A Touch of Fate Read online

  Russ picked up the cadence and matched thrust for thrust with his tongue in her mouth and his fingers tugged at her nipples in time.

  Her body wound tighter, magic and the zings of bliss mixed with something new. It wasn’t only her twinkling light of magic floating in their cocoon, but new lights, a reddish gold and a bronze joined in and were dancing with hers in time to the throbbing of her body.

  Ash cried out, the orgasm pulsing so damn close. The lights exploded around her in bursts that she recognized as colors matched her bears exactly.

  Her body trembled on the edge and she couldn’t control her moans, even with Russet punishing her with his kisses.

  The sensation took over and in that infinitesimal moment before she came, time stopped all around them. For everyone except the three of them.

  Her mates pushed her over the edge, Russ pinching her nipple tight while nipping her lip between his teeth and Dunn pulling the juices from her pussy and pushing one soaked finger into the tight ring of her ass.

  She exploded for them, seeing stars and galaxies detonate along with her body. She cried out unintelligible words, and her muscles clenched from her toes to her heart. She was lost in sensation.

  Russet and Dunn found her.

  One of them picked her up from the table, cradling her in his arms. Together they laid her down on the floor, wrapping their bodies around her, keeping her safe and warm.

  They softly stroked her body and crooned sweet nothings and sweeter everythings to her until her body relaxed and she could breathe again.

  Dunn whispered in one ear. “That was amazing, mah wah. You touched my soul.”

  Russet murmured into the other. “The way you grabbed onto our souls and danced with them...I’ve never even imagined anything like that.”

  Ash reveled in the fact that it wasn’t only her that had gotten pleasure out of this part of their mating ritual. Her body felt well and truly claimed by them.

  She fell asleep in their arms watching the bits of glittery magic fall like tiny meteorites all around them. She wished on each and every one like they were shooting stars, asking the universe to keep her spell of love and life a little longer.

  A churning image of a giant mass of condensate invaded her dream-like state. It surrounded a spectral, which beat against the barrier. Ash reached out, trying to make it stop.

  It did.

  The spectral froze and for the first time, she could see the anguish, hatred, and pure terror on the face of the being.

  She woke with a start and gasp.

  “Mate, are you okay?” Dunn’s gravelly voice sounded like he’d been asleep too.

  “Yes, I’m fine. I know what to do.” She tugged her arms and legs out from the tangle the three of them were in.

  Russet sat up, setting her free. “What do you mean you know what to do?”

  Ash waved him off and found the multi-use instrument she’d scanned Kady, Black and the spectral with earlier. Please, please let it have recorded the data and images.

  She flicked several buttons and scrolled past a menu. Yes. There. That’s what she was looking for.

  Russet joined her and stared at the screen. “What is it, love?”

  “I understand why the spectral couldn’t penetrate Kady’s magic. Look. It’s similar in make-up to condensate.” She touched a button making the screen move to another view with different data. “I’ve been operating on the theory that the spectral was the absence of light. But, I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s...” She got lost in thoughts for a moment. “Holy Fritz Zwicky. I think it’s non-baryonic dark light, you know, like dark matter. I know that’s not a thing, yet.”

  Russet stroked her hair and tug on one thick strand that had fallen in her face when she was going on and on about her science stuff. He probably didn’t want to hear about her weirdo hypothesis.

  “I love your brain, mate. The way it’s working all the time, and how excited you get about the things most of us will never even think about.”

  Oh. “You do?”

  “Yes, mah wah.” He brushed his lips across her in a gentle caress.

  “You two are good for each other.” Dunn’s breath tickled across the back of her neck. “He’s needed someone who could match his big brain. Someone who understands that need he has for logic.”

  Russet turned her in his arms to face Dunn. “But, he’s needed someone who can match the fiery passion for life and love and pretty much absolutely everything in the whole universe. You two are so perfectly matched, you make sense.”

  Dunn shook his head, denying the statement, in a way that hurt her heart. Then he ran a thumb over her bottom lip.

  “I can’t resist you.” He replaced his thumb with his mouth and kissed her with a soft passion.

  Much more of their touching and fondling and she’d forget about the spectrals and the TFO.

  They were the ones who were irresistible.

  A beep beep sounded from the door breaking into the warm world they were creating for themselves.

  Dunn sighed. “That’s probably someone come to fetch us for Kady’s get together. Do you want to go or stay and work on your new theory?”

  “If I say I want to hang out with my sister to do some experimenting with her magic, will you be upset? I’m not that good at relationship stuff. Not that I’m assuming we’re in a relationship. Crap. Sorry. I – never mind.”

  Dunn grabbed her head with both hands and tugged her into another kiss. When she was sure she wasn’t going to be able to breath ever again, he pulled away. “You never have to apologize for being who you are or what you want with us. We see you, Ashmiza.”

  Gulp.

  Russet crossed and pressed the button, the door whooshed open, and Kady and Black stood there, daylight streaming in.

  “Kady won’t let us leave until—”

  “Wait. What time is it? How long have you been gone?” The sky outside hadn’t changed. The three of them had been wrapped up in each other for hours. The sun should have dipped further in the sky.

  “Uh, about fifteen seconds,” Kady said. “Too soon?”

  “No effing way.”

  Kady came into the ship and looked directly into Ash’s eyes. “What way? You’ve figured out something big, haven’t you?”

  “I need to do some experiments. Are you and Black good enough to do some more magic? But, along with us?” She waved her hand in a circle indicated herself and her bears.

  “Yes. Of course. What do you need us to do?”

  Ash had so much energy and enthusiasm for this new idea, she forgot for a minute to be worried to ask anyone else for their help, or that they might think she was weird and crazy and refuse.

  Maybe that wasn’t her norm anymore. Maybe not when she was with her...family.

  A place inside that had been empty and dark for a long time wasn’t anymore. She wasn’t sure when it happened. Sometime today it had filled in little by little with each interaction with Russet and Dunn, Kady and Black, and even the funny witches and gnomes she’d met.

  She didn’t want to say it out loud, it was too scary. But, in a place inside she kept hidden and secret from the world to protect that tiny treasure, the ideas of family and home were shining bright.

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  She grabbed her lovers, she liked that word, by the hand and dragged them all outside into the garden. A dragon with a cowboy hat by his side and pretty dark-haired woman with a bun in the oven were resting under a copse of trees. Although, she had the sense that that dragon knew every single thing that was going on around them. The women she’d met earlier, Lacey and Topper were with some men who they were clearly deeply in love with if all the touching and smiles were any indication.

  Some other people, and creatures she hadn’t met yet from the town were setting up picnic tables and sunshades for Kady’s event later tonight.

  It didn’t bother her at all. They weren’t going to judge or sneer. Like Dunn said. They saw her. They got her
.

  She got them too.

  Ash guided their group to the middle of the grassy area, wanting some room to try her magic out. Topper and her man came over with a young woman who looked so familiar and at the same time, Ash was sure she’d never seen her before.

  She had beautiful midnight black skin and wore a patch over one eye.

  No. It couldn’t be.

  “Jacquie?”

  The woman sidled right up to Ash, rubbed their shoulders together and laid her head on Ash’s shoulder. “Hello, mistress Ashmiza.”

  Holy. Fucking. Schrödinger.

  A very handsome young man bounded up to their group and curled himself around Kady’s arm. “Mistress Kaden. Did you meet the new familiar?”

  Kady patted the young man on the head. “Not yet, Percy.” She turned to Ash and smiled. “Seems our parents made sure we both had someone to watch out for us.”

  A quick flash of magic shimmered over the young man and in an instant, he’d shrunk into a hedgehog the size of her hand and scurried around them in the grass.

  “Mistress, do you mind?” Jacquie asked.

  “No. Not at all. Do what you need to do.”

  That same flash of magic burst forth from Jacquie and soon a black cat was chasing the hedgehog back toward the house.

  “Don’t eat anyone, Jax,” Ash called after them.

  Okay then. That was weird. Ash’s mind wandered toward the contemplating how shapeshifting violated the law of conservation. Russet and Dunn’s bear forms were much bigger than either man, and Percy and Jax’s forms were much smaller than their man and woman.

  Nope. She had other theoretical physics problems to sort out right now. She’d tuck that one away for another day.

  “Ash-ling, what would you like us to do? What have you figured out?”

  Right. Ash explained to the group in as close to layman’s terms as she could about the properties of light and how BEC had been observed to slow the speed of light.

  Everyone except for Russet had a blank look on their face. She really needed a copy of those baby board books that explained quantum physics for babies.

  “Let’s try this. The spectrals are made up of something like light. But, let’s pretend they human. Kady’s magic is like thick mud. They can get through it, but it slows them down and it takes a lot of energy, and they don’t really want to do it.”

  “Interesting. What does yours do?”

  “Imagine I can take that mud and freeze it. Nothing trying to move in it will be able to break. Everything stops. Gets stuck.”

  “We could trap the spectrals.”

  “I think so. But, I don’t have any experience with combining what we can do. I think I understand how to do the stopping but need some practice to combine it with Kady’s to see if we can turn it into a semi-permanent trap.”

  “Then let’s do it.”

  Kady grabbed Black’s hand, and Ash held out her hands behind her, followed suit, reaching for Dunn and Russet. One hand gasped hers right away. She could tell the difference between the zing of pleasure each of their touches gave her.

  She glanced away from Kady and found Dunn, arms held at his sides. A flash of worry, or sadness, or anger went through his eyes and then was gone.

  Ash held out her hand to him again. “I need you, Dunn. I can’t make this happen without you both.”

  That must have been the right thing to say because he nodded and took her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing her fingers.

  Kady and Ash worked together for hours bringing up the golden swirls and sparkles of their magic, combining it over and over.

  Each time they got closer to creating the trap for the spectrals. Kady would bring up her bubble of glowing light, which would hold them. But, Ash needed to then freeze the time inside the field.

  She hadn’t explained to anyone there that she’d realized her magic stopped time and that if they could do that, they could stop the spectrals. But, each time they made the force field, she would watch closely to see if anything inside was moving.

  First a bug flew right through. Then a baseball from some boys playing nearby. After that they asked the boys to help them by throwing their ball through the magic as part of the test.

  Each time Kady brought up the swirls of her magic, and Ash would add her sparkles to it. But, not once was she able to stop the time inside.

  “Great Jean Gray, why can’t I get this.”

  She let go of her men’s hands and threw her arms in the air, frustrated and exhausted.

  Topper, Lacey and several other women had come over to watch, giving them encouragement. Topper stood up, walked over and poked Ash in the chest. “Because you’re only using your skin-deep magic. The kind we all have. But, you two are something special. Not everyone can draw on soul magic. So, start using it.”

  “Soul magic. No, that’s not the problem. Souls are a psychological construct of humans needing to hold their own mortality at bay. Magic may have been written off as fantasy by the science community until now, but it operates in the same way as other matter and is subject to the laws of physics.”

  Topper folded her arms and turned her hair from purple to bright orange. “Oh really? How is it then that your sister is creating this matter? I don’t think she’s keeping a particle accelerator under her skirt.”

  “Well, you don’t make Bose-Einstein condensate with a particle—” Oh. That was not Topper’s point.

  Ash couldn’t explain how Kady’s magic created the effect it did, and certainly didn’t understand how she’d stopped time this afternoon when she’d been with Russet and Dunn.

  What made her think, that a woman who had magic as an everyday part of her life, who lived in a town called Magic in New Mexico, for Edward Condon’s sake.

  “Aha. There you go.” Topper clapped. “Now you’re opening your heart. We’ve been waiting on that for – wait how old are you?”

  “Twenty-eight.”

  Topper looked at her watch and tapped it. “We’ve been waiting on you to let your heart back out into the world for twenty-six years. No magic without that.”

  “Who is we?”

  “Your name isn’t bear’s heart for nothing.” Topper never seemed to answer a question, and everything she said raised even more.”

  Dunn broke into their conversation. “Ashmiza means bear’s heart?”

  Topper looked at him like he was stupid. But something in Dunn’s eyes told Ash that the answer was very important to him.

  “No, Ayininkalbi does.”

  Was that relief she saw?

  Dunn grabbed her, dipped her and kissed her right in front of everyone gathering in the garden. “You have my bear’s heart, mah wah. Forever and always.”

  His words brought the tingle of magic as it sparkled to the surface over her skin.

  “There you go, Ashmiza. There’s your soul magic.” Topper pointed and shouted.

  Ash looked from Dunn to the twinkling magic hanging in the air around him. It wasn’t just hers. Dunn’s amber-colored magic was shimmering in and around hers.

  “Try your spell again, Ash.” Kady brought up her bubble of magic and held it steady waiting for Ash to join her.

  Dunn stood her back on her feet, but didn’t let go of her, which was good because she wasn’t entirely sure she could stand on her own after his searing kiss.

  She took a deep breath and pushed her magic into Kady’s. Then she nodded to the boy on one side and he threw the ball. This time instead of sailing through, something strange happened. The ball landed on the ground on the other side, but the image of it was also still inside the swirls of magic. What they could see was still moving from one side to the other, but in slow motion.

  Russet, who stood a few feet away studied the image as it moved. “Ash-ling. Does your soul magic slow the speed of light?”

  He was so damn smart, and that was sexy too. “I think that Kady’s does some of that because of the way it partially behaves like BEC. But, I think mine can
stop time.”

  He nodded at her and rubbed his fingers over his beard in an adorable thinking movement. “Try it again. You’re close now.”

  Ash nodded to the boy near her and he prepared to toss the ball again.

  “Wait just a rooting tooting minute. Ashmiza’s only got half her soul magic going. Get in there and get the other half revved up, young man.” Topper shook her finger at Russet.

  Russet took a step back. “She needs heart, not intellect. She has plenty of that.”

  What was that supposed to mean?

  Topper flicked her fingers and dragged Russet across the grass until he stood directly in front of Ash. “I never took you for a dumb bunny. I thought you were smarter than the average bear.”

  “You said she is bear’s heart. That’s Dunn. I suspected that she is his mate alone earlier. I won’t stand in the way of either of them joining for my own selfishness.”

  Dunn moved to stand in front of Ash, still holding her hand and faced his brother. “I was ready to give her up for you. You’re the one that is best for her. She’s got a beautiful mind and you stimulate that in a way I don’t even understand.”

  Topper rolled her eyes. “Okay, Yogi and Boo Boo. Remind me never to hide a pickinick basket from you two.” She turned to Ash.

  “What does your first name mean?”

  “The powdery residue left after the burning of a substance?”

  “Oh, you three are suited for each other. Ashmiza. What does Ashmiza mean.”

  Ash shook her head, but then stopped and thought for a moment. A new song popped into her head, this time it was the theme song from Animaniacs. It helped her think and the answer simply popped into her head. “Ashmiza means creative one who glows with intelligence.”

  “That’s it.” Topper walked away and sat in a man’s lap, apparently satisfied with the answer and done with her business.

  Russet ran his hand over her hair. “You do glow with intelligence, my love. You don’t need anything from me.”

  Ash wrapped her free arm around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Enough of letting them think, it was her turn.