Do Us Part: Book Three of the Newborn Trilogy

By Shayn Bloom

Nora Saynt-Rae is being pulled apart at the seams of her sub Puridite skin.

Interrupted at her wedding to Wolf and about to give birth to her baby with Gabriel, Nora is at risk of losing herself. Along with Gabriel she flees her own wedding when Tisguard Vallarian and his Releasers arrive, hungry for blood on their wands. In order to survive, Nora leaves her werewolf behind...

Now, after his failed and corrupt attempt to win the Presidency of the Bureau of Magic, Tisguard has stormed Magasant School of Magic and taken its teachers, the keepers of magical mastery, hostage. He will not surrender, let alone his evil and sadistic head of the Bureau of Beast Control, Ferrah Mausa.

In this ambitious conclusion to the NEWBORN Trilogy, Nora has choices to make. Will she venture into danger to save her husband Wolf, her friend Kiri, and the entire magical world? Risking the life of her Newborn in the process? Or will she return to Gabriel and safety, fulfilling their shared dream of an intact family - something Nora has longed for desperately since her parents' divorce?

This book contains strong sexual content and explicit language. Word Count: 80,000

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shayn Bloom
• Release date: Jan 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311244390

Shayn Bloom

Shayn Bloom was born in Moscow, Russia and has been a writer since the age of thirteen, penning novels, poems, essays, songs, articles, short stories, and novellas. Shayn lives and writes in Denton, Maryland.

Book preview

DO US PART

Book 3 of NEWBORN TRILOGY

Copyright 2014 Shayn Bloom. All rights reserved.

For more information about the author and series:

shaynbloom.blogspot.com

Edited and formatted by Kye Fehrenbach.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue – Six Months Later

Chapter One

Do us par -!

Decimate! Gabriel yells.

The werewolf is blasted off his feet, his guttural bark lost amid his tumbling form as it collides with the ground, several yards from the altar. As he hits the earth with a thud, there sounds a loud crack.

Now! Ferrah screams. Seize them all!

Turquoise eyes ablaze with panic, Gabriel grabs my hand and lowers his head. No! I know what’s coming. He’s going to translocate with me! Oh no he doesn’t! I rip my hand from his and dash to Wolf.

Just as the Releasers are closing in.

Barking madly, several of Wolf’s family charge forward from their seats. Others, not yet transformed, do so on the spot and leap in the direction of the Releasers – their furry faces a sea of mad snarls.

Annihilate! Ferrah screams just as Tisguard yells, No!

Too late.

A small werewolf – brown furred and black eyed – collapses to the grass.

Dead.

Roaring their fury, the werewolves charge straight for the Releasers – many of whom have yet to raise their wands. Bowling them over with clawed feet and strong chests, the wolves bark crazily into their victim’s faces, eyes alive with hatred. Some of the Releasers run for the trees, only to turn back and shoot spell after spell at the dogs. Nullify! Decimate! Annihilate! Their curses rend the air around me.

Nora! Gabriel yells from the altar, wand raised. Get over here! Let’s get the hell out of here!

I don’t even turn to look at him. Instead, I kneel beside my friend on the ground, my panicked thoughts ignorant of the swirling chaos around us. Except for when I duck my head quickly to avoid purple light. Wolfgang is sprawled on the grass, unmoving, his black eyes finding mine.

Are you hurt? I ask hurriedly. Wolf, what’s wrong?

Tears are ringing from black eyes. I realize now how much pain he’s in. Leg’s broken, he gasps, pointing to it.

I look down his body. Oh… no… How did I not see this immediately? The entire leg is set at an obtuse position, unnatural-looking and agonizing. Yeah… it’s definitely broken. What to do now? I can’t leave him here. Can’t pretend we won’t be attacked soon… I must drag him somewhere safe!

Wolf! I gasp, staring into tearful black eyes. You’re hurt! We have to get out of here! I can carry you or drag you, but where -

The werewolf is shaking his head, stalling my words. Sweat is standing out on his forehead, bonding with russet skin. Maroon lips are contorted around his pain – trying and failing not to show it. "Go with him, the werewolf breathes. Please, Nora. For me… Do this for me…"

Go with who?

Agonio! A pink jet of light shoots for Wolf. Heaving suddenly, I only just manage to save him from the curse.

Exhaling his relief – his sweat now drenching him – Wolf says, Gabriel.

Holy fucking…

There’s no way he just said that, my alter ego deems, not possible…

I reply, but I heard it, too…

Lost for words, I shake my head vigorously. Then they return. No! I yell too loudly at him. He’s right here. I won’t do it, I say quietly, "he is terrible! Awful! You’re my man. There is no other!"

Maroon lips smile even as they fight off the pain. Good to hear that. I know it’s true, but you’re in danger. Can’t escape with family now. Can’t escape with me like this, he adds, gesturing to his crippled leg. "And I can’t magic myself away… Let him take you somewhere. Trust you’ll return to me."

I -

Go! Right now!

Wolf, you can’t -!

Fucking go! he barks.

He’s wincing in pain – a russet hand grasping his leg as tears of agony escape black eyes. I don’t want to leave him. But I don’t feel I have a choice. He’s in great pain now, and he’ll be in greater pain if I get caught or killed. So leaning down, I kiss him magnificently – tongue and all, swirling around him like bliss even as we’re holding off the carnage around us – so mesmerizing to the mind. So gutting to the heart. So extremely beautiful… How come this history of love is soaked in blood?

Bye for now, Wolf, I tell him, retrieving myself. "I will return to you!"

He closes black eyes and uses his last remaining ounce of energy to push me in the direction of Gabriel before passing out.

Gabriel ducks white light. Nora! Come on! Hurry!

No sooner do I stand than I have to duck again to avoid pink light. Head bent, I dash in the direction of the altar – leaping aside momentarily to avoid a pouncing werewolf with his claws exposed and his eyes set on a wizard beyond me. I’m a few feet from Gabriel. He reaches out his hand!

Ferrah sees us. Stop them!

Sumio Decimate! yells a Releaser near her, pointing his wand at me.

I feel myself lift off the ground – the sensation seeming so slow yet so fast when happening to others – and then I rocket forward in the air before collapsing to the earth with a sickening thump. Aching, I try to stand up and as I do, I barf all over the grass. Laughing behind me… Ferrah. I know her laugh.

Wiping my mouth on my hand, I jump backward quickly to escape the purple light heading right for me. Now I’m running forward, looking for cover. There’s some! The buffet tables, piled high with meat and drink. Throwing myself behind these, I breathe the pulsating air rapidly – hearing shouts and screams rend the air as wolves bark and wizards shout curses all around me.

My wedding has become a battlefield.

Come out from hiding, Newborn! Ferrah’s voice is evil and singsong. "Come on now – we won’t hurt you…"

A loud pop beside me makes my heart jump.

Gabriel!

That’s my name, he says matter-of-factly. Somehow he’s grinning. Perhaps seeing Wolf collapsed and hurt has cheered him up, but, You run pretty fast for a pregnant lady, he muses, turquoise eyes flashing beneath dirty blond hair, "but in all the wrong directions. You were supposed to run to me!"

Think he’s just talking about today? I ask my alter ego.

She answers, I highly, highly doubt it…

Well fucking shitballs… Isn’t this what I need right now?

Why? I ask him angrily. So you can belittle my race? Call me inferior?

Naturally, he answers. In fact, I considered -

Come out from there! Ferrah warns, her voice rising in anger and panic. Wonder if she knows Gabriel is hiding with me… "This is your last warning. You will be attacked and killed if you don’t obey me!"

Gabriel breathes, Fucking cunt – that Ferrah. Hated working for her.

Yeah, I agree, unsure of what I’m saying. Something is bothering me. Something I’ve forgotten… No… Someone, I’ve forgotten… Kiri! The thought hits my brain like a brick. Where’s Kiri? Peeking around the buffet table, I don’t see her by the altar. I don’t dare stand up to search for her – you know, mainly because I don’t want a billion curses flung at me at once. But where is she?

I’m going to give you ten seconds to come out! Ferrah cries.

Gabriel, I – I don’t know where Kiri is. She was by the altar when you married us, and now she’s -

Nearly married, he interrupts.

I frown. Excuse me?

He never finished his vow, Gabriel tells me, beaming widely. "He said ‘do us par’ instead of ‘do us part.’ You and Wolf are not married and good riddance, too. You’re mine, Nora – not his!"

Holy bejesus shitballs! Is he saying what I think he’s saying?

"We’re… Not married?"

Like I just said.

The shock is a heavy thing and – somehow – is already wearing off. Only to be replaced with a different feeling. Anger! Furious, I gasp, "You asshole, Gabriel! How – how could you do this to me? To him?"

He shrugs. Easy. Just did it.

Ten! Ferrah warns loudly. Nine!

I’m so angry I can hardly speak. The thought that Gabriel had this so carefully orchestrated – so carefully thought out – that he would disguise himself as the werewolf Shaman to sabotage our wedding astounds me. Fills me with oozing, steaming loathing for his very existence. For every stupid fucking dirty blond hair strand on his perfect, gorgeous head. What an asshole!

But I have to speak to him. So I do. We have to find Kiri! Take her with us!

Seven! Six!

Gabriel says, We haven’t enough -

And Wolf, I interrupt, "we have to take my husband, too."

He swipes his blond hair to the side of his forehead. He’s not your husband and it’s impossible to translocate dead or unconscious people.

He’s not dead!

"Or your husband!"

Ferrah’s still counting down. Three! Two! One! Releasers, fire!

Hold your fire! is the command of another voice, and I recognize it at once. President Vallarian. Hold your fire, Releasers.

The head of the Bureau of Beast Control’s voice is fueled by irritation even as she tries to keep it respectful. Mr. President, why do you keep overriding my command? It sets a bad example for my Releasers.

Turquoise eyes bore into me. We don’t have time to find Kiri. And we can’t take Wolf. You know that, Nora. Let me take you away, okay? To safety – to somewhere safe. Wolf would want that!

I exhale, "You have no idea what Wolf would want!"

Because, Tisguard says, answering her question, I want them to escape…

Silence from beyond our hiding spot. Mr. President, Ferrah begins, her voice stunned, why, Mr. President?

I have my reasons.

The sound of fighting has diminished by now beyond their voices – though I still hear barks and shouts far away. Who won? Were many of the Releasers taken down? Were any of them taken down? I can’t know. Can’t begin to fathom… And what about Wolf’s family? Are they all dead? What about Wolf? My soul is crying in my heart, drenching my consciousness in flowing agony.

"Mr. President, one of my old Releasers is there with her. He was always dissident – always disobeying me and showing compassion for Immagicals. He should die, Mr. President. Today. Now!"

Tisguard says, "You will let them go free."

Releasers, fire at will! Ferrah shouts.

Decimate!

Nullify!

Annihilate!

Torgi!

The spells collide in a furious melee before reaching the buffet tables. Three miss, including the kill curse most thankfully. However, I’m forced to throw myself forward as the buffet tables burst into flames. Gabriel grunts in pain and kicks the flames from his tangerine robes – his eyes alive with fire. Holy geez… Is this the end for us? How we will die after so much time?

President Vallarian yells, Releasers, seize her!

No! Ferrah screams. I didn’t mean it!

Now! Gabriel shouts.

Seizing me around the middle so there’s no chance of escape, he grins at me. White teeth marvelous below dirty blond hair.

We translocate.

* * *

This feeling is like nothing I’ve known. Like collapsing backward down a children’s slide in a playground – except the falling sensation never ends. Nor the sensation of complete, utter panic as it fills my heart and soul – thrumming inside my consciousness like an ache ready to explode the air in a scream.

Falling, falling, falling…

The air is cold as it passes my ears – the taste and smell indistinct. I can tell we’re traveling at great speed, though to where I can’t say. It’s then I realize my eyes are closed. With a great deal of effort and courage, I wrench them open. Ouch! This stinging sensation is worse than any soap or shampoo ever to hit my eyes. Yowling in pain, I shut them tight again. But not before I see it all.

And Gabriel…

Abounding around our light speed traverse, the universe is dark and star strewn – twinkling like that green light on the dock… Grr! Fuck Dr. James! And fuck the fucking Great Gatsby too! Anyhow – not the point. What does translocating look like? Like being under a blanket of stars – each a fireball of coursing passion and unrestrained thirst. Marvelous! But then I see Gabriel’s face.

His eyes are closed. His hands are still grasping me around the middle, so his face is close. And horrid! Wrinkly, pale, aged a thousand years – he looks like Methuselah. Even his dirty blond hair is half gone, turned white. I open my mouth to scream. Then my curiosity interrupts me. Eyes shut, I raise a hand to my face. I feel the same wrinkles on my own face. My hair is still intact, but brittle and wispy. Old hair.

What the fucking shitballs?

My feet touch ground and the universe around my head clears. Soon as daylight hits my lashes I double over on the grass, heaving forward a mountain of spew. Not again! Not in front of my boyfriend! Wait… He’s not my boyfriend anymore. What the hell was I thinking? I’m married to Wolf. Well…

Anyhow, yuck!

Wiping my mouth, I gaze back at Gabriel. He’s staring down at me, cool as ever – the beauty and youth of his features restored. He appears to be trying not to smile. You opened your eyes, didn’t you?

I nod vigorously. This doesn’t help, and the next second I offer the ground some more of my stomach’s contents. So glad I’m facing away from him… I feel sick – dizzy all of a sudden – like I’ll pass out.

Never open your eyes when translocating, Gabriel tells me, "or else you’ll see what time and space distortion looks like. You did see what it looks like. Sure I never mentioned that before? Thought I did…"

I shake my head, and again the motion forces me to heave. Ew! I need to stop moving all together. Slumping to my bottom, I wipe my mouth again and gasp as the dizziness and euphoria of what I’m seeing hit me at once. It’s a river – long and winding – right before my very eyes. Stunning!

Gabriel, what are we -

Doing here? he interrupts. You’ll see! Oh, you’ll see soon enough. Anyhow, we never got to that buffet. Not in the eating sense, anyhow. In the other sense it probably saved our lives. You hungry?

Lunging to the side I puke into the grass again. The dizziness is too much now. I’m hot and out of my senses – the world seeming to collapse around me like a burning bout of overheat. Entire. Unrestrained.

I pass out.

* * *

A cool, salty breeze is in my nostrils. Reminds me of life. And yet my eyes don’t want to open. I’m so comfortable here… So at peace. I shouldn’t be – I know that much. I know something terrible has happened. Some great, important event dear to me has been ruined. Loved ones lost. But I can’t reach that. Can’t remember it, as though it all happened in a woeful, dizzying dream.

It floods back. The wedding! Ruined! Uncle Ben and Ronan murdered! And my poor fiancé – still unmarried to me because of a contractual obligation – probably taken prisoner. May be dead for all I know…

Fury fusing with my veins, I wrench my eyes open.

And gasp.

The scene before me is so magnificent, so idyllic, and so entirely forgotten I can’t help myself. I’m swaying in a hammock tied between two trees, the river rushing by only feet from where I’m suspended. Trees run away from me, flanking the river on both sides and in the background a huge mountain rises above them, showering my senses with the sensation of found lost wonders.

Unbelievable.

Here I was so angry… But I’m still angry, I realize, as it all comes rushing back. No! I won’t be sent off to some therapy spa to get over my antagonisms! I won’t do it! Bet Gabriel planned all this, I think furiously – gazing around at my enormously cozy situation. Bet he wanted to diffuse me! Well no sir, it won’t be happening! I won’t forget who ruined my wedding. Ruined my life!

Yeah… my alter ego begins tonelessly. That was Tisguard and Ferrah, not Gabriel.

Shut the fuck up! I scream at her. Bitch!

Geez, I’m so mad right now!

Leaping from the hammock, I lose my balance and go spinning to the grass – nearly colliding with one of the host trees as I do. Shit! Embarrassed – blushing hugely – I gaze around quickly, looking for onlookers. Good. None. However, something else catches my attention – something large.

There’s a log cabin on the riverbank. It’s situated right behind the hammock. How did I not see this when we landed? Guess I was looking at the river… The log cabin is two-storied but tiny – its few windows and wrap-around porch adding a gentle appeal to the place. Reminds me of Uncle Benjamin’s place, except with a proper second floor. Including a window is what I mean, because his didn’t.

Oh, poor Uncle Ben…

I feel the corners of my eyes prickle and at once stop thinking about him. Can’t go there right now or ever, perhaps. Too painful. Upright and staring at the cabin, I make my way toward it with deliberate steps. I’m sure Gabriel’s in there! Probably enjoying himself – priding himself on what a genius he is for making me so comfortable, for putting me in so serene a place to forget my anger.

I’ll show him!

Climbing the wooden stairs to the front door, I walk across the porch and knock on the door. Breathing heavily, I wait – my patience evaporating faster than water in a furnace. I wait a second longer.

Gabriel! I say loudly. Let me in!

Nothing. Nobody comes.

Anger is pummeling my veins, making my face hot. How dare he! Without a second thought I ram my body against the door and turn the handle. It opens easily and I go sprawling in a heap on the floor. Ouch! Gasping in fear, I clutch my bulbous midsection. Hope the little guy’s okay. Or little girl…

Picking myself up and wincing, I take in the place. Most of the first floor is one room, except for a kitchen alcove against the back and a small room – almost certainly a bathroom – beside it. To my right is a bed, dressed and occupied. To my left is a desk and small dining table. Books, maps, clothes, artifacts, plates, beads on strings hanging from doorways, and walls are everywhere.

Geez, what a place to live…

Marching to the bed, I lay my eyes on the lump in the sheets and exclaim, Gabriel! The lump doesn’t move. Gabriel!

Slowly – hesitatingly – the thing in the sheets turns over, stretching beneath them so they splay into the air. Fucking finally! Get up! Yawning widely, he pulls the sheets down from over his face, revealing those features I know so well. Except… something’s wrong. Very wrong, but I’m not sure what.

I’m too mad to care. So you leave me to sleep outside while you get the comfy bed? I burst at him angrily. "Me! You know, the pregnant one!"

Gabriel blinks red eyes, his expression contorted around his latest yawn. I’d have shared the bed, he says.

Well you didn’t! Geez, I’m so pissed at him! He’s such a fuck up. You’re such a fuck up! I yell, real rage brimming inside me. "You were there the whole time! At the ceremony. Standing idly by while werewolves were being slaughtered! And why? So you could ruin the ceremony and take me all for yourself! How can I ever forgive you for that? How can I ever see you as human?"

He grins stupidly, wiping sleep from red eyes. I’m not human.

I know that! You make it a little too obvious! Damn it, Gabriel! I hate you! I fucking hate you!

Silence between us. Gabriel’s expression is – at best – mildly interested.

What’s going on here? asks a voice to my right. Turning on my heel, I see someone standing in the open doorway. My heart runs cold. Skipping multiple beats as the numbing, pummeling shock sinks in.

Holy fucking bejesus fuck…

I’m insane. Crazy. Done. Finished. Lock me up and call Bellevue. Or at least the fucking funny farm, because I’ve lost my goddamned mind. It can’t be… but it is! He’s right here in front of me…

Gabriel White is standing in the doorway to the cabin, shock and hurt afflicting his marble features. And Gabriel White is lying in bed, still wrapped in sheets with a goofy expression on his face.

I close my eyes. I can’t… Can’t take this anymore. Any of it. The craziness, the madness, the hallucinations left and right: from the river to the hammock to the house to two freaking Gabriel Whites. This surrealism is too much for my weak consciousness to comprehend. I’m done…

More silence.

The Gabriel in the doorway speaks first. I see you’ve met my brother, he remarks coolly, his expression still taken aback and hurt. His name is Lionel. Lionel White. You’ve met before, he adds, staring from me to his brother. No I haven’t… "Only then you went by different names. You’re the Newborn despite having once been Nora. And he is Lionel despite having once been Jack."

* * *

What the flying fuck?

My eyes shoot for the Gabriel White in bed. I mean Lionel… Oh geez! What is happening to me? This can’t be real! Can’t belong to the realm of fact. Lionel is Jack? No… He can’t be him!

I’m gaping at the Gabriel in bed. The Jack who…

His smile replaced with a most solemn look, Lionel nods once. "I’m sorry for that. You – you have to understand. I didn’t know myself back then. Didn’t know right from wrong. Mortimer had me under some kind of spell. It was like I didn’t know what I was doing. Forgive me, Nora?"

I’m actually shaking, staring at Lionel – my eyes on my near-murderer. Forgive you? I repeat, incredulous. "You tried to kill and rape me, Jack! Rape me! Now you’re asking for forgiveness? You can’t be serious!"

Nora, Gabriel says from the doorway.

I whirl on him. And you! I growl, the entirety of my cautions thrown to the wind. "You were supposed to bring me to safety! That’s the only reason Wolf let you take me, Gabriel. And what do you do? You deliver me to my rapist! To my murderer! Are you crazy? Are you actually insane?"

Judging from the look Gabriel shoots Lionel, this encounter is not unfolding as they had hoped. Well, I don’t care. Fuck both of them! This is my life – not some trivial game. I’m not