Flesh and Blood Read online

  Flesh and Blood

  Book Seven of the Hayle Coven Novels

  Patti Larsen

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2012 by Patti Larsen

  Purely Paranormal Press

  Find out more about Patti Larsen at

  http://www.pattilarsen.com/

  and her books at

  www.purelyparanormalpress.com

  ***

  Cover art (copyright) by Stephanie Mooney. All rights reserved.

  http://www.stephaniemooney.blogspot.com/

  Edited by Annetta Ribken, freelance Goddess. You can find her at http://www.wordwebbing.com/

  Proofed by Jessica Bufkin.

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  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ***

  Dedication

  To my sister Cathi, a shining star.

  Thank you for your love and support.

  ***

  Chapter One

  “Say cheese!”

  The witch behind the camera smiled encouragingly as I bent my body into contorted shapes in order to look ‘normal’ for my grad photo. And while her smile was lovely, I had no doubt mine was strained and uncomfortable.

  No doubt.

  It would have helped if this whole grad thing was my idea. I’d made it through the majority of my last year in high school without so much as a peep from Mom about the fact I’d be graduating only a month and a half from now. We’d had a nice, quiet fall, winter and spring since the Gate incident, though Gram remained absent, Uncle Frank’s search turning up nothing.

  I blamed my grandmother for my present position, half falling from an uncomfortable stool all in the name of posterity. Mom was clearly looking for some way to distract and amuse herself from the fact Gram was still missing and refused to be hunted down. Nothing like a graduation of twisted witch proportions to throw a veil over Mom’s worry. Yet another thing for Gram to pay for when I saw her again. Right along with putting a spell on me the last time we saw each other.

  Not cool, Gram. Not cool at all.

  “Syd,” Remmie, the photographer witch Mom chose, said, “maybe a hair more of a smile?”

  Oops. My line of thought wasn’t making this any easier. I automatically widened my smile as ordered and could tell from the expression on Remmie's face it was most likely I looked like someone on the most wanted list.

  Remmie hid her frustrated sigh so well I almost missed it. “Okay, great.”

  I’d obviously broken her at last. She was giving up. I sucked.

  “Now, tilt your head a little further to the right.”

  I obeyed, feeling a crick start in my neck. Blinding light flashed in my eyes. This was actually all Beth’s fault. If she hadn’t shown up at the house with one of her own pictures as a gift for me, I’m sure Mom would have gone on blissfully unaware. But Beth was so excited about graduating, she filled Mom in on all the pertinent details. And while my mother was aware of prom, since I’d gone last year with my old boyfriend, Brad, she had no idea graduation was such a huge thing for normal teens. She herself was educated as a witch, and never experienced the frenzy of graduation.

  I’m not sure why the idea of it became so romanticized for my mother beyond her need to find something to keep her from running off after Gram again, but from the moment Beth’s bouncy excitement hit her, Mom went nuts.

  Honestly. Maybe if I still had the craving to be normal I would have been more behind the whole craze, but I’d chosen to accept my life with the coven, to take my place as Mom’s heir to the family magic.

  She, however, had stars in her eyes and a melodramatic need to give me the best graduation ever.

  Translation: her best graduation ever.

  While Mom bopped off to talk to Erica about the items required, Beth happily filled me in on her news.

  “A full scholarship!” She gripped my hands over a cup of tea at our kitchen table, late spring sunlight pouring over both of us. “And best of all, it’s to state college, the same school as Tim.” Beth blushed, a sweet rose flush rising to her cheeks.

  She’d confessed to me in the fall at the beginning of our last school year her father had lost his job. Her parents were forced to use her college fund to keep the family afloat. I, naturally, couldn’t let that go.

  “That’s fantastic,” I said, wanting to smile, but knowing if I did I might give something away with my tingling enthusiasm. I had a pretty good idea where the money came from.

  “Funny thing, though.” Beth’s color faded as she frowned a little into her drink. “I don’t remember applying for it.”

  It was so hard to keep from grinning. “Really?”

  She bobbed her head, glossy hair swinging. “The Katherine Brindle Award for Excellence in Women. Quite the mouthful, isn’t it?”

  Was it ever. And with good reason. Mom wasn’t the best at naming things. After I’d filled her in on Beth’s predicament, she’d gone all witchy mysterious on me. Which, I knew, meant she was taking care of things. For once, I was happy she didn’t fill me in. Hearing it from Beth was so much more entertaining.

  “But the best news,” Beth gushed, leaning forward with a sparkle in her eyes, “Dad found a new job! A start-up hedge fund, Dad’s specialty. They called him out of the blue and offered him the management position. He’s in charge of the whole thing!” Beth sat back, breathless. “My parents are so thrilled.”

  Mom again, I was sure of it. I was just happy my friend’s troubles were so easily taken care of.

  If only I could be so lucky. When Beth left that Saturday morning, Mom returned with Erica in tow. They both studied me with an odd kind of insane frenzy I found a little frightening. From that moment on, my entire life was about graduation.

  Case in point. Here I was, only two days later, doing the photo thing. I’d already witnessed Mom and Erica choose my ring, my dress, my shoes, what I would wear to the ceremony, talk about hosting a party… I kyboshed the party idea immediately. First off, I didn’t really have anyone to invite anymore, aside from Beth and my friend Liam. And second, I could only imagine the pair inviting the whole school, meaning the party would either be a total embarrassing bust or turn into a rapidly spiraling disaster of jock and cheergirl torture proportions.

  I didn’t have the patience or the nerve for either.

  I heard Remmie sigh, louder this time, and I echoed her. I’d been here at least an hour, while she took shot after shot. I’d always considered myself reasonably photogenic, but posing was clearly not my strong suit. Model, I was not.

  Couldn’t we just be done?

  She forced another smile and leaned back from her tripod-mounted camera, rubbing her lower back. Her short, spiky blonde hair looked mussed, probably from wanting to tear it out. I didn’t mean to be the cause of her stress. I winced. Of course she was stressed. Mom was her leader. Remmie would do anything to try to make Mom happy.

  I wasn’t helping any.

  “One more?” I couldn’t let Remmie down. This wasn’t her fault and maybe I hadn’t been putting a full effort into it. All we needed was one shot, after all. I could do that.

  My demon huffed her frustration, Shaylee giggling while I did my best to focus. “Sorry to be such a pain.”

  Remmie’s smile came right back. “Not at all, Syd.” Her eyes lit up as I actually paid attention. “Hold that!” She dove
for the camera. “Smile a little more?” I did my best as the flash went again. “Perfect!”

  She backed away, looking relieved. “That’s the money shot, Syd. Great job.”

  Finally. I shucked the school robe and left it on the stool. “Thanks, Remmie.”

  At least one of us was happy.

  I headed out with her waving me off, my backpack over my shoulder, shaking out the curls my hairstylist carefully created for the shoot, happy to be able to scratch my scalp. Hairspray always made me itchy.

  I was only a few blocks from home, but I had one more stop to make before I could wash my hair and the makeup from my face. Liam was waiting for an answer and I couldn’t put it off any longer.

  He’d really been the only person I hung around with since Alison left for New York to be with her parents. Beth and Tim tended to travel in his friend’s circles, the normal people circles. I was okay with that. At least Liam knew everything about me, and had as complicated a life as I did. As the Keeper of the Sidhe Gate under Wilding Springs, he knew all about me and my family. For the first time, I had a friend who I could talk to about magic and not have to censor myself or lie to protect our weirdness.

  I steered my Cooper Mini toward town hall while admitting to myself how much I missed Alison. She emailed every once in a while, texted. But she’d made new friends according to her sporadic and sometimes cool-toned communication, even went back to school for the second semester in New York. She sounded happy. Like she didn’t need me anymore. As much as I was glad she’d moved on from what happened between us, it still hurt.

  I saw her for a few hours over Christmas, but that was it. It seemed like both of us were drifting away. She had her life, I had mine, Liam nicely filling the gap, as guilty as that made me feel. Until I remembered she started it.

  Sigh.

  And while I wished things could be different, I was just happy to hear she was pulling her crap together. When she’d left Wilding Springs the fall before, she was a shattered, brittle, suicidal mess.

  I pulled up outside town hall, parking Minnie close to the side door before heading inside. As my skin came in contact with the door handle, I felt a shiver as the Gate’s magic welcomed me. It reminded me of Liam, and the question to which he waited for an answer.

  Which made me think of Quaid. My hand jerked free of the green Sidhe power trying to draw me, or rather Shaylee, inside. But I immediately deflected thoughts of my absent boyfriend. I couldn’t go there, couldn’t worry about him. I hadn’t heard a word from him since the night I found Celeste in my bedroom, on my computer. As long as the connection between us remained, I knew he was alive and well.

  Or that’s what I told myself. He made his choice, set off on his revenge vendetta against Batsheva and Dominic Moromond, using his family, the Dumonts, as a means to reach them. Pretending to still be hand fasted to the icy cold Ameline Benoit, friends with the disgusting brothers, Jean Marc and Kristophe, Odette’s grandsons, playing his role as a happy member of that most despised of families. It drove me crazy, wondering how he managed it. I would never have been able to pull it off. Not after Ameline almost got Uncle Frank killed after altering my ex-friend Page’s memories. I’d have had to hurt someone by now with that much ready access to Jean Marc who almost raped my best friend. Not to mention his vile younger brother.

  I hadn’t been able to stop Quaid. So as much as worrying was natural, I found myself more often than not growing angry to hide my fear from myself.

  I shoved all of that down and smothered it in resolve as I reached for the handle again. I had a choice to make, pretty sure I’d already made it. Liam asked me to prom. As a friend. I hadn’t been able to give him an answer, holding out all these months, just in case Quaid came home.

  Which he never did. And I was tired of using him as an excuse. It was time to let go of that hope, to live my life and let Quaid live his. I jerked the door open and entered the building, heading for the back hall stairs and the cavern underground, actually smiling at the thought of seeing Liam and telling him what he wanted to hear.

  My friend deserved an answer.

  ***

  Chapter Two

  I paused at the bottom of the stairs by the heavy wooden bookcase and reached for Shaylee. She came slowly, unhappily, her Sidhe power sliding over the carved oak. The Gate’s magic responded instantly, the whole structure swinging gently aside to let me in. I understood her dislike, but it was getting a little old. It’s not like the Gate was going to spring open and Thalion, prince of the Seelie, would rush through and kidnap us or anything.

  At least, I was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen. She wasn’t so much. And I guess she had the right to worry. He’d almost tricked us into crossing over, after all, into giving up our life here out of pure Sidhe selfishness. And yet, I was pretty tired of her love quadrangle with Seelie and Unseelie alike, not to mention the worry she felt every time we came to visit Liam. I walled her off a little so she could sulk in peace as I strode through the open entry, careful to close it behind me before making my way further into the stone lair.

  Hard not to call it a lair, like some kind of Sidhe Batcave, though as tall and handsome as my friend was, I had a hard time picturing Liam in any kind of spandex suit. Well, without blushing. I knew now the attraction I’d felt to him the first day we met was fed by our mutual Sidhe power calling to one another, but it didn’t make me feel any less guilty about the whole thing.

  I peeked into Liam’s bedroom. Filling the place with the scent of green was the coolest bed ever, made from a gigantic tree.

  “Study, Syd.” His voice sounded muffled, distant. I crossed the stone hall and entered the archive. I tried not to look down the center aisle, because doing so always gave me a headache. It seemed to go on and on forever, an illusion my brain refused to process past impossible. Liam’s head popped out from behind one of the tall stone and wood racks, an easy smile on his face as his blonde hair threw glints of red from the lights above him.

  “Hey.” He emerged the rest of the way, white T-shirt gleaming. I had no idea who did his laundry, since his Unseelie mother was taken away by the lordling who owned her, but he was the neatest person I knew. A large book balanced on one of his big hands, fingers spread wide across the spine, his other holding his place on the open page. “You look beautiful.”

  I blushed immediately. He had this innocent way of saying things, with nothing behind it but pure honesty I absolutely loved.

  Adored. Adored. Enough with the l-word.

  “Thanks.” A self-conscious touch to my hair made me grimace. “Photos.”

  He nodded with a wink. “Miriam’s still all grad all the time, huh?” Liam set down the book on the wide, massive table, stained almost black, Sidhe figures painted in glowing colors all over its surface.

  “Something like that.” I sighed and sank into one of the bulky chairs, my butt happy for the lovely, deep velvet seat. “What are you working on?”

  Liam shrugged, sitting himself. “Just research. There’s so much I don’t know, so much Daddo never told me.” I wished I could take his sadness away at the loss of his grandfather. But at least Fergus was happy and healthy with the Sidhe on the other side of the Gate. Considering he’d be dead from the Unseelie bullet wound he’d taken had he stayed in our world, we both knew it was the right decision.

  That and his crossing resealed the Gate against the return to earth of Sidhe magic so I didn’t have to make that particularly difficult choice. I was personally incredibly grateful, considering no one, especially me, was ready for the consequences if I’d said no. Or yes for that matter.

  “There’s so much here.” As usual, Liam’s face lit up as he talked about the library, his favorite place in the whole world it seemed. “I’ll spend my entire life studying it and never read it all.” He sounded infinitely happy about it.

  I heard a soft pad of feet and felt a huff of hot breath on my hand. Galleytrot, the Fey hound of the Wild Hunt I’d freed from his slavery, d
ropped his big head in my lap as way of greeting. He was clearly sleepy, probably just up from a nap, black eyes half lidded.

  My fingers dove into his fur, giving him some nice deep scratches. “Hi, stranger,” I said. “Miss you.”

  He sighed deeply, tilting his great head toward the attention. “Hi, Syd,” he said.

  “Sorry,” Liam sat back, lacing his fingers over his flat stomach as he smiled at us. “I seem to have stolen your friend.”

  It was true. Galleytrot, once my sworn protector, abdicated his responsibilities, taking up almost permanent residence here with Liam. I guess I understood. Being close to the Gate made my Sidhe magic happy if not the princess who commanded it, so I could only imagine the black dog found it comforting.

  “No problem.” I kissed the soft fur of Galleytrot’s snout. His eyes blinked slowly, power wrapping me up in the feeling of springtime and fresh earth.

  “Just here for a visit?” Liam’s eyes were already drifting to the book I’d interrupted. I really had to make sure I stopped in on a regular basis or I was sure he’d never leave.

  “No,” I said, a little more firmly than I’d intended. That caught his attention.

  “What’s up?” There was the total innocence again. He always amazed me, how he wore everything he felt on his face, in his stance. As if guile or the need to hide his true feelings had never been something he practiced. Born with both Seelie and Unseelie blood, dragged around the countryside by his Unseelie mother to protect him from those who wanted to control him, it was incredible he managed to hang on to that purity of spirit. I could only guess it was the Gate itself and the influence of the Sidhe who gifted his family with the guardianship of it which kept him so sweet.