The Dragon's Spellbound Alien Read online

  “I don’t feel like I have a love spell on me.”

  Warrick’s gaze narrowed. “What do you think it would feel like?”

  “I don’t know. Like I didn’t have reason or the ability to say no to you. But I’ve been the one chasing you all this time. I’ve been the one afraid I’d bonk you over the head and take advantage.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Bianca looked into his eyes. “Did she put a spell on you, too?”

  He shook his head. “She always swore to us she never would.”

  “You kissed me back that first time we met.”

  “I did. And I have zero regrets.”

  She wrestled with the notion of not having free will where Warrick was concerned. “How did you find out?”

  “Viktor told me. He saw the matchmaking contract on Mom’s desk with a pink note that said ‘love spell.’”

  “When was this?”

  “Last week. He didn’t remember until after meeting you at Insomnia.”

  “Hold on. You knew I had a spell on me for a week and you’re just telling me now?”

  “I suspected, but I wasn’t sure.”

  “And you didn’t tell me. Why not?”

  “I was…afraid.”

  She couldn’t believe it. “You’re a fearsome, mighty dragon shifter. I know. I’ve seen you shift. I find it difficult to believe you are ever afraid of anything.”

  Warrick stared at her, hard. “Are you afraid of me when I shift into my full dragon form?”

  “What?”

  “It’s a simple question. When I shift into my full, fearsome, mighty dragon form, are you afraid of me?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “What do you mean, not exactly?”

  “Deep down, I know you would never hurt me. That you would always protect me.”

  “That is true.”

  “But…”

  “But?”

  “I have a fear of something else, not because of you, but…”

  “What? Spill it already,” he said, using her own phrase against her.

  Bianca stared deeply into his eyes and wondered if what she was about to tell him would ruin everything. She said in a rush, “I’m never going to want to ride on your back, okay?” Her voice had risen to what her mother considered unladylike.

  “I don’t understand. What?”

  “You heard me. I know, because I shouted it.”

  Warrick looked confused. Bianca was going to have to tell him about her deepest fear.

  “What makes you think you have to ride on my back?”

  Bianca slowly crossed her arms. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s some sort of symbol of acceptance for me believing in you and loving you, that I trust you enough to ride on your back? I thought it brought about a deeper bond or something between us. At least, that seems to be the way it is in the books I’ve read. I’m terrified that I need to do it for us to be complete. I even tried to ask Viktor about it last week, but he kept running away with rubber baby buggy bumper repeating in his head. But I can’t do it, Warrick. I’m so sorry. I won’t do it.”

  She was babbling, and she knew it. Her voice even sounded hysterical to her own ears. Forget about some stupid love spell. She was terrified she was going to lose him because of her own ridiculous fear.

  Warrick led her to her sofa and together they sat down. “What on Earth are you so afraid of, Bianca? Tell me.”

  She bowed her head, unable to look him in the eye. “Heights,” she said in a small voice. A tear escaped from one of her lids to run down her cheek.

  “You don’t want to ride my back because you’re afraid of heights?” Warrick grabbed her and pulled her into his strong arms. She clung to him and sniffled.

  “Why do you think I live in an apartment on the ground floor?”

  She felt a rumble in his chest. Then another rumble, louder.

  “Are you laughing at me?”

  “No! Not at all. I’m laughing at something else.”

  “What?”

  He pulled back far enough to look down into her face, his grin the widest she’d ever seen. “I was afraid you’d want me to be your personal taxi all across town once you saw me shift into my dragon form. Every other date I’ve ever had didn’t want me, they wanted expedient transport.”

  Bianca gave a watery laugh, but quickly sobered. “Okay, now we’ve got that sorted, why didn’t you tell me about being spellbound? Was it because you were afraid of losing me?”

  Warrick hugged her tight. “Yes.”

  “Are you certain you aren’t also spellbound?”

  “My mother swore to both me and Viktor that she never would put a spell on us. Just to be sure, Viktor called some kid in a gray hoodie, who came and looked me over. The kid said I didn’t have a spell on me.”

  Bianca digested that. Warrick wasn’t spellbound, but she might have been, even though her feelings for him felt like they were all her own. “Now what?”

  “Now we go to my mother and tell her to remove the spell and hopefully we can still be together. That’s what I want. If nothing else, we can be good friends.”

  Bianca wrapped her arms around his neck. “Forget friends. Since the moment I saw you, I’ve wanted to hug you and kiss you and never let you go. I like it. If this is being spellbound, maybe I don’t want it removed.”

  “I appreciate that, but we’ve spent time together. We have a lot in common. We have a whole week of history of being girlfriend and boyfriend. That’s got to count for something, right? Spell or no spell.”

  “You’re right. We’ll be okay regardless of whether I have a spell on me.”

  Bianca held onto Warrick and hoped that after the spell was gone she’d feel the same way. She hated the thought of losing him over something so trivial as free will.

  The drive out to his mother’s large estate on the outskirts of town was a tense one. She couldn’t help but be nervous about what would happen when the spell was gone, and she knew Warrick felt the same way.

  The place looked like a grand European castle tucked in the woods. She loved it.

  Warrick parked his car in the drive and came around to help her out. A butler—an honest to goodness butler—opened the door as they climbed the front steps. “Your mother is waiting for you in the drawing room.”

  “Thanks, Rochester. This is Bianca.”

  “Charmed, miss.”

  “Bianca, this is my mother’s butler, Rochester.”

  “Nice to meet you, Rochester.”

  The butler took their coats. Warrick grabbed Bianca’s hand and headed for the drawing room.

  “This place is huge. You could walk around here even in your mighty fearsome dragon form.”

  “That’s why she built her home this big, in case I ever wanted to. Which I did.”

  Warrick led her into a large space at the end of the hall, through another large doorway. An older woman Bianca recognized looked at them and smiled warmly. “Warrick. Bianca. I’m so glad you made it.” Vilma stood up and motioned them over to join her in a nice seating arrangement in front of a large roaring fire on the opposite side of the room.

  Viktor occupied one chair in a masculine sprawl. He managed a tight smile for them. When Bianca looked into his mind, he was mentally chanting.

  “Rubber baby buggy bumper? Still? You can drop it, Viktor. I already know the secret.”

  Viktor tilted his head back in an exaggerated sigh of relief. “At last. Thank you. My brain feels like mush.”

  “Know what secret, dear?” Vilma asked.

  Bianca turned to the older woman. “Warrick told me about the love spell you put on me.”

  Vilma sucked in a deep breath. She looked at Warrick, eyes wide.

  He added, “And I know about the matchmaking contract you set up between us using Bubba’s Matchmaking Service.” She sucked in another deep breath.

  “We’d like you to remove—”

  A thunderous noise silenced him. Without thinking, Bianca reached for War
rick, just as he reached to pull her protectively into his arms. They all turned toward the center of the large room to see a column of bilious smoke rising toward the high ceiling. It quickly dissipated to reveal a woman dressed in a skintight black dress, with raven hair, black-tipped nails and lips the color of fresh blood. The look in her eye said she wanted someone dead.

  Vilma swiftly moved around Warrick and Bianca and approached the woman, apparently unafraid. “What are you doing here, Cassandra?”

  “I’ve come to exact my vengeance, of course.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  <^><^><^>

  Warrick looked at Viktor, who looked back at him and shrugged. Bianca just stared at the stranger without expression. He should have known Cassandra wasn’t through with him yet. He was surprised his mother knew her, though.

  “Last time I saw you, the constables had tracked you down to deliver you to justice.”

  Cassandra sneered. “I know you told them where to find me and how to catch me.”

  “You’re dangerous. I will not let you harm my family.”

  Cassandra moved closer. “You can’t stop me, Vilma. I’ve grown more powerful than you.”

  His mother laughed with genuine amusement in the sound. “I know that’s what you tell yourself to get to sleep at night, but that doesn’t make it true.” She didn’t appear frightened in the least.

  Cassandra looked at Warrick. Then she stared at Bianca. “Is this your girlfriend, Warrick? Pfft. She’s not that impressive.”

  “Bite me,” Bianca said.

  “Don’t tempt me, pet. I just might do that.”

  “I’m not your pet.”

  “We’ll see about that.” The woman looked up into the air as if thinking. “I know what would be fun.”

  Cassandra lifted her arms and started chanting in a language Warrick didn’t know, but it sounded familiar. An arc of electricity danced between her hands. “I curse you to fall in love with Warrick’s brother, Viktor. Go to him. Give him a big juicy kiss to show your newfound love how much you care for him.”

  Bianca wrenched her hand from Warrick’s and ran toward Viktor. “Bianca, no!”

  Viktor backed up into the wall next to the fireplace, a genuinely horrified expression on his face. It would be comical if the spell weren’t so perverse. “Bianca. I don’t think this is a good idea,” his brother said, putting his arms out straight to keep Bianca from jumping him.

  Bianca kept moving toward him, dodging his rebuffs until she was snuggled between his arms. She gazed up into his eyes. He looked like he’d rather be staked outside at dawn and set on fire before the sun came up.

  Tortured, Warrick watched his girlfriend, his love reach up to cup his brother’s face between her palms. She tilted her face up until her lips were a breath away from the vampire’s.

  “I’m sorry, Viktor, but I am in love with your brother. Cute as you are, I don’t want to give you a big juicy kiss.”

  Bianca dropped her hands to his rib cage and started tickling his sides. His brother let out an unmanly giggle and swatted at her hands. “Stop that, Bianca.”

  She stopped tickling him and stepped away. “I can read your mind. I know you’re ticklish one other place, too.”

  “Do not say it out loud.”

  “Okay. It can be our little secret. As long as you stop saying rubber baby buggy bumper every time I come near you. You’re thinking it so hard it projects out of your mind. Makes me crazy.”

  “Noted.”

  Bianca raced back to Warrick and lunged into his arms to give him a big juicy kiss.

  Cassandra’s mouth hung open for only a second. “Wait a minute. I put a powerful spell on you. You love Viktor now, not Warrick.”

  Bianca pulled away from Warrick and faced her. “No. I love Warrick. Your spell didn’t work.”

  “Do not speak to me, mortal.”

  “I may be mortal, but I’m also an Alpha. That means I’m an alien. Get out of here right now or else I’ll show you my alien powers.” She lifted her hands, shaped her fingers into menacing claws and made a face.

  Cassandra disappeared in another bilious puff of green smoke before Bianca could make good on her threat. Whatever it was.

  Viktor asked, “What is your alien super power?”

  Bianca shrugged. “The power of persuasion, I guess. I mean, she’s gone, right?”

  “Good riddance,” Vilma said. She rang for Rochester, who brought coffee and snacks as they all sat to discuss the interesting events of the evening.

  “Well, that was certainly unexpected.” His mother added, “We have a lot to discuss, but first I apologize for putting a spell on you, Bianca, even though clearly it didn’t work.”

  “How do you know it didn’t work?” Warrick asked.

  “Cassandra just attempted the same spell I used.” She shrugged and smiled at Bianca. “Apparently, you’re immune, dear.”

  “Are all aliens immune to spells?” Viktor asked.

  “No,” Bianca said. “A friend of Astrid’s put an illusion spell on her when she first came to Nocturne Falls to change her appearance so she could hide out. It worked until Bubba said her real name.”

  Warrick hugged her. “It must be that you are an extra special alien, then.”

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  “I’m glad you fell for me without having to be spellbound.”

  “Me, too. That means I loved you at first sight all on my own.”

  His mother clapped her hands in gleeful satisfaction. “I knew the two of you would be perfect for each other.”

  Viktor looked from one to the other of them, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Hang on. While I’m happy everything has worked out for Warrick and Bianca, I still think you have some explaining to do, Mom. For instance, who is Cassandra? And why is she vengeful?”

  “Oh, that girl.” She shook her head as if disgusted. “Well, before I found the two of you in the orphanage, Cassandra was my protégé. I was trying to guide her into learning the craft and casting spells for good, but she was a willful child and even at the tender age of ten wanted power and lots of it. I dismissed her and told her family I wouldn’t train her further. Soon after, I received a message about an orphanage nearby where two babies were in need of a supernatural home. I decided to change my life for the better.

  “I brought the two of you to my home to raise you as my own, which of course you know all about. But Cassandra wanted to come back and be my protégé. I told her no. I was a mother with a duty to my sons and she didn’t want to learn what I was willing to teach her anyway.

  “She was angry, and powerful despite her youth. That was why we moved the first time, although you were only babies and can’t possibly remember it.”

  “What now?” Warrick asked. “How do we keep her away?”

  “I’ll talk to Corette Williams and ask her to speak to Alice Bishop who has the influence over Cassandra’s residency if these problems continue. Cassandra is also wanted in several countries overseas. I can make a call and have her whisked out of here if she causes us any more trouble.”

  Viktor stood up. “Well, it’s certainly been an interesting evening. I think I’ll take my chances elsewhere.”

  “One other thing before you go,” Warrick said. “Tell Mom what you heard about the two kids who broke into the library.”

  “Oh, right. I heard a rumor that they were paid to do it.”

  Vilma frowned. “But who would pay anyone to do such a thing?”

  “Don’t know. Just that someone paid them to take a picture of the coat of arms.”

  “The coat of arms,” Warrick said. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  Their mother stiffened. “Someone wanted a picture of the Hart family coat of arms?”

  “I guess so,” Viktor said. “Why? Is that important?”

  “Sit down. I guess I have one more thing to tell you.”

  “What?”

  She looked from Viktor to Warrick and b
ack again. She clutched her hands so tightly in her lap that her knuckles turned white. “I never meant to keep this from you for so long. It just never seemed the right time to tell you.”

  “Spill it, Mother,” Warrick said.

  “I know I’ve let you boys believe I’m only your adoptive mother, that there’s no blood tie between us. The truth is, I am a blood relative. The orphanage contacted me because they discovered who your father was. My brother. The both of you are truly half brothers, born to different females in the year after my brother lost his beloved wife in childbirth. And I am your aunt as well as your adoptive mother.”

  “That means we are half-witch and not half-human?”

  Vilma shrugged. “You’ve never shown any inclination toward the powers of sorcery, so I assumed being a dragon and a vampire were powerful enough to override them. I tested you when you were younger, to be certain.”

  “Why is the coat of arms an issue, then, and why would anyone care about it?”

  “I always wondered if there were more children than just the two of you. I’m sad to say my brother was more than a little wild and reckless before he married as well as after his wife died. I did look, but found no others. Perhaps I missed someone who is looking for us.”

  Bianca said, “I know someone who is looking for her long-lost family.”

  <^><^><^>

  Bianca shifted beside Warrick on the floral-patterned sofa, uncomfortable as the man she loved as well as his brother and mother stared at her as if they’d just been reminded of her presence.

  “Who is it?” Vilma asked.

  “A girl named Ruby. I did a psychic reading on her recently. She was thinking about an image of a shield on a wall.” Bianca hadn’t seen the item clearly in Ruby’s mind, but enough to know it could easily be the coat of arms. There had been words curved along the top of the shield, a design of some sort, like an emblem in the center and two figures on the lower half.

  “Ruby? Her name is Ruby?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  Vilma put a hand to her chest over her heart. “That was the name my brother and his wife planned to give their daughter. But then my brother’s wife died after the birth of their only child and he was inconsolable until his untimely death. I had always assumed the baby died with her mother. That’s what her family told my brother.”