Saberthorn (A Paranormal/Fantasy Dragonshifter Romance): Dragonkind ~ 52 Realms

by Sheri-Lynn Marean

  Never doubting that Wren would do as he’d been instructed, Casin slipped into the hallway of the large three-tiered building. He took the stairs to the first floor, careful to avoid the soldiers on sentry duty at the front door, then ducked into the bustling kitchen. With their mind on putting together meals, the cook and his helpers never even noticed Casin as he hurried out the back door.

  Blood pumping in excitement, Casin absently patted the leather pouch attached to his belt. He’d finally done it. He’d killed the one person standing in his way. Glee at his actions, and a deep hatred for his family, consumed him.

  They thought he didn’t know about their magic, but he did, and the unfairness burned through him. He had tried to deny it, had even told Captayen that Tirah had no magic, but he knew the truth. He clenched his jaw as hatred smoldered. Why had they been given gifts and him nothing? If what his mother said was true, and they all shared the same father, they should all have some gift, some magic, but no. He had nothing.

  Bitterness burned deeply, and he vowed to make them all pay. Still, the evening had gone better than expected. How easy it had been to take the life of one he’d hated since he was a small child.

  Now there was only one other person and then he’d be the one in control. Well, okay, maybe two people. As he went through his plans for dear ol’ mom, he hastened his steps. Soldiers went about their business and no one paid him any attention, which pissed him off. It didn’t matter that it was to his benefit that no one noticed him. Instead it grated on him that despite his rank, no one took him seriously. That would soon change.

  At the thought of all the blood tonight, his cock grew hard with bloodlust. Demons, he’d love to bathe in the stuff. Casin picked up his pace and licked his lips at the sight of the fenced-in slave community.

  “Visiting tonight, sir?” one of the guards asked.

  Casin ignored him and passed through into the gated compound. Once inside, he grinned as he reminisced over what he’d finally done, wishing he could do it again. Yes, soon everyone would be addressing him differently. Someone just needed to discover the body, and he couldn’t be around when that happened.

  Moments later, Casin walked up to a small, nondescript house of the same make and style as all the others. A house just like his mother’s, only this one was smaller since there was only one occupant. Drab grey with two rooms and a water closet. Anticipation flowed through him and without knocking, he shoved the door open, then chuckled when the young dark-haired woman looked up at him, startled.

  “I-I didn’t expect you today,” she said, suddenly nervous. Her rapid pulse made him even harder. Casin slipped his hand beneath his robe and rubbed himself, ready to have some fun. With auburn hair and big tits, she was similar enough to his sister that he could forget for a moment that she wasn’t Tirah.

  “Get ready for me.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  As she hurried to her bedroom, the fear in her eyes only turned him on more. Casin imagined all he’d do to his little sister when he finally found her. After what he’d just set in motion tonight, it should be soon. He could hardly wait. It had been too long. The bitch had killed his best friend and taken off, robbing Casin of his chance to sample her wares. But not for long.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Caught

  Ten years to the day that she left, Tirah tried to hurry through the portal, but it had its own unique brand of magic, along with its own timeline. Impatient and anxious to find out what had happened to Mihel, she slipped and fell, then swore when she cut herself on a sharp, jagged sapphire rock. She brought her finger to her mouth and sucked on the wound. Bloody hell. I am so done with this crap. Happy Birthday to me. Ten years of running, hiding, and watching over my shoulder is enough. I’m twenty-eight, it would be nice to have a place I didn’t have to leave every few months. Maybe even start a family.

  Yeah, right. She’d have to find a man to do that, and she was no longer trusting enough to let anyone into her life. With a sigh, Tirah tried to let her anger go, knowing it wasn’t helping her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. One thing she’d noticed, as she fled through the various portals to other worlds, was that the magical corridors fed on intense emotion.

  Up until now, this one was like wading through thick sludge and made moving excruciatingly slow. But with her unwitting blood sacrifice, she could feel the portal shifting, as if it were awakening. A high, keening wail sounded off in the distance, and her skin prickled. Chilled to the bone and clothing sticking to her skin as if wet, Tirah picked up her pace, glad to finally be able to do so. She was nearing the exit when a loud crack sounded, making her jump. She began to run as a few long, sharp ruby shards fell to the ground and shattered. Yeah, time to get out of here.

  Tirah gulped in the fresh air when she emerged from the portal under Tartaria’s noonday sky. Whew. That was close. Too close. She’d heard of others getting caught in portals for weeks, while some never made it out.

  She raised her face to the three suns, and though still pissed off, let the warmth of the heat calm her. Then an overwhelming sensation of excitement bubbled up inside. I did it! The invigorating aroma of spring flowers tickled her nose, making her smile. I’m here, I’m home, finally after all this time.

  Tirah inhaled another deep breath of fresh country air and gazed all around. No matter the different realms, Tartaria would always hold a special place in her heart. It won’t for long if you don’t find Mihel and get the hell off this planet. Suddenly melancholy, her excitement died. This could never be her home again. Not as long as Casin, her father, or a certain sexy, blue-eyed dragon shifter lived.

  For the first few years, worry and fear had been her constant companion, then anger set in. She hadn’t asked for this life or what happened to her. The anger had helped, made her stronger, and she stopped letting others push her around. She shuddered as she remembered her first job.

  It was bad enough that as a waitress, men constantly propositioned her, but to have to fend off her employer as well had been a constant chore. A dirty old man with thinning hair combed over, liver spots, and breath that stank of fish, he continually tried to corner her, touch her. She was usually able to slip away, and tried to stay near the other employees, but one evening she wasn’t so lucky.

  “Tirah, I need you to help me with something,” he had said to her as she was about to leave.

  Tirah had hesitated, but he had waved the other wait staff away and indicated they talk in his office.

  Tirah swallowed and met the worried gaze of another waitress. She debated ignoring her boss but needed her next paycheck. “I’ll be okay,” she mouthed, and her friend nodded.

  Tirah closed the door and faced the empty dining room. Then she squared her shoulders and made her way to her boss’s office.

  “Come in. Close the door,” he said, with a smile. Tirah’s stomach churned, but she didn’t say a word, just did as she’d been told.

  “So, you’ve been avoiding me, but no longer. I want you,” he said, leering at her.

  Tirah felt sick inside. She needed this job, needed the money, but the thought of letting this creep put his hands on her made her want to throw up. “Sir, I’m sorry, I have a mate.”

  “You lie. Do not lie to me. I know you live alone in a one-room hovel.” Then his voice softened. “I have lots of money and a nice home, all that can be yours. I would dress you in the finest clothing, shower you in jewels, and treat you like a queen, if you come live with me.”

  His whore, more like. She’d heard the rumors from her fellow coworkers of how he picked the female he fancied, and then made her his sex slave. She sighed in resignation. For someone like her, who was on the run, his offer wasn’t really that bad, and some of his past fancies had willingly chose to take him up on his offer. She’d been told he had indeed showered them with riches, until he tired of them.

  Tirah shuddered. No, she couldn’t do it. She hadn’t killed her superior and run from her life, to just lay down
and accept someone else controlling her. “That is very kind of you, but I must decline, I am sorry.”

  Her boss’s watery hazel eyes grew cold. “You can accept my offer, or you are fired.”

  Her hands trembled. She had no idea how she would pay her rent. Tirah peeled off her apron. “Then I’m fired.”

  “If you walk out of here, you will not get paid,” he said.

  Tirah had left and was immediately evicted, but what had hurt the most, was leaving her new friends.

  After that she learned to scrape and save every coin. Yet no matter what job she held or where she lived, there was always someone wanting to get in her pants. Over time, Tirah’s ability to deal with them grew, along with her anger. She learned to keep to herself, didn’t make friends, and didn’t let others run all over her. Still, while it made her stronger, it was a lonely way to live.

  Her last job had been good. So good, she overstayed the time she set for herself until she felt the presence of the dragon who hunted her. It was time to go. Again.

  With her yearly meeting with Mihel coming up, she took different day jobs as she made her way to their designated spot. But then Mihel didn’t show. It was the first time in ten years that he failed to appear.

  Tirah waited for four weeks and her worry began to build. Where was he? Sometimes he was a week or so late, but he always showed. Deep down she knew something happened, and the idea that he was hurt, or worse dead, sent her into a panic. She didn’t know what she’d do if he was no longer in her life. She craved her yearly get-together with him, and the news of her mother and younger brother helped carry her through until the next year. It didn’t matter that Wren didn’t really know her, and there was no telling what Casin might have said or done to her younger brother, she still loved him.

  After four weeks had passed, she couldn’t wait anymore. She needed to know what happened.

  It was a good thing they had a backup plan for this kind of scenario. If he ever missed a meeting, he’d send someone with a message to a small grocer in a town they both knew. Mostly Humans, Elvren, Shifters, Nightwalkers, and Daywalkers—along with a smattering of Tartaria’s other supernatural beings—populated the area. Though there always seemed to be some Ilyium around.

  Keeping an eye on her surroundings, an instinct that was now second nature, Tirah began to walk briskly. No more time for sightseeing. She had over a day’s trek to the town where she hoped her brother had managed to leave her a message. Plus, she still had to find a place to sleep that night.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Fractured

  Saber would have laughed if he were capable of it. Instead, as his attackers beat the ever-loving snot from him, icy rain fell in a deluge from the sky. Saber retreated into his mind, seeing a pair of sparkling amber eyes. Eyes he imagined laughing, flashing darkly, or teasing as they haunted him for the past ten years.

  He’d been an arrogant ass to believe she’d be easy to find. The first being to ever slip away and keep out of his reach for so long … this female was good. A few times he’d been close to catching her, but she always managed to escape. So much for his vow.

  Fists pummeled him, hitting everywhere, until Saber lost his balance and fell into the mud. He lay still, dreaming of what he’d do if he ever found her. At first the dreams had been of how he’d get the info needed to free Adarias, yet his body had other ideas. Soon his dreams morphed into erotic fantasies of him fucking his amber-eyed sorceress, and in those dreams, she begged him for more.

  Damn, what was wrong with him? Despair settled in, and he realized it no longer mattered. It was too late for him.

  “That’s all you got?” Saber asked, pushing the female from his mind as he taunted the men. He tilted his head to the side and spit blood from his mouth.

  “Get all his coin,” the leader told the one closest to Saber.

  Saber didn’t care about the money in his pocket, or much of anything anymore. Until the man held up the only thing he had left from his brother.

  Fury rose in a dark, deadly cloud.

  Head pounding, and not just from the beating he’d willingly taken, Saber leaned up and snatched the sacred medallion from the man’s greedy grasp. In a blink, he gained his feet and no longer unsteady, he let his beast engulf him.

  When Saber finally came back to himself, all six men lay deathly still in the mud.

  Sliding the medallion back into his pocket, Saber gripped his throbbing temple. Broken visions of blood and killing raced through his mind. He scanned around and grinned when he spotted a pub. Using his power, he drew on his invisibility, shifted into his dragon, back into human-form, and then let the cloak hiding him go. Clothes clean and dry, Saber crossed the dirt road. Once at the door, he finally looked back at the carnage. Disgust welled inside of him, and turning away, he shoved the door open and walked inside.

  ***

  A week or—who knew how much later—Saber groaned. Pain sliced his mind into slivers of fragmented images. Images of him fighting, not fighting, and letting others beat the shit out of him. Images invaded, taunting, showing him spewing dragonfire, and burning the enemy to ash. Yet, he really didn’t know if it was only the enemy he killed. It all sped through his mind like an out-of-control avalanche, and try as he might, Saber couldn’t hold onto a single image or even a recent memory. Disgusted, and more than a little worried, he pushed the maddening darkness away until he could see through the cobwebs of his fracturing life.

  Saber tried to remember something, anything at all, about the last week and came up blank. Fuck. Then he listened to the variety of voices surrounding him. Humans. Walkers. Elvren. Shifters, and others. Mixed species. Yet no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn’t remember where he was, or how he’d gotten here, and certainly not what he might have done. Yeah, this wasn’t anything unusual these days, and he stressed that whatever he’d been up to, it probably wasn’t good. He should be used to it, as this had been happening for the last few years, but the increase in frequency worried him.

  “Brother, are you all right?” Zales, who was a year younger than Saber, asked with worry in his voice.

  “I’m fine.” Saber didn’t want his brother aware of how far gone he actually was. Not yet. He had unfinished business. He had managed to exterminate all those responsible for Maya’s death and Adarias’s imprisonment in Hades—all except the female. Saber shook his head, it was unacceptable. While there was breath in his body, he’d continue to hunt for her.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you for days, where are you?” Zales asked.

  His shields must’ve been strong if Zales couldn’t get through to him. What the hell have I been doing?

  “Do you need me to come to you?” Zales asked.

  Saber scanned the room again. It didn’t help. While he recognized the drinking hole, he couldn’t place the town or village. “I told you, I’m fine,” he snapped, then regretted his attitude. Zales was only trying to watch out for him. “Don’t you have a job to do?” Saber toned down his anger. Zales was the leader of a faction of rebels whose purpose was infiltrating the Ilyium.

  “Doesn’t matter. You know I will be there if you need me,” Zales answered.

  “No, I’m good,” Saber said, and suddenly, the name of the town came to him. “I’m just having a drink in Seldom.”

  “Fine, call if you need me,” Zales said, but Saber didn’t answer. “Promise me, Saber.”

  “Fine. Fuck. What are you, my babysitter?” He knew he wouldn’t call Zales. His brother didn’t need the hassle of dealing with his stupid ass.

  Saber ignored the flirtatious invitations of the different females serving drinks, and instead stared into the amber liquid in his mug, as if it could tell him the future. Or the past.

  “Hey, honey, can I cheer you up?” One daring soul, a Nightwalker who drank blood to survive, tried to slide onto his lap.

  “Not interested.” Saber shoved her away. The smell of her perfume was cloying, and the touch of her fingers on his ski
n grated painfully.

  “Well aren’t you a grump.” With a huff she sauntered away.

  Yup, that’s me. Saber sighed. Being a walking hard-on for ten years didn’t help his pissy mood either. Ever since he’d spotted that female sorceress across the witch circle, he hadn’t been interested in bedding anyone else. Oh, he’d tried, many times, and came close. But as soon as any female touched him, he’d been turned right off. Yeah, she’d bewitched him for sure.

  Besides learning how to free Adarias, he needed the witch to free him as well. Just the memory of her amber-eyed gaze and lush body was enough to make him excruciatingly hard.

  Saber let out a low growl, drawing fearful glances from the other patrons. Not in the mood to play today, he gave a mental shake, trying to fight the clinging darkness laughing at him. Yet the demons tearing him apart screamed for him to scorch the world and watch it burn.

  Saber met and held each gaze of those watching him. Some seemed curious, while others had a calculating gleam in their eyes. He stared back, daring them to take him on, and one by one, each turned away. Then he downed the rest of his Nectar-infused ale, set the mug down, and stood. He reached into his pocket and tossed some coin on the table. It was time to go.

  Yet as he left the pub, his mind fractured all over again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Vermillion

  Saber steadied himself against the plank building and fought to retain control of his mind. Once he managed to push the pressure away, he debated on returning to his home. It had been weeks since he slept in his own bed. A safe haven, his lair was located high up in the Death Ridge Mountains, not far from where he grew up. Then he dismissed the idea. No, he needed to go check on Maya’s Young. Make sure they were all right. Cass used to be a doting father, but ever since Maya broke their bond and left him, he’d been a shadow of himself, and didn’t always take care of his progeny properly.