Memoir of Alexander Righ, Ruler of Erieria—Excerpt
I've insisted my children be trained as much as possible in the arts and sciences of self-defense. I've had them all trained so much so that if Rein hadn't handed me the dagger and knelt with his head back, I wouldn't have been able to overcome his defenses to make the fatal blow. The training I've allowed Cam and Maël to be put through is seen as extreme by many other leaders. Between my wounds at the loss of my children and Bastion’s at the loss of his charges, it could be nothing less. Still, I find myself wishing I'd let Bastion go with Cam.
CHAPTER 46:
33rd of Sunani, Summer
30:30 Hours, Late Night
CAM
Cam stood near the desk in the guest chamber, worrying for Li and wondering how the rest of the night would play out.
Simon’s mental voice arrowed into his mind. ‘We’re under attack!’ Only seconds before his big body crashed through the patio doors. He grappled with two opponents. Limbs entangled, they landed hard with Si on the bottom.
Time moved in slow motion as Cam's gaze flicked up to check that no more were coming. He'd taken a step toward his cousin’s struggle when he heard the thump of the door colliding with the wall behind him. Cam's head swiveled, brows turning down in a fierce frown. It'd been locked, which meant the well-built man dressed in Kedowyth colors bull rushing Cam had a key.
He had only a moment to set his body and shuffle his feet into position for the attack. Cam grabbed his enemy’s arm. Using the assaulter’s momentum and his own leverage, Cam twisted at the waist and threw him—arse over teakettle—to land flat on his back on the floor. Continuing the motion with ruthless efficiency, Cam aimed his knee at his attacker's sternum. He dropped down with a rifle-shot crack of bone from his opponent’s chest. He made sure of the kill by drawing his dagger and slashing his assailant’s throat.
Just as his blade connected—making a lethal furrow where none should have been—Cam noted the man’s eyes. The whole of the eyes—much like a silver wardens—were one color, an opaque pearl-gray. He looked blind, but before Cam's knife made contact the man’s eyes widened in terror.
A thud and then a crunchy sounding gurgle slithered through the room behind Cam, from Simon’s location. Hearing nothing further from the hall, Cam looked up quickly to see Si pinned under the corpse of one of his attackers. The blade of Si’s kaiken tanto stuck up through the dead man’s back. Even from beneath the weight of the carcass—and with a dagger stuck up to the hilt in his shoulder—Simon had managed to kick the other attacker into the wall beside the broken garden doors.
As Cam came to his feet again, that third assaulter pulled himself to standing. Cam flicked his wrist to settle his blade firmly in his palm. He released the hold on his power and thrust his expressive aphrodisia into the man’s psyche. Shocked, he watched as the gray eyed beast only tilted his head instead of falling to the floor in a paroxysm of lust. Only sentinel silver wardens were immune to the second and third levels of Cam's gift, and it threw him for a second. His eyes widened as—with a roar—the idiot charged.
“Not very smart, are you?” Cam set his feet and met the gen-con’s charge with a tomoe-nage throw. Grabbing the man’s shoulders—burying a foot in his attacker's gut—he pushed off with his grounded leg. Rolling backwards, he threw the creature up and over. Tumbling over with the throw, Cam shoved his blade into the wide chest. He lost his hold on the dagger momentarily but scrambled up and retrieved it. Yanking it out of the creature’s heart he watched the man shudder and die.
He assessed their danger and hearing nothing in the hall or out in the gardens, he hurried to Simon. A spreading pool of crimson betrayed the seriousness of Si’s injuries. Pinned under the body of one of the attackers, Simon didn't move. Cam's gut clenched and his skin broke out in a cold sweat in fear for his cousin. With a heave, Cam tossed the corpse off Si and breathed out a quick grunt of relief when he blinked icy silver eyes up at him.
“Cam, you're well?”
Cam nodded and went to his knees to assess his cousin's wounds. “Report, if you can.” Covered in blood from his kill, Cam had trouble finding where Si had taken damage. Following the warmth of the spreading blood to a hot spot, he applied pressure to the seeping scarlet bullseye at Simon’s side above his hip.
Si bit back a curse. “Four more opponents outside, they're dead, so are your guards. We’re lucky the beasts were so lightly trained, or we'd be dead too. Their speed was incredible, some new form of gen-con. I think.”
Cam let go of Simon and quickly found the first aid kit. Returning to kneel next to his cousin, he ripped the bottom half of the uniform wide.
“Shit,” Cam hissed. He took in the severity of the injury to Simon’s left abdomen. The blade had gone through the heavy muscle at the side of Si’s belly, and fearing the worst Cam leaned down to sniff. He breathed a sigh of relief to find that the wound didn't stink of sewage. If the bowel or intestines had been punctured, Cam would have been able to smell feces mixed with the meaty scent of blood.
“We get you to a doctor you'll be okay.” When Si didn't respond, Cam snapped, “Report!” He shoved a syringe full of anti-hemorrhagic clotting agent into the wound. The foam swelled and stopped bleeding temporarily.
“Why did the second guy attack you?” Simon asked woozily.
“I hit him with my full power and he shook it off like it was nothing.” He put sterile pads on both sides of Si’s waist and wrapped compression bandages around him. Then Cam bit his lip and looked at the dagger buried in Simon’s shoulder. He didn't dare leave the blade in the wound. Normal treatment would be to stabilize the dagger and get Si to real medical attention. Knowing they could be attacked again at any moment and needing his cousin able to at least defend himself; Cam gritted his teeth and rapidly pulled the dagger. Moving quickly, he ripped the cloth away and shoved another syringe of anti-hemorrhagic into the wound. Depressing the plunger, he waited for a moment for it to work and then threw the used syringe aside. Cam put sterile pads on either side of Simon’s shoulder and wrapped another compression bandage around his cousin’s shoulder and chest.
“You need an IV with this amount of blood loss, but I don't dare start one. You have to stay with me. We need to check the rest of our people.”
Simon nodded, gritting his teeth. “Help me up. I'll survive. I’ve had worse.”
Cam gave Si a hand up and slung his cousin’s unwounded arm across his own shoulders. Both of them were blood soaked and Simon’s uniform hung in a tattered mess. Cam armed them both and guided his weaving cousin toward the door to the hall. Just as they reached the door, the one across the hall opened. Another pale-eyed man came out of Onyx and Agate’s suite. As the gen-con closed the door, Cam saw that he had blood splattered across his face. Those creepy gray eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Cam.
“Fuck,” Cam hissed. “Sorry, Si.” He shoved his cousin’s form off his body to keep him out of the fight. Simon landed with a thump and a curse on the floor. Cam brought his blade to bear and swung. The gen-con ducked with more speed than should’ve been possible. “Fuck!”
His sword stuck fast in the molding of the doorway, Cam jerked back to avoid the sweeping slice of the gen-con’s blade. He still took a burning slice across the chest. As his blood spilled Cam yanked his blade out of the wood and thrust it through the attackers gut. He dragged upward to bisect the descending aorta and twisted the weapon viciously. He watched the light flicker in those creepy gray eyes and yanked his sabre out, the grinding of the blade against the man’s ribs shuddered up the hilt to Cam's hand. His attacker’s body thumped to the ground. Cam glanced around again. He looked down to Simon.
“Sorry about that, Si.”
“Don't be. Are there any more?” Simon lay still against the pain of his wounds, worried eyes on Cam's chest.
“I don't see any. Can you use your gift?”
“How badly are you hurt?”
“I'll live, hurts like a bitchkitty in heat, though.” His eyes wells of worry Cam looked to the door across the way. “Onyx.”
Simon didn't waste words, just let the quietude of a telepath come over his face. “No thought patterns in the hall or nearby rooms.”
“Good enough.”
Cam got his cousin draped over his shoulders again and supporting his weight, he guided them through across the hall. He helped Si brace his weight on the door jamb and waited until his cousin nodded that he had Cam covered. Pressing his body to the far side of the door Cam reached an arm over and quickly turned the knob, pushing the door inward in one swift move. The door slammed back against the wall, and both Simon and Cam looked carefully into the room, using the walls as partial cover.
Light from the hall and a small bedside lamp showed them they were too late. The room lay in disarray; both Onyx and Agate had been orphans adopted by the palace. They'd had basic martial training from childhood on, and Onyx had had far more than minimal self-defense skills. Against a trained—whatever those men had been—it'd availed them little.
Onyx’s body had been thrown—back first—against the aged plaster of the wall, and a bright ribbon of scarlet led down the wall from where he’d impacted. His head slumped forward over his chest, Onyx’s golden hair fell over his face and obscured the badge on his deep blue livery. His hands had dropped to either side of his sprawled legs. The blades in his slack grip—the double-edged, wavy-bladed gunong he'd carried for ilacades—gleamed through crimson blood stain. The attacker had fallen to his side; dead, near Onyx’s body.
Agate lay on her side, her head pillowed on Onyx’s thigh, brown eyes open, glassily reflecting the light from the bedside lamp. A gaping wound severed her throat. By the blood trail, she'd been by the door of the small room when she'd taken the fatal slice. Simon stayed leaning on the door jamb; breath coming fast and his dark skin ashy as he guarded the hall.
His voice harsh with pain, he said, “She dragged herself to him. She'd have had thirty seconds or less of consciousness with a wound like that, were they lovers?”
Cam nodded tersely before stepping into the lake of blood Onyx sat in.
So much blood, he thought. Until you walk through it, it's never real; how much blood a body has in it. The stench of fresh death coated Cam’s tongue, and without much hope he crouched over Onyx—his friend for more ilayears than Cam could easily count—to search for a pulse. His eyes widened when, against expectation, he found one.
“He lives!” Cam quickly slid his weapon away and checked with a palm under Onyx’s face for breath, finding a steady rhythm. “Simon, I need you.”
Simon closed and locked the door and weaved his way over to them. He bent next to Agate’s body. “Sorry sweetheart.” He shifted her with a grunt at the pain of his wounds.
“He's breathing, and I need you to stabilize his neck and head while I look for whatever caused that blood.” Cam nodded at the streak of scarlet on the wall. When Simon had his broad palms supporting Onyx’s head and neck, Cam ran careful fingers through the golden hair. He found a wet spot and looked closer to find a split scalp, the blood already clotting. Examining Onyx's skull, Cam didn't find anything to indicate the cranium had been compromised. He continued his exam, noting that Simon had paled and broken into a sweat with the strain of holding his position.
“Damnit,” Cam cursed. He'd found a deep stab wound to Onyx’s outer thigh. Ripping up the leg of his slacks, Cam wrapped a pressure bandage around the deep, still seeping wound.
Sitting back on his heels Cam said, “Can you contact Li? We need to stay with him, so he doesn't injure himself if he wakes. We don't dare move him unless it's necessary.” Cam looked around the room and said softly, “I think we can hold here, if needed.”
Simon carefully let go of Onyx’s head and sat back with a groan against the desk behind him. The blood made small, heavy waves of oily crimson as Si’s weight disturbed it. He closed his eyes, his face going still as he spoke to Li.
Cam stood and lifted Agate’s limp body from the floor, the sharpness of the pain in his slashed chest swelled. Looking into her lovely face and seeing the limp way her long rabbit-like ears fell Cam's gut clenched and his eyes teared up. If Onyx survived, this would tear him apart. Cam gently laid Agate’s body—as if she could still feel—on the floor on the other side of the bed and covered her with a sheet. The last thing Onyx would need to see right away, if he woke, was his beloved’s corpse. Cam locked the patio doors, at least those creatures hadn't broken through this set.
Simon spoke. “Li's well. The Septir is down, and xie knows our status. Xie's going to search his office. We should see if the phones in here work and call for backup.”
Dizzy, Cam nodded then found sterile pads and another pressure bandage in Onyx’s baggage. He stripped out of his blood-wet shirt and examined his chest wound. He'd taken a downward slice from the tip of his left shoulder to the bottom right of his ribcage. The blood had already slowed to a seep. He winced with the pain and eased the skin back into place so he'd heal cleanly as he wrapped it. He healed so fast he really should be stitched, but that was a luxury they didn't have. “Can you contact any of the rest of the party?”
Simon’s face was drawn with exhaustion and blood loss, but Cam waited as his cousin used his inborn gifts to search for survivors.
“I'm sorry. They're all down.”
“Fuck,” Cam swore tiredly. “Even Philodox?”
Simon shook his head grimly. “I sense no thought patterns at all for well over forty feet in the direction of the guest wing. If anyone survived, their mind is null. I don't have Li's gift of life sense, but if they were alive, even unconscious, I'd get something.”
“Fuck,” Cam swore succinctly and sat down on the bed.
Memoir of Alexander Righ, Ruler of Erieria—Excerpt
It bothered me when Li and Cam fell in love, though having xyr at his back is a blessing. Li is one of the coldest people I've ever known. Emotions don't govern xyr thoughts or actions. This doesn't mean xie's incapable of emotion, just that xie's guided more by logic than not. It's part of why I was so very surprised when xie and Cam fell for each other. At first, I doubted xie honestly felt anything for him. They were partnered as fighters much earlier than they showed any hint of soft feelings for one another. I've often wondered, in passing, if Li even has the capability to feel for someone quickly.
CHAPTER 59:
33rd of Sunani, Summer
30:45 hours, Late Night
LI
As Li hurried to the door, Simon’s sending reached xyr, assuring xyr that while Cam had been wounded, he lived. Xie rested xyr forehead against the carved oak and breathed a sigh of relief.
‘How are you? Are there survivors?’ Xie sent back to Simon and closed xyr eyes when he told xyr he'd been severely wounded but should be okay. Then he told xyr about Onyx and Agate. Xie gasped at the pain subsuming xyr. What if it had been Cam? If he'd died tonight… Li found a deep well of sympathy for Onyx.
‘He's the only survivor other than you and Cam?’
‘I can't sense any other thought waves. If they're alive they're wounded too severely to survive even with help.’
The coldness of that decision didn't surprise Li. Simon was xyr mentor in the shadow guild, and he'd trained xyr.
‘Do you need me or should I stay here and search for evidence?’
‘Stay there. Cam's found a phone and is calling in the Browncoats. Our shock troops will be here soon. He tried to reach the crew of the Zeppelin but they must have been hit first. The Zeppelin crew, the guards, the breeders, they're all dead or non-responsive.’
Li sighed and went back to stand over Lionel’s corpse. Xie sent an image to Simon.
‘Well done. You enjoyed that didn't
you?’
‘You know I did.’
‘Excellent work, clean up and take a few moments, then search the rooms.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Li broke the contact to send a thought to Cam. ‘How bad is it, my love?’ His beloved voice wrapped xyr in emotional warmth like a fuzzy blanket on a cold night.
‘I'll live. Might have a lovely scar for you to kiss, though.’
Li's lips twitched in a smile. “I will if you want to keep it. You know the physicians can return you to your normally devastating beauty quickly enough.’ Xie could sense his fatigue and grief for Agate even as he agreed with xyr. ‘Simon wants me to search here, do you need me there?’
‘No, my love, do what you can where you are. If we were going to be attacked again, it would've happened already. Hopefully, everything’s been quiet enough that his viperous offspring don't know what’s gone down.’
‘Only two are guilty, he kept the youngest, Baladeva, out of the whole thing. Lionel thought he'd try to control it all.’
‘Interesting. I have to make some calls, so I'll let you work. I love you, Li. Our troops will be here soon.’
‘I love you, too.’
Xie broke the connection and cleaned up more thoroughly in Lionel’s washroom. Stepping back to Lionel, xie retrieved xyr blade, cleaned it and tucked it back into xyr hair. Li cast a last fond gaze at Lionel and closed the curtains around the bed. In xyr distraction, xie moved to the door and made a classic, amateur mistake.
Li slid through the door and closed it behind xyr. Looking up at the lamp-lit room xyr eyes widened at the sight of Baladeva’s hulking form rifling through his father's desk. Xyr surprise must have been apparent to the blond. His eyes swept up and down xyr sex and murder tousled form, and he snorted.
“Father managed it did he? He was bragging he'd have you. Your master send you to lay all the nobles who host you?”
“I…” In xyr shock at how stupid xie'd been, failing to use xyr telepathy to clear the room first, Li didn't know what to say.
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