Marcella touched a small skull charm on her bracelet. "Necromantia."
"Whoa, you can make zombies?" Bridget asked, eyes wide with excitement.
"No. No reanimation. I speak with ghosts and spirits. Raise old ones to tell me their secrets, even control them if I choose. Hermes is also a psychopomp, a guide of souls to the afterlife, so his blessings enhance my power over spirits. People have always feared speaking with the dead. It makes other magic users uneasy because they can feel death in my aura," Marcella said quickly.
Knowing that they needed to experience it for themselves, she unclipped the bracelet and let it fall to the table. All three women reared back as the power of her magical field hit them.
"Holy crap," Bridget and Charlotte whispered at the same time.
Yelena's smile went wide and delighted. "Dad is going tolovethis."
17
When his sons had demanded a 'boys' day', Cosimo had assumed it would end at a winery. He hadn't expected to drive an hour outside of the city to an empty field. It was surrounded by high hedges that acted as a windbreak and hid the field from the road. There was nothing there but grass and rocks.
"I don't understand," Cosimo said from the passenger seat.
"It's a surprise adventure!" Apollo replied from beside him. He had insisted on driving, and they were happy to let him. He was the only one of them who drove as crazily as the Italians.
Cosimo snorted. "Doesn't look like one."
"Let's go," Valentine replied from the back seat before they all got out of the car and waited for Cosimo to follow. He had no idea what they were up to. His sons had strange ideas when it came to surprises.
"Who owns this place?" he asked.
Lachlan picked the padlock on the wide gate and opened it. "A friend?"
"I doubt that somehow," Cosimo replied with a pointed look at the padlock.
"Does it matter? There's no one here, so everything is fine. We aren't hurting anyone," Valentine argued.
As soon as they were through the gate, Valentine's magic burned, and the hedges surrounding the field lit up wards and invisibility glamor.
Cosimo crossed his arms. "Okay, boys, what the fuck is going on?"
"This is in an intervention. Sorry, Dad, it's for your own good," Reeve said, looking guilty.
Apollo was unbuttoning his shirt, a big smile on his face. "We are going to help you shift. You're driving us all crazy, and your dragon too."
Cosimo groaned. "The dragon will do it when it wants to. It's not going to be triggered by a fucking field or violence or sex, for that matter."
"You wouldn't know, old man, because you're too chicken shit to make a move on Marcella," Bas replied.
"Marcella has nothing to do with this," Cosimo said stiffly.
"The fuck she doesn't. I'm not even a dragon, and I can see she turns you inside out whenever she's around," Lachlan said, leaning back on the fence. "Your dragon wants her."
"But she doesn't want us! It! You know what I mean," Cosimo snarled, the beast in him rising at the provocation. "I've tried to tell the dragon, but it won't listen."
"Why don't you let it out, and we can have a chat about it," Valentine said, his eyes turning scarlet. The wave of alpha power rolled out of him, smacking into Cosimo like a challenge.
"Don't fucking try that on me," Cosimo's dragon lashed out, taking over his mouth. The magician was pulled to the back of his mind, and he couldn't stop it. His eyes shifted to purple, and his canines lengthened, wanting to fight back.
"There you are," Valentine said with smug satisfaction. "Why are you hiding?"
"I'm not.Heis too scared to let me out," the dragon replied, pacing about. "He wants the woman as much as I do. He won't stop fighting me on it, so I'm not going to shift until he gives me what I want...Fuck!" Cosimo gripped his head, forcing the dragon back down. He leaned over and clutched his knees, wanting to throw up.
"Dad, you are hurting yourself," Bas said, placing a hand on his back and passing him a bottle of water. "It's going to start tearing you apart if you keep this up."
