Monsters, Book Two: Hour of the Dragon

by Heather Killough-Walden

  He was. He was real from his strong, sculpted lines to the stubble on his chin. She smiled, barely containing laughter that wanted to bubble up out of her throat. “So I guess you weren’t kidding about how to break the spell.”

  Ares matched her smile with one of his own, rakish and absolutely perfect. Then he slowly turned away from her to look up at the man who stood in the door frame, his arm braced against it, his body leaning slightly into the closet.

  She knew who the man was. She had heard about him, and she knew he was the head of the Monsters clan. But the only other time in her life she’d had occasion to see him would have been in the alley when Antares had… taken her aside. And all she’d been able to make out that night had been Ares, Sterling, the chaos of a magic battle stirring in the alley and V-twin engines sounding out a warning all around them.

  So this was the first time she’d ever seen Cain’s face.

  Yet even so, she would have recognized the man anywhere, any time, no matter what. Because what they said about him and the kind of power he exuded was absolutely true.

  “Cain,” greeted Ares. She felt an unease come off him, and his grip on her had yet to let up.

  Cain nodded in return, but his eyes were skirting across the shelves in the room, and his expression was one of mild bemusement. “Well Mace… I have to say, this actually explains a lot about you.”

  Anna almost laughed. But then several realizations hit her at once, and she understood the wariness Ares was experiencing. One, Cain was there. He’d breached the wards around a dragon’s den and even come all the way into the house and walked right up to the closet. He must have had a very good reason for doing such a thing. That was sobering. And two, Cain was capable of doing it. That was even more sobering.

  Cain returned his attention to them and straightened, coming off the door frame to enter the closet. Antares finally loosened his grip on Anna and stood up to meet him, lifting Annaleia right along with him. She felt a little surprise light-headedness at first, but recovered quickly.

  Cain towered over her, but seemed to understand to keep a fair distance, leaving a good two feet between them. He offered her a genuine smile that lit up the blue in his eyes like nothing she’d ever seen. Oh hell, she thought as a heat and a weakness flooded her at once. And that was only a smile. It wasn’t even magic. Was it? Not in the den belonging to Antares, right? She had no fucking clue. She couldn’t even think straight.

  “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Faith,” he told her. “You simply would not believe how much I’ve heard about you.”

  Annaleia blinked rapidly. She looked from him to Antares and back again. “Y-you have?” she stammered.

  He chuckled. “Like I said,” he told her in his deep, wonderful voice. “You wouldn’t believe it.” Then he turned to Antares, and the smile slipped a little. “I swear I hate to have to do this to you right now Mace, but my hands are tied.”

  She frankly could not imagine a single force in the multiverse that would be capable of tying Cain’s hands. Not that she would have minded seeing him tied…. She blinked, frankly shocked at her unbidden thoughts. It was just that the only other man in the world who had ever had this kind of effect on her was Antares. And Cain’s was far stronger. And they’d only just met!

  Cain glanced back down at Annaleia, gracing her with more of his mesmerizing attention. But the expression on his face was dead serious. “I’m afraid we need to talk,” he said. “The three of us.”

  “No, you and I can talk,” said Ares. Anna was extremely impressed with him in that moment. “Whatever this is about, she hasn’t done anything wrong. I brought her here against her will.” He made as if he were going to pull Anna behind him a little, perhaps an unconscious act of protection – and possession. But Cain stopped him cold with his next words.

  “No, Mace. All of us. And right now.” As Ares froze beneath the weight of his blue, blue gaze, Cain reached into his black leather jacket – THE jacket, Anna thought dizzily, the first Monsters MC jacket! – to extract something from its inner pocket. “I’m afraid this directly involves Annaleia.” But whatever he pulled from his pocket, he handed to Mace, not her.

  Antares took the object from him and held it in his open palm, allowing her to get her first look at it.

  She frowned, confused. It looked like nothing but a red string that had been snapped in half. But Ares went very, very quiet beside her. A muscle in his jaw ticked; she could tell his teeth were clenched hard. He straightened, rolling back his shoulders, and curled his fingers closed over the string.

  Chapter Thirty-one – Transport tunnel

  “You know, I know now why wardens don’t usually have families.” Anna shook her head as she paced the short distance afforded her in the transport tunnel. “The bad guys always go after the ones you love.”

  The ones you love, Mace’s mind repeated bitterly while he watched the woman he loved move like a caged lioness through the small confines of the transport tunnel. Yes, yes they do.

  Now he knew that Anna had learned as much on day one when Sterling allowed her to tag along into Sirius territory fifty years ago. She’d seen first hand what an Apex could do to a warden, and then she’d seen what an Apex could do to a warden’s family.

  Had she played it safe after that? Or had she tried dating? Did she allow another man to get close? When? How often? Had she…. Oh! God Damn it! he thought angrily, jamming his hand into his hair and running it through roughly. What the hell was wrong with him? He and Annaleia were headed toward a chaos god where she was expected to offer herself up like a sacrificial lamb – and all he could do was think about who she’d met under the sheets since she’d vanished fifty years ago?

  He seemed to have little to no control over what his mind did right now. This inability to focus on what mattered, this wasn’t the first time today he’d experienced it. He was pretty sure it started when he and Leia were in the house, sitting on the floor. He hadn’t been as quick to comfort her as he should have been. It wasn’t like him to respond to something important with anything but practiced and effective speed, especially when it mattered as much as Annaleia did. And nothing mattered as much as she did.

  So, what was the deal?

  It certainly didn’t help that these damn wayward thoughts did nothing to improve his mood.

  But it turned out, a warden didn’t need to get hitched or have kids, good friends were dangerous enough.

  On either side of Anna’s agitated form, colors swirled and blended, one moving into the next. When the colors turned a certain way, he knew they were getting close. Cain would be joining them any second now—

  “Mace,” said Cain from behind him.

  Mace turned, lowering his hand, which he hadn’t realized had remained fisted in his hair until he was un-fisting it.

  “Man,” Cain said, shaking his head as he met Ares’ gaze. “You’re a mess. Swallow this.” He tossed something very small to Ares, but the black dragon easily caught it. He turned it over in his hand and stared down at it. It was a tiny ball, no larger than a pearl, but colored matte-black.

  “What is it?”

  “Notice that shit going on inside your head messing with your focus?” Cain asked as he stepped past him to approach Annaleia. She stopped pacing to look up at him.

  “Yeah?” Ares told him.

  “That’ll put an end to it. At least until Maze figures out how to bypass it. But it’s not as big a deal for you. This is an extra layer of protection for when you aren’t with the clan.” Ares studied the small sphere. It felt strangely heavy in his hand. … for when you’re not with the clan, he thought, turning Cain’s words over in his head. Then he understood.

  Each time he hadn’t been able to concentrate, it had been when he’d been too far away from Cain. The clan leader was inadvertently protecting his wardens from Victor Maze’s control. Or maybe it wasn’t inadvertent at all. Maybe he knew damn well what he was doing. It didn’t matter. The important thing was
that Cain was strong enough to withstand the fucking chaos god.

  Ares physically turned his back on the scene as his clan leader held the same small black pearl out to Annaleia and asked her if she could swallow it without a drink.

  Oh you want to know if she’ll swallow something for you, huh? Fucking powerful fucking vampire. Antares muttered softly to himself, “What the hell are you, anyway?” He absently wondered why that thought was louder than the others but let it go quickly as his mind began conjuring all sorts of terrible images of Leia and Cain and bedrooms with black sheets – because of course the bastard would probably have black sheets because all vampires had black sheets, right? “Huh,” he said not even slightly realizing he’d said anything out loud yet. He’s not a vampire. If he is, he’s like no vampire I’ve ever known, but we already knew that, didn’t we?

  But seriously, where did the inscrutable son of a bitch get off having the abilities he had? Ares had never been able to wrap his head around it. He wondered if anyone in the clan were privy to Cain’s secrets. I mean, how many guys can step into a moving portal as it just passes by at the speed of light?

  And Cain was a warden, but had any of them ever seen him with his sentinel? Did he even have one? Even Antares, a black dragon, had been in situations that forced him to call his sentinel. It was rare, but it had happened! Oh look at me, I’m the cryptic Cain, check me out, he sing-songed in his fevered mind. I’m just so murky and obscure and unfathomable but notorious and legendary and so very illustrious even though I run a goddamn motorcycle gang made of real, live monsters who might eat children any day now, he thought as he heard Leia tell Cain it wouldn’t be a problem and all Ares could do was picture her smiling up at another man.

  “Oh, fuck this shi –”

  Antares had begun to spin around to confront the clan leader when suddenly his mind, and his mouth, stuttered to a strange, deeply silent halt. His body followed suit, slowing in its spin until he was standing still and feeling as though he were fully inside his body for the first time in full, long minutes if not longer.

  All at once, his thoughts cleared. A haze was wiped off his mind, and everything came into focus. He felt the portal tunnel more solidly around him, saw the colors more vividly, even felt the temporal wind through his hair and against his skin where he hadn’t noticed it before. He blinked a few times as if clearing his eyeballs of residual muck and mildew, and then he straightened to his full height and unclenched his fists.

  At least, he unclenched the fist not holding the small black pill Cain had given him.

  Behind him, he heard Cain’s approaching boots stop. He turned to face his leader, terrified of what the man must be thinking – only to find him smiling in that truly legendary way Cain was known to smile at you when you knew damn well that he was aware of everything you’d been thinking and doing – and he found it a little bit funny. “Feeling better?” Cain asked, one eyebrow raised. His impossibly blue eyes glittered with amusement.

  Antares blinked a few more times, then nodded. “Yeah,” he said simply. “I am.”

  Cain had the decency not to mention any of the shit Ares had been feverishly thinking as if he had brain diarrhea. He even had the decency not to laugh. Instead he said, “Good,” then gently bumped his knuckles against the fist in which Antares held the anti-mind-control black pearl. “Bottoms up, soldier,” Cain told him. “Let’s make sure you don’t go down that yellow brick road again.”

  Ares cleared his throat, wondering why he’d suddenly gone so haywire inside. He popped the pill and dry swallowed it, and as he did, Cain leaned forward. In a covert tone, he said, “That’s nothing. You should have heard what was going on in your girl’s head.”

  Then Cain straightened and moved away, leaving that little gem with Ares, probably as punishment. And Ares had to admit it was effective.

  “Maze’s influence hit you that hard and fast because the transport spell magnified it,” Cain told him.

  That made sense. Transport magic was strange that way. Casting spells from inside portals was well known to be an exceedingly dangerous venture. There was something about them that took magic and twisted it. Maybe it was the fact that they defied the laws of physics to their very core.

  “We’ve held this transport much longer than we normally hold them,” Cain continued, talking to both of them. “You would have noticed if you hadn’t been so fully under the effects of Maze’s chaos magic.” He shrugged. “Or whatever you choose to call it. We did this because we’ve needed to move you both repeatedly from location to location to make certain the transport couldn’t be traced back to your home, Mace. We assume this is one of the things Maze had planned on doing when he sent that note. He knew you’d come running and no doubt he figured he’d get a leg up on the competition by hitting you at home later.”

  Damn, thought Ares. That hadn’t even crossed his mind. When Maze wasn’t screwing with his head – Annaleia Faith was. It wasn’t exactly her fault and she wasn’t doing it on purpose. But she was so vital to him, it was happening anyway.

  Tighten it up Mace, he told himself. Leia needs you. “Let’s go over the plan again,” he said, nodding at Leia, who was looking a little pale.

  “I still think I need to physically show up,” Anna insisted. Their protectiveness was like a chokehold on her. Conall had orders she was supposed to follow, and Cain had orders she was supposed to follow, and Antares was just plain obsessive about her safety so she was supposed to follow his orders too, and in the end all Annaleia could think about was her two friends in the hands of the psychopath who was carving women up across the Midwest.

  “No,” both men said at once.

  Anna’s teeth ground together painfully. “If I don’t show up, they’re as good as dead,” she told them. Then she tried to compromise. “What about an illusion spell?”

  “He’ll see right through it,” said Cain. “And before you ask, it doesn’t matter how strong the illusion is. What he’ll be looking for is the fear attached to it, and you can’t attach fear to an illusion. Fear is in the blood.”

  “We could throw someone else in there, make them look like her, and there’ll be plenty of fear in their blood,” Ares said bluntly.

  Annaleia’s eyes widened. Was he serious?

  He looked down at her. “What? We could pick an asshole if that would make you feel better.”

  She really didn’t know what to say to that.

  But Cain saved her from having to respond anyway. “Look. He isn’t going to expect us to follow through in any capacity. He knows we won’t allow you to personally meet with them. So anything –” he looked up at Ares through a slightly reprimanding gaze, “or anyone we send will automatically fail the test right off the bat.” He paused and then added, “And be killed for their efforts.”

  Ares crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, that’s why I suggested the asshole,” he muttered.

  Annaleia looked up at her long-lost best friend and blinked. Then she chewed on the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. Honestly, it was like she was staring at the handsome but slightly unstable and highly volatile teenager she’d left behind fifty years ago. The one who would surreptitiously track down her would-be admirers and assert ownership of her as if he were pissing on street posts.

  But then the gravity of the situation hit her again, and she felt as if she were going to be yanked down to the ground so fast it would give her a concussion.

  Her friends were going to get killed. She just knew it.

  Anna didn’t realize she was falling until two sets of strong hands were on her arms, lifting her. She wrestled noiselessly with a heart that wanted to come out her throat, and when she had that under control, she shuddered hard.

  “Whoa,” said Ares, taking her from Cain and pulling her into his arms.

  Hard, warm, safe….

  “Raindrop, we’re going to get through this, baby.”

  Safe, warm Ares.

  He ran one hand through her hair at he
r scalp, tender and comforting. “We have every last detector from every warden clan in the world at the ready to pull this off. Maze will expect a lot of magic, but I doubt he’ll be expecting all of that magic to focus on a single thing.”

  She felt dizzy as hell, and a little sick. But she was in the arms of the man she had always loved, and she had to admit he was probably right. Focusing on one thing was quite literally not in Victor Maze’s repertoire. He was the chaos god. He was a god in need of Adderall, if ever there was one. Which was why they’d decided to go with this plan.

  …the man I’ve always loved?

  When Annaleia realized fully what she’d just thought and that it was absolutely and fundamentally true, she experienced a flush of warmth with an unsteady sigh and wrapped her arms around him to hug him back. She closed her eyes and nestled into him. Promise me they’ll be okay, Ares. If you promise me right now, I’ll believe you.

  But of course he didn’t tell her that, despite this being the perfect time to do so. It was simply a promise he couldn’t make. This was a bad situation. It was terrifying for a reason.

  It was too bad no one had yet been able to find Victor Maze’s original jailor, the Great Black dragon Bantariax. So far, the only thing location or scrying spells had managed to pin down was flickering and ever-changing fragments of his essence, scattered all around the world. Every once in a while one would grow stronger, but then it would move and seem to split again.

  At least, that’s what she’d heard.

  They were on their own.

  “Alright. I’m meeting the boys for a final rundown. The portal will remain in transit until the scramble is complete. Hang in there just a little while longer,” he told them. To Annaleia he said, “Remember, when you get to the safe house, don’t leave the portal until you see Lily Kane at the other end. She’s waiting for you there.” To Ares he said, “Mace, I’ll see you soon.”

  Then he stepped through the portal wall – which Anna had always thought impossible – and was gone.