by Setta Jay
Her limbs were humming, and instinct rang clear as she tested her ability. A mental thought was all it took for the chains to clink and fall loose against the bars. It was loud to her newly Immortal hearing.
She stilled. It was too much power… She shouldn’t be so adept at using an ability she’d only had for hours… days? Yet, she’d used the telekinesis as if she were born with it. That in itself was confirmation of how frighteningly powerful she was already becoming. She’d gone from mortal to Immortal and she felt engulfed with more ability than any one being should possess, her and the shadow both. But the beast felt stronger.
What would she be in another month? A year? Her beast’s rage slammed against the walls of her mind, jolting her thoughts.
She was out of time.
She had to end this now, before she lost all ability to reason.
She choked back a sob as her body shuddered with power and animal rage.
She let the fire inside her build to give her the added grounding she needed. The bars smoked, filling her with the memory of what she used to be as she mentally scanned for the location of her mate. A roar of fire and rage tinted her vision as she cried out again, but she pushed back the beast.
Thank the Creators her mind was protected from him or he’d know every impulse running in her head.
She used her ability to click the cuffs back over her wrists, feeling the cold metal on her skin, but not the drain to her power. A chill ran down her spine again. Metal always drained Immortal abilities, yet she wasn’t feeling the lull. She felt like she might be more powerful than Cyril ever imagined.
She took one more breath before mentally calling out to him. Something’s wrong. She panted, infusing her voice with fear.
What’s wrong? His mental tone demanded answers, but she also felt a hint of anxiety. Was he worried that if something happened to her, it could happen to him as well? She hoped so. He cared for nothing but himself and power.
She pulled air into her lungs. Having his voice in her head made her skin crawl as if she were covered in serpents. She fought the sickening sensation eating at her gut as her beast turned her vision back to crimson.
She wanted his blood. A deadly growl slipped from her lips.
She infused the link with all the fear and panic she was feeling, because the need for death was pulling at her, the beast trying to take control.
Talk to me! he demanded, but she couldn’t, even if she wanted to. She let whimpers slip through their link as she tracked his movements in her mind. He wasn’t more than a handful of miles away when another voice filled her mind. Delia.
She stilled.
Alex and Uri. The female and her Guardian mate had come into her head after she’d been injected with the drug. Something that felt like a lifetime ago, but was only hours… a day? Two? It didn’t matter. They wanted to help her, had told her they would do anything they could, but it was too late, she was beyond help from the moment the drug was injected into her veins.
We have a location for the other females and we’ll find you next. Is Cyril with you? Alex’s voice was calm and concerned.
He’ll be here with me in moments, Delia informed them. But she couldn’t do or say more. Her beast was fighting too hard for control.
We’ll come for you. We will help you, Delia.
Her eyes shot open, the animal rising in feral excitement. Cyril was there. She bent her head forward as she fought back the bloodlust threatening to take her under. Her arms were shaking as she let filthy auburn waves obscure her face. Whimpers slipped from her lips, not entirely feigned. She was losing it, and remembering that she’d made those same sounds when he’d violated her only made the beast slam inside her skull again. It was demanding freedom, a freedom she could never allow.
She heard Cyril’s furious, panicked voice calling out to her. A second later her cell door slammed open and he was kneeling in front of her. His sickening sweet scent would have made her gag hours ago. His sculpted features, black hair and violet eyes hid a monster. Without thought she recoiled from him.
She steeled her resolve, forcing herself to act.
A snick of power and her cuffs slipped away. With lightning speed she encased his wrists in the very same iron that had imprisoned her. She wasn’t sure it would siphon any of his power, but she hoped it would at least catch him off guard, and it had. His eyes shot wide a split second before her shaking hand clawed desperately into his chest. She used the power he’d given her, the power he had as a healer. His sharp gasp was beautiful music to the creatures inside her mind, the beasts savored the silence of the bastard’s heartbeat. Her face tilted back as she started losing control. Her entire body was shaking as she watched the fear in his eyes while she used his own ability against him. Pure animal pleasure filled her as he fought against her power. Flames burst to blinding life from her fingers into his chest, engulfing his black heart.
The shadow roared and rampaged inside her body. The beast was in her eyes, reflected back from Cyril’s own wide gaze. That sight frightened her enough to keep her hold. She couldn’t let it free. The Guardians’ voices were drowned out by Cyril’s shocked cries as the flames burned.
Was she sobbing? She felt her body shaking.
Cyril’s last sight was of his own tortured creation destroying him. It left her shivering and weak limbed. Too worried about the beast to think of anything more than finishing it, taking away any small chance that he could come back from this.
She knew Alex and Uri were still in her head and she let them see what she was seeing. Her ears were buzzing so loud, too loud, as something was ripped from her mind. The link to him was severed. She cried out and breathed through it, happy to have it gone, but the pain was shattering her skull, allowing the beast an avenue to claw free.
Alex and Uri were calling her back; she couldn’t hear full words or understand them. She only knew they were the ones saving her from the beast. They’d given her enough strength to end it.
She sucked in more air through her painfully dry throat.
Delia gazed into the unseeing eyes of her tormentor and memories assaulted her. She covered her ears as if that would stop the nightmares he’d given her. She was seeing his memories along with her own horrors as he’d forced his blood down her throat to complete their mating bond. All the horrors he’d committed were in her mind as if watching it play out in front of her eyes.
Clawing, howling beasts were wild inside her head.
The memories stopped so suddenly she staggered, falling to her knees on the hard stone and metal ground. She cried out as her body rocked back and forth, fighting with everything she had.
Blood. Blood, the nightmare shadow beast demanded inside her mind.
She shook her head, but it was almost as if she was moving in slow motion. Alex and Uri were trying to help her again. Nothing felt real, but she focused on her sisters’ faces; their images were hazy, but there.
Harsh breaths escaped as she rose and walked on shaking legs through the open cell door and out of the room. She found a blade in another room and her limbs slacked for a second as she lifted it, knowing it was the blade Cyril had used on the Lykos. Her first mate. The male he’d used to test her with. Her own wolf cried out in the corner of her mind. The animals weren’t fighting each other; they were now working together to gain control of her to feel their tormentor’s blood on their hands, her hands…
Blood.
Sobs racked her body as she gripped the hilt tight and re-entered the cell. One swift slice and Cyril’s head lolled. Blood pooled on the cold cave floor and she couldn’t look away as the animals reveled in it. They wanted to feel it on her skin. What was scary was how much she wanted that too.
The thought revolted her; the fear of what she was capable of solidified her resolve.
Summoning all her strength, she called to the fire and allowed the inferno to run free, burning his body to ash.
Wild fury vied for control as the beasts inside slammed into her skull. It had to stop. She
cried out in pain and gripped her head, the blade still held tight in her grip.
She heard the Guardians. She allowed her mental shield to slip enough to give them a glimpse of what she planned, because she couldn’t say the words, not even mentally. She gave them more than they needed to know, let them understand what the monster had done to her. Let them see just how dangerous she was and that all she wanted was peace away from the horrors that had been done to her. That every Immortal would want her, would try to claim her or go mad. She could never be with others and she’d never be free of the nightmares. Not when she housed the blood of a monster. Soon she’d be a nightmare too. She allowed them to see just enough, but not everything. And then she turned the blade on herself.
It was too long, so she lifted it with power.
The beasts both raged as she used a sharp hit of telekinesis. A pained scream wrenched from her lips as the cold metal lodged into her heart. With nearly the last of her remaining will, she summoned enough flames to sweep over the room and lick over her body. She kicked the Guardians out of her mind and sent a last thought of love to her baby sisters, along with one silent prayer for death.
A death that never came.
Something else rose instead.
Chapter 1
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
Delia rubbed her fingers over the soft emerald material of the lush sweater she held as the healer left the room again. It was just another addition to the comforts Drake had provided her with over the last month. Many of which had burned in those first weeks when her beast raged, but that hadn’t stopped him. If one was destroyed, another would show up in its place, until her small room was as luxurious as it could be. She loved the warmth he tried to afford her, but his greatest gift hadn’t been tangible.
He’d saved her, whether he saw it that way or not.
She closed her eyes and wished for the impossible. To be able to claim the dragon as her own. She opened her eyes and slipped the soft material over her arms and pulled it tight around her waist. The fabric hugged her body as she settled into the cozy chair next to the bed.
Her current clarity wouldn’t last. All too soon she’d be in another battle for control and sanity, so she forced her mind to work on containing what she could. It was as if she were constantly applying patches to a broken dam. One day there would be too many cracks and it would all come crashing down over her, taking everything in its path. She was doing everything she could to stop that from happening.
*****
Drake crossed his arms over his wide chest as his Guardians and their mates strode into the war room. It only made him think of his own mate. Smoke slipped from his lips, thinking of the female he’d been forced to cage for her own fucking good. He bit back the rage that came with those thoughts.
In the last few months his warriors had all been finding their fated halves. It was something none of them had expected because Guardians were already so powerful. Those pairings equaled power along with the ability to have young.
It had to be happening for a purpose. One he suspected was already at their fucking doorstep.
“Sit down,” he growled. He didn’t have time to waste. Tension settled around the room as everyone slipped into seats. The air was already thick with smoke filtering to the exhaust fans. His dragon half was getting more and more impatient as the seconds ticked by.
They were all on edge after the battle the day before. Losing didn’t come easily to any of them, least of fucking all him. But that was exactly what had happened. Unknown warriors had slipped in from thin air and taken Apollo just as they’d been about to retrieve the bastard God.
When he saw Sirena enter, he demanded, “How is Sacha?”
The blonde healer shook her head, frowning. “She’s still unconscious. Her blood work doesn’t show anything alarming, she just won’t wake up.” Sacha was the only Guardian hit with some mysterious poison from a beast the unknown warriors had brought with them. If the beast hadn’t disappeared with the warriors and their dead, they might have more answers to help his downed Guardian. Instead he was left with more damned questions than answers and a fucking God in unknown hands. Now he was about to awaken another damned Deity to help find the one they’d lost.
He didn’t waste time; he bit out the reason for the meeting, “I’m waking Hades.”
The room went silent.
The mystery warriors hadn’t only taken Apollo right from under their noses, they’d left without leaving a single clue, somehow disappearing with both their dead and their weapons. The only trace left was their blood on the ground. Sirena, his Guardian healer, had been busy testing all the samples recovered. It was all they had and it wasn’t giving him anything helpful to go on. It only told them that the warriors were something close to dragons or Phoenix, but not as powerful.
It was Uri’s voice that rose over the curses of his warriors and Drake’s own thoughts. “You think Hades might be able to track Apollo’s location?” Uri’s mate, Alex, was at his side, their chairs nearly touching. Alex was the daughter of Athena, and combined, her and Uri’s mental skills were incredibly strong. They were a powerful pair in general. But that hadn’t helped against the unknown warriors. The warriors’ minds had been shielded, and taking blood memories could have proven deadly.
“Maybe,” Drake bit out while pacing at the head of the table. The dragon inside him wanted freedom he didn’t have time to give. It was that or let the animal slide all over the telepathic link he now had to Delia. He wanted to growl in frustration. She’d forged it without them being in the frenzy, without having touched or even been in that same fucking room. It had happened right before the warriors arrived. She’d sensed the danger and his powerful female had forged a link from her mind to his. It put them one step closer to a mating bond that couldn’t happen until Sirena found some way to ensure Delia could survive it. Too much had happened to his female, but he had to force those thoughts away and battle the beast back down.
He needed to focus on getting Apollo back before he lost complete control of the dragon.
Apollo shouldn’t have even been outside his prison to begin with. Their enemy, Elizabeth, had found a way to free the Deity from the sleeping unit the Creators had caged him in thousands of years ago. And now, not only was the asshole loose, he’d been stolen. Drake wasn’t sure what shape the bastard was in, the God had been unconscious when they’d taken him. The warriors had blasted him multiple times with their damned energy weapons before disappearing with the asshole.
Drake hadn’t seen any of it before, not the weapons, not the impenetrable net they’d used to pin and transport the God, and definitely not the warriors.
“Well, shit,” Uri said. “It could work. Hades might be able to track Apollo through the sibling mental bond.”
“As long as he doesn’t block Hades’ telepathic call,” Drake growled impatiently. Hades was one of only three marginally good Gods. All Deities in general were narcissistic and arrogant bastards, but Hades, Athena and Aphrodite were the only three who had limits. The rest were sadistic assholes.
As long as Apollo allowed Hades call to come through, they should be able to find him and get the bastard back.
“Apollo might still be unconscious. They hit the shit out of him with those weapons,” Conn pointed out. The Lykos’ bright copper eyes were thoughtful. The playful amused wolf who handled all their technological shit was gone and in its place sat the warrior beneath the flannel and tattoos.
“It’s possible,” Drake agreed and hoped that was the case. If Apollo was still knocked out, at least he couldn’t talk. The problem was that they didn’t know a damned thing about who they were dealing with. He needed answers, and awakening Hades was the only way he could think to get them.
Smoke filtered up to the ceiling the longer he was confined inside a damned room. His back muscles pulled tight and his shoulders throbbed as the beast tried to break free of his skin.
Later. Once he had the God back and in a fu
cking cage, he’d allow the animal to vent its rage.
Apollo’s sleeping unit had been destroyed shortly after Drake’s enemy let him out, so they’d have to cage him in one of the special cells he had made long ago, in case of an emergency.
“I don’t think there’s another option. If they took Apollo for his skills in manipulating DNA, he could be helping enhancing those warriors,” Conn ground out. Apollo was the most hated God amongst Immortals for a reason. The bastard had abducted all the Immortals he could, and then experimented on them with animal DNA before treating them like cattle to breed his perfect army. Some shifted, some didn’t, but they’d all become stronger in some way.
“Exactly,” Uri agreed before he continued, his mercury eyes swirling in irritation. The male had once felt the God’s power firsthand. “Apollo is capable of anything to save his own ass, and playing mad scientist is what he loves most.”
Drake nodded. He didn’t like that there hadn’t been any leader when the warriors had come for Apollo. Someone was out there pulling strings, which added another element of mystery he didn’t fucking like.
The Creators had said the Gods would one day be needed in this world; that was why the Deities were all sent to sleep no matter how fucking demented they were. And now Drake wondered if this new threat was what the Creators had foreseen all those millennia ago.
“And what if Hades can’t find Apollo? Then what the hell do we do with him?” Sander snarled, his hazel eyes flashing overly bright against his dark tattooed skin. The Phoenix was going through his own issues. Even now the male’s shoulders were tense, his eyes glassy. Sander was hitting the worst of the mating frenzy and had yet to claim his female. Nastia had been hit with one of the energy weapons and gone down, somehow having been affected harder than any of the others. The blast had left her severely drained of energy, which was fuel for all Immortals. Sirena had set the female up in a cavern room so she could replenish her strength with the world’s energies beneath ground where it was strongest. Sander was likely keeping his distance because the frenzy was a damned nightmare of sexual need. It needed to be fed, and being in the same room with his mate and not being able to claim her would drive them both wild.