Fifth of Blood

by Kris Austen Radcliffe

  “I don’t want to be that man again.” Almost imperceptibly, Ladon nodded toward his ghosts. “I try to drown him. Blood, oceans, vodka, calling scents. It doesn’t work. It didn’t work this time.”

  Another image played through the darkness—Ladon, a dagger in his hand, Andreas behind him, taking the life of a young Fate.

  “When we found you,” Ladon whispered, “you brought a new light. For the first time in centuries, we saw more than a few steps ahead. I didn’t think I could hope any longer, but you proved me wrong. You gave me faith.”

  He worked every day to right his wrongs. Every day, he helped those who needed help. But now all he saw was the wrongs themselves.

  Rysa leaned her head against his shoulder. “I have faith in you.”

  On the edge of nothingness, Ladon turned his body toward Rysa and she saw the spike—spikes—Trajan had jammed into his mind. They danced across his skin as an array of tiny muzzle flashes. Each time one popped, it pinned down one of the memories her calling scents pulled to the surface.

  In the copter, he’d kissed her because he felt a rampage starting. He wanted to wash it out with everything—anything—else. Because he’d promised he’d be the modern man she needed. And he saw no other way.

  “I can get the spikes,” she whispered. “I can stop what is happening to you.”

  But what would adding the energy of the spikes to her already overpowering abilities cause?

  “Rysa?” She looked up. The world suddenly slammed hard to the real, the way an emergency stop of a carnival ride made her snap against the seat and want to throw up.

  Anna groaned.

  Derek held a canister in his hand. “The dilution is ready.”

  Anna’s face blanched—and fear snapped from both dragons. They suddenly, jarringly, yanked Rysa back into the vision.

  Ladon stood now, still naked and with his head bowed, as he stared into the abyss. A dragon stood at each of his sides. They flashed to each other too fast for Rysa to understand, and they both held out a giant claw-hand, caging him from dropping over.

  Rysa wrapped her arms around his back. “Ladon, please turn around.”

  Make your activation. This time, it wasn’t her present-seer whispering. This time, it came from her healer. Do it now.

  In the real world, Rysa’s throat heated. Her brain flipped back and forth between the vision and the hangar the same way her attention would flicker when she felt overwhelmed. When she couldn’t take it any longer and she needed to run away. Or hide.

  Not this time. Anna leaned against her shoulder.

  In Rysa’s throat, a brew swirled and congealed, shimmering like a dragon. She made what she needed—not Fate activation. Not Shifter activation. Something new. Something hybrid, like her. The right key to her engine. The correct code to set it working correctly. But she still burned too bright, and releasing the hold on her abilities would burn her to ash.

  Someone held the canister to her lips. Rysa sipped. She swallowed her own activation spit and the solution from the canister, knowing that the diluted contents from the enthralling suppressor pack it contained would do their work. Her saliva would fully activate her abilities. The filters would keep them in check. And activating herself wasn’t suicide.

  Carefully, the dragons turned Ladon toward her. Gently, they cupped his back. Each time a spike entered and exploded, he shook. But he leaned his forehead against hers.

  The next point of impact appeared. Rysa covered it with her hand. Her skin warmed as her healer unfolded and refolded itself into the shape it needed to be to snag the spike.

  Rysa pulled it from Ladon.

  In her hand, it imploded, like a Burner. And like a Burner, it turned to dust.

  Neither dragon let go. They brought both Ladon and Rysa to the center of the great rock, and curled around them.

  “Thank you,” Ladon whispered. “Thank you, beloved.”

  Andreas looked at the phone in his hand. He’d carried out Rysa. Ladon leaned on his sister the entire way, following Brother-Dragon as he led the way. Sister-Dragon followed immediately behind.

  Andreas had enthralled everyone they came across, and gotten the entire group out without interference. They now regrouped in the lot where Derek had left his car. “We could have used your help a week ago, Mira.”

  “If the Ulpi do not want interference, they make sure no interference occurs.” On the other side of the phone’s connection, Rysa’s mother and the present-seer of the Jani Prime paused. “My triad is not at its best, Andreas. You know that.”

  “Your husband and daughter will be happy to see you.” Inside Ladon’s van, Sandro checked Ladon’s eyes. The other Shifter had fired bolts of healing into his daughter and all four of the Dracae during the entire trip out of the hangar, and continued to do so now. He moved between the group, checking everyone’s vitals, even the Emperors’.

  “We will come.” She paused again. “It is time for the Jani to choose a new Emperor.”

  Andreas glanced at Hadrian and Trajan. “Aye, it is.”

  “Ismene says the future is murky. Neither of us knows if it is because her Burner half interferes, or if other circumstances make it so.”

  Andreas was not surprised. The Burners seemed to have gained power from this situation and he wondered how many balances had just tipped—or had broken outright.

  Before Andreas carried out Rysa, that Burner—the one Derek called Billy—had stood on top of the rubble pile, his eyes glowing, a ball of flame in one hand and “Poke” in his other. Derek yelled something about being better than “burning it to the ground,” but it had been the Burner girl who’d stopped Billy. She extended her hand, asking for his help. He closed his fingers, extinguishing the fire. Then they vanished into the rubble, sword and all.

  Andreas did extra enthralling on Trajan to make him forget he’d seen either blade, a special request from both Rysa and Derek. He thought it best to cooperate.

  The Burner did find Rysa’s last nutrition bar before he vanished. The damned thing smelled as bad as the ghoul, but she stuffed the whole bar into her mouth, chewing and swallowing as if it was the best holiday dinner ever served.

  Good thing, too. She looked skeletal. Her collarbones showed and her eyes were sunken. Even her hands appeared bony. She now curled against Ladon in the back of his van, both of them tucked safely into the arms of his beast as they sipped from a jug of water Andreas found in the underfloor bins.

  “Sandro cares for your daughter.”

  “He now has access to Praesagio’s technology. He will do the world much good, Andreas.” Mira sighed. “I’d like to talk to him, please.”

  Hadrian sat on the back of Anna’s van, staring at his feet, Trajan next to him. Andreas had enthralled both into behaving while Derek called Dmitri. There’d been an argument. Anna and Sister-Dragon paced. Andreas didn’t ask.

  “Hold on.” Andreas walked to Ladon’s van.

  Rysa smiled and held up her little burned dragon. “Look what my dad brought! I never thought I’d see it again.” She smiled again and cuddled against Ladon.

  Andreas grinned as he held out the phone to Sandro. “She wants to talk to you.”

  The other Shifter lifted the device to his ear. “Hello?” His mouth dropped open. “Mira?” Sandro all but danced along the bumper of Ladon’s van when he heard his wife’s voice.

  Part of Andreas knew having the Jani show up would complicate an already complicated situation, but, as Mira said, it was time for a Parcae regime change.

  Anna touched Andreas’s arm. “Derek wishes to stay and help. He says one of us needs to be here, to watch over Sandro.”

  Andreas nodded. The Tsar, as usual, saw the truth of the situation.

  “Dmitri thinks he will swallow the whole of Praesagio Industries into his business dealings.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Do not underestimate that man.” Andreas jammed his hands into his pockets. “Who will watch the bar while he’s gone? Ivan is still off dismant
ling the Seraphim.”

  Anna cocked an eyebrow. “Renee, of course. But she needs a good Second. Dmitri is requesting your return. Says the staff respect you.”

  Andreas laughed. He nodded toward Ladon, Dragon, and Rysa. “What about them?”

  Anna crossed her arms. “They’re going home.” She patted his arm again before walking away.

  He’d need to make sure the Emperors behaved themselves until reinforcements arrived. But, like the two humans and one beast in Ladon’s van, going “home” sounded very nice right now. And Andreas hoped his new “home” wanted to see him as much as he wanted to see her.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Rysa jogged the path leading up to the Dragon’s Rock, her phone’s new earpiece snug in her ear and her new running shoes tight around her feet. When they returned to Wyoming, she’d spent a good three hours in the coffee house in Rock Springs doing a year’s worth of internet shopping. Each purchase gave her an excellent opportunity to practice with her future-seer, which she used to test her new limits as she checked fit or color choice, or one brand versus another.

  She came out of their ordeal with Trajan in pretty good shape, all things considered. Seers worked. Healer worked. And her man and her dragon still picked up ‘love you’ and ‘want you’ from her enthralling ability just fine.

  They’d driven home through the mountains three weeks ago. Ladon had watched her more than the road, asking every five minutes if she wanted more to eat, and only smiling when they stopped to picnic under the brilliance of the Rockies.

  He still fawned over her, cooking the most wonderful meals, making sure she felt comfortable, and cleaning up the mess her uncle Faustus had made of the cave when that Burner exploded.

  Right after they got home, when Dragon went into his nest to sleep, Ladon didn’t know what to do with himself, and fawned even more. When he fluffed her pillow, she’d had enough and made him take a nap. He slept for ten hours.

  Now she stretched and jogged, determined to regain all her health. Her healer worked its background magic and she’d regained the weight her overstimmed abilities ate off her bones in Portland. She felt stronger now than she did before, and her body looked as fit as AnnaBelinda’s, which seemed to suit her frame. She’d always been too round to be a waif, and now she looked and felt her best.

  Jumping a big log, she jogged along, listening to her friend Gavin tell her all the news she’d missed this past month and a half.

  “And you have your incompletes taken care of?” Gavin probably frowned right now, the way he always frowned when they talked about school. She could ask her present-seer, but she’d vowed she wouldn’t cheat. Or spy.

  Absently, she touched the blunt talon tip hanging just below the insignia’s leather strap she still wore around her neck. Ladon had sliced off the tip of her talisman with “Stab,” the midnight sword he now kept in the cave’s armory, and just the right amount of Dragon now bounced against her skin.

  “I called all my professors earlier this week.” The path curved and the morning’s shadows changed. The air smelled fresh and pure, the way she’d always expected mountains to smell. A little desert sage, the subtle scent of the forests below, a tiny hint of the lake on the other side of the mountain housing the cave.

  And she had school under control, probably for the first time in her life.

  “You okay out there in Wyoming?” Gavin knew about Fates, Shifters, and Burners. More than she’d expected, honestly, when she first called. Someone had found him in the campus parking lot when the Burners first stole her away and he’d had his own set of problems to deal with. So he fretted.

  “Everything’s good. You and Daisy?” Rysa asked. He’d gotten lucky. The person who’d found him turned out to be Dmitri’s daughter, Daisy Pavlovich. They seemed to be hitting it off, to the chagrin of her father.

  Gavin chuckled. “I think I might move in so Daisy can keep an eye on me.”

  Rysa laughed. “Better clean all those exes’s numbers off your phone, lover boy.”

  “I will, now that I have someone to mend the break you left in my heart.” He chuckled again.

  “Whatever, Mr. Bower. Sometimes you’re a dick. You know that?” The Dragon’s Rock came into view.

  “Whatever back at you. I cannot believe you’re marrying him. Seriously.” He said the same thing every time they talked.

  “You’re going to be my maid of honor, so if I were you, I’d shut the hell up or I’m putting you in a rainbow-colored chiffon halter dress.” The Dragon’s Rock spread out in all its glory in front of her, a flat tableau of stone big enough—and perfect enough—to sun two dragons and their humans. Right now, though, only one pair sprawled across the warm stone.

  “No chiffon. I demand satine.” Gavin chuckled again.

  “What the hell is ‘satine,’ you freak?” Not that she knew what chiffon was either, for that matter. As long as Gavin looked ridiculous, she’d be happy.

  Jumping another rock, she stopped jogging and walked in a circle, cooling down.

  “Remember my mom makes good side money tailoring for the masses.”

  Now Rysa laughed. “Right. I forgot. Sounds like we a have dress-making plan.” She glanced up at the Dragon’s Rock. “Listen, I gotta go. Talk to you in a couple of days? We’re going to need help house hunting.”

  “You’ll be back before fall semester starts?”

  She’d worked with her professors to take her finals through the local community college’s Disability Services—but she still had thirty credits to finish before she graduated. A full year. Ladon absolutely refused to let her take a year off, saying she probably wouldn’t go back if she did.

  And that she’d done more than enough sacrificing. Time to learn. And to train. And to be together. So they’d be in Minneapolis by the beginning of September.

  “Yes, Dad, I’ll be back before fall semester starts. Now you run along and play nice with the Pavloviches so you don’t start a war.”

  “Please do not say that. Her father is scary enough as it is.”

  Dragon peered over the side of the Rock. Are you coming up, Rysa? he signed.

  Just a second, she signed back.

  Human is waiting. Dragon vanished from the edge.

  “I’ll talk to you later, okay?” She ended the call and turned off the phone, leaving it at the base of the Rock. She stretched side-to-side, readying herself for the climb up the wall of gray and beige granite she faced. Rysa whistled internally, calling her seers. They sauntered up to the front of her mind, her three little buddies of the past, present, and future. Her healer followed, watching carefully, just in case she needed it. Sniffing around the edges of her seers, it sat, satisfied. It wasn’t going to let anything get out of control again. It knew how to respond and now it had the tools it needed to keep her body’s workings tidy.

  From now on, Rysa would always be ready.

  She’d never break again. Physically, mentally—or spiritually, either. To improve her fighting skills, Ladon had started her weapons and hand-to-hand training last week. To improve her concentration, she kept a notebook tracking how long and to what extent time inside Ladon and Dragon’s energy flow affected her attention issues and anxiety. But most of all, she’d learned to stand up for herself.

  Sleeping between Ladon and Dragon held back the worst of her ADHD for about eight hours. Add in a little focused hugging and kissing and she felt better than she ever had while taking her medications. And Ladon seemed to enjoy being her “daily vitamin.”

  Their time together affected him as well. Not that he’d admit to feeling anything other than the “joy of being a long immortal.” He hadn’t been all that open about any of his emotions since they returned from Portland. He just wanted a lot of quiet cuddling.

  “I’m coming up!” Her seers sprang out, touching and reading the Rock. She didn’t listen, she felt for the body moves she needed, and she let her abilities guide her hands and feet up the side. A foot in a break, a hand on a ho
ld, she scaled the wall quickly, and pulled herself up and over the edge, the way she would pull herself out of a pool.

  Dragon lay on his back in the center of the Rock, his long neck stretched out and his front and back limbs splayed, very much like a giant shimmering puppy looking for a belly rub. His hide glowed in warm greens and golds, and splendid organic squiggles, ovals, and waves moved slowly by. He snorted once, rubbing his head crest against the Rock’s surface, and scratched his belly.

  But Ladon took all her attention. He’d found a white blanket—but she shouldn’t be surprised. All the linens in the cave were white. All the towels in the kitchen and the many baths, all the bedding, and all the throws. His sister might cover every surface with textiles and candles as shimmering and beautiful as the dragons, but every piece of fabric that touched either of the human halves of the Dracae was either black or white.

  Her gorgeous man stretched out on the blanket, his shirt, boots, and socks off, wearing only his faded black jeans with his black, black sunglasses perched on his nose. His dark hair had grown and he no longer looked as if a shadow perched on his head, but it still hadn’t gotten long enough to show its full wave.

  He shaved at random intervals now, sometimes going days before scraping off the stubble. He hadn’t trimmed his chest hair either, and it lay flat against his skin again, a wonderful diamond over his heart.

  He lounged on his back, the sun accenting the golden shimmering undertones of his skin, her godling in black.

  Ladon rolled onto his side and watched her over the top of his glasses, smiling one of his beautiful, bright smiles, and beckoned her over.

  She straddled his lap when he sat up, her arms encircling his neck and her lips nibbling the stubble along his jawline. “Hmm, hottie fiancé is literally hot.” The sun warmed his skin nicely.

  Ladon grinned but his eyes remained serious. “Don’t tax yourself. We still don’t know the extent of the changes to your abilities.”