulted by that, but then she decided to be pleased instead.

“A rat made perfect sense to me,” she said briskly. “I was raised by my aunt and uncle, but for most of my teens, I was practically a street kid. I lived in L.A., and I saw plenty of rats there. They always knew where they could find food. They understood that their best bet of making it was with other rats. They survived.”

It occurred to her what she was saying. She blushed a little, but she was saved from further humiliation by the arrival of the pilot.

The jet was small and snug, but it was certainly enough to get them to Port Ilya. She settled into one of the four seats behind the cockpit. Shayne sat in the seat across the aisle from her, Vlasti taking a perch on the back of his chair. Max, content that there was nothing delicious that Gillian was hiding from him, curled back into her pocket to sleep.

The plane lifted off smoothly, and soon the buffs and tans of the desert were slipping past as they headed east.

“So what are you looking for?” Shayne asked.

Gillian blinked, staring at him. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Wouldn’t have asked you if I did,” he said with a slight smile.

She shook her head. “They should have told you. I’m perfectly okay to put myself on the line, but anyone they wanted to send with me should have been warned.”

Instead of being frightened or irritated by this news, Shayne grinned slightly instead.

“I don’t know if there’s any risk that you’re willing to take that I wouldn’t,” he said. “And as Marceline said, I’m kind of in the doghouse right now.”

“So I’m a punishment.”

The words were oddly deflating. It seemed like the strangest kind of serendipity that she had met this man with the odd-colored eyes again, but now she wasn’t sure how she felt.

To his credit, Shayne seemed to understand. At least, he sat up straighter and shook his head.

“No, you’re not a punishment, but you’re not my normal job. I’m a combat specialist. I can unleash a lot of mayhem when the situation calls for it, though I don’t see that happening much on a library trip.”

“Library?” Gillian blinked. “Did they tell you absolutely nothing about where we’re going?”

He shrugged. “Not exactly. The commander told me that it was a research job, so follow you someplace and make sure that the locals don’t try to take a bite out of you when you need to make some tracings, I guess.”

Gillian knew right then that she should send Shayne back. If she was really resolute, she would have had the pilot land the jet and put him off. But now that they were underway, really underway, she couldn’t.

“We’re looking for Tenebris.”

She said the words with some satisfaction, only now realizing how long she’d wanted to say them. But when Shayne started to laugh, she felt something inside her crumble.

“Tenebris? You’re looking for the Hollow City? Why didn’t you just make things easy on yourself and start looking for Atlantis instead?”

“I know where we’re going,” she said, her face flushing.

Shayne shook his head, still chuckling.

“Hells below, I knew the main office was pissed at me, but I didn’t know it was this bad. Seriously girl, what the hell were you thinking? Wait. Did someone put you up to this?”

Gillian had to consciously stop from grinding her teeth. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t heard worse over the years, but somehow coming from her ‘escort,’ it stung.

“No one put me up to this,” she said. “I’m on a mission to find Tenebris.”

Shayne’s laughter died away, but it was replaced by an incredulous look.

“You’re serious. You’re actually going to go looking for a legendary city.”

Gillian’s gaze was frosty.

“I am. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me, either. If you’re going to continue laughing at me, I’m going to send you back as soon as we get to Port Ilya. After that, at least you won’t be my problem any more.”

The colonel’s eyes were difficult to meet. Under his gaze, she felt her skin heat. She shuddered a little, but she lifted her chin defiantly.

“All right,” he said slowly. “Where exactly do you think we’re going, Miss Granger?”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“Do you really want to know, or are you just curious to see how deep this particular hole in my head goes?”

His grin was brief.

“The more information I have, the better,” he said. “By all means.”

Gillian relaxed fractionally. Without thinking about it, she reached into her pocket, where Max nibbled on her gloved fingers encouragingly.

“Tenebris is a story, that is true. But once upon a time there was a boy who was fascinated with the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. As he grew older, he became obsessed with the idea of discovering the ancient foundation of Troy, the site of the Trojan war. He researched, he searched, and he paid a lot of people a lot of money to help him. In the end, he found the ruins of the city, and deep beneath the rubble, he found evidence of a great fire, just the event that brought the historical city of Troy down.”

“And you see yourself in this man?” Shayne’s voice was skeptical, but at least he was listening.

Gillian shook her head.

“He blew through seven layers of archaeologically important cities to get to the one he wanted. I like to think that I’m a lot more careful. But when I first heard the myths about the Hollow City, I was enthralled. I needed to know more, and after that, I couldn’t let it be.”

Shayne made an exasperated sound. “A magical city founded by ancient Wiccans. I’ve heard the stories too, Granger, and what I remember is that it sounded like it was straight out of
Lord of the Rings
.”

Gillian permitted herself a small smile.

“You have to go looking hard for the truth sometimes,” she admitted. “I don’t believe that there is a city of flying cars and towers that can hide itself by sinking into the ground. However, stories of women riding the clouds and of men turning into panthers and wolves? Well, I know more than one witch that can fly, and I think everyone knows a shape-shifter. There’s something at the heart of those stories. I know there is.”

Shayne looked speculative.

“And what exactly is it that you expect to find?” he asked finally. “Are you hoping to find some kind of magic or advanced ancient technology that will make you rich? Some trove of treasure?”

At that, Gillian laughed. Vlasti, perched on the back of Shayne’s seat, ruffled his feathers before calming again.

“Now who’s been reading too many pulp novels?” she said. “You make me sound like Lara Croft or Indiana Jones. No. I’m not after something that’s going to make me rich or famous. I suspect that whatever’s left of Tenebris, whatever remnants those people left behind, it won’t be the great gifts that they tried to share with the world.”

“And what do you think is going to be left?”

“Honestly? Not much. But there will be something that is left behind. Through that, we’re going to learn more about the ancient inhabitants, and we’re going to know more about ourselves.”

Shayne shook his head, his expression halfway between amused and tolerant.

“So we’re going to head across the world to Port Ilya, and from there, we’re going to travel across the ocean just so we can
start
your quest for a place that most scholars assume doesn’t exist. Am I right so far?”

“I take exception to the idea that most scholars assume it doesn’t exist. I would say at least half give grudging credence to the fact that something like Tenebris once stood. But they are at a loss as to where it was or, even in some cases, what it was.”

Shayne looked amused, but his next question was pointed.

“So what do you want with it?” he asked.

Gillian hesitated. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him what she had told Marceline. Tenebris fascinated her with an allure that bordered on obsession. It was a chance to claim a piece of missing Wiccan history. More than that, it was a chance to prove her worth.

“It will tell me where I came from,” she said instead. “It will tell me about this…this world I’ve fallen into, and how I fit into it.”

“You fit into it by being you,” Shayne observed. “The Wiccan world isn’t some kind of monolith where you need to be just like everyone else, Granger. It’s a place with space to be who you are. We live long enough that we change from year to year, from century to century. You don’t have to win your place or anything like that by doing something like finding Tenebris.”

She shook her head, ignoring the old feelings welling up inside. She could have put him off with a canned response, but instead, to her surprise, she was truthful.

“Maybe that’s what you think,” she retorted. “But not for me. I’ve only been awakened for a few years. It’s the blink of an eye for someone like Marceline or Nebpu. They look at me and they see someone who is just beginning. It might be centuries before they recognize me as a part of their world, and I…I can’t wait.”

Shayne’s gaze was slightly troubled.

“That’s not how it works,” he said. “We’re Wiccans, and there aren’t that many of us. We can’t afford to simply wait centuries before we truly welcome people into our ranks. If you’re Wiccan, you’re Wiccan. If you are a witch or a warlock, there is a community that is open to you, that wants to support you.”

“I don’t believe that,” Gillian said flatly. “I’ve not shown my worth yet. I will, though. When I find Tenebris, I will.”

“I awakened almost a thousand years ago. Men, at least the men I knew, were little more than beasts in some ways. We fought for rank. We fought for food. We fought simply to prove that we were still alive. That changed when I fell in bed with a young woman in the Holy Land. I woke up able to throw fire. Not long after that John Lancaster, an English knight, found me. He pulled me away from the hovel I’d been living in. He cleaned me up, and he told me that I needed to get right with the world because I was Wiccan. That meant that I had a world waiting for me, and I should try to be worthy of it.”

Gillian nodded. “See? You needed to earn your place, just as I said.”

“And what I needed to do to earn my place was to quit being a wine bag that was getting tossed out of every brothel on the Mediterranean coast,” Shayne said with a grin. “I needed to learn how to use my powers so I wouldn’t hurt myself. I needed to learn about the world I lived in, and I needed to learn how to protect myself. Even if you look closely, you will see no indication that I had to go find a lost and mythical city to prove myself to the Wiccan world at large.”