Saving Daylight

by Shannon K. Butcher

  Without her, they would have had to abandon Dabyr completely. There would have been no hope of repair.

  But she was only one woman and the warrior who fueled her magic was only one man. There was a limit to what they could do and Joseph was afraid that the couple had now reached that limit.

  She needed rest. So did Zach. Even now, as he watched the man standing over his wife, he was pushing so much power into her he was weaving on his feet.

  Around them was a ring of warriors armed with swords, defending Lexi with their life.

  Without her there would be no hope and every man down there knew it.

  Every man down there was willing to give his life to save her.

  “It’s not as bad as all that, is it?” Lyka asked.

  She’d heard his thoughts. He didn’t have the energy to filter them anymore. Like Zach, he’d been fueling his wife’s magic, allowing her to transform at will. She hunted along the perimeter, taking out stray demons and keeping watch for larger groups bent on invasion.

  Joseph didn’t like her out there alone, but he wasn’t fast enough to keep up with her and she didn’t stay out for long.

  He fought beside his men, falling back only to reassess the situation so he could move warriors to shore up breaks in their defenses, or to remove from combat those too stubborn to fall back for the healing they needed.

  At least during the night they had the aid of the Sanguinar on the battlefield.

  Logan and Hope had done as much to keep Dabyr from falling as any of those who wielded a sword against their enemy.

  Joseph still wasn’t sure how it worked, but somehow, Logan drew strength from Hope, who drew strength from the sun, allowing him to heal when other Sanguinar would have been too exhausted to lift their heads. That he’d found her was one of the few bright spots their people had experienced recently.

  And now Ronan had found Justice, a woman like Hope, who helped fuel his power. Joseph had assigned Ronan to the shelters where most of the humans who had been at Dabyr now resided.

  For reasons Joseph didn’t understand, Justice had seemed to know the attack on Dabyr was coming. She’d set up shelters around the country, filling them with food, water, beds and supplies. And while not as protected as Dabyr’s walls had once been, they were warded and able to protect humans to some extent.

  They were certainly safer than this place was right now.

  So now, Justice and Ronan traveled between those shelters, taking care of the hundreds of souls that needed protection, healing and comfort.

  They also were watching over the Theronai women who were currently pregnant—a rare, amazing gift that no one had expected, since there hadn’t been a single child born to a male Theronai in over two hundred years. Now there were three.

  Nika and Madoc were also being held in one of the shelters because their newborn was far too fragile and precious to risk. Madoc served as the protector of a shelter, the same way the other two expectant fathers did at other locations.

  Everyone was doing their part to keep people safe, but in the end, Joseph was responsible for all of them.

  “You’re putting too much of a burden on your shoulders,” Lyka said, as she wrapped her arm around him and leaned in close.

  There were only a handful of demons left alive on the field now, and those were quickly being dispatched.

  To his right, Joseph saw two men helping carry one of the wounded back to where Logan worked healing the injured. With luck, his work would soon be over.

  There were no reports of more incoming Synestryn. But they would come. Dabyr was too rich a target not to draw demons from miles away. The warriors here, while exhausted and battle-scarred, were still the demons’ favorite food. They were still huge sources of power.

  More demons would definitely come.

  “What we’re doing isn’t working,” Joseph told his wife. “We have to get the walls back up. We can’t fight off every demon on the continent—not with our dwindling numbers.”

  “Lexi needs help,” Lyka said.

  “None of the other women can do what she does. They’ll just exhaust themselves.”

  He knew what Lexi needed, but couldn’t bring himself to issue the order.

  Lyka, as always, was in his thoughts, connected to him on a level so deep, it was if they shared one mind. Because of that, she knew what he meant.

  “Andra will come,” Lyka said.

  “Of course, she will. But what about her baby? I can’t risk her unborn child.”

  “You don’t think that the collapse of Dabyr is just as much of a risk? If this place falls, there will be no safe place for her to raise the baby.”

  Lyka was right. She usually was.

  “My kind fight when they’re pregnant,” she said. “And what you’re asking of Andra would be far less hands-on. She’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “I’m not sure Paul would agree.”

  But again, Lyka was right. Andra’s ability to erect a forcefield that could protect those inside was amazing—as good as any warded walls could be. If she was standing inside her own shield…

  “You have no choice,” Lyka said. “Let her convince Paul. She’ll know how to make him see the truth. We need her.”

  Joseph shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

  The last of the demons fell. The warriors who weren’t injured spread out to watch for the next wave of attack.

  Sunrise was coming soon. There would be fewer demons to fight. They would rest as much as possible, heal and regroup. Because darkness would fall again tomorrow night and more Synestryn would come for their blood.

  Lyka sent him a wave of reassurance. It hummed through his mind, as warm and soft as the woman who sent it. And just like her, it was powerful and determined.

  Joseph lapped up that reassurance like a man dying of thirst. He grasped onto it and let it strengthen his resolve.

  He didn’t know what he’d do without the woman he loved.

  He prayed he’d never have to find out.

  Chapter Five

  Andra was going crazy. Batshit, loony-bin, nut-balls insane.

  “I can’t stay here, cooped up like this,” she told her husband.

  In her opinion, Paul was quite possibly the most handsome man on the planet. Sure, he wasn’t as pretty-boy perfect as the Sanguinar, but he was way hotter. With his dark blond hair, his chiseled, angular features, his kind, brown eyes, and a tall, lean body that made her drool, there was no one who could compete.

  And he was all hers.

  Her heart could not have been fuller. She had a husband who adored her, whom she loved with every bit of her soul, and a healthy baby boy thumping around in her belly. The child never seemed to sleep—something he had in common with his father. While she loved having the movement as a constant reminder that he was alive and well, all that internal commotion made it hard for her to rest. She had very little sleep to help her pass the time.

  There was nothing to do here in this shelter—no battles to fight, no demons to kill, no lost children to find. They were housed in a defunct warehouse that Justice had purchased and stocked with enough supplies to support almost two hundred people. The space was wide open, with metal pallet racks the only feature in an otherwise bleak landscape. The floors were concrete. The walls and ceiling were held up with steel trusses and beams that made sound echo through the space almost constantly.

  It was always loud in here. Even whispers seemed to grow in volume after they were spoken. People were agitated and afraid, making it hard for anyone to sleep. Couple that with the fact that there had to be people constantly on watch for attack, and the whole place seemed to constantly buzz with movement, noise and nervous energy.

  At least Andra’s little sister was here, where she could keep an eye on her. Nika’s new baby, named Celine after their late mother, was thriving. She didn’t seem to know that the world she’d been born into was collapsing around them. She didn’t seem to care about the constant hum of voices echoing o
ff the walls, or the smell of too many bodies trapped in too small a space. She appeared to have not a care in the world, content to sleep and eat in silence, with only the occasional birdlike, squawking cry to exercise her lungs.

  That silence was probably due to Madoc—her father who doted on her, anticipating every need before Celine had it. He held her most of the time, cradling her tiny body in one burly arm, scowling at anyone who dared come close to his precious baby girl. Even when she had to nurse, he seemed to begrudge having to let her go.

  Then again, his whole family had almost died the night of the attack on Dabyr. That kind of thing would leave a mark on a man—even one as hard as Madoc.

  They’d been trapped here for almost two weeks now, and there was no sign that anyone was leaving anytime soon.

  In the spirit of acceptance, the residents—mostly human—had used spare sheets or empty pallets to erect flimsy walls in an effort to give them a little more privacy.

  Sibyl, an unbound female Theronai who had rarely left her room at Dabyr, was also here. She’d made herself a home in the darkest corner of the warehouse. She’d managed to move empty cardboard shipping containers the size of small walk-in closets around a square of concrete she claimed as her own.

  Humans seemed to avoid her and the area she lived in. Andra wasn’t quite sure why the woman repelled people, but she guessed it had something to do with the fact that she could see how people were going to die.

  More than once, Andra had debated going back there and asking Sibyl if they were all going to die here, in this hollow, echoing shell of a building. She hadn’t, because she truly wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.

  Her hand went to her softly rounded belly. She still had about four more months to go and she desperately wanted to watch her son grow up. The idea of something happening to him before she could see his face made her sick with fear.

  Whatever Sibyl knew about Andra’s death, she could keep to herself. It was better that way.

  “Why don’t you take a walk,” Paul suggested.

  She knew he could feel her agitation, her sense of captivity grating on her nerves. They were linked by a luceria, which meant that there were no secrets between them. She could read his thoughts as clearly as he could read hers.

  Right now, he was worried that she’d crack under the strain of being here and bolt from this place.

  He was right to worry.

  “I’m tired of doing laps inside. Besides, people have spread out enough now that there’s no clear path like there was a few days ago. I’d have to navigate through people’s homes to take a lap around the inside of the building.”

  It was almost dawn. Maybe then she could go outside and walk around.

  “You know that’s not a good idea,” Paul said. “The warding here is flimsy. I’m glad to have it, but the less we go out, the less likely it is that any Synestryn will find us.”

  She covered her face with her hands to stifle a groan. “I’d almost welcome a fight at this point. I’m going stir-crazy.”

  Paul moved behind her, skirting around the flimsy folding chairs that served as her living room furniture. He put his big hands on her shoulders and began to knead the knots of tension from them.

  Maybe they needed to find a quiet, secluded spot and make a little cardboard house of their own. It had been too long since they’d made love. A long, hot, sweaty round or three of sex would do wonders to blow off a little steam.

  She heard the smile in his voice. “I’d love nothing more. Let me see what I can do. There’s got to be a shadowy corner we can use for a while—one where we won’t be interrupted.”

  Before he could go make good on his plans, Iain walked up to them.

  The look on his face was serious, but that was nothing new. The man had a kind of intensity about him that left Andra a little unsettled.

  She’d heard he had no soul—that he had to share his wife’s to remember how to walk the straight-and-narrow. As far as she was concerned, that made him a bit of a ticking timebomb.

  Paul walked around in front of Andra before Iain could get too close. He noticed the move for what it was—a blatant act of defending his wife—and held back.

  She watched Iain glance around the area.

  There were people everywhere. Paul had claimed two narrow cots and two flimsy folding chairs as their own, but just inches beyond that scant bit of furniture, there were other similar setups filled with people.

  Like many people here, she needed some damn privacy so badly, she wanted to scream.

  “Can we step outside?” Iain asked. His voice was calm and even, but his eyes were anything but.

  The man was worried. Maybe even scared.

  Andra didn’t know what could scare a hard-core badass like him, but whatever it was, she wanted to thank it for the godsend it was.

  Finally, some action. Or at the very least she was going to get to go outside and breathe in some fresh air.

  “You should stay here,” Paul said.

  “Like hell,” Andra said. “I’m going with you.”

  She used the conduit of the luceria to make it clear she wasn’t going to back down on this. He knew how stubborn she could be, but in this, she was immovable. She was going outside. Period.

  He let out a low, quiet sigh, but motioned toward the door.

  As soon as they left the warehouse, Andra breathed in the cold, night air and let it clean out the metallic tang of rust, coffee and sweat from her nostrils.

  The men flanked her. Their eyes were on the tree line a few yards away. Their hands were on their swords.

  “What’s up?” Paul asked.

  “It’s Jackie.”

  Andra, who’d been busy basking in the openness of the night sky and the lack of humanity around her, was snapped back into the here-and-now. Her hand went to her stomach. “Is something wrong with the baby?”

  Iain looked at her and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  He was as tall as Paul, but much wider. There was something about him she found odd—something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Maybe it was his soulless state that left her unsettled, or maybe it was his watchful, black eyes that seemed to miss nothing.

  “Then what’s wrong?” Paul asked.

  “Ever since we came here, Jackie has been struggling. She sees things,” Iain began.

  Paul nodded. “I heard about that. Joseph said she can see the location of other female Theronai—ones we haven’t yet found.”

  “That’s what we believe it is. Ronan has been working with her to clarify what she sees. Until recently, it hasn’t been a problem to turn it off. But now…she can’t sleep. She can hardly eat. She can’t focus on anything else. Half the time she’s blinded by the visions. I’m worried the strain will be too much for her. With the baby due any day now….”

  “Maybe Rory could help,” Andra suggested.

  Rory was another female Theronai who had visions. She’d been blinded recently, but was still able to see through the eyes of those around her well enough to navigate the world as if she’d never lost her sight.

  “She’s at Dabyr, fighting with Cain,” Paul said, “Like all of the female Theronai who aren’t pregnant.”

  “Must be nice,” Andra grumbled.

  Paul shot her a pointed look. “We’re safe here. The baby is safe. That’s all that matters. You have no business in combat right now.”

  Andra wasn’t so sure, but she kept her mouth shut. They were discussing Jackie’s problems, not hers.

  “I don’t think Rory can help. I think this is something bigger.” Iain glanced around as if he was worried that someone would pop out of the shadows at them.

  “What?” Paul asked.

  Iain looked at Andra now. “Have you had any side-effects of your pregnancy?”

  “I puked for a while and now I either sleep like the dead or not at all.”

  Iain shook his head. “No, I mean magical side-effects.”

  Andra blinked. Magical
side-effects?

  Paul went still. “Like what?”

  “Like have your powers changed, strengthened? Have you been able to do things you weren’t able to do before you got pregnant?”

  “No,” Andra said. “Is that’s what’s happening to Jackie?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe now that we’re outside of the protective walls of Dabyr, Jackie is more connected to these women.”

  Andra felt a chord strike in her mind and nodded. “That makes sense. Whenever I was searching for a lost child, I could always feel them more keenly when I wasn’t inside a warded building.”

  “But this one is warded,” Paul reminded them.

  “Not as strongly as Dabyr was.” Iain said.

  “Do you want me to see if I can help?” Andra asked.

  “How?” Iain asked.

  “Let me erect a forcefield around her and see if it dampens the visions.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Paul said.

  Iain nodded. “I don’t want to upset the humans. They need to think we’re able to protect them if the shit hits the fan here.”

  For an instant, Andra wished it would. Then, an instant later, she felt like an ass for wishing such a thing. As much as she missed combat and the thrill of the hunt, she would never willingly put anyone at risk just so she could stop being bored out of her mind.

  Paul settled his hand at the small of her back in an effort to calm or comfort. Perhaps both.

  “We’ll find a quiet spot,” Andra said. “No one has to know.”

  Chapter Six

  Serena went numb, then queasy. Shock radiated through her like a blast, leaving her swaying slightly on her feet.

  It had been so long since she’d seen Mr. Tolland that she hadn’t even considered that he might still be alive. Or that he’d still want her.

  “Serena doesn’t belong to you,” Morgan said, his tone on the edge of anger.

  “I’m afraid she does.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper, brittle and yellowed with age. He handed it to Morgan. “It’s a bit hard to read, but you’ll get the gist.”