Zauran

by Poppet

  My brother...

  Raising my face to the sky, baptized of my grief with the rainbow and rain, I realize what Ryan has done for me.

  He kept her and the babies safe. He kept them all safe when we were under attack. And he gave her the greatest gift of all. A father's promise to his sons.

  Hope lodges a thick lump in my throat and I swallow the choke, scraping my neck with the pain of it.

  A hand grips my shoulder and squeezes hard.

  “Bring her.”

  I grab and hold the wrist when he makes to move away. “Thank you,” I say, speaking to the view from Topčidersko Brdo.

  Slowly he circles so he stands in front of me, staring at me with magenta pain dripping from his eyes, his veins protruding and his teeth sharp and long on his full lip.

  “She is your chosen. I love her like my own. I did what was necessary because this was a war. We were under attack and I didn't know who had you. I would have given my own life to save her.”

  My jaw clenches, understanding what he's saying. He loves her and gave her the sovereign's protection. The protection of all of us.

  This key is the key to our hearts, our blood, our divinity.

  All we are is in this key, made stone by a man of magic.

  “It's not magic, Zauran,” says Venix in his unique voice behind me.

  He comes to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ryan, in front of me.

  He loved her too. I knew it with the way he kissed her goodbye on my doorstep on another rainy day, before he absconded back to heaven to rise above the chaos of this planet.

  Venix gives me his glowing stare, “Zauran, Love would never abandon a child of such pure light.”

  He holds out his hands for Zaria.

  Swallowing hard against the pain of releasing her to anyone, I bury my pride and lift my petal, placing the fragile flower of my Zaria in Venix's cradling embrace.

  Ryan nods at me, taking the key away from me and placing it over her heart.

  Venix glows so bright, bursting light through the key's stones, illuminating Zaria and capturing them in a prism, fracturing and splitting rainbows through the endless rain.

  Like a swarm of fireflies, light specks mist in, billowing across Belgrade and up the mountainside, amassing into a glowing cloud above Venix, Ryan, and Zaria. Every neuri alive has just surrendered light to their king.

  A tug in my chest burns when a piece of my Plyx is pulled out by the summons of the sovereign we serve. It filters out of my body to join the cloud of light above Ryan, and as one it funnels into Zaria, where the key lies over her heart.

  Brilliance scorches the day like sheet lightning as Venix pulls the same summons from Spirit's source.

  Together the men who love her, save her; resurrecting my angel. Her body begins to glow with a pink brilliance, so soft it's marshmallow-pink. Jade green pulsates in her belly, and my promise blinks back into life.

  It hurts, they succeed where I will only fail.

  Ryan looks to me, speaking with the voice of a legion of angels in full flight, “Zauran, you have not failed. You gave her to those who would do anything to protect her. It takes courage to trust those with strengths you lack. Your job is to love her and be her strength. One day you will be sovereign, and she will be the one to soothe your heart. My heart has been empty of that kind of light, until you forced me to take a Slakax under my wing. I've been isolated too long. Believe me when I say, you and Zaria have forced me to realize that without love, life is meaningless.”

  Venix places Zaria across my legs, leaning her into my chest and resting her head in the hollow of my shoulder.

  “Take her home, keep her safe. I'm watching you, and I'll make sure you do the loving thing, without an ego, every step of the way,” he says.

  Immediately I recall the brutal beating at his hands, at the hands of men whose voices I recognize but can't place. Powerful angelic beings who are the only creatures who can best me.

  They made me want to die. I revisited that grief again today. I stumbled when she was ripped from me so unexpectedly. She surrendered life, for love.

  She's such a fierce defender of everything love represents, she's above the melee of life, and will forever be an angel in my eyes for what I witnessed today.

  Spirit does indeed hide in women. None more so than my Slakax petal. Her courage is love. Courage isn't the power of a bomb or an army, courage is loving so much you'd do anything and everything in your power to ease suffering.

  Even if it means giving everything you are to erase pain.

  Struggling to stand, I hand her back.

  “I have something to do first,” I say to Ryan and Venix.

  Walking away takes courage, strength, a spark of madness and a boat load of trust.

  But it's time for me to prove I'm worthy of the neuri title.

  Walking back into the entrance hall, I stride to Darise, casting aside tact I grab his head and change his mind.

  I undo the trauma, undo the rage, undo the ego, giving him the wisdom of knowing that love nurtures, it protects. Like Zaria, it would die to save another from pain. It doesn't carry a gun to get its way. Its way is gentle and has no boundary.

  Then I move to Phoebe, easing her mind, rearranging events so Darise doesn't have to carry the guilt of his rage for the rest of his mortal and short life.

  Looking to Sveta and Aisyx, I silently order them to do the same to Božena and Jowendhran.

  Enough pain. No more.

  Turning my back, I check myself from running back outside.

  Walking straight to Venix I reclaim Zaria, take the key from Ryan, and look at the view.

  She chose of her own free will to keep the promise of new life inside her, that means the pregnancy won't harm her, or them.

  I thank the angels and Spirit for giving me the most loving creature to cherish. She's going to make such an incredible mother.

  Cuddling her closer, I hide emotion when I breathe in her butterfly exhalation.

  I'm never letting you go again.

  Or turning my back on my kin.

  Determined, I look at the sky, wondering why the rain always falls for Zaria.

  She knows how miraculous water is, Venix says in my head.

  I glance at him, wishing Zaria and myself were already alone.

  She taught the world a painful lesson today. One that destroys pride. Ask her about it sometime, he says with a smile, waving a hand and halting the deluge.

  “I'm going home now. I'm taking Zaria home.”

  To a kitchen and a pot of vegetable soup.

  When she wakes I'll have everything she needs to kiss her whole and love her better.

  Chapter 27

  Ryan:

  Aisyx is driving them all home, and I have Venix's approval and blessing to help Phoebe heal.

  She can't go home, not until she's had time to process and work through the loss of Seithe. Home will just increase the grief, not alleviate it.

  Zaria, the little anđeo that she is, poured so much wisdom on the subject of loss into Phoebe, and so much compassion and empathy, I think she'll bounce back in no time.

  On the upside, I have company, and it's time I got to know the oldest Slakax. Out of the three sisters, she is the first born.

  I can see common ground building a bridge already.

  *

  Božena:

  I must have been out of my mind to think becoming a vampyre was a good idea.

  Looking at the 'neuri' with rust colored stubble and bottomless dark-roast espresso eyes, I think I've found someone worthy of my trust.

  He's seen me at my absolute worst.

  Looking up at him as he walks me to my hotel room down the modern passage, I think, It's time I showed you what I'm like at my best.

  He reacts, slamming me up against the wall between hotel doors, smiling dangerously at me when his voice enters my mind, That would be much appreciated. I think you owe me at the very least a back rub for all the shit you've put me throug
h lately.

  You can read minds?

  I can, he smiles, and it's so handsome my hands glow red where they press against his chest.

  I can do better than a back rub darling, I smile.

  *

  Zaria:

  Sitting up with a start, my heart pounding, the frantic fear recedes when I breathe in Zauran.

  Surrounded with the familiar haven of his bedroom warmly lit with lamps, I twist, meeting two naughty eyes and a salacious smile that does very bad things to very good girls.

  “Welcome home petal,” he says softly, intimately.

  Memory floods through my sleepy stupor and I throw my arms around his neck and strangle him against me.

  “You're safe!” Pulling back I kiss his nose, lips, eyes, mouth, brow, lips, cheeks, lips, chin, lips, “Zauran I was worried sick about you.”

  He loses the smile and the happy glint to his eyes.

  “Yeah, it was a bit rough there for awhile. But here I am, safe and sound...” He leans in to kiss my nose, “With you.”

  “Where did you go? What happened?”

  “I'd rather talk about how happy I am to be lying in bed with the hottest woman to walk this earth.”

  He's hiding something.

  “Zauran, if it's too hard to talk about, I understand. I do.”

  Boy, do I understand. Some things hurt enough as memories, no need to talk about them too. They belong in the past. Pain shouldn't be dragged into the future to ruin happy moments and possibilities. They must be abandoned where they fell, left to crumble in time's ruthless wind.

  Rolling so he forces me to lie back against the pillows again, he braces his arms next to mine, staring down at me with unruly hair dipping into his eyelashes.

  “Thank you for keeping the babies. I know you were given a choice, and I want you to know it made me seriously happy to hear you've chosen to keep them.”

  It floods me with emotion and my nose heats up with the onset of tears, “Zauran, you have singlehandedly breathed hope and safety back into my world.”

  Reaching up and caressing his jaw and cheeks with my hands framing his face, I whisper, “You knew what I needed to heal before I did. I should be thanking you.”

  “I promise I'll always keep you safe, Zaria. Always.”

  He leans to my side, lining my body as he lays facing me, pulling me in and tucking me into his reassuring warmth. “Petal, a real man nurtures.” His eyes are serious and his jaw tense. “I'm meant to be your safe place, where you can hide and be vulnerable and one hundred percent yourself. There's nothing you can do that can shock me. I'm here, forever and always, to provide, to keep you safe, to protect and love you...”

  He rests his hand on my stomach, and it's heavy, “And them.”

  How does he always know what to say? He knows I fear loss, I have issues with the way Darise changed and controlled my life and cast aside the things I loved and enjoyed as if they didn't matter. And yet Zauran has always been the one I run to. The one who understands. He's been so patient. Really patient.

  He smiles again, his opal eyes beginning to swirl with iridescence, which means he's feeling frisky.

  “Do you know what tonight is?” he says, and it's laced with mischief.

  “I don't have a clue.”

  “Full moon.” He leans closer, moving my hair and whispering in my ear, “I can now make love to you the way I intended, before Ryan got between us. The moon and sun are at their brightest, the book of light is no longer an issue.”

  Oooh!

  Remembering the light he draped all over my body makes my toes tingle with anticipation.

  “How is everyone?” I ask, unable to stop myself from worrying.

  I need to get this out of the way first, and I swear I can smell coffee and vegetable soup wafting up from the kitchen.

  “Phoebe is being looked after by Ryan. She's coping just fine thanks to you. Božena is fine and her usual sunny self. Venix has gone home with two vampyre babies to raise, apparently. He said he has permission to raise them and teach them. He even thanked Aisyx for his help with Božena and said that Spirit is thankful too, and he will be rewarded with the mate he's been pining for.”

  “Wow! Zauran this is all fabulous news...” I hesitate to ask, but have to. “What about Darise?”

  He gives me a wide smile, which surprises me, “Oh, he's a changed man. So is Jowendrhan.”

  Relaxing back, happiness dares to kindle back to life in my chest.

  We're going to be okay then. We're all going to be okay.

  “Thanks to you,” he smiles, curling over me and capturing my bottom lip between his teeth.

  It thrills me so much when his eyes snare mine and aqua mist filters out to blur my vision.

  *

  Zauran:

  I feel like I've waited an eternity for this night, for this moment.

  Braced over the Slakax, I gently coax her Plyx up out of her eyes, up through her nipples, pulling it softly to haze over her skin, naked and glorious, soft and delicate.

  My petal glows like cotton candy, mingling her light with my own, wafting into me of her own volition.

  Back to desperate and captivated, I know I'm a slave to her charms. I would move every planet in the solar system if it made her smile.

  Pulling me tight up against her, her little arms clamp my back when her legs join force with them and yank me down.

  “Stop teasing, this is killing me,” she murmurs.

  That's a sore point with me, I never want to watch her die again. Pulling away, I flip her over, holding her down when she struggles and squeals, taking my time tracing her spine with kisses.

  I know she loves my stubble and deliberately skate it up and down from her nape to her shoulder blades and back.

  “Zauran!” she gasps, pressing her perfect ass up against me, arching her back so we're skin on skin, trying her best to get me to fall under the spell of her intoxication.

  God, I fucking love this little woman so much.

  Pulling her against me with the arm snaked under her, I tug her to her side, flopping us down so I can crawl over her and stare in her eyes.

  The second I'm face to face with mysterious blue eyes and the glowing pink of her Plyx, I caress her cheek tenderly. She's so delicate, I don't want to rush. This time I'm doing this the right way.

  Tracing a plump sexy lip, desperately fighting the urge to kiss her and bury myself deep inside her, I whisper, “Ja te volim.”

  I love you.

  Her smile fountains fire out of my heart like a volcanic explosion, bursting light between us in an aquamarine gush.

  “Ja te volim isto,” she smiles, pushing me onto my back and climbing onto me, being assertive and so damn fuckable.

  Without hesitation she slides herself over me, light pinwheeling between us in a dizzying display of euphoria.

  The telltale sphere surrounds us, swirling with the light of a nebulae birthing, capturing the colors that flirt around the fragile cusp of a bubble about to pop.

  It ignites the green and blue deep inside me, catapulting it out of me to join the display.

  Leaning close, pressing nipples into my chest, she traces my lips with a soft fingertip.

  “Ja te volim isto,” she whispers over my mouth.

  I love you too.

  It strips me of restraint and in a heartbeat I have us maneuvered so I can stare into her eyes below me when I show her what pink and aqua Plyx really looks like in an ecstatic dance.

  Kissing her, pouring Plyx into her from where I hide deep inside her, we bond in the first language of love.

  Light.

  This time when I speak in her mind, it is in the language of light, not cyrillic.

  L oryh brx.

  Ja te volim.

  I love you.

  ~ The End ~

  ~ Teaser ~

  Sveta

  Book 1 in the Neuri Series

  With my hand on the throttle, ready to fire up the bike, my boot resting on co
arse gravel in the dark shadows beside Pravus, a sensation dances down my spine, snapping fingers next to my ear and creeping Plyx around my nape.

  Pausing in my movement, running an agitated hand through my newly short cropped hair, I inhale instinctively.

  Immediately my vision switches to neuri, burning my eyes with the brilliant glow of maple syrup.

  I'm a redhead and my Plyx is fiery, it masks the world with my energy so I survey it with intuition and instinct.

  Footfalls clap on stone.

  Twisting my torso, I look behind me, the vision slamming a fist into my heart.

  Frozen, I watch long legs stretch and tense on heeled boots, dragging my gaze up her incredible body to perfect hips, a tight waist, a voluptuous swell...

  Long wavy blond hair flags behind her in her haste, her lips parted with urgent breath, so perfect, so sexy, her eyes so very green, long lashes blink and they are glossed with fresh tears.

  She is female bling.

  I want it.

  Blinking to hide my neuri fire, I set the stand back down, rising from the bike and pulling a glove off with my teeth, already striding toward the damsel in obvious distress.

  My movement draws her focus, and she reaches hands to me, and I want her to run.

  Run to me, let me catch you and disappear into the night with you.

  “Oh God! Please help me!”

  That's all the encouragement I need, breaking into a sprint.

  I'm coming.

  She stumbles weakly, catching her fall with a hand on the side of a car, and I finally notice the blood dripping from her fingers.

  Blurring into true speed, I catch her before she falls, lifting her up, inhaling the redolence of someone truly unique.

  “I've got you,” I reassure her.

  Staring into her glazing eyes, I'm shocked by what I see there.

  A bloody hand plants on my heart, burning into my skin with power.

  “Who are you? What happened?” I ask the strangeling.

  “Ch...”