"Are you telling me that he's your brother?"
How he wished it was that simple. "No. We were bred differently by our gods. Designed for a specific purpose. He was truly born from the forbidden coupling of a lilit mother and an arel father, and raised to be a tool for the ancient gods." Kessar pierced her with a harsh glare, before he rammed home exactly what kind of creature they were dealing with. "And it's said he turned on his own mother in a fit of anger, and tore out her throat with his own teeth."
"You're serious?"
He nodded as he lifted his shirt to expose the wound on his side that had never healed. A vicious bite scar that ran from nipple to hip, and forever oozed with dragon venom. "He is not just your Dragonbane. He is my personal plague and the one creature in this universe I would give anything to have in battle one last time."
"Anything?"
"Anything ... More than that, he has in his possession something he protects that's a lot more powerful than the Emerald Tablet." He lowered his shirt. "Forget restoring the old world we once knew. With what he has, we could reign as gods ourselves. We would have the power to not only take life, but to create it. To make and destroy entire worlds, and pantheons."
Completely shocked, she gaped at him. "Are you telling me that dumb, idiot dragon who lived in my village--"
"Is one of the most powerful and ancient creatures who has ever roamed this planet." Kessar laughed bitterly. "He was never a dumb animal, you stupid bitch. But for the curse placed on his mother, he would have been born a Nasaru."
A being of purest light, they were the protectors of order and the defenders of the primal gods. Resolute warriors of the highest honor and noblest hearts. Their place was to remain away from the world and those who lived in it so that they wouldn't be corrupted by evil.
But once exposed to the world, they became the deadliest of all its creatures.
And none more so than Maxis.
"What curse?" Nala asked.
Kessar folded his arms over his chest. "After Lilit made the mistake of seducing a god and becoming pregnant with his child, his goddess wife cursed her and all her kind to never birth a live child, or to carry a fetus in their wombs. Rather they were all to lay eggs and only have serpent children. And so the first race of dragons were born from the cursed lilitu. Because of what those children were, their mothers hid them away and left them to die in caverns and caves. Over time, the gods learned that these children were excellent survivors and that their solitary natures made them the perfect vassals to guard their most sacred objects."
"And what is this object he protects?"
"The Sa'l Sangue Realle."
She frowned. "Never heard of it."
Kessar scoffed at her ignorance. "It's a bowl his mother stole from his father that can grant immortality to any who drink from it. And take immortality from those who have it. Any weapon that is dipped into a liquid held by it can kill anything it pierces. More than that, it grants total omnipotency and omniscience."
"And you're sure he has it?"
Kessar backhanded her. "I know the creature I seek." He gestured to the bodies on the floor. "And I know how rare a species it is that can render three gallu dead with this kind of ease, especially in adolescence." He grabbed her by the throat and yanked her closer. "Find their bitchtress mother. We have to leash them and their father, and find that bowl. If you fail, I'll take great pleasure in spending the rest of eternity making you my own personal bitch."
*
"Brace yourself, Deenie. I can't go any farther."
Edena held tight to her brother's neck as Hadyn lost altitude and headed for the burned-out ground far below them while they flew out of the reach of the demons they'd escaped. Wounded herself, she wasn't able to take dragon form at all. And as they crashed and he hit the ground hard, she felt for him. But true to his nature, he coiled himself around her to protect her as best he could.
When they finally stopped falling and rolling, he was flat on his back, his wings spread wide with her tucked in tightly between his massive claws and nestled against his chest. She heard his heart pounding beneath her bruised cheek. They were in some kind of valley underneath a vast, dark sky that was filled with bright stars. A sky she didn't recognize at all.
"Hadyn?"
He groaned.
"You alive, little brother?"
"No," he groused with a light, pain-filled laugh. He loosened his hold so that she could slide out from between his massive talons and check on his wounds. Panting and weak, he tilted his massive spiked head to the side and stared at her with those eerie gold serpentine eyes. "Did they bite you?"
She shook her head. "Are you turning gallu?"
"I don't think so." He hung his huge tongue out the side of his mouth like a dog that was playing dead. "But at this point, I wouldn't mind so long as it stopped hurting. Ugh! Braaaiiinsss. Me neeed..." He paused to stare at her. "Ah, crap. I'm here with you. If I need brains for sustenance, I'm going to starve."
Rolling her eyes, she shoved at his claw. He had a twisted sense of humor, but she appreciated him trying to cheer her in the midst of their dire predicament. He was always good at that. Always precious to try and make her see the better side of things when it definitely wasn't her nature to do so.
It was why she loved her brother so much. Why she would kill or die for him.
Thank the gods Hadyn was all right and still Hadyn, not some horrid gallu slave.
Oddly enough, when the gallu had gone to feed on him, instead of becoming one of them, the feeding had thrown him into his real body in spite of the collar he'd worn. Something he'd needed badly since being trapped as a human for so long had been slowly killing him.
Little had they known, her brother was a Katagari Drakos--like their father--who needed to be in his dragon form more than his human one. A secret the two of them had kept from everyone, even their own mother, for fear of what their tribe might do to Hadyn should they ever learn the truth. Both of them had grown up with the horror stories of how their father had been driven from their tribe over his animal birth.
She would kill before she allowed them to drive her brother away. Or harm him in any way.
And as they lay there, she realized how ragged and raspy his breathing was becoming. Instead of clearing, it was worsening.
Edena cupped his dragon cheek. "Slow your breathing before you hyperventilate."
"I'm trying."
"Hade? Look at me." She stroked the scales of his snout to soothe him. "Focus and breathe. In ... out ... in ... out." She repeated the steady and slow rhythm until his ragged breathing returned to normal.
Since the hour of their birth, he'd always had trouble with his lungs. No one was quite sure why. And the condition had only worsened when he became a dragon at puberty. It left his voice very deep and raspy. Barely more than a whisper that required others to listen very carefully in order to hear him whenever he spoke.
Nala had wanted their mother to abandon him to the elements and not waste valuable resources to raise such a weakling. But their mother had refused and fought a hazard to keep him with them. He was her son and she refused to let anyone harm him.
Over the years, Seraphina had taken the heads of any who went after or insulted Hadyn in any manner.
At least, whenever she heard it.
Only Edena knew the real heartaches her brother endured on a daily basis. Since there was nothing their mother could do, he kept most of it from her, and begged Edena to do the same. He was far stronger than anyone knew.
Even stronger than she was. Without him, she doubted she would have made it through the misery of their lives.
Coughing, he rolled to his side so that he could breathe more easily.
She patted his back, taking care to avoid the cuts the demons had left behind. "Where do you think we are?"
"I don't know."
It was so dark here. And cold. But at least they were no longer frozen in stone. They finally had movement again.
"Should I try to call Matera?"
He wheezed and shook his head. "It could alert the others where we are." He wrapped his tail around her and sent a wave of warmth through it for her.
Pressing her cheek against his scales, she smiled. "Thank you."
He tucked his wings in around her to make a leathery blanket. "Are you warm now?"
"Yes. How did you know I was cold?"
"You're always cold. There's not enough fat on you to keep you warm."
She laughed. "I'm big enough to whip you."
He snorted a rude sound of denial. "Only because I let you win."
Suddenly, there was a loud, fierce sound over their heads. Something that rumbled like vicious thunder. Bright lights danced across the landscape.
"What is that?"
Hadyn immediately returned to being human, even though it was extremely difficult for him to do so. "I don't know. But I doubt it's good."
She took his hand in hers as they stepped back into the shadows and watched the strange things that flew in the sky over their heads. Worse? They could hear voices as others searched for them.
What's a military installation? she projected silently to her brother.
I don't know. But I don't think we're supposed to be here, and I'm pretty sure that if they catch us, they're going to put us in another cage.
And that she couldn't argue against either.
Keeping to the shadows, they ran along a wall of some sort, away from the sounds and machines they didn't understand. Looking at the vegetation, she guessed that they were in a desert. But she had no idea where.
Or what time period.
As they reached the end of the wall, she pulled up sharply. She stopped so suddenly that Hadyn slammed into her before he saw what had caused her new panic.
There in the darkness was another group of demons waiting to recapture them.
6
"Here. You look like you could use this. It's hot cider with rum. It helps with pre-battle nerves."
Seraphina stepped away from the group that was assembling to save her children to thank Aimee. She took the peculiar cup that smelled quite delicious. And as her gaze fell to Aimee's distended stomach, she realized a fact that had escaped her earlier attention.
The bearswan was Arcadian. She had to be. Aimee wouldn't be able to shapeshift while pregnant. That was one of the worst drawbacks of being a female Were-Hunter--you were locked into your base form for the duration of any pregnancy. Should anything force them to shapeshift while they carried another life, both mother and child or children would die.
Gods, as bad as her own fears had been while she carried her children, she couldn't imagine the uncertain horror Aimee must deal with. At least she and Maxis were the same species. How could an Arcadian bear stand being with a Katagari wolf?
How had they even courted? Or conceived? Common thought was such couples were sterile. But then, their very existence defied all natural order. Given what Lycaon and the gods had done to them, there was no telling, really, what a Were-Hunter could or couldn't do.
"You're mated to a Katagari?" The question was out before she could stop it.
Aimee's features turned to stone and all friendliness evaporated from her eyes. "Careful where you go with your next words. My mother was Katagari. My father Arcadian. And they died as bonded mates."
That stunned her. Bonded was the highest declaration of love for their species. It meant the mated couple had made the mutual and conscious decision that rather than let death separate them, they chose to combine their life forces into a single cord. Whenever one mate died, the other would follow them into eternity.
Very rarely did Arcadians make such an unbreakable pact. It just wasn't practical. And even though Maxis had asked it of her and she'd refused him out of fear, she'd always assumed it would be even more rare for the Katagaria to make so strong a commitment. Most Arcadians believed them incapable of comprehending it. To her eternal shame, she'd refused to bond with Maxis, hoping that one day death might free one of them to find a mate of their breed.
But that was before she'd had his children. They and his absence had taught her an appreciation for her mate that she wished she'd had before he left.
"Did their differences ever bother you?"
Aimee's features softened as she placed her hand over her stomach and lovingly caressed the unborn children she carried. "What bothered me was having to hide and lie about my true form because of the prejudices others hold. Having to hide and run with my parents and brothers before we were granted the license for a limani. The fact that my parents had to live in secrecy from even their own families, or risk harm to themselves or us."
Seraphina could only imagine. The gods knew her tribe had never been kind to Maxis. The only thing that had saved her children was the fact that they were Arcadian born and her skills with a sword had forced the ridicule to stop. No one wanted to go against her battle skills or face her maternal devotion.
Even so, Hadyn had borne the brunt of it. It'd forced him to grow up much faster and harder than he should have. And there was a deep-seated bitterness in his eyes that tore at her heart every time she caught his unguarded expressions. He'd never been fairly treated among her people and she knew it.
Just like his father.
For that alone, Seraphina could almost hate her tribe.
Yet Aimee's words gave her comfort that maybe Hadyn would one day find a woman who could love him as he deserved to be cherished. "Thank you, Aimee."
She inclined her head. "Any time."
"May I ask another question?"
"Sure."
"Did..." Seraphina paused as she tried to think of a gentler way to phrase her question. "Does it ever bother you that Fang is a wolf?"
"Because I'm a bear or an Arcadian?"
"Either."
Aimee shook her head. "No. It never mattered to me that he was Lykos Katagaria. Though I didn't want to admit it, I lost myself to that face the first day I saw him. But it scared me how others--and in particular, my mother--would react to our union. And it terrifies me what they might do to our young once they're here. My mate comes with some rather scary enemies. And not just in our community." She cast her gaze to her massively large brothers. "But the good news is, I come from a scary, over-bearing family."
She laughed at the bad pun. Then turned serious as she remembered why she was so harsh against the Katagaria. Those memories still woke her up at night with terrors that never faded. "But you never had the Katagaria tear apart your family, either."
The anger returned to Aimee's eyes. "No. I watched my older brothers and parents be viciously slaughtered because of lying Arcadian bastards and their needless hatred and intolerance for their Katagaria brethren ... and my brothers they slew were Arcadian. But they didn't want to believe it.... Honestly? I'd rather lie down with the animals at night. From my experience, they're a lot less likely to go for my throat than their human counterparts."
Seraphina swept her gaze around the small group gathered on the third floor of Sanctuary as they prepped a rescue for her children.
Different species.
Katagaria and Arcadian.
All working together to save two teens they'd never met and knew nothing about. Each prepared to bleed and die for them.
She couldn't fathom it, and she knew in her heart that her tribe would never do something like this to save strangers, especially Katagaria children.
Aimee had a vicious point.
Not wanting to think about it, she was just about to take a drink when three more wolves came up the stairs to join their raiding party, leading an attractive human female ... each of them carried a small child in their arms. Three boys and one girl, ranging in ages from about a year old to around six or so. But then given the fact they were Were-Hunters, the children could be older than that. Unlike their Apollite cousins and humans, Were-Hunters aged much slower, and what might appear to be a six-year-old Arcadian Were could easily be as old as ten or even elev
en or twelve.
Sound asleep, the babies were nestled in the arms of the adults.
Fang came over immediately to take the girl from the sole human. "What are you guys doing here?"
The human kissed his cheek. "Like big brother would let you face this alone. Or leave me by myself at the house with an imminent threat of any kind, even though I've got two packs of wolves denned in every house in and around my block? Get real. This is a blood alert, so here we are until it's cleared and everything's safe and quiet."
Fang laughed. "Well, I'm glad to see you. Maybe you can talk Aimee into going to bed. She's not listening to me and she's been up for almost twenty hours straight."
Tsking, the human walked over and hugged Aimee. "What have I told you about resting those puppies?"
"I know. I know. I was going to bed when all this happened. It's hard to sleep when my family is up here planning to go break badass on a horde of Sumerian demons who were created to eat gods for fun."
The female wolf who held a small infant boy had the same chiding expression on her face. "You need to rest, Aims. C'mon. Let's put these pups to bed and Bride can ride herd on you for a few hours." She handed the infant in her arms to Aimee, then took the girl from Fang. "I'll be back in a few to gear up for battle."
Fang kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Lia."
Seraphina froze as the small group drew near her. The voluptuous, auburn-haired human offered her a kind smile. "I'm Bride Kattalakis. Fang's sister-in-law and mate to his brother Vane, the dark-haired cutie next to him." She brushed her hand over the head of the sleeping eldest boy. "This is our son, Trace, and the girl is our daughter, Trinity."
Seraphina inclined her head to her. "Nice meeting you."
"You, too."
The female wolf had a strange hair color that was white-blond at the roots and slowly darkened to black at the ends. Her brown eyes were every bit as friendly. "I'm their brother Fury's mate, Angelia. Call me, Lia, though, everyone does.... The two younger boys are ours. Asher is the older, blond one, and the dark-haired baby is Ryan."
She must have had a peculiar expression on her face because the next second, Lia laughed. "Yes, I know. Fury and Fang are Katagaria. Vane and I are both Arcadian Sentinels. And all the children are Arcadian ... so far. But since both Vane and Fury changed their base forms during puberty, we're waiting to see if the kids remain Arcadian or switch in a few years."