Blood Drenched Conquest (Ryze Book 3)

by N. Isabelle Blanco

  I wave away his comment. “Eve’s my friend, too. No worries. Also, forget what I said about Soleria. When you get back, you think you can open up time to do that scan on her?”

  “In a hurry to have her immortal, huh?”

  “You have no fucking idea,” I mumble. “As long as no harm is going to come to her. Got it?”

  When he nods at me, I return it and turn to leave.

  “Ianthen.”

  I’ve been hearing that cautious tone from too many of my friends. Hell, my sister was rocking it this morning as she was cutting my hair. “What?” I ask, looking over my shoulder.

  “If I see any changes in your . . . symptoms, I’ll let you know. But no matter how you feel for her, we both know you can’t withhold much longer. Lives are at stake.”

  “I know that,” I snap at him. “I’ll handle it soon.” Man, to think, once upon a time no one had to worry about this. No. One. I was always on point, “overfeeding” the Hyren inside me, in fact.

  Nowadays, it feels like everywhere I go, someone’s hounding me to get laid.

  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

  Without another word, I leave Vedlyl behind to head out into the human world in search of the conflict he needs to get his other-half under control again.

  That is, until I hear Nylicia’s voice behind me. “Ved, before you go, I need you.”

  I spin around immediately, searching her out.

  Both she and Vedlyl disappear, leaving me standing here with my mouth open to speak.

  Chapter 16

  IANTHEN

  L ess than half-hour later, I’m huddled inside the weapon’s closet in Eve’s room with her, Nylicia, Dimithinia, and Cyake.

  Eve awoke as I was watching her. After an impromptu mini-pillow fight—in which I was not a participant and will swear that to Zeniel and Mavrak, if called upon to do so—she rose from the bed determined to hunt her R’mann down.

  Thankfully, Nylicia appeared to put a stop to those plans.

  Temporarily, that is.

  And she didn’t come empty-handed. Eve and Dimithinia are both playing with their new, upgraded Terets. Cyake and I are busy drooling over them and wondering what the fuck we have to do to get our hands on one.

  “I want one, too,” he chimes in.

  Hell, if we had the plans for how they’re built, we would’ve materialized our own by now.

  “You don’t get one,” the Watcher sighs, “Not yet.”

  Cyake scoffs. “What? Why?”

  “I have something I need you and Ianthen to take care of. Evesse, Dimithinia, I’ll meet you at St. John’s Hospital in New York. Queens, in case you forgot.” There’s a small exchange as she wills the Terets away from the girls with the promise that they’ll have them back once they need them. “Cyake, Ianthen, meet me in the viewing chamber.” Annndddd, she’s gone. Just like that.

  Fucking female.

  Whatever. I’ll corner her in the chamber.

  Cyake walks up to Evesse and cups her shoulder. “Be careful, you two. Keep your phones on and close to you. I’ll meet up with you guys as soon as I can.”

  “Will do,” Eve says with a nod. “Thanks.”

  “I’m going to be watching over Soleria when I’m done,” I say. “But I’ll have my phone. Call me if you need me.” I wait long enough for her nod before dematerializing straight to the viewing chamber.

  Cyake’s right behind me. “Bro. Wait. We need to—”

  Whatever else he has to say is interrupted by Nylicia.

  Who’s standing in the middle of the viewing chamber, smiling and nodding at . . . the air?

  “It’s so nice to meet you!” Nylicia’s smile widens.

  Cyake storms around me, a blur of color. “Wait a minute. You can fucking see her?”

  Her?

  “I know.” Nylicia nods sagely at that same empty spot. “He’s a complete pain in the ass. Doesn’t listen to anyone or anything.”

  “Hey!” Cy stomps in front of her and turns to point his finger at where she’s looking. “I am not a pain in the ass, Edna. You’re the one following me around against my will!”

  Edna?

  “What the fuck is going on here?” Confused, I stare between Nylicia and Cy, because there’s no way I’m joining in their crazy and arguing with air.

  Cyake whirls on Nylicia, his finger remaining extended on that spot. “See? He can’t see her! No one can see her . . . yet you can! And why am I not surprised about this?” Golden eyes narrow dangerously.

  Nylicia rolls those pink, aqua, hazel, and light blue eyes up towards the ceiling. “Will you fucking relax?” She curls her lip at Cy and turns to address whatever is behind him. “You said you’ve been stuck following him around for how long?” Her head rears back. “What? You poor thing. How do you handle dealing with”—she waves her hand in front of his body—“this twenty-four-seven?”

  Cyake leans down and gives her a good dose of pissed-off Hyren male inches from her face—teeth bared, growl building, eyes enlarging. “This isn’t funny. Ianthen doesn’t see her.”

  “Who are we talking about?” I ask, honestly worried for those two.

  They both turn to me and answer in unison. “Edna.”

  “And who the fuck is Edna?”

  Cyake claps his hands in front of Nylicia’s face, forcing her attention to him. “Why was she dragged to me? Why is she stuck here? Why can’t Ianthen or anyone else see her?”

  “I told you to relax. You all treat every event lately like it’s life or death. Bunch of pussies, I swear—”

  “Ismini and Evesse did die, dumb ass!”

  My best friend has a point.

  “And I’m running on fourteen-thousand-years waiting for my own death-prophecy to come true,” I add.

  Again with the eye-roll heavenward. “Here we go with the hysterics . . .”

  “Hysterics?” Is she freaking serious? Of course she is. “Female, you might be dead—”

  Her small shoulder jerks in a shrug. “Might as well be.”

  “Point of the matter is, some of us are staring down the barrel of certain death. AKA: a one-way return trip back to the dark, primal pit that is this fucker’s father.” I jerk my head towards Cy.

  “And some of us are trying to outrun about a thousand psycho exes that can’t take a fucking hint,” he says.

  Nylicia doesn’t respond to him, head tilted as if she’s listening to this “Edna” that’s supposed to be standing behind Cy. “I’m telling you, never-ending. Like teenagers that don’t want to listen.” She shakes her head and tsks.

  Cyake glares over his shoulder. “You stay out of this.”

  I slap my palm against my face, brain spinning.

  As it usually does when these two are in the same room with me for too long.

  “You more than anyone should know I’m working against the Fates, not with them, fool,” Nylicia tells Cy.

  “I’m feeling really lied to right now,” is his grumbled response.

  “You know what?” I drop my hand and open my eyes. “Me, too. Been feeling that way for weeks, female. So enough beating around the bush and tells us, all of us, what the bloody hell is happening to our lives.”

  Affronted doesn’t even begin to describe her expression. “You know I would never lead you to your death.”

  And she only looks at me while she says that.

  Something that isn’t lost on Cy. “Can you just tell me why this woman is haunting me? At least that?”

  As I squint my eyes and do my best to pick up on an outline, or maybe even a smudge, Nylicia says, “If I knew that, I’d tell you.”

  “Do you at least suspect something?”

  “Who is haunting you, Cyake?” I finally ask, dragging my eyes back to him.

  “The lady from a month ago.”

  “Who?”

  “That ‘old’ mortal lady, man—no offense, Edna, I know I’m older than you,” he throws over his shoulder. “The one that had you dying laughing.”<
br />
  It takes only a second for my mind to finally bring up the memory of that person. Incredulous, I try one last time to see this ghost. “The one wearing the combat boots and feather boa?”

  “Your style is fucking awesome, by the way.” Nylicia smiles to the air where Edna is supposed to be.

  I throw out another question, stunned. “Dude, the one that was determined to teach you a lesson about being a disrespectful, selfish, perverted young man?”

  “Edna wants you to know he’s still hasn’t learned that lesson,” Nylicia says.

  Cyake growls under his breath. “I hate all of you.”

  I should burst out laughing. The thought floats in the back of my head, disconnected, nearly unheaded, as I feel the heat begin rising in me once more.

  The aggression.

  It’s uncontrollable and comes at me out of nowhere, but the sheer absurdity of what I’m being told is too much. “You’re being haunted and you didn’t tell me?” I ask slowly, heart pounding into my ribcage. “And by a ghost most of us can’t fucking see?” Impossible. Okay, not impossible, but the fact it’s happening proves that he has had a valid reason to be so out of sorts.

  Not all immortals can see the dead—unfortunately for this new shit-situation we’re being faced with, when it comes to the gods, the exact opposite is true.

  Once a being surpasses a certain power level, entering into our “divine” territory, the souls of the dead are bared for us to see, if we so chose. Only a handful of dead souls ever become powerful enough to hide themselves from the likes of us.

  And that’s after eons walking the Earth, trapped between the physical and spiritual plane.

  That lady he helped across the street was alive a month ago.

  “What the fuck, Cy?” I cry as it all sinks in.

  He grimaces and faces me.

  “No,” I growl, pointing at him. “No excuses. You have the Fates chasing after you and something like this happens. Remember what the standard protocol is supposed to be for events like this? You tell your best friend.”

  “You mean the same best friend walking around in denial about his own problems?” he shoots back.

  “Vedlyl confirmed I have zero bonding or mating symptoms,” I inform him, and fuck if my tone doesn’t sound a tiny bit gloating. “Just like she did.”

  The amount of disbelief etched into Cy’s features is worrisome.

  But only because I know what it means.

  Have I been acting that far gone over the female?

  Nevermind. I know the answer to that.

  “Listen, I can only tell you three things,” Nylicia says, holding a hand up in each of our directions. “Number One: I just met Edna. Go on. Tell him.”

  Cyake scowls at whatever Edna answers. “Not even in a dream? Never in your life? Are you sure?”

  “The trust is just so overwhelming up in here,” Nylicia mumbles under her breath. Edna must confirm what she’s saying, because she flings her hands up in the air. “See? Never met her. Secondly, now that I know of her existence, I promise to look into it for you.”

  The distrust pouring off Cy’s aura only grows worse, to the point where I swear I can make it out in the air a helluva lot more than I’m picking up on any signs of Edna’s ghost.

  Nylicia disregards it with her usual, practiced talent. “And lastly, the Aviraji just willed a Gnetica around the entire Queens Center Mall complex.”

  Those words land among us with all the force of Little Boy landing on Hiroshima.

  Or Prometheus sending that meteorite crashing into Canada, melting a good portion of the ice caps, and ending the last Ice Age. Also known as the Dixieme Eductu.

  As Cyake and I both cry out “What?!”, Nylicia faces him. “Also, don’t forget, Cyake. You will be as only you decide. No one else. Not even the Fates. It is, and always has been, up to you.” His pupils enlarge with even more panic, but just as he opens his mouth to question her some more, she says the only words that could ever get him moving after delivering that statement. “If you don’t go now, Evesse might die in the next few minutes. The ceFtuts have been unleashed in the mall.”

  “Gods damn it, female!” But he’s gone immediately after, fear for our friends overriding any sense.

  I tense to follow after him—

  Nylicia’s hand shoots around my arm, stopping me.

  Staring down at that translucent hand that I don’t even feel against my skin, I see the tremors start in her arm. Then, they leak upwards, taking over her entire body sure as if the female’s been hooked up to a pair of tectonic plates.

  Right before my eyes, her facial expression collapses into one of pure grief, and before I can blink, her visage morphs, her dress disappearing behind a whirlwind of black.

  When I do blink, she returns back to her usual self—

  There she goes again, changing, shaking, tears leaking into her eyes. “Female,” I rasp, trying to grab hold of her as she’s holding onto me and meeting nothing but air. “What is this? What’s happening?”

  Her shining eyes meet mine and the amount of heartache in their depths hits me like a slap in the face.

  Known this female my entire life and I’ve never seen her in this much pain.

  “He can’t destroy her anymore, Ianthen. He can’t.”

  “What are you—”

  Nylicia changes back to that dark, agonized version of herself, her hair loose and flowing around her. “For two millennia I’ve known it’s meant to be him, but he doesn’t learn. He doesn’t change. He’s so angry about what he’s missing he doesn’t even realize the mistakes he’s making.”

  We’re talking about Cyake, I realize, the thought filtering through the stunned fog in my mind.

  The invisible whirlwind around Nylicia picks up speed, lifting both the strands of her hair and her outfit even though the air around me is nothing but calm. “He has to stop, Ianthen. He has to grow. You need to grow along with him. Help him. Please.”

  “What are you saying? What is this?” I ask softly, torn between chasing after Cyake and staying here with this clearly distraught female. “What’s happening?”

  “Ianthen, Cyake’s about to meet his R’ma and no matter what, he’s going to fuck this and her up unless you freaking promise me that you’re going to grow the hell up enough to help him do the same!”

  Those words continue ringing in my head as I rush into the mall through the parking lot, my senses lost to my Hyren state. It took me forever to find an opening in the shield to get inside. No telling how my allies are doing, or if they’ve gotten in yet.

  Those doglike growls the ceFtuts give off are the hook at the end of my line, reeling me in the direction of the fight. The smell of them overcomes me in this state, amplified beyond baring, but even that isn’t enough to distract me as I run on all fours towards the fight.

  Cyake’s about to meet his R’ma.

  Cyake, not me.

  My best friend was just sent barreling towards whoever the female is, and he doesn’t even know. Worse, the Watcher was genuinely heartbroken at having to lead him to his female. Whoever she is, she means the world to Nylicia. The world.

  Making all the chaos and uncertainty even worse, before flashing over here, I was hit with a vision. No, not a vision. Someway, somehow, my powers finally locked on Enteax after over a month of searching.

  It was brutal, instantaneous, the coordinates clear as fucking day.

  And there was nothing I could do about it but text the info to Zen in the hopes he’ll get it before rushing over here.

  He’s going to kill me once he realizes I left out the part about coming to aid his R’ma in battle, but I couldn’t impart that little nugget on him until I make sure she’s alright. Can’t risk unleashing Vengeance on the world for nothing more than a close call.

  I take the right turn leading up the ramp to the third level of the parking lot. In this state, my vision is nothing but an energy grid, and I’m hit with a rainbow of cataclysmic colors. Cerulean,
white, and purple energy snakes through the entire infrastructure of the mall.

  To my left, the pure, white, silver, and blue energy signature that belongs to Dy.

  To my right? A prone figure on the floor, one made up of black, red, and yellow energy. A single deep breath and I’m hit with the scent of all her blood.

  Evesse.

  No time to wonder what’s happening to her. Straight in front of me are three ceFtuts rushing towards a blur of a figure huddled by the wall. No colors in her aura. Just the shadow outline of a human woman.

  No time to analyze that either.

  I barrel face-first into the first ceFtut I encounter, jaws snapping around its leg as I send it flying backwards. The other two come at me immediately, and it quickly devolves into a contest of jaws and teeth and who can rip more skin off first.

  I manage to send two of the three in Dyletri’s direction, vaguely aware that he disintegrates them instantly with the beams of pure power he’s shooting off. As more creatures seem to pound their way towards us, I’m dragged away from that outline by the wall, the one the creatures seem to be after.

  And then . . . then I hear it.

  The sound of a Hyren’s growl slicing through the air. The pounding of feet as whoever it is sprints closers.

  No. Not “whoever”. I know with every fiber of my being who it is. What’s happening.

  I barely have enough time to about-face back towards my friends when the sound of the God of Fate’s voice booms throughout the entire parking level.

  “You. It’s you. You’re the one.”

  Chapter 17

  SOLERIA

  A soft knock filters into the room, followed by an equally soft voice. “Hey.”

  Turning, I find Ianythi standing at the doorway, hand still raised from knocking on the frame. “Hi,” I throw back, shocked by the tone of her skin.

  She strolls inside, white eyes—identical to her brother’s—bouncing off everything. “Nice room. Haven’t really been in this one before.”

  “Yeah,” I say, hugging myself. “I was told no one’s used this one.” And I’ve made it my own, at least on the nights that I stay here.