Shane: Dragon’s Savior – Ménage Erotic Fantasy (Dragon's Savior Book 4) (10 page)

“And the walls going up today…do you know what that is?” Lelani said she didn’t know, but it was nice, wasn’t it? “Yes. It’s wonderful, but I’d like to know who I have to thank for this. It’s saved us a great deal of work.”

“I would say your wives, yours and Jed’s.” Shane asked her if they’d done it. “No, but the babes are going to be safer within these walls than out if trouble comes. The earth, it knows that a princess has been born, and a new dragon speaker as well. The wall that we all built, it was to save the castle; they’re saving the children. Sometimes the earth does things because it knows better than a person does. You should think of that sometimes before you speak. Or not speak at all. That would make me happy.”

Shane laughed, but covered it with a cough when Asher pinned him with a look. It was funny to him the way that he and Lelani went at each other all the time. Shane had asked her if she hated his brother, and she’d assured him it was just too much fun not to get him going. He supposed that everyone had to have some fun.

“Is something coming? You said that, that someone was coming.” Lelani nodded, but didn’t answer when Essie and the other women joined them. Shane wanted answers, but he wasn’t sure what the questions would be just now. He was so excited about the castle being complete that his mind couldn’t wrap around the person coming.

“I think we have to sit down and talk, all of us. There are things going on, underhanded things, that you need to be made aware of. While the dragons here are safe, I’ve taken precautions in keeping the others unaware. But it’s time I told you about my sister and mother.” Asher nodded, but said nothing as he held his wife. Essie looked beautiful, and Lindsey nearly glowed with good health. He wondered if it was the earth doing that, or if Lelani had a lot to do with it.

As they made their way to the big house, Shane wondered about the things she was going to tell them. He knew about the Heralds and their clan. He also knew a little about her family history. Not much, but enough that he knew that she’d not had an easy life. When they were seated in the living room of the main house, he and Keion watched her pace the room. This was going to be bad, he knew it.

Chapter 5

Jacob had spoken to his lady wife about their daughters-in-law and the men, monsters really, that wanted to kill the witches that had been as much a part of the earth as the dragons had. She had explained a great deal to him.

He’d known there were fanatics out there, men and women, who would rather destroy than to understand. It mattered little if it was good or bad; if it didn’t conform to whatever idea they had in their head, then they would get rid of it. Murder usually, or simply destroying the very foundations that they used. He’d seen a smaller version of that growing up. Men wanting sons and turning out their daughters and wives when none were born to them. Stupid people.

“My mother was at the stake when she met the king and queen. I know that her version of the events is much different than what really happened. Even Rohm Herald, the man who the group calling themselves the Heralds is named for, had something different in his telling as well. But Caroline was there. I found out later that nearly half the people there were also witches, looking like men so as not to be found out. They were coming to see if they could help her when the time came.” Jacob turned to the lovely witch Caroline when she entered the room. “Caroline, you should tell them what really happened that night. And whatever information you might have about what happened before and after. Like how Michael Herald really died.”

Caroline was older than him. He thought for sure she might have been around when his king and queen had been born. Of course he’d never ask her, but she had a way about her that made one think old world. And what surprised him most of all was that she wasn’t jaded in her age. She took things in stride as if she were a young person. He thought he liked that the most about her. But she wasn’t one to trifle with. Her temper was slow to burn; she took her time in getting angry. But once it was unleashed, it was a fury that would fell armies. He’d seen her do that only the one time, and it had been more than enough for him.

“I was there, yes. I knew part of the plan that Anthony and Eve had come up with, not all as it didn’t involve me, and we were warned not to interfere with the lives of the others. I had told my king that morning that Mary was in trouble, that her babe too would be killed when she was murdered. I knew not of the second child; I don’t think anyone did but the two of them. It was the beginning, I think; of them getting things set for their children. Anyway, the queen had not yet delivered her children by then, I think now, but took a chance to go and see Mary that night to help the unborn child.” Caroline sat down next to him and held his hand as she finished. Jacob knew that this was hard on her, remembering things that were better left untold. But she’d do it for them. “They offered Mary a better life, for her child and herself.” Shane asked about Lelani. “They knew I’m sure, as I said. The two of them would not have told Mary, thinking her to want double what they were offering. But they knew that there would be twins born of Mary. It wouldn’t have hurt them to give her more, but I believe they thought it safer for the child for it to be a secret. My lady queen knew also that Mary would take it wrong and think, as everyone did, that the firstborn would be given all the powers that she gave the child. It had been that way for centuries when a man had a son of his own, no matter how many female children were born to him first. However, what she didn’t know, nor care to understand, was that Lelani had her own powers before she was born, and that Erin, the firstborn, got very little from her mother. My lady queen gave Lelani some magic, a few things to help her survive her childhood, but she was born with all that she has even now. Other than long life that she gave to Mary and her, Erin never was much of a witch. Lelani, she was born with immortality.”

“My mother was an herbal witch. Her powers weren’t that strong, as Caroline said, but she had them. She could mix some herbs, cure some infections, and when she was lucky help a woman through some difficult childbirth pangs. There wasn’t really any true magic. But she made out that she was this great and powerful witch, telling everyone, as she had Rohm, that she could control events and elements. My mother could mix a nice smokescreen when necessary too, but not anything like she claimed she could.” Lelani sat down again. “After she was gone, it was easy enough to find out what she’d said, who she had lied to and promised things that she’d never have delivered should she have lived. Rohm believed that my mother had tricked his son into having sex with her when it was consensual between them. Michael’s own wife believed what he told her, going so far as to have one of their servants beat a woman to death when she came to tell her of a child. But she soon began to think that there were too many with claims, and they did look like her husband’s true children as well. The children—because he also had several bastards in addition to my sister and me—were paid no more support than he did his own children when they needed him. When his wife found out about my mother and the child, she told him she’d quit him if he didn’t have her gotten rid of. When he did nothing, she went to her father-in-law and demanded that he take care of the lying woman.”

Jacob wondered how a person could simply ignore their responsibilities to a child. How could anyone just abandon them when they helped create them? His own lady wife had no answer for that either when he’d posed the question to her earlier. He listened as Lelani continued.

“When Erin and I were born, there wasn’t much in the way of celebrations, I was told. Mother had no money despite the king making sure that she was paid monthly, as was the staff there. And as she had no friends anyway, there would have been few that would have come should she have had a celebration. Mother would borrow, yet never repay, from the very people that were to protect us. Even steal when Erin expressed a desire for something that was well out of their price range.” She laughed then, bitterly and sad. “From the first I knew that I was different than my sister. While she was given nearly everything she wanted, even if Mother had to kill to get it, I was left on my own. The king and queen were gone by then. There was no one I could turn to, so the staff and their children got me through my younger years. One of the boys taught me to ride like a man. Another showed me how to use a bow and arrow. I was taught to fight, to use a sword. To spit and curse. By the time that my mother got it in her head that nothing would ever harm us, I had distanced myself from her and Erin a great deal. It would be days, sometimes weeks, before I would return home, only to find that they hadn’t noticed or cared. Then it was either leave the area that I’d grown up in or be taken down with Erin when she got it in her head that she was going to work whatever magic she had to in order to be the richest woman alive.”

“Your mother would come to watch us in the yard.” Lelani nodded at him, and Jacob felt his face heat up. “I’m sorry. I should have taken care to watch over them, I guess, but I never got the impression that it would do me any good. I never knew that there were two of you, daughters I mean. We only saw the one child, and until now, never knew what had happened to either your mother or sister. I knew, of course, that she had died, but not any details about her death. And I even heard about Rohm and his family of affairs. But as we were safe here, upon our own grounds, we didn’t bother much with the outside world that was right around us. We did leave out treats at first, extra food for your family, only to go back and find that it had been destroyed, the food thrown around as if it wasn’t good enough for them.”

“To them, it more than likely wasn’t. Nothing was ever good enough unless it was expensive or approved of by Erin. Mom had decided that the king and queen had blessed them in singling out her and her Erin, and I think it went to her head. I know that it did my sister’s. She was going to be great, the one that would bring down the people that had killed them, they both thought. But Erin could barely fashion a spell to make the garden grow better, much less take on a job such as finding the people who had killed the king.” Lelani sat down again now and held on to her mates’ hands. Jacob could see that they loved her, and he loved her all the more for being there. “They’re all dead now, their line dried up not long after the castle came down. There are so few of the bloodline left that was there that night that it’s doubtful that they’d be able to trace their line back to their ancestors at all. I had nothing to do with it. I think that a curse was put upon those that came to the castle with ill will, and they all just simply stopped producing children. It was a good one, I think. No one can lay claims on things that you might have found here.”

Kiaran cleared his throat, and they all looked at him when he spoke. “Your mother was eventually killed, and as much as it pains me to tell you this, your sister was the cause of it. Erin has it in her memories, how she had gone to one of the members of the newly formed Herald and told them that Mary frequented an area off the land that was theirs. Erin had it in her head that she’d be the queen of the household if her mother was gone. To her, you were never a threat. So when your mother ventured too far from the house and the protection there, men were waiting for her and took her to the grounds used to murder innocent women. I don’t, however, know what happened to your sister other than she reached out to me and asked me to take her being.” Jacob watched Lelani when Kiaran spoke, and he could see the heartbreak on her face. “You never got to look at her memories. Whenever you wish, I’m there for you.”

“I think I have my answer now. But should you like to have those memories taken out, I can do that for you. You were never meant to hold them forever, I don’t think. Though knowing my sister, she more than likely thought that you’d find her murderer and avenge her death. Perhaps she thought you’d bring her back from the dead as well.” It wasn’t funny, and the laughter that spilled from Lelani’s lips wasn’t filled with humor either. She was hurt by this…her sister, her death, the way she had been treated. Jacob could only hope that she was feeling the love that they had for her, and that she’d know that she was their family as well. “I guess, even after all this time, I don’t understand. Not why she hated me. Why Mother never thought of me like she did my sister. And until recently, I never understood why a king and queen would care about a low level witch and her unborn bastards. But in order to complete their circle, one to protect their children, they touched the lives of a great many people to make sure that they were safe beyond what they could do for them in life. They made sure that their own children and those of Sally and Jacob were happy and safe. More than most people do for their own children even when they’re there with them.”

Caroline stood up then and moved to Kiaran as she spoke to the newest member of his family. “I cannot remove them, but I can tell you of her last moments should you like that.” Lelani nodded, then shook her head. “It might answer questions that you have buzzing about your head. I know that I have a few of my own.”

“I was always wondering why she hated me so much. I guess it matters little now, even after all this time. I tried to help her, to even like her, but she wasn’t.... I guess it was my mom’s fault. She fed Erin all kinds of things that she believed. Like as the chosen one, she was destined for greatness. Or at the very least to become this great witch. I think she felt that I was beneath them, being second born, and neither the king nor queen acknowledging me.”

“But they did. I mean, they knew something about you, but I’m not sure how much. But knowing them, they knew it all.” Jacob asked Onimia what he meant. “I found something a few weeks ago when I was talking to Mom and Dad. I had no idea what it was then. I actually thought it might belong to my own mate, and how cool it was to know her name before she got here. But I’d forgotten about it until now. Let me go get it.”

“May I?” Caroline got permission to touch Kiaran’s head and closed her eyes. “She was hurt before the shot that took her life. Shot with silver. I had no idea that she was wolf too.”

“Yes, she thought it would make her a cooler witch if she could shift into an animal. I have no idea why she thought that; her mind worked on a different level than most people’s.” Jacob thought that was the silliest thing he’d ever heard, to think that being able to shift would make you smarter. “Do you know why she gave her powers to Kiaran and not some other witch?”

“She reached out to the strongest person she could find, thinking that they’d need to be strong to take on her powers. She actually thought of contacting you to give you all that she was, but thought that you would waste them or flitter them away. She also didn’t want you to be more powerful than her should she vent all that she had. Vent?” Lelani explained. “She didn’t even know that it’s called liberating? This girl should have been taken to task long before this. But I digress. She reached for the strongest being she could find. And it just happened to be Kiaran.”

“That sounds about like her. Did she know who was trying to murder her? Was it the Herald?” Caroline nodded at Lelani’s question and touched Kiaran’s head again, and told them that it was one of the Herald group. “It figures. By the way, I talked to one of the descendants this morning. Shook him up a bit too while I was at it.”

~~~

Asher was pissed. He really wasn’t sure why he was, but he could feel it burning over his body like a well-worn blanket. Christ, what was she thinking? She wasn’t, was what his mind kept telling him. She’d talked to the very people trying to kill them.

“You should see your face right now.” He glared at Lindsey when she laughed at him. “You might want to take it down a couple of notches there, buddy. I’m not sleeping well as yet, and I can and will call on someone to hurt you.”