She gobbled the fish up and swung by me, stinking of fish and salt water. We’d lost our fresh water now that we were so far south. “How is today looking?”
I kept my voice flat, emotionless so it wouldn’t shake. “We’ll reach the Oasis this afternoon. Tomorrow we will go into the Jinn’s Dominion.”
She landed on Batman who calmly trotted next to me and Balder. He kept up much better with no rider. His leg, despite the harder work, held up as if it had never broken, as if the old injury had never been. I still couldn’t believe that he was sound. Broken legs in horses only ended up one way.
“How do you feel about the Oasis? Have you ever been back since that day?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t even know what happened to the bodies of the lions. Ishtar swept in and scooped us away before I could do anything. Before I could even consider burying them.”
She was quiet a moment. “It will be okay, Zam. We’ve come this far. I can’t believe we would fail now.”
I wasn’t so sure she was right, and a line came to me from one of Shakespeare’s plays.
“And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe. And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot; And thereby hangs a tale.” I said the words slowly, feeling the truth of them for the first time.
Lila nodded, her eyes narrowed a bit. “That’s from As You Like It, isn’t it?”
“Yes. This story is far from over, Lila. I feel like we’ve only just begun to dig through the surface of what is going on in this world. All these fucking assholes before me thought they were protecting me, us, by keeping us in the dark, and all they’ve done is hamstring me.” I shook my head and Balder picked up his pace as he picked up on my irritation.
I struggled to keep my emotions in check as we rode on, and I began to see places from my childhood. At the very least, we wouldn’t be going through the village where the women and children were left to rot. I was sure there would still be bones scattered there, bits of huts, old gear worn and half covered by the sands of the desert. Nearly twenty years since that fateful day when our world had been torn asunder.
Near midday, a hill sat ahead of us and I stopped Balder at the bottom and slid off his back. “The Oasis is on the other side. We need to go up carefully since it is a common place for different species to stop and drink. It’s supposed to be neutral territory.”
Lila hopped off Batman and I set the two horses up, ground tying them. As well trained as they were, nothing short of a full-on attack would make them leave where they stood, waiting for me to call them. I gave them each an oat ball and then shifted to my cat form, dropping to all fours. The sand was warm on the pads of my paws as I bounded up the slippery slope, Lila at my side.
The last time I’d come this route, I’d chased Bryce, wanting to see the Jinn for myself. I looked to my left, and for just a moment, I was sure I saw him there, in his lion form, racing up beside me. He turned his head, winked, and then was gone.
Not gone, still with me, just not in the flesh.
Seeing him made me think of the Emperor’s promise. That he could give me my brother back if I would bow to him. My thoughts slid away as I slowed near the top of the dune and lowered to my belly to creep up the last bit. At the crest of the hill, I flattened my ears to my skull and peeked over the edge. Lila did the same, pinning her wings back to her sides and peering over the top.
The Oasis hadn’t changed a great deal, not really. The swaying trees were still thick on top with green foliage, and the palm fronds swayed. The ground was covered only in patches of life-sustaining plants, and there was no sound. Not even of water rippling against a shoreline. The water was near the center of the Oasis, so that part didn’t surprise me.
The wind whipped around us in a gust and I narrowed my eyes against the flying sand.
“You see anything?” Lila whispered.
“Nothing. Follow me, stick close.” I stayed on my belly and all but slithered over the top of the dune, sliding down the slope as quietly as I could.
Lila was beside me and as soon as we hit the flat of the bottom, I bolted across the open space to the cover of the first clump of trees. My heart pounded almost out of control and while I might have tried to tell myself it was the run across the open space, I knew better. The past reared its head around me, whispering things I didn’t want to remember in clear detail. I could see the lions moving around me, ghosts in my mind, the sound of their roars filling my ears.
Lila pushed against me, covering me with one wing. “Deep breaths. It is in the past, Zam.”
She was right, and she was wrong, but I did as she said and managed to get myself under control. I tipped my head up and sucked in a deep breath. There was no smell of Jinn, at least nothing that was recent. But there was something else that both caught me off guard and gave me a burst of hope.
“Lion shifter,” I whispered as I crept forward, following the smell. The scent was strong enough that there was no doubt the shifter was still here, but I didn’t recognize them. Male or female I couldn’t tell, and it was no shifter from my pride. I kept moving deeper through the Oasis until I found the edge of the water, and that was where the lion shifter sat.
Literally, in a lion’s form, but holy shit he was not what I expected.
Lila sucked in a breath a little too sharply and he whipped his head around, his solid black mane flaring. Black fur rippled as he stood and stalked toward us, mouth open as he scented the air.
Easily, he was as big as Bryce had been. Maybe larger, it was hard to say from the angle we stood.
A low growl rumbled out of him, and I immediately put myself in front of Lila. I couldn’t help it, my body puffed up and I arched my back, turning sideways. A hiss snarled out of me and I ignored the fact he probably couldn’t hear it over his growl.
His eyes widened and then . . . the bastard had the nerve to sit and laugh at me. “Shit, are you serious? You think you can take me on, little cat?”
“You think you want to mess with the alpha of the Bright Lion Pride?” Lila snapped as she shot into the air.
He grinned and yawned. “The Bright Lion Pride was wiped out a long time ago. As were most of the lions. There are no prides left.”
I glared at him and shifted so I stood on two legs. I pointed a finger at him. “Shift. Now!”
I put as much command into my voice as I could and he shocked me by doing as I said. He shifted to two legs, his eyes wide like he was as surprised as me.
He had black hair and eyes just as dark with a rim of gold. He was taller than me, built broad in the chest and narrow in the hip. He reminded me a bit of Shem in his form.
Lila squeaked. “He’s naked. Damn, I forgot about that part.”
I kept my eyes on his, hands on my hips. A naked body didn’t bother me. That was part of a shifter’s life.
I walked right up to him and jammed a finger in his chest. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
He arched an eyebrow over dark eyes. “Who are you?”
“I asked first,” I growled, never lowering my eyes from his. I’ll give him credit, he tried to keep his eyes up, but he was no alpha. His eyelids flickered.
“Ford. From the Gold Creek Pride.” He lifted his eyes and grinned up at me.
“Zamira. From the Bright Lion Pride,” I said.
His eyebrows shot up. “Dirk’s pride? I heard that’s where the slaughter started.” I didn’t correct him, and he rambled on like the apparent fool he was. “Can I put my clothes on now?”
“No.” I didn’t look away from him. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for a mate.” He eyed me up suddenly as if assessing my possibilities.
“Fuck off, she’s taken,” Lila snarled.
Before I could say anything, he threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, shit, I would never want a tiny little thing like you! I was looking because where there is one lion, there’s a chance there’s more.”
I arched a brow at him. “I suggest yo
u leave. There are no mates . . .” A thought crossed my mind. He was looking for a mate. It wouldn’t hurt to have an extra pair of eyes at my back. Male lions when hunting for a lady would do anything to get their grubby mitts on them. Including stupid, dangerous things like walking into the enemy’s encampment. Assuming I could trust him.
Then again, he was being brutally honest at the moment.
I glanced at Lila and she shrugged, almost like she could read my mind.
“I’m about to go into the Jinn’s Dominion. They are holding three of my pride members hostage. Two females, one male.” I tipped my chin at him. “Might that interest you, playing the hero to two women?”
His eyes lit up. “Tell me they aren’t all teeny tiny like you and you might have my attention.”
Sweet baby goddess, he had a one-track mind. “Darcy is a very finely formed woman, but you need to understand something. I am their alpha, which means you need my permission to take her from our pride.”
Lila landed on my shoulder. “Oh, this is new. I didn’t know that.”
I shrugged. “You’ll catch on.”
Ford looked from me to Lila and back again. “Wait, why would she catch on?”
“She’s my second.”
He bellowed a laugh again, slapping his hands on his knees repeatedly.
Lila grumbled. “Now? Can you kick his ass now?”
“Give it a minute,” I said. We could use him, and I wouldn’t feel terrible if he died, to be honest. Not with this attitude. Then again, this was typical behavior for most male lions. Fat lazy bastards who expected the women to do all the work, have the babies, and bring them lunch, then bend over and . . . well, you get the picture.
He dropped his head between his knees as if to catch his breath and I kicked up, catching him square under the jaw with the toe of my boot. There was a satisfying click of his teeth snapping together and then he flipped backward, flat onto his back. As he fell, I leapt toward him, pulled both kukri blades and ended up on his chest.
Ford’s dark eyes were fogged with confusion as he stared up at me. “What happened?”
“I kicked you in the face, fool. Now. I’m the alpha. You got that?”
I pressed one blade under his chin and I reached back and pressed the tip of the other close to his family jewels.
“Lower and to the left,” Lila called out with a little too much glee, but I did as she suggested. The confusion left his eyes and submission rocked through them.
“I got it. You’re the alpha. You . . . are you taking me into your pride?” He seemed uncertain.
“You want in?” I raised a brow at him again.
His eyes went thoughtful. “Yeah, maybe I do. You obviously have the balls, even if you aren’t much bigger than a desert mouse.”
I pressed a little harder with the blade against his balls. “Really, you want to insult me right now?”
His grin didn’t slip. “Look, if you were a real lion, I’d be all over you, and you’d be all over me. I’m just keeping this real. I can see you’re a leader. I’ll give you that. But I won’t pussy foot around the fact that you’re smaller than any other shifter out there, which worries me.”
I hated that he was right, because it was the truth simply put. I was smaller.
And I always would be. I eased up a little on the blades. “Will you be able to hold in your dickish behavior and actually help if you’re in the pride?”
He winked. “Of course I can. Can you take a joke when I poke fun at your teeny tiny kitty cat form? I have a terrible sense of humor.”
My jaw ticked. “I’ve been the butt of jokes my whole life, asshole. I can take it, but when I say jump, you’d better ask me how high on your way up.”
He spread his arms wide, muscles rippling. “You got it. You’re the boss. I want to be your second.”
“Nope.” I shook my head. His size might work in my favor, especially when it came to Steve being a pig. “You can be the enforcer. Seeing as I’m so fucking teeny tiny.”
“Ooh, even better.” His grin widened and he rubbed his hands together. “How many members then?”
I stepped off him and sheathed my two blades. “Three in the Jinn’s lockdown, with one of the ladies pregnant. Me and Lila. And two others . . . one other, but he won’t be around much. The other is off on a mission of his own making.”
Maks and Shem were still part of our pride as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t about to not count him.
Ford’s eyes went wide as he moved into a crouch. “Shit, that’s a big pride. I mean, for what’s left of the lions. I’ve never found more than a lone male here and there. No females at all.”
I nodded. “Most of us were scooped up as kids and hidden far from the desert. We lost my brother recently, so we’re down one.”
Lila climbed my leg, settled on my shoulder, and peered at Ford. “Were you really here looking for a mate?”
He nodded. “I figured my best bet was an Oasis. Everyone comes through them at some point. I’ve checked out three others. I usually stay a month or better, depending on the location.”
I nodded. That made sense. “Well, Ford, you are now the enforcer of the Bright Lion Pride. That means you’re on the hook for helping me save the rest of our members.”
He clapped his hands together, rubbing them vigorously once more. “We going to kill some Jinn?”
I shook my head. “Not if we can help it. This is a search and rescue mission, not a search and destroy. Besides, have you ever even killed a Jinn?”
He held my eyes a moment, then looked away. “No, but I’d like to.”
“I have,” Lila said. His eyes whipped to her. “And so has Zam.”
His jaw dropped. “You two tiny things?”
I turned my back on him. “Size isn’t everything, Ford. You’ll learn that eventually. I mean, assuming the ladies haven’t already pointed it out.” I grinned over my shoulder and his jaw remained dropped as he spread a hand toward his groin area.
“Please, the ladies’ only complaint is the ride lasts too long.”
I snorted. “Then you aren’t doing it right.”
Lila laughed and I joined in and even Ford laughed. For Ford being an obvious misogynist, he was funny, and he could take a joke if his laughter was any indication. A little laughter wouldn’t hurt, and I’d cure him of the misogyny quickly enough.
“We have a way to get the other members of the pride out. But if we can’t get them out, then we can’t have a pride, and Darcy will be off the table for anyone, not just you.” I turned and locked eyes with him, asserting dominance once more. “Got it?”
He grinned up at me. “I got it, boss. I’ve never had an alpha before.”
“Ever?”
He sat up and rubbed his chin, scratching at the light stubble. “Nope. When our pride was wiped out by the Jinn, those of us who escaped scattered. I was still a cub and I ran until I collapsed. A mother caracal shifter and her son found me. I stayed there until I was grown.”
My belly clenched. “You were raised by a caracal shifter?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool, but they don’t tend to have an alpha because they don’t run in prides. They’re solitary creatures. My mom took me in even knowing that I would one day be a brute to feed.” He grinned. “I looked out for her until she finally booted me out, told me I was too much to keep in food even for her.”
I shot a look at Lila who was already staring hard at me. It couldn’t possibly be the same unusually colored dark lion that Maks had talked about, could it? That he’d dreamed he’d been raised with as a cub.
Only one way to find out.
“Umm. Did you have a brother?” I asked. “Named Maks?”
Ford stared up at me, frowning. “Are you a mind reader? A telekinetic?”
My brow raised. He did know those were totally different things, right?
Lila snorted. “Oh, my gods, you might be cute, but you’re kind of dumb.”
&
nbsp; My lips twitched as he glared at Lila. “We know Maks. He told us, well, he said he’d dreamed he’d had a younger brother he was raised with and he mentioned he was an unusual color for a lion. But he didn’t tell us your name or that you were a black lion because he’d thought it was all a dream. I assumed he meant a red lion.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not possible. Maks was killed a long time ago. The Jinn came looking for me and he ran out to lead them away. He never came back.”
I nodded more to myself than to him. “Yes, that sounds like something Maks would do.” And I was betting the connection to his brother was partly why Maks had taken on the job to come to the Stockyards in the first place even if he didn’t realize it. That a dream of a brother who’d been a lion shifter would drive him to leave the Jinn.
I rubbed a hand on the back of my neck. “He’s still alive, Ford. He’s the other member of the pride.”
Ford stared hard at me, his eyes closing down, hardening. “Where is he then?”
“The Jinn took him over again. He’s part Jinn, part shifter,” I said. “He fought it while I knew him but . . . there is nothing we can do at the moment.”
“You’d give up on him?” Ford snarled. “Where is he? I’ll find him myself then.”
I snapped a hand out and slapped him before I could stop myself, before I even thought of what I was doing. His head snapped to the side and I got up in his face. “I will never give up on Maks. Never. Right now, there are members of our pride who are in immediate danger. We save them first. Then Maks. Do you understand me?”
He slowly turned his head, anger burning in his eyes, but he lowered them, just a shade. “I understand, Alpha.”
“Good.” I twisted away from him, then turned back and pointed a finger at him. “Get some clothes on. We need to bring our horses in and have a chat.”
Lila bobbed her head. “Yeah, we need to have a chat right now.”
He gave me a mock salute, the anger still there simmering, spun and strolled toward his bag next to the water where he’d been sitting when we first arrived.
Jinn's Dominion (Desert Cursed Series Book 3) Page 18