Flames of Mars (Celestial Shifters Book 2)

by Tjalara Draper

  For the first time, Violet’s kneejerk reaction was to lash out her snakelike tongue before she braced for the collision.

  The pummeling was endless. Every bit of training abandoned Violet; pure instinct overtook her blank mind as she blocked and parried as many of the vicious blows as possible. As Violet’s endurance began to wane, Nika’s assault only became more intense.

  “Nika, slow down,” Sagan called out.

  More shouts followed, but Violet had to tune them out, focusing all her attention on keeping up with the never-ending flurry of attacks.

  Violet managed to block most of the punches, then spotted an opening and ducked under Nika’s incoming fist. Nika sailed past her but spun back around almost instantly, locking Violet in place with a ferocious glare.

  Run, everything inside Violet screamed. Run. To avoid being attacked again. To avoid being a victim again. It was what she knew best. Throughout her entire childhood, she’d run from every foster home. She’d run when she discovered Thane’s true identity. She’d run when Nathan betrayed her. And at Rivermyre, she’d done nothing but run.

  Then the image of her daughter sprang to mind.

  The molten heat in Violet’s chest churned.

  No more, she thought. No more running. The inferno in Violet’s chest spread through her whole body, igniting the flames in her eyes and over her hands.

  Nika’s expression turned greedy. “You think a little fire is going to save you?”

  Violet ignored her and lunged.

  The hunter dodged.

  Violet stumbled, colliding with nothing but air. She spun and rushed again. Nika sidestepped but not before swinging a punch at Violet.

  “You’re allowing your anger to take control, Violet,” Nathan shouted. “Pull yourself together.”

  Violet half turned to tell him to shut up, but instead she oophed when Nika’s fist sank into her stomach. As she reflexively hunched forward, the hunter met her with a mighty uppercut to the jaw. The blow snapped Violet’s head back, and she slammed to the ground, winded by the impact.

  Violet cried out from the searing agony radiating through her face. As she tried to refill her empty lungs, she cupped her chin and was surprised to find it sticky. Her hand came away covered in a viscous teal liquid streaked with magenta.

  She was bleeding. But how?

  In confusion, she looked up at Nika. The hunter’s eyes glittered at the sight of Violet’s unique blood.

  In a split second, Nika pounced on Violet and pinned her to the ground. Pain sliced across Violet’s cheekbone as the hunter’s fist came down onto her face.

  She screamed.

  As Nika pulled her arm back for another blow, Violet spotted a row of crystal shards sparkling across her knuckles.

  16

  I Know What Cinnamon Means

  Violet’s screams ripped through Nathan’s eardrums. It took half a second before his mind comprehended what he was seeing. Is that blood? Violet’s blood?

  Before he could react, a blurred form shot past him.

  Thane rushed in and wedged himself between Violet and Nika’s cascade of punches. Blotches of teal began to bloom over his shirt.

  Nathan lunged forward just as Sagan intercepted Nika’s final punch by grabbing her arm. Collectively, the two of them dragged Nika back as she writhed and bellowed, struggling against them tooth and nail.

  “Nika, stop!” Sagan demanded. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Nika’s arm broke out of Sagan’s hold, and her flailing fist clipped Nathan’s arm. He hissed at the sudden pain and streak of teal along his bicep. Catching her wrist, he inspected the offending fist.

  His blood sizzled with rage when he spotted the Diamantium knuckle-buster. He dropped his hold on the hunter as if she were infected with the plague and, instead, focused all his attention on Violet. She was still curled on her side, with Thane crouched over her unmoving form.

  “Violet?” Thane gingerly rolled her onto her back.

  She coughed.

  Nathan’s spark of relief died when he saw the gore that coated Violet’s face and the amount of blood she coughed up. She blinked slowly, as if waking from a drug-induced sleep. Thane carefully helped her into a sitting position, then placed his arms under her back and knees and lifted her off the ground.

  Violet groaned again and mumbled something Nathan didn’t quite catch.

  “What did she say?” he asked.

  Violet mumbled again; Thane’s expression became stricken with horror.

  Cinnamon.

  That single word plunged the knife of shame further into Nathan’s chest.

  Thane fixed Nathan with a deadly, accusatory glare. “How could you let this happen?” He didn’t wait for Nathan to answer. Instead, he gently bundled Violet tighter into his arms and carried her away.

  “See, she’s fine,” said Nika as Thane left. “Now she can get a lesson on healing herself.”

  Nathan’s anger boiled to the brim. His knuckles cracked from the intense pressure of his clenched fists, and he didn’t need to look down to confirm his elbow blades were out. Savage tremors racked his entire body.

  He set his sights on Nika. “You filthy—” His mouth erupted with fangs. “You’re going to pay.”

  Nika’s eyes grew wide. She at least had the intelligence to appear afraid.

  But before Nathan could spring forward, Sagan’s Diamantium dagger bit into his neck. When Nathan tried to step around him, Sagan stood firm.

  “Move out of my way, hunter.” Nathan spat the last word, as if it were the foulest thing he’d ever tasted.

  “No,” said Sagan, his tone void of emotion.

  “If you don’t move out of my way, I will rip your throat out as well as hers.”

  Nika laughed. “Good luck, slith.”

  Sagan’s blade didn’t budge even a hairsbreadth.

  Nathan’s disbelief that Sagan was defending his cousin rooted him in place even more than the knife. Clearly it didn’t take much for an ex-hunter to revert back to their cold-blooded ways. Nathan took half a step, but Sagan’s dagger pressed deeper into his neck.

  It took everything in Nathan’s power not to unleash his attack on Sagan. He released a guttural growl. “Violet said . . . she scented . . .”

  “I know,” said Sagan in a voice low enough only Nathan could hear. “I know what cinnamon means.”

  Nathan’s rage faltered. Tearing his murderous gaze away from Nika for the first time, he saw the icy savagery behind Sagan’s calm facade.

  “Leave her to me,” said Sagan.

  Nika scoffed. “Seriously? What’s the big deal? I thought we were here to train her.”

  Nathan’s anger flared again, but he reined it in when he read the pleading message in Sagan’s eyes. With a slight dip of his head, Nathan took a step back.

  Sagan turned to his cousin.

  “Aw, come on, cuz.” Nika rolled her eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do anything that wasn’t done to us in our training. That was nothing compared to what your father put you through.”

  “You are not my father,” said Sagan, the words slow and deliberate, “and Violet is not me.”

  “Gee, Einstein, thanks for clearing that up for me. This whole time I’ve been so confused.” Nika’s laugh was without humor. “Lighten up. She has to learn.”

  “Yes. She has to learn how to become a shifter. Not a hunter.”

  “Well, duh! But if Violet’s going to stand any kind of chance against a hunter, then it’s best—”

  Sagan sprang forward into Nika’s face. “You don’t get to make those decisions,” he hissed, a slight tremor in his voice. “You don’t know the first thing about what’s best for Violet.”

  Nika’s smirk wavered. “But . . . she needs to learn. She’s . . . just a slith.”

  “She’s more than you’ll ever know.” Sagan’s back was ramrod straight, his neck and shoulders tense. Raw emotion glittered behind his icy eyes.

  Nika’s
bewildered expression melted, leaving behind cold granite. “Don’t tell me you’re choosing her over me.”

  Sagan gave a sharp shake of his head. “Of course not. You’re my cousin. But you crossed the line, Nika. You can’t let it happen again.”

  “Oh, really?” Nika put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “And what if it does? What are you going to do about it, huh? Are you going to punish me like Grandpa?”

  “No. But if you hurt Violet like that again—”

  “You’ll what?” The challenge in her eyes was lethal.

  A second passed. Then, with one swift move, Sagan grabbed hold of Nika’s amulet and slammed the handle of his dagger onto the decorative face. The crack of glass rang out into the night.

  Nika let out a shrill cry, her eyes wide with horror, as liquid dripped from the amulet in Sagan’s hand and pooled onto the ground. Four colors—silver, teal, magenta, and orange—merged into a small puddle between their feet.

  “There’s a reason we left the hunters. It’s best you remember that,” said Sagan.

  Nika looked back up at him, her expression unreadable. Then she yanked her amulet from his hand and stormed off into the night.

  17

  Speaking of Hurling

  Violet had only a hazy, distant awareness that someone was carrying her. Lights flashed past her half-open eyes, and it took her brain a moment to register that they were fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling of a hallway. Who had her? Where were they taking her?

  She groaned. And why did she feel as though she’d just come out of a blender?

  “It’s okay, Violet. We’re nearly there.”

  The molten heat that had been burning in her gut lately turned to ice when she recognized that voice.

  “Put me down,” she demanded.

  “I’m taking you to Dawn,” said Thane.

  “I don’t care. Put me down now.”

  “Ten more feet.”

  “I said now.” Violet tried to buck out of his arms, then immediately regretted it when stabbing pains shot up both her sides and all along her back. The sudden pain shocked her so much that she sucked in a sharp breath and held it until the agony subsided.

  All the while, Thane’s grip around her remained solid. “Three more steps and the doc will have you taken care of.”

  A muffled groan was all Violet could manage in reply. She hated the soothing effect his voice still had on her, even now—but that was nothing compared to the chagrin she felt when she realized how tightly she’d been clutching his shirt. Her surge of disgust as she removed her hands almost muted the physical pain.

  “We need some help here,” Thane called out.

  Violet caught sight of Gus’s and Dawn’s shocked expressions as Thane set her down on a stretcher bed.

  “Violet? What happened?” Dawn rushed over and immediately began assessing Violet’s condition.

  Gus set his sights on Thane. “What did you do?”

  Thane gaped at him for a moment. Then his eyes narrowed, and his hands balled into fists. “I didn’t do this,” he said, his voice dangerously low.

  For several seconds, he and Gus had a staring showdown.

  Violet decided she’d better intervene before Gus became pulp at the end of Thane’s fist. “I’m okay, Gus.”

  Gus just shook his head before stepping around Thane to help his mother.

  Several Steri-Strips, a bottle of medical glue, and a mountain of dirty swabs later, Violet gingerly slid off the stretcher. She was going to have some epic bruising in the morning. “Thanks, Dawn,” she said, wincing slightly as Dawn helped her back into her shirt.

  Thane had stepped behind the curtain divider when Dawn asked Violet to undress so she could assess the damage to her torso. But Violet was certain he hadn’t left altogether. Her suspicion was confirmed when Dawn pushed back the curtain to reveal Thane hunched over in a chair by the door, his forearms resting on his knees. Patches of teal blood were still evident on his shirt, even after Gus had addressed Thane’s cuts.

  Gus handed Violet a small vial of some funky-looking liquid. “Before you turn up your nose, this is a Veniri painkiller I’ve concocted.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, I, uh . . .” He donned a sheepish expression. “I’ve had a few chats with Nathan, and I figured if Mom can develop a formula specifically for Veniri babies, I ought to be able to come up with some Veniri painkillers. Especially since Nathan told me that most human—or rather, Erathi—medication is useless for shifters.”

  Dawn patted her son’s shoulder, pride evident in her beaming smile.

  Violet took the vial, but she couldn’t stop her face from screwing up once she caught a whiff of the rancid odor.

  “I’ve made sure to use nothing that would be harmful to a Veniri.”

  “What about a Magneii?” Thane asked.

  Gus swiveled, almost as if he’d forgotten Thane was there. “Uh, actually”—he rubbed the back of his neck—“I’m not one-hundred-percent sure on the details of the Magneii shifters yet. I’ll admit, it might need a little tweaking.”

  “She shouldn’t need it,” interjected Thane. “Compared to the Erathi, the Veniri and the Magneii have accelerated healing abilities. Granted, it can be painful, but give her a day or two, and she’ll be back to one hundred percent. That’s if Nathan and Sagan don’t stand by and let her get an ass-kicking again.”

  Violet opened her mouth to retort, but Thane was already throwing more questions at Gus.

  “How do you know that stuff won’t cause more damage? Who have you tested it on?”

  Gus winced and cleared his throat. “I, uh, haven’t tested it on anybody.”

  Thane’s jaw dropped open. “And you expect Violet—”

  “It’s okay, Gus. I trust you.” Violet gave her friend a reassuring smile. Then, before she or anyone else could talk her out of it, she chugged down the contents of the vial. The taste was a thousand times worse than the smell, but Violet forced her gag reflex into submission. Even so, she couldn’t help grimacing.

  Thane’s expression and body went rigid—with fury or concern, Violet wasn’t quite sure. She’d be able to figure it out with a lash of her tongue, but when it came to Thane, knowing his emotions felt a little too . . . intimate.

  “Thanks for the painkillers, Gus. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

  “Actually, before you go, I need to talk to you about . . . um . . .” Gus shot Thane a sidelong glance.

  Thane huffed out a small breath. “I’ll wait out in the hall.”

  Only after Dawn closed the door behind Thane did Gus say, “I think I may have figured out how you became a hybrid shifter.”

  Violet’s eyes bugged. “How?”

  “Well, I’ve been working on this theory. To be a shifter, you have to either be born one or be bitten by one. Right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Clearly you weren’t born one. So that leaves the shifter bite.”

  Violet frowned. “But if a shifter bites a human, doesn’t the human generally die?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And I have two shifter abilities. To go along with your biting theory, I would have to have been bitten by two different shifters.”

  Gus grinned. “Exactly. Not one but two bites.”

  Violet blinked several times. “I think you lost me.”

  Gus reached over and gently held up Violet’s arm. “At first I thought that blonde Magneii injured you with her flames.” He pointed to the scarring on her forearm that looked like an acid burn. “But I had a closer look when I was replacing the bandages. She bit you, didn’t she?”

  Flashbacks of that day flickered through Violet’s mind as she stared at the raised flesh. “No way.” Her words were barely a whisper. In the chaos of the fight, waking up from a coma, then dealing with the aftermath of losing Solace—as well as Skye and Cruz—some of the finer details had become blurry. It made her feel stupid now that she was thinking about it. That day was the only time she’d e
ver encountered the Magneii, so of course that was when she’d contracted her shifter abilities.

  “But I’ve never been bitten by a Veniri, so that doesn’t explain that side of things. Or why I’m not dead.”

  Gus held up her other hand.

  Violet’s mouth dropped open, and she stumbled a step back. It had been staring at her this whole time. She had been bitten by a Veniri, by her own daughter.

  “My theory is,” said Gus, “the reason you didn’t die when Solace bit you is because half of her DNA is yours. But I think her bite still affected you. Do you remember when you had that cold for weeks after she was born? What if it wasn’t a cold? What if her bite somehow changed you? What if she gave you Veniri abilities, and those abilities were dormant until the day a Magneii bit you?”

  Silence flooded the room for a few heartbeats. Violet brushed her fingers over the small Veniri bite mark between her thumb and forefinger, then looked over at Dawn, who had been quiet the whole time. “Is it possible?”

  Dawn nodded. “I certainly believe Gus’s theory is plausible. I even convinced all three mothers down the hall to get their blood tested. Of the three mothers, two confirmed that they had been bitten by their children. Those two also went through a phase where they thought they had a bad cold, and when we compared their blood to the blood we took from you before the Magneii attack, we found some similar anomalies. It’s likely they’ve also developed Veniri abilities, but those abilities are currently dormant.”

  “So those mothers will one day be like me?” Violet asked.

  “Perhaps,” said Dawn. “Perhaps not.”

  “The only way to test it would be to have a shifter from another race bite them,” said Gus. “They’d likely become dual shifters, like you.”

  “Okay . . . so if we don’t die from a bite from our own children, how is it I survived the second bite?”

  “That’s where my theory gets a little hazy,” admitted Gus. “Maybe the bite from Solace somehow protected you. Or maybe, statistically speaking, you’re one of the rare lucky ones who can survive a shifter bite.”