I sank down into the steaming water of the hot tub with a groan of relief. As my skin absorbed the water, I closed my eyes and reached out for the River, seeking the knowledge I now had access to after that blood-drenched kiss. I’d never forget that kiss either. As unexpected as it had been, I couldn’t ignore the gift I’d been given with that small taste of Ozzie’s blood. But the true gift had been in the exchange. He’d tasted mine too. In my world, a blood exchange like we’d just had was tantamount to mating, though it didn’t have to mean that if we didn’t want it to. It was all in how we used it.
What it really meant was that the two of us were as irrevocably bound to each other as he and Deva were through the shared fragment of his soul.
A twinge of guilt made me pull back my seeking mind. It was the perfect time to slip into his mind and dig out that memory I longed to see in detail. I believed him when he said he’d never have raped Deva. She was part dragon, after all . . . and nymphaea. The offer of sex was something our kinds both instinctively accepted, if not outright reveled in, simply out of a sense of survival.
But the bond we now had—whether he knew about it or not—was too precious to abuse. If I took advantage of it the way I’d been about to, I’d be no better than Meri who’d perpetuated atrocities with the aid of forced blood melds for three thousand years.
Those blood melds were the reason the bloodline existed in the first place. She’d done it to the humans who followed her in an effort to control their minds, to create her own personal army of puppets. Eventually she’d mixed blood of the other higher races with her own blood, granting the humans rudimentary powers and extended lifespans. It also gave her complete control over their minds if she chose.
The only reason she kept me and my fellow Thiasoi satyrs locked in that tank was because we were better equipped to fight that control had she tried it on us, so she had to disable us completely. There had once been thousands of satyrs, but we were by nature reckless and easily seduced, more so than our female counterparts, at any rate. My five squad mates and I were the last of our kind, aside from our commander Nereus, and our Dionarch Neph. All the rest had been killed over the millennia, picked off and experimented on until they died.
Meri finally learned that the blood of the dead had no power and so when she’d captured the last six of us, she’d kept us alive, but neutralized. She’d needed our blood too badly to kill us. The only blood more powerful than ours was immortal blood, but she had plenty of that from Nereus, who was the blood-melded mate of Neph’s sister, our female Dionarch.
With blood as powerful as mine, I knew that little accidental blood exchange with Ozzie had been a mistake. I’d known it the second before he kissed me. Tried to stop him but didn’t have the will, not when he was so damn close to taking what he needed—what we both needed. I couldn’t take it back and it would never fade, but I could at least avoid abusing the link until I made sure he was aware of it.
It was a shame he’d likely never want to fuck again. Blood melded sex was beyond transformative. But the meld went both ways, which meant we each could wield the powers of the other’s race now.
Experimentally I lifted my hand from the water and focused, drawing just a little power through that new link. Sparks crackled at my fingertips and the exhilarating surge of the Winds flooded my veins and filled my lungs. My adrenaline spiked with the awareness of the implications.
I could sing for her. With a turul’s blood running through my veins, I could sing Deva’s mating song, and she might actually hear me.
I had the melody in my head, on the tip of my tongue ready to test the newfound power Ozzie’s blood had given me. The wind kicked up, tangling in my hair with strange urgency. Then a voice filtered through as if from just beside me. I turned my head expecting to see Sandor, but the patio was empty.
“Ozzie, get your goddamn ass here now! We’re in deep shit. It’s so much worse than we thought!”
“Sandor?” I said out loud, standing and looking around before I realized I was hearing the distraught whisper, carried on the wind from wherever Sandor really was right now.
I closed my eyes and listened, fixing my focus on the wind’s currents the way I did the River when I sought out secrets concealed by Time. The wind was different from water. Quicker, more elusive, but the currents all had an origin so I mentally followed the one I’d heard back to Sandor.
“Fucking hell, Ozzie!” His words were laced with panic now. I had no visual through the wind, just a sense of location. I whispered a message back as a test.
“We’re coming. Hold tight.”
“Thank fuck. Hurry!”
I hopped out of the hot tub and jogged back to Ozzie’s room. He was no more than an inert lump under the blankets, snoring deeply. I didn’t even need to try to wake him to know he was out for the count. I prodded at his mind just a little to confirm my suspicions. After two nights non-stop flying and then sex like we’d had, it would take some serious effort to wake him and I didn’t think I had time. I threw on my clothes, stole a pair of Ozzie’s boots, which surprisingly fit so I wasn’t forced to adjust my foot size to accommodate them.
Then I drifted, realizing halfway into my journey that I hadn’t grabbed a heavier shirt than the thin, black cotton one I’d been wearing, and the wind that had spoken to me had been ice cold. I’d just have to fucking deal.
* * *
I landed in snow, an icy chill immediately seeping through my clothes. The cold generally made me sluggish so I avoided it, but there was nothing to do now but move. Footprints led up a path away from where I landed, which appeared to be the back deck of someone’s residence overlooking a small city several miles down in a valley surrounded by mountains.
A smear of vivid red caught my eye and I jogged across the back deck of the house toward a lumpy, prone shape that looked vaguely human. When I reached it I hissed. It was a human man, well-built and better equipped for the cold in a down parka. Not that the cold would matter to him anymore.
Just like the last two victims Ozzie and I had witnessed, his throat had been torn out and he’d bled to death in the snow. I considered stealing his coat but the idea of coming into contact with his blood didn’t appeal to me. I could already see his past as clear as the puddle of congealing blood around his head. He’d been bloodline, and one of Deva’s hounds had bitten him several weeks earlier.
I glanced around but saw no sign of any fate hounds. They didn’t leave tracks, and apparently Deva’s hounds were the only ones who created tethers of magic with a target when they bit them. True fate hounds didn’t bite . . . unless it was to tear the throats out of the members of the bloodline Deva’s hounds had marked, apparently.
But I had seen human-looking tracks, which I hoped belonged to Sandor and Willem. I turned back in that direction and set off up the hill through the scrubby trees, briskly rubbing my hands over my arms to try to generate some warmth. The longer I followed the tracks, the more apprehensive I became. This seemed to be a remote area, the nearest human likely the dead man I’d seen, and no others for miles. If Willem and Sandor were in danger, they could take to the air to escape whatever chased them. Even Willem would be hard to recognize in his white dragon form against the snowy backdrop of the mountains and gray sky above.
Yet they hadn’t flown, and the implications were stunningly grim. Rather than keep hiking, I drifted up the mountain a bit at a time, skipping stretches of the path that I could see. Finally, I saw a streak of indigo fire up ahead and broke into a run.
Eerily melodic snarling sounds reached me before I caught sight of the pack of ethereal hounds. There were easily a dozen, each one the size of a small horse, and they had both men backed against the edge of a cliff. Why weren’t they fucking shifting?
They might not be able to shift, but I sure as fuck could. I tore my shirt over my head and dropped my pants to the horrified looks of my friends who’d just caught sight of me. I didn’t call out to them because I didn’t want to draw the at
tention of the hounds just yet. The pack had them backed up to the edge of an icy overlook that fell off into who knew what. Willem’s white hair whipped around his head in the wind, his face a stark mask of concentration and fear.
The second my pants pooled at my ankles, I focused, drawing the power of the water that infused the snow beneath my feet. A strange rush of cool currents I’d never felt flooded my body as the Wind also answered my call. I’d been shooting for the biggest creature with teeth and claws that I could manifest. The magic tore my cells apart and reformed them to my design. In the process, the icy wind became more bearable with the thick coating of dark fur that covered my entire body, but along with it came the spirit of one of the Winds, and I felt the familiar stretch of wings erupt from my shoulders.
I had no idea what I’d become. All I knew was that I was more enormous than any bird, yet I had wings and could fly. I launched into the air with a roar that echoed across the mountain ranges. Soaring over the pack of hounds, the new vantage showed me how terrifyingly close my friends were to the edge of a cliff and a drop of thousands of feet. Dion’s balls, they were too close. Perhaps it was a ploy to escape and lure the hounds over, and they were just waiting for the right moment to leap and shift?
The hounds pressed forward, none of them showing signs of attack. I swooped low with a roar and clawed at them, simultaneously summoning the Winds and attempting to push lightning through my claws when I came into contact with the ethereal beasts.
They yelped but where the handful I’d managed to attack fell back, others slipped in and continued pushing forward, snarling and snapping.
When I came back around, I roared in alarm as the ledge began to crumble beneath my friends’ feet. Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. Sandor’s eyes widened as he looked over the edge behind him. A turul shouldn’t show such fear of heights as he did. Just as his footing failed and stones fell away beneath his heels, he began to falter. At the same moment, the front row of hounds lunged.
Sandor flinched, the tiny movement enough to throw his balance off. Willem yelled out and reached, their fingers grazing each other but not grasping hold as Sandor went over. Every single hound followed, becoming a blur of purple and indigo fire toppling in a strange, snarling current over the edge.
I dove with a panicked roar. Sandor and I were both in free fall for what seemed an eternity but likely lasted only seconds, his eyes wild and terrified. I swiped at hounds as I passed and a few snarled and swiped back, but Sandor remained just out of reach. Folding my wings I shifted back into my human form, hoping for a more streamlined shape than the bulky lion-bird I’d been.
Two of the hounds had become not much more than violet arrows of fire with glowing eyes and snapping teeth. They gained on the falling shape. Sharp claws dug into my shoulders and raked down my back, more snarls filling my ears. One of them had landed on me. It was weightless yet its claws found purchase on my shoulders. I aimed my hand over my shoulder and forced power through my fingertips and it yelped and fell away.
I was just barely within reach, the icy chill having numbed me to the bone and I abstractly wondered if I could shift into an icy arrow and simply pierce through the hounds that gained on Sandor and reach him first. I would fight them however I had to once I reached them.
Both hounds reached him at the same time, each one grabbing hold with extended claws that sank into his chest and arms. I reached out, but my arms were sluggish and my joints difficult to move. But just as I thought I could make contact in time to drift away, the hounds—and Sandor—disappeared in mid-air.
I blinked in shock, twisting in the chill wind for a second until I registered the swiftly approaching ground. It took all my effort to draw the magic back through my frozen cells and I could smell the earth a split second before my body transformed into a proper bird, small and light enough to easily catch the wind. I soared back up, wings flapping frantically, and rose to the top of the cliff again.
Willem knelt at the top, naked and shaking in the cold. I landed and shifted behind him, then yanked his shoulder backward and away from the perilous ledge.
“What the fuck!” I bellowed at him. “Why didn’t you two shift? You could have just flown away!”
He remained stunned, falling back onto his ass. That was when I saw the impression of scales rippling across his skin.
“Dion’s balls, Will, are you out of magic?”
My teeth clacked together and I hurried back to my clothes, hauling them on though they did little to block the chill now. When I got back to Willem I knelt in front of him and shook him. “What happened? You know what, hold that thought, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Keeping hold of his shoulders I prepared to drift, aiming for the house in Malibu before changing my mind at the last second. If Willem was depleted and in danger of going feral, there was only one person who could help him quickly enough, and she wasn’t in Malibu.
18
Deva
Despite my insistence that the pair take turns sitting beside me, Rohan remained safely across the room seated at the small desk near the windows while the four of us watched television. I still craved their contact despite a full well of magic. I felt incomplete—even more than I had before I’d been granted a fragment of a soul from Rohan. Would it get worse if I accepted another piece from one of the others? Would I ever feel whole?
Despite that sense of longing, I was aware of the greater power flooding my body. I lay snuggled in Keagan’s embrace on the big sofa. Bodhi had been at my feet until a moment ago when he’d risen and said something about checking in with his mom to make sure she was okay. His low voice carried from beyond the closed door of the second bedroom in the suite.
I wasn’t paying attention to the big screen and the flickering images. Instead I had my hand held up in front of my face and kept pushing little surges of magic up through my palm and fingertips, making tiny flowers bud and bloom from each fingertip before drawing the pretty display of magic back into me. I knew with that magic I could do more than simply heal. I could create life and beauty around me with a thought. But despite trying to combine my dragon and ursa magic, I’d failed, succeeding only in causing a fiery burn inside my belly that had taken some time to ease. Not only could I not be with both men at the same time, I couldn’t use both elements of my magic at the same time. So I satisfied myself with practicing ursa magic with the boost I got while in Keagan’s arms, and would test my dragon magic with Rohan.
“You’re a natural,” Keagan murmured against my ear, his big hand sliding down my waist. “Want me to switch with Ro so you can play with your dragon magic?”
I bristled. “I don’t want to play with it. I want to be able to use it to stop whatever Fate’s doing to the bloodline. I only have two pieces and I have no idea how they fit together, or even if they can. What if I never learn?” I darted a pleading glance at Rohan, then craned my head to meet Keagan’s gaze behind me. “What if this is how it always is?”
“There’s got to be a way to integrate our souls, or something,” Keagan offered. “We’ll figure it out once we’re home, princess.”
I turned forward and stared blankly at the TV screen again, shaking my head. “I thought I knew how everything worked. Individually I can master all the powers of each race. I’m sure of it.” I shifted around and looked directly at him. “If you wanted me to, I think I could even unlock Gaia’s gift in you. You could use your power too, instead of just channeling it back to Gaia.”
He raised one dark eyebrow. “What use would I have for it? I don’t need magic to be happy.”
I blinked, stung by the comment, and slipped backward to the other side of the sofa, the cushions still warm where Bodhi had been sitting.
“Hey,” Keagan said, his voice lowered in concern. “Hey. I wasn’t trying to imply needing magic was a bad thing.” He slipped toward me and squeezed my thigh through the soft, waffle-textured cotton robe. “Ro and I both know how much you need this to
work. To have access to all your magic. We’ll find a way to make it happen, I promise.”
Rohan rose from his chair and took a step toward me. I shot a panicked look at him when the subtle vibration of pain picked up intensity in my midsection. I shifted backward toward Keagan and Rohan also retreated, his normally open, happy expression stricken with fear that must have mirrored my own.
“I’m sorry,” I said, shrinking into Keagan’s big arms. “On the plus side, I can sense the bloodline again,” I offered, attempting an optimistic expression that neither man returned. Rohan wouldn’t be fooled with the depth of connection we had now.
Keagan made a gruff sound of displeasure and gently shifted away from me. He stood and went to Rohan. “Go to her, dude. You need each other now. I can’t stand seeing either of you hurting.”
But just as Rohan took a step toward me, the air in the room between us shimmered and distorted. My ears instantly popped and my skin tingled as though I’d just been immersed in ice-cold water. I sat up straighter, blinking in surprise as Llyr appeared, with Willem held tightly against him.
Llyr darted a wild look around the room until his gaze lit on me. “Deva! You have to help him. He’s depleted, about to go feral.”
“Where’s Sandor?” I asked, standing and looking around the pair uncertainly. Willem looked unharmed, but his aura was distressingly faint and his eyes wild with agony. Llyr, however, looked like he’d been through a meat grinder; his face was bruised and bloody, one of his lips swollen and split, and his shirt was torn through the top of one shoulder.
Willem gritted his teeth and an anguished groan floated up from his chest. “Taken by the hounds. Mother help us.”
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