Love Eternal

by Nikki McCoy

  Achilles swallowed repeatedly as the color drained from his face. “My lord, I never meant to betray you. Vane gave me no choice. He would’ve killed me if I hadn’t agreed to help him.”

  “Shhh. You have no need to fear me,” Dhani told him, baring his teeth in a false smile. “I didn’t bring you here to end your life as I have the others. In fact, I want to show you how grateful I am for all you’ve done for me. You’ve provided me with a Ba’Kal that possesses two spirits. The light in him will make me powerful beyond anything I could have achieved with my darkness alone. Call me sentimental, but I wanted you to be here to see your progeny granted the gift of becoming my permanent host. Doesn’t that please you?”

  Achilles’ demeanor changed to one of wary delight. “Nothing would please me more. Are you ready to begin?”

  “Follow me,” Dhani said, leading the way to the large barn to the left of the ranch house.

  Inside, Dhani’s thoughts raced as he quickly grasped the intricacies of what was going on. Where once he might’ve been naïve, the months of torture he’d endured at Roh Se Kahn’s twisted hands had given him insights into the God’s mind that he couldn’t ignore. He felt like he was watching a dance between two rattlesnakes vying for territory.

  The fear Achilles had displayed so dramatically wasn’t real. It had been an act to cover up the truth of his real intentions. Dhani could feel anticipation and victory in the man’s energy. Achilles had wanted to be found by Roh Se Kahn all along, Dhani realized. He’d known the dark God would come for him. This was a set up.

  Yet, the confidence exuding from Roh Se Kahn told Dhani the God was aware of Achilles’ deceit, as well. Roh Se Kahn was relying on Achilles to betray him and inform Vane of his location. He wanted his son there at the moment his essence was fully returned so he could eliminate Vane as a threat. It was the easiest way to bring down his son on his own turf.

  A part of Dhani wondered how the dark God could be so confident about Vane coming to him. Without Sevrick, Vane had no leverage. Then again, Vane’s insidiousness didn’t exactly account for intellect. The draw of power made fools of everyone, no matter their nature.

  The barn had been renovated to accommodate the now dead humans. The divisions of the pens that had once held livestock had been torn down to create a massive open area and the outer walls were insulated. However, there was no heat to stave off the biting chill of the English Channel nearby.

  In the center of the barn lay Keenan with his naked body stretched spread-eagled on the hard-packed dirt. At Roh Se Kahn’s command, Keenan’s wrists and ankles had been manacled with thick chains that cut into his skin, held in place by metal spikes which had been driven into the ground. His exposure to the elements was a measure Roh Se Kahn had taken to weaken him. The God couldn’t take the chance of being interrupted by Keenan when he began the incantation.

  “The time has come,” Dhani said loudly to the twenty men and women inside the barn. They gathered in a loose circle around Dhani, Keenan and Achilles with their weapons at the ready.

  Keenan stared up at Dhani beseechingly. His blue eyes were glazed and skin so pale from blood loss, it nearly matched the color of his ivory hair. He shivered convulsively and licked his lips. “D-Dhani,” he stammered. “I kn-know you’re still in there. Please, fight him. You can’t give up. You’re s-stronger than him.”

  Dhani knelt and smoothed back the tangled wisps of Keenan’s hair. When he spoke, his voice contained as much warmth as the icy breeze blowing in from the open doors of the barn. “That’s where you’re wrong. It’s his light that makes me stronger. With him, I will rid this world of my sister’s abominations and take her powers to spawn my own race. The humans will bow to me, their true God, and serve my race with their flesh.”

  Fierceness combatted with the despair in Keenan’s eyes. “It’ll never work. You m-may have found a way to put a sliver of your essence inside my friend, but he has to be a willing host to t-take in the rest of your essence. Dhani would never—”

  “He has no choice!” Dhani bellowed. “I still hold his second spirit. When the portal opens, his soul will have no choice but to accept his spirit and my essence with it. They are tied together. Even if he were to reject me, he can’t reject his spirit.”

  A tear slipped past Keenan’s lashes as he shook his head. “Dhani, please. Don’t let him do this.”

  Within, Dhani raged against Roh Se Kahn’s authority. He fought with every ounce of his strength and, for a brief moment, he felt the strangling grip of the God’s power over him falter. Then, his tentative control was ripped away. Roh Se Kahn channeled his darkness inwards and sent a blast of searing electricity coruscating along Dhani’s nerves. Dhani’s mind fractured from the pain, though no sound escaped his mouth.

  When the pain receded abruptly, Roh Se Kahn forced him to stand and begin the spell to open the portal. Even as Dhani’s voice resonated with the power of the words, he continued to rebel within. This can’t be happening, he thought desperately. At any second, he expected—prayed—for Tailor and the others to burst in as they had before and put an end to this travesty.

  But no one came.

  Keenan’s back arched and his agonized cry echoed throughout the barn. Dhani could feel the energy of Keenan’s spirit being torn from him like a sickening rift in the atmosphere. At the same time, a cyclone of dark winds spiraled around Dhani, flinging his hair into his eyes and mouth. The portal had been opened and the entirety of Roh Se Kahn’s essence bore down on him, demanding entrance.

  Despite Dhani’s battle to refuse the dark God dominion over him, he could sense his falcon reaching out to him from a distance. His second spirit was still far away, yet it called to him pleadingly, and his body pulsated with the need to draw it in. Beyond his will, Dhani felt his soul expand to accept his falcon, and with it, all of Roh Se Kahn’s essence.

  Roh Se Kahn’s elation suffused him, then was suddenly torn away as, once more, blinding pain speared Dhani’s body. The God’s essence, along with Dhani’s falcon spirit, were being pulled from him even as they desperately clung to his soul, trying to rip him apart. Dhani fell to his knees, his muscles frozen in torment and head swimming from the volume of his screams, until Roh Se Kahn’s darkness and his falcon were finally avulsed.

  In the haze of the aftermath, Dhani looked up to find Vane standing a few yards to his right, next to Achilles. The cyclone of dark winds surrounding Dhani had transferred to Vane and Dhani watched as the winds narrowed in on the baby in Vane’s arms. To Dhani’s horror, Roh Se Kahn’s essence was gradually forced into Sevrick’s tiny, squirming form. As soon as the torrent of the God’s power had been fully absorbed by the infant, Vane clamped the collar that had been made for Keenan around Sevrick’s neck and locked it with the key.

  “No!” Dhani shouted above Sevrick’s frightened wails.

  “At last,” Vane said in triumph. Before the twenty warriors could fire their weapons at him, he grasped the collar that had conformed to Sevrick’s neck and called out, “Stop! I can feel the darkness my father has instilled in each of you. He commands you. Kill me and I will burn this host alive. It will harm your master and force him into another willing body. If any of you are prepared to make that sacrifice, step forward. Otherwise, you will stand down!”

  Reluctantly, the men and women lowered their weapons.

  Just as Vane relaxed his stance, the sound of multiple guns being fired broke the silence from outside the barn. Vane growled his irritation and turned on Achilles. “You told me this place was safe.”

  “It was!” Achilles said emphatically. “Other than your father killing your other followers, everything went exactly as you predicted. My lord, we can still pull this off. Sevrick has your father’s powers. Take them.”

  Vane sneered at Dhani. “Not all of them. Kill him. The rest of you, guard the walls!” he yelled to the Vam’kir and Ba’Kal. “Let no one in until I have secured your master.”

  Dhani’s mind scrambled to catch up with
what was going on as Vane tipped his head back and started uttering words similar to those of the spell Roh Se Kahn had used to free the rest of his essence.

  ‘Not all of them’, Vane had said. Why would Vane order Achilles to ignore the threat outside and kill Dhani? Unless…

  Unless Dhani still retained a part of Roh Se Kahn’s power.

  The realization struck Dhani at the same moment Achilles bore down on him with a knife aimed in a backward slash toward his throat. Dhani saw it coming, but he couldn’t react fast enough. Vane was going to win, after all.

  Chapter Fifteen

  From the entrance to the barn, Dhani heard Laya shriek, “Get the hell away from my son!”

  Instead of slicing through Dhani’s throat, the tip of the blade merely scraped his cheek as Achilles stiffened. Dhani flinched back when Achilles toppled onto his lap, a hilt protruding from the man’s shoulder. Dhani looked over to find his mother racing in with hatred blazing in her eyes. Behind her came Tailor, Quinn, Mara, Cy, Rowan and Cain with half a dozen others. They charged the twenty Ba’Kal and Vam’kir, the clamor of their shouts competing with the deafening reverberation of gunshots.

  Joy leapt within Dhani until a staggered grunt beside him drew his attention. Keenan’s chest heaved repeatedly as if trying to draw air into his lungs, though the only breaths that passed his mouth were short and pained. The rest of his body was limp and his eyes… His eyes were twin, silver orbs staring out into nothingness. It was the darkness in him, pure and unfettered by the light of Keenan’s spirit, which was now gone.

  Panic seized Dhani as he shoved Achilles aside. He rushed to jerk the stakes from the ground then freed the chains binding Keenan’s wrists and ankles. Keenan’s head lolled as Dhani pulled him onto his lap, murmuring over and over again, “No, no, no, no.”

  He shook his head, heedless of the tears blurring his vision. This wasn’t what should’ve happened. It should be him taking his last breaths—lying there cold and naked and struggling with death. Not his best friend. Keenan didn’t deserve this. He was a good man who had spent his entire life running from the darkness in him. Fate had no right to make him to live his final moments absent of the light that had redeemed his darkness.

  When Keenan’s eyes closed and his body stilled, Dhani clutched him closer and yelled, “No! I won’t let you die. I can’t.”

  He looked around in desperation, his mind racing to find something, anything that would keep his friend alive. Through the throng of combatants, he caught sight of Rowan and Tailor fighting their way toward Vane. For a brief second, he thought about calling out to Rowan, but his voice froze. There was nothing Rowan could do except watch his mate die, knowing it had been Dhani’s fault.

  Dhani tugged Keenan’s head to his chest and let out a sob that stabbed his heart. Then he felt something else. A raw hunger stemming from his gut. It was the darkness Roh Se Kahn had left behind in him, or rather a shadow of it. Somehow, Keenan’s own darkness was attracting it, as if the residue of power in Dhani was trying to join with that in Keenan.

  The same power that had taken Keenan’s spirit to open the portal.

  Dhani’s thoughts reeled as an idea began to take shape in his mind. It seemed impossible, but he had to try. He would give anything to save his friend.

  Forgive me, he pleaded inwardly to his spirit. To his surprise, his leopard didn’t argue. Instead, it rumbled in sorrowful acceptance. Dhani took a deep breath, then against all the laws of his nature, reached for the darkness in him. It rushed forth in a cold fury, only this time, Dhani had full control. He forced the darkness toward his light, the bond between him and his spirit that made him a child of Miel Se Luuda.

  Though his spirit was willing, the bond resisted with rising ferocity. It repelled the power trying to tear it apart and thrashed against Dhani’s determination. Dhani let out an ear-splitting cry as his body revolted. His heart felt like it was being split in two and the pounding in his head was excruciating. Yet, he didn’t give in. This was the only way to keep Keenan alive.

  After what seemed an eternity, something snapped. Dhani felt his spirit wrenched away and his body spasm uncontrollably. At the same time, Keenan lurched up with a gasp. What felt like liquid fire scorched Dhani’s veins until finally, all sensation left his body and he collapsed backward onto the ground. Inside, there was a gaping hole where his spirit had once been and a bottomless pit of darkness where once there had been light.

  Above him, Keenan stared down through eyes that had returned to a brilliant, crystal blue. Dhani wanted to weep in happiness at the proof that his idea had worked, but his body was no longer responding.

  “What have you done?” Keenan rasped as tears spilled down his cheeks. “You stupid, insane idiot! How could you do this? Why would you make me take your spirit? Did you think I wanted you to die so that I could live?”

  With the last of his strength, Dhani whispered the words, “I’m sorry.”

  Keenan grabbed the front of his shirt with one hand and rattled him. “You were supposed to live this time! We would’ve found a way.”

  No, we wouldn’t have, Dhani thought even as he felt himself slipping away. When Keenan growled and looked up, Dhani’s sight fell listlessly on the battle still raging around them. He saw Tailor dueling with two of the warriors Roh Se Kahn had forced to do his bidding, moving swiftly in a dance that seemed more like art than a promise of death. Despite the knowledge that Tailor would end his life after Dhani died, Dhani felt no guilt over it. He knew they would be joined again in the afterlife, and it would be as Tailor had wanted.

  A sharp whistle drew Dhani’s gaze to a small, yet imposing figure standing next to Laya near the outer wall of the barn. It was Xenessa, he recognized distantly. What was she doing here?

  Xenessa said something to Laya and pointed to Sevrick in Vane’s arms, then called out, “Tailor!” Immediately afterward, she looked to Keenan and yelled, “Keenan, say the spell. Now!”

  Dhani glanced back at his mate, who instantly took down his opponants as if he’d been merely toying with them before. Tailor then straightened to throw a shuriken that embedded itself in Vane’s left shoulder just inches from his neck. The impact caused Vane to jerk back and lose his grip on Sevrick. Dhani watched the infant fall and his mind seized in terror until he saw Laya dive for the baby, catching Sevrick in her arms.

  The rest happened so fast, Dhani could barely keep track. Laya ran to Xenessa, where both women huddled over Sevrick and began chanting words Dhani couldn’t quite make out. Vane teleported to them to snatch the baby back, only to be distracted again by another shuriken to his right arm. The demigod growled as he pulled the blade from his flesh then teleported again, this time appearing behind Tailor.

  To Dhani’s shock, Tailor’s eyes were closed and his expression calm, yet he didn’t hesitate to duck the swing of Vane’s fist and stab his thigh with a third shuriken. “Keenan, the spell!” Tailor yelled, repeating Xenessa’s command.

  Dhani watched in awe as his mate continued to predict from which angle Vane would attack next, all the while his eyes closed. Then, the sight was torn away when Keenan forced him to meet his gaze.

  “The spell,” Keenan murmured in a voice filled with comprehension. His brows drew down in a look of angry resolve and he said, “I’m gonna save you, then I’m gonna kill you.”

  As he started to recite the spell that would cast Roh Se Kahn’s essence from their realm, Dhani felt the emptiness in his soul spreading, crushing in on his body. His lungs shut down, his muscles were like dead weights and his vision began to fade. Time seemed to slow with the decreasing beat of his heart, ticking the inevitable countdown to his death.

  Dhani expelled a single, final breath, then tensed as a lurching sensation gripped him. For a second time, a dark cyclone of swirling winds encompassed his body. It centered on Roh Se Kahn’s power still residing in him, but the power twined its way around his soul, refusing to let go. The winds narrowed in on him, circling violently and tearing a
scream from his throat.

  “Dhani!” Keenan cried out next to him. “No, this can’t be!”

  Somewhere far away, he heard Vane cry out, “What are you doing? Stop!”

  Dhani tried desperately to will his body to move, to grab onto Keenan’s hands, but it was no use. A stab of fear pierced him as his body was hurtled into the alternate realm just as it had been one year ago. A deafening silence fell all around him as his senses were taken away, his body once more imprisoned and beyond his reach.

  His mind careened in a storm of despair, unable to accept the reality of what had just happened. Death hadn’t yet claimed him before the spell had drawn the sliver he harbored of Roh Se Kahn’s essence into the alternate realm, and his body along with it. His soul couldn’t die in this place. He would be trapped here forever.

  And not alone.

  Radiating waves of anger bombarded him from all sides. Instinctively, he knew they were coming from not only Roh Se Kahn himself, but from Vane, as well. The two must’ve been pulled into the void with him. A small part of Dhani was grateful for the knowledge that the spell had rid Sevrick of Roh Se Kahn’s essence instead of damning the infant to the same suspended fate Dhani would endure for eternity. Sevrick was an innocent and didn’t deserve this punishment.

  Yet, the thought of Tailor having to face the rest of his days alone, forbidden to seek out his own death, made Dhani want to scream at the injustice. With his body and soul forsaken the gift of death, Dhani would never find his mate in the afterlife.

  There’s no hope, Dhani thought. Nothing except the—

  Suddenly, a blazing light filled his senses, expelling the darkness that tainted his soul. Heat bathed his skin and enveloped him in a pleasure so intense, it dazed his mind. There was warmth, so much warmth and love he could barely contain it, yet it wasn’t coming from him.