“Lord Jetten has already built terrific allies in the political world. I was forced to keep it quiet allowing our world to iron out its differences before we could involve the humans. My wife, a persistent one of the gods, has a way of making you do things that aren’t of this earth.”
The room held in a laugh at his implications, all of the implied ones that were political and not so political.
“With Cord being human, we can retrace the lines that have fallen between our worlds. When the time is right, we can reveal our natures to them. They are not that different from us and many moons ago, were aligned in one accord. The stars tell their stories as well as ours. If we want to keep from destroying ourselves, we have to find a way to combine efforts. It will be slow, the process long and painful, but we’ve already endured the greater side of it. One step at a time.”
My father, not known for speeches, look jaded with the past. I asked without thinking ahead, “Does this mean that you have shared every ounce of information that could be shared from Anat and that from this day on there isn’t a surprise that will exit your being as to what the future holds?” It was formal and silly sounding, but it didn’t feel right saying, “Hey dad, do you have anymore secrets from my dead goddess mother and can you still fortune tell what happens next?”
A laugh emerged from my tired father with his graying hair unknown to most Valkyrie, “No. I am spent. I leave the faction to my son. I leave the supernatural hold to my daughter. I have done all that was asked of me and now I consider myself retired.”
Both my shoulders and Szar’s visibly lifted and fell. It was a nice feeling.
We discussed letting Cord meet with Lord Jetten and arranging a tour of Texican. It was an odd topic, but Cord seemed to feel important and a sense of pride seemed to overwhelm his emotions making me think he needed this. If it was a bridge to the humans, it would be a good thing.
Cord and I would be announced as the king and queen of the supernatural world. It was an odd way of doing it to me even if that was the way of things before. Lord Jetten felt it would give over a kind of respect to see that a Valkryie princess and Vampire lord united. I guess my mother knew what she was doing after all. It was the beginning of acceptance and relations between the races. The humans just didn’t want to believe they were the only ones out there.
Lord Jetten explained the sword to my father and the five of us, the marked ones. He said that my mother searched it out with the intentions of giving it to him in hopes of reinstating the Elf faction. Drac, the very archaic Vampire who was around for more history than I want to admit, took it first. It was the reason Lord Jetten returned. Not safe in the earth, the sword called its owner. Lord Jetten was the rightful owner of the Elf made sword with material that could only be created from the gods. One specific goddess. My mother came to Lord Jetten rewarding him for his bravery in a battle once. My mother was in my eyes, the biggest deceiver in the tale. She caused the war hoping to end the crime she committed by creating me and stopping it. It was a cruelty I didn’t care to spend much time on no matter the outcome.
Her only gift I would never give back, Cassius Cross.
CHAPTER THIRTY
…what they wish.
There was no more hiding the “marked ones” from the factions. We were announced and heroized as gods, funny enough. The stories of what happened at the Hunter school when I was taken ranged from my death to my kidnapping by virtually every faction but my father’s at the time. Our tattoos were sometimes most elaborate and superiorly decorative across unknown regions of the body. As far as I knew, that wasn’t true. I wouldn’t be the one to ask either.
And our powers, well, they were beyond the regular super hero. Geez, we might as well put it in a book and write down as a great story for our kids. At least the fairy tale ending part was true.
Returning the Godslayer to the Elves was the only way to get them on board and the mother knew it. Lives were lost to save the majority. Isn't that opposite of a fairy tale? I admonished myself often over the last few days for formally being so happy at Dyer Lee's expense.
Borgon’s few Elves left, filled Lord Jetten in on the how’s of how they guiltily handed the sword over to the Hunter rogue in exchange for more control of the factions after stealing it back from Drac. He found it hidden among the Elf treasures that without a leader has been unguarded. Elves protested at first, but his promises sounded better than the filth they’d been reduced to. When he bound them to slavery if they didn’t comply with his demands, they killed his family giving him the leeway to unleash any means to win a war that he didn’t care about in the first place. Why did the Elves just do what he said? Because like all groups of people, they look to a leader. They just didn’t see that they have always needed one. Or what qualities he should hold.
Cleopatra. Her story was fascinating to research. It was much like my own. It was the story of how the gods created one before me to solve a wrong except her downfall at fixing it all. She was a Valkyrie princess known as the Pharaoh of Egypt who messed up by trying to stay in control and have dictatorship-like power. She destroyed all those around her and therefore ended her own ability to reign. With no allies or anyone to do her dirty work (should have been for the greater good) she ended herself in the end. I was no Cleopatra, but I'd like to think I beat her a little. After all, she failed.
My father left the court altogether. He, believe it or not, went to teach classes at the Hunter school. I’ve spent a lot of time saying phrases like “you won’t believe what just happened” in the past year. That particular phrase can’t hold merit anymore. Valkyrie lords teaching Hunters was a major milestone.
And I went back to my home. Cas. Our lives could never be the same, but it will be what we make it. I don’t think we interpreted the marriage part of the prophecy just right, but I’m thankful for it nonetheless. If the two suns become one made a difference by Cas and I being joined together, I’m grateful. I’ve never felt as fulfilled as I am when we are together.
“Hi there, oh protected one.” Cas’ warm breath tickled my neck.
I faced him in the light of the bulb located right above our heads being forced a few inches over to avoid it. My pulse quickened telling Cas what affect he still had on me. When his fingers guided gingerly over my cheeks and down to my neckline, I almost died when I realized he’d followed the line of my blush.
“Take a breath, Kissa.”
Whoa. He spoke aloud. That was the kind of thing he usually reserved for our privacy only. I drew a tremulous breath obeying his command.
"I like to see your reaction when something new crosses your path.”
I didn’t know if I could respond to that just yet. Every single second of each day brings me “new paths” lately but the carefully created facade I’d created as Anastacia the badass was absent when Cas was focused on me like no one else existed in the world. I was as soft as grape jelly.
“It’s time to meet the guys,” I heard him whisper.
Ugh! I just wanted to stay here, alone. That is why he locked us in the closet.
That requires getting out of a locked closet you hid us in.
I didn’t mean to push into it. It’s just that Claire wouldn’t stop talking and Szar and Calum were in the Sun room fighting over the television and which football game to watch. I wanted alone time with my husband.
Or we could go upstairs.
“Yeah, cuz’ they wouldn’t notice.”
Since when have you cared? He nuzzled my neck.
Nej! Never.
Reluctantly, we joined the guys for a day of “fun” and nothing dangerous entering our conversations. It was relaxing and just plain normal in the grand scheme of things. The days were like that now.
Szar made a stupid comment about my hair all mused up from our little escapade when we reentered the Sun room. Cord made vulgar noises.
“Moron,” Calum and I spoke in unison and then smiled hugely. That was the breath I was holding. Calum’s humor. My bro
ther’s approval. Cord’s usual self. They were who they were and not what a god or anyone else told them to be.
When Claire wheeled in a cart filled with everything chocolate under the sun, I was in heaven.
A mad dash was made for the cart from every abled body in the room. That meant them all. All the guys high fived the air in a scramble and yelled EPIC. It was planned, but it was great. Balanced like us as a whole. In the end, I rolled my eyes and joined them. They were right—
the life we have led and will lead, is EPICALLY proportioned to be everything we choose to be.
EPILOGUE
Like and equal…are not the same things at all.
There is no absolute truth. I could exist without Cassius Cross, but not live. As sad a truth as it is to reach in conclusion, the reality of it is just this...we are who we make ourselves to be. No one can decide for you. Not a god, not a person, not anyone. I’ve loved and I’ve lost.
I will live out what I have left of my life cherishing the memories of who molded me into the person I am, not what the heavens deemed me to be. I have moments I would change, done differently, but my mother reminded me that even then, life sometimes has a way of circumventing fate and making it happen anyway.
Gravity!
It is what holds us here.
Love! It is the gravitational pull that grounds us to the earth. Hate! It’s what pulls us apart.
Destiny! It’s what decides our fate only after we accept that it was DESTINY in the first place.
The Valkyire, the Hunter, the Vampire, the Were and now the Elf working together as one.
Side Scene
from
Cas’s POV of within the confines of Drac’s clutches
The cabin cell was empty like we thought. The bat crazy Nara was out and no doubt, headed straight for Anastacia.
Ryan and I didn’t mince words, we just headed back to my place. If she wasn’t there yet, she would be.
Before we could get far, we were intercepted by Drac. I’ve never told anyone the man changed his name from Frederick to a shortened form of Dracula. But one day I might. He was one scary ass man, but at one time I was told he was a gutter rat whose only job prior to becoming a Vampire was a thief.
“What do you want?”
The rich laugh he liked to use for amusement, but was meant as an intimidation tool, didn’t work on me. Becoming the rank I am, it just doesn’t hold merit. But he held leverage over me at the moment I didn’t know he had already.
“It is not a matter of what I want at this point, for I have it. What you have to decide now dear son of mine is whether she is worth it.”
Anastacia.
“Is currently lying in her own blood at the base of your manor with my sweet daughter holding a certain weapon above her neck. Or rather, she will before too long. We know where to look for it.”
Cord was silent in the seat of the Hummer. He had his weapons drawn and ready, but he knew to stay still and in silence. Attacking the man who stopped our vehicle without strength going seventy miles per hour down a highway wasn’t going to get what he wanted.
I gripped the hood of the car to hold my tongue and my thoughts. “I repeat, what do you want?”
He lit a cigarette and watched me with slow intent. His attire matching my own in the dark, a human would see the lit tobacco and nothing else.
“If you want her alive, you will come with me.”
I have never had a choice. It has always been about this girl. It will be my end. Anastacia consumes my brain and leads my steps. I will do what it takes to have her safe. A man really will do anything for the right girl. I’d never admit that aloud. And it’s the only way men would come together in the gods eyes. For her.
I shoved myself in the Hummer and drove to Drac’s.
Without a second to lose, I slammed the door to his lazy drawn sit down in the middle of his club across the street from where Cord, Calum, and Szar one stood waiting at my own.
“Talk!”
“My offer still stands from before. You take Naracrissa as your own and I will let all my men separate from Borgon and his stupidity.”
“It won’t happen.”
The cigarette flamed once before he continued, “I will have her stand down if and only if you do a job for me?”
The door opened beside me. A familiar face that, until now, I wagered going strictly to Borgon after the hell he’s been through. He closed the door and waited for an announcement or proclamation for he knew what this meeting was about. It was written all over his Hunter face.
“This Hunter came to me. He wishes to help Borgon, but needs a new armor. If you make him one of us, I will stand down with Naracrissa and leave your female Shadow Queen alone. But you have to also. I want her out of the manor and away from our people.”
“What purpose does that serve?”
“Naracrissa will abandon this idiocy and return to her own. Her determination to have you blinds her ability to act appropriately.”
No argument there. “Done!”
Drac opened his phone and dialed a number. His fingers moved across the keypad, and then it closed.
I texted the three in wait across the street with what I wanted. Anastacia would never understand, but she would question the validity. This would be over in a week and I would hold her in my arms again for a month if it means making her know it was all for her own safety.
I didn’t hear from any of them for longer than I cared for. When the deal was struck, I set to the task within minutes. I didn’t speak to Dr. Mar Quinn about the whys, I just bit his damn neck and started the process. It would take a careful estimated amount to turn a person to one of us. And this man was a Hunter.
I am not coming back. Plz listen to Szar
I didn’t know how else to say it without sounding hateful. I just stared at the phone and typed the only message I could send.
Go on wo me. Not everything we say is within our own ability to make come to pass.
Nothing was returned and for the first time in months, I felt more alone than I ever had. It was like death to say I didn’t care for her. Hopefully, my girl is sharp and reads into my words.
Days passed. Another text came through. It was the first from her I’d seen since I told her to leave me.
Calum missing. Will U help?
I texted Cord with the whys.
Hours later, I knew where he was. Where I asked him to be. At my court, watching Nara unpack her things in my girl’s room. He’d been investigating across the street at my club, trying to find out more about Borgon’s plans and spending the nights watching my manor. I hated telling her nothing, but Calum was fine. She would know soon enough.
NO
My text was quick and my phone was off. I hated myself.
A few days more and Quinn and I hadn’t spoken once. I needed to know his intentions because I had a pretty good idea, it wasn’t for Borgon. I told Drac I was taking him to the blood bank. Drac laughed at my ways of eating and gave Quinn the long speech of our kind and ingrained survival instincts. When he was finished, I told him I was going anyway. He didn’t stop me, but his anger was present.
“If you want to send a man to follow, fine. Just make sure he keeps his distance.” I needed to talk to Quinn.
The ride there was the key. We were followed, but we weren’t heard. I learned that he did in fact at one time want to off my beloved. But is was short lived and out of hate. Hate was an emotion I could understand.
When they took Szar to get to Stace with a two-sided duplicity going between both sides, Borgon called himself enlisting Quinn to his side. It turns out, Borgon was replaced with Quinn in the Hunter school and all his animosity roots from that replacement. When Borgon’s family was threatened, he did the same to Quinn. At the risk of losing his wife and children, Quinn agreed to send information about Anastacia while she stayed at the Hunter school. In turn, Quinn hoped the messages he sent to Anastacia were effective enough to get her brother safe, and her to en
d this whole fiasco by fulfilling the legacy they set her with. In his mind, it would be quick and done and his family safe.
It didn’t pan out that way.
When his family was murdered in their sleep, Quinn took a different course. As any man would. He initially intended to take down Anastacia, blaming her for the death of his family. But when he came to his senses, he called his only nephew and made it clear what his intentions really were. He would filter information, false or with purpose, to the enemy and allow the information Lee sent out to be enough to keep him alive also. They worked together with Lord Hathown and Dr. Green to assure that I didn’t know so that Anastacia wouldn’t. When I asked Quinn if he was really that untrusting to me as the lord of my faction and the safety of my people or Stace, he laughed. He told me he knew we could read each other too well and he made a promise to Dyer Lee to keep it from her.
I accepted it, but didn’t agree. If Anastacia knew how much has been kept from her, she’d nail me to a wall and leave me there in the sun to stew in pain. And the other three would hang with me. Of that I would make sure.
Quinn asked to become a Vampire to appear joining Borgon and take out my girl, but in reality, it was to make him strong enough to take out the whole gang. He wanted Borgon and everyone with it, dead. I couldn’t say I didn’t agree. Just the part about becoming a Vampire. It wasn’t going to make him invincible, just thirsty.
With a new ally, I felt this thing to be over before it could escalate too much further. Quinn agreed to help me take Drac out.
Before another day could pass, Anastacia Anat Hathown showed up in the very room I never intended for her to ever step foot in.
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