“She is,” Jared shot back quickly. “There is no believe about it. She is meant to be mine, and I would give my last breath to save her from Xerxes. But without help, I’ll never be able to get close.” He glanced at me, and his voice broke. “Alek said she’s not worth saving, Calliope. No one will help. I’m going to lose her before I even have a chance to help her. She’s my only chance. Once a Phoenix chooses…there will never be another.”
“Let’s try again,” I said, putting on a brave face for Jared. I knew the pain of loss, but I knew why Alek had tried to give Jared an out, too. He was drawn to a woman Xerxes had hurt. And Gretchen had suffered only mildly compared to what I could only imagine Manda had been subjected to for so many months or years. We didn’t really know.
But I wasn’t a quitter. I literally couldn’t quit. Even if I died, I’d reincarnate and pick up the same fight again once I regained my memories. Fighting for Manda’s life would probably end the one I was living, but at least in the long run, I might be able to help save someone who deserved to be loved. My sisters deserved to be loved. To keep the life they’d built. They didn’t share in my curse.
The curse was my punishment. And mine alone. I’d taken something from him, and then he’d taken something from me. He’d made sure any man I loved would pay the ultimate price.
Chapter 14
GODRIC
A Phoenix? A living breathing phoenix. And a Siren. I’d lived four thousand years and had never seen either before. And here they were, living in a town filled with other supernaturals that had no business being in the same zip code, much less in the same small town.
How could any being—even a Lamassu—stand against a group like this? They had power seeping from every crack in the foundation. Dragons. Vampires. Who knew what else they were sheltering. My sister hadn’t come forward to ask for help because of her race. She’d said at least I might have a chance to speak before they passed judgment because I didn’t appear to be a Djinn.
“How do we get inside the castle?” I asked, peering out the broken windowpane toward the looming black stone fortress.
“The back door is easiest, as long as no one has thought to bar it with a spell yet,” Calliope said, walking toward the door of her shop. “And since there’s only two people left in this town that can do that, it’s highly unlikely.” Her heavy combat boots crunched in the bits of broken glass. “Come on,” she said, meeting my gaze over her shoulder. “You owe me a trip to Russia after I help you, and I’m in a bit of a rush.”
“I will keep my word,” I assured her again.
Her face pinked just the slightest, and the scent of satisfaction colored her pheromones. She did believe me. Even perhaps…trust me. The novelty of that would never wear away.
I couldn’t list a single being on the planet that had ever believed in me. Not family or friend. Not in four thousand years. My sister had never believed in me. Right now she was just desperate and needed my help to save her daughter. I was useful. Nothing more than that.
We trudged out of her shop and continued down the sidewalk toward the castle. She led the way around the long curtain wall and to a small steel-covered door. I stared for a moment, trying to figure out what was wrong with the door. Then it hit. “There’s no handle.”
Jared stood a few feet to the right, still keeping away from me. Good. Stay away from Calliope, too. He didn’t appear concerned in the least about the handle-less door.
Calliope waved her hand, and a heavy latch thudded from the inside, and the door clinked open just an inch. Just enough for Calliope to grab the edge and swing it wide.
“You’re a witch.”
She scowled at me and shook her head. “So much more. Witches can only chant spells. I can control magick, bend it to my will. It listens to me and responds. I don’t have to bind it with special words and phrases unless I’m creating a spell.”
I followed her inside the dark corridor, which became darker once the door swung shut behind us. A soft orange glow at my back startled me, and I moved aside. The phoenix’s hand was on fire.
“I’ll walk first until we get back to the main passage,” Jared said, shoving roughly past me, but he was careful not to touch Calliope on his way forward. My inner demon soothed itself with the knowledge that he feared my wrath.
We walked down the winding passageway until we came out into a large hallway lit by electric wall sconces. Black stone covered the floors and the walls. Natural light brightened the darkness at the end of the long hallway. The scent of grass and ice filled my nostrils. And voices broke the silence.
A lot of voices.
A lot of heartbeats.
My body shuddered, the Djinn inside nervous and testing the limits of the ward over the castle like a shroud. I could feel it without even trying to jump through it. I’d probably be able to teleport within the castle—maybe a few yards at a time—but that wouldn’t do me any good. If the residents decided to attack together, I was trapped like a rat in a maze.
“Don’t blink. Don’t let them see that part of you until we’ve had a chance to explain. A vampire they’ll be able to handle,” she whispered.
Jared doused his flame and pressed on toward the light, and we followed close behind, passing people here and there huddled on blankets. Some were single children with no one. One girl caught my gaze and held it. Her face was smudged with soot, and she had blood dripping down her cheek from a deep gash in her forehead. No one sat with her. She couldn’t have been more than eight years old.
My mind flashed to the alley where I’d failed. Where the body of an innocent lay cold and abandoned beneath a sheet from my bed.
Her heart raced, and she clutched her left arm to her chest at a strange angle. I bit my wrist, tearing the skin with my fangs, then knelt beside the Lycan child. “Take just a little. It will heal your arm and your cut.”
“Leave her be,” a woman snarled a bit farther down the hallway. “Lycan’s don’t drink blood. Jenna, don’t touch him.” The small child cringed away from me.
I turned, anger flaring in my chest like a forest fire licking at the base of a dry pine tree. “You would rather a child remain in excruciating pain than be healed by me?”
“You’re an abomination. A demon,” the adult Lycan female growled back.
I was about to blur to her face and slam her into the wall when Calliope’s hand touched my arm. The anger defused and melted away like candle wax under a hot flame. I wasn’t here to save this little girl. I was here to save my niece. My mission was Manda, but my redemption lay with Calliope.
“Come, Godric. The pixies are healing the Lycans. It’s just taking a while. They can only do so much before they must rest, and there were so many injuries.”
“She’s in pain.”
Something flickered across Calliope’s face. Something I couldn’t describe. She hadn’t cared about the child’s welfare until I’d pointed it out. But now she knelt beside me with compassion in her eyes. She touched the little girl’s face and crooned out a string of haunting melodic notes. The child’s eyes fluttered, and Calliope laid her gently on the blanket. “Sleep now, little one. They will help you soon.”
“What did you do?” I asked, glancing from Calliope to the little girl and then back. “What was that? Did you heal her?”
Calliope stood and reached her hand for mine. I took it and stood next to her. “I can’t heal, but my sleep offers peace from everything. She won’t feel again until she wakes, and hopefully by then, Bella or one of the other pixies will have tended to her wounds.”
I wanted to thank her for helping the girl, but the words stuck in my throat.
“Are you two coming?” Jared called impatiently from the end of the hallway.
“When you said the mermaids didn’t have the power of song, it was because you do. The Sirens brought the fleets to their knees.”
Calliope nodded. “Few know we exist. Those that did used it as leverage to get us to kill for hire. The mer-people are scav
engers. Vultures of the sea. We would put the sailors to sleep, and the mer-people would…eat them.”
I grimaced. As old as I was, I was surprised to learn something new about a legend that had circled the globe for thousands of years. Mermaids and Sirens were typically thought of synonymously.
“What happened to the Sirens? You’re the first I’ve come across.”
“A massacre,” she answered slowly, her shoulders sinking.
Chapter 15
JARED
“Calliope,” I called, urging her and the unfamiliar vampire to follow. I’d never seen anyone get as close to Calliope as he had in what had to be a matter of minutes. She still tried to hold herself back. To not show affection like she did with everyone in town, but I could see the strain in her features. The longing glances she took when he hadn’t been watching. Whatever was going on between them was powerful, and she was scared. I couldn’t remember her ever being scared before.
“Charlie,” I called out, waving to the wolf who owed her life to Manda. It was as good a place to start as any. Charlie waved back, beckoning me toward her family group. Several wolves I didn’t recognize stood with them along with one of her mates—Travis. “Where are the kids?” I asked, as I reached them where they stood across the open courtyard. The baby and toddler they’d adopted from her pack were nowhere in sight.
“Garrett is putting them down for a nap upstairs,” Charlie said, her tone etched with exhaustion. “Diana insisted they sleep in her nursery. I think she’s in there with them, too.” She leaned against her mate and closed her eyes, allowing Travis to take up the conversation for her. Guilt spread through my chest. I shouldn’t be bothering them. We were all still reeling from the attack. But I needed help. Manda needed help now.
“Not downstairs with the Sisters?” I continued.
Travis shook his head. “None of the Lycan children were comfortable in the basement. Too deep in the ground. The pixies are moving everyone into the west wing of the castle as each family is checked for injury and cleared.”
“How many were injured?” I asked, meeting Travis’s gaze.
“Twenty-two deaths. Nineteen injuries.”
My heart dropped into my stomach, and I clenched my hands into fists, digging my fingernails into my palms, hoping the self-inflicted pain would control the rage I felt boiling inside. We’d lost so many, and yet I still wanted people to sacrifice more. Did I have a right to even ask?
“There’s still two bunkers on the far east side of town we haven’t gotten to, yet. And one just beyond the café. Scouts haven’t reported any activity for the last few hours, but we’re spread thin as it is. Most of the Lycans inside the castle have children, and they don’t want to leave them.”
“Is anyone organizing their rescue?”
“Yes. Killían. The soldier is ordering people around as we speak. Not sure who put him in charge, but he’s acting like he is,” Travis answered, irritation in his tone.
I shrugged. “He’s soldier. He’s used to orders and ranks. This probably feels chaotic to him.” It did to me, too. I had served in many armies. Nothing crashed and burned faster than a bunch of people with no leader and no structure. Without Rose, we were all floundering to find our place.
Travis nodded his head and stared at a point over my shoulder, a growl rumbling deep in his chest. “Who is the stranger with his hand on Calliope?”
“Her mate, if I hazarded a guess. A vampire.”
“He’s not a vampire,” Travis snarled under his breath. “A pulse beats in his chest.”
I looked over my shoulder at Godric and Calliope. If he thought he would keep his secret long, he was dead wrong. “We’ve seen stranger things, Travis,” I said, trying to smooth the way. Eira’s pregnancy was proof of that.
I needed Godric’s help. As a Djinn, he would be able to get us in and out of Xerxes’ camps with ease. He was the answer I sought. Now I just needed the others to see it, too.
“Is he perhaps meant to be the next Protector? The Oracle should meet him,” Charlie piped up, trying to calm here mate. “Not that anything can be done. Without Rose to add him to the spell, it wouldn’t matter even if he was.”
I shrugged, doubting that a half Djinn, half vampire would have a witch bloodline in his family tree as well. Didn’t seem likely. All the Protectors had been human before being vampire. Godric had been Djinn.
Chapter 16
GODRIC
“Where are the Dragons?” I asked, hoping to avoid being roasted alive until I could at least present my case.
“I don’t see them,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
I rolled my shoulders as we crossed the courtyard peppered with supernaturals, who, according to Calliope, would probably volunteer to chop off my head and or burn me alive if they found out what I was.
Which they would.
The Phoenix already knew. How long would it take him to tell everyone in town. In his excitement to gain help to rescue Manda, he might ruin everything. My family had thrown me out like trash. No one ever trusted me. I was a liar. A failure. A monster.
And I’d embraced that truth for four thousand years.
Now they needed a monster to fight another one.
I made eye contact with the Lycans Jared was speaking with. The female was staring like she was trying to decide whether to stay and talk or ignore me and leave Jared high and dry. The man beside her looked at me, the same suspicion in his gaze I was used to getting from everyone.
“That’s Charlie,” Calliope said, bumping my arm with hers.
She’d flinched when I’d claimed her in front of the Phoenix earlier, but she was losing the battle to avoid me completely. She wanted me as much as I wanted her. Desire and hunger seeped from her every pore. She was mine, completely and wholly. She just didn’t realize it yet.
We closed the gap between us and the Lycans. “I am Godric Devereux,” I said, taking a position next to Jared and extending my hand to the male Lycan first. No need to make him think I had designs on his female. “I am here to ask for help to rescue Mandana Farrok from a supernatural being known as Xerxes.” The male stared at my hand, but didn’t accept. The insult only reminded me that I was nothing to them and not worth their effort. Even these strangers somehow knew it.
The female—Charlie—snorted and pressed her lips into a hard line. “Why would a vampire—if that’s what you really are—care about a Djinn?”
“You called her a friend, and you’re a Lycan,” I replied, keeping my voice low and calm.
Charlie’s nostrils flared, but she didn’t deny my statement. “She saved my life once. I owe her for that. But she’s long-since worn out her welcome as my friend.”
“She deserves a second chance, Charlie,” Jared growled, clenching his fists at his sides.
“Back off, Jared,” the male beside her snarled.
“Manda is my mate. My Phoenix chose her. I get that she’s done some bad shit, but either I save her or I eventually go crazy. The restlessness has gotten worse with each passing day since I held her in Savannah.” Jared paused, closing his eyes and breathing deeply to calm himself. Flames licked at his fingertips for a moment before disappearing. “I need her. My Phoenix needs her.”
Charlie’s face softened, and she stepped forward, away from the angry male, and laid a hand on Jared’s shoulder. “We can’t risk going into Xerxes’ territory. We’re barely holding on here.”
“Manda is my niece. I will help you do anything you ask, but I need more than Jared with me to rescue her from Xerxes. With my skill set and your knowledge of him, we can do this.”
“Niece? Skill set? What are you?” Charlie stepped away from Jared and studied me carefully. “You say vampire, but the only vampire I know with a heartbeat is Eira. Were you mated to an Elvin, too?”
I blinked, and my breath caught in my throat for a split second. Another hybrid? “I was Djinn before I became a vampire.”
“Godric.” Calliope stepped close
r, as if her presence would protect me from the simmering rage of the two Lycans before me.
“You’re part of this. A spy for Xerxes.” Charlie’s mate lunged, but I didn’t give him a chance to lay a hand on me or Calliope.
I grabbed her arm and teleported a few feet away. No need to hide now. They didn’t care about Manda. They wouldn’t believe me. I never expected them to. But I’d had to try. I could at least tell Asa I’d tried. Then she could shame me for living up to the empty potential my family had thrust upon me four thousand years ago.
“What are you doing?” Calliope said once her feet were firmly on the ground again. “I told you no blinking. Now everyone knows.”
I scanned the silent crowd in the courtyard. Their eyes told the story. Hatred. Distrust. My niece was doomed, if these were the people I was supposed to ask to help me. Asa was chasing a lost cause.
Chapter 17
KILLÍAN
Get them out. That’s all that mattered right now. Taking care of these people. Getting them to safety meant I could get my mate to the safety of Veil sooner. I didn’t care how much more blood had to run through the streets of Sanctuary, as long as it was the enemy’s.
I moved silently through the alley behind the café, sword drawn, ready for anything. But there was nothing.
No Djinn.
None of Xerxes’ wolves.
Nothing to kill. Nothing to punish.
This town had been a haven. A place of peaceful existence and strength. A family of sorts for me after moving into the town with Eira. And now…
Burned wood and tar filled the breeze, at least half the town had been decimated before Jared had controlled and doused the flames. But the smell…gods, the smell was rancid. Death and blood hung in the air with the smoke. It choked out everything familiar and good.
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