Her head twitched to the side, and she jutted out her chin, defiance in both small movements. “It is and I hate it. I hate these joinings, and I hate it more that you don’t even care.” Her voice dropped on the last phrase, and she scrambled from the couch—as if burned by my touch.
Don’t care? “Gretchen, I—”—what could I say? — “I care a great deal about you. Is someone making you feel uncomfortable?” My core temperature rose several degrees, and my beast stretched inside me, angry that something or someone was upsetting Gretchen, pressuring her in some way. “You have only to tell me, and I will make sure they never return to this town again. We may have six designated Protectors of the House of Lamidae, but I am the acting sheriff of Sanctuary.”
She shook her head and pressed her lips into a tight angry line. “It’s nothing.” The two words slipped from between her lips barely louder than a whisper—both lies. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, we will continue with Antony and Cleopatra.” My jaw tightened. She was upset with me again. Over something I couldn’t change. I would if I could. I wanted her to be happy. I’d do anything to keep a smile on her lovely face. I always returned from missions with a special gift or trinket. The surprise and joy on her face made it more than worthwhile, but I couldn’t make her not a Sister. That was beyond my ability.
Beyond anyone’s ability.
Her frame loosened, and her shoulder’s slumped ever so slightly. Defeat shone in the blue depths of her eyes. She always spoke her mind. Nothing with Gretchen was ever a mystery.
“Is there something you need?” Just give me a task. Tell me what I can fix.
“No. I’m fine.” She turned on her heel and walked out the door before I registered that she’d said the most dangerous words a female could utter.
She was far from fine, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it if she didn’t tell me what to fix, or what to change. Until she did, I would remain uneasy and my beast would pace until we saw her again tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps by then she would be able to ask for the help she needed with whatever problem was vexing her.
I placed the volume of Shakespeare on a bronze end table near the couch. No one would move it. Anyone using the Blackmoor library was expected to put away what they moved, but they all knew Gretchen and I made sure the books would be returned to their place when we were finished. We’d stuck to the same habits for years, but when Diana had arrived, I’d made sure to clear it with her also. She spent a great deal of time in the library as well, and I didn’t want to annoy her—especially with all the pregnancy hormones racing through her body.
Diana’s pregnancy was quite the topic of conversation in Sanctuary lately. Miles and Eli couldn’t be more excited. With their first son from the Veil—Mikjáll—also taking up residence in Sanctuary, the town would soon be able to boast a population of seven Drakonae. Triplets were on the way.
As wonderful as having children would be… the idea of having children in a time where there were so many people and creatures out to kill us was terrifying—why would someone risk it? Plenty did. The Fated mate Lycans were constantly having children. Even Eira, one of the Protectors of the House of Lamidae--a vampire nonetheless--was pregnant by her Elvin mate. No one in the history of the world had heard of a vampire carrying a child, but no one had been in Eira and Killían’s situation before, either.
“Alek.”
I turned toward the familiar silky voice. “Lady Blackmoor,” I answered, bowing my head in respect. She was not a queen in Sanctuary, but she’d been my queen before the Veil had fallen. My parents’ queen. My grandparents’ queen. Old habits were difficult to break, whether they were thousands of years old or only a few decades. It was hard enough not calling her majesty or her grace. She’d forbidden it. All the Blackmoors had.
Rose was Sentinel in this town—ruler. Her word was law, not the Drakonae.
“The library is empty now, if you were seeking privacy.”
Her face lit with a pleased smile. She rubbed her rounding belly.
Pain slid through my gut like someone had taken a blade and stealthily shoved it between two of my ribs.
I would do anything to protect my queen, but I still couldn’t believe she’d taken such a chance. Become vulnerable. Pregnant. Weak.
Why? There wasn’t a throne to sit on here. There was nothing more than there ever had been. Protect the Sisters of the House of Lamidae. Rose had recruited Jared and me over a millennia ago, and the battle to protect the Sisters from Xerxes and the human world hadn’t stopped since.
“I see your longing and pain and worry. I assure you I’m quite capable of protecting myself while I’m pregnant as I am when I’m not with child.”
Ever the mind-reader. I worked so hard to conceal my emotions. To not show anyone anything. Emotions meant vulnerability, and that was something I couldn’t afford. “Forgive me, Lady Blackmoor.”
She dipped her chin and smiled, assuring me of her favor.
Jared and I were both realists. Having a partner. A family. Such things were fantasy in this world. A lost cause, and neither of us had risked being so foolish. Our goals hadn’t changed since the first day we’d arrived on Earth. Just like so many other supernaturals who’d lived through the millennia—we wanted to go home. I wanted to know if I was all that was left of my family. I wanted vengeance. Jared felt the same.
Love had no place in my life. A family certainly didn’t, either…no matter how much the sight of her swollen belly raised tendrils of jealousy deep inside me.
The Drakonae had taken a chance, but they’d been given the choice.
In all my years, no one had ever meant enough to sway me from my first goal—getting home. Getting revenge on those who had chased me from it in the first place and made my parents fear so much that they and many of their friends had shoved their children through the portal, hoping Earth would be kinder than the Incanti fire that burned everything it touched.
But Earth hadn’t.
“What were you and Gretchen reading today?”
Gretchen’s name tugged the cobwebs of the past from my mind. “Antony and Cleopatra, milady.”
“You’ll have to tell me the story one day.” Her voice carried across the room, pleasant and hopeful—not a hint of the stress plaguing everyone in town. She let a light sigh slip from her lips. “And you know I would prefer you to just call me Diana.”
I shook my head firmly from side to side. “I would be happy to recount any human history, but calling you D—” I couldn’t bring myself to say it even now. “It would not be proper. You have and always will be my queen.” Though my family had not lived in the capital city of Orin, the town of Rekar had been loyal to the Blackmoor Royal House.
“We are equals in this little town.” The tone of her voice held merely a wisp of a challenge. She knew what my answer would be. What it always was. We’d had this argument on more than one occasion.
“No one but your mates are your equals. I will forever be yours to command in this world, as my family served you in Rekar on the western banks of the Goddess Sea.”
“What about Rose?” she asked, a bit of the dragon within shining through her icy blue gaze.
This was new. She’d never asked about my allegiance to the Sentinel of the town, the Lamassu who’d saved the Sisters to begin with and recruited supernaturals through the millennia to help her protect the women who carried the visions of the future. They were the key to getting back through the portal to Veil.
“I will always carry out Rose’s orders to the best of my ability, but should you give the order, I would do everything in my power to see it through.” I bowed my head again, waiting to be dismissed.
“Thank you, Alek. You are a good man.”
“Not a good man, but a loyal soldier.”
She stepped forward and took my hand before I could move away from her. A chill cooled the air around us, pulsating from her body like a commercial grade freezer turned up too high. H
er fingers were cool against my skin, but not uncomfortable. “Never doubt you made it through the portal for a reason, Alek Melos. Just because you cannot see the grand design does not mean the gods have not woven a beautiful path for you through this life.”
“You are too nice to an old warrior, milady. Please excuse me, I would like to leave before the castle awakens for the evening.”
She pursed her lips, but didn’t respond except to release my hand.
I bowed again and left the library through the door she’d used to enter. My feet echoed down the long stone hallway, empty but for the artwork the Blackmoors had studiously rescued through the years. A small reminder of the beauty this country had once valued and had cast aside due to their fear and ignorance.
So much had been lost because of the mistakes of a few. So many had died and many more would die before we found our way back through the portal to the world where we belonged.
By the time I reached the grand staircase leading down to the main foyer, the castle was already filling with guests from town. Sisters were decked out in filmy white gowns that mimicked ancient Greek robes—loose, gauzy, and strategically laced with rope to accent the female body. These were not their usual cotton sundresses.
“Alek,” a silky voice called from halfway up the right side of the grand staircases. “Are you staying for this evening’s Luck of the Draw matching? You never stay.” Kylie —one of the pixies who helped manage the club part of the castle—approached me one seductively slow step at a time.
Her dress, if it could be called that, was a light shade of green and utterly transparent, allowing me and anyone else to see her perfectly pink nipples and smoothly-shaved mound. Thin lines of red and pink and purple streaked through her white hair, reminding me of those children’s pony toys from over a century ago. All the pixies wore bright colors in their naturally white hair, some dyed it completely, and others, like Kylie, wore multi-colored streaks.
I yanked my attention away from her familiar nakedness. Strangely enough, I had absolutely no desire whisk her away to a bed. I just wanted out of this place tonight. Something in Gretchen’s tone had put my beast and my mind into an unsettled state.
Air free of female pheromones and perfume and a chat with Jared was needed to return me to my normal state of controlled calm. Right now, I could feel every molecule of the atmosphere. It itched and burned like someone had scraped the top layer of skin from my body and dipped me in a vat of chili powder.
“I’m on my way out.”
An understanding nod came from Kylie. “Another time, perhaps?”
“No,” I answered, my tone more gruff than I’d meant for it to be. I liked Kylie. She was nice, fun to be around, and sexy as hell, but I’d had less and less interest in being with anyone over the last few years. In fact, I couldn’t think of the last time my cock had felt more than the palm of my own hand.
I was nearly out the wide front door when Gretchen’s name fell from a female’s lips in the back of the foyer. Leaving was my goal. The last place I wanted to be when the humans arrived was the castle, but I also couldn’t help the pause in my step. Anything to do with Gretchen was important to me. Perhaps they knew why she had been so angry with me earlier. Something was going on. Something she wouldn’t come out and tell me.
“Gretchen’s going to have to choose a man soon. I’m really getting sick of her excuses.”
Choose a man. The instant image of Gretchen with a man between her legs nearly sent my afternoon meal spewing onto the polished marble floor of the foyer. She was still so young. I knew what the joinings were, but it’d never registered in my mind that Gretchen was participating. How old was she? I tried to count up the years in my head, but they ran together in a blur.
She’d never mentioned it when we read together. Though why would she? It was part of being a Sister. Procreating to continue the visions that would one day fulfill the prophecy. A prophecy Rose and the Sisters kept closely guarded, except to say that failure would mean the end of our dream of returning to Veil—something I very much wanted.
I swallowed down the bile in the back of my throat. Gretchen fulfilling her destiny shouldn’t make my stomach turn. I had no claim on her. She was a Sister.
I could never have a claim on her.
But I didn’t want anyone else to have a claim on her either, and that revelation threatened to put me on my ass right there in the middle of the Blackmoor’s foyer. I wiped sweaty palms on my jeans and struggled to pull in a breath.
“Alek, are you alright?” Kylie called from the top of the staircase. She took a step down, and I waved a hand signaling her to stop.
“I’m fine,” I growled, yanking open the front door and slipping out into the warm Texas air. The last thing I needed was an interrogation about why the personal business of a particular Sister’s sex life—or lack of one—had put my entire body and mind and into a tailspin.
Chapter 3
XERXES
“Report,” I said, not bothering to glance up from the files on the ornate Resolute desk I’d made my own since overtaking the Washington Republic. Stacks and stacks of reports on towns who had pledged allegiance to me, and reports on the executions of those who hadn’t. A few supernaturals had been rooted out of the woods here and there, wolves, mostly, and a few vampires who quickly fled the area—according to my Lycan captains.
Most other supernaturals were difficult to find. Pixies could literally disappear into trees, ponds, rivers, any type of nature—not that I expected to bring any of the pixie-dust-sprinkling-nature-loving-kumbaya-hippies into my camp, but their magick was helpful to have around. My men knew where to look for them.
It was a pipe dream to think I’d stumble across any overtly powerful supernaturals. Most had left the US after the Riots made living here a pain in the ass and somewhat deadly.
Then there was Rose.
My throat burned, bile filling the back. Rose had collected supernaturals for millennia. The most powerful beings still on this continent likely all lived in her fucking little town in Texas. A snort escaped from between my lips. It wouldn’t be a sanctuary for much longer.
The Djinn were mine, though, and that’s why I’d win in the end. They were the piece that stacked the deck in my favor. Always had. Rose hadn’t managed to turn any of them against me, not in four thousand years. In fact, most of them hated her more than they hated me. Quppa prison boxes weren’t something they took kindly to and she had hundreds, if not thousands of their people locked away in her fucking vault.
“Master.” Cal, one of my Djinn bodyguards, stepped through the open Oval Office door. “Commander Martin and Commander Max have nearly completed the military executions in New York and Washington DC.”
I raised my gaze to meet the lavender-eyed assassin. “You supervised both sites?” Cal was a slave, but his penchant for torture and death had lifted him high in my military ranks. Even though the newly-promoted Commander Martin and his pack had proven themselves in Ada weeks ago—burning down the Mason pack lodge and killing most of the pain-in-my-side Lycans who constantly interfered with my plans—I still preferred to have another set of eyes as witness to the obedience I expected.
Cal’s eyes made sure everyone who was supposed to die did, and painfully. Death rarely needed to be swift.
Martin’s brother, Max, had also proven worthy of a promotion. They and their two packs had risen to command my mixed human and Lycan forces, answering to no one except me and Cal.
“Yes, General Xerxes.” The corners of his lips curved just slightly, but I didn’t miss the mark of pleasure. He loved killing. Loved pain as much as I did. “Eighty percent of the human army in New York has been executed. Commander Martin did the same for the stationed armies here in Washington DC. Deaths for Washington and New York total in at sixteen thousand. The remaining four thousand are still being put through paces to see who is left standing.” His tone rippled with excitement.
“Clean up?” I closed the file in front of
me and set it on the stack to my right.
“Bodies are being staked at all cross-roads and in front of all military stations per your orders. Excess bodies are being burned systematically throughout the cities’ waste management and cremation facilities.”
“Excellent. I want our forces and the newly-acquired humans assault-ready by the end of the week. Be sure they are fed and clothed and in new uniforms. We will take down the SECR before they have a chance to formulate any type of plan and before the armies get hungry.” I purposefully kept my voice even and calm. No one needed to know how pleased I was that my years of preparation would finally be coming to fruition, that I would finally be taking my rightful place in the public eye as a world leader to be feared. My rule would be all-encompassing, and the rest of the world would never see it coming.
“Should I fetch an up-to-date report on the movements of the SECR from Ms. Farrok?”
I scribbled a note on a small piece of stationary and held it up. “Deliver this to her. She needs to convince the SECR leaders to meet to develop a strategic defense. We will cripple them there, and the South will fall with no more of a scream than the Washington Republic.”
Cal bowed his head, taking the note from my hand. Then backed away several steps, waiting like the loyal Djinn he’d proven himself to be.
“Dismissed.”
“Thank you, General.” He bowed again and turned on his booted heel. His steps echoed for only a few seconds before they vanished, and silence once again enveloped the Oval Office.
One piece at a time was falling into place. The Kitsune serum had worked. My soldiers were undetectable by human scanning technology. The Washington Republic had fallen to my hand weeks ago, and the South East Coast Republic— SECR—would be under my control in a matter of days. To top it off, the base I’d secretly built twenty miles outside Sanctuary was coming along nicely. The witches had kept it cloaked from detection by human or Others. Not even Rose herself knew I was about to come knocking on her door.
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