I stare up at Ian, knowing damned well what I must look like. But really . . . a wolf? Nythi’s a freaking vampire and Ianthen’s a freaking wolf? “Why didn’t I know you can do that? You’re one of those Hyren things you told me about!”
Ianthen freezes and stares at me over his leather-clad shoulder, taking me in.
His eyes fall to my hands.
I claw the grass deeper. “Ianthen, tell me.”
“You’ve never seen me fight before. Sol, we need to get out of here. We have bigger problems. They sent Lycaon to watch you and now I know why.” He begins walking towards me with the clear intention of lifting me up.
Fucking godly ego. How many times will I have to remind him that he can’t get away with treating me like that? I shoot to my feet before he can grab me. “Oh, no you don’t. Answer my questions. You’re going to tell me why I just saw you turn into a mothereffing dog.” Ian’s a werewolf. Ian’s a werewolf.
Ian’s a freaking werewolf! And for some reason that has my heart . . . beating hard?
“A what?” His pupils fully dilate with indignation.
Fully.
Just like those two times in our dreams.
Oh . . . oh my . . . I stop, fascinated by the size of his irises. By how they’re getting bigger.
“What did you just call me?” Ianthen cracks his neck.
Scary serious.
My pulse explodes inside me. I don’t even have a chance to buffer it. The effect takes over every inch of my body, faster than I can stop it. Or hide it.
Ianthen studies me, his eyes taking me in from head-to-toe the way a predator would take in . . .
Now wait a second. No. I am not his prey. Nope.
And the idea doesn’t appeal to me in any way. Not in the least.
“Sol, you don’t understand. We need to go.”
I point my finger in his face. “Fuck, no, you don’t. I just saw you change, Clifford.”
His head snaps back again. “Did you just fucking call me Clifford?”
“I can call you whatever I wan—”
“That motherfucker isn’t even the same color as me,” he speaks right over me, shaking his head with confusion.
“Ianthen,” I sing, giving him a wide smile. “Have you been reading children’s books?”
His hands encircle my arms gently, a feather light touch. “Female, focus! The Aviraji sent Lycaon to watch you.”
“Why me?” I ask, placing my hands on his arms.
“Because you’re a Vy’shi, Sol. I saw it in your aura just now. You’re a gods damned reality bender.”
“Why aren’t we in Enzyria?” I ask the massive, pacing form in front of my window.
“Vedlyl asked us to meet him here. It’ll be a little while before—” My bell rings, cutting off whatever else he was going to say. “Finally!” he snaps, rushing out of the living room towards the front door.
I hear him open the door and Vedlyl’s familiar, deep voice shortly after.
“You look like shit, bro,” Ianthen says.
“As is to be expected,” comes Ved’s reply. “Now where’s this soon-to-be immortal?”
I fidget on the sofa as they both walk inside. One look at Ved, at all the bruises and small cuts littering his face, and my jaw unhinges. “What the fuck?”
Smiling that boyish smile, he walks up to me and drops a duffel bag on the couch. In a pair of black sweats, sneakers, that black wifebeater, and all those injuries, he looks so normal.
So human.
Well, except for the massive size of him.
His eyes, a regular hazel shade, find mine. “You should see the other guy.”
“How is this possible? You’re—”
“Right now I’m as close as I can get to human,” he says, coming to kneel before me. “Not that it’ll stop me from being able to see what’s going on with you. I hear you may have Vy’shi DNA.”
“What do you mean ‘human’? And who did that to you?”
“Underground fight. It’s not a big deal.”
Okay. That only answers one of my questions.
Vedlyl’s large hand encircles my wrist. “Now do me a favor. Cast a spell. Try healing some of my injuries.”
Nervous, I shift on the couch and stare up at Ian. He’s staring down at Vedlyl and I, seeming just as apprehensive about this whole thing. “Um, I’ve never tried that specific one before, and the new ones always drain me something fierce.”
“It’s okay. I’ll be here to help. Even in this form, I retain a lot of my powers.”
“Fine.” Closing my eyes, I inhale deep, envisioning the wounds I saw on his face sealing shut. The drain is instant, just like when I do the locator spells, a hemorrhaging of energy that makes the world spin behind my closed lids.
“Holy crap, you’re right,” I hear Vedlyl mumble from far away.
“She’s getting pale. Alright, Sol, he’s got what he needs. You can—”
“Wait! There’s something else there.”
My eyes fly open and Vedlyl’s face comes into view.
His stunned face, those pupils flashing between blue and yellow.
As another case of the spins slams into my frontal lobe, I sag on the couch, my arm slipping from his grip.
Nope. Ved shoots forward, grabbing onto my arms and bringing me close.
“Bro, what the fuck?” Ianthen snaps.
Those pupils pick up speed in their little color-rotation and he seems to be scanning me deeper.
“What?” I croak, barely registering the fact that some of his wounds did begin to heal before I stopped.
“Son of a bitch.” Ved chuckles, eyeing my hair. “So that hair isn’t dyed, huh?”
Behind him, Ianthen’s entire face is transformed by a vicious scowl, and even as out of it as I am, I can tell how worried he is. “What’s going on Vedlyl?”
Standing, the God of Medicine joins Ianthen, the remaining injuries on his face starting to heal. “Ian, don’t know how to tell you this . . .”
Navy-blue brows tighten further over those white eyes. “What? Talk.”
“Yeah,” I say, fighting to shake off the lingering weakness. “What’s going on?”
“Ian, I found Persicutis’ DNA in there. And also Erencei. You know what that means.”
I look between them. “What does it mean?”
Ianthen ignores me. “Do you realize what you’re saying . . . what you’re implying?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m telling you. Your female is related to Zeniel.”
Say what now?
Shaking his head, Ian eyes me again, that awe falling over him. “Vedlyl, that would mean . . .”
Smiling down at me, Vedlyl nods. “Soleria is descended from the most unique breed of immortals ever. One we never even knew existed. If I’m not mistaken, her ancient great-grandfather might’ve been Zeniel’s brother. That’s what it seems based on the bit I was able to see.”
Ian whistles under his breath. “Holy shit female.”
“So wait a moment. I have Vy’shi and Eve’s man’s DNA in me?”
“War Erencei, baby girl.”
“I’m a fucking reality bender and a war demon?” I cry, happiness beginning to bubble up my gut. “That means I’m destined to be powerful as all fuck, right?”
“Sol.” Walking up to me, Ian joins me on the couch, gently grabbing one of my hands. “We don’t even know exactly what that means. Erenceis and Vy’shis don’t mix. Ever. The fact that it happened with your line is . . .”
I lean towards him, smiling. “I fucking told all of you I was going to be the most spectacular immortal you’d ever heard of. When do we do the switch?”
“About that.” Vedlyl’s stare cuts in Ian’s direction, as if he knows what he’s about to say is going to set him off. “We can’t initiate a switch now.”
“Why?” Ian and I ask.
“Because it’s already begun on its own. Her DNA is unstable. I give it a matter of weeks, at the most, and Soleria w
ill be immortal. Considering what she’s about to become, Illion help us all.”
Chapter 20
Four Days Later
- Earth. Astoria, Queens, NY (USA)
SOLERIA
“F emale, what’s the hold up?” Ianthen steps into my room, stopping just inside.
I swipe the pendulum off the table.
Not that his immortal eyes miss it.
Brow scrunched, he walks further inside, stare bouncing towards the map. “I remember those.”
I tense, face burning red in an instant. Is he seriously going there? Bringing up our shared dream? SEX dream, my mind helpfully supplies.
Ianthen stops next to me and gently pries the pendulum out of my grip. He holds it up towards the light, staring into the quartz end. “So that’s what you were doing with the map. Trying to find something.”
“Yeah.” I shift on my feet, hating the fact he’s in my room. Then again, if I wanted to avoid it, I was better off not attempting this with him waiting downstairs.
“What are you trying to find?”
I shrug, for some reason too embarrassed to look him in the eye. “Just testing to see if my powers have amplified at all. The locator spells seem to be the most difficult for me. Like that one”—I nod at my closet doors—“it kicked my ass and I haven’t been able to get it out of there.”
Ian turns to see what I’m talking about. Chuckling under his breath, he dematerializes to my closet. “Remember this one from our dream, too.”
There he goes again, mentioning that freaking dream.
I watch as he reaches for the pendulum and pulls it gently out of the mirrored-door. He stares at the door long enough to mentally command the cracks in the glass disappear.
He faces me, holding up the pendulum he just pulled out the mirror. “What were you looking for when you did this spell?”
I shrug and mumble, “The girls.”
“The . . . girls.”
His tone is odd. A perfect match to his shocked expression.
“What?” I ask.
“Why did the pendulum end up in the mirror, Sol?”
Swallowing nervously, I stare at the wall.
“Sol.”
“You.”
“What?”
Cringing, I face him again. “I slammed up against an image of you. Your eyes, to be exact.”
The silence following that is deafening. A heavy presence throughout the whole room. He simply stands there, white eyes wide, his shock palpable.
Then, head falling back, he barks out a laugh. “You little Vy’shi shit!”
“Excuse me?”
He appears before me and drops the pendulums on my desk, laughing the entire time. “It was you!”
“What are you—Ianthen, get away from me!”
He tickles my sides, movements careful.
I react to it violently, nonetheless. “Stop! Ohmigod, stop!”
Smiling, he bites on his lip, and doesn’t ease up on the tickling one bit. “You were following me, you little stalker. I felt you.”
“The girls!” I shriek, practically climbing on my bed to try and escape him. “I was looking for the girls!”
“Uh-huh. Sure.” He tickles me some more.
I wail in hysterical misery. “The girls! I swear!”
Ian finally lets me go.
I fall backwards on the bed, hair covering my face, chest racing.
“You had me tripping for over a week, Sol.”
“Ditto, asshole!” I snap, swiping my hair away from my face.
He’s staring down at me, expression heated. Hungry. “Gods. Look at you. So fucking sexy on that bed.”
I choke.
His tongue peeks out in a slow, slow glide across his bottom lip and I swear I die right on this bed. With a quick shake of his head, as if ripping himself out of whatever mental image just consumed him, he turns around and begins heading out the room. “Hurry, female. We have a restaurant to open.”
Yeah. Okay. Because getting myself off this bed while my insides are a quivering, hot mess will be no problem.
Evesse steps into the restaurant, decked out in black, and slams to a halt.
No need wondering why. I know where her eyes are at.
Izabella’s busy running around the restaurant, helping clear the tables in that quick way of hers.
“You just gonna stand there?” I ask Eve.
She approaches me, her disguised brown eyes bouncing back towards Izabella. “Tell me I’m not the only one seeing this,” Eve says, pointing at her.
“Nope,” I answer, focused on finishing the cash count for the night. “I’ve been seeing it for a week.”
Eve stops next to the counter. “Answers. Please.”
That almost makes me laugh. Not because I don’t understand my bestie’s confusion, but because I’ve been rocking it for days. “I don’t have any to give you.”
“She looks almost identical to Nylicia and Spari.”
“Well, I haven’t officially met Spari, but the moment Izabella walked in asking for a job I saw the resemblance to Nylicia. I’m not blind, Evesse.” I slide all the cash into the deposit envelope for the bank.
Evesse crosses her arms, clearly displeased with my lack of information.
“We’re looking into it.” Placing my hands on the counter, I lean towards her and lower my voice. “We know that Nylicia’s sister is human, as far as we can tell. And before you ask, we considered that, too. Izabella is pure human, no godly lineage that we can trace.” Ved passed by yesterday, pretending he was just stopping by to say “hi”. When, in reality, he’d scanned the girl when her back was turned.
He had to be quick about it and was only able to get small tidbits from the scan he did on her.
Eve stares at Izabella over her shoulder again. “Ancestry. Considered that?”
“We don’t have a sample of Spari’s DNA to do so, but we’re working on it. Apparently, she’s gone into hiding because Cyake is a Neanderthal with the voice of Fate locked inside him.”
“Yeah, I know,” Eve mutters. “I was there.”
“I heard. Did they tell you about my own ancestral DNA results?”
She turns back to me, brow furrowed. “No . . .”
Smiling, I lay it on her. “Your husband is my uncle.”
“Come again?”
Clearly, she’s flabbergasted by my amazing announcement. Sighing, I roll my eyes and repeat what Vedlyl informed me of after the original “scan” into my DNA. “Zen had a brother on his dad’s side thousands of years ago. I come from that bloodline.” Everyone on my mom’s side of the family does.
Still blows my mind every time I think about it.
“You have fucking war Erencei DNA in you?” Eve cries.
“And Vy’shi. Apparently, demons and witches don’t mix. I’m an unheard-off combo. All my ancestors have been. Told you I was fucking awesome.” Does the change scare me? A bit. But at the same time, I’m so ready for it to be over.
“But you’re mostly human.”
“Duh. There’s fourteen-thousand-years or so separating me and your man, but we’re working on speeding up the process of bringing out either one, or both, halves of me. Immortality, bitch. I needs it. I’m eight years older than both you and Ismini and you cunts already got it. I have everyone on a must-do timeframe. They have two weeks. It’s not done, and I’m jumping off a building and forcing their hands.”
The subtle shake of her head isn’t lost on me. “We. You keep saying we.”
Damn, I was, wasn’t I? God damn it. Am I getting that used to the fucker’s presence? Grabbing a cloth, I wipe down the already clean counter, avoiding her stare. “Ianthen has been put on guard duty. I told him the least he could do is make his ass useful.”
“And Nylicia? Have you asked her about all this? Especially that back there,” Eve says, pointing at where Izabella is finishing clearing the table.
“Nylicia keeps us all on a ‘need-to-know-when-we-need-to-know’ basis. Ye
s, I asked her. No, I haven’t gotten any answers. ‘All will be known when it needs to be known and you should not worry yourself over it’. And she was floating, meditation-style when she said this, mind you.” Right in the middle of my living room. “Unfortunately, the demon-pixie isn’t solid, so I couldn’t choke the answers outta her. But my gut flared the moment I laid eyes on Izabella, and my gut’s never wrong. She’s seventeen and she desperately needs a job, too. I think she’s caring for her sick mom. It’s one of the reasons I hired her right away.”
Before Eve can answer, one of the swinging doors leading to the kitchen parts way to make room for Ianthen’s hulking form. Nodding at Eve, he walks towards us and places his busboy tray on the counter. “What’s up, Evesse?”
Sweet baby Jesus, that white t-shirt looks so good on him.
No! Bad Sol! Bad! Spinning around, I deprive my horny, idiotic eyes of the sight of him, wiping the register.
Too bad that does nothing to block the sound of that deep, husky voice from reaching me.
“I already looked for him. I can’t find him. My powers aren’t . . . at full capacity right now—No. Don’t ask,” Ian says. “I’m not going there with you. Do you have any idea where Zen would have gone off to?”
“I don’t know,” my best friend replies. “I commanded him to merge with Mavrak, and then he just disappeared.”
“What do you mean ‘commanded’?” I throw over my shoulder like the pussy Ianthen’s presence has turned me into.
But whatever. I’m not ready for the sight of him yet.
“Nylicia gave me the powers of Justice.”
Nevermind.
Whirling around, I gape at Evesse as Ianthen hisses out a low curse.
“I knew I recognized what’s coming off you.” He blows out a breath and scrapes his hand down his face. “Makes sense. Between your powers and the mating . . . well, if anyone would be able to control Mavrak, it’s you. Vedlyl told me about what happened in Zen’s room. How you ordered Zen to stop before he killed Ved, and that he listened.”
Eve leans towards Ian. “What is inside of Vedlyl? Ianthen, what I saw—”
“I can’t tell you.” He spares a glance at Izabella as she enters the kitchen with her loaded tray. “I really can’t tell you. We were all forced to swear to keep it to ourselves millenia ago. It’s not about wanting to keep the secret from you. I have no choice. Only Ved can tell you what he is.”
Blood Drenched Conquest (Ryze Book 3) Page 18
