Dance With Darkness

by Sheri-Lynn Marean

  Kayta carried their baby sister, while the other two little ones followed close behind her.

  But as they made it to the top of the stairs, a splintering crash sounded on the main floor and their father’s voice roared through the house.

  Shit, his father was after his brothers for their failed missions.

  Enyowas faintly heard Amit speaking, trying to deflect the situation, but it would be useless.

  Arguing ensued, and then a gunshot blasted through the house.

  Enyowas met Kayta’s emerald eyes, then looked down at his sisters. Fear was etched on their faces, though they knew better than to make a sound.

  Then it sounded like a tornado was tearing through the main floor. “Come on,” Enyowas said, hurrying down the stairs.

  They made it to the foyer when an anguished cry cut off midstream.

  “I have to go help,” Enyowas said and stuffed the keys and address Amit had given him into his older sister’s pocket. “Hold on to these and wait here.”

  “Enyo?”

  “I’ll be fine,” he said and linked to his brothers. “Amit? Veldi?”

  “Veldi’s hurt,” Amit said.

  “What happened?”

  Amit didn’t answer but the enraged sounds of their father engaged in combat told him all he really needed to know.

  At the entrance to the common room, which served as a dining-slash-living area, Enyowas froze.

  Amit danced around the room, facing off with their red-faced father, who smashed and tossed aside anything that dared get in his way. At six-two, with dark-brown eyes that turned black when angry, and his dark-blond hair cut military-short, the male was built like a bull, which matched his volatile personality. Their father liked to destroy—hurt—and cause pain.

  Enyowas skirted the upturned tables and chairs, careful not to step on the shards of broken dishes and glasses as he made his way over to Veldi.

  He spotted Ky huddled, curled into a tight ball in a corner behind one of the couches, and his mother unconscious near the back wall. He sucked in a swift breath at the pool of crimson near her, then realized that it didn’t belong to her, but instead to the body of a man Enyowas didn’t recognize. The EfPP agent.

  This was so not good.

  “Get Veldi and Mom out of here, and take our sisters and go,” Amit said as he went head-to-head with the regis of their pride. At his age, Amit shouldn’t have been a match for their father. But every male born into Scorched Claw, their lion pride, began training from the moment they could walk—to be the deadliest soldier alive.

  For the first time, Enyowas was grateful their father had been stripped of his ability to shift into his lion five years ago. At least now, Amit stood a chance of coming out of this alive.

  “I’m not leaving without you,” Enyowas said, and with his heart thundering, he crouched beside Veldi, keeping an eye on the enraged maniac fighting Amit.

  Pain radiated in Veldi’s eyes, and his hands were clenched as if he fought to keep silent. A broken leg, black eye, and multiple cuts and bruises marred his face and body.

  Enyowas shielded Veldi as the fight neared them, but then Amit blocked their father’s blade and counterattacked, using his faster-than-human reflexes to draw their father away.

  As Amit drew blood, another enraged snarl tore from their sire’s lips.

  Eyes filled with fury and insanity, Father attacked with even more force.

  Amit managed to deflect and kept their father busy, so he didn’t see what was going on behind him. “Enyo, we’ve planned this. Get everyone out. Now!”

  “No. Not without you.” He couldn’t leave without his brother.

  “You have to. I’ll catch up.”

  It was their one shot at freedom, and they both knew it.

  Enyowas whispered an apology for any more pain he caused, then grabbed Veldi under his arms. He dragged his brother from the destroyed common room, down the hallway, and into the large foyer where their sisters waited. “Brother, you need to shift so that you’ll heal.”

  Veldi shook his head, brown eyes wide. “C-can’t, h-hurts too much.”

  “You have to. You’ve done this before. Push it all away, and shift.”

  But his brother wasn’t going to be able to do it. Enyowas grabbed Veldi’s shoulder, drew on the special ability within himself that allowed him to change shape, and shoved it through their bond. It would hurt, and he hated to cause more pain, but it had to be done.

  Veldi bit back a cry as power blasted through him. His back arched, then his own shifting ability burst from him faster and harder than it normally would.

  He changed into a tawny, juvenile lion.

  “You good?” Enyowas asked, sinking his hand into Veldi’s thick mane of tan fur.

  “I … will be … thank you, Enyo.”

  “Stay in your beast form, if you shift back too soon, you’ll have more pain,” Enyowas said, then addressed all his siblings. “There’s a black van parked outside the front gate. Go to it. Be quiet and try not to let anyone see you.”

  “Where are we going?” one of his younger sisters asked.

  “Far from here,” he said.

  “What about you?” Veldi asked.

  “I’ve got to get my mother.”

  “Okay, but hurry.” Veldi held his gaze.

  “I will.”

  Without another word, they went through the front door and outside.

  Enyowas steeled himself and went back to the common room.

  The sounds of flesh hitting flesh mixed with the grunts and growls of rage.

  Enyowas wrinkled his nose against the coppery stench of fresh blood, then darted over to his mother’s unconscious form. He picked her up and glanced at his brother. “You coming?” Crimson streaked Amit from head to foot—he was tiring.

  Though bigger and stronger than any human, the brothers all knew it was only a matter of time before their father killed one of them. Family or stranger, it didn’t seem to matter. He’d killed Veldi’s mother two years ago, and another female who took his power five years ago, all without flinching. Nor did he seem upset when Amit’s twin, his own son died.

  Unlike their mother, who still mourned her son’s passing, to the extent that he and Amit became gods in her eyes, while the rest of her children were left to fend for themselves.

  “Go, Enyo. Please, get them out of here. I’ll hold Father off,” Amit said, sounding desperate.

  “What about you?” Enyowas asked.

  “Leave me, just go.”

  He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

  “You have no choice!”

  Heart in his throat, Enyowas looked down at his mother. Her long black hair was matted with blood from a gash on her temple, and her right eye was swollen and already turning black. Red strangulation marks marred her neck. Amit was right, they had to go. That didn’t make it any easier to leave his brother there fighting their father without any help.

  Enyowas cradled his mother’s slight form against his chest and raced through the house, out the door, and into the steadily darkening night. A hot blast of stifling south Texas air smacked him in the face. He choked back a sob and fled past the other homes and over to the large black passenger van where the others waited for him. As he deposited his mother in the back seat, Enyowas glanced at the stranger waiting with the kids. She was of Asian descent, and Enyowas caught the scent of leopard. “Who are you?”

  “Who I am doesn’t matter,” she said with a strange accent. “Where’s the EfPP agent?”

  “He won’t be joining us,” Enyowas replied.

  Sorrow flashed briefly, then a look of determination settled upon her features. “Then we need to go.”

  “Not yet.”

  “Where’s Amit?” Veldi asked from the cargo space of the van.

  Enyowas didn’t answer and instead looked at his older sister. “Keys?”

  She handed them over.

  “We’re not leaving without Amit, right?” Kayta asked.

 
“No.” Enyowas moved the driver’s seat forward, climbed in, and started the van. Then they waited for Amit to join them. But when thirty seconds passed and Amit didn’t appear, a bad feeling settled inside Enyowas. He glanced at his siblings and still unconscious mother. “I’ll be right back.” Without another word, he got out and hurried back to the large building that he’d called home from the moment of his birth.

  As he got close, the racket from within had died down. Enyowas noted that no one in the pride came to see what was going on, but that wasn’t surprising. Sadly, sounds of their regis taking his anger out on his family was an everyday occurrence. One that no pack member would dare to interfere with.

  Only, as Enyowas reached the door, silence suddenly reigned.

  “No.” Dread pinched his gut and as quietly as possible, he eased inside. “Amit?”

  “Ky … he—” Amit fell silent.

  A floorboard creaked in the common room and judging by the weight, it was his father.

  Fear pumped through Enyowas and he ducked down beside a hall table, praying his father didn’t see him. Glass crunched in the other room, and a sick, sucking sound made Enyowas’s stomach pitch.

  “That’ll teach you, boy,” his father said with a growl. “Where are you hiding, bitch?” Father bellowed, then his thundering footsteps receded toward the back of the house where his office and the master bedroom were located.

  Taking a deep breath, Enyowas got up and flew down the hall and into the common room. Tears sprang to his eyes and his stomach heaved as he dropped to his knees beside Amit. No!

  His brother lay deathly still, body bent at an odd angle. Blood leaked from various wounds, and the killing blow, a blade through the heart—Amit’s own dagger.

  Enyowas fought the urge to vomit and with his hand shaking, gingerly checked for a pulse. There was none.

  The tears came faster. “No, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Amit, wake up.”

  Grime and blood covered Ky as he crept out from where he’d been hiding.

  “What are you doing in here? This is your fault, isn’t it?” Enyowas snarled.

  “I … I didn’t mean for th-this … happen, Father, he—”

  “I should’ve known better than to trust you.”

  “Boy! Where’s your mother,” a voice bellowed behind them.

  Ky scurried back into his corner.

  Enyowas tensed, his body vibrating with hatred.

  “I asked you a question, brat.”

  Enyowas didn’t respond but continued to stare at Amit, the one who’d kept all of them going when they wanted to give up.

  “Where. Is. Your. Mother?”

  Chapter 3

  Hundreds of times his father had hit, beaten, and bloodied all of them and for no good reason. But now, a pit of black rage awoke, one so deep and filled with such hatred, that Enyowas could barely breathe.

  None of them had asked to be born, and all of them had tried over and over to please their father.

  Not one of them had ever succeeded.

  “I. Asked. You. A. Question. Where. Is. Your. Mother?” Father grabbed Enyowas by his hair.

  Eyes pinned on Amit, Enyowas withdrew the dagger from his brother as the one who ruled their pride and family pulled him to his feet.

  Enyowas faced the monster and drove the blade straight into his father’s heart.

  Then he did it again. Just like the male had taught him, beating him when he didn’t do it right on the dummies they practiced on, or the prisoners his father and uncle would hold captive.

  Shock registered in a pair of evil black eyes—eyes Enyowas loathed with every fiber of his being.

  Enyowas attacked, until his sire lay on the floor, as dead as his brother.

  Even before his father had lost his ability to shift into his cat, he’d been a cold, mean person.

  Enyowas went over to the EfPP man. He had to hurry. “Sorry this wasn’t your day, buddy.” He rooted through the guy’s pockets, confiscating a wallet and cell phone.

  But as he turned away, a movement from the mirror across the room made him freeze.

  Glowing green eyes and short black hair, framed by a crimson-streaked face, stared back at him. His image, one he’d seen all his life, yet now, he barely recognized his own reflection. With a snarl, Enyowas snatched up a beer bottle and threw it at the lone slice of mirror still left stuck on the wall—a sliver that survived the carnage. But not for long.

  The mirror shattered, sprinkling to the floor.

  Vision blurry once more, Enyowas took in Amit’s still form. “I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough.”

  “Enyo?” Veldi called.

  Enyowas ignored the summons, and falling back on his training, quickly did what needed to be done so that his father never drew breath again.

  “Enyowas?” Ky asked.

  “This is all your fault. I should never have trusted you. I knew better.” Then without a backward glance, he hurried from the house.

  Enyowas paused on the veranda, needing a moment. The night was eerily quiet, and he glanced up at the stars. Millions of them shone down on him, as if mocking the pain writhing inside of him.

  Never again would Amit shake them awake in the night so that they could climb up on the barn to watch a meteor shower, or creep out into the desert during early morning to watch a fawn being born or check out a den of foxes.

  Enyowas wiped at his face, then tensed.

  Reacting on instinct, he had Amit’s blade pressed against the neck of his would-be assailant before he caught the familiar, female scent.

  Just a quickly, he pulled it away.

  With dark skin, amber eyes, and thin black braids, the girl hissed at him. “Take me with you.”

  Enyowas lowered his brother’s dagger, shocked that she’d spoken to him, something that had never happened before.

  Then her words registered.

  He backed away. “No, no way.”

  “Yes.” Twelve years of age like him, Shabina was the daughter of the priestess who’d stripped his father of his power. That single act of defiance had left him unable to shift into his lion, and subsequently drove him insane.

  After Father had stolen the priestess and her daughter from their clan in Louisiana, the priestess took his power.

  So Father killed her.

  He planned to kill the daughter as well, until his twin intervened.

  That day was stamped on Enyowas’s mind, and one he’d never forget.

  He’d been seven and was being punished for another offense that hadn’t been his fault. One of his older cousins had played a prank on him, causing Enyowas to be late to the training field. He’d been sent to the sweat box until training was done, then found himself in his father’s office.

  Father had just given him thirty lashes of his leather belt on his bare ass, when his uncle walked in with the priestess’s daughter.

  Father snarled at his brother. “What’s that little bitch doing here?”

  Enyowas flinched, grateful the anger wasn’t directed at him, though that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be later.

  Identical twins, Enyowas’s uncle wasn’t quite as bulky as his father, and his hair was a lighter color blond. Though he had a more malicious, perverse streak in him than his father did. “I know you plan to kill her as well, but this here girl might be the only way you’ll ever regain your power.”

  “She’s seven,” Father said. “She has no power. How do you expect her to fix what her mother did?”

  “You’re right,” Uncle said. “She doesn’t right now, but when she comes of age who knows what abilities she will end up with. Her mother was the New Orleans Puma clan priestess. Her father, their king. Surely this sweet morsel will be just as powerful if not more so, don’t you think?”

  “Even supposing that happens, what’s to stop her from doing what her mother did?” Father asked.

  “Do you think she’d dare after witnessing her mother’s death, knowing it would be her own fate if she crosses us? And
, if she doesn’t gain her parents’ powers when she comes of age, then you kill her. Think about it, this might be the only way to get your cat back,” his uncle said, playing with the girl’s thin braids. “I’ll give Sha-been-nah here a place in my own home, keep an eye on her.”

  Father mulled it over. “Fine, but if she causes any trouble, she’s done.”

  “She won’t be a problem.” The hard glint in his uncle’s eyes made Enyowas shudder.

  “See that she isn’t.”

  “Thank you, brother.” Enyowas’s uncle shot a smirk at him before looking back at his twin. “You know, training the boys isn’t keeping me busy enough. I think we should train little Sha-been-nah here as well.”

  “Have you lost your mind? Girls don’t train.”

  “No, but she isn’t born of our pride. Think of this as an experiment,” Uncle said. “The human government has been asking us for a female assassin for special jobs the boys can’t do. Plus, it’ll be interesting to see how well she does against the pride’s boys. Again, I’ll take all responsibility. I’ll even personally train her myself.”

  Father gave in to his twin.

  Enyowas’s uncle had taken great pleasure in turning Shabina into a cold, deadly weapon, and had never missed an opportunity to mock every boy in the pride about how much faster and smarter she was.

  Now, the only girl allowed to train as the boys did in Scorched Claw wanted Enyowas to take her with them, take her away from the uncle who terrified Enyowas more than his father had.

  “You can’t leave me here,” she said.

  By killing his father, Enyowas had made his uncle regis, a fact that sickened him, but what could he do about it? He wasn’t strong enough to take out his uncle as well.

  Enyowas knew Shabina was about to come of age, and his uncle had plans for her.

  “I’ll call him if you don’t take me with you,” Shabina said.

  “You can’t, he’ll kill my whole family.”

  “Then let’s go.” Shabina started down the driveway toward the front gate.