Dark Magic (Magic Series) - Softcover

The war between good and evil

Jake Macgregor has his hands full. As San Francisco s leader of the Paranormal Special Forces unit, he and his team are facing a powerful enemy that threatens to bring down the city. With the weight of the world already resting on his broad, chiseled shoulders, the last thing Jake has time for is romance. So why after a long, hard day s fight against evil are his nights filled with dreams of Cassia?

Is about to get a whole lot hotter

Cassia is a D Anu witch whose birthright ensures power and honor beyond her imagination. It also forbids the one thing Cassia wants the most: the love of mortal Jake Macgregor. When she intervenes in a skirmish to save his life, the consequences are inescapable even though the magic they make together is too luscious, and potent, to resist

DARK MAGIC

A sinfully engaging read. A Romance Review on Wicked Magic

“Jake!” Cassia screamed as images of Jake dying almost blinded her.

“No! No, no, no.” Her voice came out in sobs before she gathered the strength of her increased powers and entered the transference to cross the veil between Otherworlds.

Screams still tore at her mind as she flung herself through darkness and appeared next to Jake’s body. Her feet hit wet grass and rain drenched her.

Naked, tattooed men surrounding Jake stumbled back in surprise when she appeared. One of them had been close to driving a dagger into Jake’s chest.

Fury exploded within Cassia.

Fire filled her mind and heart, and flames flew from her fingertips. She shouted to the goddess as she spun in a circle, her arms outstretched as the fire blasted from her body.

Screams cut above sounds of rain and thunder as her fire burned the men and hit water funnels behind them. The water evaporated and fire engulfed each man that appeared.

Their daggers melted. Smells of burned flesh and burned grass, along with something bitter and sour, filled the air as the men dropped to the ground, writhed, and turned to ash.

She wiped out every funnel- being.

The only man she allowed to live was the one she instinctively knew had been fighting beside Jake. No remorse battled her consciousness for those she had killed. She was not a true gray magic D’Anu witch—those who would incapacitate but not kill. She was fully Elvin, and the Elves had no such compunctions when they fought.

One glance at the man beside Jake told Cassia the man would live.  But Jake was close to drawing his last breath.

Fear twisted her insides so hard it felt like her heart was being squeezed between two great boulders. Cassia dropped to her knees and cradled Jake’s head and shoulders.   With a thought she transferred them both to Otherworld.

The transference seemed to last too long, a suffocating blackness that she’d never felt before, and Cassia wanted to shout.

She arrived on the warm wood floor in the palace in the trees, at an Elvin being’s feet, the one being who could help her save Jake.

The Great Guardian.

“Please, Mother.” Tears rolled down Cassia’s face as she supported Jake in her arms and looked up at the Guardian.  “He’s not meant to die. He has purpose. He is needed for the battles ahead.”

The Guardian knelt beside Jake and Cassia, and studied him as blood poured from his mouth and his chest heaved in hard jerks. His eyes opened and closed like he was trying to focus and as if it took tremendous effort to move his eyelids.

“You have feelings for this man, Cassiandra.” The Guardian looked at Cassia. “But he is mortal. If he’s near to death, we shouldn’t interfere.”

“Mother!” Cassia lowered Jake’s head to the floor and ran her hands above Jake’s body, her sparkling magic flowing in and out of him, telling her how extensive the damage was. Her head nearly spun at the magnitude of his injuries.

“A lung, his intestines, spleen, and liver. This is beyond my skills.”

“You know that with your ascension came power surpassing what you mastered before.” The Guardian put her palms on Jake’s bloody abdomen. “But it will take both of us to heal this human’s wounds.”

Cassia’s breath came in heavy gasps and her heart throbbed in her ears as she placed her hands over Jake’s chest. 

Magic beyond magic flooded her veins, heat beyond heat.

He wheezed and coughed up more blood as he looked up at her with glazed blue eyes. Confusion, and something else she couldn’t recognize, filled his gaze.

“I’ll save you, Jake. I promise,” she whispered without allowing her magic to be interrupted. “Mother and I both will.”

“Cassia . . .” Her name died on his lips before he closed his eyes, and his body went slack.

Tears flooded Cassia’s cheeks as she closed her own eyes and focused on his wounds. The ice daggers hadn’t been poisoned, so at least they didn’t have to be concerned about that.  With all her concentration, she focused on repairing

every organ in his body. In her mind’s eye, she watched as her sparkling magic combined with her mother’s glowing powers. Organs and an artery began to knit themselves back

together, stopping the loss of blood and allowing them to function as they should.

One by one, every organ, every part of Jake’s body that had been ripped apart, was repaired.

Cassia began to feel light- headed from the drain on her body and magic. Her mind spun as she opened her eyes, and her focus wavered in and out. She continued using her own healing powers on Jake as she watched her mother. The Guardian’s magic flowed strong and pure until Jake’s skin had been sewn together, with only pink scars remaining.

The Guardian’s features were impassive as she treated Jake’s biceps on the right arm, below a tattoo. She erased those wounds as well, leaving only scars. “He will need time to completely heal and will require much rest.”

Dazed and a little disoriented, Cassia looked up at her mother. “Why did you leave scars?”

“To remind him that he is mortal.” The Guardian eased to her feet as gracefully as if water could flow upward. All of the blood that had been on her hands and robes vanished.  “And to remind you, Cassiandra.”

Cassia looked at Jake and brushed his dark, wet hair from his eyes, blood streaking his forehead from her fingertips.  He looked peaceful yet exhausted, but no longer tortured with pain.

Blood coated her hands, her arms, and her once beautiful ascension dress. The rain- soaked dress clung to her skin and her hair hung in wet clumps. Her body numbed and shook as the power of her fear and anger began to subside. But the dizziness in her head increased.

She was going into shock.

“Ah, my child.” The Guardian’s voice seemed to come from far away and light pressure pushed against Cassia’s head. “It is time for you to rest. Both of you.”

Cassia slumped forward, her cheek settling on the bloodied T-shirt that covered Jake’s chest.

And felt nothing more.

Cassia paced beside Jake’s bed. He had been asleep much longer than she had expected. Her mother had told her that Jake would need more time to recover from the shock his body had taken, but it had been three days. The Guardian said he would need at least one more.

She studied Jake for a long moment, her heart pounding a little faster and the star birthmark beneath her navel tingling. 

The Elvin blanket only covered him from the waist down, baring his well- honed chest, carved biceps, and the eagle, globe, and anchor tattoo on his upper right arm. Through the thin blanket she could make out his muscular thighs, and—

Her cheeks burned. From the thickness and length of his erection beneath the soft material, it looked like he must be having a pretty good dream.

Time to change the channel, as Copper would say.

Jake had always reminded her of an Otherworld warrior— proud, fierce, powerful. He had strong, square, and hard masculine features with firm lips and stubble shading his jaws.   When open, his eyes were a brilliant blue. But over the past months he’d had an incredible weariness in his gaze. As had nearly everyone in the Alliance.

Kael lay on the wooden floor, but his head was high, his ears...