Alek’s presence was like a magnet, pulling us together each time we came close. Our glyphs glowed bright for a few seconds, reminding me that we were bonded. We were one, and I could feel everything…including the fact that his body ran at least ten degrees hotter at the core than mine.
Along with that warmth, there was a cocktail of pain, regret, and hope.
“I can move,” his deep voice rumbled, agony stressed in each word.
Part of me wanted to climb onto his lap and bury my face in shirt. Feel the power beneath his strong muscles cradling me, caring for me, loving me. Alek loved me. I could see it each time those beautiful brown eyes glanced my direction—the way they were looking at me now, glinting with possession in the flickering lamplight. His was an all-consuming passion reserved only for me, but tethered, waiting patiently. He didn’t push, didn’t ask for anything. Just offered exactly what I needed.
I wanted to take his offering.
But the other part of me was still so raw. I’d showered, but I still felt their hands. Still heard their voices and vulgar comments. Still felt where the bruises and aches from the assaults had been. Still felt how he’d reveled in my pain, the cruelty in his touch.
They were phantom pains erased with magick, but the memory of their touch, that I still remembered. I hoped one day I wouldn’t. I hoped one day all of the bad memories would be erased by good ones. One day at a time. One stroke of Alek’s fingers would replace one in my memory from my attackers.
“I don’t want you to leave me.”
A heavy sigh of relief slipped from his chest, and he let his body sink more completely into the cushions. “I will never leave you, Gretchen. You are my heart and soul.”
“You are mine, Alek.” By the gods, I needed to touch him, to feel the connection between us course through my body. I scooted from my protected corner and burrowed against his side, pulling the blanket along with me.
He wrapped his arm tentatively around me, waiting… but I didn’t start or jerk or recoil. All I felt was peace, acceptance, support, and warmth, so much warmth.
“Would it be okay if I read a little?” He lifted his other hand, and I peered up, recognizing the cover of Antony and Cleopatra. “I thought it might help us both.” Alek’s voice dipped lower, gravelly and choked with emotion. “I love you.”
My heart began to thaw.
He hurt for me, with me. And he loved me. He’d never give up on me. We would get through this together, and I would be able to stand at his side and be able to claim that I had experienced a great love the way only Shakespeare could describe.
I turned my head and looked up at his face. “And I love you, my guardian Gryphon.”
His eyes darkened at the moniker, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. He leaned his head down, pressing the softest kiss to my hair. Then he flipped open the volume to where we’d left off. His voice rose and fell, rocking me into a peaceful sleep. I was safe. No matter what came next. As long as we were together, we would overcome.
My Vampire Knight Book 7
My Vampire Knight
Falling in love is a killer. Literally, for siren Calliope Hart.
Any man she loves will die—a curse courtesy of her father and the reason for her tragic past. She’s determined not to suffer like that ever again.
Then the heart-stopping-wipe-the-drool-from-your-mouth-sexy Godric Devereaux shows up. He’s a disowned vampire-djinn hybrid on a mission to save his niece and rejoin his family—if only he can prove he isn’t the monster everyone believes him to be.
Calliope sees right through the bad-boy persona and into the heart of the dark creature who only wants to belong. He’s determined to claim Calliope as his own. All she wants to do is protect him from her curse.
But war brings a battle of trust and betrayal, and Calliope and Godric must discover if true love can break the spell—or if the curse will keep them apart forever.
USA TODAY BESTSELLING Author Krystal Shannan leads readers on a breathtaking journey through the heart-stopping final book of her bestselling Sanctuary, Texas series. Fans of paranormal authors such as Patricia Briggs will love this urban fantasy adventure packed with shifters, magic, and spell-binding romance.
Chapter 1
“It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but retire a little from sight and afterwards return again.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series
CALLIOPE
The warmth was gone.
The light was gone.
The protection spell was gone.
Everyone stood in the courtyard hoping beyond all hopes that Rose somehow still lived. That Xerxes hadn’t killed her. But he had. I was sure. And I couldn’t tell them, because the only way I knew was the damn charm in my hand. The small white crystal Rose had linked to my soul hid me from him. And if the spell on mine had broken, my sisters already had a target squarely on their backs.
Fear snaked its way through me like the cold fingers of Death himself, choking and suffocating and painfully reminding me of the fate that waited if I didn’t find a way to hide again. If I didn’t find someone else to protect me. Someone else to rebuild the charm.
My sisters and I would all die. Over. And over. And over.
These people in Sanctuary thought Xerxes was the only bad thing out there. The only monster. But he wasn’t. I closed my fingers around the small white crystal and took a deep breath. I couldn’t show emotion. Certainly not fear. Not the earth-shattering-soul-stealing terror filling me now like water filling a sealed grave with me locked inside.
No.
No one could see me like that. I was better than that. Stronger. I had survived this long. Survived so much. There had to be a way for me to save myself and my sisters from him.
He was coming.
He would torture them first, though.
He always did. They were my weakness. The way he could punish me most efficiently. The way he took advantage of what remained of my heart.
“Calliope?” Erick’s mate, Bailey—also one of the town’s vampire Protectors—stepped to my side and touched my shoulder. “What’s wrong? Do you feel something?”
Something? I’d felt too many things since coming to this town. It’d made me soft. Made me forget. Made me think I deserved things I knew I didn’t. Tricked me into caring about people when I should’ve stayed focused. I glanced down at my hand. My fingernails were long black claws, which meant my eyes had morphed too. By the Gods! Attention was not what I needed right now.
“Just feeling the loss,” I replied, willing the proper emotion into my voice and forcing my body to transform from its agitated, ready-for-battle state.
“We don’t know that she’s dead yet,” Bailey whispered. “There’s still hope. There was no body.” They’d only found Eli’s body in Xerxes destroyed camp. While his death had been a painful blow to the town, everyone hoped their precious Rose had survived.
I nodded and patted her hand. There wasn’t any hope, body or not. I knew Rose Hilah was dead, but I couldn’t tell Bailey that. I couldn’t tell any of them. They would want to know how I knew and I wouldn’t tell them…I hadn’t even told Rose all of it.
I glanced around the frozen stone courtyard then up at the distorted clouds overhead. Diana had sealed us inside. The entire castle was encased in a fucking snow-globe of ice. Not that I begrudged her grief over her lost mate, but at least she still had another. She would survive. She should be grateful. In a world like ours, survival was everything. The quicker they all remembered that, the better off everyone would be. Rose had made us feel too safe. Too protected from things outside Sanctuary. We all had our reasons for hiding here.
Mine was gone now. Missing and dead.
“Stay close to Erick.” I glanced into the sapphire blue eyes of a woman who considered me a friend. I liked Bailey. I didn’t want her to die. But friends weren’t a luxury I’d ever been able to afford. This town and its inhabitants thought I was thei
r friend—their ally. That I would help because I’d always helped. And I would’ve because of my arrangement with Rose, but now…now I was on my own. They had their problems, and I had mine.
Rose was gone.
My gaze drifted to one of the other vampire Protectors—Eira. She and her Elvin mate, Killían, stood next to the Drakonae, Miles and Diana. The dragonfire swords on Eira and Killían’s backs gleamed in the morning sunlight. Their weapons could hurt Xerxes, though they had no way to get close enough to use them. And Eira was nearly as pregnant as Diana, so that knocked out two very powerful warriors on Sanctuary’s side. Diana and Eira’s mates would be unfocused and more vulnerable because of their concern.
The odds for the upcoming fight were not promising.
My gaze darted to the other individuals circling the casket of ice Diana had built around her dead husband Eli. Seeing Eli’s body—the death of one of the most powerful supernaturals in town—should’ve made everyone run for the hills. Instead, Gretchen, the young Sister of Lamidae who’d been tortured by Xerxes, had come out slinging words around like fight and win and conquer, and everyone had bought the speech. Alek, her Gryphon mate, stood beside her, holding her hand. It was all so sickly sweet and made me want to hurl. Not because I begrudged the woman her happiness, but because I didn’t get to have that. No one had or would ever look at me the way Alek looked at Gretchen.
The pixies huddled together, trying to look tough, but mostly pulled off looking like a group of terrified My Little Pony wannabes. Their ponytails incorporated every color on the spectrum. Pixies were powerful, but they weren’t fighters. Sooner than later, they’d all leave and go back to their grove of oak trees outside the town and disappear.
Jared stood off to one side, near Alek and Gretchen, flames licking at his fingertips, a thirst for blood on each whisper of breath he exhaled. The warmth of his Phoenix’s fire had melted Diana’s frost in a ring around his body that extended out several feet. He was a wild card and wouldn’t help me. His only thought was for Manda—the traitorous Djinn held captive by Xerxes himself. Even if Jared managed to get to her, she’d never be welcomed in Sanctuary.
Then there were the wolves—Lycans. A large group had gathered with us in the courtyard, at least fifty or sixty. Charlie, Travis, and Garrett at the forefront, their two children in their arms.
All the Lycans had agreed to throw their fucking hat into the ring, too. Given the opportunity, they would die for those they loved. I wasn’t on that list. Not even Rose had truly cared. I was a means to an end. They were all a means to Rose’s end.
They were all stupid.
We should be leaving, not preparing to make a stand.
Chapter 2
KILLÍAN
Eira—my beautiful and beloved—walked ahead of me, holding Diana’s arm. Miles strode at my side, and we both walked in silence, listening to our mates discuss the joys and weariness of pregnancy, a welcome change of topic from the death and destruction facing us outside these castle walls.
“Why are we not just leaving? You have the dagger. We could all go. I have military connections. We could be on a boat out of the Gulf of Mexico in less than twelve hours. Staying and fighting is…” My words trailed off. Both women flashed me a glare over their shoulders and then entered the large space the Blackmoors used as a living area.
Miles sighed, his shoulders hunched, face tightened at the corners of his mouth and eyes. Stress rolled off him in waves. I couldn’t begin to imagine what it was like to lose a brother and watch his wife grieve a mate at the same time. “Diana is right. We have to fight. And as much as I want to throw her over my shoulder and disappear before Xerxes comes back, Sanctuary is our home. Has been my home for so long. It would be wrong to abandon it. To abandon the people in it. They are our friends. We’ve fought for a common goal for so many years.”
“I just don’t see it that way. I’m here for Eira.”
“I know, Killían,” he answered, leaning against the stone wall and peering into the living area, but not entering it. “Even though you’ve only been with us a few months, this is your home, too. We are family. All of us. My birthright in Veil was lost millennia ago. A war awaits me and my family in that world, too.”
“So we finish this war first. But how?”
“One battle at a time until we’re all that’s left standing.”
I half-scoffed. The Dragon spoke as if it were going to happen. Like he didn’t have doubts or reservations. We would beat Xerxes, and then we would go home.
“Rose was a smart woman, Killían. Gretchen was right when she said it’s likely that the portal is heavily guarded. Fulfilling the prophesy of Lamidae would open a new portal. One Xerxes could not access once we all crossed. It is the better way. The Djinn are a formidable foe, especially aligned with him.”
“If you two insist on talking strategy, get in here and talk about it with us,” Eira’s forceful tone cut through the noise in my head. The rage. The desire to see blood on my sword. It always did. She was my calm. My rock. She’d saved me from myself.
Miles ducked through the open doorway first, and I followed. I took off the strap and sword from my back and laid it on the ground within arm’s reach next to Eira’s. We both carried them everywhere. Even as she’d grown rounder with our child, she’d refused to stop carrying the dragonfire weapon.
I lifted Eira from where she reclined on a small couch and then sat down, arranging her strong curvy body on my lap so that I could wrap my hands around her swollen belly. They were mine—mate and child. Both of them so precious I would move mountains to keep them safe and happy.
Eira didn’t fuss or struggle against the placement; she just settled back and let me rub her stomach. Let me take a small amount of joy in feeling the new life wriggling inside her. The son or daughter I couldn’t wait to meet, yet worried for him or her being born into this world. At least we still had a few months to prepare.
Miles sat next to his wife on the couch facing us, and she leaned into his shoulder, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. He slipped an arm around Diana’s shoulders and squeezed gently.
“We have to do something. Xerxes isn’t going to sit on his claws for long,” I said slowly, continuing to massage my mate’s firm belly.
“We have to get the rest of the town safely into the castle. There are still two bunkers we haven’t been able to reach since the first raid.” Eira said, grabbing my hands and sliding off my lap to the cushion next to me. I would’ve rather her stayed put, but she’d been restless lately and not able to sit or stay or lie in one place very long comfortably. “I helped coordinate the rescue from the closer ones before—”
“Before I hauled your ass back inside the castle,” I finished for her. “Yes, I’m fully aware you were out there risking your life.”
She snorted. “I’m still faster than you when I need to be.”
“You need to protect our child.”
“I need you to protect the people then. I’m a Protector. This is my town, and I take personal stake in everyone’s safety. There are women and children trapped. Alone. Hungry. Terrified.”
“I will gather a team and we will get them. I pro—”
A woman in long white dress ran into the living area. Her eyes were wild, and her hair plastered against her damp face and neck. All our eyes were on her as she doubled over, sucking in deep breaths of air before trying to speak. When she finally straightened, she looked directly at Miles.
“The Oracle has had a vision. The next Protector is within reach!”
Chapter 3
GODRIC
Warmth. Heat. Power.
It spread through my body with each pull of my fangs.
I growled and drank hard, ripping through flesh, punishing him before draining the life from his flailing, worthless form.
My gaze drifted to the stained concrete beneath my boots again, and fresh anger surged from the sight of the small girl on the ground at my feet. She couldn’t have been more than ten
. She had been why I chose my victim. The man in my grasp deserved to feel the life drain from him. And I took every last drop. I hadn’t been fast enough to save her, but I could exact vengeance for her life. No one else would do right by her.
I finally tore out his throat, ending it, and tossed him to the ground several yards from the small child’s body. Then I wiped some of the blood from my face with the back of my hand. Drinking blood was as normal to me as eating had been three thousand years ago. I still ate, but blood was what I really craved. Each feeding was a rush of power and a reminder of what had been stolen—what my choices had cost.
I glanced around the dark alley. Apartments loomed up five stories on either side. Not a light could be seen from a single window. The sounds of the city echoed around me—yells, vehicles, sirens, flesh slapping flesh. I turned and peered through the darkness. A pair of humans fucked against the wall behind a dumpster a hundred feet away, completely oblivious to the two murders that’d just been committed.
Filth penetrated every brick and crack of concrete. The City of Angels was truly the armpit of the West Coast Republic. And the perfect place for me—a blood sucking creature of the night—to hunt monsters without repercussions.
I always ate monsters.
People the humans wouldn’t miss.
People the humans would be grateful I devoured.
I teleported from the alley to my bedroom—a flat in the Sea Scape apartment complex near the Santa Monica Beach. It was run down and filled with drunks and junkies, but I liked being able to hear the ocean. A small comfort. I yanked the sheet from my bed and flashed back to the alley. Kneeling beside the child, I covered her with the soft cotton and wrapped her carefully. Tucking in the ends around her cooling figure, I prayed to whatever gods might still listen that someone would return her to her family. She deserved to be with family. Then I teleported back to the center of a nearly empty apartment. I didn’t need much to live. A bed to fuck on and a couch for the same.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 115