Between the Waters (Symphony of Light) Read online

  Table of Contents

  ~ Acclaim for Renea Mason ~

  ~ Look for these titles from Renea Mason ~

  Copyright Warning

  ~ Dedication ~

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  ~ About the Author ~

  ~ Also by Renea Mason ~

  More Paranormal Romance from Etopia Press

  ~ Acclaim for Renea Mason ~

  “A supporting cast of hunky and hilarious friends, as well as enemies keeps this story from being simply a love story, and into more of mystery. A Symphony of Light and Winter is a great read! I definitely recommend it.”

  —Inner Goddess (5 Stars)

  “Symphony of Light and Winter had suspense, action, romance, an abundance of steam (adults only!), and lots of attitude. It will grab your attention right away and keep it until the end. There will be no setting this one aside. Not a chance!”

  —Crazy for Books

  “Very well written with intense character interaction, attitude and the growing heat of romance, Ms. Mason has proven she can write with a magnetic pull that will grip your imagination and hold you prisoner until that very last page!”

  —Tome Tender (5 Stars)

  “Holy Sexy Whirlwind!! From the beginning I was sucked in and didn’t come up once for air! Honestly, there are some many amazing things about this book I can’t even find a good place to start.”

  —Taking it One Book at a Time (5 Stars)

  “Renea Mason’s book has everything you could want- a unique world, a panty dropping alpha male, a gripping plot and seamless writing that would never let on this was her first novel. I’ll admit, I had her confused with another author and jumped to read the book. It wasn’t until I was done and realized how much better this book was that I realized I had the wrong author! Woohoo for accidents!”

  —Book Bliss (5 Stars)

  “If you love Alexandra Ivy, Lara Adrian, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Lynsay Sands, Laura Wright, and all those other amazing paranormal authors that I absolutely love with all my heart…then you will LOVE Renea Mason and her brand new Symphony of Light Series.”

  —Book Reads and Reviews

  “There are a lot of secrets, romance, violence and mystery. Linden and Cyril are wonderful characters you can’t help but love. This is not your typical paranormal book. There are times as you get to know Cyril more, you come close to tears… I recommend this book and hope that the next in the series comes out soon.”

  —Paranormal Romance Guild (5 Stars)

  ~ Look for these titles from Renea Mason ~

  Now Available

  The Symphony of Light Series

  Impostors’ Kiss (Book 0.5)

  Symphony of Light and Winter (Book One)

  Between the Waters (Book Two)

  In Print

  Symphony of Light and Winter

  Coming Soon to Print

  Between the Waters

  Between the Waters

  Symphony of Light Book Two

  Renea Mason

  Copyright Warning

  EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published By

  Etopia Press

  1643 Warwick Ave., #124

  Warwick, RI 02889

  http://www.etopia-press.net

  Between the Waters

  Copyright © 2014 by Renea Mason

  ISBN: 978-1-941692-06-6

  Edited by Kyle Lewis

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Etopia Press electronic publication: May 2014

  ~ Dedication ~

  This book is dedicated to my wonderful boys.

  A special thanks to my beta-readers—Kishan Paul, Jena Baxter, Ashley Bodette, Beckey White, Robin Malone, Carol Evans, Alesia Parry, Aubrey Wynne, Sheryl Frid, Tamera McIntosh, and Amy Habel—for their valuable insight, and to my editor, Kyle A. Lewis, for believing in Cyril and the gang. I can’t forget the Coffee Talk Writers—the best group of gals ever—my wonderful friends, family, and fabulously talented fellow authors.

  Chapter One

  Lessons

  “Linden…take your clothes off.” Cyril’s voice, low and commanding, laced tendrils of seduction through my mind. Even without his six feet five inches of supernatural perfection looming, he had control.

  “Absolutely not. You’re not talking me into that again.” A world away, he still commanded my body. My stomach filled with warmth, and hairs raised on my arms with the cadence and tone in my mind. Damn it.

  “How was I to know the man would be walking his dog so late? If your inferior senses had detected his presence, you could have hidden instead of running naked through the streets.” He snickered. “Look at it this way…you were lighter without clothes, and Michael’s power infusion gave you the ability to outrun the beast. Important knowledge, even if your hearing sucks.”

  Ever since the accident, which left Cyril in another plane of existence, tormenting me remained his main form of entertainment. He took great pleasure in my uncertainty. Being separated from his body left him with metaphorical idle hands, and my brain the only thing within reach. He blamed his actions on not knowing which abilities I inherited when I destroyed Michael—my short-lived husband and all-around supernatural nuisance. The moment I plunged the knife into Michael’s back, something in me changed. Beyond the branching pattern of raised skin covering my back, the experience also altered my soul, but how was unclear. With Cyril as my guide, I never knew if I’d end up the victor or the prey.

  “My hearing is fine. Besides, I couldn’t hear around all the bullshit you were spewing in my head.” I crossed my arms, still not quite comfortable speaking to him out loud. A delay occurred between my thoughts and his access to them. His interpretation of them was accurate about sixty percent of the time. Verbal communication allowed for instant understanding, when it worked.

  “You’re not questioning me, are you? Do you want to learn or not?” The huskiness surrounding his words accented power and his centuries of experience. Since he was at my mercy until he once again inhabited his body, desperation for control led him to push boundaries.

  As much as I hated to admit it, I needed him too, but letting him know was not an option. He was cocky enough. Another ounce of ego would make him unbearable.


  “Mr. Aristin, do not think for one moment you are going to manipulate me. There needs to be trust.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. Had you trusted me, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” He sighed and in a soft tone wrapped with demand said, “Now take your clothes off.”

  “Can’t I just stick to releasing souls? That was easy, and I could leave my pants on.”

  “No. You have much to learn.”

  Cyril had let me know that he was not sure why, but the mixture of his blood in my veins and my proximity to Michael’s destruction gave me the ability to release souls. He had said that mankind should be damn thankful I was there to take his place as the gateway to the afterlife. Freeing their souls for the journey to heaven or hell saved them from an eternity in purgatory. But apparently that was only part of it.

  “As long as you don’t start calling me Grim.” Maybe it wasn’t fair to forbid the nickname I bestowed upon him for his role as the soul deliverer, but I was beyond worrying about his sensitivities.

  “I have far better names for you. Would you like to hear how you inspired them?”

  “No. Let’s get this over with. It’s freezing.”

  “Magic is more than an ability. It’s a skill. Surely our previous lessons have taught you that. Channeling the energy takes practice.”

  “But you say it’s equal parts will and magic. Some situations require an influence and focus—spell component and chant. Like how you told me you created your family with the souls of three men, your blood, magic, and focused will. What does any of that have to do with getting naked?”

  He growled. “Stop talking and do it. Trust me.” His use of trust as a trump card to win arguments was getting old.

  I inhaled the crisp night air as the moon shone bright in the night sky, outlining everything in a strange, opaque aura. Its shadows appeared astral. It was almost midnight, and the night was cold. I looked behind me to make sure I was alone. Cyril’s lessons had brought us back to the cemetery where we originally met. The energy resulting from the intersection of two powerful ley lines would make it easier for me to learn. I moved my hands to the zipper on my coat.

  “They are magical; the moon shadows, I mean.”

  It sucked having him in my mind. A few seconds after a thought crossed he had full access to it as a memory. I was never alone except when he grew too weary to maintain the connection or when it dropped like bad cell phone reception. His presence was always a surprise. During rare merciful times, he’d let an embarrassing stray notion vanish without comment, but that was a rarity most days. The constant focus on controlling my thoughts wore on me. It was impossible to stop them from forming without thinking of why they shouldn’t be formed in the first place. Either way, I was screwed.

  He must have sensed my turmoil because he changed tactics. “If you’d be so kind as to oblige my request…” But his attempt at manners was undermined by the growl reverberating between my ears. I couldn’t even roll my eyes in peace.

  “Request, my ass. Besides, it’s cold.” No matter how much I wanted to resist, the guilt that gripped me for trapping him outside his body softened my response to his bullshit every time.

  “You won’t be for long. Now get on with it; we haven’t got all night. I’m growing tired.”

  Another quick look around revealed row after row of headstones. The crisp nip of winter air and the moon-bathed landscape awaited me. I shrugged off my coat, removed my shoes and socks, shimmied the jeans over my hips, and pulled the sweater over my head. Standing next to a pile of clothes in only panties and bra, I wrapped my arms across my chest. With the temperature near the low thirties, I shivered and looked up to the sky. Closing my eyes, I grumbled, “Now what?”

  He laughed. “Oh, my dearest Linden, open your eyes and look down.”

  Busted. I looked, but focused several feet away, avoiding my body. I focused on the grass trimmed in tiny white crystals of frost. So fucking cold.

  “You naughty girl. When I told you to take your clothes off, I meant all of them. Do it. Then let me see.”

  I huffed and reached around to unfasten my bra. The task proved difficult as my hands shook from the temperature, anger, and anxiety. Working the panties down my legs, I complained, “I’m going to die from hypothermia.”

  Standing on a hill overlooking the Laurel Mountain range, in a cemetery, at midnight, talking to nothing but the night air while taking orders from a voice in my head was all the evidence I needed. I had finally gone insane.

  “Show me.” The menace gone, seduction in its place.

  I sighed and complied. My nipples were so puckered and hard they could have chiseled ice. My skin reddened from windburn.

  A sound in my head like air being sucked through teeth echoed between my ears. “You are so beautiful. When I’m back, I’m going to dedicate a week to savoring each part of your body. I’m going to wrap my lips around each of those rosy buds. Without touching any other part of your body, I’ll make you writhe, pant, and moan for me.”

  Damn him. The breeze blew, but I was immune. The heat that grew from within, negating its effects. “Cyril, please…” I intended a warning, but he interpreted my words as a plea.

  “I feel your need. If I was there, I’d bend you over the bench, watch your red hair drape over your back, and fuck you until you screamed my name. When the echoes of your passion stopped filling my ears, I’d sit you atop me and bury myself inside you and lathe the milky white skin of your breasts with my tongue. When those beautiful green eyes told me you surrendered, I’d bite and consume you as you consumed me.”

  “Stop. Cyril, please. I am on edge. I’m ready to ignite. You can feel it. Please don’t make it worse.” He held a switch to my body’s thermostat. The only thing chilled was the place between my legs where moisture pooled. What other woman could say that she bedded a god made for sex? The goddess who created him, to see to her every physical need, perfected every detail. The man was a Titan in bed, and damn my luck, the universe gave me a taste before taking him, just so I’d know what I was missing. Fucking fates.

  “When you bring me back to you, where I belong, I’ll make it up to you. You have my word. Are you still cold?”

  “No.” In fact, I was surprised I didn’t combust.

  “See, you should trust me more often.”

  I scoffed.

  “Now your lesson…Light, close your eyes.”

  Lowering my lids, I did as he asked.

  “Can you feel the pulse?”

  I focused, blocking out the whistle caused by the breeze blowing across my ears. The cold numbed my skin once my Cyril-induced inferno extinguished. It shook the hairs on my arms, tickling.

  “Walk to it.”

  I did. As I got closer, it thundered in my brain. Cyril’s identity, my anxiety, and the strange sensation caused something akin to a headache to take hold. “It’s making my head hurt.”

  “That’s expected. The pulse has increased. Now, find the place where it’s so fast, it’s sustained. The pain will subside when you are in the precise spot. You’ll learn how to pace out the pinnacle, and you won’t need to focus on the feeling.”

  “Is that what you were doing the first time I saw you here? You were counting.”

  “Yes. The lines shift with the season, and winter is two paces to the left of summer. It’s easier to count since I’ve been here before. Better than getting naked and risk you attacking.”

  “I never would have attacked you!”

  “You may have been young, but the hunger in your eyes for me, even then, was unmistakable.”

  “You are impossible. Hurry, I’m getting cold.”

  “Do you need me to heat you up again? Should I tell you about how, if I was there, I’d drop to my knees, spread your legs and run my tongue up the inside of your thigh, savoring the essence. I’d lick—”

  “Stop it. You can’t keep talking about sex.”

  “Yes, I can. I’m made for sex. I am inseparable from sex.”

&nbsp
; “But you’re not here, and it’s torture.”

  “Seems a fitting price for not trusting me with our future.”

  “I was only trying to help.”

  “By giving yourself to a psychopath in a ridiculous effort to save me? I’m the closest thing to a god that exists here, and you thought to save me? My only vulnerability is you. You will be my destruction. Now that I have you, I won’t be without you. It’s your stubbornness that risks us both.”

  “Well, sorry I told you I loved you. I should have left with Michael and kept you in the dark, wondering.”

  “I would have found you. Besides, it was your careless disregard of magic that lead to my imprisonment.”

  “Imprisonment? Really? Could you be more dramatic? I was trying to protect you.”

  A sound that reminded me of a snort resonated. “Yes, and a ridiculous notion it was. Keep moving toward the source.”

  “Whatever.” I cracked my lids the slightest bit to look for obstacles in my path. The pulsing stabilized at the center of the large circle of gravestones. The Nester family, I remembered. “Now what am I supposed to do? The frequency is sustained, and the headache is gone.”

  “Still cold?”