by Aliyah Burke
* * * *
“Is there a range around here?” Luc asked Altair, who stood next to him near the dartboard.
Luc needed to do something. It had been three weeks, broken up with a brief trip home to Arizona to allow his family to meet Dracen, since he’d been at the vineyard. Dracen spent in inordinate amount of time training and plotting with the others. He’d been in on some of the sessions with Altair, but mostly it was the six Guardians.
Tensions were high, nerves on edge. Even the children had picked up on it, despite attempts to not let them be exposed. It was hard, and nearly impossible to hide Lian’s escalation of sickness. He understood the kids were worried they’d be sent away if he died.
While Luc saw Dracen every night, her exhaustion was such that she usually wanted sleep. Altair beckoned to him, and he trailed the man to one of the training rooms and grunted when the man exposed a pad where he entered a code. A door slid silently open, exposing a winding staircase heading down.
“There are a lot of secrets around here.”
“Yes.”
Altair was a quiet man. Former assassin, and he liked him. Through another locked door, Luc found himself in a gun range. Sweet.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” He walked to the massive wall and took down a Beretta 9mm, a SIG, and a Škorpion. Altair pulled down a few for himself as Luc picked a station and set up.
After he’d emptied each into the target a few times, he felt better. A silent warning skittered along his spine and he turned, pulling his ear protection out. Dracen? The room fell silent and Altair stepped back and looked at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Is there something else down here?”
“Inaki.”
“The weapons maker?”
“Me.”
The deep voice came from the direction he wasn’t looking. Turning, Luc nearly swallowed his tongue. Holy shit. He was huge.
“You must be Inaki. Dracen speaks highly of you.”
A small smile turned up the scared face. “I like Dracen. You be good to her or I kill you.” He scratched his bare chest and walked by as if he’d merely exchanged pleasantries and not a death threat.
“Dracen is his favorite,” Altair confirmed.
“No pressure then to keep her happy,” he deadpanned.
Altair stepped back up and began shooting again. Luc joined him. They left the range two hours later, and he had relaxed a bit. Altair broke away on the main floor and headed outside to go elsewhere while Luc began up the stairs.
He met Lian on the top landing. Impeccably dressed, he still appeared as if the slightest wind would blow him over.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Yang.”
“How are you settling here, Luc?”
“Just fine, thank you.”
“This is good to hear.” His gaze ran over him. “I do not like weapons around the children, but I can see you are used to carrying.”
“With all due respect, I don’t plan on being without at least one weapon when this starts. I can’t call them up like Dracen and the other Guardians.”
He nodded. “The children are going to be gone for a three-day trip. They were supposed to leave tomorrow.”
“You are expecting this to go down then.”
“Yes, which is why I’m sending them today. I expect it to start early, while the kids are here. I feel them inside me, angry and wanting to prove victory. So they aren’t coming home today.”
“Which isn’t happening? The victory part.”
“We must have faith.”
“You don’t know how this is going to turn out.”
“I’m old, but even I don’t know everything.” He moved to the stairs. Luc pivoted and walked down with him.
“You know more than you’ve told.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because I can tell. They may accept this, but I don’t. What do they need to know in order to defeat this? They are your warriors, why wouldn’t you give them all they can learn? I have something against sending people into battle without all the information available. When that happens, it’s because someone is expendable, and I don’t believe you feel any of them are expendable. So it’s something else.”
“How are you feeling? Are you having more flashes of what Dracen sees and thinks?”
“She told you?”
“There are things I know whether people want to share them with me or not. Like I know how you take the evil she sees and try to pretend it doesn’t bother you. How you believe because of all the killing you’ve done, you aren’t a good person. That’s not how life works, Lucas Kyle. You followed orders, and regret some of the things you did. Do not be so hard on yourself. When They come, They will try to use your memories against you. Be prepared to face that part of your life again. Accept what you have done and move on.”
“I’ve never found life to be that black and white.”
“It’s not, but it is war. You have to fight.”
Luc held the door and trailed the man out into the late afternoon sun. He looked up to find all the Guardians nearing.
“Remember your training,” Lian said. “Defend each other. Trust in your fellow Guardian.” He walked by, leaving the seven of them there.
“What was that about?” Billy asked.
“Beats me,” Luc answered, gazing to Dracen.
Her black leather attire was doing something to him he couldn’t do a damn thing about right now. He smiled at her and she winked, sending more blood to his groin.
“Should we follow him?” Aminta questioned.
“No,” Roz said. “I think he wants to be alone. I bet he’s going to the place where he has her statue.”
* * * *
By dinner time, no one had seen him come back, and Luc knew they were worried about him. Edmond came in an hour later.
“Have you seen Lian?” Cale put the question to him.
“He’s out at Lana’s spot.” He made himself a sandwich and vanished down the hall.
When the first alarm went off they all looked at one another. He’d been right. It was starting soon.
“Get in the safe room,” Tiarnán demanded to Calida.
“Not a chance.”
“I can’t fight knowing you’re in danger.”
“Then don’t think about it, Tiarnán. If we lose it won’t matter where I am. Shut up, give me a weapon and go do what you’ve trained to do.”
“This may be nothing, we don’t all need to check it out.” Cale rose. “I’ll go.”
Luc stepped to Dracen’s side and whispered, “Kama.”
Moments later he had them and he put them on his legs, since he’d taken to wearing holders for them.
More alarms went off and they all broke into different directions. He went with Dracen as they left the other couples to figure it out for themselves if and who would be in that safe room.
“Just one thing, Dray, before we get out there.”
She looked at him, the full moon above putting its pearlescent beams around them.
“What?”
He studied her expression. Acceptance. She’d been groomed for this since she’d come here and was ready for whatever came next.
“I. Love. You.”
“For however long we have left on this earth, Luc, and wherever we go from here, I love you.” She kissed him and led him to the garden where she slowed by one of the tall statues. “This is for you, from Inaki.” She pulled out a pack from behind the Greek god.
He opened it and whistled. “All of this?”
“Yes, he wanted you safe.”
He pulled on a vest that was like a flac vest but different. Lighter, but he had no doubt stronger. At the bottom of the pack were guns and he grinned as he strapped up. Once he’d finished, he looked to see her waiting there.
“I thought you would have gone off without me.”
“How do they say, we ride together and we die together?”
He fisted her shir
t and yanked her to his lips. “I’m all for riding together, but let’s skip the dying. Let your brethren back in.” He kissed her then turned away.
“Already done,” she said, stretching out and running beside him.
The thrum moved through him as they covered ground heading to the breech. A shape moved overhead and he looked up as he jumped a downed tree. Nothing.
“Did you see that?” he asked.
“Nope.”
And they kept running.
For a moment he thought about Lian, and if the man was protected, but when they stumbled on the first wave, he let that thought go and turned his attention to protecting his home.
Chapter Seventeen
Uma blew a stream of fire in her direction, and Dracen dodged it while taking the heads of two other lesser demons. The battle had been waging for a while now and it was down to the Guardians and Them. Their humans had been wiped out, unfortunately there was a never-ending wave of demons to contend with.
While it had begun with the Guardians at different ends of the property, they’d all been gathered into one large area. Including the mates. She knew some of them weren’t happy about it—she could feel the displeasure along their connection—but it wasn’t anything to distract her now. She was confident Luc could hold his own, and he was.
“You’re going to die,” Uma announced as she tossed a long javelin in her direction.
“You thought we wouldn’t be ready,” Dracen taunted. “We were. We won’t be the losers.” Waiting until the last minute, she dodged the projectile and let it pass through the trees behind her.
“You’re all here, and your weakened mentor is all alone.”
“We got an encoded message that said just throw the artifacts up in the moonlight.”
Edmond’s voice echoed through her mind.
“From who?” she asked.
“Still looking into it.”
She gasped and went to her knees when Uma landed a hit. Dropping her knife, she yanked out the spear in her shoulder. Another flew at her head. Before she could decide whether or not to move out of the way, a tendril of gray smoke curved around it and jerked it off to the side.
She tossed the one covered in her blood away and looked in the direction it had come from. Luc ran toward her, his own dragon hovering around him.
“Pay attention,” he yelled at her, firing at Uma.
A warming pulse pumped up through her and she knew without looking it had been from Cale. His signature healing mark identified him. She jumped back into the fray and re-engaged Uma. Hara fought Tiarnán. Pelur took on Roz, and the others each had one of their own. It didn’t look good as she winced from another hit.
Uma grew tentacles for arms and tossed so much at her, Dracen knew there wasn’t going to be a way to get away from it all. A large shape landed before her and took the hits. Stumbling back out of the way, she gazed in shock at the large dragon.
His roar rattled her back teeth, and with one snap of his massive jaws, he delivered a mortal wound to Uma. Then he looked at her.
Red-tipped silver scales burned in the moonlight and flames lingered in his eyes. His mouth opened and she lowered her head, weapons sliding into her hands. She might be about to die but she wasn’t going without a fight.
Some of Them screeched in anger, but the dragon before her didn’t seem all that concerned about them, remaining focused on her.
“Are you just going to stand there or attack?” she demanded.
“I’m not here to hurt you, I am here to protect you.” He turned his head. “And him.”
She knew he looked at Luc, who’d made his way to her side. “Your sign?” he asked.
“Our protection.”
An unholy scream filled the air and she knew it wasn’t good. Lian! She dashed in the direction the rest of the Guardians ran, praying she wouldn’t be too late. They all burst into the clearing and saw Lian standing over Edmond, whose body poured blood into the charred ground. There were three stakes in Lian’s chest as he slowly fell back.
“No!” she screamed.
“Throw the artifacts!”
As one, they all put their artifacts up in the air. She watched them rise. The moon hit them and their blinding light had her squinting. For a flash, it was as if they stared up at the sun.
Cale was beside Lian, removing the spikes and healing him. Behind her, she saw her dragon and Luc dispatch another one of Them. Hara stumbled beneath a strike from Tiarnán. Billy took on Pelur with some help from Calida, who was manipulating the very earth beneath their feet, her hair unbound and flowing in the wind. Cheza, she couldn’t see.
The light faded and she gasped as she realized who she stared at. Lana.
The Guardians backed up so Lian was in the center of their circle of protection. “Get up, Lian,” Cale ordered.
He didn’t move. Clouds moved in and the rain began. But the woman who floated above them shone with a light not even the rain could dampen. As she neared, she saw Them weaken even more.
“Protect him,” Dracen called to Cale before she ran toward another of Them. Ignoring the strikes she took, she launched up and called two swords, which she pierced through each of its eyes, into the brain. Normally it wouldn’t have worked, but she could feel them weakening.
In the rain and storm, they battled. The tide was turning. She searched for Luc as she engaged another she’d never seen before. He was beside Altair, cutting something apart with the fire from their assault rifles.
She peered up, but no longer saw Lana hovering there. When the last one fell, all six of them returned to Lian’s side.
“Say your goodbyes.” The voice she’d heard from the dragon echoed in her head and the full weight of what he said hit her, making her stagger.
Dracen stood there, chest heaving, heart ripping. The tears streaming from her eyes mingled with the rain pouring down, blending them together. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. They’d won. The Guardians had defeated Them. Her family should be safe and on its way to recovery, not about to lose the one who’d united them all.
She blinked and glanced around her. Cale, Billy, Roz, Aminta and Tiarnán neared, walking out of the cold mist rising from the ground. Dracen angled her head enough so she could meet Luc’s gaze. His forest green and gray gaze met hers, full of love and compassion. She knew he would be at her side if she gave him the slightest indication.
Right now, this was the time the Guardians had to say goodbye, and their mates held back. Her weapons slid away and she collapsed to her knees by Lian. His skin had sunken in, his black eyes were tired.
“I don’t want you to go.”
“You no longer need me. None of you,” he said, gazing between the six Guardians. “You have come into your own. I have done all I can. Words cannot begin to convey how proud all of you have made me.”
All her brethren dropped to their knees and rested a hand on Lian.
“We need you,” she protested, unwilling to let him go. “You can fight this, you can survive.”
“Of course I can, little dragon. But I’m tired. I want to go be with my Lana. She’s waiting for me, just there.”
Dracen and the others looked up in time to see the woman who’d returned when all the artifacts had been combined—the hope of the world—walk into view. Her feet hovered over the ground and her silvered hair blew gently in the wind. The moment she touched the earth, flowers sprang up from her footsteps. The rain faded and they were surrounded by a warm breeze, which carried a rich, floral scent. A healing one. A loving one.
“It’s time, Lian,” she said, her voice a melodic whisper.
“Coming, my love.” He struggled to rise and the men helped him to his feet.
Dracen pushed to her feet as well, reaching out a hand to touch his wrist, the leather band he’d worn hiding his mark no longer there. The glint of his ring, his gold and silver binding knot wedding ring, grabbed her attention, causing her to pause. The ring itself wasn’t anything new for him to wear but
the luster it had was unlike anything she’d seen before. Almost as if it gleamed with the power of the sun, moon and all the stars combined.
“They will return,” she said, still unwilling to let him go.
“It is a cycle.” Lana neared him and leaned into kiss his cheek. Before their eyes, his skin filled in and regained its healthy glow and the glyphs began appearing on his exposed body. “My watch is over and it is now yours.” He stared at all of them. “Each of yours.”
She shook her head. “No.”
Lian looked in her eyes and turned his arm so he could encompass her hand with his. In the black depths, Dracen saw more than he would, or could, ever say. “My time is done, Dracen. It is no longer the job of one to keep them at bay. The job of the Keeper has been split between all of you.” He tightened his grip. “I was born of their rage and hate, you, little dragon, were born for love. Your dragon has always watched over you. You possess what I did, in that you can sense them. Your blood allows for that. His presence opens a whole new realm of what is possible. Calida.” He looked at Tiarnán then beyond to his mate, who had walked up with the others. The twelve of them were in a circle around Lian and his lifelong love. “Calida has the hope of the world inside her, the gifts bestowed upon my Lana have been granted to her.”
His words shocked not only her but everyone else there, aside from Calida, and Dracen realized then she’d been aware of what was to be expected of her. Her respect for the woman went up even more—she’d taken it and accepted her fate head-on.
“Each of you, and your mates, is stronger when united. Not separated. You have what you need within this circle. Look to each other. Love. And most importantly. Live. I love each and every one of you. I am honored to have had the opportunity to know you and have you in my life. Every day was a blessing, and I can only hope you have learned from me as I have from you.”
Lana stepped forward and reached up to touch Dracen’s cheek. “I know you think I am taking him from you. I suppose in a way I am, but he’s right, he’s not needed anymore. You all are ready for whatever else may come. Allow him to rest now.” Tears glistened like diamonds on her cheeks. “I’ve watched over you, all of you, and the joy you brought to his life. I know you didn’t know me, but you are all my children as well. I love you as he does. Our love will never fade from this place. Goodbye.”