“I love you, Mikjáll.”
The male struggled in my hold, his eyes glassy and his face red as he attempted to shout through a closed mouth.
“Good girl.” I flicked my wrist and hurled her through the air toward one of the largest outer stones. Her head connected with the rock and the crunch of her skull was loud enough for both of us to hear. She fell to the ground at the base of the rock, leaving a trail of blood dripping down the face of it. It was a waste of a woman, but I needed both my hands to deal with … Mikjáll. That’s what she’d called him.
The male screamed in his throat and struggled against my hold and the cuffs, but it was no use and I grew bored.
“It was either dead now, or raped now and dead later. So shut the hell up. We have a bit of a trek to find your long-lost family.”
He roared again, his rage coming through in the burning flames of his orange irises. Were it not for the collar around his neck and my hold on his magick, I’d be no more than a pile of ash on the forest floor.
I sliced my palm, then his, and placed them both against the altar stone simultaneously. We crossed through the gate and I released his mouth so he could speak.
“You fucking bastard!” He roared, still struggling against the paralyzing hold my magick had over him. “I’ll kill you.”
“I highly doubt that. Many have tried and none have succeeded in so many millennia, I’ve lost count.” I studied him carefully. “How old are you, Drakonae?”
He spat at me, but I sidestepped before it could connect with my linen tunic.
“You don’t look very old, but I know it’s deceiving. Why did the Incantis let a Blackmoor live?”
“I’m Mikjáll Halldór. I have no Drakonae family. What do you want with me?”
“You were named and raised with Elvin.” I stepped closer. “How. Old. Are. You?” I squeezed my hand, which in turn squeezed his ribs. I heard two snap under the pressure and he grimaced, fighting through the pain without crying out.
“I am nearly a thousand years. What does it matter to you?” He spat back at me, through his desperate pants for air.
“It will matter to your mother,” I answered quietly, relishing the shocked look on his face.
“My mother died.”
I shook my head. “Alive and well. And if I know anything about Drakonae physiology, she will feel you coming miles away.” I smiled. “And she would do anything to get you back, making you the perfect bait.”
Chapter 40
ELI
Thunder shook the Castle. I carefully slipped out of the bed, unwrapping Diana’s arm from my chest. I didn’t want to leave her, but something wasn’t right. We were back in Miles’ room and the heavy curtains in front of his windows blocked out everything. I pulled them back and scanned the horizon. Menacing, black, cumulus clouds blanketed the sky, uncommon so late in the season. Lightning flashed on the horizon—angry jagged white streaks.
I’d smelled the storm earlier and I’d felt the presence of something nearing, but my dick had overtaken my common sense and I’d ignored the warnings my dragon had been prodding me with all evening. It was morning and whatever was coming, we’d now have to face. Whatever it was, it pulled at me strangely. Similar to the bond I shared with Diana, but weaker.
“You can feel it too, can’t you?” Miles’ voice rumbled from the bed behind me.
I nodded, still watching the approaching storm. The wind was picking up, tossing dead leaves through the air and dashing them back against the cold ground with the fury of a wrathful predator.
“I don’t recognize it,” I answered softly, looking over my shoulder.
“I do.” Diana sat up in bed and darted to the window. “He’s here. How could he be here?”
“Who?” I asked, stepping back to allow her access to the window.
“My son. I can remember feeling this bond in the Veil, but I couldn’t feel it after I left. It’s different than our mate bond.”
“It’s a familial bond. More like a sixth sense,” Miles stated, climbing from the bed. “It’s been so many years since I felt one other than yours, Eli. I’d forgotten what it was.”
I turned toward my brother. He was right. I vaguely remembered being able to sense when our mother and fathers were nearby. If we could feel a family member, that meant the baby was indeed ours. I took a deep breath and frowned.
Miles nodded.
He knew as well as I that the only way our son would’ve made it through the gate was via Xerxes. Leif and Kevan, if they still ruled, would never have let him out of the Veil alive.
Diana ran across the room and disappeared into the bathroom. I heard the closet door open and close several times.
“Diana,” Miles growled, pulling on a pair of jeans from the floor. “Wait, you can’t just go out and look around. We have protocols to follow.”
I grabbed my jeans from the floor and shrugged them on as I half-hopped to the bathroom door. She was at one of the sinks brushing out her mussed hair, fully dressed in a purple silk skirt and a white silk tunic. Both were beautiful on her and were exactly her style—feminine and flowing. Except when she was in a fighting mood. Then she wore leather and armor like the fiercest of warriors. I wonder if Calliope had found any of that for her, she’d certainly nailed her everyday look perfectly.
“What are you going to do? You don’t know what he looks like … or his name? What if he’s working with Xerxes?”
She turned toward me, her eyes glowing white for a split second before she pushed her dragon back down. “I have to do something, Eli. He’s here. I can feel him and it’s tearing at my heart.”
Her eyes were glassy with tears, and I felt a piece of my heart break for her. This whole thing didn’t feel right. We couldn’t lose her, not now. Not after everything. But we couldn’t abandon our child, either. She was right again—as usual.
“We have to do this together, Diana. Promise me you’ll wait for Miles and me to go with you.”
“Let’s go then,” she snapped back, slipping between me and the doorframe.
I huffed and turned around. Miles was standing in front of the bedroom door blocking her way.
A shrill ring sounded through the room, coming from the nightstand where Miles’ phone lay.
“Wait, Diana!” he bellowed, moving toward the phone.
She was shaking her head. “Something is wrong. I can feel it.”
I lunged, but she was quicker than I was and slipped out before I could grab her.
“Miles,” I growled, throwing open the door again and running after her down the long hallway. The front door would slow her down, but not more than a few seconds.
“Rose says Xerxes is close! It’s a trap!” Miles’ voice shouted from the bedroom. “Stop her!”
I’m fucking trying.
I leapt down the last half of the stairway to the entry of the Castle. The beam that barred the heavy double doors lay tossed to the side on the marble floor and one of the doors had been pushed open.
No. No. No.
Miles’ heavy footsteps were right behind me. I stumbled out the door and looked up and down the street.
“Where is she?” He stopped a few feet in front of me, looking back and forth.
I shook my head. She was gone. Someone had taken her.
The door of Calliope’s shop opened across the circle and she came flying toward us. “Djinn! There was a Djinn!” Her voice didn’t carry across the circle in the violent wind, but I could read her lips.
“Stubborn woman!” Miles roared.
The cafe door opened and Rose came out, followed by several colorful pixies. They all ran toward us.
I just stood still, unable to believe we’d lost her again so quickly. The cold wind whipped my loose hair into my face and I looked down at the pavement.
The end was coming. If he killed her, the whole town would be a pile of ash before the sun rose again in the morning. If Rose killed us now, Xerxes would still get what he wanted.
; Fuck.
Chapter 41
DIANA
I hit the ground, my stomach heaving from whatever it was that man had done. One second I’d been stepping out of the front door of the fortress in Sanctuary, and now I was in the middle of a grassy field … It was still close. The air smelled the same and I could hear the thunder from the building storm. The clouds were dark above me and I felt a stray drop of rain hit the back of my neck.
We couldn’t be more than a half-hour’s walk from the town. That man had been waiting for me. Dark skin, curly black hair, and lavender eyes. Damn Djinn. I gathered my wits and my stomach and stood.
He was right there in front of me. I raised my hands to blast him with ice, but he disappeared and I only froze the ground where he’d been standing.
“Where the bloody hell is my son?!” I spun around and came face-to-face with the man I’d stolen the knife from in the Veil. Behind him was a man in irons, beaten and bloodied. He had the same features as my husbands and the bond between us thrummed to life with our close proximity. My dragon roared and I didn’t stop her.
My body began to shift immediately.
The stranger lifted his hand as if to grab me but nothing happened. My hands became white claws and my body changed until I stared down at him through my dragon’s eyes. I could see his heart beating and smell his fear.
I opened my mouth to speak, but only an infuriated roar bellowed forth. He backed up a step, took out a dagger and held it over my son’s heart.
The Djinn flashed back into view from the corner of my eye and I whipped my tail around, missing him by inches when he teleported away again. Swinging my face back around to the object of my anger, I lowered my face carefully until it was level with his. My breath was freezing cold and ice was forming on the ends of his long reddish brown hair.
“I won’t die if you freeze me, but he will if I put this dragon-steel blade through his heart. Will you sentence your son to death, Diana?”
I snarled, looking from his calculated black eyes to the brown ones of my son. His eyebrows had risen in surprise. He hadn’t known I was his mother. How could he? I hadn’t seen him since the day that servant spirited him away after I pushed him from my body.
“It’s you I want. Change back and take his place. I’ll let him go.”
My dragon shuddered. We both wanted to save him, but remembered the other people back in that town. They were counting on me. They were counting on Miles and Eli to protect them. But I couldn’t do nothing. I couldn’t watch him murder my son.
“No,” my son shouted and grabbed the man’s hand, driving the knife deep into his chest. “I won’t let him kill you.” He looked right at me. “At least I got to see you once.”
I screamed. The sound out of my dragon’s throat was terrifying and shook the ground around us. Blood poured from my son’s chest.
I lunged at the other man, one of my white claws sliced across the front of his chest, but he threw my son at my head and backed away before I could lunge at him again. The Djinn appeared behind him and they were both gone a moment later.
I turned around and around, waiting for him to come back. If I shifted back now and they reappeared, his magick would work on me. Only as a dragon was I impervious to all magick.
I looked down at my son, lying close to one of my large claws. Nuzzling his arm, I huffed and whined. The only thing I wanted to do was cradle him in my arms and tell him how much I loved him.
He lifted his cuffed wrists and stroked the tip of my nose. “Y-you are b-beautiful. I d-didn’t know my m-mother was an ice-b-breather,” he said, choking on blood as he forced the words out.
A large shadow floated over my head and the familiar scream of a dragon sounded over the meadow. Another was close behind him. My mates had come.
I pushed back my dragon immediately, shifting to human form within seconds.
“Please, fight. I can’t lose you again. I don’t even know your name, my sweet boy.” I leaned over his body, running my hands over the swollen flesh of his beaten face. His arms were black and blue. Several places were swollen to twice the size they should’ve been. I knew they were broken and then I knew how painful it had been for him to reach up and touch me before.
Tears poured down my cheeks. I caught them in the palm of my hand and smeared them over his skin. They would aid in healing him faster. Then I dipped my head and breathed softly over the wound on his chest. Ice crystals formed on his tattered tunic, but the flow of blood did come to a stop.
“L-let me d-die. He stole my w-wife from m-me.”
My heart broke again at his words, but I refused to let him go. He was my son and he deserved another chance.
“No. You are my precious son. The boy who was taken from me before I could look upon your face.”
“I am a grown man. I’ve lived a thousand years without you.”
“Then why did you almost sacrifice your life for me?”
He paused and looked up at the sky. Miles and Eli were still circling above us.
“I couldn’t let him take you. He was an evil man.”
I covered my mouth to try and stifle a sob. I’d been through so much in my life and yet, this man had driven a blade into his chest, narrowly missing his heart to save me from an enemy I barely knew. From a fate he considered worse than his own death.
“My name is Mikjáll,” he added.
I rolled the name off my tongue. Mikjáll. It was Elvin, and a beautiful, strong name. “You cannot take your vengeance for your lost wife if you are dead, Mikjáll.” I shook my head. “You are a prince of the Veil. Your birthright one day will be the throne of Orin.”
He took a deeper breath and looked directly at me. “I am only Mikjáll, son of a weaver. I know nothing of ruling, nor do I want to.”
“You are my son and the son of Miles and Eli, House of Blackmoor. You will be a king one day. Never say you are no one. You have a destiny. And it is not to die in this field of grass.”
I stood, pulling him up as I rose. Then maneuvered my much smaller frame beneath one of his shoulders. Even with my small size, I still had more strength than most other supernatural beings.
Miles and Eli swooped low, circling closely as I helped Mikjáll back into town, one painful limping step at a time. He would heal completely, but it would take time. The dragon-steel cuffs and collar weren’t helping, but at least my breath and tears combined had healed his chest wound enough to stop his blood from gushing.
Once in sight of the town, all manner of people rushed forward and helped me move him quickly through the strange, blue barrier that surrounded the town. The woman I knew as Rose stood off to the side. Her gaze dark and enraged, but the rest of the people swarming around me appeared genuinely concerned about my son’s well-being.
I felt the ground shiver as Miles and Eli landed a few yards away. The huge black dragons galloped along several hundred feet before they began to shift back into human form. They never stopped running and reached my side within moments.
“Why didn’t you listen?” Eli roared. “We told you to stop. To wait for us!”
“I couldn’t leave him. He needed me.”
“He’s a grown man!” Miles shouted. “A dragon nonetheless.”
“So. Am. I,” I snarled, handing off my son to a male vampire standing next to me. And then she turned to face my husbands’ wrath. “I am Drakonae royalty. A mother. And a wife. He is my son!”
“She didn’t shift back,” Mikjáll coughed out, hanging onto the vampire’s shoulder. “If you hadn’t come, she would have let me die. She didn’t give him a chance to take her.”
Miles’ eyes flashed orange and he growled at Mikjáll. “She did give him a chance. He’s Lamassu. She endangered everyone by going after you alone.”
Calliope stepped forward, attempting to mediate the situation. It was brave, but mostly foolish. “Look, he’s gone for now and the rain will be here any minute. Could we please all get inside and argue under a roof? Or maybe just quit argu
ing and be ecstatic that you’re safe and this new, dragon hunk will be okay.”
“You’re a siren. Why do you care if you get wet? Don’t call him a hunk. He’s my son,” Miles snapped back at her.
“Now he’s your son, too, huh? Back off, pal,” Calliope growled, her painted red nails turning black and lengthening into razor-sharp claws. “Just because you forgot how hard it is to keep up with an independent woman doesn’t mean you get an asshole pass with me. Plus there are more Djinn around here making me pissy.”
“Hannah and Meredith can’t hold the wards much longer,” Rose said slowly, her voice even and calm—almost cold. “The Lycan scouts say there are no human troops nearby, but I can feel the presence of dozens of Djinn hopping from one side to the other. This isn’t over.”
“What happens when the wards fall?” I asked.
“The Djinn can teleport inside the town. Right now they have to walk through the barrier just like us,” Rose answered. “We need you three … now four back inside the Castle protecting the Sisters.”
I knew why the Sisters were so valued now. I felt the smallest amount of guilt for putting them in danger. Had he been able to kill me, Miles and Eli would have razed the town once their souls faded away. Everything would have been lost because of my actions.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” Rose unfolded her arms and sighed. “He was your child. I know what that feels like, but if we lose one of the Sisters to Xerxes, you won’t be the only parent to lose a child.
“Could you all stop talking about me like I’m an infant,” Mikjáll said, trying to stand taller next to the giant, Nordic-looking vampire.
Miles and Eli took him from the vampire, wrapping his arms around both of their necks.
“Let’s get moving,” Miles bellowed.
I watched my husbands on either side of Mikjáll and sighed. I’d nearly lost everything today. Instead, the gods had favored my plight and spared my family any further loss.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 46