That was when it occurred to her. Dylan was not present in Toni’s mind. Nowhere. Not one thought. Not one memory. The night of the party was erased. The night before, gone. It all made sense. The string, the emptiness, the pain. “Oh honey,” Jade breathed, holding her cousin’s hand tighter. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?” Toni asked. “I don’t even know what happened.”
“I think you should go rest now,” Jade offered and helped Toni to her feet. “You’re mentally exhausted and a good sleep would do you well.”
“Did you find out what happened to me?” Toni asked her. She hoped Jade had found something.
“Not exactly. Don’t worry about it now. Go, sleep.” Jade commanded, adding a mental push that she wouldn’t normally use on Toni.
Toni could feel the stares of her family on her back as she forced her feet up the stairs to her room. Maybe she did just need a little sleep.
***
“I’ll kill him,” Jade announced when Toni was gone.
“I knew it,” Rebel growled.
“You don’t understand,” Jade said. “I looked. He’s not there.”
“What do you mean he’s not there?” Leigh asked.
“I could give you this long, drawn out explanation, but ultimately, the bottom line is, Toni has met her mate. I suspect it’s Dylan. But when I looked for him in her head, he’s gone. She is in so much pain, but she has no idea why.”
“We have to find him,” Leigh announced.
“Yeah and then I’m gonna–"
“You will do whatever it takes to bring him back into her life,” Leigh said, interrupting Rebel. “I don’t even want to pretend to know why someone blocked her memories of him, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is we find him and get him back for her. Maybe Frankie could do a reversal spell?”
“It wasn’t a spell,” Frankie told her. “It was something else. More like what Jade can do.”
“Nope,” Jade said, “Not like me. I can block some thoughts and memories, I can even rearrange things. But this! It isn’t blocked or moved. It’s gone. All of her memory of Dylan is gone. Erased. I can’t unblock something that isn’t there.”
“What do we do?” Leigh asked anyone who was listening. She felt helpless and that really got to her. Her baby was hurting and she had no idea how to fix it, how to find a man that no one knows anything about.
“Perhaps I can help,” Azerial said. “Tell me everything that you know about this man.”
Jade sat heavily on the sofa and Michael joined her. “He smells like the ocean, sort of. In a good, manly kind of way.”
“Did you get a look at him?” Azerial asked.
“Oh boy, did I ever!” Jade exclaimed.
Michael grunted and narrowed his eyes at his mate.
“What?” Jade asked. “I’m mated, not blind!” Then, as an afterthought. “He doesn’t even compare to you,” she told her husband.
“Well, what does he look like?” Leigh asked.
Jade decided to show them instead of telling them. She pushed a picture of Dylan from her mind to every member of her family’s.
“Oh my,” Brea breathed as she saw what Jade had seen.
“I can see what you mean,” Frankie sighed.
“Oh that is nice,” Jessica agreed.
All of the men in the room frowned. “I should kill him,” Rebel muttered. “No one should look like that.”
“He is nice to look at,” Leigh laughed, feeling a bit of relief now that she had something to look for. “But he is Toni’s. And now we know who we’re looking for.”
“He seems familiar to me,” Azerial said. “I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
Sam, her mate, put his arm around her. “Never mind that I feel the need to make love to you until you forget that man’s face,” he said. “But maybe your sister the Oracle can help?”
“Oh, yes. I bet she will just be overjoyed to help us again,” Frankie said, heavy with sarcasm. The Oracle had helped before, but only because Azerial needed her. And she didn’t really help so much as left her seeing pond, a small indoor pond that allowed her to see anything she wanted, available.
“I will ask her,” Azerial said just before disappearing from sight.
11
Toni was burning up. Not as in, 'Oh geez I’m hot,' but more like, 'Holy hell, I am frying alive!' kind of hot. She was surrounded by clouds on all sides. No matter where she looked, there was just more clouds. “Where am I?” she asked out loud. Her voice echoed, but no one replied. She yanked on the collar of her shirt in hopes of getting some much needed air to her blistering skin. Was this Hell? She thought Hell would be more fire and brimstone and Heaven would be made of clouds. She forced her feet to move, unwilling to consider how she was walking on air. Her walk turned into a brisk run, forcing her way through the fluffy white that surrounded her.
She finally saw something in the distance. Toni couldn’t be sure if it was a building or a statue or a figment of her imagination, but it was something, so she sprinted toward it. As she got closer, Toni realized it was a building. A very large one, at that. It was a palace of sorts.
On some level, Toni realized that she was dreaming. It didn’t matter, though, the instant fear she felt when faced with the enormous palace was just as real as it would be if she were awake. Her rational mind told her to run, but her dream state forced her to walk right up the marble steps and into a grand foyer.
There were statues lining the walls. She recognized this place from books. She was on Olympus. The statues were all of the Olympian gods: Zeus, Hera, Ares, Poseidon, they were all there. A shiver ran down her spine as she stared at the statue of the Sea God. There was something familiar in his face… something she felt like she should recognize. And then, its eyes shifted to stare directly at her.
Instant, paralyzing fear crawled up her back. A scream caught in her throat as the statue came to life in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, Toni could see that the other statues had come to life as well and were closing in on her.
Her instincts told her to shift into her dragon, but she couldn’t. Sweat poured from her skin as she got even hotter. Her mouth burned, her teeth in particular, as if she had bitten down on a hot poker. Shift! She told herself, but it wasn’t coming. The statue of Poseidon reached for her with contempt in his eyes. Toni opened her mouth and screamed.
Fire leapt from her mouth, burning the god, and giving him pause. Toni didn’t know how she was doing it, but she kept breathing fire from her human form. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, out of the palace and back into the clouds, leaving the living statues behind.
Toni ran harder than she believed she could. When she slammed into something, fire rolled from her lips, encasing whatever it was. No, not a what, it was a who. She had slammed into a brick wall of a man. Horror at the possibility of hurting someone ate at her as she watched helplessly as the fire consumed him. But he was unharmed, she saw, as the flames died and his body remained.
“Who are you?” she asked, her fear suddenly gone and replaced with a sense of familiarity.
“I am not important,” the man said. His voice. It rolled over her like liquid silk, caressing her fevered soul and giving her some measure of peace. He was built like a brick shit house, but she couldn’t see his face.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Why can’t I see your face?”
“It’s going to be okay,” he told her, taking her hand. Cool water surged from his hand to hers and began to dance over her body, cooling the heat she had been suffering from. “You must forget me,” he said.
“I don’t want to,” Toni answered immediately. She didn’t know who this man was, but her mind and body were insisting that he was important to her. Not just insisting, demanding that he was hers.
“Let me comfort you,” he offered and Toni went into his open arms. He enveloped her with a cool embrace, taming the fire within her. He was water to her fire, cold to her hot. He was her perf
ect compliment. In her dream mind, Toni knew that whoever this man was, he was her perfect other half. Her mate.
Toni woke covered in a thin sheen of sweat. What a fucked up dream, she thought to herself. She could still feel the memory of his touch on her skin. Who was that? And why, oh why did her mouth hurt so freaking bad? Just as in her dream, her teeth were burning. Had she breathed fire? A quick glance around her room verified that she had not. Toni hadn’t accidentally caught something on fire since she was a child.
She got up to go to the bathroom when it happened. The fire in her mouth spread, stabbing its way into her head. Bright lights exploded behind her eyes and Toni crumpled over with the pain. She opened her mouth wide and then closed it again in an attempt to ease the pain. It didn’t work. She had to bite on something, anything. She grabbed a pillow off her bed and stuffed it into her mouth. The pressure was only marginally helpful.
“Damn it,” she cursed, throwing the pillow to the side and attempting to stand again. Lightning crashed in her head and this time, Toni screamed.
***
Everyone had just about given up waiting for Azerial to return from her visit to her sister and go to bed when it happened. Toni’s scream filled the entire house and everyone dropped what they were doing to get to her.
Jade was first on the scene. “Toni!” she screamed as she entered the room and saw her cousin on the floor. “What happened?”
Toni was holding her head and rocking back and forth.
“What is it?” Rebel asked, crashing through the door.
“Something’s wrong,” Jade said, desperately trying to get Toni to let go of her head. “I can’t get in and I can’t help her!”
“Come on, get her off the floor,” Rebel said, already behind his daughter with his hands under her arms and lifting. Jade helped and when they got her on the bed, Toni remained doubled over.
“Oh God,” Leigh gasped from the doorway. “Look at her mouth.”
Rebel pulled Toni’s hands aside and pushed up her top lip. “Oh, wow,” he said. Her incisors were growing. “Why now?” he asked, completely confused.
Toni screamed again and before anyone could move, she had Rebel’s arm in her hand and her new teeth in his wrist. “Fuck!” he shouted at the lance of pain. He didn’t move though. Her screaming stopped and Toni drank greedily from his vein.
“Is this what she needed?” Jade asked. “Why would she just now sprout fangs?”
“She is half vampire,” Rebel said with a proud looking wince.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Leigh said. “She has never had a craving for blood.”
“Unless meeting her mate set it off,” Jade pointed out. “Vampires are weird about that.”
“Yes, but wouldn’t she have to have had at least a taste of his blood?” Leigh asked and then paled. “Oh God, she has! That’s what’s wrong with her!”
Toni chose that moment to release her father’s arm. She looked at his bloody wrist and to her hand holding it with abject horror. “Oh gross!” she cried out. “Did I do that?”
“Yes, you did, my little vampire dragon,” Rebel said with a smile.
“Oh no. No. I don’t drink blood,” she argued. To further her point, her stomach agreed. Toni barely leaned over the side of the bed in time for the entire contents of her stomach to make a grand appearance.
“Well, that was a bit insulting,” Rebel said as he pushed his daughter’s hair back from her face.
“Don’t take it personally,” Jade reminded him. “You’re not her mate.”
“Oh, no,” Leigh whispered. “Her mate.”
“What?” Rebel asked, not understanding what the women already knew.
“You’re not her mate,” Leigh repeated for him. “Remember when we mated?”
He nodded. Of course he did. Everyone thought he would die as Leigh’s saliva changed him from a normal vampire into something more. It was days before he could drink and even when he did, and ever since, it could only be from Leigh. So if Toni was the same way… All the pieces fell together for him. His daughter was in much more imminent danger than they had originally thought. “Sam,” he shouted. “Get ahold of that woman of yours. We need that man now!”
12
Azerial hadn’t been to the Heavens in several years, but it was quite easy for her to navigate the paths to her sister. Nothing had changed in well over a millennia here. It was peaceful as always, and serene. Just being there filled the soul with contentment and joy. She stopped at the open door to her sister’s dwelling. Of course, she knew Azerial was coming.
“Hello, Sister,” Azerial called inside.
“Come inside,” the Oracle answered.
Azerial walked inside and the door closed behind her. “I have come because we need your help.”
“It is no concern of mine,” the Oracle answered as she dipped her finger into the seeing pond and stirred.
“It is my niece,” Azerial continued. “Our niece. I fear if we do not discover the man’s identity, then Toni’s life may be forfeit.”
“And so you have come in hopes that I will have the answers you seek,” the Oracle said.
“You’re an oracle,” Azerial said, pointing out the obvious. “Please.”
The Oracle stirred her pond and an image appeared. “All is not as it seems,” she said. “There is danger afoot, but not from your enemies. The man is the son of the sea, and he will bring with him the fury of the ocean. You must not dally. Find him and protect your family.”
“Where can I find him?” Azerial asked, placing her hand on her sister’s arm.
“You will find him where no mortal has been; on land, but within the sea. His path he must accept, the power from within, and she, her own as well. Do this in seven days’ time, or all will be lost.”
The Oracle turned her back on Azerial and she knew that her sister was done speaking. “Thank you,” Azerial whispered before returning to her home.
***
“Is it done?” Poseidon demanded, slamming his fist down on the arm of his throne.
“Yes!” Dylan barked back at him. “I erased myself from her memory, just like I said I would.”
Poseidon leaned forward, scrutinizing his son. “You are hiding something from me.”
“You know I’m a bad liar, Dad. Why would I even try?”
His father leaned back in his throne and plucked a grape from the golden tray beside him. It was obvious what his son was hiding. “I think you have feelings for this dragon,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” Dylan asked, his voice seething with contempt. It was perfectly typical of his father to take joy in hurting Dylan. Everything he ever loved had been taken away, so why not his dragon too?
“I have an announcement that will make you feel better,” Poseidon proclaimed. “I have picked a bride for you. I want grandchildren and you will provide them.”
Dylan’s head snapped up and his eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, what?” he growled. “I don’t think so.”
“You are averse to having children?” his father asked.
“No, I am averse to having children with some random female that you choose for me,” Dylan replied sharply. Truth be told, he wasn’t into having children with anyone unless it was Toni, and not for the purpose of making his father happy.
“It does not matter. I have chosen. She is already in your bedchamber.”
“Too bad,” Dylan said. “Because I have a previous engagement elsewhere.”
Poseidon raised a brow at his defiant son. “How dare you,” he growled.
“Bye now,” Dylan called to his father as he turned to leave. He planned to go back to land and find Toni. Maybe there was a place where he could keep her safe and away from his father. Maybe they could just run away like Romeo and Juliet. Without the dying part.
“Guards!” Poseidon’s voice boomed. “Restrain him.”
Dylan had known it was coming, but he hoped that he could get away. As ten of his father’s la
ckeys surrounded him, Dylan decided he would not go out without a fight. He punched. He kicked. He struggled. When Dylan’s shirt ripped, he wiggled out of it and nearly got away.
“What. Is. That.” Poseidon demanded.
The guards stepped away and Dylan yanked himself upright. He brushed himself off and stood proud in front of his father. He knew what the god saw, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he paid the piper. “What is what?” Dylan asked, pretending not to know.
Poseidon stood from his throne and walked purposefully down the steps to his son. His glare would have sent a mere human into a raw panic, but Dylan was not afraid. There was nothing more his father could take from him. “That,” he growled.
Dylan’s eyes darted to the beautiful black marking on his shoulder that looked suspiciously like a dragon. The place where Toni bit him. The place where she marked him. The place where she claimed Dylan as her own. He hadn’t realized that she marked him, but now that the proof was staring back at him, a sense of pride filled his chest. He wanted to be her mate.
“It’s a tattoo,” Dylan answered.
He never saw the first hit coming. Poseidon backhanded Dylan so hard that his body flew across the throne room, smashing into the wall. “How dare you lie to me!” he growled. “Do you think me stupid? Am I some dumb mortal that you can influence?” He stomped over to Dylan as he ranted. “I am the God of the Sea and you will respect me as such!” He reared back and threw a punch that landed hard on Dylan’s nose. The crunch of bone was loud and sickening, but Dylan didn’t flinch. He made no move to fight back. “That is a mating mark! You said she was dragon!”
“She is,” Dylan answered. “Her father is a vampire.”
“Do you have any idea what you have done!” Poseidon snarled as he hit Dylan again.
“I told you,” Dylan replied, wiping the blood from his mouth, “I erased myself. It’s over.”
Poseidon raised his fist again, but dropped it. “No, Son, it is not. A vampire mates for life. The bond can only be broken by death.” He turned to walk away and left Dylan to stare at the back of his robes.
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