OwlsFair (7 page)

She flapped her wings a few times and perched on the arm of Kris’s chair. She preened and stretched her neck as much as she could.

Buzz helped her friend. “You can pet her. She likes it. Just go with the feathers. Going the other way is bad.”

Kris stroked her breast and marvelled at the softness of her feathers. “It is amazing.”

Ezzy opened her wings to show off a little more, and Kris laughed. “It’s like you are wearing a trench coat when you do that.”

Clacking her beak, she expressed her irritation. She tucked her wings back against her body and stared at Kris with her owl’s gaze. She blinked. Shock rippled through her shifted form as she saw the truth of her childhood friend. Every inch of Krisia rippled with power. Waves of it came off her, changed direction and crashed back against her skin.

Amazed, Ezzy made a few soft sounds, ruffling her feathers and stretching her neck as her friend stroked her between her eyes.

“I know what you are seeing, Ezzy. Thankfully, you can’t see it with your human eyes, or our little promise would never have made it past my turning sixteen. That is when I became the Transporter Guild Master.”

A thousand questions ran through Ezzy’s head, but a slow stroke down her feathers sent the questions to the back of her mind. She sat and let her friend touch her soft feathers while the questions of the moment were pushed aside. She was seeing Krisia as she truly was, and Kris was seeing her. There was no hiding from the ones you loved.

Chapter Twelve

Performing the joining ceremony for Kris and Tobias was surreal, but Ezzy followed her friend’s instructions to the letter in front of the witnesses that Tobias had summoned.

“As destiny has called you, so you shall answer. Krisia Margaret Vehn, I do hereby bind you for life and beyond to Tobias Christopher Orcross. You shall respect him as your Guild Master and cleave to him in everything else.”

Ezzy reached out and placed Kris’s hand on top of Tobias’s. She bound them together with silver chain.

“As duty has called you, so you shall answer. Tobias Christopher Orcross, I do hereby bind you for life and beyond to Krisia Margaret Vehn. You shall respect her as the Transport Guild Master and cleave to her in all other matters.”

As she bound the next hands together, she felt a surge of that power that Dira had mentioned. She throttled it back, but it kept rising.

“Those assembled now witness, the bond has been created, and once consummated, it shall mark the heavens.”

As instructed, Ezzy placed her hands over the chains, and she lost control of the power at that moment.

The spark of energy jumped from her to Krisia and back again. The silvery chains disappeared and became part of the joined hands.

Kris’s eyes widened in surprise, and Tobias’s immediately followed. “What did you do?”

Ezzy looked to the assembled, then shrugged and focussed back on the couple. “A shifter in the Crossroads zapped me with some power. She said it would dissipate after a few years. I wasn’t expecting it to jump out now.”

Kris looked at the silvery tracing on her hand and smiled. “Well, I was hoping for an old fashioned-type of wedding. This definitely qualifies.”

Tobias nodded. “I suppose so, though no one has worn this kind of mark for centuries.”

Ezzy blinked, “It was a very old shifter.”

“Then that explains it, though not exactly the nature of the gift.” Tobias straightened.

Kris cleared her throat, and Ezzy remembered the final part of the ceremony.

“And so I pronounce Krisia and Tobias formally bound to one another and to the power of the world beneath our feet. May they live long and share their joy and power with all around them.”

A cheer rang out from the magic users as power flared between Tobias and Krisia until the light filled the room.

Ezzy stepped back and joined Buzz in the gathered crowd. He took her hand, and they watched while Kris and Tobias leaned in for their first kiss.

Ezzy could feel the attraction between her friend and the man who held her as if she was a piece of fine porcelain. She leaned against Buzz and listened to the steady thump of his heart. As long as they lived, if she could hear that thudding metronome in her ear, she would know that her world was all right.

Once the kiss of joining was over, Kris smiled up at her new mate with a slow smile that bloomed out of her heart and spread across every inch of her body.

Ezmerelda had seen that smile once before, the day that they made the silence pact and agreed that nothing that happened in their other lives would come between them. Kris’s young face had had that same smile.

Buzz whispered, “You think that she will be happy?”

“I think that her smile will blind the universe. Yes, she will be happy, and she will drag me along for the ride.”

The new couple turned and went to sign the legal documents that would bind them in the human world, and when that was done, Kris turned, and smiled at Ezzy. “Your turn.”

Ezmerelda stood with her sister Doria behind her, facing Edgar and his sister Ystine. Edgar wore a bearskin wrap and nothing else. Ezmerelda wore a cloak made of owl feathers.

Krisia was wearing a long robe covered with embroidered symbols and had an air of power around her.

“When shifters come together, they usually form alliances on lines of commonality, but when two souls call to each other across the universe, there is no other course but to bind two dissimilar bodies into one union. Ezmerelda, you have flown through night and day, still and storm. Your wings are part of you, and you need them every moment of every day.

“Edgar, your fur and claws have taken you through forests, over rocks and mountains, in the trees and through the rivers. Your fur protects you and is a part of you in everything that you do. You cannot separate yourself from your bear, as Ezzy cannot separate from her owl.

“This is not something that can be done often, but if you will allow me to gift to you, I offer you equality.”

The crowd of magic users gasped, but Tobias merely smiled.

Ezzy looked at Buzz and grinned. “I will take it. I will remove my owl and accept a bear in its place.”

“I will remove my bear and take wings instead.”

Krisia smiled, “Neither of you need lose what you are. I am offering you more. Take my hands, and be bound to each other for eternity.”

Ezzy took Buzz’s left hand with her right and reached for Krisia’s right with her left. Buzz did the same, and power raced through the circuit around and around until every part of Ezzy was tingling and glowing with power that she wanted to focus.

Krisia released their hands.

Ezzy looked up into Buzz’s eyes, and she felt the energy of a shift take her over. Her skin tingled as fur sprouted, and in a moment, she was on all fours, a bear in an owl cloak.

Buzz disappeared, and the heap of bear cloak puddled on the floor with a lump under it. Ezzy lifted the edge of the cloak with her paw, being very careful not to crush the owl under it.

A great grey owl popped out, hooted and extended his wings. A few flaps sent more fur than air moving, so Ezzy tried to shift into her owl form, and it came to her.

She had both shapes now.

She moved back to human and extended her hand to Buzz. He nipped, but she was fast. “Flying takes practice, Buzz. I promise to help you learn, but for now, we might want to formalize our bonding and sign the marriage license.”

The crowd laughed as Buzz quickly shifted back to his human form. He tucked her back into her cloak before putting his own on. His erection was intent, but the expanse of the cloak concealed it handily.

Smiling, they came together in a kiss. Parted, she bit the fleshy part of his thumb and he did the same for her. Blood was exchanged, and the kiss was repeated.

“My life to your life, your body to mine.” Their words were spoken in unison.

The moment that the documents were signed, Ezzy and Buzz were transported to their new home so that Krisia and Tobias could enjoy the physical part of their bonding.

Standing in an unfamiliar place, Ezzy went against her normal reflex and dropped the owl cloak. The expanse of open air that she could see through a huge floor-to-ceiling window called to her. “This is amazing.”

He came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms, pressing one hand over her belly and one over her breasts. “I am glad you like it. The back looks out on the forest, the front on the valley. You can teach me to fly out there.”

She chuckled and placed her hands over his. “You are going to have to back it up, Buzz. It takes months to learn to fly. I will start you with owl preschool, and you can respond by teaching me how to walk on all fours. It was really quite awkward to try and move everything at once.”

“I will show you how to manage your limbs. It is really easy once you get used to it.” He lifted her and put her bare feet on top of his. “Left, right, left, right.”

She was giggling madly as he walked with her straight into the bedroom.

Two hours later, she sighed as she listened to his heartbeat slow once again. “Yeah, you certainly know just how to help me move.”

He lifted her hand to his lips. “You are an inspiring subject. How do you think your friend is getting on with her new mate?”

One wall of the bedroom was made of glass. Ezzy looked out over the wild pattern in the aurora borealis, and she smiled, “I think she is getting along just fine. I hope you like visitors—Kris was never one to stand on ceremony.”

“If she makes you happy, then I am happy. Tobias will just have to get used to her coming and going as she chooses.”

“Kris has a strong independent streak, but she is the best friend a woman could ask for.” Ezzy trailed her fingers across his chest. “She gave us quite a gift. Most new couples don’t start on equal footing, but she got us as close as she could.”

“If flying is as difficult as it seems, I think I would have preferred that she got us a toaster.” Buzz’s resigned voice made her giggle, and she kept it up until he rolled on top of her once again.

Looking up into his dark brown eyes, she couldn’t stop her smile. “I can also show you the finer points of sex in midair. It is usually an eagle thing, but once you get the hang of it, I hear it is quite the rush.”

“I will settle for being able to follow you through the skies.”

She didn’t have a reply for him, because he pressed his lips to hers and rolled over to his back, taking her with him and coaxing her knees to either side of him.

Ezzy was sore, but she welcomed the slide of him within her. They moved together on the first night of their new lives, and as she dug her nails into his chest, he growled long and low. The vibration went through his body, and as he quivered inside her, she bucked and shrieked a hunting cry into the air.

Their bodies were lit by the dance of magical radiation outside as their hearts slowed and matched their beats.

Epilogue

Krisia sat and watched Tobias pronounce the sentence on the coyotes who had attacked her and broken the sanctity of the Crossroads.

“You have broken the pact between the Transporters and the shifters, and for that you, your family, anyone of your bloodline and your descendants for three generations are forbidden from using the Crossroads or seeking help from one of our kind.”

The two cousins stood wide-eyed, their pack leader was grim, and Anders was curled around his crushed arm. They had healed it to the point where it would heal itself in human fashion, but no further.

The pack leader stepped forward. “I understand the ruling, but is there a way to punish the guilty without taking it out on all of his relatives?”

Tobias leaned back, and Krisia pressed her hand on his shoulder. He covered her hand with his. “There is one
way. If the one who committed the offence is removed from this world, the curse we have put into effect will cease. His two assistants will merely have to be removed from the gene pool. Those are our terms. When this has come to pass, the curse will lift. Until then, your pack and Anders’s relations will be under this restriction. Are we clear?”

The pack leader bowed and jerked his head for the cousins to pick up Anders. “We are clear.”

“Good, when it is done, your people will be able to find Transporters and Healers again. Good afternoon.”

Krisia lifted her head and dismissed the coyotes back to their pack home. Anders wouldn’t survive the night.

“Thank you for the lenience. It is better to have the shifters handle their own deaths. They know where to put the bodies.” Kris kissed Tobias’s cheek.

“I should have just killed him.”

“They need to know that they cannot abuse the Transporters. I have not been the only one molested in the last six years. They take the privilege for granted. It is a sacred rite, not a carnival ride.”

Her mate laughed. “So, you don’t intend to install a permanent door between the Guild house and your friend’s home?”

Kris snorted. “Of course I do.”

He tugged her into his lap, and she looked up at him with an innocent expression. It took a lot of nerve to stare down an angel, but she was getting all the practice she could handle.

“You will have to tell me where you are going, you know. If you don’t, I will come after you and that might interrupt girl time.”

Kris shut him up with a kiss to his perfect mouth. She would tell him when she was going to Ezzy’s and when she was coming back, but she had other clients that destiny was calling, and if they couldn’t come to her, she would go to them.

Author’s Note

The mystery of Buzz’s name will be answered in book two, Lion Time. Krisia has a plan to help women who have a problem getting to a Transporter, and Ezzy is helping every step of the way.

Perhaps someone should tell Tobias what is going on? Nahhh. He had ten years to figure out what he was getting into.

Thank you for joining me in the Crossroads. I hope you have enjoyed your time there.

Zenina Masters

[email protected]

www.zeninamasters.com

About the Author

Zenina Masters was born in Canada and lives in Canada. She has a regular job and does nothing particularly exciting with her life. She enjoys fishing, silence and the ability to pick and choose friends she can trust. Life is too short to watch your back all the time.