by Zoe Chant
"It's amazingly cathartic to really unload on someone ... who doesn't really deserve it, probably, but damn it, he did send an assassin to kill me and then hijack my brain for awhile. Family, right? So anyway," Tessa went on while Loretta was still trying to figure out what to say to that, "I guess Skye and I are coming to stay with Heikon for awhile. It's probably the safest place for us."
"You'll be okay here," Loretta told her. "I don't know Heikon very well, but this seems like a nice place, and everyone we've met so far has been nice too."
Tessa gave a short laugh. "You're an optimist, aren't you?"
"I try to see the best in people," Loretta said. "That doesn't mean I let them push me around."
"I like you," Tessa said simply. "I think you're good for Darius." She took a deep breath. "You know, Loretta, I don't know if you have any kids, but I'd be a total wreck right now if not for Skye. I have to stay strong for her."
"I don't have kids, but I can tell you're a good mom," Loretta told her. "And you'll be here with us soon. Darius and Heikon will get Ben back. I'm sure of it."
After she hung up, she went over to Heikon, who was standing at the railing with his fingertips touching his lips. There was no one else around at the moment; they were alone again. "I'm not going to ask about the things Tessa said about the history you two have. She seems to trust you, so I guess I will too."
"I'm not sure if you should trust any dragon," Heikon said simply. "Except for your mate. He would never hurt you. But I will tell you that I'll do my best to keep Tessa safe ... and you."
He turned and looked down over the railing. Loretta looked too, down at the gardens stretching terrace by terrace down the mountainside. It was beautiful and idyllic, and although she thought she'd probably go stir crazy living here for any length of time (she really needed more people around), it was an awfully nice place to visit. She still liked it better than Darius's mansion; as beautiful as that had been, she didn't miss its coldness and the lonely quality of its glory.
"You never know how much you have to lose until you've lost it," Heikon said in a voice that sounded old—as old as he must truly be. "I lost all of this once, but then I got it back again. Darius had something like this once, but he lost it when he was a child, because of the gargoyles. Don't underestimate the mark that such a loss can leave on a man."
Loretta's breath caught in her chest, thinking about Darius as a lonely, scared child. "He's trying to rebuild it," she said quietly. It made her look at the mansion and the town in a new light, Darius with all his servants as a substitute for the clan he'd lost. "He's just ... going about it a little wrong, I think."
"He may not know how." Heikon gave her a smile. "Perhaps he needs you to show him."
Before she could answer, Darius strode into the glade. He wore a charcoal sweater and dark jeans, not clothes she'd seen him in before, so presumably borrowed from Heikon's family. In the sunshine, his sex appeal almost knocked her over. It shouldn't be possible for her to keep forgetting what a handsome man he was, but then she saw him like this, and it was all she could do not to climb him like a tree.
Even when he was wearing one of his characteristic sour expressions. "What is the meaning of these interruptions? I am trying to work, Heikon. I cannot do it if you keep sending people to fetch me."
"Excuse me," Heikon said sharply, "for thinking that you might care if your only son was kidnapped by gargoyles."
Darius stopped in his tracks.
"They did what?" he said in a voice empty of all emotion.
"We got a call from Tessa," Loretta said as tactfully as she could, shooting a glare at Heikon for blurting it out like that. "We don't really know what's going on yet. Heikon is having Tessa and Skye brought here to keep them safe."
Before Darius could say anything else, the phone—still clutched in her hand—vibrated to show an incoming text. Loretta didn't mean to pry, but curiosity made her look down. "Oh, Darius, this is from Ben," she said. "He must've gotten away. That's good news, right?" She touched it and opened it.
There was no text, just a photo taken somewhat blurrily with a cell phone camera. Loretta didn't know the man in the photo, but she recognized his resemblance to Darius instantly: the same dark hair and pale skin and sharpness to the features.
Except this man was beaten and bloody and chained somewhere dark. He looked unconscious, slumped in his chains.
She only had time for a quick look at the photo before Darius took the phone from her. He stared at it for a long moment. Loretta put out a hand, but when she touched him, he was like a statue. He'd gone cold and still, the color draining out of his face.
"Darius?" she asked hesitantly.
"Ben," Darius said in a chill, distant tone, staring at the picture. "The gargoyles have Ben." It was as if he wasn't there with her at all, as if he'd gone somewhere else in his head. "What about Melody?"
Loretta shook her head. "I don't know. I haven't heard from her."
"Get in touch with her." It was an order, chill and callous, such as someone would give to a servant instead of a mate. Darius started to push past her.
Loretta was faster, blocking his path. "Darius," she said. He pressed on, moving her aside with his implacable strength. "Darius!" She dug her fingers into his arm, clinging to his sleeve with both hands, planting her feet and dragging at him with all her weight. "Where are you going? Darius!"
He was strong enough to have torn free without breaking a sweat, but this time he looked at her, really looked at her. His gray eyes were nearly black, and his dragon flickered in the steely depths. "They have my son."
"I know—"
"They have my son."
"I know!" she shouted. She let go of his sleeve and knotted her hands in the front of his sweater. "And I'm your mate, and you can't just push me aside like you push everyone else aside! You've done it all your life and you're still doing it now, but you can't, Darius, you can't, because this is exactly what Sharpe wants, don't you know that? He knows you've gone to ground and he's trying to smoke you out, he's using Ben and Tessa to do it, and Darius, if you go by yourself, he's going to kill you. You tried fighting them before and you almost died. You can't beat them alone. For the first time in your damn life, you have to let us help you."
Darius stared at her, his dragon flaring in his eyes. And then the fight went out of him and he sagged against her, into her arms. "Loretta," he whispered into her hair. "They took my son."
"And we'll get him back. We'll get him back, do you hear me?"
He pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "Thank you," he whispered, and drew a deep, slow breath. When she looked up at him, he looked troubled, but was no longer that cold, fearsome person. Taking Loretta gently by the shoulders, he turned her and put his arm around her so that he could face Heikon.
"For what it's worth," Heikon said, "you have my sympathy, and a safe haven for your family as long as it's needed."
"I'd like more than that." Darius's voice was quiet but implacable. "Tell me what you would ask in return for the help of your clan. I'm taking this fight to Sharpe, and my mate is right. I ..." He hesitated. "I can't do this alone."
"Darius Keegan asking for help. I never thought I'd see the day. Unfortunately," Heikon said, "I have yet to hear a good argument for getting my clan involved in your war."
Darius stood still, and then slowly, gracefully, lowered himself to one knee. Loretta gasped and put a hand on his shoulder; she knew how much it must cost him to bow to another clan's leader like this. "Darius," she whispered, "don't."
"For the life of my son," Darius said steadily, staring at Heikon, "I will pay any price. I have no warriors. You do. I have lost all my assets. You haven't. If you want—" He stopped and drew a slow breath before continuing. "... my clan to become part of yours, folded into yours—"
"Darius, no!" Loretta burst out.
"—then tell me, and we will be yours, if that is what it takes to gain your protection. If my son lives at the end of it, I don't c
are what you ask of me. I have precious little left to give: only my independence, and my life. Both are yours if it will buy your help."
Tears welled in Loretta's eyes, the brilliant patterns of sun and shade blurring in front of her. Fiercely she blinked them away. "You can't ask that of him," she told Heikon. "You can't!"
"Oh, get up," Heikon said impatiently. "If you want to self-flagellate over this, go right ahead, but stop making me a party to it. It's embarrassing."
"Fine, then." Darius rose and dusted off his knees, his eyes hot. "You won't help me, I've no expectation otherwise, but—"
"And stop answering for me. Good God, man. Your mate has been a good influence on you, but I don't envy her in the slightest." Heikon jerked his head at them and turned on his heel. "Come with me."
***
Heikon led them through a different hidden door in the side of the mountain, up a flight of stairs and then into a very modern-looking elevator that left her stomach behind and felt like it must have taken them most of the way up the mountain.
They stepped out into a large room with a high, vaulted ceiling and huge windows all around. The view was staggering. Mountain peaks and valleys spread to the horizon, broken only here and there by tiny threads of roads or a small scattering of houses.
When Loretta managed to drag her eyes away from the view, she saw that the interior of the room was actually very modern, a lounge kind of area with conversational groupings of contemporary-looking charcoal-and-chrome furniture and even an entertainment center with a huge flatscreen TV. There were a few other people there already, just becoming aware of the newcomers and rising to their feet.
"No outsider has ever been here," Heikon said quietly. "Congratulations."
Loretta nervously drew closer to Darius's side. These people looked dangerous. There were about a half-dozen of them, most with a distinct resemblance to Heikon. They were rangy and muscular men and women, some in neatly tailored businesswear, others in leather.
"My warriors," Heikon said.
Darius swept his gaze over them. "This is all you have?"
There were snorts and mutterings from the martial-looking people gathered in the room. "And how many do you have?" asked a woman with a light dusting of snow in her otherwise black hair. "We were summoned here by our clanlord because you need our help, were we not?"
"Calmly, Anjelica. As you know," Heikon said, turning to Darius, "my clan was recently torn by internal struggles. You're right, we are fewer than we once were. These are the loyal, the trusted, the few fighters that remain to me. Reive!"
"Sir," said a young man in a black leather jacket, his jet-black hair drawn back in a ponytail. Darius gave him a distrustful look; Loretta wasn't sure why.
"You'll stay here to help me prepare our home for defense. The rest of you ... prepare to fly. Anjelica, you are my field lieutenant, and you will take orders from Darius as you would from me."
"Yes, my lord." With a fierce smile, Anjelica strode across the room and unbolted a pair of tall double doors that Loretta hadn't even noticed. They rotated smoothly and silently on well-greased hinges, opening to the sky outside like hangar doors.
There were no steps beneath, no railing, not even a balcony. These doors were meant for those who could fly.
"Now?" Darius asked softly.
"Unless you want to wait."
He shook his head, and turned to place his hands gently on Loretta's shoulders. She wasn't prepared to be gentle; she flung herself into his arms and hugged him so hard her muscles ached.
"I wish I could stay here to protect you, my mate," he whispered against her hair.
"Heikon's people will protect me." She gave him a small shake. "You go out there and get your son back."
"My mate. My beautiful, fierce mate." He kissed her so hard she was left breathless and weak-kneed, swaying as he released her and stepped back.
One by one, Heikon's people leaped through the door, releasing their dragons as they did so. They were all colors, black and gold and green and purple. Heikon and Darius were the last to go. Heikon leaped through and became a huge dragon, bigger than Darius and a glossy blue with a silver sheen.
Darius looked back.
"Go," Loretta told him. "I'll be waiting for you. Go get 'em."
Darius nodded, and still looking back, stepped out the door. He fell and his silver-gray dragon burst out of him, rising with a powerful beat of its wings to join the rest of the dragons dwindling on the brilliant horizon.
Loretta took a shaking step forward, then another, until she stood at the edge of that terrifying drop, straining her eyes to see them until they were gone. Heikon, she saw, was not going with them; he flew down the mountainside instead, and she saw other dragons rise up to meet him.
"Step back so I can close the doors."
She jumped; she'd been so focused on Darius that she had forgotten not all of Heikon's people had left. She turned to look at the young man in leather (Reive, she recalled) as he swung the doors shut and bolted them. He was very handsome, with high cheekbones and bronze-colored skin. When he gave her a smile, it was unexpectedly sweet, softening his sharp face.
"Have you had lunch yet?" he asked.
Loretta shook her head, becoming aware that her light breakfast had been awhile ago now.
"Let's go do that." Reive ushered her toward the elevator with a respectful hand near her elbow. "And after that, I understand we'll be having a new guest at the Aerie, so let's get a room ready for her."
Chapter Twenty: Darius
From the air, Ben and Tessa's cabin looked as cozy and homey as usual, with a car in the driveway and a tiny wisp of smoke curling out of the chimney. Darius landed in front of the porch with a thump on all fours, shifted while still in motion—ignoring the twinge of his healing injuries—and bounded up the steps to the cabin's porch.
Tessa met him at the door with Skye bundled into her arms and a baby bag slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were red-rimmed. "Darius," she said, and leaned into him, pressing her face to his shoulder with Skye clamped between them.
Darius awkwardly put his arms around her and patted her on the back. "I swear to you," he told her grimly, "we're going to get him back, and make every last one of them pay."
Tessa raised her tear-streaked face. "We?" she said, and then, past his shoulder, she saw the rest of the dragons landing and shifting, and tensed. "Heikon's clan?" she asked quietly.
"They're helping us." He forced himself not to think about the price that might be required. He would pay it, every last bit of it, to make this right. "And they're going to take you to their lair to keep you safe. Are you ready to go?"
"I am." She took a breath, sniffled, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "The, um, the cats ..." With a slightly dampened hand, she gestured vaguely beside the door to a pair of carriers making unhappy yowling sounds.
... right. Darius had completely forgotten that she and Ben had four cats—assuming they hadn't acquired six more by now. Well, that was Heikon's problem. "Yes, these people will take care of it," he said, waving his hand at Heikon's warriors. "Now tell me exactly what happened."
Tessa swallowed. "We were having a picnic with Skye at the edge of the woods. And then the ground just ... it's hard to explain, it's like it swelled up from underneath and these monsters burst out." Her voice trembled. "Ben shifted to fight them. He was terribly brave, but there were just too many of them. They got him down on the ground ..."
"How badly did they hurt him?" Darius asked calmly, while underneath he was a seething cauldron of rage. The photo of Ben, beaten and bloody and unconscious, flashed in front of his vision every time he closed his eyes.
"Not too badly, I don't think." Tessa's voice was a whisper. "Not that I saw. Just enough to subdue him and ... and tie him up." Her voice broke. "They tied him up, Darius, they bound his panther's paws together. It was awful."
The ragged distress in her voice helped him claw his way back from cold rage, enough to remember to p
ut an arm around her. "It's going to be all right," he told her. "Go on. And they took him?"
Tessa nodded, wiping her eyes again. "And there was a ... a man."
The dragon in Darius's chest rose with a cry of rage. Only a lifetime's practice at controlling his emotions kept his voice calm. "A man," Darius repeated. "What did he look like?" But he knew. Oh yes, he knew.
"Blond," Tessa said softly. "And ... and cold. I've never seen eyes like that before. I think that's what's worst about it, that man has my Ben—"
"Shhh," Darius told her, because the anguish in her voice was making Skye start to fuss. Without thinking about it, he took Skye from her arms and cradled his granddaughter against his shoulder, where she settled back down. "Did he say anything to you?"
Tessa nodded and swallowed hard. "He looked me right in the eyes—this was while I ... I was being held by one of those things and they were dragging Ben away. He said to tell you ..." She stopped.
"You can tell me," Darius said quietly.
"He said 'Tell Darius that he's going to learn the meaning of pain and loss,'" she whispered, turning her face away from him.
"Tessa. Listen." Darius freed a hand from the baby to touch her damp cheek, turning her face back toward him. "I am going to get him back. He'll be fine. You will have your happy ending. I swear to you on my bone, blood, and honor."
Tessa dragged in a ragged breath and gave a tiny nod. "I trust you," she said, her voice so faint he could barely hear it.
He wasn't used to hearing those words, especially not from a human. "Go now. These people will take you to a safe place."
Tessa nodded and turned away. One of the dragons reached out a hand to usher her out.
"Tessa, wait," Darius called after her. She turned back. "Can you point out for me the part of the yard where it happened?"
Tessa pointed across the lawn to the edge of the trees.
Darius left the others behind and strode over to take a look. It was clear that something destructive had happened here. The ground was rent and clawed, turf ripped up, even a tree knocked over. He knelt and touched the disturbed earth with his fingertips. He was no tracker, and even if he had been, he guessed they would have taken to the air. Wherever they had taken Ben remained a mystery to him.