Pisces

by Kim Faulks

This wasn’t right. This shouldn’t be happening. Only the blood of the one who bit me could heal the bite. This wasn’t just folklore, it was true. I knew it—I stumbled for the doorway.

  The heartsblood of another couldn’t heal…not unless it was a direct descendant.

  Not unless it was the royal line.

  Faces blurred as I shoved forward and into the tight tunnel. Old faces, weathered faces. Women with babies at their breast staring at me with tired eyes.

  “Where…where is Amaris?”

  One woman lifted her hand and pointed. I kept walking, kept forcing my damn feet to move. She gave you her blood…please. Their voices melted together under the heat of this damn place. Sweat ran in rivulets along my back. My Dragon…faces blurred as I stumbled. “Where…where she?”

  The blurs no longer answered, and no longer led the way. I had to find her…I had to understand.

  Agony tore along my chest. Fire burned me from the inside.

  I’m sorry…I wished I could give you more.

  Those damn words haunted me with every step.

  Voices filtered out along the hallway. The low growl of a male followed muffled laughter. Men…I shoved forward, weaving my way from one damn tunnel to another.

  This place was a maze, one channel led left, and another right. I glanced over my shoulder to the way I’d just come and felt the world spin. But those voices called me forward leading the way.

  I swiped the sweat from my eyes with the back of my hand and stared at a massive doorway set off center along the pit, and it was that room that boomed with raucous laughter.

  Movement on the opposite side drew my gaze. A guy headed toward the doorway, head down, dominating the space. He walked like Zadoc, all fucking power as though he had skulls to crack and souls to consume. The big bastard had be at least six-four with massive shoulders that almost skimmed the wall as he moved.

  He yanked his head up catching my stare. It wasn’t the soft blonde curls that drew me, or the cold, dangerous gaze of someone who knew how to fight. But it was the tattoo that peeked out of the collar of his shirt. A hound with its jaw wide, fangs glistening as it howled, and for a second there was nothing else…but me and him.

  He stiffened, squared his shoulders. Predator. His body tightened, fingers curled into fists, and any other day he’d have cause to be careful. But not today…not on a day where the tender part of me hovered too close to the surface. And the dangerous part of me wanted answers more than I wanted blood.

  I gave a nod and watched those dark eyes widen. He glanced to the doorway and then to me, one motion of his head.

  “By all means,” I answered. “After you.”

  I hung back, waiting for him to step through, not because my questions could wait, but because I wanted to see the reaction one of the cursed Hellhounds received. I was two steps behind him as we entered the room. Men crowded the benches along the side, but it was the middle that held his focus.

  The table in front of us was quiet compared to the others. One woman was deep in conversation with two men. She stabbed a map in center, and followed an unseen line with her finger across the page. I scanned the others, stopping at red hair.

  She was barely a woman—more of a kid really—with short auburn hair and flames for eyes. Abrial filled my mind in that moment, and she looked just like the Alpha, all fire and spunk with perfect freckles that covered her face.

  She twisted her hair and stared into nothing until the cursed cleared his throat and started forward. Her head snapped up, and worlds collided as she met his gaze.

  “Amaris,” the male started and held out his hand.

  But it was to the other woman he pleaded, and it was the other one I watched as I stepped to the side.

  One flash of her gaze my way and I stilled. My damn heart was racing…a fucking heart attack on the way as she settled those cruel eyes on him. “You dare to come here…to my home…to my sister?”

  She rose like lava had pooled into a bodily form and turned to face him. Fire lashed my chest with the sting of her gaze. I flinched and rubbed my chest, worried not for her safety…but for his.

  “Amaris no!” The younger sister shoved from the table and lunged after her.

  “It’s okay, Oryn,” he pleaded. “I’m not here to fight.”

  “Then I guess this is going to be fast, isn’t it?” Amaris clenched her fist and started forward.

  “You can’t do this!” Oryn screamed. “You don’t own me! You don’t…I’m not her!”

  The room stilled. Amaris cringed. Pain shattered the rage in her eyes. Soul wounding pain, the kind I knew well.

  “I’m not her.” Oryn skirted her sister to stand at the cursed Hellhound’s side.

  He shook his head and gently pushed her away. “No, Oryn. This isn’t why I came here. I don’t want you hurt…I don’t want either of you hurt.”

  “Then why come here, One? Why come and tear my family apart? You think it’s going to go easy. You think I’ll give up on her?” Her voice turned raw and savage…a darkness crept into her tone.

  Each word resounded like thunder in the room as Amaris bared her teeth. “I’ll never give up on her…never…ever…”

  The hairs on the nape of my neck stood. The cursed winced at the name…One. He didn’t like that name…be better to call him a filthy bastard to his face. He tried to push Oryn away. I’d never seen a man his size plead so damn much…

  Oh wait…Zadoc…Marcus…Lucas…Michael…Evander…Victor….

  Yeah, yeah I had. They all pleaded, they all begged…for the one they loved.

  I saw him now, not as a warrior…not as one of the cursed, but as a man in love.

  And the brother had it bad.

  His hands were gentle on the young woman, his words were just as soft. “You do what your sister says. Whatever happens we can work through this…”

  “I don’t think so, Kane.” Amaris stopped in front of him, raised a hand and stabbed him in the middle of the chest. “It’ll be over my dead body.”

  Rage cracked like a goddamn storm. I felt the sting as the cursed stilled. His voice filled the room like thunder. “That right there is the last thing I want, Amaris. It’s why I’m here…it’s why I feel this goddamn need to protect you—to protect both of you. You don’t trust me, fine. Don’t fucking trust me. But let me have a right to earn that trust. It’s all I’m asking for. Just a fucking chance for you to see me as a man trying to do the right thing here.”

  The entire room was silent as his words were weighed and measured. Something was ticking over inside her mind. Jesus. I could feel her emotions, her hate…her goddamn need, her everything.

  I glanced to my veins, the faint orange glow pulsed. Her heartsblood flowed like a damn riptide through my body, and my mind—pulling me this way and that. I swallowed and tried to pull away, tried to fight this goddamn hold.

  I came here for heartsblood. I came to be cured.

  I knew the risks…I knew the fucking curse. Connected right?

  For all eternity.

  Heron wasn’t going to last a second fucking longer than he needed to. He failed to understand one very fucking fine point before he sank his fangs into my side—eternity was a fickle fucking thing when you danced with a Dragon.

  But I never counted on this…I never counted on her.

  The fire in my veins flared. Eternity…I swallowed hard and lifted my head as she answered. “You want a chance? Fine, but it’s one fucking chance, Kane. If one word gets back to Blaze, then I’ll know where the leak is…and believe me when I say I’ll tear the entire fucking ship apart just to plug it.”

  The mountain of a man swallowed and nodded. “Understood.”

  “Amaris, no…” An older male stood from the table. “It’s all we’ve got.”

  She stilled, glanced to the floor. “It’s okay, Parry. He wants a chance, this will be the only one he gets.” Then she turned to the cursed. “Slaven. I want to know who that is, so you can ask around your damn cl
ubs and your whores.”

  “Strippers,” he growled. “They’re not whores.”

  She cocked her head. “Fine…strippers. I want this Slaven, and I want him now.”

  There was a nod before he turned to Oryn. “It’s okay. Just a little longer. Can you do that?”

  She stared up at him with adoration and murmured in a small voice. “You’ll come back right?”

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me. I’m going to be here so much you’ll get sick of me. But you gotta promise me one thing, no fighting your sister on this. She sets the rules, it’s my job to follow them. She loves you, and she’s just trying to do her job. Give her a break okay?”

  Oryn’s bottom lip quivered as she nodded. She took one tentative step before he opened his arms wide. He dropped his head, and curled his body around her, dropping his voice low. “It’ll be okay, you trust me right?”

  She nodded her head, brushing her cheek against his shirt. “Yeah.”

  “Then I need you to trust I’m doing the right thing. So no rocking the boat, kid.”

  “I’m not a kid,” she grumbled.

  “No, you’re not…you’re a Princess…a descendant of the true royal line.” He wrapped his arms around her. “That’s why it’s all the more important to do this right.”

  Still their words reached my ears. I winced and turned my head, finding the old man instead, giving them at least a little privacy. Amaris nodded and turned her head, taking her place once more across from the old guy she called Parry. But the air was different now. I could see her watching the couple from the corner of her eye.

  And the cursed they called Kane watched her too. He was wary of her…and if he was wary, then that was a damn good indication she was someone important.

  Heartsblood…and now the damn connection we shared whispered the truth.

  The truth I didn’t want to believe until now, but there was no going back—no denying what was in front of me. I glanced to Oryn, was she part of this? The kid swiped her eyes and stepped backwards…no, she was too damn innocent.

  So that meant Amaris acted on her own…she killed the descendant of the royal line…a direct descendant… I stepped forward and gently cleared my throat.

  There was no turn of her head, no acknowledging me at all, only a bitter snarl. “I figured you’d be long gone.”

  “Seems not.”

  Only then did she bless me with her attention. Rage, hunger…and fear mingled in her eyes. I swallowed and glanced at the others. They said nothing, even Parry stared at the damn map in front of them. A map of Hell’s Gate.

  Questions filled my head as I licked my lips. “I think it’s time we had a talk in private.”

  “Is it?” She snarled and nodded toward her men. “Why? Anything you say to me, you can say in front of the men.”

  I took a deep breath, holing her gaze and kept my tone firm. “It wasn’t your men I was concerned about.”

  Her gaze dropped to her sister behind me, and then she wrenched her focus to me. There was a twinge of her upper lip as she answered. “Fine, I need to do my rounds anyway.”

  She shoved from the table for the second time and strode past. “The info, Kane. I want that damn info.”

  God she sounded like Xael. I turned and followed her from the room. She even walked like my damn sister, striding out with ground-eating strides, always in a damn hurry to get somewhere.

  She turned, and then turned again. I ground my jaw and struggled to keep up. We climbed—Amaris taking the stairs two at a time until she found the last room along the upper level and strode inside.

  I glanced at the other rooms and followed her. Why did I feel like this was a damn ambush? The black fabric dropped behind me, swinging across the door before she pounced. “You got a big mouth, Guardian.”

  I shuffled backwards as she stalked forward. Jesus…Xael…Xael…Xael. I swallowed hard. I could handle this. What would I say if this my sister? “I’m sorry.”

  She ignored the words and kept coming. “You think you know? Think you got it all figured out, huh?”

  “I’ve got a good handle on it, yeah,” I muttered. “The only thing I can’t figure out is why?”

  And there was that pain roaring to the surface, dousing the flames in her eyes. “What are you doing here, Dragon? What is it that you want?”

  And for a second I couldn’t answer. I had everything I came here for…and yet there was this leash around my neck…one that whispered eternity. “The blood…the blood you gave me.”

  Her top lip curled. “Should I have left you to die?”

  A nerve twitched at the corner of my eye. “No.”

  “Then you’re welcome.” Her dark tone left little room to move. “Now, if you’re done, I’ve things to do.”

  Like what? The words lingered on my lips as the memory of the map came to life.

  What the Hell are you planning?

  First Heron attacked me…and now he was dead—at the hands of his… “Heron, who was he to you?”

  She held my stare without a flinch and answered. “My father.”

  Jesus. Jesus…I stumbled backwards as cold obsidian replaced the flames in her gaze. One nod of her head was all it took. “You got what you came here for. Rest assured Guardian, once you walk out of here you’ll never have to speak to, or see me again.”

  With that she turned on her heel and strode for the doorway. The heavy curtain was swept aside and then she was gone, striding from my life with the heavy thud of my damn heart.

  She killed her father…her own father.

  Not that the bastard didn’t have it coming…I came here for the kill, and if need be I’d leave with a hundred more. But his own daughter?

  That empty feeling in my gut lingered as I shoved the curtain aside and made for the stairs. The low roar of voices rebounded along the cavern. I stared at these people and eased down the stairs. Sad, filthy, drawn faces stared back at me. These people weren’t down here because they wanted to be—they were down here because they had no damn choice.

  Hell’s Gate had changed, that was certain. But so had this damn world…it moved ahead while we stood still, fading into the background and sinking into the depths. I hit the bottom stair and turned right and that empty feeling took hold.

  Dragon? The word was a signal flare into the dark. Catalyst…are you there?

  A splash was an answer. He’d dived deeper before. I held onto that thought and headed through the crowded thoroughfare.

  He’d dived so deep I barely felt him. A thousand years ago Marcus and the Bloodletter had raged, and Victor and the Tormentor abandoned one another. But not the Catalyst…he dove down…down…down…until there wasn’t even a ripple left behind.

  But he’d been rising, along with all the other Dragons.

  But now—I glanced at the fire in my veins, the orange glow pulsed with an unknown beat—now this drove him into the darkness once more.

  It’s okay, I sent out the call. You’re safe…

  But there was no answer, no splash of a tail, no flare of power. There was nothing but silence. He didn’t want to be here anymore than I did.

  The crowd parted in front of me. Heads turned and nodded in greeting as the old guy, Parry, headed toward me. “You ready to get topside, Guardian?”

  I swiped the sweat from my brow, took one last look at Hell’s underground, and nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s time I went home.”

  6

  Bastian

  I dragged in the biting stench and stared at the darkened streets. My throat tightened, a cough tore free followed by another and another. I braced my hands on my knees and tried to quell the damn burn in my chest.

  “I’d say you get used to it,” muttered Parry beside me. “But you never really do.”

  Hot air rushed in, tearing through my damn lungs. I blinked away the tears and tried to straighten.

  “Gotta say, it was a lot easier getting your ass topside, than it was getting you down. You’re heavier than you look
, that’s for sure.”

  He never stopped, prattling on and on as I stared into the gloom and tried to blink away the tears. The streetlights were dark, the whole goddamn place was a blackout. “Where are all the people?”

  “East, over there.” He nodded through the break in the towering dark buildings to the faint sparkle of lights. “They all live together now, humans and hounds. This end of the city is dead. Too hot for electricity to run. Too hot for anything really. The hotter the better I say.”

  “Is that because you’ve nowhere else to go?”

  I turned then, catching the twinkle of anger in his tired old eyes. “Mostly. But we are where we are, no sense in talking about what was. She does right by us. It may not look it, but she does the best she can.”

  I couldn’t stop the wince or the small nod, remembering the hate in her eyes as she stood over her father’s body. “I think I’ve already seen the best she can. Be careful old man, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of her blade.”

  Even as I said the words I felt they were wrong.

  There was a shuffle in the dark before he grasped my shirt and wrenched me close. He was strong for his age, and the fire still sparked deep and true. “You listen here. You keep your mouth shut where she’s concerned. You have no idea what she’s sacrificed. You have no idea what she’s done. There’s always more to the story, Guardian.” His fingers unfurled, one small shove, and he was stumbling away. “Always more.”

  “Then tell me.” The words came from nowhere and somewhere in the darkness of my mind a tail fin slapped the water and rose into the murky light. “Tell me…why would she kill him? What could possibly trigger that kind of rage?”

  Embers sparked in the old man’s eyes. He licked his lips, took one panicked glance around at the empty streets before he answered. “Not my truth to tell…best be on your way now. You go back to your dying kin. They need you a lot more than we do.”

  He turned away; slow steps scuffed the pavement as though in this moment he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe it was only one world? One tiny Hellhound world.