Romance with a Bite

by Tamsin Baker

  She strode from the room, covered in nothing but the scarlet and gold swirls of her Clan tattoos, broken only by the teal and sapphire of the new dragon, and the Phoenix marker of Clan justice.

  Logan swore and ran after her, flinging his midnight robe around her as she pushed open the glass doors to the balcony.

  Jyll, Alessio and Rex all froze where they sat under an umbrella.

  She pulled down the shoulder of the robe to show them the symbol on her chest.

  “Do you know what this means?” she asked the half Turtle, half Phoenix boy who had almost flamed out, then been forced to do terrible things by the Tigers. The Tiger youngling who had failed his cruel master. The loyal Dragon who had helped his master keep the corrupt will of the Tigers. The shadow of the Snake who had helped and ultimately betrayed her, lingered beside them.

  They were all her people now.

  The three youngsters dropped to their knees at the sight of the symbol, of the truth they saw. She took each hand one at a time, to raise them up again, all while Logan watched beside her.

  His mark—their bond—an anchor, the circle on her chest a promise.

  “It means we are done with hiding. It is time for the truth to be known.”

  Chapter 50

  The final day of the New Year celebrations had risen warm and clear.

  In the laneway below the building, a crowd was massing in the streets. Every Clan member was required to be part of the Tiger New Year, to wend their way through downtown to pay their respects to the Tiger Queen, who would address them from the northern ramparts of the Jade Palace.

  The noise of the younglings in their tiger costumes already rose above the lanterns at street level, reaching all the way to where they gathered on Logan’s balcony. When she and Logan laid out the plan they’d whispered about between their couplings in the night, there was only one question left.

  “How do we break down the barrier around the building?” Jyll asked.

  “The truth is,” Hana said, shedding Logan’s robe and stepping up onto the low wall of the balcony alongside him. “The truth is, she no longer has power over us.”

  She watched her Dragon leap from the balcony, the sun glinting off his magnificent scales as he shifted. She took a deep breath and leaped as well, feeling her bones melt and reform until she could flap her gold and scarlet wings, sweep her long tail to catch the updraft.

  She held together the wound in her calf through sheer will. Trilling her call to the Dragon, he waited for her, wonder in his silver eyes. Together, they turned and waited for the smaller Dragon, Jyll. They would do this together.

  Hana led them over the rubble of Phoenix Quarter, crying out a mournful song. The two dragons flanked her, Logan grazing his neck along her body, a show of empathy and respect.

  She nodded her head at him, and the two Dragons flew on ahead. She would take on the Jade Palace, but first, she would see her people.

  The crowd amassed along the banks of the Indigo River in Turtle Quarter, the place where Phoenix youngsters had been used by the Tiger Queen to decimate their own Clan in order for her to maintain her death-grip on downtown and the continent.

  Hana would start there.

  A Turtle youngling noticed her first, pointing at the sky. Soon, more and more heads swivelled her way. Shouting and panic began. Hana loosed the hold on her wound, the marking where Quan had gifted her the truth. A truth she would now share.

  Wisps of scarlet and gold rained over her people, and the phoenix sang its story of great love sundered, betrayal, oppression over centuries. Hana felt the dragon on her hip, the marks at her neck pulse as Logan felt the emotion that poured through her.

  Water, her Dragon sent water, which dripped as precious tears from her eyes, doubling her reach to her people.

  Some still screamed, some held their hands up to catch the divine rain.

  She opened her heart and showed them the truth of what had long been hidden from them. The vision she had seen when she plunged that knife into her calf.

  The Phoenix Fae had long protected the Clans, had used their gifts of truth-seeing to uphold justice in their dealings with each other on the Southern Continent.

  Until a Phoenix Queen had fallen in love with a Dragon, promising to forge an alliance more powerful than any their ancestors had ever seen.

  The Tiger Queen—the same who had held Hana in that dungeon—would not let it come to pass. Hana saw the moment she subverted her very nature to forge that black symbol, forever changing the scarlet circle of the Phoenix.

  The moment she captured that powerful Dragon, stamped that brand on him, causing him to forget and spurn his fated mate.

  The Phoenix Queen could not understand what had happened, why her mate turned from her. She raged and despaired and lost control of her power, setting her people on course for a war they could not win.

  And the Tiger Queen’s compulsion had been so powerful, so complete without the checks and balances of the Phoenix, that the Clans bowed to her power, begging her protection from the Phoenix insanity, and allowed her to drive the maligned people almost to extinction.

  She’d collected the powerful Fae of other Clans, blackmailed and threatened them until they’d agreed to hide their powers, until the people knew their ancestry only as fairy tales. Until their very nature had been hidden from them.

  Over the centuries, she’d become complacent. Few enough Phoenix survived that she no longer purposefully hunted them.

  Until a few months ago, when the Tiger Seers had divined an omen of a new era. An omen that suggested a powerful pairing was coming. The Phoenix would rise again, on the back of a pre-destined mateship. One between a Phoenix and a Dragon.

  Which Phoenix it may be could not be seen. And so, the Queen had set out to destroy them all, using the symbol that had helped her solve a problem long ago.

  As the people in the streets below her watched their history revealed by her Phoenix, they looked at each other with awe. Fear. Wonder.

  Hana flew over the marching lines, across the Indigo Bridge into Snake Quarter, her truth raining on them in blood and tears. Deep into downtown she went, to show the Dragons. Letting her gold and scarlet blood feather into the air, her tears rained down on them all, regardless of their Clan.

  She trilled over the cemetery, to the gold mausoleum she had long watched from the height of her tree, singing in sorrow and gratitude to the family that had made all this possible.

  Lylah. Grandma Kamala. Thank you.

  She flew the long way around the Jade Palace, finally coming to the plane before the northern ramparts. It was filled to brimming with members from all Clans.

  Chapter 51

  A warning shout went up from the Tigers, and arrows were soon aimed her way.

  She saw the white-haired Queen screech and shout orders, and more men rushed onto the compound wall. Hana dodged and weaved their arrows and rocks, the flash of Dragon lightning spearing for her.

  It did not matter if their arrows pierced her skin. The more she bled, the more truth would rain down on them.

  The Queen pointed a hand toward her, and that dark cloud of terror poured forth from her fingertips. The men, women and children on the plane cowered, their screams rending the air.

  The stench of it nearly had Hana tumbling from the sky. But she remembered her sister who she had not been able to save, her grandmother who had fought her whole life for the Phoenix, and the man who had loved her from afar. Quan. She remembered Quan’s brave gift, and the courage of the male and boys who had stood with her on the balcony this morning.

  The courage to stand against the tide, for what they knew was right, whatever the cost may be. And so, she too, would hold fast. She sent that truth, all of the courage of her people toward that black cloud.

  The scarlet symbol appeared, branding the darkness, and she saw the Queen take a small step back. Just one. Then Hana’s vision played against the dark backdrop of the halted cloud, for all to see.

 
“No!” the Queen was shouting. “No! I order you all to cast your eyes down. Take your own eyes out if you must!”

  Tigers still aimed and fired their arrows at her, although some did not loose them. In the crowd below, fingers drifted to sword belts, some began to claw at their faces, succumbing to the Queen’s compulsion.

  Hana threw out a shield of light and flame between the Queen and the crowd with what little of her power remained. She could not sustain both the vision and the shield for much longer. Just long enough…

  There. In the chaos that reigned, Hana saw two Dragons swoop in from the side, spearing towards the Queen’s balcony.

  Hana saw with horror that the Queen was indeed going to any lengths to stop her Tigers from seeing the vision. Several of her men crumpled to the ground, clutching at their eyes. She flung out her shield to protect all of them from their Queen, even the male she marked as Stryker, pleading on his knees before her.

  The smaller, sky-blue dragon aimed for the figure at the Queen’s feet, the most powerful male aside from the Queen, talons shredding and ripping. The big teal and sapphire dragon snatched something up in his claws. The youngling struggled and cursed as Logan lifted him high in the air. A chance. She knew that was all Logan wanted to give the boy. A chance to make his own choices.

  Slowly, beneath Hana’s shield, the people began to lift their eyes to the story that played above them. Tears streamed down a Turtle Clan woman’s face as she drew her partner and child close. Hana saw Phoenix colours start to bloom on the young girl’s face. Similar scenes began to play out across the field.

  What was left of the Phoenix began to be revealed across the plane. So few, but more than Hana could have hoped for. Others started as their Fae forms were revealed, long hidden by the Tiger Queen.

  Watching her people, concentrating on that shield, Hana felt the lightning cord whip around her neck a second too late. She was being dragged into the Queen’s dark cloud, her breath cut off. She trilled frantically with the last of her air.

  The Queen smiled, wide and cruel. Too late. It was too late.

  But gold and scarlet flashed in her vision, jolting the Queen off her feet.

  A Phoenix, small and determined.

  Chapter 52

  Hana let the momentum of the loosening lightning whip carry her over the rampart wall, her wings flapping feebly, and she landed beside the brave phoenix, shifting into her Fae form.

  The small phoenix had knocked the Queen off balance, and before she’d straightened, Hana barrelled a last burst of flame and light into the Queen, who shrieked, stumbling back inside the great doors of her Palace. With a flick of her fingers, Hana slammed the great doors shut, sealing her inside.

  She ignored the banging and shouting, and turned to survey those left on the balcony. Rex was standing with his foot on Stryker’s neck. The small, brave phoenix. Blood dripped from a cut above his eye, but his eyes blazed with pride.

  “Well met, Rex, well met,” she murmured.

  Stryker managed to incline his head to her, from beneath Rex’s foot.

  “Your majesty.”

  She smirked and might have fallen, if it wasn’t for the big dragon that winged his way toward her, shifted and lent his strength to her elbow.

  Show-off.

  Logan raised his eyebrows at the sound of someone flinging themselves bodily at the heavy wooden doors behind them.

  Hana shrugged. “She can keep the Jade Palace. I don’t need it.”

  He grinned, the light in his eyes reflecting hers. Fierce. Feral.

  “Sebastian?” she asked.

  “Safe with Jyll and Alessio. Not happy, but safe.”

  She nodded, relief flooding through her.

  “I don’t think I have the strength to get down there, but I would like to address the people,” she murmured.

  Logan draped her in his midnight robe, eyes glinting with mischief.

  “Be my guest.”

  Without another word, he shifted back into the magnificent dragon and turned his shoulder to offer her his back.

  “Dignity will have to wait for another day,” she said. She might have laughed, if she had an inch of energy left.

  The Dragon’s eyes glinted too, as he opened his talons and she climbed into their waiting embrace. There was no reserve of power to shield her as she landed in front of the people. But whatever they might think of what they had just witnessed, it was their call to make. She wouldn’t glamour or compel them as their former Queen had done, nor hide any longer.

  Logan stood beside her in his Fae form, subtly keeping her standing with the support of an arm around her waist. A small phoenix and a dragon flew in beside them, with Logan’s son, who was scowling suitably.

  They shifted to show their human faces. Alessio came forward from the crowd and stood beside them, keeping a wary eye on Sebastien.

  “My people, as we celebrate the New Year, you can see that a new era is upon us.”

  She noted the gold and scarlet glimmering in sparse patches in the crowd, the Fae features of many.

  “What is left of the Phoenix Clan has risen, and alongside it, many of you who have forgotten who you truly are, what you truly are, have been restored. We did not lose our Fae nature centuries ago. It has been hidden from us. It will be a time of great learning and transition.

  “I ask that you consider my promise to you. The promise of my ancient ancestors, the Phoenix, and what the symbol marked on my skin means to all of you—Tiger, Dragon, Turtle, Snake or Phoenix. Demon, vampire or werewolf.

  “The promise of truth and justice. Of choice. About who we want to be to each other.”

  “What about the Tiger Queen?” someone shouted.

  “She no longer has power over us. We can safeguard against her influence, but what happens to her now is up to all of you.”

  A murmur rippled through the crowd.

  “Would you not kill her for what she’s done?”

  Sebastien snarled in Alessio’s grip.

  “I would entreat you to think on it with mercy in mind. For now, she is confined to the Jade Palace and she may not exert compulsion nor glamour.”

  People turned to each other, talking about what they’d seen and heard, inspecting each other with awe and wonder. The Turtle family that Hana had glimpsed from the air rushed to her side. The woman, tears streaming over the shell markings on her face, threw her hands around Hana’s neck.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for giving our daughter a future.”

  The little girl, who now had scarlet and gold glittering atop her Turtle markings, smiled shyly at Hana.

  “Do you think you could teach me?” she asked, “to fly as you do?”

  Hana smiled broadly at the little girl, and felt the phoenix sing, finally free of its cage.

  Chapter 53

  Hana Poncoyo, the first Phoenix Queen of the new era, had taken up residence with her mate, the King-consort, Dragon Master Logan Katana, in his penthouse suite.

  Her Phoenix liked to be so high above the ground, and the daily swims on his balcony kept her fire in check.

  It cooled the fire of the phoenix, but not so much the fire that her new mate lit anew in her each night, long into the wee hours, with the grazing of his canines, the touch and press of his strong, capable hands.

  She’d collected the steaming cup of coffee he’d left for her by their bed that he knew she favoured, part of their midnight snack routine, and found him sitting on the low wall of his balcony. Their city spread before them, new lanterns twinkling like busy fireflies after one such encounter that still had warmth spreading and pooling low in her belly.

  He turned to her, scenting her well before she made her presence known.

  “Spitfire,” he murmured. “You’ll be the death of me.”

  She nipped at his ear and he hissed, thrusting a hand inside the robe she hadn’t bothered to tether, fingers grazing her breast.

  “Oh, but it will be a very pleasant, very sensual wa
y to go,” she crooned.

  He chuckled, pulling her into his lap.

  From here, with her Fae vision that Logan had been teaching her to harness, even in the dark, she could see the Phoenix Quarter, the progress they’d made clearing away the rubble.

  Logan was overseeing the rebuild. She liked the penthouse a lot, but she knew Logan was scheming. He wasn’t very good at keeping secrets, and she’d caught him several times deep in discussion over what looked to be draft architecture with Jyll and Alessio.

  She didn’t need her truth-telling sense to guess that perhaps he would build a new home for them. A home that would include space for all the Clan members, younglings, those coming to terms with new Fae abilities—anyone who needed them. They would all be welcome at Logan and Hana’s.

  Those who needed their help. Those who would accept it.

  “How was Sebastien today?”

  Jyll and Alessio had moved into a slightly smaller, though no less extravagant penthouse on the same floor as Logan’s, with the boy.

  “Still cursing about how we’ve ruined his life.”

  “Standard teenage boy stuff, then.”

  He grimaced.

  “I don’t know Hana. I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull him back from the edge.”

  “You can’t pull him, Logan. He needs to make the choice for himself.”

  She felt the words before he said them.

  But what if he makes the wrong choice?

  “We can’t force him to decide. And if he chooses to seek out the former Tiger Queen”—who the people had decided to leave to her own devices in the sealed palace—“there’s not a lot we can do about that, Logan. Except keep our door open to him, no matter what he chooses.”

  He kissed her on the nose.

  “You’re a bit too wise for a baby Fae Queen,” he teased. She rolled her eyes. “How did you go with Rex today?”

  She grinned and told Logan about the look on the faces of her Dragon—imbecile lizard colleagues—down at the Justice Precinct, as she had marched in there with the boy. Charged him with bringing some order to the place.