Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set

by Krystal Shannan

  I didn’t have to run anymore.

  I had a home.

  I had people who wanted me to stick around, no matter what.

  Erick’s phone buzzed on his hip and he paused to answer it. His hand left my waist and I saw Calliope’s name on the screen before something or someone else grabbed me around the waist and wrenched me away from him. Erick’s growl was cut off and the world twisted in front of me and disappeared. My stomach flew to my throat and I felt worse than when I’d had food poisoning for a week.

  In a flash of a millisecond I was somewhere else entirely. The smells in the air were different, the humidity, the altitude, everything. It wasn’t Texas anymore and the man holding me wasn’t Erick.

  It was Darius.

  I screamed and raked my fingers across his face. Blood flowed from the scratches and then everything went red. I could smell the sweetness coating my fingers, feel the energy in it as it ran down his cheeks. My vision changed and every sense I possessed focused on his body and the distinct beating of his heart.

  “You bitch!” he yelled, releasing me and taking a step back. He touched his palm to his bloody cheek. “He turned you, damn vampire. He took my Nadia from me and I’ll take you from him just like I took that bitch of his, Elinor.”

  He shook his head, flipping his long dark hair out of his face. Bright lavender eyes glared at me. I could smell his hate, his anger. It seeped from his skin like cheap cologne.

  His fancy suit was crooked from our struggle. He pulled his tie from his neck and took a step forward this time. The snarl on his face changed to militant determination. Something shiny on his hand caught my eye and I remembered what needed to be done.

  He didn’t get to make me his victim. I would never be in that position again. I’d die first.

  Something akin to a growl or snarl came from my mouth and I lunged, knocking him backward. His head hit the glass window directly behind him, shattering the glass and slicing up his scalp in the process.

  More blood.

  It was everywhere. My desire to feed roared through my veins. His blood smelled so good. I licked my lips and brought my bloodstained fingers to my mouth—dark and rich. I wanted more.

  His foot caught me in the stomach and hurled me backward. I landed on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Pain shot through my stomach, drawing a scream from my throat.

  He leapt on top of me, laughing. “Vampires. Just a little blood and you can’t even see straight.” His hand went to my torso and more pain fired through my body in merciless waves.

  I looked down and saw part of the coffee table’s leg protruding from my right side. Oh, God—Really? Life seemed determined to continue stabbing me in the gut.

  Would I die from this? It missed my heart. Lessons in school said only wood through the heart would kill a vampire. Or beheading.

  Darius’ hand on my breasts snapped me back to the present and I snarled. “Get off of me!”

  “Oh, I have plans for you my sweet. Kevin just thought I was going to let him have you all to himself. Then the little fuck double-crossed me. If your Viking hadn’t killed him, I would have … but much slower and with a great deal more pain.”

  He pushed on the chunk of wood lodged in my side again and tears burned down my cheeks, but I held in the scream, not willing to give him the satisfaction.

  “Tough girl, huh? That’s not how Kevin described you. He said you’d whimper and cry for me.” He pulled a blade from a sheath on his ankle and ran it across my face. The burn was like fire eating at my flesh.

  That scream I couldn’t stop and it rose from my throat like the pained sound of a dying animal. “There, there.” He pulled the knife away and the pain faded. “That’s more like it.”

  “Fuck you,” I hissed between clenched teeth.

  He shoved against the wood in my side again and I groaned as blinding pain traveled through every cell of my body at the speed of light.

  “You think they care about you, little girl. They don’t. Even your Viking only finds you attractive because you remind him of his dead wife. The wife I killed.” His face parted into a sinister grin and fear clawed its way into my heart.

  I refused to believe him.

  “Now I get to take two women from him. Your blood looks just as good painting my floor as Elinor’s did centuries ago.”

  “Why?”

  “Thanks to Erick, your bitch of a Sentinel has my Nadia locked up in her vault. So I took the only thing he cared about in the world. Now I’m going to do it again.”

  There it was. That little slip gave me hope. I was only his target because Erick cared. Whether or not I reminded Erick of his lost wife, the adoration in his eyes and in his voice every time he’d called me kjaere didn’t lie.

  “You. Can’t. Have. Me.” My fangs descended and I grabbed his shoulders, pulling his neck to my mouth. I sank my fangs into his neck and drank deeply. His blood tasted like sweet revenge … and power.

  A lot of power.

  He punched the side of my head, knocking himself free for a moment. But he was no match for me now. His blood strengthened me and my anger pushed me harder. I had vowed never to be a victim again. This asshole was not going to make me break that promise.

  I pushed him to the ground, yanked the hunk of wood from my side and fell on him again, drinking deeply and quickly.

  So much blood.

  So much anger.

  His struggles slowed and soon he was a limp heap beneath me.

  I pulled away, the shock of what I’d done registering in my blood-crazed brain. Had I killed him? No, please don’t be dead. Even as nasty as he was, I didn’t want to kill anyone. Kevin was the only person I’d ever wished death on. Even then, I wasn’t sure I could’ve done it.

  I pushed down the ferocious hunger flaming inside me. My vision went back to normal and I was able to detect a faint pulse within his limp form. Wiping the blood from my chin I glanced around the room.

  It looked like a hotel suite. Nice carpets, plush bed, modern art on the walls. A tray of covered, silver food dishes.

  Standing, I rushed to the table beside the door. A pamphlet lay next to a small bowl of mints. I picked up the paper, hoping for a clue. The Levante Hotel, the secret gem of Austria. Austria? Where the hell was that? Where had he taken me?

  I ran back to his side and slapped his face. “Take me back! You bastard! Take me back.”

  He groaned and his eyes fluttered open for a second. “C-can’t,” he said, his voice gargling in his chest.

  Damn it! His pulse was growing slower by the second.

  I grabbed his right hand and slid the large gold signet ring from his finger and slipped it over my thumb. Then I bit my wrist and held it to his lips.

  “Drink,” I growled. “And take me back to Sanctuary.”

  He turned his head away from my dripping wrist and scoffed. “I w-won’t help y-you, b-bitch.”

  “You will!” I grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket and pulled his face closer to mine. “Take. Me. Home.”

  The world flashed in front of me again and my stomach nearly flew out my open mouth. I wanted to puke so badly. When the earth stopped spinning, I looked around again and sighed in relief.

  We were back.

  The starry sky of Texas was spread above me. The smell of cut grass and oak trees swirled around me. The hint of wildflowers on the soft breeze and the soft glow of the Main Street Circle lamps cast an eerie shadow on Darius’ bloody body. My clothes were unstained, but blood covered my hands, arms, neck, and face. I could feel it. Smell it. It was everywhere.

  “Bailey!” Calliope’s voice called from the dark.

  “Here,” I shouted into the night. We had teleported into the empty, grassy area in the middle of the circle. A few yards away from where the large, stone, stage thing glistened in the moonlight.

  A second later, Erick was dragging me away from Darius and feeling me up and down. “Are you hurt?”

  “I…” Feeling my stomach, I was
shocked to find the wound was already healed. Most of the blood that covered me now was the Djinn’s. “It’s his blood.” I looked down at Darius again. He had a faint pulse, but it was fading rapidly. “He’s going to die. I don’t want to have killed him, Erick … please.”

  “He deserves to die. He’s a miserable being who has done nothing but bring suffering to this world.”

  “Please.” I grabbed Erick’s face in my hands and met his angry blue gaze. “Get Rose to lock him away instead.”

  I could smell and feel his emotions warring inside him. It was several minutes before he relaxed in my grasp and nodded.

  “It shall be as you wish, min kjaereste.”

  “Thank you.” I dropped my bloodstained hands to my sides, suddenly very heavy with the weight of what had just happened. He’d agreed. For me. To let the man who’d murdered his wife centuries ago … live.

  Rose appeared alongside Calliope. They stepped around Darius’ body and hugged me, telling me how thankful they were that I was safe. Several others weren’t far behind them. Soon I was being passed from one person’s arms to the next. Even the dragons, Miles and Eli, weren’t shy about giving me a quick squeeze and a kind word in my ear. By the end of the group hug, tears were running down my cheeks.

  They all cared. Even people I hadn’t met were patting me on the back and saying how grateful they were that Darius wouldn’t terrorize the town again, and how much they appreciated my embracing the role of the fifth Protector.

  Once the crowd had cleared and they’d left the circle, Rose approached me again.

  “It took great strength not to kill the worthless miscreant lying at our feet. I’m very proud of you. Arlea told me you are descended from the D’Roth family. I knew some of your ancestors. They would be proud of the woman you’ve become.” She turned to Erick. “And I am even more proud of you, my strong Viking. I know how much personal pain he has caused you.”

  Calliope, Miles, Eli and several others I didn’t recognize stood a few yards away. Calliope stepped forward next when Rose glanced her way. She held out a small decorative black box with gold and silver inlay. Green jewels sparkled on the edges of the box.

  Rose took it from her and Calliope returned to her place in line with the others. Turning to Erick and me, she spoke again. “He will spend eternity in the vault for his crimes. Death would be too sweet for one so evil.” She traced her fingertips along Erick’s shoulder. “Feed him just enough to start the healing process.”

  Erick nodded. He bit his wrist and knelt at Darius’ side, pressing it into the Djinn’s mouth. Only a few drops and then he pulled away.

  It was enough, though. I could hear Darius’ heartbeat strengthening immediately.

  Rose opened the box and let her head fall back until it looked like she was speaking to the night sky. Strange words came from her lips over and over—sikkaru awil pulhu. She repeated them a dozen times before the little black box glowed bright white. Darius’ body glowed white, too, and then turned to a wisp of radiant, white smoke. His essence flowed slowly into the box. When the last trace of it was inside, Rose snapped the lid shut.

  “Sikkaru.” She said once more and the box, no bigger than her fist, turned black once more.

  Was it over?

  Was he really gone?

  Chapter 17

  “What happened to him?”

  Rose looked up. “Djinn are an interesting species. Because of their ability to dematerialize and teleport, they are vulnerable to being ‘bottled’, so to speak. He will be trapped, suspended in time and space. Unaware that he is inside a box and unaware that time is passing, but still imprisoned and unable to free himself.”

  “How do you keep others from opening the box and letting him out?” Surely she didn’t just plan to put that little box on a shelf somewhere, like a trinket to display.

  “Only a Lamassu can open or close a quppu box.” She turned to face the large, stone disk behind her. At first glance, I had thought it was a round stage. Now I could see it was much more. Rose reached down to touch one of the marks on its edge. All the glyphs around the disk’s rim glowed gold and the stone began to turn. Pieces moved inside it and the middle began to drop, creating a stairwell into the earth. The edge of each stair glowed with the same ethereal, yellow-gold light. “This is Sanctuary’s vault, Bailey. This is what Darius hoped to find, using you as leverage.”

  She stepped over the edge of the main rim and down a couple of stairs. “Come.”

  I glanced up at Erick. He nodded and urged me toward Rose. I stepped over the rim and followed her down the curved, eerily glowing stairwell. We went at least three flights before I stepped into a cavernous room. The ceilings soared to fourteen, maybe even twenty feet high. The walls were stone, carved with amazingly detailed reliefs of dragons and other winged creatures I couldn’t identify. Scenes of battles. Scenes of throne rooms. And at the end of the room, a painting depicted one of the most beautiful cities I could’ve ever imagined.

  “Where is that?” I pointed.

  She smiled and walked to a stack of black boxes very similar to the one she held in her hand.

  “It was my home. The home of my people, Babylon. One of the most beautiful places on earth before its destruction.” Her voice carried pain and longing. Even now, after so many thousands of years, I could tell she still considered that ancient city with a lot of love.

  I glanced around the room a little more. Lamps hung from the ceiling, bathing the entire room in a soft glow. Stacks of those little black boxes were everywhere. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them.

  “Do they all have a Djinn inside them?”

  Rose turned back to me. “Yes.”

  “He said you locked up his wife …”

  She ran her fingertips across another black box. “Yes.” Then walked a few paces and sat on a gilded, high-back chair. “Come, sit with me.”

  I joined her, taking a seat in the chair next to her. When I looked up, the painting directly in front of me was of a terrible battle. Bodies were strewn everywhere. Walls were crumbling. As I looked closer, I saw familiar structures from the painting of Babylon across the room.

  This painting showed the fall of her home. My heart clenched in sympathy for what she must’ve gone through.

  “We are at war, Bailey. A war that started millennia before you were born. So many years have passed, but I can still smell the fire. Feel the slick on the streets as I ran through the spilled blood of my family. Only three of the Sentinels escaped when Babylon fell to the Horde—my husband Naram and his brother Xerxes and myself.”

  She crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. “We didn’t know until much later that Xerxes was the betrayer. Naram and I watched our families and friends die, fighting to give us a chance to escape with the Sisters. They were our responsibility and the crown jewel of the city—the reason it was so great.”

  “Why didn’t they see the war coming?”

  Rose sighed. “They cannot see Lamassu. Our magick supersedes theirs. Anyone we collude with is also shielded.”

  “So the Djinn are working for your brother-in-law?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, why do the Djinn fight for Xerxes?”

  “He freed their king. My race bottled him thousands of years ago. Xerxes let him out.”

  “And after all these years, they still owe him?”

  “Now they fight because they must. Over the centuries, I have decimated their numbers. There are only a few hundred Djinn left. If they hope to survive as a species …” She gestured around the room at the thousands of jeweled black boxes. “Xerxes is the only one in the world besides me who can free their people.”

  I was trying hard to understand it all. “Why does he want the Sisters?”

  “To sire children with them.”

  “Xerxes could have a child with one of them? A son? With powers?”

  “Yes. Not only could he have a son, he could have a Lamassu son with powers of premonition. It could add an
entirely new and powerful ability to our species. The Sisters are the only beings on earth, other than the Lamassu, with whom he could father a child.”

  Meaning Rose and Xerxes were the last of their kind.

  “They look so normal.”

  “Doctors would be unable to tell the difference, so we allow the misinformation to perpetuate. It’s less complicated for everyone.”

  “So they’re not human at all?”

  “No.” Rose sighed. “In fact, humans are not allowed to live in Sanctuary. It’s too dangerous.”

  “But you let me stay.” I gasped. “That’s why Miles and Eli were so upset I was staying with him.”

  She nodded. “I knew who you were. Arlea saw you in a vision the day before Erick arrived with you. I’m sorry, I hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone else beside the pixies and brownies at the café.” Rose met my gaze and I waited for her to go on. “When Erick called from the bus and told me he was bringing you to Sanctuary to stay with him, he was breaking our code. The only human visitors allowed in town are the ones who stay under lock and key at the Castle. They are vetted members of the club and understand that we are very secretive and private.”

  “So he knew I was supposed to be this Protector from almost the very beginning?” Holy shit.

  Rose’s eyes widened. “If you are doubting his affection, don’t. I’ve only seen him care for a woman one other time in his life. Believe me, he would move mountains for you. In fact, he challenged me for your right to walk away if that was your choice.”

  Wow.

  I leaned back in my chair and stared at the wall. My forefinger rolled the signet ring on my thumb. I’d forgotten it was there.

  “You should probably keep this here.” I removed the ring I’d taken from Darius and placed it in Rose’s hand.

  Tears made her eyes glassy, and she closed her fingers around the ring. “You got it back? Thank you.” She got up and walked to a small table a few yards away. A jeweled, silver box sat centered on it. She opened it, kissed the signet ring, and then placed it inside. “I never thought I’d get that piece of him back. When I saw it on Darius’ hand, it was like losing Naram all over again.”