But those days of hiding his true nature were behind him. If they wanted to tilt the dragon …
The dragon was here and he was ready for war.
Bring it, bitches.
Angling his wings down, he swooped low, following their scents until he was sure his children were near the crumbling remains of an old temple. Then he partially changed over to his human form, leaving only his wings so that he could keep a lower, yet equally lethal, profile as he scouted the entire area. A chill raised the hair on the back of his neck as he listened to the winds rustling the ground around him.
He still felt the presence of haunting evil. It caressed everything around him. But more than that, he caught the scent of something even more peculiar.…
Arcadian.
What the hell?
His nose twitched at the familiar odor. It was similar to Illarion and yet entirely different. Not his child, but a relative.
Dissolving his wings, Max crept along the shadows, listening intently for any sign of his enemies.
This was a den of dragons. But not just any den … Scowling, he peered through the window at the people inside. They were both wolf and drakos. Two groups that didn’t normally associate together.
Even more peculiar, they were speaking an older dialect of medieval English. Mercian? Or Saxon? He really needed Cadegan, Illarion, or Blaise here for this. It would be right up their alley.
As it was …
He could only vaguely remember their language and pick out a few stray words that made no sense to him.
Not that it mattered. He wasn’t here for them and he didn’t care about their discussion. Closing his eyes, he used his senses to hone in on what had led him to this dark place. He felt his daughter’s presence first.
Her fiery anger that was so similar to her mother’s made him smile. Until he understood the source of her fury and why it was so intense at present.
His sight darkened instantly. Wanting blood, he headed straight for the oldest temple a few yards away, where his son and daughter were being held in a large arena that appeared to have been designed for games or events.
That alone would be enough to piss him off. But what set his blood to a boiling heat was what they were doing there. The elder males were fighting his son in an outlawed game of Prine to see who would be the first to sleep with his daughter.
With only a shield and sword for protection, Hadyn stood bleeding and beaten in the center of the arena with one leg held in place by a large chain. Even so, he didn’t give up or show his weakness. Rather, he fought them off with a gladiator’s courage.
When one of the men rushed his son, Max almost made the mistake of heading him off, and charging in to save his boy. But he was seriously outnumbered.
Not that he needed to worry.
Hadyn caught the bastard with the shield, flipped him to the dirt, and stabbed him before he turned and caught the next one who came at his back. Seraphina had trained their son well. He fought like a champion.
Taking advantage of their distraction as Hadyn cut through them, Max moved quickly to his daughter.
The moment he touched her hands, she tried to fight and attack. “Shh,” he breathed in her ear. “I’m here to save you both.”
Turning her head to look up at him over her shoulder, she widened her eyes as if she might know who he was.
Max tore apart the chains that held her to the steel post. “Can you ride?” he whispered.
Careful not to alert the others about what Max was doing or that he was there, she nodded in silence as she bravely pulled the gag from her lips.
He took one moment to cup her bruised cheek and admire her courage and beauty, as love, joy, sadness, and grief overwhelmed him. This was his flesh and blood. His child. Something he’d never thought to have. Especially once he’d left Seraphina behind. He’d relegated himself to living out his life in complete sterile solitude.
Now his beautiful daughter stood before him, all but grown perfection. Not quite a woman, yet definitely not a little girl.
More than anything, he wanted to crush her against him and hold her for the rest of his life. To keep her safe and treasured.
If only he had more time.
But he still had his son to secure. Kissing her lightly on the cheek, he turned and took his dragon’s form.
“Get on, child.”
As the others screamed and ran for cover and weapons at his sudden appearance in their midst, she jumped onto his neck and secured herself.
Max flew for his son.
Hadyn started to attack him, too, until he saw his sister on his back.
“It’s all right, Hade! He’s here for us.”
Still, he hesitated as he stared up at Max. There was no fear in his eyes, only a healthy appreciation for Max’s size and ferocity. With one claw, Max pried up the stake that held the boy in place and lowered his head so that Hadyn could join his sister.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have you to your mother in a few minutes.”
Yet before Max could withdraw, the Arcadians unleashed a full volley of electrified arrows down on him with a frenetic craze.
Well, shit, this is new.
And it wasn’t the pain of the arrow wounds that was bad. Not that they felt good … particularly. It was the jolts of electricity they sent through his body that forced him to change from dragon to human and back again. Something that felt like the worst kind of muscle spasms imaginable.
His children rolled to the ground and landed near him, out of harm’s way. Max stumbled away from them, terrified he might inadvertently crush them while changing. Face it, no one wanted to be caught beneath a nine-ton dragon. The reinforcements the bears had made on the rafters of Sanctuary to support his weight were the stuff of legends.
The Arcadians rushed forward to attack while he was weakened and unable to fight.
Throwing his head back, Max cried out and summoned every bit of magick he could.
And with it, he sent his children to Sanctuary where their mother would be waiting for them. He tried to follow after them, but he didn’t have enough strength left for that. Damn it! Electricity was the one thing that was brutal for his kind. It not only played havoc with their physical bodies, it wasn’t the nicest friend to their magick either.
Right now …
He’d kill for three seconds of control.
Panting and weak, he tried to find shelter. Or roll over on one of those mutant bastards.
It was useless. They were too quick to scurry like the rodent cockroaches they were.
He barely made it ten feet before they had him surrounded. At least twenty Arcadian dragons and wolves were there. Male and female warriors armed and ready to slay him. Or worse, tie him down.
Even so, he would fight them to the end. He sprayed as much fire as he could in dragon form, but it quickly fizzled as he turned human.
He braced himself for the battle as one of the Drakos who had long dark hair neared him. The man glared his hatred for Max. Back at you, bitch.
Yet as they exchanged their mutual disdain and sneers, there was something oddly familiar about the Arcadian. Max cocked his head, trying to place him.
“Do you recognize me, dragon?”
“No,” he lied, not wanting to give him any kind of satisfaction.
With a furious shriek, he backhanded Max. “It was my grandfather you murdered!” Stepping back, he jerked his chin at the others gathered around them. “Summon my cousins. Tell Damos that I’ve finally located the bastard Dragonbane. Tonight we avenge the Kattalakis bloodline! And tomorrow we’re going after his children to finish what he started. Sanctuary or no Sanctuary. We will burn them all to the ground!”
9
Seraphina turned at the bright flash, expecting to find Maxis there. The sudden shock of seeing her children …
Relief and love poured through her. Tears filled her eyes. Shrieking in gratitude, she ran to them and grabbed them in the tightest hug she could manage even though Hadyn im
mediately let out a verbal protest that she was hurting him. She shook so badly, she feared her legs would buckle.
Had Hadyn not held her against his chest, she was sure she’d have crumpled at his feet. Not even his bedraggled condition and the fact they needed a bath and fresh clothes took away that they were the most beautiful things she’d ever seen in her life.
“It’s all right, Mama,” he breathed as he rested his chin against the top of her head. Like his father, he towered over her. “We’re fine. It’s all good.”
She wouldn’t go that far. Her poor baby was covered in blood and bruises. His homespun clothes torn and filthy. And that made her want the throats and hearts of whoever had dared touch him. How dare they lay hands on her children!
Her breathing ragged, she pulled back to examine Edena. Like her brother’s, her tunic and breeches were torn and covered with filth and blood. Seraphina felt the color drain from her face as an even worse thought went through her.
Edena was the prime age for a mating dragonswan.…
I’ll kill them. Every one of them with my bare hands and mount their heads to my wall … Sanctuary, no Sanctuary.
Mercy be damned.
“Hadyn kept them from me,” Edena assured her quickly, as if she could read her mother’s thoughts and knew the source of Seraphina’s building fury.
“Barely.” He staggered back and collapsed to sit cross-legged on the floor. Hard.
Raking a hand through his short auburn hair, he let out an exhausted breath, then winced as he grazed his knuckles against his bruised cheek. He glanced up at her with an adorable frown that was identical to one Max had used when he lived with her and she used to confound him with her strange “Amazon” ways. “Where are we?”
Seraphina didn’t answer his raspy question as she stepped over his legs and glanced around, looking for Maxis to join them. He should have been here by now.
How far behind them could he be? What was taking him so long?
Afraid something would tear her babies from her again, she kept her hand on Edena’s. “Where’s your father?”
“I knew that was him!” Edena smacked at her brother, who grimaced and shoved lightly at her so that she wouldn’t hit his shoulder again. “Told you!”
“No you didn’t.”
Ignoring his ire, Edena met Seraphina’s gaze with sadness in her eyes. “They attacked him and he sent us here while he fought them. I don’t think he was able to follow.”
Blaise cursed.
It was only then that her children realized there were others in the room with them. Edena pulled back as Hadyn rose to his feet to put himself between them and his uncles.
Seraphina smiled at the sweetly protective gesture that was so similar to what Max would have done. Though to be honest, there wasn’t much the poor boy could do right now in his wounded condition, except fall down and trip them on their way to attack her. But God love him for trying.
She let go of Edena to gently take Hadyn by the waist and scoot his enormous teen body aside.
Rubbing his back, she smiled proudly at him to let him know how much she appreciated his sweet thoughtfulness. “Edena, Hadyn … meet your uncles. Blaise and Illarion.”
“Hi.” Blaise gestured toward the wall.
Bemused by that, Hadyn scowled at her and Edena.
Illarion ignored them all. Screw the pleasantries. We need to get to Max. Where is he?
Hadyn’s frown melted to a mask of shock. “Anyone else think it odd that one uncle can’t see and the other can’t speak? Is there a reason for that?”
Blaise shot a jolt at him that left him yelping. “Careful, whelp. I don’t need my sight in this form to spank your ass. As for the voice, Illarion had his vocal cords cut by moronic humans trying to stop him from breathing fire when he was a kid. Be glad they didn’t get their hands on you.”
He immediately hung his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend either of you. I’m an insensitive idiot who doesn’t always check with my brain before I engage my mouth, especially when I’m hurting. If it makes you feel any better, in the last twenty-four hours, I had three demons try to eat me for dinner, a dozen Arcadians kick the crap out of me, and my sister scream my eardrums to bleeding. Pretty sure I lost some testosterone along the way. Definitely a shit-ton of pride and dignity.”
“Hadyn! Watch your mouth!”
“Sorry, Ma.”
Shaking her head, Seraphina went and grabbed Maxis’s battle sword from the hanger that secured it to his wall near the door. As she started to leave, Illarion caught her. What are you doing?
“You and Blaise watch the kids. I’m headed after Maxis.”
“That would be a profoundly bad idea.”
Seraphina glanced over her shoulder to see Fang standing in the now open doorway. “Excuse me?”
He stepped aside to show her the tall, dark-haired Arcadian Sentinel behind him. Only this wasn’t his brother Vane. It was another Drakos.
One she’d never met before. Dressed in medieval chain mail and yellow surcoat, and with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, he had an aura of regal refinement and fierce, arrogant warrior. While most Sentinels chose to hide their facial markings with their magick, his were more than apparent.
Fang gestured between them. “Seraphina Drago, meet Sebastian Kattalakis, Prince of Arcadia.”
Her jaw went slack as she realized that this was one of the royal princes. A direct descendant of Lycaon, the Arcadian king who’d founded their race.
But before she could bow to him, Illarion snorted disdainfully. So-fucking-what, Fang? You’re a Kattalakis, too.
Sebastian arched an arrogant brow at his rude dismissal. “Yes, but my grandfather was the king’s son. The original Apollite heir born from his queen, Mysene.”
Well la-di-da, Mr. Fancy Pants. Aren’t you special? You want a hero cookie to go with that title?
Blaise feigned a coughing fit. “Excuse me. I’m having a weird Kerrigan flashback. Should I leave now before lethal things start flying?”
No, I’m the one leaving. My brother needs me and the air in here is suddenly stale.
“Wait!” Sebastian ordered in a tone that left Illarion with a soured expression on his handsome face. One that said Sebastian was about to be in serious pain.
Or in a burn ward.
“I came here to warn Fang about what was happening. A few minutes ago, I received a summons from my cousin to attend a harrowing for the Dragonbane he’s captured.”
Seraphina gasped at his words.
Why did you come here?
Sebastian shrugged at Illarion’s belligerent question. “I thought you might want to get word to Savitar to stop it. As a limani, Fang has the ability to contact him. I don’t. And having been harrowed, myself, I don’t condone it against another. Ever. I find the whole practice of it distasteful and beneath both our species.”
Seraphina couldn’t agree more.
Illarion glared at each of them in turn. What did you people do? Take out ads? For thousands of years, Max stayed hidden and safe. He pinned that hostile glare on her. You come back into his life for five minutes and it starts falling apart again. Everyone now knows who he is and they’re all attacking him. Why do you have to ruin his life every time you come near it?
“That’s not fair!”
No, it isn’t! He never did anything to you, except try to protect you. I wish you’d do him a favor and get out of his life before you kill him.
Blaise gasped. “Illarion…”
Don’t, brother. It’s the truth I speak. We’re all thinking it. I just said it. I’m sick to death of watching my brother bleed for her.
Seraphina took a step toward him, intending to make him eat those words, but before she could, a loud thump sounded on the other side of the curtains.
All of them froze.
In unison, they turned toward the unexpected rustling. An exasperated sigh was punctuated by the curtains parting only enough to launch a round object from between th
em. It shot across the room and landed with another wet, squishy thump on the floor before it rolled a few feet.
Edena shrieked and danced toward her brother as the object came to rest near her and turned out to be a disembodied human head.
An instant later, a huge, spiny dragon poked his head out from between the curtains to offer a lopsided grin. “Sorry, love. Didn’t realize anyone was here.”
Seraphina gaped at the sight of Maxis lying there as if nothing unusual had happened.
He arched one dragon brow at Sebastian. “Hope that’s not a friend of yours. And if it is, tough shit. He was an asshole. Anyone got some extra-large dental floss on them? I’ve got a chunk of Arcadian dragonslayer stuck in my teeth. Nasty-tasting stuff, that. And Illarion, you’re wrong. It does not taste like chicken. More like three-day-old rotten ass.”
Blaise and Fang burst out laughing. Sebastian looked offended. Hadyn and Edena gaped.
“If I said that, I’d be on restriction forever,” Hadyn mumbled to his sister.
“Yes, you would. And don’t forget it.” Shaking her head, Seraphina closed the distance between them so she could check on Max and make sure he was all right.
That she wasn’t hallucinating his sudden appearance.
Max didn’t move as he watched his dragonswan walk toward him with a slow saunter. He waited for the condemnation he was sure would follow for his having killed one of her people.
But honestly? He was too tired and in way too much pain to care. Let her hate him. The bastard deserved it. They’d tried to skewer him.
Next time, they should bring more men. Larger spears. And marinate themselves in some soy sauce.
Gah, what kind of piss-poor diet were they on? Rotten cat meat? Cabbage wine?
Yet instead of condemning him, she sank down on her knees by his face and fell against his snout. And when she threw herself, weeping, to hold him close, he wasn’t real sure what to think or do. It was so unexpected that for several heartbeats, he was rather certain he was dreaming.
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