Tempted by her protector, p.14
Tempted By Her Protector, page 14
His younger brothers screeched and shot flames into the air. They could not see the specter, but Larimar could. He waited until the old ghost looked at him. The creature’s cloudy, pale eyes were blank and tired, but there was a glimmer of recognition in them. And with that, there was hope.
Please. Let him go. We are here to save my mate. Release my brother. We will free you, too.
Avenge me, brother. End the tainted one who dares raise the dead.
Larimar nodded, making his vow to the ghostly Dragon. He watched as the specter’s form seemed to evaporate with the wind.
What the fuck was that? Jasper’s thoughts were a little bit afraid, but Larimar had no time to explain.
Come on! We need to save Kim. He’s getting ready to sacrifice her.
Larimar’s entire body vibrated with fury. He and his three brothers pounded on the roof, looking for the best spot to break through. They avoided the place where he sensed her beneath them. His heart pounded with the need to get to her. He tried to send her a warning, but for some reason, he was closed off.
Fuck. This is not good.
Technically, the brothers were supposed to ask permission to come into the territory of a known supernatural, but he had no time. His mate was in there and the Devil would just have to forgive his trespass this one time.
Or not. Whatever.
Jasper loosed his flame in a precise laser to cut a hole in the old rooftop that would fit four grown Wyverns. Then Heliodore stomped on it and down it fell. Larimar was the first one through and what he saw infuriated him.
“Larimar!” screamed his mate when she saw him.
She was bound to a stone table in spread eagle position. Her clothes were torn, and she was bleeding from many slices along her perfect skin. Oh, this fucker was gonna pay.
“You will not win, my minions will drag you all to hell,” growled the Necromancer as he began chanting.
Kimberley’s back arched and she screamed in pain, the sounds of her bones breaking reached him, and Larimar’s fury exploded. The Necromancer was chanting, sending wraiths to fight him and his brothers, but this time Larimar was ready.
Using his telepathic abilities, he communicated with the dead. Begging them to leave this plane, urging them to set themselves free. The ghostly specters seemed better able to heed his will, than those reanimated corpses. The Necromancer’s ability to control the flesh was greater than his ability to command the spirit.
Fucking piece of shit.
Larimar tore across the large space towards his mate. His brothers fought the reanimated corpses of another couple of sabertooth cats and what looked like a dozen or so regular sized wolves, lions, and tigers.
From the smell of things, they had been kept in the cages that were haphazardly situated about the place. This motherfucker had been torturing animals.
“You can’t win. I control the dead. My army is endless!” The Necromancer was shouting now, but he was also sweating.
Go. Flee this place. Return to where you belong. You do not need to listen to this Dark practitioner. You are not bound to him.
Larimar spoke to the dead as he neared the Necromancer. He urged them to move on, to leave this plane, to rest in peace.
“I will kill her,” the man said and held an enchanted blade dangerously close to where Kimberley was groaning.
The athame was curved and spiked, it had blood dripping from the tip, and Larimar knew without a doubt it was hers. He switched forms then, and stood on two legs before the man, chest heaving with adrenaline and anger.
“This stops here,” Larimar promised the man. “How is up to you. Easy or hard. You decide with that knife in your hand.”
“How about a deal? I can make you immortal. She can help. Have her translate the tablet and I will make a philosopher’s stone just for you,” the Necromancer bargained.
“I’m not interested in living forever. You took my mate. I owe you for that,” Larimar growled.
“Surrender now or you will die here.”
As he distracted the Necromancer, something strange was happening behind him. Awareness tingled down his body, but Larimar hid his reactions.
Kim?
Hurts. What is happening to me?
I know, baby. I think I understand. Let her in, Kim. You will be just fine.
Larimar vibrated with the need to go to her side, but his mate needed time, and he would give it to her.
“I beat you before, I will again,” the Necromancer said and raised his blackened fingertips. A huge, scraping noise from the back had Larimar turning his head.
“Larimar!” his brothers screamed from across the room.
Kimberley was still writhing, but she’d gotten her hands free. That was good. it would make the transition easier, he thought.
“Here is your end now,” the Necromancer shouted, his eyes crazed.
Larimar turned to see an enormous beast emerge from the far end of the room. The creature slithered across the darkened old factory the size of a city bus or larger.
“Oh my god! Larimar! Run!” cried his mate before her shout turned into a howl.
“Not the god, but a god, yes,” yelled the Necromancer over the rising noise.
“Isn’t he beautiful? Resurrected from a tomb in the ancient city of Waset, I give you the son of Nehebkau! Here is the mighty Ureus. His father is the primordial snake god, unkillable by any mortal means!”
“You’ve enslaved a demigod?” Larimar’s eyes widened as the mummified creature uncoiled itself and hovered closer.
Oh fuck.
Chapter Twenty-One
Glowing red eyes shone from the strips of ancient muslin that held the thing intact. It opened its jaws wide, revealing two-foot long fangs, and screeched loudly before advancing where Kimberley had been bound—only she wasn’t Kim anymore.
Her body had been broken. Torn apart by something wonderful and magical. Something he was not sure was even possible. But it was. Clearly, it was. Even now, her limbs were reknitting itself in the shape of something wondrous and beautiful.
He'd had his suspicions all along, but this was not how he’d expected to find out. His sweet mate tried standing, but she was unused to her new body. Before he could make it to her, she yelped, falling off the stone altar, and missing the sudden strike of Ureus’ huge fangs.
Thank fuck.
“Kim! Run!” roared Larimar.
With his next heartbeat, he traded skin for scales, pushing his mate’s new furry form out of the way as gently as he could.
His Wyvern loosed a stream of flame towards Ureus and the demigod reared back. Apparently, mummies didn’t like fire. Whatever the reason, he’d take it. Larimar roared flames at the monster again and again, Jasper joining him in the fight.
The screech of a familiar Great-Horned Owl reached his ears, and he recognized Jennifer had come to help.
Good. Reinforcements are here!
He’d been torn between attacking the creature and guarding his mate against the Necromancer, who wasn’t retreating quickly enough.
“I wanted your skin for my binding, but fur will do. Bring the bitch here,” he commanded more wraiths, and Larimar turned to snap his jaws at him.
Unfortunately, that distraction allowed mummy-snake Ureus to whip his tail and knock Larimar down, causing his sixteen-ton Wyvern to fall ass over teakettle.
Bleeding and bruised, he battled through the pain, hardly felt it. Kimberley was currently circling the stone table nimbly on her paws, avoiding the athame that was whizzing through the air, controlled by the Necromancer.
Shit.
Kim was unused to her new body, and Larimar's brothers were busy fighting corpses and specters. He couldn’t fight the snake and that fucker at the same time. The zombie army of dead animals was never ending. How many corpses were in that fucking building, anyway?
Too fucking many.
Jennifer was currently helping Zircon out of a pretty tight spot with two large lions and a pretty pissed looking prehistoric silverback with giant razor like fangs.
“I will take on Ureus, my friend. You save your woman,” someone said from beside him.
Larimar turned to see a familiar and unexpected face standing next to him. Dressed in a small white skirt with a stick in his hand, Larimar wondered if Medjed knew what he was doing.
“Your thoughts are clear. Larimar the Wyvern Shifter, but I feel I must inform you this is a shendyt not a skirt, and yes, before you ask, I am wearing my frooty-looms underneath that Jennifer bought for me. However, they are tight around my phallus.”
For fuck’s sake, stop talking about your dick, thought Larimar as he dodged the snake’s tail for the second time and turned to see Kimberley crawl under the table.
“I see you can’t stand the competition,” Medjed incorrectly stated. “Do not worry. I am sure you are of adequate size and girth for your mate. Now, as for this stick, it is my trusted spear blessed by Osiris himself. I will send Ureus back to the pit where he belongs. Go. This is my fight now.”
Larimar rolled his Wyvern’s eyes. This was not the time or place to debate penis size, but he would take the chance to go to Kim. First, he had a bastard to kill.
The Necromancer was closing in on Kimberley. Unused to her new shape—something he could not wait to discuss with her—she whimpered and yelped, ducking the athame time and again.
“Necromancer!” Larimar yelled, back in his skin once more.
He’d been using his telepathic ability to send messages and hoped like hell they were being received.
“Get away from her,” he growled.
“Ha! You think because you know what I am you have power over me? Fool! I will have both your skins in the end,” he said and began to chant.
Larimar. What is happening to me?
Kimberley’s thoughts were back inside his brain, and he was so damn happy to hear from her. She ran to him on wobbly paws, and he petted her between the ears, pushing her slightly behind him.
No time now to discuss, Kim. Do you trust me?
Do you have to ask?
He nodded once, humbled by her trust. He placed a hand on her head and closed his eyes, reaching out with his mind. The Necromancer was calling on the ghosts in the vicinity—every whisper of a spirit, every hint of a specter. He was weaving Dark Magic to bind them against their will, to control them and use them for harm.
Larimar was so not going to allow that. He worked hard and fast to undo the man’s evil. He sent his own messages out through his telepathic bonds, urging the spirits to take their freedom.
He encouraged them to think, to release themselves from this plane and to move on. Without them to fuel his Magic, the Necromancer had no power.
“What is happening? What are you doing?” the man screamed.
Leave this place. It is not where you belong. Pass on to the next reality. Your journey here is over. Do not be used as a puppet. Go now. Be at peace.
Larimar’s message was loud and clear. Some of the spirits were too weak and confused, too vague to understand, but the others, the stronger, they were all too willing to leave.
Even the dead knew when they did not belong. This was not the right place for them and with a little help, he bade them to let go. As for the animal wraiths, theirs were a bit harder since they did not understand his words.
For that, he used his Wyvern. Larimar growled and roared. The Necromancer worked desperately to keep hold. His chanting increased in volume. The Magician struggled as he tried to distract them with a mini tornado. Wind and debris whipped wildly around Larimar and his mate, but he never let go of her and he kept his focus.
I can sense your brothers, but I can’t see them.
Kim’s thought entered his head clear above the rising wind. He patted her head and shoved her behind him. He needed to be prepared for a frontal attack.
Get ready to run, Kim.
No. I am not leaving you. I think I know what I am now. I can help.
She was the most precious thing to him. He hated putting her in danger, but he knew her well enough to know she was not going anywhere. The storm created by the Necromancer raged on, and only the altar sat between them.
The Dark Witch clutched his book and the thing seemed to move and moan in his hands. What the fuck? Kim was right. It was human skin. And worse, there were spirits trapped in the binding and inside the pages. Suddenly, he knew what he had to do.
“You are pretty good with your mind, but you will not win. I am stronger than you,” sneered the Necromancer.
“That book is your strength. I wonder what would happen if you didn’t have it,” Larimar said and sucked in a breath.
It would be tricky in the vacuum of the tornado the Witch had created. Larimar was not like his brother. His flame was not that accurate, but he had to try. Kim barked, leaning into him and he took that for her assent. Then he opened his mouth.
“No, no!” screamed the Necromancer as Larimar loosed a stream of fire, burning his evil tome to ash.
The swirling vortex fell as did the Necromancer, and Larimar realized it was his own spirit bound to those pages. The man had been dead a long time.
His body burned along with the book, and soon Larimar’s flame was joined by Jasper’s. He heard the others shout and rejoice, but he ignored them until all that remained was scorched bit of ash on the stone floor.
Then, he turned and kneeled beside Kimberley’s furry form. Her Wolf was beautiful, all gray with white tipped ears and tail. It was no coincidence his fate was linked to a rare and powerful creature like her. Suddenly, her fur receded and she was sobbing, naked in his arms.
“I thought I lost you,” she whispered.
“Never, mate,” he growled, kissing and squeezing his mate to him.
His heart pounded and thunder roared in his ears. She was with him once again. She was safe and whole, and that was all that mattered.
Mine. Mate.
* * *
A few hours later…
* * *
“We went over this ten times,” Jennifer yelled at the top of her lungs.
She was wearing a sweatshirt and pair of sweatpants that were seemingly too large for her. Agent Sanchez had arrived, and the scene was being processed. But Jennifer wasn’t yelling at the infamous DPCA Agent.
Nope.
Her fury was for one person only.
Poor baby bro.
Larimar shook his head, looking up when Kimberley joined him in her own pair of nondescript gray sweats.
Who? What?
Kimberley looked at him and he smiled and kissed her forehead. Their telepathic connection was wide open, and he loved their ability to communicate this way. He nodded at where Jennifer was reaming his brother.
“Just pick the corpse up and put it on the stretcher,” she commanded.
Zircon grabbed one end and Heliodore grabbed the other of the prehistoric gorilla they had fought and sliced open from groin to throat and lifted it high on the stretcher, only they misjudged the angle.
Without meaning too, the brothers accidentally sorta kind dumped a pile of stinking, rotting guts right on top of their handler’s always neat head.
“Aghhhh!” she shouted, then wisely closed her mouth.
“Oh shit,” Heliodore said as he and Zircon put the stretcher back down.
“Jenn? I am so sorry,” his youngest brother began.
But it was too late for them. She’d already started her shift and a minute later both men were running from the talons of a seriously pissed off Great Horned Owl Shifter.
“Serves them right,” Kimberley said, leaning on Larimar.
He would never tire of the feel of his woman in his arms. She was the perfect mate, and this new side to her was something he looked forward to learning with her.
“Miss Scott?” Agent Sanchez called and Kimberley grabbed Larimar’s hand before she began walking towards the agent.
“Yes, Agent Sanchez?”
“I wanted to thank you personally for volunteering to oversee the translation of the Emerald Tablet. We will be sending you copies piece by piece, out of order, so that anyone intercepting will not know what they are getting. Ms. Dylluan will see to it, well, when she is done kicking your brothers’ asses,” he said, smirking as he addressed that last bit to Larimar.
“No problem. I kind of like the idea of working as a consultant for the government.”
“Great. We will do what we can to help get your career back,” he began.
“I would definitely like my reputation to be repaired, but as for careers and the future, well, I think I have a new one now,” she growled.
She turned her head, jade green eyes glowing with her newly found Wolfish side, and she smiled at Larimar. Fuck, his knees went weak.
Sexy woman. Powerful Dire she-Wolf.
“I guess congratulations are in order then. So, how did you Wolf out, anyway?” Agent Sanchez asked.
“I believe my claiming bite sent a signal to the dormant Dire Wolf inside of her,” Larimar explained once Kimberley gave him the go ahead through their connection.
“You see, I was adopted. My biological mother named me and dropped me off, and I was raised by wonderful people, but I never wanted to know why I was given up, so I never bothered to look,” she said.
“The pull of fated mates is strong, but Kim’s ready acceptance was unique from the stories I have heard about Shifters and normals. I suspected then she was more than what she seemed,” Larimar stated proudly.
“It was like I knew he was mine,” Kim said. I guess that was my Wolf.”
“That is amazing. I’m thrilled for you both,” Agent Sanchez said and shook his hand. “Take care of her, Wessex. Miss Scott is a very special woman.”
“That she is, and I plan to take very good care of her.”
Mine.
Epilogue
The trip home was not very long, but on the way, Larimar had made some calls. Kimberley would need help learning about her Dire Wolf. Already, her animal was strong and vocal inside of her, and that was a good thing. But it could also be dangerous.
