Dragonbane

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  "Since we were mated centuries before you were born, I'd have paid money to see you do that."

  Blaise's jaw dropped. "And you failed to mention this to me? Seriously?"

  Fang clapped him on the back. "Told you you were in for a surprise. Didn't I?"

  "Nice." Blaise passed a vengeful glare in Fang's direction. "Remember, wolf. Payback's a bitch."

  Fang snorted. "What can I say? My wife's always complaining that I'm the worst behaved of all her children. And given the fact that Dev's one of her unruly brood, that says it all." His grin widened to an irritating level. "And on that note, I'm drifting back downstairs to give you guys space to hash out this fresh hell. Let me know if any bodies need to be hidden later, or if there are any blood splatters I have to clean ... try not to get the hemoglobin on anything that stains. I don't want to listen to Quinn bitch about repainting."

  Seraphina glanced black and forth between the two different species of dragon before she slowly neared Blaise and sniffed him. Strange. He smelled more human than dragon.

  "Hey! I bathed," Blaise said in a playfully offended tone as he stepped away from her.

  "You really are related."

  Max smirked at her stunned disbelief. "Our mother was as discriminating as an Amazon in heat, and had the morals of one to boot."

  She glared at him. "Which is the only way you could have ever been deemed worthy of one of us."

  Blaise sucked his breath in sharply. "Ouch, Max, she's quick. I like her."

  He ignored the comment. "Why are you here, Blaise?"

  "I was coming to warn you about something fairly significant ... am thinking now that I might be too late."

  "For?"

  "Someone accessed the power of the Emerald Tablet. It fractured a part of Merlin's spell around Terre Derriere le Voile and almost unleashed the great evil back into the Myddangeard."

  Seraphina scowled as Max cursed under his breath over that potentially fatal near miss. "Back into what?"

  "Midden-guard," Max repeated the Old English word slowly. "You'd know it as Oecumene ... the world inhabited by mankind. This realm."

  "And Merlin?"

  "My boss in Avalon," Blaise explained.

  Max knew that would be meaningless to her, too, since she long predated Arthur and all the legends that surrounded the medieval fey king and his court. "It's an alternate dimension, similar to the one you were banished to."

  Her jaw dropped as indignation darkened her cheeks. Her eyes telegraphed that familiar disdain that had once cut him to the core of his soul. "You bastard! You knew I was trapped and yet you left me there to rot for all eternity?"

  The irony of her righteous anger amused him. "Again, I remind you of how we parted ways. I begged you to come with me to start our family in peace, together, away from the corrupted politics of your tribe that you knew and agreed were wrong, and what did you do? You collared me for your queen and handed me over to her tender loving care. So tell me why I should have defied your gods who punished you for her rebellion and risked my life to free you after what all of you did to me?"

  Seraphina wanted to remind him that she was his mate, but that cut both ways. How could she expect him to defy the gods to protect her when she'd refused to defy her own basilinna, who had far less reaching power?

  He was right. She should have stood by him, instead of surrendering him for something she'd known even then was wrong.

  And that just made her all the angrier. Not at him, but at herself ... which she took out on him for making her feel this way, for reminding her of the shame she bore for her own part in the travesty of his wrongful trial and punishment.

  "I hate you! If not for my children, I wouldn't be here."

  Max gave her a cold, dry sneer. "If not for my dragonets, I'd have already killed you."

  The saddest part was, she didn't doubt that. He was, after all, an animal. A reptilian serpent. His cold-blooded, merciless nature was what had caused him to be branded the Dragonbane.

  Mistaking him for human was what had gotten her into this mess. She couldn't let herself ever forget again that at the end of the day, there was no real human in him. Though he might wear the skin of a man, his heart was and would forever be that of a winged dragon serpent.

  One born not of a mother's warm, nurturing womb, but from a cold, empty egg.

  He hadn't been held and nursed as an infant. Never protected or loved. Within minutes of his solitary birth, he'd clawed his way from his egg and made his first kill so that he could live. Had crawled into the corpse of his prey so that he could be warm for a bit as he gnawed on its entrails.

  Maxis had been spawned with no understanding of love, compassion, or decency. Only pecking order, and where creatures fell on his food chain--a food chain where he reigned supreme. Every creature that walked this planet was on his menu, and subject to his invincible martial skills. Nothing and no one was sacred to him. And he'd left a bloody trail of human and Arcadian bodies in his wake.

  Trying not to think about that or else she'd be sick, she looked to the newcomer who appeared to have somewhat more humanity in him than Maxis. While his species of dracokyn was familiar to her, she didn't know much about the mandrakes. Yet the aura of magick he could command was unmistakable. He, like Maxis, was a sorcerer of supreme skill. "What is this great evil that you spoke of?"

  "Morgen le Fey. You know her?"

  She shook her head.

  "Lucky you," Blaise said under his breath, then louder, "She's related to the Tuatha De Danann, and is a dark sidhe queen."

  "Should you ever cross her path, you will want to avoid her." Maxis's tone was flat and dry. "Even though you're Arcadian, she'll take your heart same as ours and use it for her spells."

  "Speaking of ... where's Illarion?"

  Maxis cut a chilling sideways glare to her before he answered Blaise's question. "Resting. And since you're here, can I ask a favor?"

  "Of course."

  "Will you watch over him while I attend a matter with my dragonswan?"

  Blaise frowned. "What matter is this?"

  "A personal one I'd rather not involve my brothers in."

  Seraphina saw the dragon light flash in Blaise's lavender gaze as he realized Max was about to do something extremely dangerous. Alone.

  "Max--"

  "No lip. This is something I need to do without either of you getting in my way and annoying me in the process. Illarion is still adjusting to this world and time. He doesn't need to be left on his own right now."

  Blaise screwed his face up. "With the exception of Monty Python and a few other movie franchises, I'm not real fond of this time period, either, you know."

  "I know."

  As Maxis turned back toward her, she hesitated. Don't do it. He won't forgive you.

  Then again, he already hates me. What's the difference?

  And in her mind, she saw him down in the pit as she'd left him the last time she'd seen him in her village. Nearly dead. Bleeding because of her and what she'd done.

  Yes, he was immortal, but he could be killed.

  That was what they'd almost done to him then and it was what they intended to do now. To take his powers and his dragon's heart and to use them against this Stryker.

  He's an animal. Sacrifice him for your children and be done with it.

  Cold-blooded. Ruthless.

  Like him and all of his kind.

  Yet in her mind, that wasn't what she remembered of her mate. It wasn't the dragon beast who haunted her dreams and brought tears to her eyes whenever she remembered their past together. It was the bashful male who'd been so curious about her world. So kind to her and thoughtful in spite of his cold beginning. The one who'd tried to fit in with her tribe and please her. To that end, he'd shed his clothes and dragon customs, and had adopted their style of dress and manner of doing things. For three years, he'd laid aside his claws and wild ways, and done his best to suppress everything he knew and was so that he wouldn't anger her sister tribeswomen.<

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  And they had been merciless to him. Goading and insulting. Demeaning. Even their men had rejected him and made sure that he wasn't included in anything they did.

  You're incapable of understanding. You're just a dumb animal. They'd even thrown rocks or sticks at him to drive him away whenever he came near them, as if he were a crow or some other vermin nuisance they didn't want around.

  Never once did he complain to her over it. He'd merely walked away in silence, head high. Eyes haunted.

  It was why he'd done his best to never show them his real form. Rather, he'd stayed in his human body as long as he could physically do so. Until he'd been so weak and ill that he couldn't stand it anymore. Then he'd seek privacy to shift for a brief respite and to sleep. Someplace dark and secluded so that no one in her tribe would see his real body, as if what he did, what he really was, was innately wrong and grotesque.

  Forbidden.

  In all her long existence, Maxis was the only one who'd ever made such sacrifices for her. The only one who'd ever put her needs above his own.

  And he'd given her the two greatest blessings of her life. Hadyn was so like his father, not just in form and mannerisms. He held the same loyalty and honor. That need to protect whatever he loved above all else, as if they were sacred objects.

  Unlike Maxis and his brothers, both of their children were Arcadian. Human born, and trained to be dragonslayers like her and her people. Nala and the others had taken a morbid thrill over the fact that both of them were some of the best hunters among their tribe.

  When Edena had made her first kill, they had celebrated with an overzealous glee that still sickened a part of Seraphina's soul.

  Now that she thought about it, Max hadn't even asked her about their children's base forms. He hadn't cared. They were his progeny and that was all that mattered to him. Not whether or not they were Arcadian or Katagaria.

  Regardless of their birth forms, they were his, and therefore, worth his life. Even though they were strangers and he'd never met them.

  And her people dared to call him the animal. In his own way, he knew more about love and decency than any man she'd ever met.

  In that moment, she made a decision she knew would make him furious. But he'd already suffered enough for her stupidity. She wasn't about to watch him be slaughtered for no reason. Not when she knew she could help it, and him.

  "Blaise? If you care for your brother, stop him from leaving. He's off to face a demon who plans to slaughter him and bring back the reign of the Sumerian demons."

  Max cursed under his breath as Blaise moved to block the door.

  "Did you perchance forget to mention a minor-major detail, brother?"

  Maxis sighed heavily. "I didn't forget. I intentionally left it out."

  Blaise sputtered. "Hell of a detail to omit. Care to elaborate now?"

  "Not really. If you'll excuse me..."

  Blaise completely blocked the door. "Don't make me call out Kerrigan. I might not be able to kick your ass, but he has a good chance of it."

  "Not amused. And I don't have time to waste. Now move aside or else I'll move you, and you won't like the bruises caused by it."

  "Why? You really want to die that badly?"

  Max laughed, low and evil. "I'm not a mandrake, Blaise. Have you any idea how long it's been since I've killed in my true form? How much I've missed it? For too long I've been forced to live in a cage. They want a battle? Bring it. This is what I was spawned for. If it's a true-born dragon they want, then I say they should actually face one, and not one of the pussy half-bloods they've been battling. Let them taste my fiery wrath as I send them all straight to their respective hells."

  Seraphina shivered at those growled words. He was right. She'd only seen his real form once and it'd terrified her to such an extreme that he'd promised to never transform around her again. While she'd killed dozens of Katagaria and other breeds of dragons, they were nothing like him. Drakomai were the oldest and deadliest of their species. They were so powerful that even when Nala had tried her best to force him to transform, he'd been able to hold his human body. No matter the pain they'd heaped upon him. The most they'd gotten from him involuntarily was his wings had jutted out of his back.

  Nothing more.

  She couldn't imagine going up against him in battle. It'd have to be terrifying.

  But Blaise didn't shirk as he continued to block his way. It was comical, really. "Fine, then. I'll bleed all over you and make Quinn pissed when he has to repaint the room."

  Max let out a frustrated breath. "I swear to the gods..." He picked Blaise up and physically set him down on the other side so that he could pass. As he started out the door, Blaise let out a shrill, haunting cry.

  With a fierce snarl, Max turned back on him and covered Blaise's mouth with his hand. "Stop it!"

  Blaise bit him.

  Cursing his brother and insulting their mutual mother, Maxis snatched his hand away. "I can't believe you did that!"

  She had no idea what that was about until the door was thrown open to show another male dragon. Slightly taller than Maxis, he had long brown hair liberally sprinkled with auburn highlights. Hair that was disheveled by sleep. Even though he was fully grown and muscular, he frowned at them like a small, irritable child who was angry at being awakened.

  Realizing there was no imminent threat, he rubbed at his eyes ... a gesture that reminded her much of Hadyn in the morning.

  What the hell are you two hatchlings doing? I thought you were under attack. The thickly masculine words whispered through her mind as if he projected them there. He scratched at the whiskers on his cheek.

  Blaise shoved at Maxis. "He's planning to leave us behind and go fight demons on his own for his dragonswan. Go on and tell him how stupid he is. I tried and he's too stupid to listen."

  The dragonswain arched a brow at that. His sharp, steely gaze went to her and narrowed with a bloodlust that scared her. Shaking his head, he let out a frustrated sigh as he returned a furious glower to Maxis. So can I kill her now?

  Eyes wide, Seraphina stepped back. "Excuse me?"

  "No!" Maxis snapped. "And stop asking me that."

  Completely ignoring her, the newcomer looked up at the ceiling. It's so not fair. I lost my Edilyn and yet this bitch lives and returns? Why, gods? Why?

  His jaw ticcing, he looked to Blaise. Is there not some transmutation of souls we can do? Place my mate's soul in her body?

  "Maybe."

  Max growled at them. "Stop it! Both of you! You're not going to swap out her soul."

  Curling his lip, the dragonswain who kept speaking only through their thoughts gestured toward Seraphina. I don't understand why you continue to protect her. She's never brought anything save utter hell and misery to your door. You told me yourself that she could barely look at you when you lived together. So why are you so eager now to die at her command? Let her rot in whatever mess she's woven. It serves her right and is all she deserves.

  Seraphina winced at a truth she hadn't even realized Maxis had noticed. To her ever shame, Illarion was right, she'd had a hard time looking at her mate when they shared a home.

  "Enough, Illarion! She's the mother of my young and I will not have you say another word against her."

  Illarion's jaw went slack. You spawned with her? Are you infinitely stupid? His gaze went from Maxis to lock on hers with a frigidity that sent shivers down her spine. Instead of saving their race, Max, you should have cut that ungrateful whore's throat and devoured her unborn young when you had the chance. Save us all the misery and heartache they've caused us since then. Not to mention the indigestion and ulcers.

  He raked another cold sneer over Seraphina. Be grateful you're his mate. That alone stays my hand from ripping out your heart and feasting on it ... Arcadian. The way he spat the word in her mind made it sound like the worst sort of insult.

  "If not for them, Illarion, you'd have never met your Edilyn."

  Illarion winced and looked away. You're not helping your cause, brother. You're only reminding me why I hate them all and what they've viciously taken from me.... Now, what's this infernal madness you're about?

  Max glared at him. "You're the only being alive who can talk to me like that and not be gutted on the floor."

  "Um, yeah," Blaise said in an irritated tone. "Why does he get that favoritism? You'd lay me out cold for it."

  Illarion cut another malicious glare at Seraphina before he answered Blaise's question. Before you were born, Blaise, I was the one who found Max after her tribe all but gelded and skinned him alive. They had him muzzled with a metriazo collar that restricted his ability to use his magick in any way. He couldn't even transform to heal himself. Had I not found him when I did, he would have died. I doubt he'd have made it through another three hours in the condition he was in.

  Blaise sucked his breath in sharply at what that meant as Seraphina closed her eyes in sympathetic pain and horror. What Illarion didn't know was that she hated her own self for the part she'd played in that, far more than he ever could. It was a moment that had haunted her day and night. And in particular, every time she'd looked into the faces of her children and had to explain to them why their father wasn't with them.

  Why it was all her fault and why they were to never blame him for it. They knew she didn't blame him. How could she?

  His lip curled, Illarion circled her. Had an enemy found him, he'd have been gutted and tortured even more. I don't say worse, because no one could have done him worse harm than you and your tribe did.

  "Enough," she breathed, unable to stand it.

  But he took no mercy on her. They'd even clipped his wings to ground him.

  "Stop!" Max snarled.

  Now even Blaise glared at her. What could she say? They weren't supposed to do that? That she'd fought her sisters to stop them from torturing her mate, and had only ceased fighting against them for fear of miscarrying her children? She'd been as horrified by their actions against Maxis as his brothers were.

  But she'd been powerless to stop it. Truthfully? She'd never gotten over her own sense of hopelessness that day. That feeling of just how little control she had. It'd been the hardest lesson of her life.

  Maxis broke between his brothers to approach her. To her shock, he gently lifted her chin until she met his haunted gaze. "My wings grew back together."

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