Embrace the Power: A Paranormal Romance (The Blood Rose Series Book 9) (3 page)

“You’re afraid, even though Davido and I are helping to support the mist?”

“Yes. Even then. But only because I know what Margetta is capable of.” She rose slowly to her feet and met Vojalie eye-to-eye. They were both tall women. “I love our land so much and our people. I haven’t begrudged the sacrifice of service I’ve had to endure, not even a little.”

“Or the loneliness?” Vojalie brushed her fingers over Rosamunde’s cheek. “Davido and I both have felt for your plight and we value so much what you’ve done for our world. Would you like me to talk to Stone? Ease the way?”

“Oh, no, please, no never. I must figure this out. I just don’t have your confidence that he’ll understand.”

Vojalie moved to sit down on the sofa. “So, did he kiss you last night?”

Rosamunde gasped, a long, odd sound. She even squeezed her eyes shut at the memory. “He wanted to and I wanted him to. We came so close, but I couldn’t go through with it.”

Vojalie giggled. “I feel very guilty about this because I’m enjoying your experience like a schoolgirl sharing secrets. So, do you think you’ll let him tonight?”

“No. I can’t. It would be very bad. He needs to know that Aralynn is Rosamunde.” She put a hand to her chest.

“Well, if you want my advice—”

“Always.”

Vojalie’s lips curved. “Personally, I think you’re being overly fastidious. Why not let the relationship with Stone, as Aralynn, take its course. I believe somewhere in there the situation will resolve itself in a very natural way. He’ll come to see you as the brave wolf with whom he runs dangerous missions and the woman who has for centuries kept Margetta away from the elf-lord power that resides in Ferrenden Peace.”

Rosamunde forced herself to relax and to consider Vojalie’s counsel. The truth was, she craved a physical relationship with Stone. At times, when she was near him in her wild wolf form, she didn’t know how she kept from jumping him.

What she really feared was that if he ever did kiss her, she wouldn’t be able to hold back, which was why, last night, she’d panicked. She was still embarrassed that she’d teleported away from him just before his lips touched hers.

Once again, the familiar power of her kingdom, built on elf-lord power, began to rumble. It was a sacred vibration she’d known for the past thousand years. This power, which Davido had once explained to her as the same source that gave rise to the infamous elf-lords, was what helped all three of them sustain the mist veil around Ferrenden Peace.

While both Davido and Vojalie seemed unaffected by using the power, the moment it touched Rosamunde, searing pain drove through her body. She simply didn’t have enough natural ability to bear the vibrations easily, not like her mother, Evelyn, when she’d been the queen.

Rosamunde had lived with this pain every night of her thousand years and there was nothing she could do about it, but let it flow. Until recent weeks, the elf-lord power had served a sole purpose in renewing her strength nightly to sustain the mist. Now, however, that she ran missions with Stone, the pulsing energy also delivered up the visions that allowed her to see where the Invictus wraith-pairs were harming realm-folk.

As she opened herself up, the power surged and every muscle in both legs cramped until the only way she could remain upright was to levitate. She focused her energy in her arms and shoulders in order to remain in a standing position.

She breathed through the pain until she could let the power flow. As soon as it did, she began quickly to rebuild the veil of mist, a process she repeated every night.

What she couldn’t get Stone to understand or perhaps to believe was that Vojalie was right; Rosamunde had been the sole reason Margetta had so far failed to conquer the Nine Realms. If the Ancient Fae, as Margetta was known, had once accessed the elf-lord power that originated in Ferrenden Peace and which caused Rosamunde so much nightly pain, Margetta would have funneled that power into her war machine. A thousand years of her savage rule would have come to every citizen of the Nine Realms.

She felt the veil of mist grow stronger and as it did, the pain dissipated.

She’d never told anyone about her suffering except Vojalie and Davido. The powerful fae had tried to work with her to help her channel the power better but it had come down to something very simple: Rosamunde did not have the proper physical structure for the process.

As the stream of energy receded, Rosamunde dropped from her levitating state to the woven carpet on her stone living room floor.

Vojalie was with her immediately. “I’m so sorry you’ve had to endure this.”

“Actually, I’m not.” And she wasn’t. If she’d obeyed her mother as a child, Evelyn would still be alive. A thousand years of pain seemed like a small punishment for being the cause of her own mother’s death.

She took a couple of deep breaths, grateful the pain was gone. “Thank you for coming to me tonight and lending your counsel. I don’t easily go-with-the-flow, but I will try to where Stone is concerned. As for the mist, I’ve repaired it fully so you and Davido shouldn’t have any problems. Will you both be at Joseph’s for the evening?”

Vojalie snickered. “That forest gremlin should be shot. Have you seen his lair lately? I vow he has enough stolen goods in there to support a small nation.”

“He’s hopeless, yet somehow I adore him.” She’d met Joseph a few decades ago when he’d been trying to steal a birdbath from her private castle garden. She’d never met a forest gremlin before. In fact, realm-folk rarely ever saw them. Yet, Joseph had stood there, then commented that she was as pretty as a sunset, what with her red hair and violet eyes.

He’d become an occasional confidante, though she reminded herself that self-interest would always define a forest gremlin and Joseph no less so. He’d left the garden without taking the birdbath, but by the next evening, the small stone edifice was gone. She hadn’t been able to figure out how he’d managed it until he invited her to take tea in his underground dwelling. When she saw his intricate system of pulleys and rolling carts, she understood how the eighteen-inch tall creature had managed the theft.

Rosamunde shrugged. “He’s a good man, he loves his wife, and he does everything he can to keep impressing her with his thieving abilities. The truth is, I hold him in great affection, though there are times I want to kill him.”

“Same here.” When Vojalie laughed, Rosamunde joined her. After a moment, Vojalie continued, “Davido is with him now and will be there through the night.”

“But not you?”

“Not this time. Bernice has been cutting molars and is miserable without me, so I’ll be returning to Merhaine to care for her. Don’t worry, though. Davido can support the mist by himself.”

“I’m sure he can.” The old troll had more power than any realm-person she knew.

But there was a sudden odd light in Vojalie’s eye, one of serious concern. Yet, she remained silent.

Rosamunde watched her for a moment. “What are you not telling me?”

Vojalie caught both her hands and squeezed them hard. “You’ll need to be strong tonight, Rosamunde, stronger than you’ve ever been. And for the next few nights, as well. My instincts tell me we’re fast reaching a crisis with the Ancient Fae. But that’s all I can tell you. I can’t even give you a direction for my concern.”

Rosamunde squeezed her hands back. “Thank you for the warning and please don’t worry about it. I’ve been feeling something similar.” Looking into the future was a difficult and not always advisable undertaking. Sometimes it was better not to know too much.

Rosamunde felt a new soft vibration in the air, very fae. She also felt the elf-lord power ramping up again.

Vojalie looked around and lifted her arms. “I can feel that Stone needs you, or rather Aralynn. I’m getting something about Charborne, the village where Stone grew up.”

“Me, too. And a vision is coming.”

“I’ll stay with you.”

“Thank you.”

Rosamunde closed her eyes and accepted the terrible pain all over again. Because it was the second wave of the evening, she bore it better than the first.

This time, it was the vision she’d been waiting for and it came swiftly, as often happened after she’d channeled the elf-lord power for mist-rebuilding. She wasn’t surprised that Vojalie felt it as well. These were fae attributes.

In the vision, she saw Stone’s Vampire Guard battling a number of wraith-pairs in the village of Charborne. At what was twenty minutes in the future, she saw herself in the woods approaching what looked like an abandoned mine. She had the sense that Stone was on his way as well and would meet her there. At that point, the vision ended.

As the elf-lord power eased away, she shook out her legs. She also let a degree of healing flow through her body, which helped to ease the troublesome elf-lord power.

Despite the discomfort, there was one other thing that the elf-lord frequency had given her, which made transportation a non-issue for her: She could teleport. She only knew of four other realm-persons who could do that: Vojalie, Davido, a powerful elf named Kaden, and of course, Margetta.

She shared the vision with Vojalie, who took it as her cue to take her leave. She kissed Rosamunde’s cheeks in turn, then wished her a successful night batting the Invictus. Rosamunde thanked her again for coming to her and for sharing her troubles.

One last lovely smile, and Vojalie vanished.

Rosamunde informed her staff that she would be in meditation through the night and that she wasn’t to be disturbed for anything. It was a ruse, of course, the best she’d been able to concoct while she went out as Aralynn. She didn’t want any of her people knowing that she was living a dangerous double life.

Locking her door from the inside, she focused on ‘Aralynn’s’ forest cottage. She’d taken many precautions to keep her dual identity a secret. Stone, for instance, believed that Aralynn had once served with the Castle Guard. She’d also told him that she was obedient always to the queen’s wishes.

Arriving in her cottage bedroom, she transformed quickly into Aralynn. She no longer felt like Rosamunde, but took on Aralynn’s experiences, her thoughts, and her wolfish love of battling. She wasn’t sure how she’d achieved such a strong separation of personas, but for the sake of her work with Mastyr Stone, it had been necessary.

She opened her closet and pulled out her battle leathers, donning a dark green leather vest with fringe at the bottom, black leather pants and matching boots that zipped up the sides. She tore at her braids, the careful work of three maids. She caught the upper mass of her curly red hair in a woven clasp similar to the ones that Stone and his Vampire Guardsmen wore. But she let the lower half float free. She adored the sensation.

Freedom was what she felt as Aralynn, freedom from responsibility, from the drudgery of castle life, from a sense of invisibility. She’d never felt like a real person as the queen.

Once she had her long, silver dagger strapped to her hip, she prepared to contact Stone and let him know about the vision of Charborne.

She loved this moment every evening because now that she was Aralynn, she could let herself feel everything she felt about her battle partner.

She blew the air from her cheeks as pure desire raged through her. She wanted Stone bad, but had been holding back because he didn’t approve of ‘Rosamunde’. Yet, given the situation, she wondered if she should take Vojalie’s advice, to accept Stone as her lover as Aralynn, then let the chips fall where they may.

A week ago, Vojalie had said something else, encouraging Rosamunde to reach out with both hands and take the life she wanted.

Both hands.

She’d definitely wanted to grab Stone that way, starting with his massive shoulders, squeezing hard, then moving down his chest, his abs, and lower still.

Her vision blurred and one of her brows drifted upward until all she saw was the image in her mind of Stone without anything on. How many times had she imagined him this way, every warrior muscle on display?

She gave herself a shake. Time to contact Stone and let him know about Charborne, though her fae instincts told her he already did.

Stone?

Aralynn, we’ve got a situation near Charborne.

Stone’s voice, even telepathically, hit her at the back of her knees and she levitated to keep herself from falling on her face.

I’ve had a vision about the village, that your Guard will soon be battling a large number of wraith-pairs. Any news at your end? What’s going on?
Over the past year, Stone had built an extensive surveillance system to watch for Invictus.

Delia’s husband was out at Charborne checking out a gold mine. He’s been missing two days and a night.

Oh, no.
Delia was Stone’s assistant and Rosamunde adored her for the way she challenged Stone, especially when he was being stubborn and at times overbearing. How surprised she’d been the first time she’d seen Delia in action. She’d learned a lot from the lovely troll.

However, it disturbed her terribly to learn that Delia’s husband might have been caught in the Invictus attack.

Stone continued
. Elias’s disappearance is what alerted us to the situation. We’ve since learned all the feeds are down in the village, or maybe blocked. I’ve sent Harris in with several squads to check it out. I should be hearing from him any minute now. I’m in the air. Where can you meet me?

Her fae senses told her to consider the area carefully. She knew Tannisford’s geography like the back of her hand. She’d studied all of the realms in depth, over and over through the centuries, maybe instinctively preparing for this moment in time.
Let me access Charborne.

Good idea.

She and Stone had worked together long enough for him to know she could gain a strong sense of places, people and the immediate future if she had a focal point. She settled her thoughts on the village where Stone had grown up.

She felt remnants of the elf-lord power inside her, humming through her mind and her psyche. She brought the part of her that was Rosamunde and fae to the forefront. This was Rosamunde’s forte. The fae part of her could feel the future like a mist, not very different from the one that protected Ferrenden Peace.