The Prophecy (Saga of the Chosen Book 1) Read online

  “Are you saying that you can sense magic even after it has been spent?” he questioned in disbelief. To the best of his knowledge, no Chosen had ever been known to have that ability. Some of the Ancients could sense magic when in use - not only sense but also predict the type of magic and the ability of the Chosen expelling the magic. But what the witchling claimed was completely unheard of in their world.

  For the first time since she’d been thrust under his notice, Raoul had an inkling of the kind of secrets the young witchling potentially protected. Her desperate desire to keep the extent of her magic hidden was starting to resonate with him. Their world had its fair share of powerful, dangerous and unscrupulous Chosen who would willingly destroy entire civilizations without hesitation or remorse just to possess this kind of magic and the young wizard capable of it. Her considerable magical abilities would not safeguard her from being used as an unwilling pawn in the power games that the Chosen played like a second skin. She was too young, too inexperienced and too ill-equipped to handle the consequences of her deadly secret being revealed. With no allies on her side and no one looking out for her, there was nothing to prevent her from being exploited for her magic and dumped like so much trash.

  Those big gray eyes were staring directly up at him. In their depths lay the knowledge that she knew exactly what fate awaited her if the truth of her abilities was revealed to the world. There was fear as well as determination and resolve to do what she must to prevent such a fate befalling her. Raoul thought he also glimpsed a discernment that she was aware of his new perception of what had compelled her to lie. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity – implacable gold eyes clashing with imploring gray ones.

  “Alright, this is how we’ll play it” he said abruptly, coming to a decision. “You promise me no magic whatsoever – not even minor stuff – without my explicit permission and I will guarantee Pack protection until you’re safe. You have any problems with any of the Chosen – you tell me or Duncan or Hawk but you do not use any magic. You stay here at the Lair and you get escorted to work and back until we catch those rogue Shifters. Do we have a deal?”

  Tasia assented immediately, immensely relieved by his very fair offer. Much to her surprise, the Alpha had not demanded his pound of flesh. He’d accepted her explanations; well most of them anyway, even though he’d made it clear that he didn’t buy some of them. He’d also asked for very little in return for the offer of protection. No Mfector gigs for the foreseeable future meant that money would be tight but she would manage. The no magic part was easy for her – she’d spent her entire life without using any magic to pave her way. On the other hand, the Pack protection he had offered her was huge. It meant that if she got into any trouble, the Pack would come through for her. Perhaps Hawk was right about his Alpha. He’d certainly been more than fair to her.

  “No magic under any circumstances whatsoever, witchling. We clear on that?” the Alpha reiterated again.

  “Yes, Alpha” she assured him. “Thank you. I … I appreciate it” she managed to stutter out, her appreciation clear.

  “You didn’t have to help Hawk that night, so let’s call it even.”

  Chapter 6

  Living with Shifters can be a dangerous proposition

  “What?” Caro squeaked aloud, her voice rising with a mix of astonishment and excitement. She glanced around them quickly before leaning forward to hiss excitedly at Tasia. “You’re staying at the Lair?”

  “Yep.”

  “The Pack Lair?” Caro was incredulous. “The Northern California Shifter Pack Lair?”

  “Um hmm.”

  Tasia’s nonchalant response accomplished the unthinkable. It stumped the usually never-at-a-loss-for-words Caroline. She stared at Tasia, speechless and bemused by this unusual turn of events. Tasia smiled mischievously at her friend. And Caroline’s natural effervescence reasserted itself.

  “Oh my God, this is big” she exclaimed excitedly. “Work can wait. Let’s go someplace we can talk, Tas. Do you have time to chat?”

  Tasia’s amused gaze tangled with Caro’s excited one. They had just finished lunch at a popular neighborhood bistro packed with the usual lunch crowd. The tables were jammed together and conversations mingled which is why Caro had leaned over to whisper once the conversation had moved to matters related to the Chosen.

  “I do. Somehow I had the feeling that you’d want to get all the details once I told you my news” Tasia teased her friend.

  “Of course, I want all the details. It’s not every day that a friend of mine gets invited to stay at the Lair.”

  They walked a few blocks, glancing into the cafes they passed to pick one with just a handful of customers. Tasia’s Shifter bodyguard followed them at a safe distance, making sure to keep out of sight of her companion. They ordered cappuccinos and made small talk with the friendly barista as Caro hummed with barely concealed excitement beside Tasia.

  “Okay, tell me everything and I mean everything, Tasia” Caro ordered, barely waiting until they’d seated themselves in a corner away from the few patrons in the cafe.

  Tasia had lain awake the night before, wrestling with the decision about how much to reveal to Caro. She trusted Caro implicitly but Tasia also understood that Caro’s loyalty would lie with the wizards if it ever came down to a choice between her kind and the Shifters. In the end, she’d come to the decision to tell Caro about the involvement of the Shifter mercenaries in the mugging attempts on wizards in the city. It was information that Tasia felt very strongly would help warn vulnerable wizards out on late night Mfector gigs. She also trusted Caro to protect the confidentiality of her source. Her friend was uniquely placed to whisper a discreet warning to the appropriate wizard authorities. Caro’s father was an important man in the wizard hierarchy of this city and commanded immense influence at the local Wizard Registry. Tasia had often wondered whether she might have missed out on the wonderful friendship that had sprung up between them if she’d known about the prominence of Caro’s family in wizard circles at their first meeting.

  “Caro, you know that I take on Mfector jobs on the side sometimes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I had one last Monday and it turned out to be two Shifters who needed a big warehouse cleansed. The next night, they were waiting for me in the alley by my apartment. I was lucky to get away unscathed but I did overhear them discussing the other muggings.”

  “Oh my God, Tas! Why didn’t you tell me? Did they hurt you?”

  Tasia shook her head, unable to suppress a shiver at the memory of that night in the alley.

  “I got very lucky” she said with feeling.

  “You could’ve called me, you know” Caro reiterated softly.

  “I know, Caro” Tasia responded soberly. “And I would have but something else happened that night.”

  Tasia took a deep breath knowing that this is where things got tricky.

  “The night I did the Mfector job, I was able to help an injured Shifter the others were holding captive. He’s Pack and he came to my rescue when those other Shifters lay in wait for me the next night.”

  Caro stared back at Tasia, completely gobsmacked by her story. How on earth had her unassuming friend managed to insert herself into the midst of complicated Pack politics, she wondered in sheer astonishment.

  “There’s in-fighting in the Pack” she exclaimed in a mix of surprise and alarm. The repercussions of such an event would be felt across the city. For it would mean that all Chosen in the city could potentially be dragged into the fight by being forced to choose sides.

  “No, no” Tasia hurried to assure her friend. “The other Shifters are mercenaries and the Pack is hunting them. That is why they were holding the Pack Shifter sent in to flush them out.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense” Caro was clearly relieved. “From what I’ve heard, you don’t mess with Raoul Merceau unless you have a death wish. He’s known to be ruthless, powerful, cold, territorial and very dangerous. His mo
ther was from a very old wizard family. The rumor is that he could’ve been a very powerful wizard if he hadn’t walked away from that part of his heritage. They say that he’s so powerful a Shifter that one day he could give Faoladh a run for his money if he chooses to.”

  It was Tasia’s turn to stare back at her friend, gobsmacked by the revelation. Faoladh was the Alpha of all Alpha Protectors. He was universally acknowledged to be the most dominant amongst all the Shifters in the world. He ran the Shifter world like a primitive fiefdom - the Alpha Protectors that led the various Packs gave him their fealty. He’d pretty much single-handedly organized the Shifters as well as bullied and cajoled the other Chosen into forming the CoC - the Council of Chosen.

  “I didn’t know the Alpha was rumored to be that good” Tasia gasped out.

  “Powerful certainly but not exactly good” Caro grinned. “He’s the bogeyman the Chosen use to scare their young ones into bed.”

  “That, I can certainly believe” Tasia muttered under her breath, eliciting another grin from her friend.

  “Sooo” Caro drawled. “I guess you’ve met him already, huh?”

  Tasia nodded mutely, her gray eyes expressive as they met Caro’s.

  “What’s he like, Tas?” Caro asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

  Tasia reflected on her few encounters with the Alpha Protector. The gentle protector coaxing her to trust him as she cowered, out of her mind with fear in the dark room with the vampire; the impersonal and relentless questioning of her; his rather aloof but forceful and decisive command over his Pack; his confident and ruthless handling of the psychotic Undead Mistress; and the furious temper and alarming transformation from aloofness to threatening predator when he felt that she hadn’t been honest with him.

  “He’s a very complex man” she said thoughtfully. “There’s a detachment and coldness in him that probably makes him a very good Alpha and I don’t think that he lets many people get close to him. He’s like this tightly leashed but very combustible ball of fire that you want to be careful to not set off for fear of the havoc that he has the capacity to wreak. If he ever loses control, he will scorch everything in his path. He plays his cards very close to his chest, will come down on you like a ton of bricks at the first sign of infraction and you do not ever want to make him mad.”

  Tasia shivered at the memory of her various run-ins with him.

  “He’s pretty scary when he loses his temper” she added quietly.

  For a moment, Caro looked nonplussed by her friend’s very thorough take on the notorious Alpha.

  “Wow, Tas” she breathed, impressed by her friend’s astuteness. “You’ve really nailed him! That’s pretty much what my Dad says, in a nutshell. And mind you, this is after five years of interacting with the Alpha Protector in Dad’s official capacity as the senior wizard in the city.”

  Yeah, Caro is connected, all right. I have to watch my step with her – I don’t ever want to put Caro in a situation where she’s forced to choose sides or loyalties.

  “Coming back to the matter at hand” Caro remarked, her practical self reasserting itself. “You said that you overheard the Shifters talking about the other muggings.”

  Tasia nodded mutely.

  “The ones on the female wizards that I warned you about, Tas?” Caro inquired.

  “Yes.”

  “But why? Why mug a bunch of low level female wizards – they’re unlikely to carry anything of value on them.”

  “I don’t know, Caro. All I know is that those two Shifters are the ones involved in the assaults. One of them talked about a client. Perhaps someone hired them to carry out the muggings.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense” Caro asserted. “Why do you think they came after you, Tas?”

  “I do fit the profile of their previous victims – low level female wizards. But my guess is that they wanted to hide their connection to that warehouse they hired me to Mfector” Tasia said slowly, skirting around the details that came a little too close to the secrets that she had no intention of revealing.

  “Something to do with hiding the evidence of their incursion on Pack turf perhaps” Caro suggested thoughtfully.

  “Perhaps. In either case, the Pack knows about them. And they believe that I’m in danger from the mercenaries. Hence, the invitation to stay at the Lair until the Pack sorts this out.”

  “Oh, I’ve no doubt that the Pack will go after them with everything they’ve got” Caro agreed. “Shifters are very territorial and take any breach of their turf very seriously. Also, the fact that the mercenaries actually dared to tangle with a Pack Shifter will spur them on.”

  “Caro, I was hoping that you could whisper this information discreetly in the right ears” Tasia asked her friend. “It might help some of the wizards stay safe even as the Pack hunts the mercenaries.”

  “I can certainly do that” Caro agreed with alacrity. “I’m guessing that you want your name kept out of it, Tas?” she asked shrewdly.

  “Yes, please.”

  “Done! I won’t tell them who gave me the information but I’ll make sure the Registry gets it.”

  “Warn them to be on the lookout for two Shifters – one is huge, kind of hairy and walks with an unusual rolling gait and the other one is called Mick.”

  “I will, Tasia.”

  “The Alpha didn’t explicitly ask me to keep this to myself, Caro” Tasia explained with some hesitation. “But I did get the impression that they wanted the presence of rogue Shifters in Pack territory to be kept quiet, so I’d rather be kept out of it for now.”

  “Got it, Tasia” Caro reassured her. “Don’t worry yourself. I’ll take care of it.”

  A short comfortable silence ensued.

  “Are you sure that you’re fine with Pack accommodations because I would love to have you stay with me” Caro coaxed her friend. “Imagine all the fun we could have.”

  “I’m good, Caro, but thanks all the same” Tasia replied gratefully with a sudden welling of affection for her friend. “They’re taking very good care of me and I’ve made some friends. It’s kind of an alien environment in a lot of ways and yet, there’s also an element of something familiar. They are Chosen - super volatile and aggressive on occasion but still Chosen.”

  “Good, then I won’t feel too guilty about grilling you” Caro grinned. “What’s the Lair like anyway? Come on, Tas. Share! You know that I’m unlikely to get an invitation any time soon.”

  Little did Tasia know that her prophetic words to Caro about living with Shifters being no different than cohabiting with other Chosen would be proven wrong the very next day. Sara had come over to the Lair to have lunch with Tasia at the Lair Café. The Lair was an imposing four-storey building that fronted as the offices of a conglomerate – the parent company of the many businesses run by the Pack. Pack administration and services as well as the offices of Pack businesses were on the sprawling first floor while the living quarters were distributed between the second and third floors. The Lair’s living quarters consisted of suites like the one that Tasia had been assigned, a gigantic state-of-the-art gym, a recreation room, a laundry room and a huge self-service Cafe with an attached kitchen. Refrigerators, glass cases filled with food and beverages, and microwaves lined one wall of the big room while the open-air balcony attached to it had a row of gas grills available for use. Shifters needed a high concentration of protein in their daily diet to sustain their super high metabolism. Thus, most of the food stocked in the Cafe was meant for those on a meat-based diet. Tasia, a vegetarian, had to be wildly creative with the raw materials on offer when she ate at the Lair Café. The creative aspect of it, she was beginning to enjoy.

  The top floor remained a mystery to her. She’d only been up a few times to meet the Alpha in the Pack Room - the huge room with the books. This room was used exclusively for Pack meetings and business. On her few visits to the top floor, she’d observed a few more doors apart from the massive steel one that guarded the Pack Room but she had n
o idea where they led to. Sara had told her that the Pack Room and a smaller shielded room, accessed from the Pack Room and set aside for the Alpha’s personal use, were sound-proofed to allow for the discussion of confidential matters. Until then, Tasia hadn’t quite appreciated how much planning went in to allow for private conversations in a house full of Shifters with inhumanly acute hearing.

  That fateful afternoon, Tasia was by the sideboard putting together a salad for them while Sara was busy microwaving the bowls of soup that they’d picked to accompany the salad. Tasia felt a presence behind her as someone cleared his throat, in an obvious bid to draw her attention. She glanced up from finely slicing a pear to note a good-looking man in his mid-thirties standing before her.

  “Hi, I’m Justin Markham” he introduced himself with a friendly smile. “You must be Tasia.”

  Wary of the Shifter’s unexpected affability, Tasia nonetheless found it hard to not reciprocate in the face of such friendly overtures. The Shifters she had encountered in passing at the Lair had mostly ignored her. She had assumed that Shifters were simply an antisocial bunch. And that they would probably warm up to her in time like the Shifter bodyguards who accompanied her when she ventured out from the Lair. Evgeny, the younger Shifter, actually made small talk with Tasia now while Joaquim, the more taciturn one, had unbent enough to offer her a polite greeting every morning. As it was, the only two Shifters who she counted as friends were Sara and Hawk.

  “How’d you know who I was?” she asked curiously. She’d only been here a few days and had been introduced to only a handful of Shifters.

  “You’ve probably realized by now that the Lair can be pretty boring. So of course, the old gossip mill goes wild whenever someone new joins us” he responded easily.

  “Oh.”

  Hmm … there’s a gossip mill at the Lair? I wonder what else the mill is whispering about me.

  “When I heard about the pretty wizard now living amongst us, I absolutely had to check it out. I mean, what else could I do, right?” he grinned back charmingly at her.