by Heather Long
I wasn’t judging.
Apparently, grave robber was a title that I just had to get used to.
Eh, worth it.
Maddox pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me, while Alfred built up the fire in the hearth. We’d moved into the tiny kitchen, not that I was sure it was a kitchen, but it had a heavy table and bench seating and something that resembled a stone oven in the wall, and there was a hook in the hearth to hang something from.
We were as far from glamping as you could get, and I really wanted to get fast forwarded back to the decade I came from. Because I didn’t think I was built for long term roughing it.
Yeah, yeah, first world problems.
When Maddox settled me in his lap as he took a seat, I curled up against him. Tired hit me like I’d been struck by all the falling bricks in that alleyway. I smothered a yawn, but Maddox stroked my back and I caught Alfred studying me from where he tended the fire. The corners of his mouth tipped into a smile, and that was the vision I took with me as I closed my eyes for just a few moments.
“Keep it down,” Fin cautioned in a clipped voice. “You don’t want to wake her.”
“We’re not waking her,” Maddox’s voice rumbled beneath my ear. I was still curled up against him, the heat from his body soaking through me. “She’s not all the way asleep or all the way awake. Listen to her breathing.”
“Just talk normally,” Alfred suggested. “She keeps dropping off.”
I must have, because they sounded a million miles away and right there at the same time.
“She killed one of the Seven, Alfred.”
Wait…
“I’m aware. We arrived just as she tore her apart.”
What?
“They’re never going to let this go.” The wariness in Rogue’s voice made my heart hurt. I stretched and tried to shift, but one hand stroked my leg and another my back.
“Shh,” Maddox soothed and pressed a kiss to my hair. Sinking back into the heat cocooning me, I yawned.
“Don’t want Rogue to worry,” I said in and around the stretch of my jaw.
“He’s not worrying, Hellion,” Alfred told me. “He’s planning. We all are. You used a lot of energy, that’s why you’re tired. Do you need to feed?”
I turned that idea over and must have dozed off thinking about it, lulled by the heat and the soothing stroke of Maddox’s hand.
CHAPTER 9
“Change is the only constant in life.” - Heraclitus
ALFRED
C learing out the horde of vampires and the witches they’d dragged along to test our wards had been more of a nuisance than a fear. Still, removing Fiona from the situation had been vital. Maddox had no restraint when she was close or under threat. Not that Alfred seemed to possess much. He’d known the vampires. They were more of Cyril’s get. While they hadn’t discussed it with Fiona yet, he highly doubted Cyril was dead.
Alfred could survive Maddox’s fire. It was particularly unpleasant, but he could survive it. There were too many questions about Fiona, and now that her transition had settled, she also seemed to be coming into her own and that was a dazzling sight. He would allow nothing to interrupt it.
But the last thing he expected when they tracked her and Rogue down was to find them mid-battle with another of the Seven. Keeley. It had been centuries since the last time he saw her, and he doubted he would ever see her again. Fiona had filled her with angel fire. Or at least as close to angel fire as Alfred had ever seen outside of himself. It was a rare talent among his own kind, and never had he seen it in the hands of his brothers, not even Maddox.
The threat to her was immeasurable now. How long it would take word to reach the others that one of the Seven had died, making them the Six, he had no idea. Yet, he also held no illusions. They’d wanted Fiona dead before. Even Synove might abandon her desire to stay out of the fight.
For Fiona to possess it… A fierce kind of pride flooded him. Yet the exhaustion worried him, even if it didn’t surprise him. Angel fire came from the soul, and it depleted the body swiftly. Maddox held her close and seemed unwilling to part with her. The dragon would take time to settle down. Each time he’d had to separate from his mate, stress had marked the occasion. While Alfred couldn’t blame him for his concerns—he was the last of his kind—he was also not alone and he needed to understand that…
Still, Alfred could content himself with studying her and how peaceful she looked wrapped up against Maddox. Her vibrant red hair seemed to glow of its own accord, as did her skin, though the illumination had dimmed as she slept.
“She’s pregnant.”
Everything in the room halted, and his wasn’t the only heartbeat to stutter.
When the female hybrid is born, the world will change.
Fin pushed out of his chair and extended a hand toward Fiona, even as Maddox’s eyes flashed a warning, but Rogue just stared at all of them, arms folded. He seemed rather calm for such a pronouncement.
“Why do you say that?” Alfred refused to leap to some impossible conclusion. In how many thousands of years had they never fathered any children… She hadn’t been pregnant before, had she? No, he would have known. Maddox would have known.
The dragon stared at Fin, but his arms were locked around her. They weren’t dislodging her anytime soon.
“Because my knot failed.”
Alfred flicked a look from Fiona to Rogue. He’d never inquired about their sexual practices or appetites. The knotting he’d heard about from others but… “And that means she’s pregnant?”
“Yes,” Maddox rumbled, but still, he stared at Fin. The druid had a hand over her abdomen and his head bowed as the magic seemed to hum off of him. “The desire to procreate has been riding me since I met her. Even mating couldn’t quite quiet it.”
“Transition kills.” It always had. It was another reason he didn’t extend that offer of life to many, because it was not the life they’d known. He’d been selfish with Rogue and to an extent with Maddox. Fin had been different, but he’d also asked for it. Asked because of the woman in Maddox’s arms. Still…she had fought them all, and they’d pushed it. Alfred had pushed it because he couldn’t risk losing Maddox, and ultimately, he had not wanted to lose her either.
“She was a succubus,” Rogue reminded him. “That was always their objection. Not just that she would be a hybrid like us, but a demon hybrid. Do you even know what the spark of life does with a demon?”
“Succubi aren’t high demons,” Alfred argued. “They’re barely demons at all.” Particularly when one considered how they were treated among their own kind and why Fiona had objected so strongly to their possession. She didn’t want to be a toy or used only for her hungers. Controlled.
Yet she hadn’t even realized what a force of nature she was before he completed the transition.
Unmoved by the argument, Rogue said, “She’s pregnant, which changes everything.”
In that, he wasn’t wrong.
Fin glanced up at him, and he saw the truth written in the druid’s eyes.
Dammit.
Cyril already wanted her head. Eamon and Gemma had sided with him. Synove withdrew, wishing to be left alone and for her neutrality. That left Wyman. While Fin and Maddox had said nothing of him, he would be the most difficult to find, but Alfred had a suspicion of where he might be.
“What about Isaac and the whelp, Dimitri?” Those were the two lives they owed her.
Fin’s expression tightened. “That’s your question?”
“Yes,” he informed him. “Her security and balance are the issues. Eliminating those who hurt her before is a priority.”
“And no one else will touch a hair on her head,” Rogue stated, arms folded. Maddox rumbled with another sound, but it wasn’t a growl and his eyes were pure dragon.
We’ll never get him away from her now. The observation from Fin earned a faint smile from Alfred.
No, but I’d rather he is with her. Very little can get past any on
e of us, but a dragon with a clutch?
No, nothing would survive to get past Maddox, and in his soul, Alfred rather hoped that child was Maddox’s. The dragon had given up so much, and the thought that even a child with some dragon blood would be in the world? It would do his old friend good.
The soft snort from the druid suggested he had more to say, but he kept it to himself.
“Eamon’s hiding them,” Fin admitted. “We got close, that’s when we realized that one of the…” He paused a beat, flicking his gaze back to Fiona. “That one of the Six had to be hiding them. They have to be using witches to try and mask the trail, too, or I’d have already found them.”
“Stay with him,” Alfred ordered, and he pivoted on a heel. The old fortress was located deep in the wilds of Wales. Its age would afford them some protection. It also held some of Fin’s finest wards and lay within the cross section of two ancient stone circles. He could whisk them away before anything got close.
He barely made it a half-dozen steps before Rogue and Fin both blocked him. Only Maddox hadn’t moved.
“What?” he demanded.
“You find out she’s pregnant, and you want to move now?” Rogue asked. “You aren’t even a little curious…”
“It’s likely Maddox’s. He was her first lover, first mate. It makes sense…”
“He wasn’t actually,” Fin said, and nodded to Rogue. Alfred frowned.
“Then that is as well… You both deserve it.”
“Alfred,” Rogue said quietly. “She has spent the most time with you, particularly after her transition.”
“I’m not…”
He frowned. Procreation was not impossible before. Before the fall. But after? How many lovers had he taken on and off over the years? While there might have been long stretches in between…
“It’s not just you,” Fin said it almost gently, but Rogue held none of that kindness in his eyes as he pinned him.
“She said you used light to purge the shadow demon taint…”
Alfred stilled. He had. When the demon attacked her through Anton. He’d…
“That was the second time you did it,” Rogue reminded him, the clipped tones held recrimination. “A shadow demon trying to transform her mid-transition, then you purged the taint even as you pushed…angel fire into her?”
“It wasn’t angel fire,” he admitted slowly. “It’s the spark. It is the light that is the antithesis of the dark and yet fathers it at the same time.”
“Because the moment you add anything to the light, the shadow has been created.” Fin made a face. “Makes sense.” Still, he looked thoughtful. “I think Rogue might be right—she glows. The wings? We saw what she did to Keeley. All of us are hybrids, but it was our natural talents that were enhanced. Hers…hers seems to have shifted fundamentally.”
Unmade her.
Remade her.
Reforged her.
Alfred nodded. “Then we will have to address all of it later. For now, she must be kept hidden and safe. And I need to deal with my brethren.”
Because they could not be allowed to harm her. Ever. A possessiveness threaded through him. He’d loathed the touch of the shadow demon on her already. And wanting her had never been a chore. But the others like him did not want change, and that was all Fiona had been—a detonation of light, color, and sound in the middle of their stone shrouded world.
A part of him wanted to take her, take all of them, and secret them away, far from the politics and the wars of his brothers and sisters. That would never happen though, because Fiona did not want to be hidden away. He hadn’t even asked her yet, and he knew she didn’t want to be.
The look on her face in the alley when she told him she’d behaved and that Keeley had started it more or less had been endearing, even if Keeley attacking them at all had filled him with a reasonable amount of dread.
“Whatever you’re thinking right now,” Rogue said, pulling his attention to the present, to the one who had been his brother for longer than either of them could remember and to the younger one who had become a son and baby brother in equal measures. “This war isn’t yours alone. We do this together. All of us.”
“This war is between my brethren and me. It has never been about you.”
“Wrong,” Fin argued. “It has always been about us. Since you turned Rogue and Maddox. Long before you brought me over. They were furious about me, too. I haven’t forgotten those attempts. Gemma was very determined to end me if she couldn’t seduce me away.”
Alfred sighed. “This should not be your battle. For most of you…it wasn’t a choice.” He looked at Rogue, and his oldest friend chuckled.
“That water has long since passed the bridge, my friend. We are not those people anymore. And for the first time in memory, I am grateful for your stubborn decision.”
Fin’s grin widened as he slapped Rogue’s shoulder. “Fiona is worth it.”
“Indeed,” he agreed, and then they both looked at Alfred.
With a combination of a frown and impatient sigh, he eyed them both. “I claimed her. What more do you want from me?”
“Alfred…”
Leaving them, he strode back into the ancient kitchen where Maddox still cradled Fiona. Only her green eyes were open, even if the rest of her seemed to radiate exhaustion. There was still a glow to her, an ancient light he hadn’t seen in a long time. Her smile grew when he entered, and then she stretched and Maddox helped her sit up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, Hellion,” he told her with a sigh. While he would withhold the information, he didn’t dare. She needed to know she was pregnant. More, she needed to know why they couldn’t allow her back into the fight and why the others were coming for her.
Damn them all. If they would only leave her alone…
But they won’t. Fin’s quiet voice tapped at the edges of his mind. The druid knew better than to intrude too deeply and trusted Alfred to not blast him for even this much contact. They’re afraid. They’ve been the big bads for eons. Most of you still think you’re better than anything on this plane. Now she is a threat to them…
Is she the threat, Fin? Or is our child?
The moment he claimed ownership, it settled within him as though it belonged there always. The world did not want them to have her, then the world would have to change. If that meant eliminating the others until only he was left, then he was prepared to do that. Before, he’d always resisted the idea and killed them only when he realized there were no other options.
Not this time.
Cyril had already shown his hand, as had Eamon. They both needed to die. There was a sliver of a chance Gemma could be reasoned with. Synove might yet keep her word. But he had to find Wyman.
“Do you still want Dimitri and Isaac?” The question was not the one he meant to ask, but the words still fell from his lips. Maddox scowled at him and Fin snickered, but he ignored both.
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation or prevarication. All at once, she perked up. “Do you have them?”
“No, but we know who is hiding them. Once I end him, their safety will be compromised and Fin should be able to track them, or Maddox.”
Her smile lit him up inside, and he reached for her. Maddox grumbled but surrendered her as she slid off of his lap and then wrapped up against Alfred. He passed a hand over her hair and then down her back. A part of him had to know she was intact. There had been blooded wounds when they first found her, but most had already closed.
Maddox rose from the table as Alfred cradled her. The castle was ancient and safe, and Rogue and Fin were right, he couldn’t leave them behind, even with Maddox to guard her. Her shirt still had blood on it. Blood. Dirt. Ash. Dust.
She needed a bath and likely a meal.
“Something is still wrong,” she murmured. “You’re all staring at me.”
“Nothing is wrong, Hellion,” he assured her, though he supposed that depended on her point of view. In this instance, she may not
agree.
When she gripped a fistful of his hair and tugged, a smile pulled at his lips. Acquiescing to the pull, he lifted his head to meet her gaze.
“Then tell me what is troubling all of you. Is it because of that girl I killed? Seriously, I don’t even know how I did it. Just—I remembered what I did to Dorran and then did it to her.”
“No,” he said slowly. “Though we should discuss that.”
“Is it because I kissed her? Are you going to get weird about that?”
A laugh rumbled in his chest. “No, Hellion. I don’t plan to get weird about that.” Then, because he couldn’t help himself, he stroked her lower lip with his thumb as he cupped her chin. “Just know that whomever you kiss that is not us will die. Because if you don’t kill them…”
“We will.” Maddox nodded once, then folded his arms. But his attention never left Fiona. She might adore her dragon, but she’d never had several tons of angry dragon standing between her and the rest of the world. Nor a dragon desperate to keep what was most precious to him safe. They would be inseparable, and Alfred preferred it that way. He wanted her safe with equal ferocity.
Fiona rolled her eyes. “Trust me. I’ve got plenty of lustful energy right here and all the dicks I could want. I didn’t mind some breasts now and then, but we’re fine. Just remember the same goes for anyone you kiss, male or female.”
“Noted,” Fin said, almost lazily, but the smile in his voice harkened back to when he was far younger and more carefree. “I’m almost excited to tempt your jealousy, Beautiful. You’re exquisite in all your aspects.”
“A constant delight,” Rogue murmured, but the soft sound of his hand slapping Fin upside the head filled the room and Fiona burst out laughing.
The sound bubbled through Alfred.
Even Maddox smiled.
“Okay, so it’s not the killing or the kissing.” She gave his hair a sharp tug, enough for the sting to send a ripple of need through him. “Then spill the beans, Asshole.”
It was his turn to laugh. “That is not my name.”
“But you’re my asshole and you like to indulge me.”