My Eternal Soldier

by Krystal Shannan

“Please,” Manda’s voice tore through the din of shouting and growls.

  Whirling, I turned in time to see her fling herself at Jared. What the hell? Why didn’t she blink away like the rest of them?

  “No!” Jared shouted, trying to dodge her leap. But she grabbed his shoulders and pulled herself into the inferno surrounding him. The flames on his body swirled around her, but she didn’t cry out in pain.

  Jared’s stance slowly changed from trying to push her off to wrapping his arms tightly around her body, pulling her even closer. His fire flamed higher and hotter.

  “She’s mine, you fucking torch!” Xerxes’ voice called out from the opposite side of the street.

  Mikjáll roared and lunged again.

  Xerxes couldn’t use his magick to block the dragon, but it didn’t stop him from picking up Jared with an invisible hold and wrenching Manda from his arms.

  She screamed.

  The genuine terror in her voice tugged at my soul. I remembered everything she’d done to help us. I remembered laughing with her in the lodge in Ada when she’d visited. She hadn’t been family. We’d always known trusting her was a risk, but she’d been a friend, whether we’d originally intended to let it go that far or not.

  Everything happened so fast, but I could see it in slow motion. Jared leapt to his feet and shifted into his animal form with an angry roar. His fiery wings stretched out fifteen feet on either side of his eagle-shaped body. His phoenix’s scream echoed down the street, shattering every window for a half-mile radius.

  I winced as the high decibel made my ears ring. The Lycans around me moaned in pain.

  Xerxes was blinked away a second later. Followed quickly by Manda, held in a chokehold by another Djinn. The rest of the Djinn soldiers teleported away as well, and the street fell quiet except for the hot heavy breath of the pissed off dragon.

  Jared had already returned to human form, the phoenix he’d been only moments ago a whisper of a memory. His booted footsteps pounded the asphalt.

  “Let’s go!” he shouted, running past me.

  The human soldiers would be here soon. The alarms downtown had already sounded. Their haunting wails echoed through the empty streets. Soon trucks and men would fill these roads. If we were still here, we’d all be dead.

  Magick shimmered around the huge black dragon as he transformed. It only took a few moments for Mikjáll to emerge, his human irises still fiery orange and angry.

  “The bastard just ran!” he shouted, racing toward the rest of us.

  I nodded, pointing to a mother hobbling toward us with a small baby in her arms. “You’ll get your chance another day. Help them!”

  He glanced at the pair and growled, but shifted his path in mid-stride, scooping up the woman and baby without missing a step.

  The Lycan holding my hand was doing his best to wrench his arm from my grasp. Wasn’t going to happen. I was a hell of a lot stronger. My fingers tightened around his wrist a little more as I glanced across the street again to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anyone.

  I turned to the struggling Lycan male and snarled, “If I let you go, the Djinn can grab both of us! Quit fighting. I won’t leave anyone behind.”

  Mikjáll reached my side and paused.

  “Take a breath,” I ordered. “You’ll need it.”

  I put an arm around Mikjáll’s waist and another around the Lycan. Then blurred them down the street toward the rest of our group. The buildings flew past us, and I pushed through the pain of carrying so many at once.

  I would need to feed soon. But first, we needed to hightail it out of Savannah.

  “Thanks for the lift, vampire.” Mikjáll rolled his neck and took another deep breath as I let him go.

  “Eira,” I answered. “And thank you for sticking with us.”

  “Like you said,” Mikjáll sighed, “I’ll get another chance. But they might not.” He flicked his gaze to the woman and baby cradled in his arms. They were both quiet, the mother wide-eyed and trembling.

  “I’m sorry I was panicking, Eira,” the Lycan said, his wrist still firmly held in my grasp.

  I nodded and tugged him into a quick jog. Then turned again to Mikjáll and the human parcel in his large arms. She was so tiny in comparison and looked to be of Asian descent, perhaps Japanese. It was hard to tell. Her face was gaunt, like she’d barely eaten in a month. The baby was young enough to still be nursing, but even its cheeks were thinner than they should’ve been. Her scraggly black hair had streaks of bright orange, but her eyes truly held my attention.

  She wasn’t Lycan.

  The irises swirled with multiple colors like mother-of-pearl inside an abalone shell.

  She met my gaze, and I heard her heart speed up inside her chest.

  What had she been doing with the Mason wolves? Had Manda not realized there were other prisoners when she freed them? Or had that woman and her baby somehow been mixed up in the group on the way out?

  I jogged faster, pulling along the Lycan next to me. Killían was up just a little farther, also holding hands with one of the Lycans from the street.

  “Eira,” Killían spoke. “I was worried.”

  I released the male I was holding onto and Killían did the same with the female, allowing them to partner up so that he and I could do the same.

  His touch sent a calming sensation through my body. Peaceful thoughts replaced the anxious ones that had been building inside me. We had survived an encounter with Xerxes and his Djinn. It was no small feat.

  “We’re not out of the storm, yet, my beloved.”

  I turned, meeting his soft blue gaze. “I know. But at least I am at your side once more.”

  He nodded.

  Mikjáll’s light footsteps sounded behind us just before he spoke. “The SUVs have been found. We can’t use them.”

  “Everyone stop,” I yelled, whirling to face the Drakonae. “What do you see?”

  He stared into the distance. “A regimented group advancing in formation toward the area where we parked the vehicles.”

  A growl rumbled in my throat. Fuck. There were no safe houses this close to Savannah. I couldn’t think of anyone the pack trusted to take all of us in without drawing dangerous attention to themselves.

  I continued to rack my brain. We couldn’t just stand here off the side of the highway. We had to keep moving.

  “We can steal cars,” Mikjáll offered.

  “No,” Jared said, stepping up next to us. “They are all GPS tracked.”

  The Drakonae male shrugged.

  Charlie stepped forward, leaning most of her weight on Garrett’s shoulder. “There’s one place we can hide near here. There’s an abandoned gold mine a few miles off. We used to stay there in emergencies, but they welded it shut a few years ago. Since we have Mikjáll, we should be able to get inside.”

  “Which way?” I asked.

  “Up the highway. There’s a turnoff for a farm to market road. 1632. We take that west,” she answered. “We should be able to hole up there and let everyone get some rest before moving out tomorrow night.”

  With Mikjáll and his heat vision leading the way, the rest of the group followed silently behind him. Jared and Alek brought up the rear, erasing as many traces of our trail as possible.

  “How are you feeling?” Killian’s hand tightened around mine.

  I squeeze back and flashed him a quick smile. “I’ll be fine. We need to get to the mine.”

  “You need to feed.”

  “I know,” I whispered. The thirst ached throughout my body, burning like a wildfire on dry brush. Blurring with them had eaten up the last bits of energy I had stored. I could only pray that nothing happened between here and the mine, because I truly would be absolutely useless.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  EIRA

  A half hour later, we were following Charlie off the farm road and along a gravel drive. There had been no sign that any of the soldiers from Savannah had picked up our trail yet.

  Everyo
ne needed a rest, myself notwithstanding. More importantly, I needed to feed. I was just worried about how much.

  Mikjáll melted through the steel grate barring our entrance to the dark mine, then pulled it out, and bent it backward so that we could slip between it and the rock wall.

  Inside, Jared lit up both his hands, illuminating the tunnel enough for all of us to find a spot to sit without tripping over the tracks in the center of the shaft.

  “How long can you keep those night lights on?” Garrett called out, leaning his shoulder against the wall and sliding down to the ground with a thud.

  Jared chuckled. “A while. But I’d like some rest, too. So everyone get comfy, and maybe we can catch some shut-eye before we start out of here.”

  The roar of a chopper overhead made all of us wince and Jared lowered his flaming hands a second later, plunging us all into semi-dark. But it was better than being spotted.

  Mikjáll moved to the mouth of the tunnel and crouched low. If anything came near, he’d be able to see it through the darkness before any of the rest of us. Rumbling growls resonated through the tunnel.

  No one was going to sleep.

  “We can’t stay here, Eira.” Charlie groaned as she settled on the ground next to Travis. “Not if they already have the soldiers searching out this far.”

  I stretched my neck and sighed. I didn’t need to sigh or breathe, but psychologically, it felt good to release tension that way.

  “The farthest I could move everyone is the old house on Blackshear Lake. But I’ll need to feed several times to carry so many.” I surveyed the group. Seven of us had come to Savannah. Only seven Lycans were returning with us. Then the mystery woman and her baby. I didn’t know what she was, but for now, it didn’t matter. She needed help just like the rest.

  Fifteen people and a baby to carry two hundred miles. The trips would be easier if I took them one at a time. Especially when taking the men. They were more than double my weight. But that meant I would have to blur… I counted it up in my head and frowned.

  “Please, take what you need. Please just help us.” A frail voice from the corner spoke up. It was the woman and baby Mikjáll had carried off the street.

  “Hush. She’s not taking any of your blood,” the Drakonae growled.

  If I wasn’t mistaken, I detected a fair amount of possessiveness in his demeanor already.

  “You can have as much of my blood as you need. I’m sure the others will be willing to feed you as well. No one else can travel as fast as you can,” he continued, turning to face me, his eyes still glowing with orange flame. “If I thought I could fly us out of here, I would. But I fear that would only draw more attention.”

  “Yeah, that didn’t work out very well for your mother. I’m going to have to say no to the flying dragon plan.”

  Mikjáll let the corners of his mouth turn up for just a moment.

  “Thank you, though,” I said, placing my hand on his forearm. “I will need your blood especially. After several trips, I will be dragging.”

  Killían leaned against my shoulder. “You can do this, my love. We will help you any way we can.”

  “You are welcome to my blood as well, Eira,” Jared called out.

  Alek raised his hand and waved, acknowledging my request.

  Perhaps, with enough help from them, I could pull this off. The wolves wouldn’t feed me, and I knew not to ask. Travis and Garrett were doing their absolute best not to make eye contact. Even Charlie’s gaze remained glued to the floor. Her guilt cried out so loud it could’ve raised the dead.

  It didn’t matter. Lycans were a superstitious bunch. No matter that I’d practically lived with the pack for years, none of them felt comfortable donating even a single drop of their blood. Always concerned they’d fall under my thrall.

  Killían cupped my face in his hands and pressed a kiss to my lips. His mouth covered mine with a hunger I wished we had time to explore. Instead, I was going to run cross-country, hopefully moving our group far enough away that Xerxes would call off his soldiers.

  He’d lost this one.

  At least I hoped that’s what he thought. There still was the matter of the dagger he was after.

  I ran my hands through Killían’s thick, sandy blonde head of hair and then pulled away from his hungry mouth. Gods, I wanted to just stay and kiss him, but the rumble of another helicopter nearing the mine brought my fantasizing mind crashing down to our dire reality.

  “Alright. I need to feed before I start. I hate to ask for more, my love. But—”

  “I’ll manage, Eira. Take what you need.”

  I could see Killían in the dark. The tiny bit of firelight Jared was throwing off from his hands glistened against his skin. His bright blue eyes sparked with desire, and he nodded, leaning his head to the side, baring his neck for my bite.

  The sound of his heart beating and his blood rushing through his veins clamored in my head. My fangs descended, and the hunger I’d been ignoring since the fight overwhelmed me as I sank my teeth into his neck.

  The sweet taste of his blood flowed into my mouth, revitalizing my tired body. The hint of magick in his blood was powerful in its own right. Even though Killían had no extraordinary powers, the magick that made him live thousands of years coursed through his veins, making his blood very strong and very satisfying without drinking a lot.

  I sealed his skin where I’d bitten and pulled away, licking my lips. I could’ve drunk more. I wanted more. But I wanted him strong and coherent, too. We had a long night ahead of us, and he would likely have to feed me at least once more, if not twice. I needed to pace myself.

  “I should take one of you first,” I said, turning to Garrett and Travis.

  Travis stood and nodded. “I’ll go. How long will it be between your runs?”

  “I can get to the lake house in less than five minutes.”

  His eyes widened. “Two hundred miles in a few minutes?”

  A sigh slipped from my mouth. “Yes.”

  “I knew vampires were fast, but damn…”

  “Yes, well. We try not to broadcast our talents to the world, either. Mikjáll, will you push open the gateway?”

  The Drakonae nodded and pushed aside the steel grate, letting in a swath of bright moonlight.

  I grabbed Travis before another word could be spoken and ran. The landscape passed by as if we were in a jet plane. Everything was a dark grey and blue blur. The ground flew beneath my feet, changing from dirt to grass to pavement and again to grass. I stopped next to a rundown lake house and set Travis’ large form on the ground.

  He stood and bent at the waist, sucking in deep breaths trying to regain his bearings.

  “You… You c-could’ve at least warned m-me,” he coughed out.

  “Where would the fun have been in that?”

  He grinned at my retort and gestured with a hand to the house behind him. “How do I get in?”

  “I recommend the door.”

  “No shit, Sherlock.” His eyes flashed yellow, and a growl rumbled from his chest.

  A snort of laughter left my mouth. “The spare key is behind a loose brick underneath the big bay window.”

  “Thanks.”

  I nodded. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  He waved me off, and I left, running even faster without a body to carry.

  The area around the mine was quiet when I returned, but that didn’t mean they weren’t already closing in on our position.

  I stopped just outside the door and tapped on the steel. “It’s me.”

  A moment later, it moved, and Mikjáll stepped aside so I could enter.

  “Any trouble?” Charlie stepped forward in the dim firelight.

  I shook my head. “It was quiet. I didn’t hear any heartbeats close by.”

  “We haven’t used the lake house in almost a year. It shouldn’t be on their watch list, and it’s off the main highway,” she added.

  “You’re next, Charlie,” I said, stepping closer.
“Take a deep breath.”

  “Wh—aa.”

  I didn’t give her time to argue. Even though there were no signs that the SECR knew where we were at the moment, I could return from the lake house and find all of them captured or dead. Each time I left the mine, my head filled with visions of my dead friends on the side of the river. I didn’t want to lose the few I had left.

  When I set her down on the stoop to the lake house, she shuddered and gasped for a breath.

  Travis opened the front door. “Come on in. Eira, you doing okay?”

  I was semi-okay. My thirst was high, but I needed to make at least one more round trip before asking someone to feed me again. The hunger I felt right now was only a dull ache.

  “I’m fine.” I waved him off and left Charlie in his very capable and eager hands.

  I ended up making two more trips, bringing Garrett and one of the other Lycans over before I really felt my hunger overwhelm me.

  The young man I’d just dropped off smelled like the sweetest wine. I licked my lips and felt the tips of my fangs descending. My mouth watered with each thump thump of his heart. I could almost hear the rush and flow through his veins, the same sound people hear when they put their ear to a seashell. It’s not the ocean, but the echo of the blood flowing inside your body.

  “Eira?” Charlie’s voice called from the porch as the latest drop-off left my side. I glanced up and frowned. “You need to drink before you return again.”

  “It’s more important to get everyone away from that mine as quickly as possible. I’m used to going hungry. I’ll be fine.”

  “You were eyeing poor Landry’s neck like I’d eye a piece of prime rib.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I dashed down the road. Away from the lake house. Away from the sound of Charlie worrying over me.

  I was fine.

  We didn’t have time to stop. I didn’t have time to stop. Everyone was depending on me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  XERXES

  “I should’ve killed that fucking dragon when I had the chance!” I threw the crystal lowball glass in my hand against the wall and glared at Manda from across the room. “Now there are four Drakonae living in Sanctuary instead of just those two lonely, miserable bastards.”