Binding Ties

by Shannon K. Butcher

  “And you swear that if she is compatible with more than one of our men, she will bind herself to one of them immediately, rather than taking months to make up her mind on who she would choose?”

  “I do so swear.”

  “I don’t know how you can make this happen, but your words bind you to your actions.”

  “Only if you give me my freedom and fulfill your end of the bargain.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. “If you can deliver on your promises, then I free you, Lyka. I give you my word that you can come and go as you please, as long as you do no harm to anyone within these walls.”

  The weight of his vow bore down on her, driving her to her knees. Until this moment, she hadn’t taken the time to really consider the consequences of her actions. She knew her word would tie her, forcing her to act, but the sheer magnitude of this promise was almost more than she could stand.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw him reach for her. She jerked away out of reflex, even though the life of her secret could be measured in seconds.

  He stepped back. Sweat beaded along his hairline, drawing attention to the tiny sparks of silver at his temples. Theronai lived for centuries, barely aging. The fact that he had even a few gray hairs was proof of just how much stress his leadership role put on him.

  For some reason, the urge to ease his burden bubbled within her, making itself known.

  Strange.

  Joseph shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ve done what you asked. Now tell me. Where can I find her?”

  Lyka thought about refusing him for about two seconds before the magic of her vow drove her to act. She had no choice now. The compulsion to fulfill her end of the bargain was irresistible.

  She pulled up her long sleeve to reveal the ring-shaped birthmark on her forearm—the one that marked her as a Theronai. “I’m right here.”

  Chapter 9

  Eric Phelan woke in a cold, dark room. His head throbbed, sending wave after wave of dizziness washing over him. He tried to sit up, but even the thought of moving that much made him queasy.

  A small, chilly hand was wrapped around one of his thick fingers. He cracked one eye open enough to see his surroundings.

  Rock walls carved by time arched overhead. The ground beneath him was cold and uneven.

  A cave.

  Several Slayer children were gathered near him, piled together like puppies for warmth. He could smell their fear and exhaustion, along with the stench of hundreds of Synestryn demons nearby.

  Kayla tightened her grip around his finger. She was seven, with moonlight-blond hair, huge brown eyes and the heart of a warrior. Of all the young he taught, she had the most promise.

  “Are you awake?” she whispered.

  “Yeah.” He forced himself to lift his head enough to survey the area.

  The cave wasn’t very big. He doubted if he could even stand upright in the space. There were four young with him. When the attack had come down, there had been six.

  Two kids were missing.

  “Where are the others?” he asked.

  Kayla’s dark eyes hardened. “She took them. I tried to stop her, but there were too many of them.”

  “Too many what?”

  She scowled as she nodded toward a dip in the cave wall. Eric shoved himself upright so he could get a better view. His head spun and his vision wavered, but it was still easy to see what she meant.

  The dip in the wall was actually an opening—a hole leading out. Just outside of that lay freedom and more of those odd Synestryn demons that had attacked the settlement. They were far too human-looking for Eric’s peace of mind, wielding steel weapons that gave them an advantage of reach. Their pale skin was covered in mangy patches of fur, but they were heavily muscled and faster than any human could hope to be.

  These were the creatures that had attacked his people.

  “How long have we been here?” he asked Kayla.

  “A long time.”

  To a kid, that could be anything from hours to days. Based on the rumbling hunger in his belly, he was guessing it had been at least a day, but he couldn’t be sure. The blow to his head had fucked with his memory enough that he couldn’t remember the exact hits he’d taken. He healed fast, but it burned a shit ton of calories.

  The other young were asleep, and he hated to wake them. Kayla was steady in a fight, but the others were more emotional. He didn’t want a bunch of crying to draw attention to the fact that he was awake. “Is anyone hurt?”

  “Peter was, but he’s better now.” She eyed the Synestryn with a death stare worthy of any fully grown woman with a bad case of PMS. “When can we kill them?”

  “Not now. And not before I say. Got it?”

  She nodded. “But we get to kill them soon, right?”

  “Give me a minute to figure out what’s going on.” For all he knew, they’d have to fight their way through six levels of demons before they reached the surface. He might have risked it with a group of his brothers, but not with a few scrawny kids who hadn’t even lost all of their baby teeth yet. Hell, at least two of them were far closer to human than Slayer on their best day, and those who could shift even a little had absolutely no control over it.

  “I’ve been watching them,” said Kayla. “They all obey her.”

  “Her who?”

  “The ugly one—the one who brought us here—called her Treszka.”

  Ugly one? That rang a bit of a bell, but not enough that Eric could sort it out in his rattled skull. “How long have the other kids been gone?”

  “A long time. Like, as long as it takes for Miss Carmen to read us a story.”

  Story time was only about an hour long—an eternity to someone like Kayla, who was pathologically incapable of sitting still. The fact that she was doing so now meant she had to be a lot more afraid than she appeared.

  “I need you to be brave, Kayla,” said Eric. “I need you to help keep the other kids in line. Don’t let them run off and do something stupid if I’m not around, okay?”

  He could smell the surge of fear waft out of the little girl, but none of it showed on her face. “Why wouldn’t you be around?”

  “I need to find us a way out. If I get a chance to slip away and do some scouting, I will. But don’t worry. I’ll be back. I’d never leave you down here.”

  “You shouldn’t leave,” said Kayla. “Treszka is really mean. I can tell.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “By the way she smells.”

  Eric had no idea how mean smelled, but he was familiar with violent, irrational and crazy. All those scents lingered nearby. And Kayla seemed certain enough about the mean thing that he wasn’t going to argue with her. “Promise me you’ll take care of the others. Make them stick together.”

  “I will. But if you don’t come back, we’re fighting our way out of here without you.”

  He resisted the urge to grin at her viciousness. She might be a handful to teach, but in a couple of decades, Kayla was going to make one hell of a fighter.

  “Deal,” he said.

  The sound of shuffling feet and a low hum grew louder and neared the cave entrance. He had no idea what the noise was, but he doubted it was any kind of good.

  “She’s coming,” said Kayla. “They always make that noise and bow down when she passes, like she’s some kind of queen.”

  Now that he thought about it, the sound did hold a bit of reverence to it. And if the queen bee was headed this way, Eric was going to be ready for her with a little honey.

  “Pretend like you’re asleep,” he told Kayla as he rose to his feet. “Don’t let anything I say rattle you. Understand? I may need to lie.”

  Kayla let out a growl of defiance but did as she was told, like a good little soldier.

  Eric couldn’t quite stand upright where he was, but
he found a place nearer the opening where the floor dipped lower, giving him room to reach his full height—and to fight if it came to that.

  He rolled his shoulders to work out some of the kinks. All he’d been wearing during practice was a pair of faded jeans, which were now covered in dirt and dried blood—most of it his.

  The humming outside grew louder and louder until he could no longer hear the Synestryn soldiers moving to make way for their queen bee to pass. He could see through the opening enough to watch the crowd part, but the reason they were parting was obscured until a woman stepped through the hole in the cave wall.

  Treszka ducked through the doorway and straightened once she was inside. She was easily six feet tall, falling only a few inches shorter than Eric. She was dressed in a flowing gown of black and garnet velvet, in a style like some medieval queen would have worn. She had hip-length midnight black hair and eyes to match. Her pupils were stark white, giving her gaze a kind of weight Eric had never experienced before.

  She was beautiful. Stunning. And not just for a Synestryn—which she definitely was. There was no mistaking the smell of death and pain seeping from her pale skin.

  She smiled at him, displaying a perfect row of sharp white teeth. “You’re awake. I’m so glad you survived.”

  Most of the Synestryn demons were beyond language. Eric had heard there were ones that could talk, but he’d never expected to actually have a conversation with one of them.

  “Why are we here?” he asked.

  “You mean why are you still alive?” she corrected.

  “Whatever gets me the answers I need, lady.”

  “Treszka,” she supplied. She lifted the hem of her skirt and stepped closer. “I really don’t want to hurt you.” Her black-and-white gaze bore into him. “But I will if you don’t behave.”

  Eric could feel an acute chill coming off her skin. The stink of her flesh was almost more than he could stand. It didn’t matter how pretty she was. The girl was rancid. “Where are the other two kids who were with me?”

  “Safe. I thought it best if some of them were elsewhere, so you wouldn’t get any ideas about escape. You don’t seem the type to leave your offspring down here to fend for themselves.”

  She was right, but he didn’t want to let her know it.

  Eric shrugged. “Not my offspring.”

  She ran a black-tipped fingernail down his chest. It was all he could do to stand there without flinching. “No paternal instincts?”

  “None.”

  She made a tsking sound. “That’s a shame. I was hoping for more from you.”

  “I’d say I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’d be lying. So, step aside so we can be on our way.”

  Treszka laughed, and the sound was about as appealing as the squall of tortured kittens. “You know that’s not how it’s going to work. I brought you here for a reason.”

  Of course she had. “Which is?”

  A slow smile stretched her lips. Her fingers slid down the center of his chest toward the button of his jeans. “I have needs.”

  Eric became acutely aware of the children standing behind him. That, and the fact that the woman touching him was a fucking cold-blooded demon.

  “Not only no, but hell, no. Not even if you were the last piece of tail on the planet and I was dying from a chronic erection.”

  Her smile turned into a pout. “I knew you’d play hard to get. You Slayers and your sense of honor.” She waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s all a big waste of time, if you ask me, but you’ve given me no choice but to play along. Guards!”

  The second she raised her voice, a trio of those disturbingly human-looking demons piled into the room.

  “Take another one of the children,” she ordered.

  Eric stepped to the side, blocking the path of the guard that moved to obey fastest. “Not a fucking chance, lady.”

  “You seem to lack a basic understanding of your situation. I am in control here. Not you. If I want you to kill and eat one of the children, then that’s exactly what you’ll do. Unless, of course, you’d rather I have one of my guards take them all?”

  Eric glanced over his shoulder at the young. They were piled up, trying to stay warm. Kayla lay still, but he could see tension radiating through her little body. She’d heard every word Treszka had said. She may not have understood it all, but she would have absorbed enough to know that Eric had been offered a chance to save them and turned it down.

  “So, Slayer, what will it be? Will you come with me, or would you prefer to stay here with your choice of three of the children? I really don’t care who dies. Neither will my men. Down here, meat is meat.”

  What choice did he have? There was no way to fight his way free. There were too many guards outside of the cavern—and those were just the ones he could see. Chances were there were hundreds more between here and freedom.

  And what about those two other young? She’d led him to believe that they were still alive. He couldn’t abandon them down here.

  His best option was to get her alone and kill her. Once the queen bee was dead, the drones would be distraught and confused. That’s when he’d have the best chance of getting the young to freedom.

  Eric held out his hand to her. “Lead the way.”

  * * *

  Joseph was stunned speechless.

  He stared at the birthmark, then at Lyka’s face, then back again. He saw, but still couldn’t believe. It was simply impossible. Some kind of trick.

  Before he could stop himself, his hand reached toward her. He stopped in the act, waiting for her to shy away like she always did, but this time she held her ground.

  “Go ahead,” she said, bracing herself. “You need proof. The mark won’t wipe off. Heaven knows I’ve tried.”

  His finger settled on her warm skin.

  The pain he carried around with him—pain he’d endured for so long that it had become part of him—melted away. For a second he thought he became airborne, he felt so light. The shock of it rattled him down to his very soul.

  He was still reeling from being pain free when the next sensation hit him. Warmth swirled up his arm, tingling his skin as it went. The streamers of heat shot straight for his chest, lingering along the branches of his lifemark before sinking into his heart. His whole body shuddered. His lifemark swayed along his skin, straining to get closer to her.

  Lyka wasn’t lying. She was the real deal. A Theronai.

  And she was compatible with his power. She could be his.

  He shoved that idea out of his head before it could take root. Most of his men were far worse off than he was—their lifemarks nearly bare. It was his duty to see to their needs first. It didn’t matter if she was compatible with him or not. She needed to save one of his men.

  “How can this be?” he asked, hearing his amazement in his voice. “You’re a Slayer.”

  “So was my mother. My father, however, was a one-night stand. An Athanasian prince who came here for the sole purpose of creating me. Mom fell for his good looks and charm, and cheated on her husband. It’s not exactly something my family likes to talk about.”

  A female Theronai. Under his roof. And he’d had no clue.

  He shook his head in an effort to get reality to sink in. “Does Andreas know?”

  His thumb stroked across her birthmark. His fingers had somehow wrapped around her arm in a grip tight enough that he could feel bone and muscles shifting beneath his hand. He knew he should stop touching her, but it felt so good to be free of pain. He couldn’t yet stand the idea of letting the weight of his agony crush him. Soon he would let her go, but right now, he needed this respite.

  She looked to where his fingers wrapped around her arm, but didn’t try to pull away. That alone was a miracle.

  She’d spent so much effort dodging every close contact, Joseph hadn’t realized just how m
uch he’d dreamed about touching her until now.

  “He knows,” she said. “It was part of the reason he sent me here. He knew that if things went to hell or you betrayed him and I became trapped here, I could always beg for mercy because I was like you. He was certain that you wouldn’t kill me—not when your women are needed so desperately.”

  So Joseph had been tricked into agreeing to peace?

  He couldn’t go there. Not now. He was still trying to absorb the impact of the woman standing in front of him. “That’s why you wouldn’t let any of the men touch you. You knew that if we did, we might figure out what you are.”

  She nodded. “I’d heard the stories. I’m not exactly sure how it all works, but I thought it would be safer if none of you pawed at me.”

  “Now I understand why you could guarantee your mystery woman’s cooperation.” He paused as the consequences of her vow began to sink in. “You have to choose one of our men. Immediately.”

  She swallowed hard and lowered her head in acceptance. “I know.”

  “And you promised to bind yourself to him irrevocably.”

  “I know that, too.” She lifted her head and looked at him. The impact of her golden gaze was nearly enough to drive him to his knees.

  “I thought you hated us. Why would you willingly tie yourself to a man you hate?”

  “Because I love those children. I love my brother. I’d gladly give up my life for any one of them. So I did.”

  He didn’t like it that she thought binding herself to one of her own kind was the same thing as giving up her life, but he let it slide. There was too much to do now to worry about how she felt about her promise. She’d made it. Now all there was left was to ensure that she did as she said she would.

  “You’re free to go,” he told her, “as soon as you choose your man. I’ll summon everyone who is available back home.”

  “No need. I’ve already chosen my mate.”

  “Who is he?”

  She closed her eyes and tensed up, as if bracing for a hard punch. “You.”

  Chapter 10

  Lyka tried hard not to get sick all over Joseph’s boots. She knew that giving up her life to save her people was the right thing to do. She also knew her path was now set in stone, and that it wasn’t going to be an easy one. But she hadn’t expected her decision to evoke such deep feelings of fear and trapped helplessness.