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Frazier didn’t speak to anyone as they made sure that Ewing, his youngest brother, was all right. He was still having trouble wrapping his mind about what he’d seen as well as felt when they’d been in the cave that—Frazier didn’t let his mind go there for now. He was outside of what had been a cave, and he was alive. As was his little brother.
There were other people with them. A large group who had needed the two of them to help on the walk. They were visiting the mountain top where the first settlers had been. Their mark of time they’d spent up here was about his favorite part of tours in the summer. Frazier had been glad for the extra hands of his brother, too, when everything went to shit because of two men that wanted to cause some trouble below them.
“Other than a few scratches, you both seem to be all right. The people, for the most part, are all right too. Scared, as you can well imagine, but it could have been a good deal worse, I’m thinking.” Nodding at Mark, afraid to open his mouth for fear of what would spew out, he didn’t even look up when he said his name. “Something more happened than the mountainside falling in on your group, I’m assuming. Do you want to talk about it?”
A bubble of laughter spilled from his mouth, and he closed his lips tightly, so he didn’t appear insane. At this point, he was starting to doubt his sanity. Mark didn’t leave him but sat there on the ground with him while he tried to gather a sense of what had happened and what he’d seen when everything went to shit. He did ask about the people that had been above them on the hillside.
“Both dead. Not because of the landslide they caused but because the TNT they were using to make the mountain come down exploded before they could get away. They wanted to split the mountain in two to get to the treasures they were sure were in there. The police are handling notifying their next of kin as well as the things that they left behind. When they’re satisfied with what they could get out of their bodies, they’ll turn them over to us. Not that I think it will—” Another burble of laughter before Mark spoke again. He then asked about the others in their party, the families that had been with him and Ewing on the trail that they’d been walking with them. “If you’re going to keep asking me the same questions over and over, this is going to take a lot longer than I thought. All are fine. One has a broken arm. They said that you tossed the man out of the cave when he seemed to freeze up. Also, cuts and bruises that will fade. I doubt their memories of this will fade, so—”
“There was a woman there. Not with us, but I saw her when I suddenly had this extra strength. Magic too. I could feel it even as I was feeling my last breath leave my body.” He looked at Mark. “I should be dead. All of us should have been dead the way that happened so quickly. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I’m not. That big assed bolder hit me on the head, and I could feel my life slipping away then I saw her.” Mark didn’t say anything. Over the last several days, they’d all gotten some magic from thekidPhil. He’d been hoarding black magic and money since well before their grandparents were born. Playing around with the magic couldn’t have prepared Frazier for the surge he’d gotten about an hour ago. “She’s my mate. I don’t know why I know that, but she’s my other half. And she’s a witch.”
“Amelia? I don’t know her last name, but she was just over at the house the other day. She’s very beautiful. Earthy too. I’m not sure why that word popped into my head when thinking about her, but that’s what I’m thinking.” He said that was her. Frazier then told him what he knew about her. “Grand witch? I didn’t know they were real. I mean, I would guess now that I have time to think about it that it makes sense. There would need to be someone in charge of their group.”
“It’s called a Coven. And her mother passed away, leaving all her magic to the two of us. Amelia is very old too. Several thousand years old. Much older than grannie and grandda are. Again, I don’t know why I know this, but the information is simply right there for me to pick up.” Mark nodded. “Is that all you have to say about what I just told you? I’m only here because her mother decided to give her daughter all she was, and it saved me and Ewing, along with those other people, is to nod at me? You do know that this isn’t anything that happens every day, don’t you? Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, Christ, happy that we’re still here? I’m barely hanging on here, Mark.”
“Honestly, Frazier, you don’t look like you’re hanging on at all but over the deep edge of shit. What do you want? Do you want me to be upset that you’re still here and not dead? Or that Ewing is all right? I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I’m thrilled to death about all of this. If she had turned you into a toadstool to save you, I’d be just fine with that as well. Damn it, Frazier. Calm down and tell me when will we all get to welcome her to the family?” Frazier simply looked over his brother’s shoulder, and there she was. It was almost as if he could feel her coming near him. Mark turned to look as well and stood up when he did. “Hello again, Amelia. I’m so glad to welcome you to the family.”
“My mother is dead. She died so that I could save my mate. I’m not very thrilled about shit right now.” Mark laughed, and they both turned to look at him. “You think this is funny? That my mother is dead? I have news for you right now, buster. I’d gladly kill any one of you to bring her back.”
“I’m so profoundly sorry for your loss, Amelia. But I will be forever thankful that you were able to save my brothers from certain death.” He got down on his knees and put out his hands. “I pledge to you my undying gratitude. I am forever yours in anything that you wish from me. Except for harming my family.”
“I don’t want a mate. I don’t…Christ, I told her I didn’t want one, so I could go on with my life.” Frazier cocked his head and tried to figure out what she meant by that. “I will not be ruled by you, Frazier. I swear I’ll die before I give up any part of my life you demand of me.”
“You think I’m going to make you do something that you don’t wish? Or to ask you to do things that will make your life miserable? I’d never do that. You have it on the word of my grandparents’ hearts that I’d never do anything to harm you in any way. And I do believe that it would harm you terribly if I were to even suggest that you were to give up your magic.” Amelia told him that she didn’t believe him. “That’s all right too. Painful, I will admit, I won’t lie to you, but I can understand you’re not trusting me. We were thrust together by magic, strong magic, too, if I don’t miss my bet, and it’ll take us both time to get used to it. But as far as you being able to go on with your life, Amelia, I have no intentions of taking that away from you. I might well enjoy hanging out with you, too, if you were to allow it.”
She sat down on the ground and then stood up. A table and four chairs appeared beside them, and she told them to get up off the ground. In a matter of seconds, not only did another chair appear, but Jamie and Sunny joined them at the table. Neither of which seemed the least bit put out that they’d been brought here.
They were in the middle of the woods with the nicest table and chairs sitting atop a lovely floral rug he’d ever seen. With tea and, if he didn’t miss his bet, scones too being served up by who, for some reason, he knew to be lesser witches. Amelia told him there was no reason for them to be uncivilized when he asked if this was normal for her.
While she answered questions from the women as they ate and drank their treats, Mark took him to the medics that had been dropped in by helicopter. There was going to be a big fucking mess to clean up—Well, perhaps not that big. Only the road would be cleared up so that travel could be made through here. The rest would be left where it had stopped.
Several hundred tons of rocks and other debris had traveled down the mountainside, and it hadn’t cared what it took with it on its way down to the waterway below. Frazier knew that in a few years, it wouldn’t be noticed that it was a newer landslide than the hundreds that had happened before today. The land would move on around it as if it had been put there for the sole purpose of making new growth.
Frazier was sitting where he’d been told even after he was given a healthy check-up from the team. They were still keeping an eye on him when Amelia joined him when he was just thinking about how he would be taking the next couple of days off to rest up. He’d already been told that by Mark. The department head at the park told him that was what he was going to be doing as well. Resting.
“You’re all right then?” Frazier nodded at Amelia, and she sat down on the stone that he’d been on. “I’m sorry for the way that I spoke to you before. I’m not nearly as bitchy as I was then. Most of the time, but I didn’t need to take my shitty mood out on you. But with losing my mom today and knowing that you’d been in the cave when it went down, I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be nice. Not that I am usually, but today has been a shitty day all around. I ask you for your forgiveness and tell you that I’ll try very hard not to take it out on you from now on. I said I’d try because I usually take my moods out on anyone around me when I’m pissed off.” They both laughed a little.
“I’m still reeling from the cave incident too. I can’t call it a near-death thing, as that’s just too much for my mind to take in. If you’d not received her magic and passed it on to me, I’m not sure…I am sure that we’d not have survived in there. None of us would have. So I have to be thankful for that. However, I am sorry about your mother. I’ve never met her, but if she raised you, then she couldn’t have been all that bad, right?” She laughed and said her mother had given up on her decades ago to be anything but what you see today. “Yes, well, my grannie is still trying to get me to behave all the time. All of us, as a matter of fact.”
“Mom passed her magic to me, well, the two of us. I’m not entirely sure what all that entails at the moment. Because, like you, it’s been a lot to go over in the last twenty-four hours. However, you and your family are immortals that much I did want you to know about in the event you didn’t get it through our connection. Your grandparents are elderly, I’m to understand, so they don’t have to be. But they’ll never be hurt or sick again. Even their bodies will be given a boost, and they won’t hurt at all, even from the most severe aches they might have.” He thanked her for that. “My skin feels like it’s crawling over me I’m getting so much magic right now. How do you feel?”
“I’ve been trying my best not to think about it. However, the strangest part is that I know about the magic I’ve been given and how to use it. Rules, too, on what I can and can’t do with it. Is that something you gave me?” She thought it had been her mind as she didn’t know some of the things that her mother had. “I guess I can see that. I have the next couple of days off to rest up. I’d like to use that time to get to know you better. Nothing sexual or untoward, but just getting general information on you. There is a great deal of it in my mind, but it’s all in bits and pieces right now. Besides, I think I’d like to get to know you through you. If that’s all right.”
“I’d like that. However, there is a huge list of things I have to do with the witchcraft that my mother passed to me. Also, I killed the council just before I was to meet up with my mom. I need to figure out what I’m to do about that as well.” He asked if he could help. “I’d like that. But we won’t be around here while working, at least for now. Mom has…hadseveral homes, and one of them, where she did most of her work, is where I need to be. I’d like it if you were to come along with me.”
“Will my family still be able to get in touch with me?” She said that so long as they had a link to him, then there wouldn’t be a problem. “Good. I’d hate that they might need me and couldn’t find me. Also, you should exchange blood with them so they can contact you as well. If you don’t mind.”
“No, I wouldn’t mind that, but if I need them, or you need someone you don’t already have a connection with, you only need to reach out to them. As a familiar to my grand witch, you’re as powerful as I am. Perhaps more so with you being a shifter bear.” He could only nod at that. It was becoming overwhelming to him again. “How about we just go to the house and work from there? It’ll be much more relaxing there than here with all this going on, and we’ll spend our time getting things squared away between us.”
It was settled then. The two of them would work with the things they’d inherited and get to know each other as well. While he didn’t know where they were going to be staying, just that it was a home while working, he decided to ask her about packing himself a bag.
“You won’t need anything you can’t pull out of the air. However, whatever you want to have, it can’t be extravagant. Just the necessaries. You already have the ability to change your clothing at will, correct?” He said that he did. “The house that we’re going to will be prepared for us both. In that, it will accommodate itself to things we’ll need. Toothbrushes, linens and such. There will be under-witches there, too, that will strive to make food for you that we wish to eat as well. But if you need anything else, just ask. I’m sure you’ve enough knowledge about magic to know the rule in making your life better and about returning to whatever you borrowed from back three times.” Frazier told her that he did know that rule.
Having a few days off didn’t mean he wouldn’t rest with Amelia. Getting the extra magic had zapped both of them badly. Not in pain, not really, but the magic that was working through his body was making him exhausted all the time. Amelia suggested that he drink a great deal of juice and eat fresh fruits and vegetables to battle the fatigue they were both having. Once they were where they were headed, he thought that a good nap would help him out. It was that, or he was going to be falling asleep in his soup.
Laughing, he wondered if he asked for potato cheese soup, would someone make it for him. It was Frazier’s go-to quick comfort food. And if there was a loaf of homemade bread to go with it, he’d be as happy as he’d ever been with that. While having no idea why that had popped into his head, now it was all he could think about having.
