Neither Elenaril nor Kilyn seemed the least bit surprised, but Elenaril's eyes grew hard. "They shall find we elves are not easy prey."
Bitterness raged in Angie. Brave words, but did Elenaril truly understand the might that the Aztalans were bringing? The outpost at the church had been surprisingly well armed considering how far from the front line it had been. The soldiers coming to take Coronado Island would be even better prepared, and they’d outnumber the elves. But ... Char had always insisted Elenaril would make a fearsome foe.
"Can you fly me north?" Tavi asked. "To Sanwa City? I need to find my people."
"That's crazy," said Jay. He slid forward and gripped her wrist with his good hand, his unhappiness clear. "Come with us. Erin's right. You and Angie can lock yourselves in the Bunker. You'll be safe enough. You can't do anything in Sanwa City except die."
She pulled her arm away from him. "No, Jay. I'll fight with my people." Angie heard the finality in her words, and Jay must have, too, because his face blanched, and he looked away.
"It's her choice, Jay," Rowan said with surprising kindness.
Jay didn't answer, and a shiver coursed through him.
"And what will you do, Rowan Seagrave?" Elenaril asked him. "You and your family will always be welcome among my people."
"Our plan is the same. After the full moon, we take vehicles and supplies from Tec's bunker and head northeast for a new life. Everyone on the west coast wants us dead."
"We don't. I tell you this with all sincerity. You and your family will always have a home among us. And we can use your military expertise when the Aztalans come."
Rowan shook his head. "I'm sorry. I appreciate the offer, but you can't hold here. You should make plans now to evacuate your people."
"You underestimate us," said Kilyn.
"No. I know war."
"We elves know war as well," said Kilyn, but Elenaril raised her hand, and he closed his mouth.
"I hear your warning, Rowan Seagrave, and I acknowledge your words, but we will not leave our home until we must. My son will fly you east immediately, and you, Tavi, will go to your people. May you find peace in the bloody days to come."
"Thank you," Tavi whispered.
The queen turned and walked away with her Phoenix Guard and her daughter, this time holding her hand as she walked, finally showing a hint of emotion. Kilyn and Rowan spoke together, no doubt planning to get airborne as soon as possible.
Erin slipped next to Angie, resting her fingers on Angie's forearm. She opened her mouth to say something, but Angie embraced her, hugging her hard, her emotions surging. Her friend was leaving. This was really happening.
"Don't do this," Erin whispered. "I've seen you looking at him, seen him watching you, but whatever is between the two of you, you have no past together, and without a past, how can you have a future? Come with us. We won't hurt you. You're like a sister to me."
Angie sighed, burying her face in Erin's neck. The other woman was taller and heavier, and Angie felt like a child next to her, but she wasn't. She was a woman, a grown woman, and she knew what she had to do. "I can't explain. But I can't leave him."
As Erin pulled away, she smiled, but it was clearly forced. "Don't you dare die on me, Angela Ritter. You hear me?"
Angie laughed, realizing she was tearing up. "I'll try not to."
Erin gripped Angie's shoulders and loomed over her, her long red hair cascading about her face, her eyes filled with conviction. "Three days. Do whatever you have to do to get over him, but get over him. In three days, you ask the elves to fly you to the bunker on Mount Laguna. We’ll wait for you."
"Got it."
"Remember, three days. Then you go with us to the northeast."
"Okay." Angie bobbed her head, her thoughts a tempest.
Minutes later, the rocs rose into the air once more, carrying Tavi north and Erin and her brothers east.
Leaving Angie alone with the elves.
With Tec.
Chapter 11
The black dragon roared in fury, her cries reverberating about the underground cavern. Her human worshippers fell to their knees, quivering—and well they should, the incompetent vermin.
Only Aernyx and Rayan Zar Davi stood their ground. At least Rayan Zar Davi had the good sense to smell of fear, but Aernyx stood unbowed, unafraid. The fool. She could kill a lamia as easily as anything else. He needed to learn his place.
But his time was not yet.
She shifted her gaze to Rayan Zar Davi, once more wearing her flowing robes and colored scarves, her hexed pulwar on her hip. Rayan was Mother Smoke Heart once more, high priestess of the Tzitzime cult—for now. Once Itzpapalotl had sacrificed the Haanal X’ib and freed her sire, Rayan Zar Davi's usefulness would be at an end.
The black dragon turned her attention to Aernyx, still quivering with rage. "How did they escape your vampires as well as the demon?"
Aernyx dared to meet her eye. "Someone…" He sighed. "Someone who really should have known better interfered and warned the Ritter woman. She and the others were ready for my Night Kin and slaughtered a great many of them. Believe me, Beautiful Mistress, I am as distraught as you are. The one who interfered will pay … in time."
"Yet the demon? How could Sudden Bloodletter fail as well?"
This time, Rayan Zar Davi answered: "Beautiful Mistress, Sudden Bloodletter was bound by a spell of some type, a powerful spell. Wyn Renna’s doing, no doubt. By the time he broke free, the elves had rescued the others and flown away on rocs."
Itzpapalotl sniffed. Rocs? The elves must have brought them from the Hollows. "What kind of spell can bind a star demon?"
"We do not know, Beautiful Mistress."
Itzpapalotl sighed in frustration, smoke pouring from her nostrils. "And the demon?"
"Is still bound in service," Rayan Zar Davi answered. "We've had to sacrifice more prisoners, a dozen now, but with the war going so well, there is no shortage of prisoners. But every day we hold the demon in service, his price rises. It will soon become … excessive. Do we still need its assistance?"
"Yes. I do not care how many hearts you need to cut out and sacrifice. You humans are all little more than two-legged lice anyhow."
Rayan Zar Davi bowed her head in acknowledgment, her eyes lowered.
"So," the black dragon spoke, as much to herself as her servants. "The changeling is on Coronado Island with her interfering mother. No doubt they think themselves safe there."
"Yes, Beautiful Mistress," Rayan Zar Davi said. "But our forces muster to assault from the south, an entire battle group, more than enough to sweep the elven defenders aside."
"They must not escape again." And they wouldn’t. It had been a long time since she had tasted roc flesh. Yet one issue nagged at her … the human woman, the mage called Angela Ritter. The lamia claimed she had a hidden power, something to do with an aura of fire. She turned her attention to Aernyx. "The mage, Angela Ritter—you will continue to hunt her in her dreams. Find her. Kill her."
This time Aernyx did smile, a sly, hungry smile that exposed his fangs. "I will drain every drop of her, Beautiful Mistress."
"Advance our forces. Crush the elves."
Angie sat in a plush armchair next to Tec as he slept in a large king-sized bed within the guest wing of the palace. It was dark outside, and a single candle burned on a wooden nightstand, filling the humid night with the scent of honey. The suite was large and comfortable. There was even a small bathroom, complete with a shower, toilet, and sink—and the plumbing worked, even delivering hot water. Once, this suite had been a part of the old beachside hotel, but the elves had altered it greatly, much as Char had done to the old zoo buildings in her own home. The walls were now intricate wooden paneling, displaying elven carvings of flowers and forests. The carvings had been filled with a silver dust to create a gloriously surreal silver forest. Real plants, flowers, and vines added to the allure, the vines snaking up along the walls. It was like sitting in a forest.
Te
c slept soundly, as he had for hours now, since Queen Elenaril herself had used her magic to heal his injuries. Angie watched him sleep, listened to his breathing. The magical healing was amazing, superior to anything Char could have done. After the queen had finished, the elves had stripped and washed Tec with bowls of scented water while Angie sat and watched. The elves thought nothing of nudity and so had no cause to object to her presence.
Elenaril had claimed the magic would make him sleep for some time, so with nothing else to do, Angie watched and waited, her thoughts churning. The Fey didn't teach human mages to heal with magic, insisting such powerful spells would kill any human trying to cast them. But Angie now doubted everything the Fey had said about magic and what humans could and couldn't do. The Tzitzime mages used much more powerful spells—granted, it was evil blood magic taught to them by the dragons—but the magic didn’t kill the Tzitzime mages. And the real Constance Morgan, the one who had lived among the elves as captain of the Phoenix Guard, had also used powerful spells without killing herself. There was only one conclusion: the Fey were holding humanity back.
That made sense. Only the Concord kept the peace between humans and Fey; without it, humanity might wipe out the Fey. The more she thought about it, the more Angie became convinced the Fey were keeping human mages too weak to fight them. And maybe they’re not wrong to do so. We do tend to be violent.
She rose from her chair and pulled open the drapes over the large window. There was no glass—elves didn’t like glass—so she leaned over the windowsill, staring down from several stories into a garden. The night was warm and the air fresh and invigorating. She breathed deeply. It was almost September. In less than one month, her entire life had changed. At least the nightmares had stopped.
A large moth fluttered past, its wings glowing silver in the light of the full moon. The full moon. "Please be safe," she whispered, her thoughts flashing to Erin and her brothers.
She returned to her bedside chair, pulled her feet up beneath her, and sat cross-legged. Earlier, she had drifted off and snoozed for several hours in this chair, but her dreams had been fitful, disturbed by a man's voice calling her name. She shivered, shifting position once more.
She considered Tec’s sleeping profile. Was he as old as he had claimed? Why lie about something like that? If he was right about the waters of the Black Pool—that with Quetzalcoatl dead, they no longer held powers of healing—then he’d grow old now. Her fingers brushed the skin over her chest where Rayan Zara Davi had driven her sword. The skin wasn’t even marked. What was it like, she wondered, to watch everyone else grow old around you?
The door to the suite opened, and a female elf, one of those who had helped care for Tec's injuries, peered through the opening. Unlike most of the other elves, who wore armor and sword, this one was unarmed, wearing only a simple tunic. She carried a bundle of cloth against her chest. "He sleeps still?" she asked in her clipped elvish accent.
"Yes, thank you."
"May I enter?"
"Of course."
The woman came in and set the bundle, a thick robe, at the end of the bed. "If you give me your clothing, I'll see it is cleaned for you. In the meantime, you may wear this. We know your kind does not enjoy being without clothing. There is hot water as well. We also enjoy the sensation of hot water on our skin." She said the last with a knowing smile, as if they shared a secret.
"Thank you."
"Just leave your garments outside the door." The elf closed the door behind her.
"A shower and a change of clothing," Angie said to herself. "Is she trying to tell me I smell bad?" She lifted her arm and sniffed her armpit, realizing that was exactly what the other woman had been trying to tell her.
Angie slipped into the bathroom, taking the lit candle with her and leaving the door ajar. She turned on the shower and played with the knobs until hot water steamed. Angie stripped, letting her filthy clothing pile up around her feet. Then she eased into the shower, and the feeling of hot water beating upon her filthy skin was glorious. There was even homemade soap, and she soon worked up a lather.
Her shower was long and hot, her skin red when she reluctantly stepped out. The mirror was fogged, and she wiped it, seeing her distorted reflection. She dried her hair as well as she could, using a comb that she found in a drawer to yank out the worst of the tangles. There was even a toothbrush and an old packet of pre-Awakening toothpaste. The hospitality of elves, she mused with a heartfelt smile, and then brushed her teeth for the first time in what felt like weeks.
She used one of the wet towels to clear the mirror and examined her torso. She was way too thin, that was obvious, but she wasn't just skin and bones: her muscles had become like ropy sinew, her abs better defined than Tec’s. She cupped her small breasts; her nipples were sensitive, already erect. She closed her eyes, bit her lower lip, and thought of Tec as she moved her fingers down her stomach and between her legs. She shivered with excitement as her fingertips touched the sensitive folds of skin. "Oh, God," she whispered, indescribably turned on by touching herself while Tec slept just outside the door.
It had been so long since she had masturbated—and many, many months since she had had actual sex with another person. She could do it right now, she knew. It would only take a minute to climax. He’d never hear. Hell, he was sound asleep.
No. She forced herself to stop. I'm not that desperate.
Am I?
She opened her eyes and gripped the counter with both hands to stop them from trembling. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked her reflection. Water dripped down the mirror.
Her pulse racing, she wrapped herself in one of the towels and took the candle back into the other room. Tec still slept soundly, but he had pulled the sheet down in his sleep, exposing his semierect penis. He was larger than Nathan, much larger. She gave herself a shake, pulling her eyes away from his groin, and then yanked the sheet up to his chin, covering him once again.
She watched him for a few moments. His erection pushed against the sheet like a tent pole, and she giggled at the thought. She went back into the bathroom, picked up her dirty clothing, and dumped it just outside the door in what clearly had once been a hotel hallway.
Angie found herself beside the sleeping man again, wearing the towel and staring at his face. Her gaze darted to his erection.
"I’m going to go to sleep."
She plopped onto the chair, once more staring at the man on the bed—the large bed that had more than enough room for both. "You can share."
Angie blew out the candle. The full moon shone in through the open window, providing more than enough light for her to make her way to the other side of the bed. She let the wet towel fall to the floor and then pulled the sheet back and climbed into the bed with him, keeping a half foot of space between them—as was proper. Putting her back to him, she lay on her side and pulled the sheet up to her chin. The bed was warm with his body heat, and she closed her eyes, listening to his deep breathing, almost like a purr. It was the most relaxing sound she had ever heard, like sleeping next to a cat … no, a jaguar.
She drifted to sleep.
Sometime later, she woke with the realization that she had rolled over in her sleep and was lying against him, her arm on his chest, her thigh on his leg. He’s awake, she realized in alarm. She could tell by the stiffness in his body. In the moonlight, she saw the shine of his eyes watching her. His breathing quickened.
Without even realizing what she was doing, she reached between his legs and gripped his penis. It was already hard.
"Are you sure?" he asked, his voice thick with desire.
For answer, she squeezed his penis and began stroking it. He groaned and then pulled her atop him, gripping her buttocks and crushing her lips with a kiss, his hot breath in her mouth, his erection like a spear.
"I need you inside me," she said huskily. "Now!"
He pulled her thighs apart, and because she was already so wet, the head of his penis slid inside her. She gasped,
and then he pushed all the way in, and she moaned, digging her fingernails into the skin of his shoulders. He was perfect, like he was made just for her or she for him. They were perfect together.
They began to rock together. As he thrust upward, pushing into her, she matched his movements, building in intensity and need. She began to moan, making entirely too much noise, but she didn’t care. When her orgasm shook through her, she cried out her joy. Moments later, he came as well, filling her with his hot semen, his body shivering. She collapsed atop him, his hard penis still inside her, their bodies drenched in sweat, her breathing out of control.
"God damn," she panted. "Why did we wait so long to do that?"
"Don’t … know…" he wheezed, more out of breath than she was. "Didn’t … didn’t want to take advantage of you."
She laughed, lying on her arms atop his chest. "Who took advantage of whom, old man?"
He silenced her with a long kiss.
They remained in bed, lying next to one another for some time. Then they made love again, and it was even better the second time.
Chapter 12
Under the light of a full moon, Erin surged through the forest on powerful legs, barreling through the foliage. Her muscles, like steel cables, rippled under her shining coat of thick red fur. Her senses, always sharper than those of her siblings, were increased tenfold in her beast form. She processed hundreds of different scents, discarding all but her prey. Her heart, three times its human size, throbbed with excitement, sending blood coursing through her veins.
There was nothing like the hunt.
The underbrush crunched beneath her clawed paws. A fallen tree blocked her path, four feet high with pungent mushrooms growing from its rotted bark. Without slowing, she leaped over it, landing ten feet away and resuming her run without missing a step. Her brothers were with her, Casey to her left, Jay to her right. Rowan was behind her, following, watching.
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