My body tensed, but not from Miles’s and Alek’s overwhelmingly charged anger. Magick rippled from outside the castle. Another Djinn was in Sanctuary. Before I could speak, a female voice ripped through the uncomfortable pause hanging over everyone still staring at Godric and me.
“Godric!” The sound of a desperate female plea tightened my chest. She knew Godric, which meant…sister? Hadn’t he mentioned a sister?
“Godric!” The cry came again, and Godric turned toward the voice. The woman was right outside the main entrance. Her screams carried through the icy dome, covering us with a strange, muffled, haunting sound. They held genuine pain. Anguish. Her fists pounded against the heavy wooden and iron door barring entrance to anyone without magick or the ability to move a half-ton with their bare hands.
“Godric, please. Someone please let me in. You have to help me! He’s going to kill her.”
Godric turned to me, a sliver of fear in his gaze as his blue eyes connected to mine. “It’s my sister. She means the castle and your friends no harm.”
“Miles?” I asked, speaking only his name.
His body shuddered, still trying to close down the last remnant of his rage. Finally, he nodded his head and left the courtyard, disappearing inside the castle.
“If something happens because you brought Djinn to Sanctuary, into the castle, that blood is on your hands, Calliope,” Alek ground out, crossing his arms angrily over his massive chest. Murmurs of similar feelings echoed through the courtyard. Everyone around him stiffened and waited, watching the doorway where Miles would appear with Godric’s sister.
“Why is your sister here?” I turned to Godric, unable to keep from skimming my fingers down the sleeve. The gray polymer fabric glistened in the sunlight, snugly wrapped around his abundance of muscles. Stop, Calliope. Focus. And not on how much you want to strip him out of his clothes. But I couldn’t seem to pull my fingertips away.
“Something bad must’ve happened. She wasn’t supposed to follow me here.” Godric glanced down at my wandering hand. A hint of a smug smile curved the corners of his mouth, but to his merit, he didn’t speak. Just allowed me to touch him.
A woman who looked a hell of a lot like Manda stepped into the courtyard from a set of open French doors. She wore loose flowing pants and a shirt that was more like a tunic that hung down past her knees. Her dark hair was pulled back in an intricate braided design and bound up off her neck with cords of gold rope. If not for the fine lines at the corners of her sharp lavender-colored eyes and the edges of her mouth, I would’ve thought her Manda’s sister. Sometimes the ability to live for centuries made determining true age nearly impossible. For this woman to actually have wrinkles…she was old.
Her brows raised, hope flashing across her tensely drawn angular features. “Godric. Did you speak with the wolf called Charlie?” She warily glanced around the crowd as she made her way quickly to stand in front of Godric and myself.
“They’re not friends of Manda’s, Asa. She betrayed them. Caused deaths here. Why would you send me to this place to seek help? Charlie and her mates will have nothing to do with her.”
“He almost killed her, Godric. Just a few moments ago, I saved her life, but I couldn’t get her out. We need others to help us. There are too many with Xerxes.” Tears poured down her cheeks, reddening her eyes. She turned to face the crowd and focused in on Miles. “You need a Lamassu to save your precious town, right?”
“Rose is gone. Xerxes has taken her. She is most likely dead.” Miles’s low voice carried across the still courtyard.
I shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.
“Oh, I know. I saw her body. But her husband, Naram, lives. Xerxes has him locked away.”
Air left my lungs in a quick rush. I gasped to replace it and saw the shock I was feeling mirrored on the faces of the people around me. Naram? Another Lamassu still lived. I touched my chest where the amulet hung between my breasts. He could fix it. My sisters and I could be safe again. Continue to live our lives uninterrupted. I could keep this life and not have to start each century with a blank slate.
“Where?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“Now just wait,” Miles bellowed. “We’re not going to trust a stranger. She’s a Djinn. They work for Xerxes. We all learned that the hard way with Manda. The male behind you isn’t welcome, either. They need to go.”
I shook my head. No. No. No. This was my chance. Miles wasn’t going to shove this aside like it couldn’t solve our problems. “You don’t have a shot in hell without a Lamassu. None of you do. If you think, I will save you by putting Xerxes army to sleep, you’re wrong. Rose played that card when she asked me to save Riza’s baby. He has witches, and he’s not stupid. My Siren’s call won’t do jack for your little war.”
“Ours.” Miles spoke the word slowly. “This war is shared by all members of Sanctuary.”
Well, fuck. I grimaced. I didn’t give a shit about this town. I’d been here because of a deal with Rose. Rose had held all the power. All the protection I and my sisters had needed. I’d stayed and gotten comfortable, because I was indebted to a Lamassu, not because this town cared about me or I about it. At least that’s what I kept telling myself so I could do what needed to get done.
But I wasn’t stupid, either. Burning bridges wasn’t smart, and I wasn’t in the clear, yet. I needed their help to get this damn Djinn back as much as Godric and his sister now.
“Yes, Miles. Ours. I’m angry and worried and, to be honest, scared as shit right now. I can’t have you thinking I’m your ace in the hole for this. But, with a Lamassu on our side, we have a shot. We have to get Naram. Rose would want us to save him. Don’t we owe her that?” I slammed my mouth shut on the bullshit and waited. I needed him to believe me. The last thing I wanted was to be thrown out of Sanctuary before I was ready to leave.
The silence continued a few moments before it became uncomfortable.
Alek broke first. “She’s right. Rose would want us to try.”
“It could be a trap.” Miles shook his head. “Whether she would want us to try or not, she wouldn’t want us to risk the safety of everyone to do it.”
“I’ll go.” I said, stepping closer to Godric’s sister. “She can show me Naram.”
“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Godric growled, grabbing my wrist and yanking me back to his side.
“I get my daughter first,” Asa snarled. “No Manda. No Lamassu to save your town.”
Rumbles and growls echoed around the courtyard, but I had to give the woman props. She knew how to get what she wanted out of a situation. If they all really wanted to stay and defend Sanctuary, a Lamassu was the only way to beat Xerxes and his army of Lycans and Djinn.
“Are you willing to put your life in this woman’s hands, Calliope?”
I nodded. I needed a Lamassu. I just prayed he knew the spell that would re-enchant my amulet. It was worth the risk.
Miles crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes dark with suspicion. “We need proof the Lamassu lives. You show her Naram and then bring her back to us. Then we will speak about rescuing your daughter. But Manda Farrok is not welcome in this town. Is that understood?”
Asa bowed her head respectfully to Miles and then turned to face me again. “Please. We must hurry. Manda doesn’t have long.”
I turned first and led the way. No one was jumping anywhere until we were outside the castle walls and through the permanent teleportation barrier spell. No matter who died, that spell wasn’t coming down, unlike the pendant hanging between my breasts. Whether the permanency of the spell was a favor or a curse remained to be seen.
Godric’s fingers tightened around my wrist. “I’m coming with you.”
“Do you know where Naram is?” I asked, pulling him after his sister who was on her way toward the inside foyer of the castle. People stared at us from makeshift pallets on the floor. The smell of soot and pain permeated the air like a thick fog.
Mikjáll stood
just ahead of Asa, opening the massive door before we reached it. Where had he been? How had he known we were headed outside? The quick flash of blue across the doorway showed the spell. Asa stepped across the threshold and peered out into the empty street.
“No Djinn are out there,” I said, following her out onto the bricks of Main Street Circle. Godric followed directly behind me, his hand still latched to my wrist like the suction cups on an octopus.
“How do you know?” she and Godric asked simultaneously.
“I can feel the teleportation magick. The ripple it creates from you tearing a hole through space.”
Mikjáll, Miles, and Alek stepped out into the street behind us. The rest had remained safely inside the castle…for now.
“Be careful, Calliope.”
I shrugged at Alek’s polite words of well-wishing, unwilling to believe that they cared about me. I was a weapon. A strong supernatural that should help them win their war. But they were wrong. I wasn’t their white knight.
Godric spoke before I had a chance to reply. “She will be with me. No harm will come to her.” His words, though leaning toward the caveman attitude, surprisingly made me feel warm inside. My skin tingled, and I was suddenly glad for his grasp on my wrist, instead of annoyed by it. Not good.
“Ready?” Asa asked, catching Godric’s gaze.
He nodded. “You jump first. I’ll follow the trail.”
Chapter 20
GODRIC
“Trail?” Calliope asked after my sister disappeared.
“Each jump has a unique signature,” I said, pulling her toward where my sister had been standing. I reached out with my free hand, locating the invisible event horizon of her jump. There. My hand slid through the residual heat where the Djinn magick had torn through space and pulled my mate through behind me. Space folded around us, and a breath later, we were in the dark and deep below the surface.
Dust and death hung in the pitch-black stale air. “Where have you taken us, sister?” I hissed, searching through the dark with my vampire-enhanced vision. Multiple torches hung on the smooth granite walls, but I didn’t have a lighter on me.
“This is the tomb where Xerxes has kept Naram chained for thousands of years.”
“How did you find it?” Calliope asked.
“I’ve been stalking him since he freed me from a quppa box and I escaped.” She moved off to one side. It took forever for the echo of her footsteps to return to our ears, meaning the place was massive.
“Why haven’t you grabbed Manda yourself and blinked her away then?”
“Can we please stop making so much noise in a tomb where supposedly there’s an all-powerful Lamassu?” I growled, trying to shush them both. I’d never met an actual Lamassu before, but that didn’t mean I’d forgotten the stories my nurses had told me as a child. Creatures so frightening that humans had worshiped them as gods. Beings that were stopped in their tracks only by the strength of a shifted Drakonae. Death could be served only by a blade bathed in the fire breath of a Drakonae.
“Who disturbs my tomb?” A low rumbling voice echoed from across the vast stone chamber. “Xerxes? What have you come with today?”
“We’re not with Xerxes,” Calliope said, jumping right in and projecting her voice like an orator in theatre. “I was in Sanctuary with your wife, Rose.”
“I’m surprised Xerxes hasn’t wiped it from the face of the earth yet. What’s stopping him?” The deep voice returned.
“Drakonae.”
“Dragons, really?” He sounded intrigued and exhausted at the same time. “I didn’t realize any of them made it out of Veil. Are they fire breathers?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Calliope laid a hand on my arm and shook her head. I snapped my jaw shut again. Telling him more about the town didn’t help our cause. Especially if we couldn’t get him out and Xerxes came back for him.
“What difference does it make to you?” she asked, engaging the stranger again.
Chains grated against the stone floor, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. How had he not gone insane? Trapped in the dark for millennia. Chained. Alone.
“Only dragonfire would be able to remove the chains I wear, unless you happen to have the key.”
“How often does Xerxes visit you?”
A half-laugh came from the being I still couldn’t see. He was hidden behind pillars across the large chamber. “I lost my sense of time long ago. But he only comes when he has something to taunt me with. Now that my wife is really gone, I would think he’d just leave me here to rot and die. He hasn’t sent food or water in a long while.”
“We need to go. My daughter is first. That was the deal.” Asa growled. “I showed him to you. That is enough proof.”
The chains rattled and footsteps neared. I peered into the dark, surprised to see two glowing white eyes staring straight at me. His hand and feet were chained with large iron shackles. His face was so gaunt I was shocked he could still walk beneath the weight of his bindings. His arms were thin. He was a walking skeleton wrapped in skin, like something from a twenty-first century zombie movie. But no gaping wounds. He was—for now—all in one piece.
“I will fight Xerxes for you. Kill him. It is my rightful vengeance.”
“No insult intended, but you look like a walking corpse,” I said. “I don’t think you’ve got much fight in you.”
“I need food and sunlight. Just get me out of here.” His voice was desperate with a layer of insane.
“No,” Asa screeched and grabbed Calliope from my grasp. They were gone a moment later.
“Fuck,” I growled and followed her back to Sanctuary. I barely took a moment once I landed back in the center of Main Street. Asa stood a few feet away with Calliope. My fangs descended, and I blurred to my sister’s side. “Don’t you ever take her from me like that again.” I leaned down, putting my face only an inch from hers. “Ever.”
My sister stood calmly, taking my anger like it was nothing. Reminding me that she didn’t really care. This whole thing had been a manipulation to get help to save Manda. She knew my guilt over the past and my affection for my niece would draw me into this plan of hers. But it wouldn’t make a difference in the long run. No one would ever see me as anything more than a screw-up. As the worthless prince who took up with a vampire and got turned, who became nothing more than a petty thief.
“Be careful how you threaten me, little brother. I’m the one who will say if you ever get to walk through the palace doors again as a prince.”
“I’m doing this for Manda, not for you,” I hissed out between gritted teeth. Asa would never have me again the way she’d ruined me so many years ago. I never wanted to feel that pain and loss. Which meant I would never go back home. And never wanted to.
I had Calliope now…in a way. She wasn’t quite mine yet. Not completely. Though I knew in my soul she was my intended mate. My vampire half was quite insistent that her blood was the only food I’d ever need again.
Calliope wanted me, but she fought it. Something was keeping her from accepting the magick drawing us together.
Eventually, I would understand why.
Then I would eliminate the problem.
Chapter 21
CALLIOPE
I stood. Silent. In shock, listening to Asa and Godric fight. Naram was alive—barely—but still alive. That was all that mattered. A Lamassu could spell the amulet Rose had made. Give me and my sisters another chance. Give me a chance to remain in this life. I might not have to die and start again to protect the world from what he would do.
The large door into the castle swung open to reveal Miles’s face, but just his. I didn’t see or hear the others behind him. I dipped my chin, acknowledging him. He flitted his gaze to the two arguing siblings, and I shrugged. “He thinks I’m his. She yanked me away from him and blinked me back,” I whispered, knowing he would be able to hear me, even over Asa and Godric’s racket.
Part of me wanted to smile. I remembered fight
ing with my sisters. It’d been so long. We’d been separated when I made the deal with Rose. They’d reluctantly left me, both grateful and saddened over my sacrifice. At least they’d gotten to have somewhat of a normal life. That’d been the deal. Rose couldn’t have all three of us. My baby sisters got to live free, sharing in the protection Rose had provided, but not bound by repayment of said protection.
“Is it true?” Miles asked, stepping outside the castle. “Does Rose’s mate still live?”
“Yes, he’s in bad shape and chained up with something only dragonfire can get him out of.”
Miles’s face twisted in disgust, and he backed up a step, retreating behind the teleporting barrier.
I’d known he wouldn’t leave Diana. He’d said what he did to placate his mate earlier, but he had no intention of leaving her side. He would certainly defend the castle. But traveling across the world and leaving her vulnerable, pregnant, and alone…even I could understand why that was a hard stop for him.
“I’ll go.” The voice was similar to Miles’s, but not as deep. Mikjáll stepped out from behind his father and joined us in the street. “Let’s go get him. Then we’ll get the Djinn woman.”
“No, Manda comes first.” Asa snapped out of the argument with Godric, and her eyes widened. “The deal was my daughter first. Then I give you the Lamassu’s location.”
Mikjáll stalked toward Asa with a purpose. He stopped, toe-to-toe, leaned down and growled before speaking. “You get nothing until Sanctuary has the ability to defend itself. We will not protect your family before we protect the blood of our own.”
“There’s something you’re not sharing about Manda,” Mikjáll huffed. “I can smell the deceit on you like a stink.”
I had to admit, the way the female Djinn straightened her back and held her own against an angry seven-foot-tall Drakonae was impressive. She wasn’t going to win, but it was still impressive.
“I need a firebreather to get Manda out. She’s wearing some sort of jewelry that’s blocking me from taking her. I’ve seen her try to take it off. She can’t,” Asa said, her tone quickly deteriorating into sobs. “I need to help my baby. I’ve been right there so many times. I could’ve saved her, if not for the spelled jewelry. And that monster knows I can’t. He won’t be expecting me to come with help. We have the element of surprise.”
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 123
