Darkness Rising

by Katie Reus

  They were to wreak havoc on supernatural-run territories, creating death and destruction at a maximum capacity and ensure as many humans died as possible. At the same time they would neutralize all nuclear sites and take over as many news outlets as possible. They would also be taking down satellites, creating even more chaos. At first.

  Then they would rule. They wouldn’t take down all satellites or communications. No, they wanted to live in a civilized society. Just one where humans knew their place.

  His own part in this would be simple enough: unleash Hell in New Orleans. Then they would strike down those who sought to help humans, eliminating his clan’s main problem. Humans were nothing but weak, ineffectual creatures. But all supernaturals wouldn’t fall in line—they would want to help the weak humans. So his clan had to eliminate as many of them as possible right out of the gate. Establish dominance. Then rule with an iron fist.

  “Yes. I will confirm the exact time and date, but plan on two days from now.” His father started barking out orders to everyone, making it clear they’d better handle their own territories. Then he disconnected and the other members on video did the same.

  Brennus turned to face the room, looking at the males and females before him. “We need to take care of our territory. That means targeting King and Cynara.”

  “Why the hybrid?” asked the male closest to him.

  “Because the hybrid has four powerful brothers. She needs to die. Or we capture her and use her later. Yes…capture the hybrid instead. She may be valuable. But if necessary, kill her.” Cynara, a vampire-demon hybrid, was strong in her own right. Born of a demon king, she had power in her for certain.

  But so did he. So did his clan. They. Were. Dragons.

  “We need to take out Prima and Reaper,” another of his clanmates said.

  “Not Reaper yet.” No, definitely not yet.

  “Why not?” the same clanmate asked.

  “Because my intel says he’s close to mating with a female. A healer.” He spat the word. “Once they’re mated, we will simply go after her. Kill her, then he’s dead too.” And it would easily eliminate one of his problems. Prima was another issue altogether, but her twin wasn’t with her. She would go down eventually.

  They would simply have to attack her when she was isolated. Attack as a team until there was nothing left.

  The battle here wouldn’t be easy, but they would prevail.

  He had no doubt. They’d been planning this for half a century. Everything was in place to take over.

  Soon they would be recognized as the gods they were.

  Chapter 15

  Greer rolled over at the sound of her phone buzzing. It was only four in the morning. She snagged it, worried because she’d never heard Prima come in. But it was Camden. “Yeah?”

  “Hey, sorry to call so early.”

  “It’s fine. I know you keep weird hours. What’s up?”

  “I found something interesting on Cynbel. I’ve seen some movement on his cell phone so even if the guy is dead, his cell phone isn’t. You’ll be able to track the phone from your own with what I’m going to send you. Just download the app.”

  She shoved the covers off and sat up fully. “Thank you, that’s great news.” Maybe whoever had killed him had taken it. Though that seemed like such a stupid move for someone strong enough to kill a dragon. Not that strength equaled brains, so maybe.

  “So how is it down in New Orleans? Is Prima behaving herself?”

  She laughed lightly as she stretched. “Define behaving herself.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m kidding. She’s fine. She’s…Prima. She probably cracked some skulls early this morning. Her words, not mine.”

  Camden let out a loud laugh. “I would expect nothing less… We miss you.”

  Though she needed to go find Reaper and tell him what Camden had told her, she leaned back against her pillow for a second. Moonlight filtered in through the drapes, giving the huge canopy bed an ethereal feel. “I miss you guys too. How is everyone? I haven’t got much gossip, since I’ve been here.”

  “You know how it is. Everybody’s trying to basically stay healthy and not bother Victoria.”

  She smiled at that. Of course they were because they were a good clan. “Staying healthy” basically meant not getting injured during sparring sessions so Victoria wouldn’t have to use any of her healer’s energy. Victoria had recently had a baby, and though she’d healed quickly—something she deserved after having one of the longest pregnancies in shifter history—she needed some down time.

  “So what’s up with you and the ancient?” Camden asked slyly.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Come on. You know supernaturals better than that, and I’ve heard little tendrils of gossip that something might be happening with you guys. Are you two hooking up?”

  “I’m not answering any questions about this at four in the morning. Good night.” She ended the call. Because that was the only way to shut something like this down. Of course she’d probably only stoked the fires of gossip now. She was finding it hard to care, however. Even with her own baggage, with what had happened all those years ago, it was so hard to deny the attraction between her and Reaper. Not just hard—impossible.

  Shaking off remnants of the past, of a warrior male who’d wanted to control her, she quickly dressed, brushed her teeth and pulled her hair into a ponytail before going to find the sexy ancient consuming her thoughts.

  She didn’t even get a chance to knock on his door before it swung open. Looking far too good, he leaned against the doorframe, completely shirtless as he crossed his arms over his massive chest.

  It took her a long moment to find her voice. “I take it I didn’t wake you?”

  He simply shook his head, his gaze raking over her face, down the length of her and back up in a slow, hungry crawl. Heat infused her entire body as she tried to find her voice again. “I just got a call from Camden—”

  He started growling.

  She blinked. “Camden is my clan’s hacker. Ring a bell?”

  The growl stopped.

  “As I was saying, Camden called and said there’s movement on Cynbel’s cell phone.” At his confused expression, she shook her head. “I’ll explain it in a minute. Just grab a shirt and let’s get out of here.” Even though covering up all that sexiness seemed like a crime.

  It didn’t take long for him to dress before they got on the road.

  “Can you explain how we’re finding his cell phone?” Reaper asked from the passenger seat of the SUV.

  Even though this vehicle was huge, somehow it seemed tiny with him inside. It was like he simply sucked up all the space with his presence.

  She glanced over from the driver’s seat. Since it was after four in the morning and sunrise was still a short ways off, the streets seemed extra-quiet right now. Even for a city like New Orleans. “Honestly, I’m not entirely certain. Camden is from a much younger generation than mine. He’s barely fifty years old and he has a knack for technology. He can do things most people of his generation cannot. He tried to explain it to me once but I swear my brain shut down listening to him. I can use my computer and do basic things but what he does is on another level.”

  “You sound impressed.”

  “I am. And from what I gather, he has used some sort of location device or application or something to ping where the phone is.”

  “Ping?”

  She grinned and shrugged. “His word, not mine.”

  “Did Prima ever contact you?” He looked out the side window, glancing out over the street.

  A few tree branches draped with gauzy Spanish moss swayed with the breeze, the little beads and trinkets caught in the branches moving as well. “No. I texted her but she told me she was busy and left it at that.”

  “I am certain she is fine,” he said.

  She snorted. “Oh I’m sure she’s fine. It’s the entire city I’m worried about. So did you and Prima ever…�
�� She let the question hang in the air, her intent clear.

  He frowned at her. “Did we what?”

  “Have sex?”

  He blinked, clearly taken off guard. Then his mouth curved up into a slow, seductive grin. “Would you care if we had?”

  “Yes. No. I’m not certain how to answer that.” There was no sense in lying.

  “No. We have never. Both she and Mira were always good friends. We have very similar outlooks on the world.”

  “Can I ask you something else personal?”

  He nodded as they pulled up to a stop sign. She glanced at her cell phone to see they were getting closer on the map to the app’s GPS location. “I know that they were hatched as opposed to born. Were you?”

  He nodded once. “I was.”

  She took that information in, realizing how very different he was even from someone like her. It didn’t matter that they were both dragon shifters, he was much more in touch with his animal side than her. She wasn’t really surprised though, not when it came down to it. He hadn’t made a secret of who he was. No, he was the Dragon of War.

  “May I ask you something personal now?” he asked.

  “Of course,” she said, making a left onto a narrow side street lined with shotgun-style houses. There were bars on some of the windows but others were freshly painted and their small front yards—if they could even be called that, given the limited space—were well-maintained. It was interesting to see how much of the city was being restored one neighborhood at a time.

  “Why do you fight the attraction between us? It can’t be simply because I annoyed you when we first met.”

  Her fingers flexed around the steering wheel once as she made another turn. “It’s not that. I was in a serious relationship many years ago. Many hundreds of years ago in fact. He was a warrior, like you.”

  He growled low in his throat in that way that sent tingles of awareness spiraling throughout her. Why did she like it so much?

  “Okay, I don’t mean he was like you, I just mean he was a warrior. But he was very arrogant, like you. And he tried to order me around, tried to make me into something I wasn’t. He thought because I’m a healer that I would be subservient, sort of a beta, I guess. It was borderline abusive and some part of me thought that I could change him. The grown-up Greer knows how impossibly stupid and wrong that is, but I was young at the time and thought I was in love.”

  “Is he dead?” Reaper’s words were more animal than man, his dragon prowling just beneath the surface.

  Surprised, she slowed the vehicle as they came to a stop sign. “I have no idea. It was so long ago. The last I heard he had gone into Hibernation. He could be alive or dead.” And the truth was, she didn’t care one way or another.

  “You never cared enough to do research on him.” It was a smug statement, not a question, and he seemed supremely satisfied by this knowledge.

  Even though he hadn’t asked her, she answered anyway. “That is correct. I haven’t thought about him for a long time. And it wasn’t love. It was infatuation more than anything. But being with him made me realize that there is a certain type of male out there for me.”

  “Yes, there is. Me.”

  The laugh escaped at his confidence. “You really are arrogant.”

  “That is true. But I would never try to change you. I like you just the way you are. And I do not think there is a subservient bone in your body. I liked the way you spoke to the wolf Alpha. You sounded like a general giving orders. It was one of the sexiest things I have ever seen.”

  Her cheeks flushed and she was grateful for the darkness of the interior of the vehicle. Ignoring his statement, she turned down another side street to find a huge construction site. Two townhomes sitting side by side had been gutted and there was a big dumpster in front of the houses. Her stomach sank, as she realized where this was going. Someone had likely tossed the phone here.

  “I think this is a dead-end but we’ll check it out anyway. It’s likely in that dumpster.” She pointed toward it, frustrated. “We know Cynbel is dead regardless.”

  “Will you stay put while I search?” he asked, and something told her it took all of his self-control to ask and not order her.

  She nodded as he got out of the vehicle and did a quick search of the area. He might not be familiar with everything in this period, but he knew what a phone looked like. It didn’t take long until he came back with the smartphone. “Can your hacker friend do anything with this?”

  “I don’t know. That’s a good question.” She quickly dialed Camden who answered on the first ring. He told her to courier him the phone just in case he could scrape information from it.

  “Would you like to go get food?” Reaper asked after she finished her call with Camden.

  “I could eat.” She only needed a few hours of sleep anyway and being with him had her all keyed up. “Plus I need coffee.”

  “This does not count as our date. I am still taking you out tonight.”

  She lifted an eyebrow at his tone. “Oh yeah?”

  “I mean…I would still like to take you out tonight.” Still not a question.

  “You could decide after breakfast that you don’t want to go out on a date with me.”

  He shot her a look that said she’d lost her mind. Which made more warmth spread through her. Damn hormones.

  “Are your parents in Hibernation, or still in Montana?” he asked as she plugged in the address for a nearby diner.

  She loved the way he stretched out the syllables of Montana. “My mother was killed in a cross-dragon battle. It was long ago. So they both died.” Which of course he would know, as he was a dragon.

  “Ah. It was the same with mine. My father was struck down in battle and my mother went down at the same time. I avenged them, however.”

  Of course he had. “It’s been so long but I miss my parents still,” she said quietly. Something she hadn’t admitted even to herself in a long time. It had been centuries; she should be less connected to them. But…that wasn’t how life worked.

  “I miss mine too.” He seemed surprised by his own admission. “Their death is part of the reason I left my clan. There were too many reminders of them there.”

  She glanced at him as she pulled up to a stoplight. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “What?”

  She turned left as the GPS ordered. “I think you and Ian might be related somehow. I have seen him in his dragon form and his colors are similar to yours. Very similar. They are so unique and beautiful, so it was hard to miss.”

  Reaper stilled. “You think my dragon is beautiful?”

  “I do.” No need to deny it.

  “That is interesting about Ian,” he continued. “He does not live with his clan?”

  “No, he does not. He’s officially part of my clan, though he lives not far from here. His mate rejected her own clan for so many reasons and now she’s considered part of ours as well. But her work keeps her where she is. She’s been established for a long time.”

  “It explains why his scent was familiar to me.” He nodded slowly as if digesting this information. “Have you told him?”

  “No. They seem to have a lot on their plate with the pregnancy. But I felt weird keeping the information to myself.”

  “Thank you for telling me.”

  She smiled as they pulled into the diner parking lot, her stomach rumbling, making her cheeks flushed. She was very clearly hungry.

  Though she was definitely hungry for more than just food. Something she would not think about right now.

  Greer enjoyed breakfast with Reaper. He was amusing and seemed oblivious to how insanely sexy he was. The diner hadn’t been full but there had been enough people inside who’d given him a few second and third glances. Which was understandable. He was huge by human standards—and dragon standards. He looked like he could be one of those football players. She couldn’t stop staring at him either, and breakfast was over far too soon.

  The
drive back was short and uneventful, the streets still quiet. As they strode up to the front door of the mansion, they nearly ran into Prima, who must have just shifted to her human form because she was naked and carrying a bundle of clothing.

  She smiled when she saw them, unconcerned about her nudity or anything else. “Where are you two getting in from?”

  “I think the question is where are you getting in from?” Greer asked, the scent of sex filling the air. Oh sweet dragons, the scent was wild and everywhere.

  Prima grinned widely. “I think you know the answer to that. And now I am hungry and exhausted. So I will see you two later. Do not bother me unless something is on fire.”

  As she hurried past them, the wild scents lingered in the air. For some reason, the scents went to Greer’s head.

  And it very definitely affected Reaper. But if she was going to see if there was anything between them, she wasn’t going to base a relationship solely on sex. She’d done that before and it had gotten nowhere. Of course she’d never felt for anyone like she did for him. She and her dragon were completely aligned right now, which was sort of frustrating. He was so damn unexpected.

  He was…

  Mine, her dragon snapped.

  Mine, mine, mine.

  They both stared at each other for a long moment, then Reaper moved so quickly she barely tracked him.

  Growling low in his throat, his green-amber eyes bright, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close—possessively, protectively. “If you tell me to walk away, I will,” he murmured.

  She slid her hands up his chest, swallowing hard. It had been so long and she’d never felt like this before. She shook her head.

  “Say the words.” A demanding order.

  Heat flooded her core. “Stay. Kiss me.” How was that for telling him what she wanted?