“We’re all too settled.” Alek agreed. “There are so many people with us now, so many families. It was too hard to keep moving. That’s what Miles told me once, so we built the town, built the castle, and then enchanted everything to keep it safe and hidden from spells.”
“Even spells can be beaten, and Xerxes is tearing holes in the town barrier one right after another. You know I’m the last person who would tell you to leave your mate’s side, but the safest place for her is back inside with the Blackmoors.”
“No.” I stood abruptly from the barstool and stepped toward Alek. “I’m not leaving you. If I go back, I’ll never get out again.”
“How did you get out?” Jared narrowed his eyes, scrunching the middle of his forehead, like looking at me funny would solve the riddle.
“I climbed out of a window.”
“There aren’t any windows except on the—holy fuck.” He shook his head. “You’re as crazy as he is, and you’re human. How are you not black and blue and/or dead?” He stalked toward her, but Alek stepped in between them, blocking his friend.
“Leave her be.” Alek’s deep voice vibrated through the room.
“We need to go. Once they realize she’s missing, your ass is grass, and you know it. We have to fight the enemy at our door. If she doesn’t go back now, there’s no way you can protect her. Calliope and Rose reported sensing at least three Djinn in town, and that was an hour ago.”
“I thought Harrison was powering the spell while he was here. Shouldn’t it be stronger?”
“He says there are witches on the outside poking holes in it faster than he can patch them. The girls are worn out. They’ve barely slept in weeks.”
Alek nodded. “I know.” He glanced at me with a look that broke my heart. “Gretchen, I have some shorts in my dresser you can put on. Why don’t you get dressed, and then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
Pain gripped my lungs. I couldn’t speak. After everything—after last night—he was going to send me back to my cage. Back to a life dictated by a prophecy that meant nothing to me. We were vessels for the Lamassu to return home, for all supernaturals to get the hell off this planet and go back to the Veil or whatever the hell they called it. Alek cared about me. I knew he did, but when worse came to worse, he was a supernatural, and I was a human. We weren’t the same. We’d never be the same.
“Gretchen?” He put a hand on my shoulder, rubbing the marks with his thumb. A prickle of energy skimmed across my skin where he touched, and my whole body shuddered, reminded of the connection between us.
“I’m going. I get it.” I pulled away from him and disappeared down the hallway. Alek and Jared continued speaking about the crisis in town. Alek asked who the people were that died, and I took a gulp of air, closing the bedroom door behind me, muffling their conversation.
I found a pair of drawstring shorts in his dresser, slipped them on, and gathered and tied them tightly around my hips. Shoes would be nice, but right now, I just needed to get out and hide, I could worry about my feet later. Once I got out of town, I could hide among other humans. No one would ever be the wiser.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was better than going back to the castle. Leaving Alek would rip out my heart. Still, I couldn’t go back. If I did, I’d never get out. They’d never let me in the library again. Probably never let me out of the basement quarters. It would be worse than before.
I couldn’t do it.
I wouldn’t.
Jared and Alek were arguing about what to do next. They weren’t paying attention to me. It would hurt him that I left, but it would be better, easier. We’d had our perfect night. It could be enough. I would survive without him. I hoped.
The window in the bathroom unlatched easily. I pushed it up and jumped to the ground. The dry grass crunch beneath my feet, but there was no thundering voice yelling at me to stop. Neither of them had heard me leave, because they weren’t listening for it. I could still hear their stressed voices discussing the dead family of Lycans.
I slipped between the houses and walked quickly down the street. People were rushing here and there—Lycans probably. Most of the town’s population were werewolves. At least that’s what I’d heard.
Several women passing me with their children stared for a second, but everyone was in a hurry. None of them said a word. None of them made a move to stop my progress down the street…away from the town center.
I got past the neighborhood. Empty lots lay on either side of the street where I walked now. No cover and nothing to hide behind. The open space made me nervous, but I had to get out. I loved him more than anything, but I couldn’t survive if he put me back into that stone cage. The Sisters could make do without me. The visions would be weaker for a while, but several of them were ready to deliver soon. As soon as they did, Astrid would be able to see her visions clearly again.
Footsteps behind me made the hair on the back of my neck prickle. I turned, but the street and sidewalks were empty. When I turned again, I screamed, but the sound was cut off by a heavy hand over my mouth. One man grabbed me from behind, and the other removed his hand long enough to put a white cloth over my mouth and nose.
“We got one. I can’t fucking believe they let a Sister out of that castle.”
A strong pungent smell filled my lungs, and my vision darkened. My arms and legs got heavy, and I sagged. My knees gave out, but the man behind me held me up, keeping me from crashing to the asphalt.
“Take her to the house outside the border and then come back for me. The General will be beyond pleased with this turn of events.”
The General? I fought to stay conscious, but the smell permeated the air, and darkness pressed my eyelids shut. Then everything else faded away, too.
Chapter 19
XERXES
“Commander Martin has arrived with an update from Sanctuary, Master.” Cal stood halfway inside the Oval Office and half in the hallway while he waited to be granted permission to enter.
“Send him in,” I said, continuing to stare out the windows onto the outdoor spaces filled with my soldiers near the White House. Vehicles traversed the once-green lawns. Where trees had been, now metal buildings stood—quickly constructed bases of operation for my two Lycan commanders and their growing troops.
The smell of Lycan permeated the room before Martin stepped one foot through the open door. They were a necessary evil and would be disposable once I was through taking over the entire continent. Until then, they were useful and typically got the job done.
Their habit of reading human thoughts had come in handy on more than one occasion. Interrogations were also a comical spectacle. Most humans were unaware of the Lycan ability to mind read, and those that were interrogated and found out about the ability were not left alive long enough to pass along the information to anyone else.
“General Xerxes, Sir.” Martin marched into the office, his boots snapped together as he saluted. When I turned, his hand was still at his forehead, waiting to be released to an at-ease position.
“I hear you have an update. Have you taken down the Bateman’s barrier?”
“It is starting to crumble, Sir, but it’s not down completely. We are able to jump in and out with the help of the witches you send with my units.”
I sighed and turned back to look out the window. “Is that all?”
“No, Sir. I’ve been informed that my men captured one of the Sisters of Lamidae.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I whirled on Martin, grabbing him around the neck with my magick and hauling him to within inches of my faces. I could smell the fear on him, but to his credit, he didn’t struggle or panic. Even as I squeezed his trachea closed, he merely gagged, waiting for me to decide whether he lived or died.
If he was teasing me, I would kill him…slowly and excruciatingly. I unclenched my fist and released his neck from my magickal chokehold. “Why is she not with you?”
“If she is not what we think, I didn’t want to risk bringi
ng someone into your stronghold here. If she’s a spy or—”
I raised my hand to silence him. His reasoning was logical, except that his men should’ve been able to tell that she was a human for damn sure if they could read her thoughts. “Cal.”
My Djinn servant stepped through the still-open office door and bowed.
“Take me to the units outside of Sanctuary. Then come back and fetch Commander Martin.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I stretched my hand to Cal, and he took it, pulling us through a vortex. Moments later, we appeared in the encampment I’d had Martin set up twenty miles from the edge of Sanctuary, far enough that Rose and her minions couldn’t sense the movement of my Djinn and close enough that they could get back and forth quickly enough to run effective attacks on the town.
Several Lycans saw me and froze in place, their hands raised in salute. Cal left my side and reappeared moments later with Martin in tow.
“Where is she?”
“This way, Sir.” He gestured toward a brown temporary warehouse structure and waited for me to take the lead, which I did.
I yanked open the door and stepped inside. My eyes adjusted rapidly to the dim lighting, and the farther inside the building I walked, the louder the screams became. The kind of screams I liked to hear, but only if I was the one triggering them.
“What are they doing to her? You don’t have permission to touch her.”
“The men are interrogating her, Sir. She’s the only source of information we have from inside the castle. I assure you, no permanent damage has been done.”
Imbeciles, all of them. I stormed down the hall toward the sound of the woman’s voice. My cock hardened just at the thought of finally having one of the Sisters within reach.
I hadn’t been sure the chance would present itself again.
A second chance to begin a race in my image that would rule both the Veil and Earth, a supernatural being more powerful than anything either world had ever seen, and they would be mine, my children. With them at my side, nothing and no one would be able to stand in my way.
I would be invincible.
I would be king.
Shoving the door open, I stepped into a small interrogation room. Two Lycan soldiers had a young woman—naked—and bent over a table with her hands tied behind her back. The man in front of her had his dick nearly in her mouth, and the man behind her had his dick out, about to shove it in her pussy.
She was screaming her head off about someone named Alek killing them slowly by plucking out their eyeballs. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. I had to admit her creative threats in the situation amused me. I’d never heard a woman talk about eyeball plucking. But I didn’t recognize the name Alek, which bothered me. I knew all of Rose’s players. At least I thought I did.
I glared at the men who’d imagined they had the right to sample a prisoner caught at my request. I lifted my hand, directing my magick. Both men gasped and clutched the invisible cords I wrapped around their necks. I squeezed tighter and tighter until the cord of power literally took their heads right off. Blood poured from the decapitation, coating the floor in a slick red pool. Their half-dressed bodies flopped to the floor with pleasant thuds. The scent of Lycan blood in the morning always put me in a good mood. It was a shame I couldn’t shed more of it.
Martin stood silently behind me with Cal. Neither spoke. I approached the hysterical woman bent over the narrow table.
Leaning down, I put my face even with hers. “Who is Alek?”
She snapped her gaze to mine and sucked in a surprised breath. “You’re going to kill me anyway. I have nothing to say to you.”
“I’m not going to kill you right now, little one. I’m going to impregnate you, lock you away in my palace, and have you carry child after child after child until your body gives out or you die. Though once your body gives out, I will have no further use for you and will kill you.”
A shudder of energy flickered across her bare shoulders and I bent to look closer at the white marks that flowed from one shoulder blade to another in a gentle upward-facing semi-circle. As I inspected further, I noticed the marks continued over her shoulder and down over the front of her collarbone and chest. It was a Gryphon’s mate mark—a necklace of magick that permanently linked them together. How the fuck? I’d killed off the Gryphons who’d escaped through the portal thousands of years ago. There were none left.
Unless Rose had gotten her claws into one and hidden him, they’d all been stupid teenagers who barely knew how to shift, much less control the powerful beast that lived inside them.
Easy kills.
“Martin?” I looked over my shoulder at the white-faced Commander.
“Alek is a Gryphon. She loves him, General Xerxes, Sir. She is afraid. I’m not getting a lot more. Her mind is still pretty jumbled from the chloroform…And angry thoughts toward them.” He indicated with a nod at the fresh bodies on the floor.
I shrugged. I had no sympathy for men who didn’t respect authority. Actually, I had no sympathy for anyone.
“Love, I guess that explains your mate marks. Those don’t just pop up after a casual fuck.” My tone remained light and energetic. A Sister of Lamidae caught in the open and mated to a fucking Gryphon. Rose must be losing her control over the town.
“You’re all going to die.” Her voice shot out like the crack of a whip. Even through her pain and torture, she chose to fight. “Alek with kill you all, and Rose will wipe you all off the face of the Earth.”
“I’d like to see him try, and I do think this would be much more entertaining if your Alek had to watch what I’m going to do to you. Why don’t I just activate these marks so he comes running to get you.” I flipped her over, exposing her bruised breasts. Teeth marks showed raw, a stark contrast to her white skin, and a snarl rumbled in my chest.
“Did those men do this to you?” I pointed at the bite marks. She glared, and I turned to Martin. “Who?”
He paused a moment and focused. “The first soldiers who grabbed her, General, before I knew she’d been reported captured.”
“How long has she been in your custody?” I narrowed my eyes and roared. “How long?”
“Overnight, General Xerxes, her thoughts say they caught her yesterday morning.”
Fucking unacceptable. “You inform your men that no female caught is to be touched by their filthy paws without my express permission or their fate will be worse than the two you already have to clean up off the floor.”
“Yes, Sir. General, Sir.”
“Take their bodies and put them on spikes in the center of camp.”
“Yes, Sir.”
He and Cal both grabbed a bloody body and the decapitated head before scrambling to be the first out of the room. Once the door closed behind them, I turned my attention back to the bound woman on the table.
Her eyes opened wide when our gazes met, and she struggled against my hands on her body, on her breasts, then on the white marks decorating her collarbone. I pressed the runes in a particular order, and they glowed bright and hot enough that I felt the magick inside them begin to pulse. It wouldn’t stop until her mate’s skin touched hers.
She hissed and jerked away from me, but I used my magick to hold her arcing body down and in place, freeing my hands to unzip my pants.
“What’s your name?”
“Go to hell, you bastard!” She spit at me, and I leaned down to lick the side of her face, human, coated in magick. It’d been so long. I hadn’t taken a human woman since Cera. Their bodies were weak and could barely withstand the beatings I preferred to dole out. Even my harem back at the palace were Djinn, not human. Their bodies were resilient and strong, so strong.
This one was different. She was a Sister. She was worth being careful with, gentle even. Worth keeping healthy. She would be the mother of my children. The mother of a new race.
Chapter 20
ALEK
I’d lost Gretchen, but we’d been over every inch of t
he town and couldn’t find her. Couldn’t catch her scent everywhere. I hadn’t slept yesterday all. I could feel her pain, her anger, her fear. Jared was the only one that knew. He’d been there when I realized she was gone. He’d been the one who kept me from telling Rose right away. He’d said we would find her, but we hadn’t.
She was nowhere and I could do nothing.
I was useless to her. I’d lost her. I’d failed her. The knowledge ripped through my soul like Jared was burning me alive. His fire would’ve been preferable to the torture I was living through every moment she was gone.
Now, Djinn were everywhere, and Lycans. Blood slicked the streets. I ran next to Jared. Screams came from a nearby house, and we both turned toward the panic. We weren’t fast enough to catch a Djinn unless we surprised him with a sword in the back, but the Lycans we could kill.
We burst through the already shattered front door. A large gray mammoth of a wolf had another wolf’s neck in his mouth and two frightened children cornered, shielded only by their mother’s bloody wolf form. She was still alive, but barely. Her heart had slowed in the few seconds it took for Jared and me to cross the room.
She snarled at the intruding wolf, but a Djinn kept blinking in and out of the space, stabbing her with a dagger each time he blinked in. Echoes of his laughter filled the room, mixing with the haunting, heartbreaking screams of the children.
Those screams were not unlike the ones I’d heard when my parents had shoved me through the open portal. So many had died that day.
Jared launched himself toward the mother and her children.
I leaped for the monstrous bloody wolf, shifting in midair. My front talons sliced through his mangy hide, and a howl of painful anguish satisfied my bloodlust for at least the present moment. One of these Lycan traitors had taken Gretchen. My mind envisioned her mangled body strewn on a street somewhere in town among all the other dead and wounded. Why couldn’t we find her?
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 109
