Illusions: Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Seekers Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Particularly those of us with powers that they fail to understand. That’s why men blame us for everything; they have since the beginning of time. Eve in the Garden of Eden: she ate that bloody apple. Ruined everything. Pandora opened the box and set disaster upon the world. And now here we are, having the audacity to stand up to the jackasses. One of these days they’ll see that their power is nothing next to ours.” Her green eyes flashed, seeming to brighten in conjunction with her words. She continued: “But dearie, the only feminine power that men begin to understand is what lies between our legs. With what we have down there, we can control the universe if we so choose. Men will fall on the ground weeping and pleading before us, if it means getting a chance to play. And that is just one reason that the Sisterhood keeps our powers to ourselves.”
    “Well, I choose to keep what’s between my legs to myself,” said Sera. “I’m saving it for a rainy day.”
    “Or,” said Hedy, eyeing her with caution, “For the very, very, very special man that the Crones choose for your Bonding.”
    The Bonding was just what Sera had dreaded for years: the ceremony in which a young Aspirant who was coming of age spent one night with a man. He was chosen for her by the Crones, deemed worthy of the rite and worthy of her body.
    For centuries the Sisterhood had engaged in these ceremonies in order to come into their own, using an eager male to fulfill their needs. Of course, finding such a man had never been an issue; horny men were as common as grass in a field. But the Crones were selective and careful about their choices. Their methods remained mysterious to the younger members of the Sisterhood; all they knew was that the men whom they picked possessed a certain sort of power, like them. According to the Crones, the ceremony would help to enhance the Aspirant’s powers, to come to their full potential. A rite of passage for the women, and, they supposed, a pleasant evening for the men.
    But those males who were selected for the chance to participate needed to understand the rules and to obey them completely, or risk a penalty of the Crones’ choosing.
    The man in question dressed in a costume concealing his identity, the upper half of his face covered in a mask or a hood. The young woman had her way with him, giving her purity over to the goddess for one night (or sometimes for far less), offering herself to the man for a few moments of sexual pleasure. Often the ceremony lasted only a few minutes, but on occasion a woman found herself with a man who revelled in it, and, although most didn’t discuss it, many of the women found the act far more pleasant than they would admit.
    The two never saw one another again, of course. The men were chosen quietly by the Crones in secret meetings, somewhere in a far-off hiding place. And the men whom they chose were said to have abilities of their own, though only the Crones who’d selected them knew what these were.
    The men were given careful instructions not to seek out the women afterwards, to make themselves scarce and to forget what had occurred.
    Aside from those rare nights, the Sisterhood’s all-female community often felt like an open convent; no men, no talk of sex, of marriage. Apart from one night in their lives, the Aspirants remained chaste for life.
    If one of them wished to desert, she was allowed to do so. But only at the sacrifice of her training. And she was encouraged not to develop them elsewhere, outside of the Sisterhood, instructed not to use them for harm or to employ them against the other Aspirants.
    Marriage, the Crones said, was a death sentence for one’s Gifts. A married woman was unlikely to have the time necessary to focus on her Craft, after all. She was a lost cause, best set free to spoil her own life.
    The loyal members were devoted to the goddess, to the elements and to their skills. And so each woman bonded only once, when she was young and