“Before I hauled your ass back inside the castle,” I finished for her. “Yes, I’m fully aware you were out there risking your life.”
She snorted. “I’m still faster than you when I need to be.”
“You need to protect our child.”
“I need you to protect the people then. I’m a Protector. This is my town, and I take personal stake in everyone’s safety. There are women and children trapped. Alone. Hungry. Terrified.”
“I will gather a team and we will get them. I pro—”
A woman in long white dress ran into the living area. Her eyes were wild, and her hair plastered against her damp face and neck. All our eyes were on her as she doubled over, sucking in deep breaths of air before trying to speak. When she finally straightened, she looked directly at Miles.
“The Oracle has had a vision. The next Protector is within reach!”
Chapter 3
GODRIC
Warmth. Heat. Power.
It spread through my body with each pull of my fangs.
I growled and drank hard, ripping through flesh, punishing him before draining the life from his flailing, worthless form.
My gaze drifted to the stained concrete beneath my boots again, and fresh anger surged from the sight of the small girl on the ground at my feet. She couldn’t have been more than ten. She had been why I chose my victim. The man in my grasp deserved to feel the life drain from him. And I took every last drop. I hadn’t been fast enough to save her, but I could exact vengeance for her life. No one else would do right by her.
I finally tore out his throat, ending it, and tossed him to the ground several yards from the small child’s body. Then I wiped some of the blood from my face with the back of my hand. Drinking blood was as normal to me as eating had been three thousand years ago. I still ate, but blood was what I really craved. Each feeding was a rush of power and a reminder of what had been stolen—what my choices had cost.
I glanced around the dark alley. Apartments loomed up five stories on either side. Not a light could be seen from a single window. The sounds of the city echoed around me—yells, vehicles, sirens, flesh slapping flesh. I turned and peered through the darkness. A pair of humans fucked against the wall behind a dumpster a hundred feet away, completely oblivious to the two murders that’d just been committed.
Filth penetrated every brick and crack of concrete. The City of Angels was truly the armpit of the West Coast Republic. And the perfect place for me—a blood sucking creature of the night—to hunt monsters without repercussions.
I always ate monsters.
People the humans wouldn’t miss.
People the humans would be grateful I devoured.
I teleported from the alley to my bedroom—a flat in the Sea Scape apartment complex near the Santa Monica Beach. It was run down and filled with drunks and junkies, but I liked being able to hear the ocean. A small comfort. I yanked the sheet from my bed and flashed back to the alley. Kneeling beside the child, I covered her with the soft cotton and wrapped her carefully. Tucking in the ends around her cooling figure, I prayed to whatever gods might still listen that someone would return her to her family. She deserved to be with family. Then I teleported back to the center of a nearly empty apartment. I didn’t need much to live. A bed to fuck on and a couch for the same.
The air in my flat was charged with magic and emotion and the familiar smell of my sister. My heart dropped in my chest. Why was she here? How had she found me? What had happened? It had to be something big.
Her magic hung in the air, teasing me with memories I hadn’t dredged up in thousands of years. I spun on my heel and blurred, attempting to catch her in my still-clawed hand. But my sister was old. Powerful. Faster than most. She’d always been faster than me.
“Get out.” I snarled, turning to the right as she reappeared.
“You are covered in blood. You truly have become one of them.” The words were heavily accented and spoken in stilted English, like she was brand new to the language and unsure.
“Fuck you and your high and mighty horse’s ass.” I bellowed, allowing my pain to take control. I didn’t care about her. I couldn’t let myself. They—she—had made me into what I was…and I’d made the most of it through the years.
She glared at me from across the flat, her lavender eyes glinting beautifully in the moonlight streaming through the window next to her.
“I am not leaving. You can snarl and curse. It matters not.” She folded her arms over her chest and dug in her heels. The same look she always got in her eyes just before she managed to get her way.
This time would be different, though. This time I didn’t owe her anything. This time she had no power over me. I’d been cast out. All my familial obligations had disappeared with my name and title.
“If you help me, brother, you can come home.”
She spoke in Old Persian this time, and it grated on my nerves. It’d been so many years since I’d heard my native tongue. Since being banished by my brother-in-law, the king, I’d never looked back. I scoffed and rolled my eyes at her offer. It was a ploy for something. I just wasn’t sure what…yet.
“You lie to my face. Your husband would never allow me back.”
“Please. He would if you helped us. You are the Djinn’s only hope.” Her thin, thready voice gnawed at something buried deep in my soul. Something I’d thought I’d long since given up on. I didn’t want to feel that pain again. I refused. Had something so dire happened that my family would seek out their trash to help them? Unlikely.
I wiped my chin again and pulled back my fangs with a laugh. “Is that what the scribe will write in the book of history, Asa? That I saved the Djinn race? The one shunned and cast out for making a mistake.” I walked to the cabinet in the far corner of the living space. I never settled anywhere without a nice stash of liquor. After pouring a healthy dose of scotch into a highball glass, I sauntered over to my table and took a seat, not bothering to offer her one.
“You made more than one mistake, Anushrowain.”
“Do not call me that. Ever.” I blinked from my seat and reappeared inches from my sister’s face. “My name is Godric Devereux. I stopped being Anush a very long time ago. I owe you nothing. I owe the Djinn nothing.”
“You are still my brother. I’ve been searching for you since the moment I was freed from that accursed box. It was the luck of the gods I stumbled upon your movement in this city. Once I had your magick’s signature, I was able to track you here.”
I shrugged. Not caring in the least that I’d been difficult to find. I only teleported when necessary for that explicit reason. The more Djinn magick I used, the easier it was to be felt.
“Why were you in a quppu box?” I asked, unable to curb my interest. “More importantly, who put you in it?”
“This is why I am here. I need help. I tried to save my daughter. My husband. But there are too many guards. I nearly died once already. Please, Anush.”
“I. Am. Not. Anush.” I spit out each word and bared my fangs at her. How dare she think I would forget the past just because she desired it. Asa always got everything she wanted. Not this time. “Your problems are not mine. You cast me out, or don’t you remember the very formal ceremony in front of the entire court?”
“So you would let us all die? You would let your niece continue to be tortured? She will die if we don’t get her away from that monster soon.” Her voice trembled. Fear wasn’t something I ever remembered shaking my sister. She feared nothing. The whole of a nation bowed at her feet. Her husband alone was above her, King of the Djinn.
I shook my head and walked away, leaving her standing in the center of my meager apartment. I did care about my niece. My sister was smart to bait me by saying Mandana was in danger. I picked up the glass of scotch from the table and walked to the window she’d moved away from.
I stared out into the dimly lit metropolis of Los Angeles—City of Angels. At least it used to be. It was mostly the city of death and d
estruction now. But it was a good place to hide. A good place to feed without being observed by the humans. They were too busy killing each other to notice me taking out a few of the worst humanity had to offer.
“G-Godric,” she said, stumbling over the name I’d given her. It wasn’t Persian. It wasn’t familiar. But it was mine, and the memories that went with it weren’t something my family could take away. Ever. “Please, brother. Help me save our family. Our people.”
“I have no family. No people. Why should I believe now that you would suddenly change your mind? Why should I do anything for you?” I leaned against the window and looked over my shoulder at her sagging form.
Her long hair was still as black as night and her skin smooth. Hher lavender eyes flashed with the same fervor they’d had the day she and her husband had banished me from the palace. Banished me from the only life I’d ever known. A life Victoria had stolen from me. But no one believed me—the family screw-up. No one ever would. Even now as she begged for my help, promising to love me again…I knew it was too good to be true.
“Things have changed, brother. The Djinn are prisoners. My husband is in shackles, unable to teleport, unable to fight. Manda’s powers have been clipped as well, and she’s been tortured to the point that she seeks death rather than freedom.” Asa walked to the small cabinet where my half-empty bottle of bourbon sat and poured herself a finger into another empty glass. Then downed it. “I was trapped in that quppu box for millennia. My world, the world you shared with me for so long has nearly been wiped from the face of this realm.”
The entire building could’ve fallen on my head, and I wouldn’t have felt it. At that moment, I sensed her honesty, smelled it. And her fear. Despair. I’d made it a point to stay out of the “know,” away from people who might recognize me for what I was—a freak of nature. A weapon. An excellent criminal. A being no one ever wanted to claim, but always asked for help. Through the years, I’d been an assassin for hire. A pirate. A mobster. Mostly just the monster they’d all told me I was…
I got things done. No matter what. But that also meant I’d never gone home. Never checked up on anyone from my old life—as a Prince of the Djinn.
“The Lamassu all killed each other in Babylon. That was well known, even before I was banished,” I bit out. Still, my gut said she was telling the truth. That she was truly terrified…of something. But it couldn’t be a Lamassu, could it? Except that no other being on earth could open or close a quppa box.
“Three survived.”
“Three conquered the entire Djinn race? That’s impossible, even for a Lamassu.”
“One conquered us,” she spat out. “At least that is what I can tell from keeping an eye on Manda since I got out. Xerxes released me to kill me, but a loyal man distracted him long enough for me to teleport away. I couldn’t save Manda. I tried. But whatever he’s done to her…I cannot teleport her. Or my husband. He is blocking it with some type of powerful magick.”
She took a step toward me again, but I held up a hand, stopping the advance. I didn’t want her near me. Touching me. I never touched anyone these days except to feed, fuck, or kill them. I didn’t want her to hang on me or hug me. I didn’t want to be reminded of what I’d lost. What I’d never been able to replace.
“The other Lamassu ran with the House of Lamidae from Babylon. It is the seers Xerxes seeks. But I fear now he most desires to rule the world, and the world will not realize it until he is too powerful to stop.”
“I don’t care what he does to the humans. Everyone bleeds, sister. I can eat from any being.”
The look of disgust was impossible for her to hide. She needed my help, but she still thought I was trash. Still thought I was nothing more than a monster. And I was.
“Then do it for Mandana. Free her from the monster and stay with us. Be a part of our family as we rebuild.”
There was that word again. Family. It was everything I wanted. Everything since that fateful day when I realized I’d lost it for good. My sister had taken my life and family, and now she was offering it back?
For a price. A very high price. Fighting a Lamassu would likely result in death. Or worse.
Ending up in a quppu box myself.
Still, the lure of family. Of belonging again. Of taking my rightful place among the Djinn. It was enough to make me bite. “What’s your plan? You always have a plan.” Even if they still hated me, I would be home. Have a home again. It was better than nothing.
“I’ve been spying on both sides. Do you have a map? There’s a little town called Sanctuary you need to infiltrate.”
I’d heard rumors of Sanctuary. Of the creatures that called it home and protected it at all costs. “This doesn’t sound like a good plan.”
Chapter 4
JARED
So many people were still just standing around. Doing nothing. The plan should’ve been simple. Those of us that could fight should attack. Use the element of surprise to take Xerxes off guard. But everyone was slowly retreating to lick their wounds and wait…
For what?
For the next wave of Xerxes’ plan to kill more of us? I couldn’t continue to stand here, not when Manda—my mate—was out there being tortured by Xerxes. She’d tried suicide once already. She could try again at any moment. She could’ve already ended her life. We weren’t bonded. I couldn’t sense her. Track her. All I felt was the overwhelming desire to find her. Touch her again. Make her mine.
But Eli had died.
And Rose was nowhere to be found. Probably dead, although no one said it out loud.
That tiny shred of doubt had grown into a suffocating vine, choking out what little hope I had left. How would I ever get Manda back without Rose? How would anything happen without Rose? The Sisters were vulnerable. Without our all-powerful Lamassu Sentinel, no more Protectors could be made. Rose’s spell, her entire vision, was dead in the water.
My heart dropped in my chest, and I leaned my shoulder into the stone pillar next to me. We won’t get back to Veil. Ever.
“Jared?” My best friend’s voice never failed to bring me forward from my thoughts. I turned to face him, and my eyes flew to the outline of Alek’s mate glyphs on his upper arms. Gretchen’s matching ones on her collarbone peeked from beneath her shirt’s neckline. Jealousy sprang up like a poisonous plant, taking root in the recesses of my heart.
He had everything I wanted…except home. We both still wanted to go home.
“Do you think they will stay? Really stay and fight?”
Alek nodded. “They will keep their word, brother.” He slipped an arm around Gretchen’s waist, pulling her closer to his body. “Once this is done. Once we’ve taken down Xerxes and ended this for good…you’re coming home with us.”
I hesitated, and his eyes widened in surprise. “I’m not leaving without Manda, Alek. She’s my mate. You know what that is. You have Gretchen.”
Since that brief moment in Savannah when she’d thrown herself at me and my body had burned hotter than I ever had before, the phoenix inside me had tried to claw to the surface.
The scent of honeysuckle in her long black hair. The satiny smoothness of her tanned skin. The way her gaze had met mine in that moment. She’d started out wanting to die. Then I’d seen the flicker. In the split second after she’d realized my fire wasn’t burning her, wasn’t ending her life, and instead infused her with energy, she’d realized what we could be to each other.
It was then I’d seen…hope.
I’d known from that moment I would never give up on her. On saving her. On making her mine.
“Just don’t go alone. Give us a little time to formulate a plan.”
Smothering a growl of frustration, I rolled my shoulders. “How are we going to beat a fucking psychopathic Lamassu without one of our own?”
“That’s why you can’t go off half-cocked. Let me talk to the others. You don’t even know where Xerxes has her. Are you going to hike the entire SECR territory hoping to stumble across his e
vil lair?”
I snarled angrily, the urge to shove him barely held back. I wouldn’t do that in front of Gretchen. Things were different now. It wasn’t us against the world. Now it was him against the world for Gretchen. “I’m not going to leave her to die.” I took a deep breath and pushed down the frantic energy swirling inside me, begging to be released.
“I’m not asking you to let her die. I’m asking you not to throw your life away trying to save her alone.”
“I’ve seen what that monster can do, Jared.” Gretchen’s soft voice stilled the anger in my heart momentarily. Her wounds and pain were fresh. What Xerxes had done to her was beyond horrible, but Manda had it worse. I’d seen the despair in her eyes. I couldn’t un-see it. Every time I closed my eyes, her plea to die haunted me.
“I’ll wait. For a while.” Alek’s mate spoke the truth. This wasn’t the time or the place to flame on. Eli had just died. Rose probably had, too, though I wouldn’t believe it until I saw her body. That woman was a force to be reckoned with. Nothing stopped her. And no one outsmarted her.
At least they hadn’t yet.
Alek gave a short sigh of relief. “Let me get Gretchen situated in a room upstairs. Then we can talk.”
I nodded and glanced over my shoulder. The rest of the group of Lycans slowly broke apart. My gut said if the chips were really against us, Miles would take Diana and leave, but perhaps that fear was just that…fear that I’d never have what they did—a mate. She was out there, waiting for me, and rescuing my mate was my only goal. If I didn’t get to Manda, I’d never have another chance. My parents always said once a Phoenix chooses, it never chooses again.
Mine had chosen Manda.
Chapter 5
CALLIOPE
I scanned the dissipating crowd for red hair. The witch—Hannah Bateman—had survived. As far as spell-casting went, she was my best shot for reactivating Rose’s charm. I walked slowly around the various groups of broken people. Many were covered in soot from the fires the Djinn kept setting. Others were smeared with blood—theirs or their friends.
My Vampire Knight (Sanctuary, Texas Book 6) Page 2
