by Jamie Magee
The gods of mercy, ones with this kind of power should only be summoned in the direst of needs. It would anger them to be called for anything less. She could hear Gwinn asking question after question but all the while Zosime stared blindly forward. The goddess she had seen leading her before, the light she followed out of death was as weak as a child. The male with her was cradling her above him, careful not to touch, but strong enough to combine.
“Bring me Draxous,” Zosime demanded. When she bothered to look up, she realized he was already there. From where she’d knelt above the star she could no longer hear them. She could see the rage, though. Thrash and Shade were holding Draxous back, arguing with him as Gwinn fought to stand between them all.
He would not come and she would leave. How could she stay? Her survival depended on leaving. The irony was moments before she had seriously considered praying for death. Now she thirsted for life. Zosime’s eyes connected with Draxous’, and for precious seconds she saw the boy he was, the lover he was, not what he had become. She said goodbye to him as she used her vim to hold her above the power of the words on the floor, then she let herself drift. She answered the call to battle.
“Let me the fuck go!” Dagen raged as he pushed against the dome of magic over Zosime once more. “One of you better open this. Fucking now!” Dagen’s look of betrayal fell on Gwinn.
“I don’t know what happened,” Gwinn said shaking with panicked anger.
“I do,” Bastion said strolling in with a book under one arm and an apple with a chunk out of it in his hand. “What? I was hungry?” Seeing the rage laced daggers of stares coming his way he raised his hand in a show of peace. “Dagen is in jail until he gets his head right. Leaving the burden to the two of you,” he said ticking his head toward Shade and Thrash. “But I’m betting someone jumped the gun somewhere because neither of you have come to terms with the idea you have power in this at all.”
“Boy,” Thrash raged.
“Dad, seriously do not get pissed because you can’t understand me. It’s getting old. Scorpio and Toril are in distress. Have to be for Zosime to hear and then chose to answer the call.”
Dagen lifted his chin as fury rolled off his shoulders. He’d felt this call before, it was raw and gnawed at your bones until you did something about it. He hadn’t felt a fucking thing this time. Why? Because the kid was fucking right. Dust had taken him off the board to give Scorpio the kill he was after.
Dagen turned to Shade and Thrash. “Let me the fuck out of here.”
“To do what?” Thrash demanded.
Dagen’s cold stare was the only answer he needed.
“You’re not fucking going anywhere.”
“What are their chances,” Dagen heard Gwinn ask Bastion.
He was now circling the dome Zosime was in and reading the magic at play.
“One primordial and two seriously damaged females. Who knows...”
***
Following Pricus should be the very last fucking thing Reveca had the urge to do, so she fought like hell not to. The thing was, in a sense, he had the last word and knowing so chapped her ass in all the wrong ways.
She may not be able to escape the prison King stuck her in, but she could damn sure yell curses at the dead man as he sauntered off into the abandoned world. When she manifested on the cliff he’d exited from, she grunted when she found him nowhere in sight among the endless emerald shaded lands before her.
“I love the purity...isn’t it strange that it had to be destroyed before this could be born?”
Reveca slowly craned her neck up to see Pricus perched twenty feet above her head looking out at the land like it was his kingdom. She’d be damned. It was not only hers by blood but by the claim of her male and his Faction.
When she appeared before him dead set on giving him a deadly warning that no haunts, especially him, were allowed in this realm, he vanished once more. An epic game of chase commenced, and she’d be damned if the entire thing was not enraging her. How dare he make a fool out of her!
When she finally caught him, the look of wonder in his eyes as he stared down at her only irked her more. The girl she once was would have been in a melted puddle of goo if this had happened to her way back when. The woman she was now, the one who had built and destroyed herself a thousand times over was not amused, much less swooning.
“Our prisons are a state of mind, not matter.”
Reveca glared as she loaded up every swear word and burn she could come up with, but not a single word made it past her lips. She was no longer in, on, or near the mountain of a jail King had left her in. The pure joy of knowing so was so overwhelming that she nearly threw herself in Pricus’ arms and jumped for joy.
Now she had a shot! Now she could gather all the power in this land and wave down Revelin himself and make the barter of her lifetime. Toril would regret the day she was born by the time Reveca was done with her! No one fucking threatened Reveca and lived to tell about it. Count on it.
She was so busy constructing her conniving lines she would toss at Toril as she watched her die in misery that she barely noticed where she was. The springs. Not just any springs. The crossroads. Her people lived long, long lives, but when they did pass on, their bodies were sent down this spring and out into the great waters. When the stars were aligned just right, and Neptune was in favor, the living would gather there, and when grace fell on their side, they would glimpse the ones they lost and draw in their wisdom and love once more.
Pricus stepped aside, and as he did Reveca gasped in disbelief. Her father was there, her mother...every lost member tied to her lost life was lingering in the misty fog of the springs in the dusk.
“There is no preparing for one’s fate. Life is the journey that takes you there. Nothing will dampen the glory, or stifle the pain. It is an experience, not the knowledge of what is to be, that prepares us for greatness.” Pricus loomed at her side. “You are far from where you should be, sweet girl.”
“You can fuck off, thank you,” Reveca said as she stared into the eyes of the elders. She was certain now fate was on her side. There was enough power before her to make Revelin flinch if she struck just right. Maybe that was what she’d do. Barter with Revelin, get in tight, then cackle as she watched Toril shrivel in death, then Reveca would invade Revelin with King’s Faction and for once put this shit behind her. Yes. This was her plan.
Just an ounce of power that she had gathered by only breathing in gave her the strength to send Pricus packing. With a bold grin, she stepped through the haze with her senses wide open ready to devour the incredible power of her ancestors.
***
Talon’s point of recon landed him at Scorpio’s chapter, only Scorpio wasn’t there, and neither was Dust.
“No one has seen him. The newbies were lookin’ for him too, wanting to make sure they had permission to follow you.”
A host of growls were heard from all around Talon as the bikes were put into idle, then park.
“What’s Talley’s story?” Talon asked. He’d yet to get an up close and personal look at any of the ‘risen dead,’ but when he did Talley not only needed to be secure, but side by side with him at the front lines. For all Talon knew hurting the dead would hurt Talley, and that could not happen. Which is why the Sons had managed to control the perimeter of where the dead were, but not engaged as of yet.
“The fucks with him let us talk to him. They even told us he was free to go and that they were just shooting the shit,” Rush said.
“And.”
“And Talley didn’t budge. He looked at me and said ‘not mine. Leavin’ makes it so.’ He said it in our native tongue with so much slang attached to it I nearly didn’t get it.”
“What the fuck?” Talon said still perched on his bike. He had never quite felt so calm and poised for death before while being anxious for answers. He knew the reason as soon as he heard Saige’s whispered words halt, apparently saying whatever spell for the last two hours over and over was eno
ugh. She squeezed him before she appeared at the side of the bike. The others around them shifted uncomfortably. Public statement or not, they were not so sure how to take Saige.
“He is saying that if he leaves where he is it will make the dead his, there will be no getting rid of them. Well, at least not until he figures out how.”
“A fucking bar is holy, is that what you’re telling me?” Talon said with a cool smile that took the edge off for the guys watching it all play out.
The tension was right back in place the second a wall of fire appeared before Saige dangling like some dry erase board. With her focus, the flames turned blue and then began to morph into a map of the area they had patrolled all night. Rather poorly considering most of it was swamp.
“He’s here?” she asked Rush who took his time answering with a simple nod.
“It is the northern point around the cross—holy shit.”
Talon’s brows popped finding any swear word coming from Saige’s prim mouth outright sexy as hell.
“The dead are not here, right?” she asked pointing to the center of her map.
The silence of the Sons told her they were. When distress hit her expression, Talon could not take it anymore, he appeared at her side, resting his hand on the small her back.
“It’s a crossroad,” she said quietly to him as grief drown her soul. “Akan is pulling from the house of Neptune,” she said pointing to the west. “Talley is the northern point. The Coven is the eastern, your chapter and Scorpio’s are the southern ones.”
“The house of Neptune,” Talon said looking at the sky, he didn’t see it in the west or any direction for that matter.
“It’s where Shade and Thrash are. Akan is forcing them to participate.”
“What?” Talon hissed. He didn’t need crazy assumptions flying around the mind of his superstition legions. He needed cut to the bone intel.
“Heaven and Hell, Akan made them agree. He’s forced Scorpio’s hand. They’re going to kill her!” Saige said vanishing.
Talon knew the direction she went and if he bothered to take half a second he might get a solid read on Scorpio but he wasn’t chancing any such thing. Connecting to him or whatever fucking Throng was would easily put him in a position of choice he didn’t want to be in.
“Off the bikes. The dead are in this center point. Witches are at play here, white and black. You do not engage until I tell you to, only how I tell you to,” Talon said to the men around him. “Send the word out.”
He vanished following Saige’s scent as he did. Closer and closer he came. For an instant, he was positive he sensed Akan near but not in the direction he was going. Indecision never struck him. He followed Saige deeper into the swamp.
Fear soaked emotions tainted with rage and disbelief hung in the humid air. When he came to the opening, he stopped short. There was not a stitch of light beyond the moon, and that was fighting with the moss through the trees to reach the ground. He needed no light to see Scorpio standing between two hauntingly beautiful women. They glowed in the darkness like faint apprehension you could fool yourself into believing you never saw.
It was Saige gasping that stopped Talon from taking a step forward and getting a closer look. His dark stare tore through the night half a click away as his eyes met Akan’s. He was holding Saige with little effort, sneering as he did. In one beat, Talon was there.
“You’re a dead man,” Talon said with an easy smile. He could already sense his bikers moving closer, and the doubt in Akan’s emotions. As cool as he seemed on the surface, he’d been rattled by something.
“You tell ‘em to leave the dead be, or you’ll never see the likes of this one again.” Akan’s hand slowly eased down the front of Saige’s body then cupped her crotch. “On second thought, I rather hope Scorpio ignores you. I’ve heard this one is as tight as they come. Nuns have seen more action.”
“What the fuck do you want?” Talon seethed. It was killing him to feel Saige’s fear, her desperation.
“I rose those blokes,” Akan shrugged. “Okay, so maybe I had a bit of help from the new dead king, but I still did it. What they do is my victory, not your Throngs.”
“Apparently not if you’re taking hostages.”
Akan flinched a grin. “I took her to distract them. Your mighty Throng as my mother used to say, is not so mighty. When I slayed mine, I sorta thought my mom was right, as easy as it was we must’ve been weak. Power comes in different forms I suppose. Mine loved me, so much that they never imagined the threat I was. Yours? One for all, it seems.”
The dense night burst open with light so bright it blinded Talon for precious seconds.
“Last chance,” Akan roared. “Now, or she’s mine.”
When Talon looked at the source of light, he saw Reveca standing in the center of a now visible crowd of dead. More and more emerged from the swamps.
“You promised,” Saige whimpered. Talon’s attention tore back to her.
He had no fucking clue what was going on, but he knew Jamison’s scent, and he knew the scent of his men. All of them were steps away. Too far to be a sure thing, too close for him not to count on them.
It was Saige that pushed Talon, one look in her pale eyes, one reach of her vim in his direction was all it took. With a roar, he vanished to Reveca’s side ready to rip her a new one. What the fuck was she doing? Was she playing Akan and Scorpio against one another? Whatever she was up to he was about to knock some sense into her.
When he appeared before Reveca the shocked look of relief nearly broke his heart, it was the same look that had him coming back to this female every time no matter how wrong he knew it was. They both turned to the sound of Saige’s scream in the distance. Talon flinched, wanting to go to Saige like every instinct he had was telling him to do, but his promise anchored him in place. “What the fuck have you done?” Talon gritted out as he pulled her behind him, little good it did, the dead were walking through and past Scorpio and the females he was with. They were closing in slowly but surely on the prey they had in their sights.
Talon clutched Reveca and tried to move out of the circle, but it was impossible. He felt like they were sinking to the bottom of the ocean with half-ton weights attached to them.
“Where the fuck is, King?” Talon roared.
“Pissed at me,” Reveca admitted dryly.
Talon cursed. “Where is his crew?” One fucking dark angel would make all the difference in this battle.
He could feel Reveca trembling as they stood back-to-back, circling, looking for a weakness. The tragic part was Talon knew these men. Most he had argued with Reveca to let live, the few he didn’t stand for still ranked among Talon’s regrets. If he had stayed at Reveca’s side when she slipped into one of her moods, fought it out, these men would have been resting in peace, not pulled through a transition that never agreed with them, only to face death a second time. A far more gruesome one.
The only positive Talon could pull from the tragedy was that because of them he was slow to leave Reveca, and when it came time to lay a Rogue down, every option, years of effort, was taken before they were placed on a kill list. Talon could do nothing about the hell they had lived through, but he could learn from it.
“Reveca you appeared here, disappear,” he ordered.
“I did not!” She almost spit out what she had been doing, but stopped short when she realized it would only hurt her position. “I was on holy ground, a crossroad.”
“You were not here?”
“Are you dense? I just told you where I was.”
The nerve! “Woman, Saige said we are in the center of a crossroad.”
“Fuck Saige! This is her fucking doing, I can feel it. She thinks ‘cause her tits and ass do not sag anymore she can run shit. I will be damned if I let her or anyone else take a swing at me.”
He would have turned and shook some sense into her, but only a fool would turn their back on an enemy. All at once Reveca stopped cold in her and Talons defensive spin.
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“Toril.” Reveca’s tone was so cold a shiver ran down Talon’s spine.
There was no time to take sides or weigh choices. The first thrust of a sword came soaring at Talon. Unarmed he only had his vim to fight with, and it felt as sluggish as it did the second before he was sure he was a dead man in Ambrosia’s lair. He was being drained by a force again, and he’d be damned if he knew how to stop it.
Years of combat training kicked in, and he fought the men finding them just as worthy as the day they had died. Bloody, brutal and painful was how the endless moments were filled. He had been counting how many times Reveca had screamed. He was sure after the first time, King would appear. By now, Talon was in the double digits and still no dark angels were to be found.
Worse yet, he knew Reveca’s limit, and she approached the threshold far faster than he had ever known her to. In a heartbeat, he made a choice— poetic or stupid he would never know for sure. Talon turned and took Reveca and pulled her to the ground shielding all of her under him.
He had felt and seen this female in every state of emotion but never once had he felt her this afraid, this full of regret and sorrow. It was so rich that he never felt the blades he was sure had to be thrusting into him striving to reach her.
Slowly he lifted his head and looked down into her gray eyes. It was the only part of her he recognized, her skin was covered in blood, a lash was down her cheek, blood was pooling from her neck. All wounds he knew she could heal from if given enough time.
There was no time, though.
In their shared stare, he felt them both relive it all, the good, the really good, the bad, and horrid. He wanted to regret it all, he knew she did too, but it wasn’t possible. Not when one ray of good was left in their path. There were more than a few. Enough to outweigh the dark years? They would never know.
Talon, still numb to the pain, swayed his thumb along her bloody cheek. “You don’t belong here, Vec, you never did. This cage is too small.”
