His brother shook his head. Yeah ... no, this is a really bad, bad idea. Like trying to blow-dry your hair while showering, or piss into a high wind. Are you out of your mind?
"No. I'm desperate."
Same thing.
He gave his brother an irritated smirk.
Well, it is.
Sera stood up beside him. "I agree with Illarion. Don't even think about doing this. Are you insane? You can't walk into a colony of demons and Amazons who want you dead, and take the Tablet the head demon covets most. They tend to react badly to such things. Believe me. I've seen it. I do believe Nala wears the claw of the last dragon possessed of such arrogance."
Illarion gestured his agreement at Sera. How many more challenges are you planning to issue? Sheez, Max. There are far less painful ways to die. Drowning in acid comes to mind.
Suddenly, a light flashed in the room with them. Max started toward it, but something kept him in place. A strong, unseen force he couldn't break.
Furious, he manifested a fire blast to attack. Until he recognized the source of the power.
Falcyn.
Only this time, he wasn't in dragon form. Dressed in their ancient black war garb, he wore the skins and furs of the slayers who'd made the mistake of coming after him, as trophies and testament to his unsurpassed martial skills. His black hair was short except for one long braid that was wrapped around his throat and adorned with a silver dragon pendant that matched his pale eyes. They flashed like mercury in the dim light.
And they missed no detail at all.
Illarion's eyes widened as he saw him there. He inclined his head in acknowledgment of his older brother's birth order and out of respect.
Returning the gesture to Illarion, Falcyn closed the distance between them with that fierce predatorial walk that was uniquely his.
Without a word, he stopped in front of Seraphina and met Max's gaze. "May I?" It was forbidden for a drakomas to touch another's mate without permission. To do so was a killing offense in their culture.
Max nodded.
Sera frowned at him as she looked back and forth between them. "Max?"
"It's all right, Sera. This is my brother Falcyn. I trust him ... most days."
Ignoring his teasing barb, Falcyn touched her icy forehead, then her hand. "Who curses her?"
"Zeus."
He scoffed disdainfully. "Then I hope this seriously pisses that bastard by-blow off. You should have told me that originally. I wouldn't have had to soul-search nearly as long before helping you."
With one claw, Falcyn made a small incision on his wrist until he could gather three drops of blood. From his satchel, he pulled a small oblong ball that resembled an egg, then coated it with his blood. He placed it in her hands and cupped them around it while he chanted in their mother's tongue. He used her hands to turn the egg round and round.
After a few seconds, Sera sucked her breath in sharply, but Falcyn held her hands in place around the egg. She hissed. "It's burning."
Max tightened his arms around her. "It'll be all right. He's drawing the poison from you. Give him time to work."
Only then did she relax a degree.
By the time Falcyn finished the ritual, she was even paler, but her breathing was more solid.
Falcyn wiped the stone off on his sleeve, and returned it to his satchel. He glanced about the loft expectantly. "You said you have dragonets?"
"A son and daughter. They're with Blaise. In Avalon."
For the first time, Falcyn's stern features softened. Blaise had always held a special place in his affections. "I'll see them protected and shielded, too."
As he started to leave, Max stopped him. "Thank you, brother. Can I ask why you changed your mind?"
Falcyn turned at the curtains to look back first at Max, then to Sera. "I still think you're an idiot. I still hate and begrudge every breath that fills your lungs. But you are my brother and we are drakomai. It's not my place to take from you your heart.... If there is any way to help her, then I am honor bound to do so. You know the code we live and die by. Regardless of my feelings for you, it is my responsibility to protect what you love and preserve our bloodline."
"Again, thank you."
Falcyn didn't respond to that. It was as if a part of him was embarrassed by the gratitude. Instead, he turned toward Illarion. "You still have your dragon's claw I gave you?"
Always.
"Yeah, not what I heard." Falcyn clapped him on the arm. "I heard you loaned it out to an addanc. What the hell's wrong with you? Did I teach you nothing?" He shook his head at Illarion. "An addanc? Really?"
Falcyn made a sound of supreme disgust. "All my brothers are morons. I swear. Now take me to the dragonets before Blaise sucks what little intelligence they have out and leaves them lacking, too."
Illarion rolled his eyes.
After they left, Max laughed.
Sera scowled at him. "What?"
"I just realized why I like Remi so much. He reminds me of my own asshole brother."
"And you find that funny?"
"I do."
Sera held her arms out to examine them as if waiting to start growing cold and sluggish again. "Will this last?"
"It should. Falcyn is the oldest of our kind, to my knowledge." He wrinkled his nose at her. "He's even older than I am."
"Wow! So why does he hate you, then?"
"I failed him and Hadyn. It's why I won't ever fail anyone else I love." He brushed his hand through her hair before lifting a lock up to rub against his bottom lip.
That single action sent chills over her. Worse, it awakened her hunger for him in a way that was frightening. Before she could stop herself, she cupped his face in her hands and led his lips to hers so that she could ravage his mouth and drink her fill of him.
Max laughed as he picked her up and pressed her against the wall behind her. "How can my swan be starving so soon?"
She nipped at his whiskered chin, wanting to forget about everything else.
If only they could.
"We need to see about Nala."
He nodded. "I need to get the Tablet back and make sure Kessar doesn't use it." He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
Sera gasped at the action, especially when he headed for the door. "What are you doing?"
He playfully held her legs against his chest as he continued to carry her. "You keep getting into trouble. I'm not letting you out of my sight."
"I can walk, you know."
"Aye, but I'm a dragon. We're known for abducting beautiful maidens and taking them to our lairs."
Giggling, she surrendered to his hold. "I've always wondered about that. Why do dragons take women?"
He tsked playfully. "I'm offended you'd ask that given the ride we just had in my bed."
"That's not a bed.... On your straw, you mean."
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, the playfulness faded from his face. His jaw dropping, he slid her from his shoulder and set her on her feet in front of him.
Sera turned to see a new group gathered in the downstairs of Peltier House. The power coming from them was disturbing enough, but it was the two sets of identical twin gods that set her nerves on edge and terrified her.
One set was easy to mistake for each other. They were both tall, dark, and incredibly sexy. The only way to distinguish one from the other was that the one on the left had shorter black hair than the one on the right.
"Sin," Max said, extending his hand to him. "Zakar."
They shook his hand in turn.
The other set was much easier to tell apart. While they both had shoulder-length hair in similar styles, one had his black with a pair of swirling silver eyes. The other was blond with eyes of vibrant blue.
"Styxx," Max greeted the blond. "Acheron." He stepped back to introduce her. "My mate, Seraphina."
Acheron inclined his head to her. "Wish we were meeting under better circumstances. Especially since I'm here to ask your mate if it's okay if we fee
d him to the gallu."
Sin clapped Max on the back and put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Actually, it's not a request. Buckle up, Buttercup. We're throwing you under the bus."
Max gaped. "Pardon?"
"Yeah," Styxx agreed as they surrounded Max. "And knowing them, they're planning to back up over you, too." He flashed a grin at Max. "Like the new hair, by the way. It goes well with the whole dragon sacrifice we're about to make to the gods. Good times."
14
"Dragon sacrifice?" Sera repeated with a gasp. "That is a joke. Right?"
"Sure. We'll call it that."
Gaping, she looked from Styxx to Max. "I don't think I like him very much."
Max cleared his throat. "That's all right. Some days, I don't like him either. And I'm thinking today is definitely going to be one of them. All of you do know that at this point I'm going on about thirty hours with no sleep, right?"
Acheron laughed. "Welcome to my world, adelphos. I think I remember sleep ... once upon a grand time ago. Or maybe that was a hallucination brought on by extreme sleep dep. Hard to tell, at this point."
Max rubbed at his eyebrow with his middle finger. "So you're planning to feed me to the gallu. Any other votes taken while I was away that I need to know about?"
Zakar let out an evil laugh. "You're remarkably calm for a dragon about to be sacrificed."
"Yeah, well, we don't go down easy. You don't know what indigestion is until you try to eat a dragon. We tend to bite back. And hard."
Dev cried out in pain. "And that's more about your sex life than any of us need to know."
Max playfully shot a blast of fire at him.
"Hey! Do you mind?" Fang stepped between them and extinguished it. "No burning down the bar! Damn it, children, there are some things I shouldn't have to say, and that is really at the top of my list. Stop playing with fire indoors ... around the wooden bar and flammable alcohol!"
"Anyway..." Sin ignored Fang's outburst. "Do you know where they're hiding?"
"Irkalla."
"Oh," Sin said in a tone so dry it could be used to dehydrate oceans. "That's awesome. Irkalla ... Why?"
Max bent his head as if imparting a huge secret. "Well, I'm no ... oh wait. Yeah, that's right, I am an expert. So I'm going to assume he's there because you can't go get him, and drag him out by his ears, screaming. Or kill him."
"He's right." Zakar let out an aggravated breath. "I wish we could go back in time and kick the ass of every family member we had who took a hand in unleashing these bastards on us."
Sera frowned. "Wait.... Didn't Ishtar descend into Irkalla and return? Doesn't that mean you can, too?"
Grief darkened Sin's eyes. "Different time and place. And I'm sadly not the god my daughter was." He stepped back as he reconsidered their course of action.
"You may not have to be...."
They looked at Max with an arched brow.
Max rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb as he considered their resources. "Sera gave me an idea. I actually have what Asushunamir used to restore Ishtar to life."
Zakar gaped at him with a look of total disbelief. "You're the Koru-Nin?"
"Yeah." Max met Fang's equally slack-jawed stare. "The real reason why I've never left Sanctuary before now. I couldn't care less about the Dragonbane mark. Anyone wants to try and kill me, bring it with friends, and shovels to mark your graves. Rather it's what I protect that keeps me hidden. I can't afford for it to fall into the wrong hands. And should I ever happen to go down ... only my brothers Falcyn or Blaise have the ability to take over its stewardship. Not even Illarion could handle its power."
Seraphina had known the Sa'l Sangue Realle was important, but it wasn't until she saw their faces now that she fully understood her mate's duties. Just how important Max was to the universe as a whole.
And how incredibly powerful and deadly an object it was. No wonder the demons were after it.
Zakar narrowed his gaze on Max as if trying to understand him. "Have you ever used it?"
"It's not my place. Nor does it tempt me."
"Hence why he's the guardian for it. Anyone else, we'd all be paying tribute to as our grand and evil overlord."
Max snorted at Acheron's dry tone. "Bow down before me, Atlantean scum."
"Exactly."
His eyes haunted, Max laced his fingers in Sera's hair while he talked to the others. It was the tenderest expression of care anyone had ever given her and it touched her a lot more than she wanted to admit to. "Considering all that, there's no reason we can't reclaim the Tablet from Kessar and the others. Even in Irkalla."
Sin knuckle-bumped him. "Let's salt the sands of Irkalla with their blood."
"No." Acheron shook his head at Sin's offer. "I think that's a profoundly bad idea, since Katra would have both our asses if you went in and we couldn't get you back for whatever reason. She's not going to let you go there without her. You willing to risk her life?"
"Hell no!"
Acheron winked at him. "Good answer."
"Who's Katra?" Sera asked Max.
"Sin's wife and Acheron's daughter. As his wife, she's technically part of the Sumerian pantheon and could descend into Irkalla with us, should she choose to do so, and as Ash said, she would do it to protect Sin. But she's also the daughter of Artemis. With that lineage and those ties to that many competing pantheons, who knows what could happen to her if she went in there. While most of the gods should be sleeping, we don't know for certain if that's true of all of them. Our luck, and my personal experience, says prepare for a nasty surprise." Max sighed heavily. "To be safe, we have to do this independent of outside pantheons. With the exception of Illarion, whose father is Ares, the drakomai can go without a problem."
"What about a Hellchaser wolf?"
Max inclined his head to Fang. "You are welcome, brother."
"Amazons?" Sam asked.
"Are you a demigod?"
She hedged a bit. "Granddaughter of Ares. Does that count?"
"Closer than we should chance, especially given the disgruntled look on Dev's face."
"Yeah," Dev said irritably. "Back to the Katra thing. You go. I go. Don't turn me into a demon, Sam. I'd look bad with serrated teeth."
She groaned at her mate.
"That also leaves Chi out, and me," Acheron said. "We better not chance it either."
"But I'm still in."
Sera scowled at Styxx. "How can you be in if your twin isn't?"
Styxx let out an evil laugh. "That's a long story. The shortest version is he was hidden in my mother's womb as a fetus to keep his pantheon from killing him. While his mother is a goddess, my mother was a human queen. So even though we look alike--another trick of his mother's to hide and disguise him--I'm a Chthonian. He's a god. Clears me for active duty in nether realms ruled by ancient pantheons that bar his participation."
Fang checked his phone before he spoke again. "And that's my boss. Thorn's got his own major situation exploding that's requiring his full attention. In fact, he wanted me to help with it, then decided he'd call in Cadegan and Varyk instead, and leave me to deal with this."
Sera crossed her arms over her chest. "So we're a handful against a horde?"
A playful light darkened Styxx's eyes. "Typical odds for me."
Max jerked his chin toward Styxx. "Styxx was the commander of the Stygian Omada."
It was her turn to have her jaw drop at the name of one of the most successful and famous armies in history. It ranked up there with Achilles and his Myrmidons. In the Greco-Apollon wars, the Stygian Omada had been invincible. "That was you? But you're just a baby."
Styxx laughed at her unintentional insult. "So was Alexander the Great. It's amazing what people can do when they're highly motivated and there's an enemy army about to swarm over your carcass, should you fall."
"Very, very true."
Now it was Acheron's phone that rang. He stepped away to answer.
"Blood moon," Dev said, feigning an evil accent. "What we live
for."
Cherif scoffed. "I can handle that. It's the dying for it that terrifies me."
Fang nodded in agreement as he went over their latest plan in greater detail. Though to be honest, Seraphina still wasn't happy with it. Something was nagging in the back of her mind.
After a few seconds, Acheron returned, his features pale and drawn. "That was Artemis. The gallu are attacking Olympus."
"Mia!" Sin vanished immediately.
Sera scowled at his terrified reaction.
"Mia's his daughter," Max explained. "She must be with her grandmother."
"Oh crap."
Max met Acheron's gaze. "Lead us in."
"Thank you."
They stood back as Acheron teleported them to Olympus. Because it belonged to the Greek pantheon, only the gods, or those they permitted, could access it. Obviously, both Acheron and Sin had permission to visit.
At least Artemis's temple, if not the rest of the buildings on the mountain, since that was where they appeared a few seconds later.
Max had never liked going into battle with family. He liked it even less with Sera by his side. But he knew that this was who and what she was.
A fierce Amazon warrior.
It would be the worst of insults to ask her to stay home and sit this out. So he did the only thing he could. He manifested her helmet and sword and handed them to her.
She frowned at him as she took them, and put the helm on her head. With an adorable smile that did awkward things to his body, she unsheathed her sword. "How did you do that?"
"I'm the one who gave the sword to you, remember?"
Seraphina narrowed her gaze suspiciously on him before she examined the hilt of her sword as if seeing it for the first time. "It's enchanted, isn't it?"
The blush on his face and bashful tilt to his head answered her question.
"This was never a wedding present. It was your way of protecting me in battle."
"I didn't want you hurt." He bit his lip in the most adorable fashion. "It's the Sword of Peleus. Achilles sent it to me to watch over and protect."
Tears choked her. She'd noticed that her battle skills had improved after her mating to Maxis. And she had thought it odd that she'd ceased being wounded in battle. Not even a scratch. She'd attributed it to her own need to stay whole and an improvement to her skills.
Now ...
She kissed him as a depth of appreciation for her mate overwhelmed her and flooded her heart with warmth. He was adorably precious. "I love you."