by Dante King
The corpse of the recently deceased wolf shifter gave a horrifying jerk.
Tomas trailed off, his gaze caught and held by the sight of the wolf shifter’s twitch. He hesitated for a moment before continuing. “As I was saying, the recent events—”
The shifter trembled again. And again.
Then, in front of the entire Council, he sat up.
Soojin and Carli both took huge steps backward. Carli actually squealed in shock, her hand clutching at my shoulder like she wanted to drag me out of danger along with her. The wolf shifter’s back arched in a hideous, inhuman way, forming a ‘U’ that not even a well-trained dancer could match. The criminal’s corpse drew tight as a bow, reacting as if it had been hit with a taser.
A low growl escaped the dead man’s mouth. Froth collected on his hairy face, spilling from his lips.
The crowd went nuts.
“Necromancy!” a shifter screeched, rising from his seat to point a finger at the mages. “Forbidden magic! Who would dare to practice such a thing in this hallowed place!?”
Mages shot from their seats at the accusation, red-faced and yelling. More shifters rose to argue with them, and suddenly nearly everyone in the Council chamber was talking at once. Soojin had warned me that not going along with the flow of events could lead to violence—but I’d done everything right. Yet it still looked like a war was about to break out between shifters and mages, right before my eyes.
Meanwhile, the corpse of the wolf shifter kept twitching. He’d somehow managed to get to his knees, pawing the floor beneath him like a man trying to claw his way out of his own coffin. Inhuman howls ripped from his dead throat, which would have been blood-freezingly horrible if not drowned out by the arguing from the stands.
“Calm down, everyone,” Tomas commanded, trying to reassert control of the situation. “No one would dare attempt to countermand an edict of the Council of Wand & Claw. Something else must be going on—something none of us can understand!”
He was more right than he knew.
Just then, a flash of lightning struck through the unearthly sky above.
The entire Council found themselves momentarily blinded, mages and shifters alike. As the council chamber cleared, two figures stood just behind the podium, having appeared out of thin air. The one standing next to Tomas was bad news, plain and simple—but it wasn’t him who froze my blood in my veins. It was his attendant, standing next to him with a neutral expression and his hands firmly in his pockets.
Richard Enfield. The man with no reflection.
“This is something beyond your understanding,” the newcomer said with a smirk. “This shifter belongs to us now. We claim his body for our servitude, by ancient right.”
I’d never seen such powerful people looking so helpless. The newcomer had an incredible psychological effect on the Council of Wand & Claw—even the most belligerent mages and shifters found themselves silent before him. One look at him and it wasn’t hard to see why, though.
Count Dracula wasn’t real. Even if vampires were actual, living creatures, and not some Hollywood invention, the story of the elegant vampire who lived in Transylvania and had a harem of beautiful vampiric women was a total fabrication. But if he had lived, the man standing at the podium next to the Majordomo of the Council would have given him nightmares as he lay in his coffin.
Pale skin set off the most expensive-looking suit I’d ever seen. His coal black hair was slicked back like Christopher Lee’s, and he even had the cloak to match. More than anyone else in attendance, he looked as if the old-school theme of the Council of Wand & Claw had been designed exclusively for him. Just looking at him sent the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.
From behind him, Richard caught my eye and gave an almost imperceptible nod. The big night, I thought, my stomach doing a flip. What the fuck!?
Tomas looked just as confused and upset as I was. “What is the meaning of this!?” the Majordomo roared. “Release this shifter at once!”
“I will do no such thing,” the vampire said, his thin lips curling back in a smile. “In fact, I’ve already finished.”
The corpse of the shifter had stopped twitching. It rose from its deathbed and shuffled across the floor in full view of the shocked audience, making its way to a point behind the newcomer and Richard. Its eyes were unfocused and dim, like the eyes of a doll.
“I believe our people should be represented in this Council,” the newcomer said, brushing back his cloak. “We have been absent from the world of the living for too long—over a century now. But we have finally returned, and we are ready to start afresh. Let the Council of Wand & Claw be the Council of Wand, Skull, & Claw once more!”
As he spoke, looks of horrified recognition had begun to spread over the faces of some of those in attendance. I noted that it was the older members of the Council especially who recognized this newcomer, hands clasped over their mouths or against their foreheads in shock.
Soojin was one of these. The poor woman trembled at the sight of the vampire, her hand gripping mine almost tight enough to bruise.
“Who is he?” I asked, leaning against Soojin. “What is he talking about?”
“I… I thought they’d all been vanquished from the world,” the shifter murmured. “Raya, she told me her grandfather… your great grandfather, Derek, slew the last one. She was so certain of that. My God, Raya was wrong…”
“The last what?” I couldn’t help raising my voice. “Just who the fuck are these guys?”
“Nightlords,” Soojin said, her face as still as a statue’s. “The undead.”
Chapter 20
In the end, not much was accomplished at the Council of Wand & Claw.
Before the rest of the crowd could so much as ask a question to the newcomer, he drew up his cloak and vanished in a puff of smoke, taking Richard Enfield and the reanimated wolf shifter along with him.
Only Tomas Karkosa remained standing at the podium, looking more flustered than the Majordomo of the supernatural realm might have normally had cause to be.
Along with a whole bunch of pissed off shifters and mages who wanted to take out their frustrations on each other.
Somehow, cooler heads prevailed. The situation didn’t descend into out and out violence, though I could tell more than a few of the drunker shifters from the Celesta couldn’t wait to get into it with a few of the smugger mages. The execution had riled up everyone’s emotions—and the sudden appearance of the Nightlords in our midst flipped the entire table as far as the balance of power in the supernatural realm went.
“It was thought that they were extinct,” Soojin explained to me later, once we’d left the Council’s chambers. “Nearly a century ago, the Nightlords came close to overthrowing the rest of the supernatural realm. They threatened to dissolve the uneasy peace that reigned over us for centuries, replacing the established order with an authoritarian dictatorship of the undead.”
“Shifters and mages came together to defeat them,” Carli added. “The current accord between them stems from that conflict—from the need to band together and defeat an existential threat. You could say that without the Nightlords, shifters and mages would still be at each other’s throats.”
“The one I met didn’t seem all that bad,” I said. “A little creepy, sure—but I’ve seen weirder since discovering supernatural creatures exist. I’d rather have dinner with Richard Enfield than that fucking sewer troll…”
The three of us sat on a couch in the grand lobby of the Celesta, people watching over drinks. With the Council of Wand & Claw ending so abruptly, a massive crush of supernatural creatures had taken over the entrance to the grand casino—the line to have personal valets bring vehicles to the front looked to be hours long. So Carli, Soojin, and I weren’t going anywhere any time soon—not unless I wanted to get into a fight, anyway.
Soojin had traded in champagne for a dark, rich wine the color of blood. Every time she sipped it, it reminded me uncomfortably of our new fr
iends the Nightlords.
“I still can’t believe you met the Nightlords’ second in command,” Soojin murmured, staring down into the depths of her drink. “You should have told us immediately, Derek. We might have been able to warn the Council before their leader arrived…”
“I didn’t know he was anything special,” I countered with a shrug. “How on Earth was I supposed to know that vampires were the one supernatural creature I should be shocked to run into at this casino? After the basilisk and the thunderbird and all that.”
Spots of color shone on Soojin’s cheeks. “Fair enough,” she said.
Everyone dealt with the stress in their own way. Soojin got quiet and contemplative—while for Carli, it was the exact opposite. The Raiju shifter had taken the intrusion of the Nightlords as an excuse to completely jettison her sobriety, and was currently nursing a bottle of something dark and strong as she curled up against me, her tail twitching between my legs. I knew it wouldn’t be long until Carli suggested the three of us sneak off somewhere more private for some fun.
Honestly, I was looking forward to it. But I wanted to keep my eye on the mages and shifters, as well. Something momentous was happening here tonight, and I sensed that even more was happening beneath the surface than we knew.
Carli’s hand had just begun to grow bold enough to massage my inner thigh when the crowd near the casino entrance abruptly parted. A harried-looking servant in a business suit came power walking through the lobby, heading directly for the couch on which me and my girls sat. I raised myself up out of a half-slouch, feet on the floor as I prepared to receive the newcomer. Carli pulled back, frustration whining from her throat at being denied the use of my body as a toy.
This is trouble, I thought, staring the man down. For certain.
The man gave my group a perfunctory bow, with just enough respect to not be deliberately offensive. “Derek Sinclair?” the servant asked.
As if anyone in this building didn’t know who I was after tonight.
“That’s me,” I said, pulling Soojin and Carli closer. “What do you want?”
The servant shook his head, looking relieved. “It’s not what I want,” he said, gesturing behind himself toward the entrance of the casino. “He wishes to speak with you.”
Conversations fell silent as Tomas Karkosa strode across the lobby. The Majordomo of the Council had lost some of his ethereal majesty standing in such a mundane building, yet he still managed to look imposing as all hell. A handful of guards stood at attention a short distance away, as if they wanted to ensure his safety without impugning on his conversation.
“Ah, Sinclair,” the Majordomo said, taking my hand and shaking it in both of his own hands. “No, please, sit. It is I who am interloping on your conversation. I’m very glad I managed to catch you before you and your mates left our meeting place.”
There it was again—the casual calling of Soojin and Carli my mates. I was pretty sure nobody here meant it in the Australian sense of the term, but neither of my women spoke a word to correct him. Perhaps they enjoyed being referred to in such a way, even though we’d never made an arrangement like that official.
“Small chance of me getting out of here early,” I said, jerking a thumb toward the crowd. “What can I do for you, sir?”
The Majordomo took a seat across from mine. Most of the stares remained, though a few people turned away to resume yelling at the frightened valet for their vehicles.
“Our Council was adjourned somewhat prematurely,” the Majordomo said, concealing his irritation at the fact with good humor. “As it stood, there were certain matters better tackled in the group that we did not have time to properly pursue, and must instead do so now. One of these is the matter of your place in the supernatural order of things.”
“My place?” I’d only understood about half of what Tomas said. “I’m Raya’s son. What else do I need to be besides that?”
“Ah yes,” Tomas said, smiling in recognition. “The child of a powerful, famous mage. With the abilities of a Dragon shifter. While it is rare that a child inherits the magical abilities of his or her parents, it is far rarer that the child of a mage becomes a legendary shifter. How very curious you are, Derek.”
He knows, too, I realized digging my fingers into my palm. He’s just too polite to say anything. Why don’t these people want to spoil the fact that I’m a mage on top of being a shifter?
“If you’ve got a point, I’d appreciate you getting to it,” I said with a casual yawn. “My mates and I have grown bored waiting for our limousine—we were about to search out some more private chambers to relax in.”
Tomas’s eyes widened slightly at the boldness of this claim, but his courteousness kept him from saying anything about it.
Instead, he got down to business.
“As the shifter offspring of a mage,” Tomas began, “you would normally acclimate to the supernatural world by joining an extant group of shifters. After a time, you would formally become a member of their clan, thereby joining a new family of affiliation on top of your natural blood relations.”
“Pssh,” Carli said, dismissing the words with a wave of her hand. “Derek doesn’t need that. He’s a legendary shifter, like me. We don’t play nicely with clans.”
Tomas Karkosa’s mask of geniality slipped. For a moment, he glared at Carli, and I wanted to punch him. Then his serene smile pushed through, and he continued.
“That is entirely accurate,” he agreed, turning away from Carli as if she no longer existed. “And yet, as the son of such an influential mage, it feels somehow disrespectful to Raya to have her son be an unclanned shifter. And since you appear to already have the makings of a group around you—of a sort—the Council of Wand & Claw have come up with a solution. If you will agree to it.”
I had some idea of what Tomas was proposing. My heart beat faster in my chest, excitement thrilling through my veins at the potential of what might be.
“Go on,” I said.
Tomas smiled. “You will form your own clan.”
My own clan. From the gasps of those close enough to hear, I could tell this was a major honor—not the kind of thing extended to just any new shifter in town. But did I really want that kind of responsibility?
“I don’t know the first thing about running a clan,” I said, testing the waters a bit.
Let’s see how firm Tomas’s desire to see this happen truly was.
“Well, you have an excellent teacher,” Tomas replied, gesturing at Soojin. “Soojin Lee has nearly as much experience dealing with supernaturals as your dear mother—and from the correct side of the fence, to boot. I can’t blame you in the slightest for acquiring her as one of your mates.”
“She’s not my—” I said, but I was cut off.
“I’d be happy to be your second in command,” Soojin said smoothly, flashing that Mona Lisa smile. “As long as you want to be a clan leader, Derek.”
She put her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze, her smile widening.
Holy shit, I thought, the pounding in my chest turning into a hummingbird’s flutter. Soojin and I had barely hooked up, yet this gorgeous older woman wanted to be my mate. My woman.
More than that—she was perfectly happy to share me.
“You see? You’re in good hands,” Tomas said with a chuckle. “Trust me, most shifter clans have a rather… Well, rough and tumble command structure would be a good word for it. You have far less to learn than you fear, I expect.”
I do like to tumble, I thought, glancing at both Soojin and Carli for confirmation. And these girls definitely like it rough.
“Are both of you okay with this?” I whispered. I felt that even asking made me look like a bit less of an alpha, which is why I kept it to a level where the crowd wouldn’t hear. I wasn’t about to force either woman into my service—but their attraction to me and lust for my body couldn’t be denied.
Soojin had already given her assent. At my question, Carli nodded like a bobblehead.
“Oh hell yes,” the shifter purred, giving my other hand an even harder squeeze than Soojin had. “Our own clan? A legendary clan!? Sign me the fuck up!”
“I’m talking about the other stuff,” I said, my hand sliding up her thigh.
Carli smirked and leaned over, her pouty lips pressed against my ear. “If I had a problem with that, I wouldn’t have fucked you in the limo, would I? And I definitely wouldn’t have done it raw.” Her chuckle made me want to bend her over and fuck her right then and there. “We both know I’m your woman, Derek. If you haven’t bred me, you sure as shit will soon. Because I’m not going to stop fucking you, and if you tried to wrap that cock up before you stuck it in me, I’d rip the fucking condom off and beg you to fill my pussy full…”
Holy fuck! I had to pull back—Carli’s words gave me a raging boner, and if she didn’t stop, I really would hike her skirt up and fuck her in front of everyone. She let out a giggle as I leaned away, her hand resting on the bulge between my legs like she wanted to unzip me and take me down her throat.
“We’ll do it,” I said, more certain of this than I’d been about anything in my life. “What do I have to do? Go back into the arena? Sign my name in blood?”
Tomas looked tickled pink at the suggestion. “There’s merely a few forms to fill out,” the Majordomo said with a shrug. “You’ll also need to choose a name for your clan, though that will be done in a ceremony later so you don’t need to pick one immediately. I’ll leave you to recruit whichever shifters you feel will be advantageous to join your ranks.” He gave both Soojin and Carli a knowing look. “I’m sure you can think of two already.”
With that, the Majordomo rose and shuffled away. A few sounds of congratulations reached me at the announcement that I’d be running my own clan, but most people were too stunned to do much more than push back into the line leading outside, redoubling their efforts to scramble over the other attendees. I sat there stunned for a long moment, within the warm embrace of my two beautiful women.
My clan members.