by Karin Tabke
“She would have bred Slayers into the pack and through them destroyed the entire line!” Corbet chortled.
“She would have, had not Rafael seen through her guise and killed her,” Falon said. She looked down at the hemorrhaging Anja. Corbet’s magic impeded Rafe’s healing powers. The lovely Lycan was bleeding out.
Realizing any efforts were a lost cause, Rafe stood and faced Corbet, genuine grief etched on his face as his gaze kept flickering to Anja. “You’ve got your facts wrong, Corbet. Lucien didn’t kill Mara. I did. I tore that whore’s heart out of her chest. I watched her bleed out. I would do it again if she were alive,” he spat.
Balor laughed uproariously, as if he knew a secret that would destroy them all.
“You crow what you cannot claim, Vulkasin. She survived your pathetic attempt to kill her!”
When Rafael opened his mouth to argue, Lucien stepped forward. “And there has been no greater satisfaction in my life, Corbet,” Lucien said as he sneered, “than the night I cut that treacherous bitch’s head off!”
Falon gasped. “Lucien?”
He gazed at her then nodded to Rafe before turning back to Corbet. He laughed caustically. “The only thing that will top her death is yours.”
“She survived my attack?” Rafael asked in disbelief, looking at Balor, then to his brother.
Lucien nodded.
“That’s not possible; she was bleeding out, she—Why didn’t you tell me?” Rafe demanded, taking an adversarial step toward Lucien.
The same shock that reverberated through Rafe now rocked through Falon. Mara had been alive and—She gasped, horrified at the repercussions of Lucien’s deceit. He’d lied to have her! But at what price?
“All along you have known the truth?” Falon echoed Rafael’s demand. The gravity of his secret stupefied her. He had lied to her! Lied, when he swore he never would. He lied to them all! And because of it, not only had they each suffered immeasurable pain, but the entire nation would now suffer.
Lucien turned contrite eyes on her. “I didn’t know she was alive. All this time I believed as we all did, that Rafe killed her that night. It wasn’t until that day I was caught in the Slayer net that I learned the truth.” He begged her with his eyes to stand true beside him, but no matter what he said now, she could not forgive him this ultimate betrayal. “She came to me that night, Falon, while I was chained and caged. I was shocked, disbelieving that it was her, that she was alive. But it was her. And at first I believed her lies. She told me she had been held captive by the Slayers all these years, and that she had snuck away from them when she learned I was being held captive. She promised to help me escape, that she wanted to return to Mondragon with me as my chosen one.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “But I didn’t want her. When she sensed it, even her magic couldn’t hide what she truly was when I refused her. I saw her as Rafe saw her the night he thought he killed her. I did what I should have done all those years ago. She died a true death.”
Enraged, Rafael took another step closer to his brother. “Yet you kept the truth to yourself and allowed me to mark—” His gaze dropped to the mortally wounded Anja.
Despite her shock, and Rafael’s rage, Falon maneuvered herself between the brothers. They had completely lost focus on Balor and if they killed each other now, they were screwed. They owed their packs more than that.
“By Blood Law you should have confessed what you had done!” Rafe shouted. “You have no right to Falon!”
Rafael reached out to grab her, but Lucien snatched her to him. His grip was hard and unrelenting. He would never let her go.
“I tried to, Rafe. My intention was to tell you both that night. But Ian attacked before I could. Then Falon was at death’s door.” Lucien shook his head, holding her tighter against his chest. “I tried to right the wrong by releasing Falon. I gave her the choice to stay with me or return to you.”
“But you knew I could not return to Rafael when he’d given his oath to Anja!” Falon broke free of Lucien’s grip and whirled around to face them both—and was hit with the inescapable truth that she loved these men. Both of them. Equally.
Despite the pain and suffering Lucien’s lies had created, she could not bear to see him so heartbroken. She could never bear to see him face a death sentence for laying with a Slayer. Ironically, even now, she could not bear even the thought of losing him that way, so part of her was glad for his deception.
Yet the other part of her…
She looked Lucien deep in the eyes. “You didn’t tell me Mara was a Slayer,” Falon said quietly. “You didn’t tell me there was no Blood Law to be avenged. I thought, by choosing you, I was doing right by all of us.”
Lucien’s golden eyes flared angrily, and then dimmed. “Would your choice have been different, Falon, had you known the truth? Because I, who fear so little, feared that the most. What little honor I possessed, I gave up to keep you. Was I right to fear your choice?” He reached out to her. “Would you have left me?”
Falon bit her lip until she drew blood. She was torn straight down the middle. There was no way she could answer that question. If she answered that her choice would have been the same then, she would destroy Rafe. If she answered differently, she would destroy Lucien.
She looked at Rafe. Anja’s blood glistened on his neck and hands. She turned to Lucien and saw the same blood on his hands. It was Anja’s blood, though he had not touched her. If he had told the truth, she would not be lying at death’s door.
Yet despite reasons beyond the lies, the truths, and everything in between, there was only one answer that was the honest answer. “I would have chosen you both.” There. She’d finally said it.
Anja gasped from where she lay dying on the floor. Dark clouds of anger gathered forcefully on Lucien’s and Rafe’s faces. It was not the answer either wanted or expected. But at least it was the truth. And with it, despite the perilous position she was currently in, she felt a profound sense of relief.
“How sweet,” Balor said snidely, rising in the air above them. “The Lycan whore would have had her cake and eat it, too.” He flung his hands downward, one at Lucien the other at Rafael, snaring them with invisible ropes, immobilizing them. Balor smiled malevolently and floated down toward the floor. Hand extended to Falon, he said, “Take it, and come with me now or they both die here tonight.”
Fixing her glare on Balor’s onyx eyes, Falon’s mind reeled with scenarios as she probed into the Slayers’ aura to gauge his power. Without the power of the three, she was on her own. While her power was strong, building daily, she knew Balor was not only physically stronger but emotionally he had the warmth of a shark, and that was his greatest weapon of all. She touched her father’s amulet. Give me clarity, Father, give me your strength. Show me the way.
It warmed in her hand, sending vibrations through her body. Holding the amulet in her left hand, Falon extended her right to Balor.
She was going to backdoor him by shocking him with half-truths. As he took her hand, wrapping his long, cool fingers around her, Falon said simply, “Did you know that your brother Thomas loved my mother?”
Balor hissed in shock. It was preposterous what she suggested, but she had heard the partial truth from her own mother’s lips. Why not embellish for the sake of their lives?
“Did you know that he took her north with him?”
Balor was predictable. He could no longer stand to touch her. He moved to fling her hand from his, but Falon tightened her grip. “Did you know that together they raised the Eye of Fenrir?” Pulling him toward her, her grip tightened painfully. “Did you know he shared his secrets with her, just as she shared them with me?”
His eyes widened in disbelief. Falon yanked him hard toward her, and just as he would have crashed into her, she flung him to the ground. When he hit with a resounding thud, Falon leapt up into the air just as he had done, and found herself floating above his stunned body.
“You see, Corbet?” she taunted spreading her arms
wide. “I can do what you can do, only better.” She slammed her open palms toward him; the force of the energy shoved him halfway across the container toward Anja, who moaned painfully beside the stunned Slayer. Balor’s onyx eyes narrowed as he gathered himself up. His deadly black aura flared ominously in the stuffy container.
Slowly, Falon backed away from him, positioning herself between Rafe and Lucien.
Rafa, Falon said, as she moved around the container, inching closer to her men, tell your woman to grab your sword lying beside her and to take her best shot on Balor. Any distraction will help.
Just as Falon was close enough to Rafe to reach for him, Balor conjured a fireball and hurled it at her. Falon somersaulted out of its path, and turned in anticipation of another one but stopped all movement.
Incredulous, Corbet looked down at the sword tip protruding from his belly and bellowed in rage. Anja had managed to get up on her knees and, with Rafael’s sword, she had impaled the Slayer. For her deed, Balor snatched Anja by the throat and viciously hurled her across the small space. She hit the inner metal wall with a sickening thud. Falon cringed, feeling terrible for her and Rafe. But it gave her the distraction they needed.
Falon grabbed Rafe’s hand then Lucien’s, breaking the holding spell. The Eye of Fenrir glowed hot on Rafael’s hand. Demand that it help us, Rafe, or we will die! Falon cried.
Blood dripped from Balor’s mouth to the spreading crimson mass on his torso. He pulled the sword, tip first, from his belly. He grunted when the bloody hilt emerged. He sneered, turning his cold black eyes on them.
“My magic is as ancient as Fenrir but stronger. Mondragon, you will die here for your trespass on my family. Rafael for the same crime. But before I kill you, you will watch me skin your whore alive just like I did your parents.”
“You have it wrong, Balor,” Falon countered. “Rafael has but to call upon Fenrir for aide.”
Balor laughed. “If he understood the power of Fenrir, he would have called upon him long before now. That he hasn’t tells me he doesn’t know how!” His eyes narrowed. “Perhaps I should let you live, Mondragon. It will give me great pleasure to watch your own kind destroy you for breaking the cardinal Blood Law.”
“No one here will bear witness to your trickery, Corbet,” Falon defended Lucien. She squeezed his hand.
Balor shook his head and looked at Rafael. “What of you, Vulkasin? Will you bear witness that your brother lay with a Slayer? Was about to mark her and set her above all Lycans?” Balor laughed when Rafe didn’t rise to the bait. “That he stole what was rightfully yours from right under your nose?!”
Rafael’s hand shook with rage. The tension in his body was so acute, Falon was sure he would snap in half. But despite the demons he wrestled with, he did not make a move toward Lucien.
“He fucks your chosen one!” Balor railed. “She screams his name, not yours! And yet you do nothing but stand there. You are no alpha!” he spat. Balor looked over to Anja’s broken, bloody body, pointing to it. His voice lowered conspiratorially. “She bears your mark but not your heart. She is at death’s door and will no longer stand in the way of your honor. Call out the wolf, Fenrir! Demand that he destroy Lucien, and with your brother’s death, you and your slut can rule the entire Lycan nation!”
Falon squeezed Rafael’s hand. “Rafa, he seeks to destroy us all.”
But in the end, it was Rafe’s honor not his vengeance that swayed him. When Anja moaned softly, calling to Rafael, he went to her, breaking his contact with Falon.
Balor dove at Falon, snatching her up into his arms, breaking her connection with Lucien. She twisted out of his grip, shoving him hard against the metal wall, but he didn’t let go. He grabbed her by the hair and swung her around with such force she was horizontal to the floor. Lucien snarled, leaping up to grab her, but she crashed into him, the velocity of the hit slamming him against the wall. He slid down beside Anja.
Unable to stop Balor’s blinding assault, Falon screamed out for Lucien. In a blur, the Slayer grabbed one of Rafael’s swords from the floor and, with a quick jerk of his wrist, he grabbed Falon by a hank of her hair, pulled her head back against his chest, and slit her throat.
Twenty-four
ENRAGED, LUCIEN ROARED as he watched Balor slit his beloved’s throat. Rafael’s war cry behind him was deafening. Together they lunged at the Slayer. With Falon hanging from his hand by one arm, Balor slammed through the closed container doors. He launched himself high above them onto a huge hook, hanging from a two-story-tall crane.
“Come an inch closer and I’ll cut off her head,” Corbet threatened.
Lucien slowed his approach, though he stayed within striking distance. Rafael landed on the edge of a stacked container beside him.
I swear on our mother’s heart, I will kill him before he kills her, Lucien swore to his brother.
Get in line.
With Rafe’s sword pressed to her neck, Balor hung Falon out over the Lycan packs, who were just coming out of some kind of spell. Groggily they looked to Lucien for direction. “Behold, you curs,” the Slayer shouted. Over two hundred eyes stared upward. “I hold not only the life of one alpha in my hand but the life of two!” He pulled Falon’s limp body against this chest and spread his hand across her belly. He laughed uproariously. “Her womb bears the fruit of an alpha! But which one?”
Balor glared at Rafael. “Is the life of your child worth the Eye of Fenrir?”
Lucien snarled low. That Corbet would even suggest Falon carried Rafael’s child was ludicrous. She belonged to him! Only his seed could strike home. Though emotions fought over each other in his heart, Lucien’s gaze had not wavered once from Falon’s dying body. Nothing mattered to him more than her life.
Rafael raised his left hand to the heavens; the stone flared red-hot in the night. “I command you, Fenrir, to save the life of my chosen one! I command you now!”
“Rafe, no!” Lucien cried. In his grief, Rafe hadn’t thought through his command.
But it was too late.
Lucien watched as all eyes locked on Falon, waiting to see that vital spark of her life force restored. But the howling winds that suddenly kicked up did not return Falon to either brother.
Instead, Fenrir did what Rafe had commanded.
“Rafe?” Anja softly called, stumbling in a daze from the container.
Horrified, Rafe turned away from his unintended one and back to the woman he loved.
Lucien howled at the waxing moon. Falon’s heartbeat slowed to a stutter.
“Name your price, Balor. I will give you anything for her life,” Lucien pleaded.
“I want the ring.”
“I do not possess it!” But even if he did, the ring in the hands of Corbet, or any Slayer, was certain death for the entire Lycan nation. It was not negotiable. “I will make the trade,” Rafael said, stepping forward holding the ring in his hand. “But only with your oath that you will never slay another Lycan or pay someone to do it for you.”
Are you mad?! Rafe? Hand over the ring and we all die!
I only bait him with it.
Lucien felt no relief; he could not when Falon was on the edge of death and he was powerless to help her. The combined packs, all two hundred of them, were still groggy like drunken puppies and no help. Balor’s spells were strong; it was why the arrogant bastard had showed up alone. Falon’s heart stuttered again. But after a long-drawn-out minute, when it did not beat again, Lucien’s beast reared its vicious head. He charged the Slayer, knocking him backward, the velocity loosening his grip on Falon. Lucien swung round and caught her in his arms. Rafael leapt up, and with both booted feet he kicked Balor so hard, the Slayer flew backward. He hit his head on a steel beam so hard, he could hear the sharp crack of his skull before he bounced off and fell onto a container. If Corbet wasn’t dead from the impact, Lucien would finish him off. Gently, Lucien landed on the dock and lay Falon down on the ground. He worked frantically to save her. He pressed his fingers into the severed ve
in to plug the blood flow. Rafe dropped beside him and pressed his fingers alongside his brother’s. The packs pressed close to witness or aide the brothers who desperately tried to save this most special Lycan’s life.
“Corbet’s magic impedes our healing skills,” Rafe said furiously. “I don’t know how to break the spell.”
“She needs blood.” At the same moment, the brothers bit their arms, then forced their blood into Falon’s mouth. Each took turns rubbing her throat, helping it down. When her lips darkened to blue, Rafael shook his head.
“You stay here, damn it!”
Desperately Lucien put his ear to her chest, listening, begging for the slightest hint of a heartbeat. But there was none.
“I will not let you die!” he shouted, starting chest compressions with his free hand. Her skin cooled beneath his warm skin. “Angel,” he cried. “Please, baby, stay with me. Stay with me!”
Frantic, Lucien looked to the one person he had always looked to for answers since he was a boy. The person he trusted above all others. But when he looked across Falon to his brother for help, and saw that Rafe’s rage, horror, and despair mirrored in his own, Lucien broke down.
“This isn’t happening!” Rafael shouted to the gods. “It’s not her time! She’s too strong! Too brave!” Deep, anguished sobs clogged his chest. “Too special…” His voice trailed off, as his tears fell onto her pale cheek.
“She’s not gone, Rafa. She’s getting back at us for our fighting,” Lucien said, trying hard to believe it. But when Rafe raised his red, watery eyes to his, in their hearts, the brothers knew she was truly lost to them this time.
Gut-wrenching grief coupled with a profound sense of loss—not only of what he would never experience again, but the impact of Falon’s death on the entire nation—shook Lucien to his foundation.
Rafael stood and roared curses at the gods. When they refused to answer, he raised his fists toward the fickle heavens. “Restore her life, and I will selflessly serve you!”