The Witch's Dream - A Love Letter to Paranormal Romance (Black Swan 2) by Victoria Danann Read Free Book Online

beautiful."
    Maybe her own feelings of guilt were too close to the surface, but Elora felt defensive about Storm. It sounded to her like they were making fun of him when he was not able to speak for himself. "Well," she began, "say what you will, but, as Kay once put it, someone has to be the grown up. Since I would not be sitting here if that dark and brooding one hadn't saved my life. Twice. I can't help but object that you seem to be having fun at his expense and, more to the point, in his absence."
    Aelsong looked stunned. "'Tis misunderstandin' pure and simple. I'm quite fond of Ram's friend."
    "Likewise," Baka said, looking unusually sincere, "I meant no disrespect. As you know, I also owe Storm a great debt for... several things including recommending me for the position I now hold. The reprimand is unjust, but stings nonetheless."
    Elora smiled brightly. "Okay then. So long as we understand each other. I don't mind retrieving him myself. "
    Ram laughed. "Oh! Retrievin' him yourself, is it? Great Paddy in the flesh would no' agree to ride in a vehicle with you at the wheel. You've no' even mastered drivin' on the right hand side of a parkin' lot yet." Elora glared. "O' course I would love to drive you."
    "No need," said Song, taking charge in a remarkable imitation of her mother. "Baka, I will go with you to fetch our esteemed guest..." She turned her high beam smile Elora's way. "...whom it is our very great honor to host."
    "So. You got your brother's silver tongue as well as his looks and his smile."
    "No' at all." Song's mouth curled seductively as she stepped closer to Baka. "My tongue is sweet and pink."
    Elora looked at Ram as if to say, "No. Way."
    He took her hand in his and laughed softly in response.
    Baka looked down at Aelsong with the amused confidence of someone who had been playing the seducer longer and better. "Nothing would please me more than to have your delightful company, but I'm afraid I rented one of those two-seater sports cars."
    Song chuckled. "Autos are hardly a problem, em... Do you want to be called Baka?"
    He glanced at Elora again. "I've grown accustomed to it. Baka is fine."
    "Well, Baka, what do you say? Unless you need to be alone with my brother's friend?"
    Baka laughed. "No. I neither need nor wish to be alone with your brother's friend." He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "I would much rather be alone with you."
    Song responded with the obligatory giggle of a flirtation ritual as she rose from her chair and said goodbye to Ram and Elora. "We've gone to the garage to choose transport."
    As she led the way, Baka looked at Elora over his shoulder and grinned. She smiled and gave him a little chest high wave.
    What a pleasure it was to see him enjoying life. He deserved it, but unfortunately, didn't believe that.
     
    When Kay's bunch arrived, it suddenly seemed as if the one hundred seventy-five room palace on twelve thousand acres would not be nearly big enough. The Caelian family had migrated to South Texas in the nineteenth century and found it agreeably inhospitable. Berserkers enjoy a good challenge. So they founded an organization to clean up the mess, taking on rowdy itinerants who heartily embraced a get-it-done, no-rules philosophy, and called it the Texas Rangers. Were it not for the early wave of berserkers it seems unlikely that the frontier mix of Comanche, desperados, and javelina could have been subdued so relatively quickly and by so few.
    Chaos Caelian was named by his maternal grandmother as was her privilege in berserker society, but had come to be affectionately known as Kay, a nickname bestowed by his teammate Rammel Hawking soon after they'd met. Ram had thought a knight named Kay - like the foster brother of King Arthur from Arthurian legend - was amusing. So Chaos became Sir Kay and it stuck. Even his own parents eventually began calling him Kay.
    Yes. Everybody knew the near-giant knight as Kay except for his three older sisters who flatly refused to give