“They have a van ready for us. We need to leave.” Charlie’s voice roused me from my haze. She was speaking to Erick and Bailey across the yard.
I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. Time to press forward. Time to turn off my grief and protect those that still lived. The dead were at peace. Those of us who remained still needed to reach home safely.
Leaning into my mate’s embrace, I cupped Killían’s face and pulled his mouth to meet mine. The sweet taste of his lips was heaven, and I drank him in.
He swept his tongue into my mouth, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him even tighter.
“I love you,” he whispered against my lips.
“I love you, too.”
“We have to go,” he said.
“I know.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
KILLÍAN
I climbed into the fifteen-passenger van Park found for our group. I’d told him we’d leave it in Ada at the courthouse for someone to pick up. Erick had already called ahead, on what I’d found out were enchanted cell phones, and Harrison Bateman was standing by with a bus that would take us the rest of the way to Sanctuary.
Eira settled into the seat next to me, and a Lycan named Lisa took the seat on my other side. Alek climbed into the driver’s seat, and Mikjáll closed the side door after helping Riza onto the front bench. Park had even miraculously produced an infant carseat to go along with the van. Way to go, buddy.
“Alek, you sure you’re good to drive?” Jared asked, latching the front passenger seatbelt into place.
“Yep,” the big Gryphon answered. “Let’s get home, shall we? I, for one, have had quite enough.”
A resounding chorus of agreement echoed from the other passengers as he put the van into drive and left the Army compound at Vicksburg behind. Park had thanked Eira, Erick, and Bailey profusely for their help eliminating half of the force across the river. In a day or so, they’d have the SECR high-tailing it back to Savannah with their tails between their legs. Of course he’d also tried to convince all four of us to stay behind and enlist, to which we had all politely declined.
The miles of road whipped by. I dozed with Eira leaning against my chest. Until now I hadn’t really let myself relax.
I shifted in my seat, moving so that the sheath of my sword didn’t dig into my shoulder blade quite so much. Neither of us had been willing to disarm when we boarded. The last thing a soldier wanted to do was search for his weapon if something caught him by surprise.
But the hours stretched on quietly, just like the highways. We didn’t encounter a single hiccup the whole way.
As we pulled into the courthouse parking lot in Ada, I glanced down at the watch on my wrist. 2:30pm. We’d made excellent time. Other than my stomach being tied in knots from not having eaten the entire day, I was feeling pretty good. More than ready to climb out of the cramped van and stretch my legs.
Mikjáll opened the side door, climbed out, and then helped Riza out with the baby seat. I followed Lisa out, and Eira hopped out beside me as I stretched my arms and rolled my neck until at least a couple of vertebrae cracked loudly.
The group moved slowly. We were all tired. The spacious passenger bus was a welcome change to the cramped and crowded van. I’d never liked vans, and this experience had only reaffirmed that dislike.
Harrison came around the front of the bus and waved. Charlie ran to embrace him. Travis and Garrett were hot on her heels.
“They really are both hooked on her, aren’t they?”
Eira glanced up and smiled –a slow, quiet smile. Not an I’m-so-happy-for-my-friend-I-could-burst, but more of an I’m-glad-they-are-alive-and-have-a-chance-to-be-together smile.
I knew vampires didn’t sleep, but Eira, Erick, and Bailey were in desperate need of at least a long power-nap. Dark circles stained the skin beneath their jewel blue eyes. Their skin was paler than usual, and they moved lethargically, as if every step was an effort.
Though, as I watched the others in our little group, everyone was moving slowly. Sadness permeated the air, and even though the Lycans were home, none of them really appeared to be all that excited. Jesse was sullen and quiet. Lisa hadn’t said a word the entire seven hours she’d sat next to me in the van.
I knew what they were feeling. I’d lost family. Friends. My entire world.
But even though I empathized with their loss, for me, life was infinitely better than it had been before all of this started. If it hadn’t been for their original mission, Eira would never have ended up in my barn. I might not have found her for years, if ever.
It was selfish to be happy when so many had been lost. But one thing I’d learned from being a soldier for as many decades as I had, life was precious and could be stolen at any moment. Every second you had those you loved needed to be appreciated and celebrated.
I had a chance to start a life with Eira. A life I’d wanted to start with her almost a thousand years before.
Yes, things had changed.
She was a vampire, and I’d lost my soul. At least it had been lost until she showed up and shoved it into my chest again. I could feel again. Emotions I’d turned off or ignored since losing Jón had returned with the force of a raging river.
Life had meaning again for me. I just hoped Eira felt the same. I hoped she could forgive the blackness that had grown in my heart over the years.
“Killían?” Eira’s hand rested on my arm.
I glanced down and met her blue gaze. Her long black hair whipped around in the cold breeze. I’d pulled out her hair tie, and she hadn’t tried to put it up again. I liked it down. She reminded me more of the young woman I’d fallen in love with so many years ago. Her hair had always been down when she wasn’t training. Soft and silky, falling over her shoulders, just begging me to bury my hands in it.
“I’m here, my beloved. Just remembering you with your hair down from a long time ago,” I said, reaching forward and running my fingertips through her hair.
“Those are good memories.” She slid her hand up, running her palm across my cheek and rubbing the long stubble on my face with her thumb. The sensation was soothing, and my eyes closed as I treasured the feeling of her touch.
“Come on, you two,” Jared called from my right.
I opened my eyes and turned. He was beckoning us over from the front of the bus. Everyone else had already boarded and were waiting on us.
“I guess we better move along, love. I can’t say that I’m not anticipating a hot shower and a soft bed with you tangled in my arms.”
A small sigh slipped from her chest, and she smiled again. “That does sound nice.”
We hurried around the side of the bus and climbed the steps.
“Thank you for meeting us, Harrison,” Eira said as she passed the driver.
“I do anything for family, sweetheart. Plus, when Rose calls, it’s tough to say no.”
A few chuckles agreeing with his statement echoed from the sea of red cloth seats ahead. The bus easily held sixty passengers, but with only our small group, it seemed empty. Too quiet.
Then Riza’s baby cried, and the silence was broken. Several others began to speak, and a few muted conversations started as I settled into a seat next to Eira.
We made a quick stop at the lodge where the Mason pack lived. Charlie, Travis, Garrett, and the other wolves that had survived the trip exited. Sadly, it was only a handful.
During the ride, I’d overheard Travis and Garrett telling Erick they intended to help with the pack until Charlie made a decision about accepting them as her alphas. Eira didn’t seem surprised by their choice to remain in Ada, either.
After farewells had been said, Harrison turned the bus south, and we headed for Sanctuary. Alek and Jared dozed in the seats a couple rows ahead of us. Mikjáll sat with Riza and the baby across the aisle. And Bailey and Erick rested just a couple rows behind us.
The bus ride was smooth. I tried to doze again. A couple hours passed, and I opened my eyes when I he
ard Eira’s voice slice through the peaceful quiet.
“Why are we stopping?” The edge in her voice made me nervous. Everyone was standing and peering out the window. The sun was starting to fall, and its bright rays were blinding through the windshield.
“There must be a wreck ahead. It’s rush hour, but this highway rarely comes to a stop,” Harrison called over his shoulder.
The tension in the bus was thick enough to make me very nervous. With one hand, I reached for Eira’s, and with the other, I felt for the hilt of the sword strapped to my back.
Mikjáll had his arms around Riza and the baby, crowding them possessively against the window of the bus.
A second later, a man appeared in the middle of the aisle. His eyes glowed bright purple. Eira pulled me to the side as Bailey and Erick leapt for his throat at the same time. He disappeared before they touched him, and they landed where he’d been standing. Bailey grabbed Erick’s hand, and they whirled. Waiting. Watching.
Alek and Jared paired up as well.
A body appeared between Eira and I. A hand shoved me backward, and I flew across several seats, crumpling to the floor awkwardly in the center aisle.
Shouts filled the bus, and bodies leaped and flew through the air. Then another man appeared in the center aisle, and everyone in the front of the bus froze.
I held my breath. He hadn’t seen me yet. Neither had the Djinn popping around like a spastic wind-up toy.
The man reached forward and, without touching anyone, lifted Alek and Jared from the ground and slammed them first into the ceiling and then against the floor. Again and again, he motioned with his hand, throwing them up and down until their bodies moved like boneless rag dolls.
“I want my Kitsune, Dragon. So either you give her and the baby up or I’ll kill each and every one of these people in front of you before I kill you and take her anyway.”
Mikjáll’s eyes glowed orange, and his arms turned black as claws extended from his fingertips.
The stranger wagged his finger back and forth. “I know a few things about Drakonae. One, for sure. You won’t fit inside this bus in your dragon form.”
“Maybe so,” Mikjáll growled. “But you can’t use your magick on me if even a small part of me is in dragon form.” He leaped over the seat in front of him, using his sharp talons to slice the Djinn standing with the man nearly in half.
The stranger shouted something to the other Djinn on the bus, but Mikjáll reached him first, and they locked into a fight. Claws dug into the challenger and punches bloodied Mikjáll’s face. Blood poured from both. The stranger gained the upper hand a moment later and sent the Drakonae flying down the length of the bus, landing on the floor next to Alek and Jared’s groaning bodies.
He roared, and the temperature inside the bus rose at least ten degrees in a millisecond. On his feet, the dragon snarled again. I could almost feel his hot breath.
“I will kill you, Xerxes.”
Fuck! Time slowed when Xerxes’ hand snaked toward Eira and pulled her through the air, using her as a shield against Mikjáll. The Drakonae halted his attack and roared again. The second Djinn had teleported out.
I leapt to my feet and rammed my sword up through the bastard’s ribcage. He grunted, and Eira cried out as the blade passed through her chest as well. I cringed at what I’d done, but at least this time, I knew the blade wouldn’t kill her.
Blood seeped from Xerxes’ wound, and a crimson stain spread across the fabric of his shirt. My dragon steel blade had pierced his heart. I knew it had. Instead of falling to his knees, a roar unlike anything I’d ever heard shook the bus. The windows shattered. Glass flew everywhere.
I yanked the blade out and stepped away as his skin turned white and began to glow. He dropped Eira to the floor and cried out again as a pair of iridescent wings emerged from his shoulders. The white glow intensified, growing brighter and brighter until I had to close my eyes.
Then the light was gone. When I opened my eyes, so was he.
I scrambled across the floor to Eira and pulled her up into my arms. “Eira?”
She groaned and looked up at me. “You’ve really got to quit stabbing me. It’s becoming an issue.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
XERXES
I staggered across my room, gasping for air. The sword had burned like fire and had come close to slicing my heart in half. I could feel the poison from the blade spreading through my bloodstream. Where the hell had that human come across a dragon steel sword forged in the fire of a dragon’s breath? Their breath left a residue permanently on the blade that was poisonous only to Lamassu.
“You didn’t see the man with the sword coming up behind me?”
The Djinn soldier who’d pulled me away from the blade cowered a few feet to my right.
I reached out with my magick and grabbed him around the neck. “You worthless piece of shit.” I snapped his neck and flung his limp body into the hallway through my open bedroom doors.
The other Djinn moved away slowly, inch by inch toward their lifeless comrade.
“Lily!” I bellowed. I wanted my soft sweet Lily. Her scent could calm the rage that boiled in my blood. But not before I killed the other useless bits trying to escape my wrath.
When I’d shouted for my harem girl, they’d relaxed their stances and were now bowing as they retreated from my rooms. Dropping their gazes from me was the last mistake they’d ever make.
I stretched out both hands, sending my magick to grab them both by their necks before they could teleport away.
They choked and spat, and their eyes turned red as I squeezed the magick tighter and tighter around their necks. Their bodies jerked and kicked and struggled. Then the fight slipped away from them. That last pitiful look before their eyes glazed over like glass slowed my racing pulse.
I hurled them out of the rooms and pulled the doors shut with my magick. Another wave of my hand dropped the large deadbolts along the seam of the two doors into place. Nothing short of a battering ram would gain access until I opened the locks again.
Sweat beaded on my forehead, and breathing was becoming more difficult. “Lily.” I tried to bellow, but my voice was weak. The room spun, fading between black and colored shapes.
“Master.” Lily’s velvety voice caressed my ear. “You’re bleeding.” Her fear for me should’ve been touching, but at this point, I just wanted to vomit from the dizziness and pass out from the pain. I knew once I fell asleep, my body would slowly clear the poison —putting me into a state of deep sleep for at least a week.
He’d missed my heart with that damned blade, but it’d been too fucking close. If he had cut my heart, I’d be out for months while my body repaired itself. I’d been distracted looking for the Kitsune and the baby. So much had been on my mind, I hadn’t sensed the presence of the sword until it’d been shoved through the into my chest. At least the asshole didn’t know decapitation was the only way to take me out for good.
Still, the mistake should never have been made. It’d been sloppy. Careless. A last ditch effort to grab the fox before she disappeared down the pain-in-my-ass-rabbit-hole-called-Sanctuary.
I was not sloppy or careless.
They had just been extremely lucky.
I grabbed Lily’s arm and squeezed. The tiny whimper told me I had her attention. “Help me lie down on the bed. You and you alone will attend me while I sleep.”
“Yes, Master.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
EIRA
A half laugh rushed from Killían’s body, and he hugged me tightly to his chest.
“You’ve really got to stop letting angry men use your body as a shield.”
“At least the sword didn’t kill me this time,” I said, coughing up a little blood. My wounds were already healing. I could feel magick knitting me back together.
“I didn’t think it would,” he answered.
I shook my head. “I’ll be okay in a few minutes.”
He looked up at Mikjáll. “
What was that? What did he do?”
“He’s a Lamassu, like Rose,” Mikjáll answered. “That blade could’ve killed him, but only if you’d taken off his head.”
“He had wings like a fucking angel.”
“He’s no angel. He’s one of the evilest, most cruel, tyrannical men on the planet.” Mikjáll’s pain-filled words hung in the air.
“How was I supposed to know that only decapitation would’ve killed him?” Killían snapped at the Drakonae.
“Quiet,” Alek groaned, pulling himself up into a sitting position. “We are just lucky Killían had a sword of dragon steel. A regular blade would’ve just slid off his skin.”
That was the truth. If it hadn’t been for that sword and Killían stabbing him when he did, we would’ve all been dead, and Xerxes would’ve taken Riza and her baby. Though I still wondered why he wanted her.
“Where did he go?” Killían asked as I sat up and pulled myself to into a standing position. My wound had sealed up, and we needed to start moving again soon.
“The second Djinn returned for him,” I answered. “He just had to wait until no one was touching his master. Remember, they can only jump with one passenger.”
Killían stood next to me and brushed bits of glass from his shirt and pants.
“Harrison?”
“I’m here,” the warlock answered, crawling out from behind his chair.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine. I’ll get us moving again.”
“Mikjáll, help Alek and Jared into seats. Erick? Bailey? Are you okay? Riza, how is the baby?”
Everyone moved quietly and quickly. Erick and Bailey fed Alek and Jared some of their blood, and Harrison started the bus. Whatever had stalled out the traffic in front of us was gone now.
I sat down in the seat next to Killían and sighed.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, his voice filled with trepidation. His heart was racing, and sweat had beaded on his forehead.
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