I snarled at the mention of his name. Even Rose’s fangs descended and she tensed, anger breaking through her smooth veneer. The others around us tensed in response and stepped closer to Eira.
“What business do you have with that man?” Rose snapped.
Erick, Bailey, and Sita crouched, ready to react to the slightest provocation. Even easy-going Calliope had inky black eyes and her razor-sharp claws extended.
The female vampire’s shoulders squared instead of shrinking in fear. She definitely didn’t intimidate easily. Which meant one of two things—she was old or stupid. I didn’t think it was the latter.
“I don’t have any business with him, all right? No need to tear off my head. He’s a thorn in the Mason pack’s side. He’s come close to catching us before. Well, not actually him. I should say his soldiers.”
“The Djinn?” I asked calmly. “I wouldn’t call them soldiers.”
She whirled back to face me. “No, the soldiers. You know he practically owns the SECR, right? Give him a few more years and he’ll own the Washington Republic.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why did you think his soldiers were Djinn? They would be killed on sight if found in the ranks of the SECR.”
“Because we’ve been fighting them for centuries. The Djinn are his lackeys. The entire race does his bidding.” Rose loosened her stance and withdrew her fangs. She motioned to the others to stand down.
“Not all of them. One of them owes me and she helps keep us ahead of Xerxes when she can. We know most of the big moves inside the armies patrolling the SECR before they happen. She’s helped us get a lot of supernaturals out safely.” Eira pointed to the Castle. “We can exchange war stories later. Right now, I would like to make sure my little ice dragon is safe and sound like you and your twin promised.”
I glanced to Rose. She nodded and turned away.
I started walking toward the Castle and the rest of the group followed Rose into the cafe. The petite vampire fell into stride next to me, though she had to take two steps for each of mine just to keep up. Her long, brown ponytail swished back and forth over the guard of the sword strapped to her back. It reminded me of the blades the Elvin masters used to make. The hilt was wrapped in a turquoise cloth and had an old, Norse emblem affixed to the end.
“I’ve been here a couple of times before. Bought some clothes from the siren, Calliope. Damn … I didn’t know her game face was that scary.”
I glanced over at her and sighed. Chit-chatting was not on my agenda.
“Never visited the Castle, though. Calliope invited me last time I came to town, but I’m not really into kink.” She growled low in her throat. “You’re not going to talk to me, are you? Just tell me one thing. If Diana is so important to you and your brother, why didn’t the both of you come looking for her instead of sending those two Lycans?”
My temper simmered just below a boil and it took everything I had to keep from turning and snarling in her face. Instead, I calmly answered her.
“You don’t know a damn thing about this town or my brother and me. We have no interest in educating you, either. We’re eternally grateful for your care of Diana. I know you wish to watch over her, but there’s really no need for you to stay. I’m sure your Lycan friends in Ada miss you.”
She chuckled. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy. My Lycan friends are chilling in Ada for the rest of the winter. We won’t make another trip east until spring. So I’m all yours.”
I rolled my eyes. Great. We approached the front door of the Castle. I pushed it open and stood aside for her to pass.
“Nothing’s going to eat me inside here, right?” she asked, stepping into the dimly lit foyer and glancing around nervously.
I couldn’t help the chuckle that rolled up from my chest. “That, Eira, is entirely up to you.”
She whirled around and frowned. “I told you I wasn’t interested in this stuff. I’m too old and set in my ways. I quite prefer my rolls in the hay to be unrestricted and without rules to follow, or chains.”
I lifted my hands in mock surrender. “As I stated, the Castle is open to your exploration. However, our personal wing is off limits without my or my brother’s supervision.”
“I suppose that’s where you’ve stashed Diana?” She crossed her arms and took a quick glance around.
The stairways on either side of her led to the public second floor. Farther back in the building, the Sisters had their own private quarters, below ours. Another added layer of protection we’d devised when designing the place. It was full of secret rooms and magical components.
“She is,” I finally answered. “You will have full access to the public areas of the Castle. But there are more people here that require their privacy than not, so please be discreet when exploring.”
“I don’t want to explore, you big oak tree. I want to sit next to Diana’s bedside. I’ll sleep on the floor. I don’t care, but she’s under my protection.”
“She’s my mate, vampire!” I roared, walking past her. Several wisps of white figures flitted past outside in the courtyard and through the adjoining halls. The Sisters knew to avoid an angry dragon. This crazy vampire didn’t.
“Eira, my name is Eira. Not vampire.” She corrected me, her voice riding an even keel.
Frustration burned through my body. By all the gods! This woman just wouldn’t leave it be.
“She’s my responsibility,” she continued. “I saved her life. The Mason pack kept her out of the soldiers’ hands. You should be grateful, not harping at me about where I can walk.”
“Harping!” I growled. “I’ll introduce you to a harpy if you want to see some harping. Of course we’re grateful, but you’re not a Lycan. Quit acting like they’re your pack. What’s a vampire even doing with a wolf pack? Plus, Diana wanted to come to us. Our mate bond is a homing beacon.”
“First of all, I seem to remember Lycans being the ones helping you out. Weren’t they called Travis and Garrett? And I saw a few vampires in your welcoming party, though no one introduced me. So I’d say they coexist pretty damn well when the need arises.”
I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. Being surrounded by women day in and day out, I should’ve known better. But the Sisters didn’t require a lot of our attention. In fact, other than overseeing the pixies who monitored the club dungeon, we rarely conversed with them. Maybe I didn’t get as much practice as I thought. My brother and I were quite the shut-in reclusive bachelors, except for our jaunts in the club with visitors from time to time. It wasn’t my fault Eira Rennir didn’t get the red carpet treatment. She’d arrived with my wife nearly dead.
I rolled my neck, cracking a few vertebrae. How on earth was I going to stand being around this know-it-all-pain-in-the-ass? Here comes more. Sure enough, her mouth opened again and started slapping me worse than the sting of my childhood tutor’s cane on my knuckles.
“Second, I couldn’t care less that she was being drawn to you. She doesn’t remember who you are and the both of you look primed and ready to jump her bones. And by the way, she’s in a heat of some sort and I’ve been keeping her from humping every male that crossed her path for the last three weeks.” Her footsteps stopped, and suddenly she was no longer walking beside me.
I stopped and turned around. She was standing in the middle of the dim hallway. Her black leather clothes blending into the shadows, but her blue eyes sparked angrily.
“We can take care of her. We don’t need you to do it for us,” I roared. Heat rolled off me in waves and even Miss nothing-phases-me grimaced as the blast hit her face.
“Maybe not, but I doubt it,” she replied, her voice still calm. “The Diana you remember isn’t the woman your brother carried off the bus a few minutes ago. She doesn’t remember anything about either of you. I,” she pointed to herself, “have been with her for the last three weeks. Who do you think she’ll feel more comfortable waking up to? Two horny, big-ass dragon-shifters from her cloudy dreams or a familiar face?”
My blo
od ran cold.
No memory … of us?
I vaguely recalled Eira mentioning it just minutes ago, but my adrenaline-filled brain hadn’t registered exactly how much she’d forgotten. Though not remembering you’re a dragon and shifting in front of humans should’ve been a clue.
“Didn’t you hear me earlier?”
“Shut up!”
She hissed.
My dragon roared again, this time shaking the walls of the Castle. My vision changed for a second and I knew my eyes had blazed flame orange. I pushed the angry reptile down and shuddered, a sick feeling growing in my stomach. My brother didn’t know any of this yet.
“Please, just shut up and follow me.” I didn’t wait for an answer. I just turned and continued down the hallway to the wing of the Castle that housed my brother’s and my living quarters. She could either follow or not. I didn’t care.
A few moments later, I heard her light footsteps behind me.
Chapter 19
XERXES
An annoying rap at the door roused me from sleep. I pushed Lily’s arm off my chest and nudged Iris and Roshanna’s sleeping forms away from my legs.
“What?” I hollered across the vast bedroom suite, really not interested in leaving my soft bed unless necessary. My three girls had done an excellent job last night of taking my mind off the fact that Diana Blackmoor had slipped through my fingers, yet again. The last task force had been found weeks ago. Some of the soldiers had been slaughtered by those damn Mason wolves, while the rest were reported to have been flash-frozen. Fucking ice dragon.
“Mandana Farrok has requested your presence in the great hall.”
Cyrus’ daughter. Finally. That bitch had a tendency to fall off the map for months before reappearing in the palace with a report. I only gave her the freedom she had because she was somehow able to gather good information on the supernatural movements in the former U.S. She wasn’t stupid. The woman led the Djinn race the entire time her father was imprisoned. That’s why I didn’t yank too hard on the leash.
If any Djinn presented a threat to my overall plans, it was her. Especially after her father lost his temper and killed the husband she’d taken in his absence. She hadn’t spoken to Cyrus face-to-face since.
Manda, as she preferred to be called now, was a master of disguise and blended exceptionally well into the human population. She was also one of my most valuable assets within the SECR government. I’d worked diligently, made payoffs, and coerced just the right people to get her high into their ranks. She now held the position of Director of Defense. Nothing happened in that republic that I didn’t know about well in advance.
It still hadn’t helped me catch Diana. How a lost dragon in heat managed to avoid detection across several thousand miles of government monitored country astounded me.
I grabbed my watch from the table next to the bed and glanced at the time. Almost noon. The women on the bed stirred briefly before climbing over each other to get to the floor first. All three were prostrate before me in moments and I smiled.
“Find me something to wear and have some light food readied to serve outside.” I pointed to the dining area outside my suite. “Ten minutes. Then have Ms. Farrok escorted in to dine with me.”
The three slave girls fled from their positions on the floor as if I’d lit them on fire. One returned a moment later with a white linen set of clothing, soft and comfortable. Exactly what I preferred to wear when staying at the palace. I had no reason to venture into the chaos of the outside world unless Manda brought me news of the missing Drakonae female.
I slipped into the clothes, choosing to remain barefoot. Iris followed me to the table in the sunroom and poured a glass of cold water, adding several fresh slices of lemon. She set a bottle of my favorite red wine, already opened to breathe, in the center of the table with two goblets. Only a few minutes later, Roshanna appeared with two large trays of cold fruit, cheese, bread, and meat.
The blue desert sky was cloudless and the beige landscape stretched to the horizon. The village a few miles from the palace could only be seen from the west side. My suites were on the east. I preferred the sunrise and morning light to the glare of the sunset and blistering afternoon sun.
I used the delicate silver tongs to move a few pieces to my plate and began nibbling on the food. Another few minutes passed before I heard the clip clap of boots on the marble floors of my bedroom suite.
A vision of female perfection stepped from behind the curtains to the veranda area. Manda was what people would call jaw-dropping. High cheekbones and beautiful lavender-gray eyes that made a man’s dick stand at attention. Her long, silky black hair was wasted on a tightly braided bun pulled up at the nape of her neck. She was tall and lithe with legs that stretched for miles. Curvy in just the right places. She wore knee high, leather, high-heeled boots over painted-on black pants. Her blouse was sheer ivory silk beneath a fitted red jacket.
If she hadn’t been Cyrus’ daughter and queen of the Djinn for two-thousand years, I would’ve fucked her the first time I had her alone. As it stood, she was one of the only women who knew I wanted her and relished the fact that I couldn’t force her. At least that’s what she assumed.
Even though she was too proud to truly serve as a slave in all aspects, it was a role her father had taken up graciously when I’d freed him. Cyrus Farrok ruled the Djinn in name alone and I pulled those puppet strings.
She frowned at the spread on the table, but removed her jacket and sat across from me anyway. “I don’t plan to stay. And you know I hate meeting in your suite.”
“Hello to you as well,” I replied, not affronted at all by her curt tone. “I prefer to keep these meetings as private as possible and that means staying in my wing of the palace.”
She snatched a grape from the tray in front of her and popped it between her red satin lips.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Xerxes. I have places to be and people to deal with if you don’t want to hear my report right now.” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs.
“By all means, please share.” I flashed a wide smile and continued with my meal.
“As you already know, both units sent after the Drakonae female failed. I lost some of my best men to her frozen breath and two-ton claws. I didn’t realize how fucking big dragons were until I saw her footprints.”
I nodded. Older Drakonae were the size of small jets and more powerful than any other supernatural, besides me. Unlike other shifting races, the Drakonae dragon continued to grow in size for several millennia, even after the human side was full-grown.
“Did your men manage to kill any of the Mason wolves? Those pain-in-the-ass Lycans are always causing trouble in the SECR.”
“Only two. Wolves are strong, but it’s nothing a few well-placed silver bullets can’t manage. However, this group has a vampire working with them.”
“Vampires do not work with Lycans.” I bit off a piece of soft, smoked cheese. The flavor was excellent and the smooth texture made me want to smile. My girls knew exactly what I liked to eat.
“This one does. There are rumors that she saved Charlotte Mason’s mother. Her name is Eira Rennir. Do you know her?”
Yes and damn it all to hell and back. Another fucking Viking.
Darius, one of my better assassins, had gone and made it personal with one of Rose’s Protectors, Erick Thorson. The Viking warrior had been around for centuries and I’d never been able to kill him. Now he was part of Rose’s little circle of Protectors. As a rule, vampires weren’t that difficult to handle, but when you ran across the really old ones, the fights could get messy. She was just as old as Erick Thorson and just as deadly. Eira was a woman who a man never forgot meeting.
“Yes. I’ve been trying to kill her a long time.”
Manda raised an eyebrow, but didn’t respond.
“Where are the Masons now?”
“Most of them are safely tucked away in what used to be Oklahoma for the winter. They rarely lea
ve the Texas Republic once the cold weather hits around Christmas.” She leaned forward and snagged a piece of pineapple from the tray in front of her.
“And Diana? Is she still with them?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Two wolves showed up from Sanctuary and hauled her off. Eira left with them. I do have to tell you though, Diana was not looking well. My boys got a couple 55-caliber rounds into her gut.”
“Keep your ears open for anything concerning her. She took something of mine that I want back.”
“Did you not hear me? I said she was dying.” Her voice held more arrogance than it should.
I snarled and she flinched in her chair. Not much, but just enough to show that I’d rattled her. “Do not speak to me that way. You may have more freedom than any of the others, but what I give I can take away.”
She narrowed her eyes and stood from her chair. “A threat is always my cue to leave.” Picking up her jacket, she blinked away before I could say another word.
Damn Djinn. If her father hadn’t murdered her husband, she’d be easier to control. But Manda Farrok had nothing to lose.
It was becoming a problem.
Chapter 20
MILES
I ran my hand along her brow, moving a silky tendril of her snowy blond hair from her peaceful face. She was everything I remembered and more. The most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on. The only woman who had ever held my heart, and she still did.
To have her here—lying in my bed, nestled among the scarlet red sheets, breathing, and safe—was like a dream. I don’t think either of us ever really thought the Oracle’s words would come true. Not that we’d given up on Diana. We knew she was still alive; we just had no options left to pursue.
Fate had bound us to Rose for now, but with Diana safely returned to us, the House of Blackmoor would rise again. In time, nothing would stop us from finding a way back through the gate and back to our rightful home.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 33