My pussy flexed around Travis’ cock, and another orgasm twisted and writhed inside of me, working its way outward with each thrust of their cocks.
Travis pumped slowly, and Garrett joined him, pulling out in rhythm as Travis thrust in.
I moaned, burying my face in Travis’ chest. They might be upset with my manipulation of the situation, but I was getting what I wanted. A good, hard fuck.
Then, as if he could read my mind—which he couldn’t—Garrett drove deep and hard, speeding his thrusts. Travis matched his pace, and I screamed as the world rushed around me in a brilliant explosion of color. Every muscle in my body contracted at the same time, and I screamed again then growled through the next orgasm and then another. Wave after wave of exquisite, torturous bliss pulled me away from the emotional baggage threatening to drown me.
I flew above it all.
Garrett came first then Travis. A peaceful blanket of exhaustion settled over me. Their hands stroked my body, caressing and rubbing as they moved me to lie between them. Their voices were deep and rolled like the ocean waves of the gulf, lulling me down from the high place they’d sent me.
They had given me what I thought I wanted, but instead turned it into what I didn’t even realized I needed.
Both of them made me whole. Not one or the other. Both.
Each was a piece of my soul that I’d been searching the world for all my life.
But I wouldn’t accept them, not completely. I couldn’t.
It would hurt too much when they were taken. This was as close to heaven as I could allow my heart.
Chapter 21
XERXES
“How many have been dosed with the serum now?” I asked the tech trembling beside me as I perused the screen of his computer.
“Ninety-seven.”
“That’s good. But I need more than that. I’ll tell Manda to send the rest to you. I want them all dosed before the end of the week. Is that clear?” I asked, lowering my voice.
The man didn’t wet himself, but I could tell he was close. Sweat poured from his forehead, running down his temples in rivulets of tortured anxiety. His breathing was rapid and uneven, and his heart rate was all over the place.
“Calm yourself and do your job,” I growled. He was a competent scientist, one of the brightest in the field of molecular biology, but he was one of the most nervous humans I’d ever encountered.
“Yes, sir. I’m just… I might not have enough—”
“I’m not going to kill you as long as you do your job.” I turned and gazed down at him, meeting his muddy brown gaze. “So fucking suck it up and make it happen!”
His head twitched up and down and then to the side a couple of times before he mumbled a “Yes, sir”. Then I stalked out of the room, put my hand against the biometric scanner, and smiled at the sound of the heavy door locking in place behind me.
Two Djinn materialized in the hallway before me. I raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised at their presence. If there were reports, they usually waited for me to get back to my office upstairs.
Both men dropped to one knee, and the closest one spoke. “Sir, forgive the intrusion. There is a group approaching Savannah. We are quite sure it’s the Drakonae and the others from before. And…”
Why the fuck would they come back? Unless… I smiled. Perhaps I would recapture Riza after all.
“And what?” I asked, realizing he’d cut himself short.
“Rose Hilah is with them.”
A shiver slid over my body, causing the hair on every inch of my skin to stand straight up. Rose hadn’t left Sanctuary in over a century. What could possibly have her riled enough to leave her precious town?
The Kitsune?
It had to be. She’d figured out what I was doing and was coming to try and stop me. No fucking chance.
“Put an extra detail on the two Kitsune. I don’t want anyone or anything getting in or out of this house without my permission,” I ordered the closest guard. “Then you,” I said, gesturing to the second guard, “take me to them. I need to speak with her.”
“Yes, sir.”
The first man blinked away, disappearing into a wrinkle of space. I stepped closer to the second Djinn. He reached out and touched my arm; I took a breath before time and space folded around us. The vortex swirled, but I was used to it after so many years of traveling through them. The trip didn’t turn my stomach any longer or disorient me. In fact, I quite looked forward to the rush.
A second later, I was standing on a hillside overlooking a small farmhouse. Magick rippled through the air like static electricity. Rose appeared shortly, stepping out onto the back porch of the house. She blocked the sun with her hand and peered up the hill to where I was standing next to the Djinn at the tree line.
We hadn’t been this close to each other in… thousands of years. She was as heart-stompingly beautiful as the last time I remembered seeing her—shortly after removing my brother from her life. That particular deed would eventually come in handy, but for now, my traitorous asshole of a brother could continue to rot beneath the old city while Rose believed what I wished her to—that her husband, Niram, was dead and gone.
She wasn’t my beloved Cera, but Rose certainly stirred my blood with desire. Unfortunately, Hades itself would freeze over before I got the chance to put Rose in a compromising position, especially when she surrounded herself with the rarest and most powerful supernaturals found on earth.
My magick reaffirmed that the Drakonae son of the Blackmoors did indeed travel with her again. Should’ve killed him the moment I laid eyes on him back in Orin. In addition, she had the bloody Gryphon and Phoenix with her. Not that individually I couldn’t take them, but with all three of those powerful men at her beck and call, she was untouchable, even for me. Our magick didn’t work on each other. If I ever took down Rose Hilah, it would be with a sword forged in Dragon’s Breath. Like the sword that fucking Elvin had stabbed me with weeks earlier.
Death had knocked on my door that day, but since then, I’d become more vigilant. They would not take me by surprise again. Knowing they had the swords made them useless. I would never put myself in a vulnerable position again while the weapons remained outside of my possession. In the meantime, I’d lost nearly a dozen Djinn to recovery efforts. When the warrior I sent only seven days ago also failed to return, I knew Rose was either killing or boxing them up for safekeeping. So I’d discontinued the search for now. Risking more of my Djinn warriors to Rose’s clutches was foolish…and I was far from foolish.
“What do you want, Rose?” I spoke quietly, allowing my magick to carry my voice down the hillside to her stoic form.
“I’ve come for the young Kitsune girl,” she answered, sending her words on a soft breeze.
I smiled. One girl. She didn’t know Sochi already had a child. I’d separated the sisters before they’d gotten pregnant. Riza would have no way of knowing Sochi conceived or delivered a baby already.
“You’re smart enough to know why I won’t give her to you. And why you should want me to keep her.” At least now I knew Rose monitored the news stations.
“Then why did you come all the way out here to talk to me? What do you want, Xerxes?”
I shrugged. “It’s been a long time, Rose. When my soldiers reported seeing you, I just had to see for myself that the great Rose Hilah left her cave and ventured into the world, leaving her precious Sisters for the first time in over a century. If we didn’t want to kill each other, I’d say we should have a drink and celebrate.”
Her face tightened, and a frown stretched down the corners of her mouth. Her hatred for me still weighed on her soul, coating the pulses of magick rolling off of her with darkness. Each supernatural had a distinct magickal pattern, like an electromagnetic pulse, that emanated from their body. The stronger the being, the stronger the pulse of magick. Rose and I had two of the strongest wave patterns on the planet, seconded only by a Drakonae.
I raised my hands to waist level and felt
the charges in the air. She’d brought very powerful supernaturals with her, but there was a trace signature of another that was no longer with her group. One that was just as powerful as the Gryphon and Phoenix, possibly stronger.
“Who else was with her?” I asked, turning to the silent Djinn soldier at my right.
“Just the Gryphon, Phoenix, and Drakonae, sir,” he answered. “We saw no others.”
“You’re hiding something, Rose,” I projected my voice again, allowing magick to carry it to her.
For someone who had come for my Kitsune, she was awfully calm about being confronted… as if there was another plan entirely.
Fuck.
“Take me back to the house now!” I grabbed the Djinn by the arm, and we blinked away, teleporting to the center of my office in the Whitemarsh Mansion.
No alarms.
I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Bodies littered the floor, but they were all alive. Alive and snoring.
Leaping over several prone soldiers, I shoved my way into Sochi’s room. The monitors were off, the bed was empty, and her three nurses lay in a peaceful heap in the corner of the room.
“Fucking, bitch!” I continued through the bedroom and into the infant’s nursery. Her nurse lay sleeping in the rocking chair. Hurrying across the room, I peered into the crib and sighed. The baby, as well, slept peacefully, undiscovered during the Siren’s little rescue run.
In all of history, Calliope Hart had never helped anyone but herself. How the hell had Rose convinced the selfish bitch to sneak into my home—by herself—and take what belonged to me?
“Sir,” the Djinn who’d been with me spoke. “How do we wake them up?”
I scoffed. “We don’t. The useless bastards will sleep at least twenty-four hours and then wake up on their own. A Siren’s song is irreversible except by the Siren herself.”
In old times, an experienced Siren could waylay an entire fleet of ships, lulling the sailors to their deaths on rocky shores and were usually paid to do so by the highest bidder. Calliope had always been one of the most powerful Sirens on earth —and one of the few sirens still known to be alive. Apparently, she hadn’t lost her charm in her old age. Except, this time, she’d put down my entire fighting force.
“Bring me a witch,” I snarled. If Calliope was truly one of Rose’s allies, I would be certain everything and every building were warded to keep her and her ultrasonic song out.
“Should we not go after them first?”
I shook my head. “They won’t be there.” I turned on my heel and faced the soldier who dared to question me. I grabbed him around the neck with my powers and squeezed. He clutched at the air around his neck and coughed, fear making his eyes bulge. “Don’t ever waste time by questioning me again. Do you understand?”
He tried to nod his head.
I released him from my magickal chokehold, and he fell to the floor with a loud thud.
Again, Rose had ruined my plans. Not completely, instead merely setting me back. I still had Sochi’s first baby. Her blood would disguise my small army for now, but it would be years before she was mature enough to breed and carry a baby of her own. Meaning I needed to get as many soldiers dosed as possible in the next few months before her blood was useless, including myself.
I would not wait another decade or two to move forward with my plans.
Chapter 22
TRAVIS
The air outside the lodge was thick with anger and the scent of propane from the torches lit around the burial circle. Two bodies lay in the center of the circle, each with their own pine box. Crawley had spent the entire day making them while the rest of the pack prepared the herbs and items needed for the funeral fire. We didn’t burn bodies any more--that was a tradition that stopped hundreds of years ago--but tightly knit packs did still burn incense and herbs on a small fire near the bodies. A sacrifice to call on the gods to lead the fallen souls to the safety of Elysium. Though if it were up to me, I’d cover their coffins with tar and send them on their way to Tartarus—their souls trapped by the tar and never able to escape the pine box holding their bodies.
My mate was more gracious than I and surprisingly more forgiving. She’d insisted on a burial ceremony that gave the deceased the best chance of finding peace. It was what she wanted for her pack most of all, but Garrett and I had already discussed alternatives if peace could not be achieved. We wouldn’t force her to leave Ada—it wasn’t the Lycan way to force a female into any decision—but we knew it was an option that would continue to arise if this problem with Victor wasn’t dealt with swiftly.
So far, he’d given us no reason to eliminate him outright. Instead, he continued to whittle away at the integrity and morale of the pack. Turning one member after another against Charlie. I could smell the disloyalty, anger, and frustration. It was hard to blame them. They’d lost so much when the Djinn had betrayed them. Now two more of their family had turned to murder and paid the ultimate cost—their own lives.
And for what? A man who wanted to feed them straight to the beast we all knew would betray them and most likely kill them.
Xerxes was evil. Angry. And out for blood and power. The only reason he wanted this pack was to harvest the few who would turn away from their freedom and work for him.
In exchange for what?
Not dying. Not having their throat slit.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I stepped into the ring of the funeral circle to stand next to my brother. His proximity protected us both, but the feeling of being stalked did not fade.
Charlie was being hunted by her own. But so were we.
Garrett glanced over to me and nodded to his left. My gaze traveled the invisible line and noticed Victor standing behind several other pack members.
One of the standing torches marred my view of Victor, but as I focused on him, the words falling from his lips ceased.
Lycans were a species renowned for their hearing. A whisper fifty yards away for us was as clear as two humans speaking to each other across a dining table.
She will pay. Those were the only words I caught before Victor stopped speaking and moved away from the circle.
It was enough to make my heart race and sweat break out on my brow. Muscles throughout my body flexed and released, tensing and readying to attack. I wanted to rip his heart from his chest and tear out his throat with my teeth. My wolf was angry and anxious, a bad combination for any predator.
Several women near the small bonfire in the center of the circle, between the two coffins, began chanting Greek words I’d heard only a few times before the Riots. Afterward, they were a constant drone in the back of my mind. Garrett and I had buried everyone in our pack. Then I’d buried friend after friend through the years. When an unfamiliar Lycan had reached out to me from Sanctuary, offering a place to rest, I’d taken him up on it.
Sanctuary had been just that for me. A place to rest. To repair my shredded soul. And to wash away the years of blood and evil that had stained it. I’d done many things I wasn’t proud of to survive or in the name of justice for my kind.
Rose had slowly shown me over the years that revenge wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She’d lost her husband millennia before I’d been born, but she’d found a way to move on. To put something else before the pain and focus on others.
She couldn’t help her husband, so she gave her whole life to these women who needed to be protected. I wasn’t privy to all the details about the Sisters of Lamidae, but I knew enough to realize that, in the wrong hands, seers could invariably end the world on this plane of existence. And since returning to the Veil wasn’t really an option and hadn’t been for a thousand years, Earth was a place we needed to care for and protect.
The chanting from Charlie and several of the other women stopped as they sprinkled the bodies of the dead with freshly ground herbs and spiced oils. Then Crawley closed the lids of the coffins. As he nailed them shut, Charlie moved to stand next to us at the head of the
two empty graves waiting for Dean and Kara. The other women moved to various positions around us in the circle of pack and brightly burning torches.
We’d waited until the evening to do the ceremony. Something else Charlie had insisted on. A moon to guide their spirits. It shone brightly above us in the cloudless sky, surrounded by twinkling stars—representations of the souls that had already left this world.
Charlie slipped a hand into mine. Garrett stepped closer and slipped his hand around her other one. Our magick flowed powerfully through our mate bond. I could feel the strength we possessed together. It surprised me that after all this time, Fate would bring Garrett and I back together this way and seal our bond so permanently.
“On this night, we bid two of our family farewell.”
The drone of chanting stopped on all sides.
Charlie huffed through a breath, trying to disguise her emotion, but among sorrow and pain, I could smell anxiety and fear. She didn’t trust her pack any more than Garrett and I probably did. Two had tried to kill her already, and a blood uncle continued to plot our demise. Still, she fought for her composure and refused to deny her pack a proper burial.
“They made choices that put them where they are right now. Choices I wish had been different. I would give my life to save my pack. To bring all of my family back that’s been lost. In honor of those who were buried without Lycan ritual on the hillside of Vicksburg and those who died in Savannah without a burial at all, tonight we burn enough oil and incense to light their way to the fields of Elysium. May the gods light their path and show them a place where they can find peace.”
I waited, sure that someone would speak out and ruin the ceremony. But the rippling anger and discontent simmered beneath a lid of propriety. None spoke against her. Not even a whisper.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 83