Chapter 44
CALLIOPE
Put his essence back. My sister’s words repeated over and over in my head. I’d asked Rhea if they were ready. She’d nodded. I didn’t know the whole plan. I only knew they were waiting for this moment. It was up to me to give them the opportunity.
“I can’t fix you until you put the baby down. You can’t be holding her during the spell.” He grabbed my arm, and I winced. Still as strong as ever. Still as cruel. But he wanted something more than he wanted that baby. He wanted to be a man again. My father, the great Ajax Kardia, wanted to be free to rape and pillage and bring torment to all around him. He leaned to his right and placed Demetra’s baby on the couch then yanked my hand to cover the stone where it hung on his chest.
Somehow, he’d gotten through my wards. Found the stone. But he didn’t know the key. He didn’t know how to open it and free his essence. Only I could do that.
“Now.” The order was hard and angry. If he hadn’t needed me, he’d have snapped my neck just for the satisfaction of listening to it break.
Our eyes met, and I flinched under his hatred. It didn’t matter that I didn’t look like my mother any longer. I didn’t have her eyes or nose or long blond hair. I hadn’t since the first time he killed me and I’d reincarnated into a new body. But it hadn’t mattered. He still hated me. Hated that I was a reminder of what he’d lost. A reminder of what his greed had ultimately ruined.
“Lorelei,” I whispered.
My father’s nostrils flared, and his eyes widened. The stone dissolved beneath my hand at the sound of my mother’s name, and his essence melded back with his body. I’d thought it fitting that her name be the key that kept him less than a man.
He never spoke it. Never would. I never spoke it, either, because I still hadn’t forgiven her for taking the coward’s way out and leaving me—leaving the three of us—to his evils.
I tried to step away, tried to pull away from his grasp. I knew he wasn’t going to release me. The movement was instinctual. Self-preserving. My body knew what was coming before I felt the dagger slide into my chest.
He yanked it out and shoved me to the floor. I cupped my hands over the wound as my legs crumpled beneath me. Blood poured through my fingers, warm and smooth. I’d known he would kill me, and still I made the sacrifice. My sisters needed me. Loved me. I required no other reason to protect them.
Godric would find me again.
He would never give up until we were together.
Chapter 45
KILLÍAN
The castle shuddered around me, and I touched the wall. The stones were trembling. Something big had hit us. I ran down the long hallway toward the back exit Asa had been using to get people out. I turned the corner and heaved a sigh of relief. Empty. Not a soul in sight. I’d felt the loss when she’d blinked with Eira. The separation tore a hole in my heart, but it was better that she was safe, thousands of miles away, rather than trapped in a crumbling castle.
A chunk of rock struck my shoulder, and I winced. I needed to get out of the maze of halls. I had to get to the lower levels where people still were. There was no way Asa’d had time to get them out, too.
Alek joined my run through the main hallway, once more in his human form. “I checked the upstairs. Everyone is gone,” he said.
“Good.” We burst out into the courtyard. Our Lycans fought Xerxes’ soldiers. Djinn, spread throughout his army, sliced and diced everything they touched. Bodies littered the ground. Blood spread like an ocean over the courtyard.
Miles stood in the middle of the courtyard, taking down man after man after man. Swords slid off his skin like he was made of steel. Anyone he got his hands on turned to ash within moments.
A crash to our left drew my attention. Two creatures unlike anything I’d ever seen before were rearing back, about to clash together like two charging bulls. They were huge. A hundred feet long with an eighty-foot wingspan and huge lion-like bodies. And heads that, while enormous, still looked somewhat human-esque.
Which was which? Both creatures looked so similar. I couldn’t tell the difference between Naram and Xerxes until one of them spoke, and I swear the air itself trembled.
“You will die, Xerxes!” the darker brown creature snarled.
The lighter, sandy colored monster just laughed and charged again.
A Djinn soldier ran at me, and I drew my sword from the sheath at my back, but another beat me to the kill. Asa leapt out from behind us both with a yell, sinking the dragonfire blade I’d given her deep into the male Djinn’s chest. He crumpled with a groan.
The ground shook as the two Lamassu collided again, but this time, one of their massive paws came straight down on the outside wall of the castle, smashing through what was left of the ice dome on that side. The ice and stone walls below it disintegrated like they were made from fucking sand. They were the size of freaking jumbo jets. Every move. Every turn of their feet crushed something.
Naram was shoving Xerxes toward the castle, through the walls. Their paws tore at each other’s skin. Bloody stripes crisscrossed both of them, but Naram had the upper hand. Except he was driving Xerxes toward the castle. Toward the basement he knew was full of people. In a few seconds, they would be directly on top of the lower levels. Under their weight, the ceiling would collapse. Everyone down there would die.
“Naram!” I shouted. “Stop!”
He shoved Xerxes again, knocking him through the wall and onto his back, then looked straight at me with his strange white eyes. Bastard. He was doing it on purpose.
“Miles! They’re going to crush everyone in the basement,” I shouted.
The Drakonae looked up from bathing his latest opponent in fire, and his eyes widened. His skin turned black. Scales slid over his body. Wings sprouted from his back, and he grew and grew and grew. In moments, he was nearly as big as the two monsters fighting in the rubble of the castle wall, and he headed straight for them. He pumped his massive wings, pulling himself up into the air. Then he dove for the locked doorway that led down into the lower level of the castle.
“What’s he going to do?” Alek yelled, launching himself at a Lycan in fatigues who’d chosen to flee toward us. Alek’s fist struck the man in the temple, and the soldier went down with a heavy thud. Several other soldiers threw Alek a sideways glance before retreating in the opposite direction. They all were. Retreating, that is.
It was either run or be roasted by Drakonae fire as Miles bathed the rest of the courtyard in lines of flame. The ones that couldn’t run fast enough were ashes instantly.
Miles dodged the wrestling Lamassu and managed to maneuver to the doorway of the lower level. He landed gently next to it and used his enormous clawed foot to tear the locked steel door away from the stone entrance.
“He’s trying to give them an exit,” I shouted, running toward the Dragon. If there was a way to help the people down there, I would do it.
A figure blurred from beneath Miles, moving too fast to identify, but it had to be Javier. He was the only vampire left that could move in the sunlight. The newcomer wouldn’t have come out. The sun would kill him instantly.
But then two more blurs left the dark entrance and passed me—a tall blond man and a shorter brunette. Erick and Bailey. Gods, who else was down there? I looked over my shoulder at Alek. He had been stopped by the Protectors. All three of them had been carrying people in their arms. Six Lycans now stood next to Alek.
I kept running across the courtyard. Toward Miles.
Miles swung his head down low and stared straight at me. Smoke curled from his black nostrils, and his wings beat the air, sending a wave hard enough to knock me to the ground.
The Lamassu roared at each other. Naram struck again, and Xerxes stumbled backward on his hind legs. Everything seemed to slow down. Smoke and the smell of death filled the air. I lifted my hands from the ground, and bile rose into my mouth. Blood dripped from both my palms. Not mine. I’d been in the midst of many battles before. In
the center of massacres, but this…this was worse. In years past, I’d fought with armies I cared nothing about, just to hide from the pain I carried deep in my soul. But this time, this army? These people, I knew them. Some of the faces on the ground next to me were friends. People I’d eaten lunch with. Joked with.
I scrambled to my feet. Blood spattered my face. I tasted it. Smelled it.
Naram charged again, striking Xerxes in the chest and sending him tumbling over into the side of the castle itself. The world stood frozen as Xerxes crashed through the top floor of the castle, smashing it like it was made of sand instead of granite. Then his massive body fell through to the bottom floor. Naram leapt on top of Xerxes, pounding his chest with massive paws, pushing him through the ground floor. The earth shook, and I screamed, but everything was so loud my shout was a whisper in the midst of a bellowing crowd.
Miles launched himself toward me. One of his massive claws closed around my body. He was headed for the small group with Alex. He swooped low again, grabbing them from the ground like he was playing a game of jacks and we were the pieces. His wings pumped hard, and we rose from into the air as everything around us turned white. Like a fucking nuclear bomb had gone off.
The heat was nearly unbearable. My ears rang, and I clutched my head, screaming in pain. Then the sensation of falling registered a few moments before impact. The mighty Dragon’s claws released. His wings unfolded from around our bodies. The blinding white light had faded back to the dawning blue sky of the morning.
“Killian?” It was Alek’s voice cutting through the ringing in my ears.
“Here,” I croaked.
I put my hand to my brow, shielding my vision from the sunlight, and peered up at him. His eyes were red and slitted, and heat still radiated from his body like he could breathe fire again at any second.
The Dragon’s body shuddered again, and I watched, in awe, as Miles shifted back to human form. But he didn’t look right. The skin on his back was charred, and he collapsed to the ground in a silent heap. Fuck. No.
“Don’t you dare leave Diana or those babies. Do you hear me?” I dove to his side, careful not to touch the burns that resembled burnt wisps of paper over bared flesh and bone.
“Move!” Erick’s voice cut through the chaos in my mind. The large vampire shoved me aside, lifting Miles’ head from the ground. Erick bit his wrist, tearing it wide open, and pressed the flowing wound to the Dragon’s mouth.
“Will it be enough?” I asked, rising from the ground and taking a step back.
“I don’t know,” the Protector answered. Bailey, Erick’s mate, knelt beside Miles’s head and waited, like she knew her blood would be necessary, as well. Erick met her gaze and shook his head. “If mine isn’t enough, then…”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence. We all knew what happened if Miles died.
I turned back toward town. Miles had carried us farther than I thought. Out into the grassy prairie outside of town. Where the castle had stood--where we’d been only a few seconds ago...
Was gone.
I glanced past Miles and Erick and walked a few feet before I found myself staring into a pit so deep I couldn’t see the bottom until I walked to the edge and peered straight down. Alek walked up next to me and laid a hand on my shoulder.
A quarter of the town was…just…gone. In its place was a crater massive enough to have been caused by an asteroid hitting earth. Naram had planned this all along. The snide comments. The blatant disregard for everyone and everything except his revenge on Xerxes.
“How many did we lose?” I whispered, my stomach knotting and twisting. The urge to vomit rose up again, but I took a deep breath and managed to stave it off.
“There are only six Lycans who rode out the blast with us beneath the shelter of Miles’s wings.”
Six? There were nearly a hundred souls in the lower level. At least fifty were Sisters and their children. The rest were refugees from town. Gods! “Were the pixies still down there, too?” Bella had said they wouldn’t stay after the injuries were tended. But I’d never seen them leave.
“No,” Bailey answered. “At least not many. Most had already left.”
Nothing remained at the bottom of the pit. Not even stones from the castle foundation. No bodies. No remains. Just dirt and black ash.
The blast had taken out the castle and several of the buildings on Main Street—the café and the Calliope’s shop still appeared to be standing, but everything else had been eradicated or had fallen into the crater. Of course Xerxes’ army had been eliminated, too. Not a single soul moved within the town except the few of us Miles had protected. It was all just gone.
We’d failed.
The Sisters of Lamidae were gone.
Rose and Naram were dead.
The town was in shambles.
But Xerxes was dead, too. Naram had taken his vengeance out on his brother. There should have been some satisfaction in that, but I found none. Only sorrow for the ones we’d lost in the fight.
He’d made a choice he didn’t have to live with—a choice to murder innocents.
I opened my mouth and shouted, releasing the anger and pain in one breath. The wounded sound echoed off the walls of the crater in front of me.
It wasn’t fair.
They hadn’t deserved to die.
Chapter 46
GODRIC
He’d stabbed her. Fucking stabbed her.
I didn’t care what the plan was anymore. I dove to catch her body before she slammed into the wood floor. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her toward my chest and roared. Her eyes had closed, and her heartbeat was slowing. So. Much. Blood. It covered her hands and was running down her arms away from the wound.
I bit the inside of my wrist and pressed it to her mouth. She could heal from this. My blood could heal her. She just needed to swallow. “Drink, love. Please.” Her neck flexed, and I felt her swallow. Her heart beat stronger within seconds, and my rage turned to the father who’d cursed her. Who’d abused her. Who’d made her life hell in every way.
The throbbing pulse in his neck beckoned my fangs, and I hissed, letting the beast within out just a little.
Placing Calliope on the floor gently, I stood to confront the monster. I’d thought myself unworthy of Calliope. I’d thought myself the monster. But I’d merely been surviving until a twist of fate had brought us together. Fate had deemed me worthy of a mate. Calliope had made me look past the accusations and guilt and self-loathing. She’d seen all of me. The man I’d wanted to be for so long.
“You will die in excruciating pain, and I will relish every scream.” I stood from Calliope’s side and stepped over her body, putting myself between her and whatever her bastard father thought to do next.
Ajax raised the bloody dagger.
Stupid. As a vampire, I could move faster than he could stab me. And I’d shove it into his gut before he realized his mistake.
“Godric, stop him,” Rhea screeched from behind me. The four of them rushed forward, and I caught his arm just before he drove the dagger into his own chest. That I hadn’t been expecting.
I held his arm back and bit deeply into his neck, draining the life slowly from his body. Draining his power. His strength.
The four Sirens chanted something behind me. “No!” he shouted. I would’ve been lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to feel terror overtaking him.
“You can’t do this to me,” he ground out between his teeth. “These spells don’t exist anymore. You can’t even know how to do this.” He shoved harder against my grip, but I didn’t budge. And I drank even deeper.
Another voice joined the chanting. Calliope.
Relief surged through my body, but I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder. I’d seen too many mistakes happen when focus was lost. I would hold the bastard in place as long as it took to end him.
I needed Calliope safe and protected. To ensure she lived a peaceful life, free of his torture, he needed to be eliminated—p
ermanently.
Ajax’s skin changed slowly from flushed to gray. The fight went out of his body, and I had to ease up to keep from shoving him through the wall. His dark, shock-filled gaze froze over and emptied of life. I released my hold on him, yanking the dagger from his hand as he crumpled to the floor. Veins of black beneath his skin spread up from his neck until they covered his entire face.
He was dead.
“Calliope,” I said, my voice breaking as I turned. She stood at her sisters’ sides, hands still covered in her own blood, but her eyes blazed with victory and gratitude. She mouthed the words thank you before hugging her sisters. All three girls looked as if the weight of the world had been lifted from their shoulders. Lander was holding the baby while the three women embraced, sharing sighs of relief mixed with sobs of disbelief.
“It’s over.” Stavros said, his voice low. He held out his hand, and I relinquished the dagger still clutched tightly in my fist.
“Why now? If you knew the spell—”
“It wouldn’t have worked until Calliope put his essence back. He had to be whole to send on to his final death. They were safe—we all were—until the soul stones ceased to cloak us. After that, we just had to remain hidden until Calliope showed up. The confusion wards worked on him until you walked right up to the doorway. Which is what we were counting on.” He put the knife down on a side table before returning to my side.
“So because we had the map, the wards didn’t affect us?”
“Exactly,” Stavros said, throwing his arm around my shoulder. “Welcome to the family. You’re stuck with us now. And nice move with the blood to heal Calliope before she had to body jump again.”
“I didn’t want to lose her again,” I said, keeping my voice low while the women in front of me continued to sob and cry and hug. I certainly didn’t need to be in the middle of that. She was mine. I didn’t need to be jealous of her family…my family. Would they all feel the same as Stavros?
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 135
