Falk Clan Tales - Chapter 33: Chapter 33

Joselyn could not believe that man. He was the tallest man she’d ever seen with shoulders larger than the doorway and an ego about twice the size.
Just because his eyes were the color of emeralds with hints of red around the rims and pupils, and dominated his gorgeous, angular face, didn’t mean a damn thing. Forget his hair while you’re at it, she told herself. Joselyn had a weakness for nice hair. His was thick and dark as espresso beans. It hung down to his chin in softly mussed waves. She was shocked at the flash of jealousy that shot through her as she imagined some woman running her fingers through it to get it that way.
“Look, before I respond to your ridiculous statement, let me say congratulations on your perfect Portuguese. I don’t hear it anymore, not since my grandmother passed,” she raised a hand to stop him, “Now, yes, I heard the call too, and I agree with you. There is no way on this Earth that I will ever be with you. Nothing personal, I just have a lot to deal with right now.”
She waited for him to acknowledge her, but it was a long time coming. She guessed Dragons weren’t used to hurrying since they lived notoriously long lives, but still, the way he was staring was simply rude.
She fidgeted under his watchful gaze. His eyes had a haunted look about them. Joselyn couldn’t help but be drawn to him. Curse the Fates. Damn tricksters.
She needed to find something else to look at. Anything, anywhere other than those deep multi-faceted pools. Joselyn knew if she looked at them too long, she’d dive in regardless of her own safety. No, not today. Not any day. I will not be love’s pawn.
She turned her eyes down only to run into his delectable body. Warrior. She’d picked that out of his mind earlier and cringed when she pictured him in battle. He’d been fierce, she knew it without asking. Fierce and brave, maybe even foolish once or twice on the battlefield and off.
“Then we are agreed, Witch,” he looked down at her from his great height.
Joselyn narrowed her eyes as she tried to decide if he was insulting her or not. Hmm. Not.
“We will resist this thing and get through the nuptials this weekend for the sake of Alexsander and Noelle,” he continued.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes, it sounds good to me,” she said crossing her arms against the ache that suddenly flared up inside her chest.
“Aye, me too.”
Joselyn was the first to move to leave the room. She paused for only a second. She wasn’t sure why. She forced one foot in front of the other and left the room, only to head straight to the hallway bathroom.
What was the matter with her? She had too much on her plate right now to worry about some freakishly handsome Dragon’s love life. He didn’t need her to warm his sheets. The man was gorgeous.
She exhaled and closed her eyes. Focus. She had a conference call after dinner with a Council member from the Coven Silva. Her petition was being heard by their Council. Finally.
She tended to need protection since her powers did not include casting spells. Yes, she could make potions in a pinch, but they were hardly powerful. Anyway, the idea was they needed a reason to want to include her. She had to bring something to the table per se.
Joselyn had nothing. The grandmother who’d raised her was gone now. Josefina Coracao had very little in her lifetime. No property, no money, no powers of her own. All she had was her talents and a good work ethic. Her small collection of orchids helped her keep the balance between her powers and nature, but she was no great gardener or horticulturalist.
She ran a psychic hotline and sometimes phoned in anonymous tips to the local Sheriff’s Department to help solve crimes. The Coven Silva was a small, tightly knit group who tended the pine barrens and focused their energies on keeping the lands free from development.
They were environmentalists. Not really her cup of tea, but they had strength and she believed she needed that. Word was getting around about her psychic hotline and website. She knew what this meant of course. Endless readings and being at the coven’s beck and call.
She was getting better at focusing her talent, but as was true with any powers, there were those who sought to use her for their own personal gain. She needed them to protect her from people like that. People like her ex.
She couldn’t believe she fell for it too. He only pretended to care about her for her powers. She dated off and on but always managed to keep things light. Luke was unlike anyone she’d ever met. He was an investigative reporter for a local paper. He’d made it his mission to get her to go out with him after they’d met on a missing person’s case where she advised the police.
He got wind of her psychic abilities and was hooked. She was shocked at his easy acceptance and flattered by his belief in her. She shook her head now, fool.
The person who’d been missing was a woman from the hospice center Joselyn’s grandmother had been living in after her last surgery. The old woman was all alone in the world and had wandered off the hospice premises one afternoon without anyone noticing.
Well, Joselyn had noticed. When the cops were about to give up, she’d summoned a vision. They found the woman thirty-hours later in the pine barrens. She was bruised, but alive. Joselyn had visited her every week until she passed from the malignant brain tumor that had sent her to hospice, to begin with. She still brought flowers to her grave.
After her success, the local police took her tips more seriously. Luke, well, he seemed to get more serious as well. He started asking her for tips on crimes and things so he could get ahead in his writing career. To her utter shame, she fell for it.
Until one day when they met for dinner. Joselyn had had a lousy day. Normally, Luke was attentive. He’d ask about her feelings, listen to her, but not that day. He’d been impatient. There was a ring of car thefts, and he wanted to unveil the crooks behind it, but the cops had no leads.
“I’m sorry, Luke, I don’t think I can help you.”
“What? You ungrateful bitch. After all the time I’ve spent hanging out with your fat ass, listening to you whine and complain, and you won’t help me.”
He’d made a move towards her, to grab or smack she didn’t know. But Joselyn had sensed something foul about him that night. She’d seen his anger before he expressed it. She knew better than to ignore her feelings. Before he could grab her, she was already up and running to the bathroom. She used every ounce of magic she had that night to hold the lock closed.
Oh, he beat on it for an hour or so, but the neighbors had called the police, and he’d fled before the sirens had gotten too close. Joselyn hadn’t gone out on a date since. Luke started calling her a few days later. He’d done some other things too. Like leave her rotting flowers in front of her apartment, and she couldn’t prove it, but she suspected he’d poisoned her neighbor’s cat too. All because Joselyn fed the poor thing.
That was why she needed the Coven Silva. To petition them for membership or at the very least, sanctuary. Joss had no time for Dragons. No matter how gorgeous he was or how pent up inside she felt. She counted to ten, smoothed out her dress and walked back to the dining room.
“Everything okay?” Noelle whispered as she took her seat. Joselyn nodded and noted that Edric had not come back to the table.
She tried to ignore the regret that welled up inside of her, but there it was. She wondered if he was okay. Before, she knew what she was doing she reached out with her mind and found him. He was on the roof.
Castle Falk had been designed with a special landing area for the brothers. To normals, it looked like a helipad, but she knew better. She watched from her mind’s eye as he transformed instantaneously into a huge red Dragon. His oval scales were dazzling in the moonlight.
She felt his turmoil and his anger. She gasped and was briefly aware of Noelle touching her shoulder. Edric opened his enormous wings and flapped them upwards, touching the tips together. At that very moment, lightning touched the sky and seemed to shoot through him.
She heard his roar before anyone else did. Saw the shock on his brothers’ faces, but that was nothing compared to the pain she felt. His pain. Heartbreak. Anguish. Betrayal. Death. Tears stung her eyes, and she bit her lip to keep them from falling.
She ignored them as all three brothers, Nikolai, Alexsander, and Callius, watched her. They turned in unison to the window where a nasty hailstorm just began to punish the grounds. They whispered to each other in their language, Dracan. She did not understand the words, but she knew that they whispered about Edric.
He’d brought the storm.