The Mating Intent-mobi (7 page)

Gabriel clasped her wrist. “Come with me.”

Suddenly, she was afraid. She didn’t want to see, didn’t want to get involved. She’d spent the last 25 years not getting involved and keeping to her duties to king and clan.

The solitary life hurt, but better lonely than banished forever from her people. Her people, not a clan of shifters like Gabriel.

He seemed to notice her reluctance. “What happened to the brave, spirited pixie I knew? The Elf who feared nothing?”

She got lost in the woods after being punished for violating her vow of celibacy.

But she followed him outside. As they followed the dirt path snaking through the trees, Sienna’s chest tightened. The fresh smell of earth, trees and swamp faded, replaced by something darker and tainted.

She’d scented this around Terithen before he’d gone nuts and attempted to destroy everything. Dark enchantment.

As they drew closer to the swamp, the dark power inside her surged. Sienna fought the urge to release it. She clenched her fists, silently chanting a light spell. Pain speared her palms.

She opened them and saw them bloodied. Her fingernails had dug into her skin.

Gabriel stopped and turned, his nostrils flaring. “I smell blood.”

Then he saw her hands. He took one, examined it. Then he stroked a thumb over her injured palms and the lacerations healed. Sienna stared at him. “How did you do that?”

“I told you. I have enhanced power. But it’s not enough to defeat whatever the hell is causing this.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Later. Come on, we’re almost there.”

If something had invaded the Everglades, she had an obligation to help him defeat it. But how could she even try when the darkness inside her itched for freedom?

The pathway cut through a hardwood forest bordering the Everglades. Soon they entered a large campground. A circular driveway linked together several campsites occupied by travel trailers and large tents. A thicket of mahogany, gumbo limbo and live oak trees surrounding the glen shaded it with protective covering. But Sienna sensed these trees guarded it as well.

Cook fires blazed before each campsite. Sitting near each trailer in outdoor chairs or on the ground were about forty Others. Sienna’s heart beat faster. Though they were in Skin form, she knew their scents. Red-shouldered hawks, boar, foxes, small black bears and deer. All of them, both predators and prey, shared one common element.

They looked scared to death.

“Dear goddess of the Light,” she breathed. “What happened to them?”

Gabriel said nothing, but squeezed the shoulder of a tall, lanky teenager on the ground, his arms hooked around his knees as he rocked back and forth.

“Tom is a fox shifter who came here to visit the beach and decided to run wild through the ‘Glades. He got caught in the water and attacked by sawgrass.”

Sawgrass attacked him? “You mean he got tangled in it and it cut him.”

“I mean what I said. The sawgrass attacked him. Just as it did to Rex. You saw it, Sienna.”

Mouth dry, she stared at the assembled shifters. They looked at her with such beseeching looks in their eyes that her heart twisted. “Why are they here?”

“I own this campground and rent it during the winter season to tourists. It brings in a little income and helps me educate Skins about the importance of the Everglades. This is the only safe haven for these shifters. I warded the area with magick and it seems to be working.”

Gabriel shoved a hand through his hair, his expression bleak as he regarded the little group. “They’re here because they lost the territory where they can shift and run free. They’ve been shot at, trapped, and pushed aside. I set up temporary housing for them in the development I told you about, but they’re too scared to venture into the Skin world. They refuse to leave my land. So I rented trailers and tents for them.”

“What the hell is happening, Gabriel?” She touched a tree trunk, found it pulsing with strong shifter magick. His magick. “Why didn’t you inform Cael?”

“Because I don’t trust your king not to storm down here with his Elven forces and take over my turf.” He scowled, looking over the campsite. “You’re the only Fae I trust to tell about this, Sienna.”

“I want to investigate closer.”

“It’s dangerous five feet beyond the campground leading to the Everglades.”

“I’ll be careful. I need to check this out.”

“Not alone. I’ll go with you.”

But then one of the shifters called to him. Gabriel looked at her. “Five minutes and I’m coming after you. Don’t leave the pathway and don’t get close to the water. Whatever you do, do not touch the bald cypress tree on the path’s right side.  Take the footpath through the trees to the water.”

Sienna jogged along the path. Five feet out from the campground, the sandy path turned to black soil. A heaviness settled on her spirit as she continued, seeing dead brush and hearing no sounds of animal life. Her Elven senses warned this place was toxic as a chemical plant.

The path ended on the banks of the swamp. Sienna’s eyes gushed as she stared out at the Everglades.

Barely two feet deep, the water held a cloying sweetness of burnt sugar, twined with raw sewage. No birds waded here. The swamp had turned black as charcoal, decayed as a rotting corpse.

What the hell had caused this?

Sienna crouched at the water’s edge and studied the cypress tree guarding the water.

The tree looked dead. Cypress trees dropped their leaves in Florida’s cooler winter months, but this was summer. Alarm filled her. She touched a cypress knee, the portion of the tree exposed to the water.

Darkness flooded her, the equally dark magick pulsing inside her rising eagerly to greet it, twining around it like a snake.

One of the cypress knees pulled free from the water. The slimy, thick root slid toward her like a serpent. Before she could move, it struck quick as a viper, wrapping around her neck. The root squeezed tight, choking her air supply. If she didn’t get it off her now, she’d die.

Sienna fought hard, scrambling to pry her fingers beneath the algae-coated root. But the cypress root compressed tighter. Her fingers slipped as she rolled and grabbed at the tree root, desperate for air. Balling her fists, she hammered at the root, frantic to free herself. Tears clouded her vision as she gasped, the root painfully constricting her throat until she saw stars.

Killed by a tree, the foliage she’d foresworn to protect. The irony was too amusing. Maybe she’d laugh about it, if she lived.

Her fists collided with the slippery root, and the blows grew feebler. The darkness inside her pulled at the tree root, urging it to choke her. Wanting her to suffer with pain…

Her vision dimmed, but she heard footsteps upon the path, a low curse. Saw Gabriel pull ineffectively at the tree limb, trying to free her. Ears buzzing with the rush of blood, she dimly heard him shout, “Sienna! Use your power, all of it.”

But her power was dark.

Grayness pushed at the edges of her vision. She was fading fast. But every instinct urged her to live.  She had too much left on this earth to accomplish.

Sienna closed her eyes. With all her might, she reached for the power inside, pushing past the evil poisoning her spirit. She focused all her light and pulled hard, hurling the power at the tree wrapped around her neck.

With a shriek, the root unraveled and slid away. Gasping, she rolled backwards, wheezing as she drew in huge lungfuls of blessed air. The cypress root lay limp and wet upon the ground.

Gabriel shifted into his beast self. A piercing roar split the silence as the sleek, golden panther leapt out from the path and attacked the bald cypress tree. Snarling, the panther pushed at the trunk with its big paws. Giving an unholy scream, the cypress shuddered as if uprooted by a Category 5 hurricane, and then crashed into the water.

The panther raced to her side, nipped her sharply on the flank, urging her to rise.

Sienna ran, following the panther. Droplets soaked the sandy shore. Horrified, she watched the tainted liquid eat into the ground.

The panther shifted back into Gabriel. Strong, his body lean and muscled, he stared grimly at the water. Then he touched her neck, and the painful ache eased. His expression softened. “You okay?”

She nodded. “For someone who almost got strangled by a tree root, I’m fine.”

“I warned you not to touch anything else. It’s cursed.”

“I didn’t. The darkness inside me reacted to the tree and the root pulled free from the water.”

Weary, she rubbed her face. “Why did the tree fall over when you pushed it, but  you couldn’t free me?”

Gabriel’s mouth tightened. “I’ve tried for two weeks to chop down that tree. No use. I could tell it was starting to contaminate the shore. It wouldn’t budge. It was only when it was weakened by your power that I was able to push it down.”

He gave her a level look. “Your magick weakened it, Sienna. The magick of light, working through the power of darkness inside you.”

Whoa. Not a nice thought. Though it no longer hurt, she rubbed her neck, unwilling to consider his words. “I don’t want to talk about it.  I’m still a little shaky, ‘kay?”

He stroked a thumb along her neck. “Tell me what you felt when you touched the tree. Was it the same darkness you felt when Rex died along the river?”

She stepped away from his touch. “Yes. The same smell, the same cloudy darkness, like black fog. It’s strong and very tainted magick. So it’s on your land as well?”

He nodded. “It’s in the area outside my immediate home that isn’t warded. There is a blight upon our lands. It’s poisoning the trees, the plants, the water. And it only affects Others, not Skins.” Gabriel rubbed a hand over his nape and she saw the despair on his face.

She sucked in a breath. This was both bad news and good. If Skins weren’t affected, the dark magick was less threatening to the world and they didn’t risk exposing the shifters to humans. The cloak hiding their world remained firmly in place.

But they also had no means to defeat the dark enchantment until they could identify it.

They returned to the campground. Hands on lean hips, Gabriel surveyed the Others.

“Gabe, what happened? We heard a crash.” A red-haired, lean man approached, holding a crossbow in one hand. His left arm was secured by a white sling. “Scared the living crap out of everyone.”

“A tree fell into the water. An old tree.” Gabriel exchanged glances with her and she knew he didn’t want to frighten the shifters further.

“It was its time to go,” she added.

The red-haired man relaxed and lowered the bow.

“That’s a fine-looking crossbow,” she told him, wanting to put him at ease. “You’re a good shot?”

“Not right now.” The bow fell from his hand and the man looked grim. “Not with this damn broken wing.”

Gabriel put a hand on the man’s thin shoulder. “Sienna this is Roger, a red-shouldered hawk shifter. Roger was nesting in a live oak tree with his mate when the tree attacked him. The branches strangled his mate, who was trying to protect their eggs, and crushed the nest. Roger only escaped because he fell from the tree, one wing broken. He hasn’t shifted since.”

“Not much reason to, anymore.”

Roger’s gaze turned haunted. “I loved Ursula more than my life. When that tree attacked her… killing our young.” He kicked at the polished wood bow. “Useless. Like me. What’s the damn use of having weapons when you can’t even use them to protect those you love?”

Turning, the hawk shifter walked away. She picked up the crossbow, dusted it off and  ran after him. As Roger sat at the picnic table, she set down the bow before him. “This is not useless and neither are you. You will use it again, some day, I vow.”

He looked doubtful. “No one can help us. Gabe’s tried.”

“But I haven’t and I’m Elven. I have powers he lacks.” She squeezed his hand. “I promise I will do all that I can to aid you and everyone affected by this.”

Something flickered in his dark gaze. It might have been hope.

Sienna returned to Gabriel, who gave a warm smile. “You’re good for them. I can feel the change in the air since your arrival. Come, meet the others.”

Taking her hand he brought her over to a black bear shifter. “Neida was rummaging through an island deep in the Everglades when the water began rising, trying to drown her. She climbed a tree and remained there all night. Then she got hungry and ate some berries. They poisoned her.”

He squatted down and put a hand on the shifter’s shoulder. “You doing better now, Neida? No more tummy pain?”

The bear shook her head.

“Neida’s folks were killed by over-eager hunters. She’s still a cub, with no one to look after her.”

Sienna smiled at the young shifter. All of them looked at Gabriel with shining gratitude.

“You’re healing them,” she told him.

“Trying to.” He stretched out his hands and studied them. “I don’t have much power, not like you, but I gained the magick shortly after you left. It’s as if being one in the flesh with you endowed me with new power. Wyldings can’t heal others, but I can. So I started searching for injured Wyldings. A few here and there. And then about a month ago, the land went berserk.”

His jaw like granite, he swept his gaze around the circle. “There’s no other way to describe it.

“I know it’s dark enchantment, but I’ve never felt anything like it before.” She lifted her face to the air, and sensed a something that had been lacking when she’d hiked along the Loxahatchee and at the swamp. “Someone has cursed this area.”

Gabriel locked gazes with her. “There’s only one kind of dark enchantment that has this power, Sienna.”

She had a bad feeling about this.

“Yes. Fae magick.”

“Not just any Fae magick.” He gave her a level look, his big body tensing. “Only one type of Fae has enough power to do something this nasty and this widespread. Elves.”

Gabriel felt certain the dark enchantment was Fae. He knew the Elves weren’t as noble as some believed. Except for Sienna, he distrusted her kind.

He distrusted them because he kept a shameful secret from his clan, and from Sienna herself. His mother wasn’t a panther shifter, but a powerful white light Elf. She’d abandoned him at birth, leaving him to be raised by his father. He’d tried to gain acceptance among her kind, but failed.