Here in Heaven

Chapter 9

Julianna’s head was spinning both from her first kiss and from being unexpectedly teleported. Lance guided her over and sat her down on a plush settee next to him. She felt a moment of panic as she looked around at the unfamiliar room. But beyond the golden curtain she could still hear the music and laughter of her party. Lance had not shimmered here away from her home. They were just in one of the private alcoves that overlooked the dance floor.

“My father says it’s bad manners to shimmer someone without permission,” Julianna scolded.

Lance laughed. She liked his laugh. It was loud and deep and unapologetic.

“Your father says a lot,” he quipped.

Julianna covered her mouth as she tried to hold in her own laughter. She felt it wasn’t very polite to laugh at a joke made at her father’s expense. Even if it was true. Her father did say a lot.

When both their laughter died down, his face took on a more serious expression. Julianna felt herself growing more nervous. She wondered why he had whisked her away to a private room. She was scared it was so that he could kiss her again. And also secretly hoping that he would kiss her again. He leaned forward. But this time he only gently pecked her lips before pulling back.

“You know why I’m here?,” he asked.

Julianna nodded. She had eavesdropped on her cousin and her father while they were discussing this man’s interest in her. He had made her father an offer. A marriage proposal. The idea that this handsome hunk of man might be her husband soon gave her a tingle down in the pit of her stomach. But it also made her nervous. She was barely more than a girl. She had no idea how to be a wife. And certainly no idea how to be his wife.

“You made an offer to my father for me,” Julianna said, looking down at her hands as she fiddled with the fabric of her skirt.

“I did,” he affirmed. Lance paused as if he was searching for the right words. “...but I also wanted to talk to you before I take the offer any further. Because our union would not be a traditional warlock marriage.”

Julianna looked up, meeting his gaze. She wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by traditional, but she could guess. Lots of warlocks married for position and power instead of love. Then the men kept mistresses on the side. No one really talked about it, but everyone knew about it. Julianna knew that whoever wanted to marry her would likely be in it only for her magic and her family name. They certainly wouldn’t want her for her looks. She knew there was a chance that she would end up being married to a man who also kept a mistress. What she hadn’t expected was that he would tell her of his intentions outright before they were even married.

“I understand,” Julianna mumbled as she tried to keep the tears from spilling over, “...you’d want to keep a mistress.”

“WHAT?,” Lance asked, suddenly sitting up and away from her in his shock. “No. That’s not what I meant. I have no intention of doing anything like that.” He lifted his mask and smoothed his hair back from his face before pulling it back down. “I’m talking about your magic. I wouldn’t be absorbing it from you. Vampires don’t do that.”

“Oh!,” Julianna squeaked.

She sat in shock for a moment, absorbing what Lance had told her. She accepted from the time she was a child that her husband would absorb her magic from her when it was time. She was never trained or prepared in any way to use it herself. On the contrary, she was always told that even trying to use it would cause irreparable harm to her and everyone around her. The idea that her husband might not want to absorb her power was totally foreign to her.

“What do vampires do?,” she asked.

Lance smiled and took her hand. He lifted her wrist to his mouth as his eye teeth elongated. Then he scraped the tips of them across the sensitive skin of her wrist. She shivered.

“When vampires find their soulmate or a chosen mate they bite them here and mark them,” he explained. “Instead of absorbing your magic, I would be able to draw from it and use it. And you would be able to do the same with mine.”

“But I don’t know how to use my magic!,” Julianna declared, “I could hurt someone!” She took a moment to realize the rest of what he said before adding, “...and you would bite me on the wrist?”

Lance smiled mischievously and leaned closer to her. She really was quite deliciously innocent. He had a hard time not imagining what it would be like to open such a precious flower. To be the first to give her pleasure. The first to thrust inside her tight untried p***y. He pulled at his pant leg to adjust the crotch of his pants.

“Julianna Darko,” he whispered into her ear, “when you are mine, I will bite you all over.”

She pulled back from him with a giggle. But he could see the way her eyes darkened with a hint of lust. She was innocent. But not frigid. Not at all.

“And I can teach you how to control your magic like my father did for my mother,” he quickly added, trying to get back to the proper topic of discussion. “Or you can continue to wear a charm like the one you have now. But with both our magic combined, even a strong charm might not work completely.”

Lance leaned forward and took her amulet in his hand. The backs of his knuckles brushing gently against her ample cleavage. Then his eyes began to glow. They didn’t glow in a certain color like those of warlocks. Not this time. Instead, they took on the colorless shimmer of vampire magic. When he dropped her charm, it felt cold against her chest.

“What did you do?,” she asked, her voice rising with concern.

“I didn’t break the charm,” he assured her, “it's just temporarily deactivated. I just want to see what you’ve got hiding behind those beautiful eyes of yours.”

Lance reached for her hand. She twined her fingers into his. And then his eyes began to glow again. This time Julianna felt an odd tingle down inside her. She focused on the feeling, letting it grow until her body was filled with warmth. And then she could feel her hand heating up. The hand that intertwined with Lance’s. He moaned softly. She didn’t feel it when her eyes lit with the elemental power of her magic, but she could tell from Lance’s reaction that something was happening. Because suddenly his glowing eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.

I think that’s enough!

Julianna heard the voice again. But this time it came out of her. The voice was deeper than her own and carried much more authority than she did. Lance dropped her hand and jumped back. Julianna covered her mouth to keep the voice from talking through her again. She didn’t mind hearing the voice in her head. But having it come out of her was a different matter entirely. She was frightened. And she wanted Lance to undo whatever he had done to her necklace. Immediately.

“Holy s**t,” he exclaimed, “...I knew you were special but I wasn’t expecting that!”

“What? What’s wrong with me?,” Julianna asked.

Her eyes were already filling with tears at what she perceived was his rejection of her freakishness. Lance came back closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he led her over to a gilded mirror on the wall behind them.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” he assured her, “..just look.”

Julianna looked at her reflection. Lance was also reflected in the mirror next to her. This time he didn’t take her hand. Instead, he stood behind her and placed his hands on her bare shoulders. His eyes began to glow again. The feeling of her magic was becoming slightly more familiar to her now. The tingle started deep inside before traveling to her extremities. Her blue-grey eyes began to glow brighter blue at first. That was no surprise. Her mother was a powerful water witch. But then the color changed. Her eyes turned purple and she could feel the heat radiating through her shoulders where Lance’s hands were making contact with her bare skin.

“You’re a Jamunia,” he whispered, “...a healer. The chosen one that only appears once in a millennium. With practice, you should be able to control all the elemental magics. And you can heal anyone you touch. I can feel the magic pouring out through your skin. I’ve never felt anything like it in my life.”

Lance maintained contact with her skin, rubbing his hands up and down the outside of her arms. It was when he leaned in to kiss her neck that Julianna saw her eyes turn pitch black.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

Julianna could still see. But she suddenly had no control over her body. It was like she had suddenly been pushed to the back of her own mind and was now only a spectator.

“And I also think you have a wolf,” Lance added.

He didn’t remove his hands from Julianna’s shoulders but he did straighten his back up and stop trying to kiss her. At least for the moment.

“What’s your name, gorgeous?,” he asked.

Julianna spun in his arms, her eyes still pitch black as she slowly advanced on him. Her body language had changed completely. If he hadn’t had prior experiences with werewolves, he would have guessed that she was possessed. Not only did she have a wolf. Julianna had a powerful wolf. Usually, only those of direct descent from an alpha had wolves strong enough to take over while their host was still in human form.

Maria.

Julianna leaned forward and sniffed at his neck. Then she leaned back and looked into his eyes.

You are not our mate.

Lance smiled. Vampires had fated mates as well. So he already knew that Julianna was not his. However, that had not diminished his interest in her. Werewolves could always sense their true mates. Even if they had already been marked by another. But this was not true for vampires. Once Lance marked his chosen mate, the connection he had with his fated mate, whoever and wherever she was, would instantly be broken. There were some vampires that waited centuries for their fated mate to appear. But most didn’t have that kind of patience. And there was no way he was willing to let a prize like Julianna slip through his fingers. She was everything he had always imagined his fated mate to be.

“I may not be your mate, but I could still make Julianna happy,” he countered.

We’ll see about that.

With those parting words, Julianna’s eyes flashed back to their normal color. She didn't expect control of her body to come back so suddenly. Her body went limp and Lance had to catch her to keep her from slumping to the floor. He helped her onto a nearby loveseat and watched as her eyes glowed purple again. She was healing herself, replenishing the energy that her wolf drained from her when she pushed forward. He also guessed that Julianna was fighting her wolf for control the entire time. With her magic. Which probably drained them both.

“What in the hell was that?,” Julianna mumbled.

She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Her entire body felt heated. She was relieved when the warmth finally stopped. Now she could only feel the little tingle of magic down inside her.

That was me!

Julianna gasped. It was the voice again. At least this time it wasn’t speaking out loud for her, but it sounded so much louder than it was the few times she heard it before.

“Who are you?,” Julianna asked.

Lance smiled but kept silent. Julianna’s eyes were clouded over, so he guessed she was addressing the trespasser inside her mind and not him.

You don’t have to talk out loud. We share one mind. Just think about what you want to say and I can hear you.

“Who are you?,” Julianna asked again, this time silently addressing the voice in her mind.

I’m your wolf, Maria! I’ve been trying to talk to you but that necklace was making it so you couldn’t hear me. I love this dress by the way. We look totally hot in it!

Julianna couldn’t hold back her smile. Having a random wolf in her head was weird. But it also wasn’t. Maria felt familiar to her. Like they had known each other all their lives.

That’s because we have. I’ve always been here deep inside, waiting for the day we could be together.

“But how is this possible?,” Julianna asked. “Both my parents are warlocks. Don’t you have to be part wolf to have a wolf?”

We share one mind. I only know what you know. But yes, you do have to be part wolf to get a wolf. Maybe your parents haven’t been totally honest with you about who you are? I can feel how sad that makes you and I’m sorry.

Julianna had a hard time believing that her parents were not really her parents. But there was no other explanation for what was happening to her.

“You alright?,” Lance asked.

Julianna shook her head, her eyes wide. She got so involved with talking to Maria that she forgot Lance was even there. He reached for her hand and she let him take it. She could hear Maria growling in her mind but she ignored her for the moment. Julianna parted her lips to answer him when she suddenly caught a whiff of the most amazing thing she ever smelled.

MATE!