Maia's Magickal Mates [The Double R 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Maia thought he might have been one of Aura’s many neighbors making a condolence call. There had been so many in the last day and a half, which was one of the chief reasons Thayne and Cade had decided to leave the door unlocked, that and the people out here just did things this way, same as their neighbors in McCoy.

  The man, however, looked out of place, too sophisticated and citified to be one of Aura’s down-to-earth neighbors.

  Cade clearly didn’t recognize the gentleman any more than Maia did and arched a brow. “Can I help you?”

  Cade’s calm voice almost lulled her into a sense of safety and security before the man grinned and stepped closer.

  He didn’t have any visible weapons in his possession, yet he had a sinister aura and projected as threatening a vibe as if he pointed a loaded gun at her and Cade.

  Cade must have sensed the menace like her, but a moment too late, as he started to stand from the sofa before an invisible force stopped him in his tracks.

  He collapsed back onto the sofa, clutching his head between both hands as if in unbearable pain.

  “I thought you’d be more of a challenge, but it looks like you’re just like your parents, with weak and passive abilities at best.”

  Maia looked from Cade writhing on the sofa to the stranger standing no more than a few feet away from them and knew exactly what had killed Aura. “Who are you?” she asked but already knew. This man with the cold, empty hazel eyes was Aura’s massive stroke. He was the evil to which Thayne and Cade’s parents had alluded in Cade’s dream.

  “Where’s the pendant?”

  Maia opened her mouth to respond—determined that he would not get what he wanted, that he would not get to Thayne—before she felt the specter in her mind, weaving in and out of her thoughts, probing. “No…” She gasped, more from shock at the alien presence than from pain. Even though she didn’t immediately recognize exactly what he did to her and Cade, Maia’s “passive” powers went on autopilot, reflexively putting up a wall to block him before he could do her real damage.

  She vaguely wondered if Cade had anything to do with the upsurge of her abilities.

  Did he feed her his powers, even while withstanding the stranger’s assault?

  “Hmm, I’m really going to have to stop underestimating how effective those passive powers are, aren’t I?” He came closer, growling as he shot out a hand to grab Maia around the arm and jerked her to her feet. “I can make this quick and relatively painless or I can make it very slow and painful. It’s your choice.”

  “What do you want?” Cade rasped.

  Maia wanted to go to him so badly and soothe his agony, but the stranger stopped her short, rearing back with his free arm and backhanding her hard across the face.

  “You son of a bitch!” Cade spat.

  “Where. Is. The. Pendant?”

  Stunned, Maia licked blood from the corner of her mouth where her teeth and the stranger’s knuckles had connected.

  Don’t let him get to Thayne. Don’t let him get the pendant. If he does, we’re all dead, quick or slow. We’re just dead. “I know where it is.”

  “Maia, don’t—” Cade cried out and rolled from the sofa to the floor, squirming and still holding his head between his hands.

  “I’ll take you to it! Just don’t hurt him.”

  “Aren’t you sweet? Another self-sacrificing protector like Aura, I take it. The Malloy boys have to be the luckiest men alive to have so many women care about them so.”

  Maia frowned, but before she could ask him what he meant the stranger asked, “Where is the other one, anyway? I know he’s in here somewhere. I didn’t see him leave.”

  She wondered how long the brute had been watching them. “You want the pendant, right? Then come on, let’s go get it. It’s upstairs in my room.”

  The stranger glanced back at Cade lying still on the floor.

  Oh Goddess, let him not be dead! Not Cade. Please, no.

  “Come on.” The stranger pulled Maia toward the stairs and she willingly followed. She’d do anything to get him as far away from Cade and Thayne as she could get him.

  * * * *

  Cade felt ten times worse than he had after his night on the town with Jesse, Jax, and Tamara. This headache had every hangover he’d ever had in his life beat, and that said something!

  As soon as the creepy, blond stranger disappeared up the stairs with Maia, however, the pain subsided. It didn’t disappear, but he could at least open his eyes and breathe without pain shooting straight through his frontal lobe and temples.

  Cade didn’t know what type of power the monster had, but it felt like Thayne’s gifts on steroids or Thayne’s gifts gone terribly wrong and to the Dark Side with Luke’s father.

  He dragged himself to his knees and crawled toward the kitchen to the basement door. He had to warn Thayne, to see what they could do to fight this guy and get Maia away from him.

  This is my fault!

  Cade wanted to kick himself for his carelessness. He should have been more guarded. He should have locked all the doors to the house. He had allowed the amiable, laid-back country vibe to pacify him into a sense of safety when the evil against which they had all been warned proved right outside their door, just like his mom and dad had foretold.

  Not outside the door anymore. It’s in the house, with Maia.

  Panting, Cade made it to the basement door and knocked as hard as he could.

  A moment later, Thayne opened the door. “I was just on my way up to…What the hell?” He noticed Cade prone near the door and jumped to help him to a sitting position. “What happened? Where’s Maia?”

  “He got her…s–some guy came in…h–he demanded to know where the pendant is,” Cade managed to get out and watched as his brother’s hand flew to the silver chain around his neck, protective and treating it like the talisman it was. Their mom had given the necklace and pendant to Thayne right before she’d died. To Cade’s knowledge, Thayne had never removed it, either.

  “We can’t let him get it, Cade.”

  “What about Maia?”

  Thayne nervously bit his bottom lip and looked uncertain for all of two seconds before he said, “We’ll get her, but first we have to get you to safety.” He helped Cade to his feet and led him through the basement door.

  Cade didn’t have the strength to fight, barely had the energy to stand against the wall just behind basement door.

  He watched Thayne slam the door and lock it. “What are you doing?”

  “Just trust me, Cade. Can you do that?”

  “I…I want to, but—”

  “I’m going to get us out of here, all of us. I promise.” Thayne slid the chain up from beneath his shirt and grasped the pendant in his hand as if his life depended on it.

  “It does, Cade. All of our lives depend on whether I can make Mom’s spell work.”

  * * * *

  Thayne silently apologized for breaking his own code to read Cade’s mind, but he was desperate. He grabbed his brother’s hand with his free one, held tight, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. “Put your other hand over my fist.”

  Cade did as Thayne commanded, enfolding the hand that held the pendant and effectively closing the circle, but Thayne could feel his brother’s doubt, his concern for Maia. He was no less concerned, but he knew if he couldn’t do this, they would all die anyway. He’d read the danger from his brother’s mind, recognized that the evil had finally arrived.

  “Maia…”

  “I haven’t forgotten her.” Goddess, give me strength. Thayne took another deep breath, concentrating and giving his gift free reign. He searched the house for Maia, reaching for her thoughts and jamming the stranger’s. After a breathless moment he located her.

  Gotcha!

  Thayne latched onto the telepathic link, held onto it as tightly as he held his brother’s hand in the basement. He let Maia know she wasn’t alone.

  We’re going to get you out of there. Just don’t let on what we’r
e doing.

  Like I could.

  He laughed at her ironic comeback, glad that he still could.

  Thayne…I’m scared.

  He swallowed hard, heart pounding at the tremor in her mental voice.

  What if he couldn’t do this?

  Failure is not an option. I lost Mom and Dad. I’m not going to lose Cade or Maia.

  To Maia he sent, I know you are, honey, but it won’t be too long now.

  Thayne opened his eyes and stared at his brother as Cade tightened his grasp around his fist and the pendant.

  “I can hear both of you. You and Maia,” Cade said, awestruck.

  Good. That meant they were all connected. Now to maintain the connection and hope it was strong enough to block out the other presence and get the job done.

  Thayne rolled the incantation around in his mind, testing it a few times before he trusted his voice and tongue with the sacred recitation.

  Unlock the desires of your heart

  Release your wishes from the dark

  Through land, space, time, and water

  Take flight and soar, my sons and daughter

  As he repeated the chant, Cade in the basement and Maia in his mind joined in, matching his pace, rhythm, and tone until they chanted as one, the differences in their voices almost indistinguishable.

  “Something’s happening,” Thayne whispered as the pendant in his and Cade’s hand became hot, light shining through their joined hands.

  Thayne, he’s coming!

  He felt Maia’s pain and knew that the bastard had hit her again.

  Keep chanting, both of you. Don’t stop!

  The energy in the basement changed, growing to surround Thayne and Cade in a warm, glowing sphere.

  The pendant was too hot to hold, but Thayne didn’t let go. He couldn’t.

  The stranger reached the basement door, savagely pounding the wood and frantically turning the knob.

  Thayne felt his fury. He was so angry that he hadn’t properly read them and couldn’t prevent what they were doing or what was happening.

  “Thayne…”

  “Don’t let go,” he warned Cade through clenched teeth. “Don’t stop chanting!”

  Cade held Thayne’s fist as the pendant sizzled in their grip.

  Thayne reached through the door and caught a name.

  His palm was on fire. He smelled his flesh burning.

  Prentice threw his body against the door.

  Thayne felt Maia’s presence getting closer as she rushed down the stairs.

  Good. The closer she got, the better. She just needed to stay away from Prentice.

  The door splintered, and Prentice put his fist through the resulting hole, snatching a handful of Thayne’s shirt through the sphere.

  “No!”

  Maia’s scream almost broke the spell, but the momentum they had built proved too strong to stop.

  “I don’t feel…so good…”

  At the sound of his brother’s shaky voice, Thayne stared at the sphere surrounding them and noticed it pulsing hot and bright right before it ignited into a million living sparks.

  Please, Goddess. Bring Maia, too.

  * * * *

  Prentice flew back from the blast of heat and light, landing on his back with a loud and painful bang. He wondered why the troublesome woman wasn’t beneath him, breaking his fall, until he didn’t sense her thoughts anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

  He grabbed the back of one of Aura’s barstools to pull himself up to his feet. He leaned against the stool’s back, yet unable to stand on his own.

  Prentice shook his head, trying to stop the ringing in his ears.

  He gaped at the basement door or more accurately what remained of the basement door. Just a yawning, charred hole stood between Prentice and the basement stairs.

  Since the Maia woman was gone, he knew without a doubt the Malloy brothers had disappeared, too.

  To where was the question. Why hadn’t Prentice disappeared with them?

  He stood now and dusted off the pants to his designer suit, loathing that his expensive clothing had been ruined in this unanticipated debacle.

  How dare they get the best of him!

  He got his bearings enough to descend the basement stairs and confirm Thayne and Cade’s vanishing.

  He reached the floor of the smoke-filled basement, seeking out any inkling of the brothers’ presence, telling himself that surely he must be mistaken and they were somewhere in the house, along with this Maia Jensen.

  After several long moments, however, reality finally sank in.

  They were gone.

  Prentice sat on the bottom step of the basement staircase and threw back his head. The mighty roar of rage he released shook the house to its foundations.

  PART II

  There and Then

  The 19th Century

  Chapter 15

  Border of Elk Creek, Oklahoma Territory

  1880

  Maia opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn’t. She closed them back, hoping the pain would stop.

  It wasn’t just a monster headache. Her entire body ached, as if it had literally been sent through a giant wringer.

  She struggled to a sitting position, noting her arid, dusty surroundings, and got a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as familiarity struck her.

  This was no place to which she had ever traveled, at least not in her waking moments. She knew it like the back of her hand, nonetheless.

  “Maia!”

  She turned in time to see Cade running toward her, arms spread wide.

  Maia stood up just in time for Cade to swallow her in his hard embrace.

  After a long moment, he finally pulled away and grinned at her. “You’re okay.”

  “So far, so good,” she said and looked over his sight-for-sore-eyes body in one swift glance. “What about you?”

  “I’ll live.”

  “Where’s Thayne?”

  Cade looked around. “We came through…whatever we came through together. I don’t know why he isn’t—”

  “Maia! Cade!” Thayne waved at them from behind what looked like an old-fashioned well before making his way over to them.

  He hugged each of them in turn, nearly crushing the wind out of Maia when he got to her.

  “You both made it.”

  Maia heard the relief in his voice, and sympathy flooded her. What sort of torment had he gone through wondering whether he had gotten both her and Cade away from that madman?

  “Question is, where did we make it to?” Cade asked.

  “I think a better question would be when we made it to,” Maia said, and both brothers turned to her so quickly, she thought they had surely gotten whiplash.

  “What do you mean?” Cade asked.

  “Oh…no…” Thayne glanced at his surroundings the same as Cade before pinning Maia with his gaze. “It can’t be.”

  Cade looked from Thayne to Maia and back again. “What? What did you do?”

  “Besides saving our asses?”

  “You do sound a little ungrateful, Cade,” Maia said.

  “I’m sorry. I’m grateful, but, dammit, did we go from the frying pan to the fire or what?”

  “It’s not possible.” Thayne shook his head.

  “What’s not possible?”

  “To put it delicately, what your brother is trying so hard to deny is that we have traveled back in time to the Old West.”

  “Yeah, right,” Cade scoffed. He glanced at Thayne for refutation and, getting none from that quarter, shook his head. “Nah. No way. How?”

  “The spell,” Thayne rasped.

  Maia thought back to exactly what they had chanted and couldn’t remember anything about going to the Old West. She replayed it in her mind, just to be sure.

  Unlock the desires of your heart

  Release your wishes from the dark

  Through land, space, time, and water

  Take flight and soar, my sons and d
aughter

  Nope, there was nothing about the Old West in there, not specifically.

  Maybe where they had landed had nothing to do with the chant itself but everything to do with the frame of mind and the values of the spell caster, or at least one of the spell casters.

  Maia focused on those first two lines.

  Is this where Thayne wanted to be? Was landing in the Old West one of his “desires” and “wishes”? She couldn’t argue that with his anachronistic sensibilities he certainly fit here.

  As far as she knew, going back to the Old West, the old anything, wasn’t her wish, however, and she seriously doubted it was Cade’s wish.

  “I only wanted to get us out of there, away from that predator,” Thayne said, looking as shell-shocked as she felt.

  “Maybe you’re wrong,” Cade said. “How can you two be so sure we went back in time?”

  “I just know,” Maia said. “I saw this place in a vision. And in it both of you were dressed in Old Western garb, guns, gun belts, the works.”

  “Well, neither of us is in Old Western garb, as you can see.” Cade raised his arms away from his hips. “No guns or gun belts.”

  It was a conundrum, true, but then why would they go back in time in clothes other than their own? Maybe they would acquire the Old West garb sometime later on?

  “Who was that guy, anyway?” Cade asked.

  “I caught the name Prentice, but as to who he was…” Thayne shrugged.

  Maia dusted her palms against her jeans. “What we really need to figure out is how to get us out of here and back home.”

  “Fucking A,” Cade agreed.

  “That might not be so simple,” Thayne said.

  “Sure it is. Just do the incantation thing and pop us back.”

  That bad feeling grew in the pit of Maia’s stomach. She knew what Thayne didn’t tell Cade proved a complicated combination of lack of ability and lack of desire. Thayne might have the ability to zap them back with the chant, but if his heart wasn’t in it, if he truly didn’t want to go back, and she believed he didn’t, then they were pretty much screwed.