The buffet was fantastic, and Dra’Kaedan ate enough to feed a small family and then enjoyed a few pieces of cake and ice cream. Dra’Kaedan and Brogan told their family about summoning his familiar, so after their meal was devoured and cleaned up they all adjourned to their usual gathering place in the living room.
Brogan was using his tablet to look up prospective names for his familiar as Dra’Kaedan stood in the middle of the room with his brother and Derwin. He felt a bit nervous so he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then cast the spell that would turn the mark on his back into a living, breathing magical entity.
The air around him vibrated and crackled with energy and Dra’Kaedan popped his eyes open to see a blond man standing in front of him. He had only a moment to notice that although his familiar’s curls were shorter than his own their eyes were the same dark blue, before the man dropped to the ground and began pounding his fists and feet against the floor as he filled the room with screams.
“What the hell?” Dra’Kaedan blurted out as he watched his familiar having some sort of fit.
“You said the right words, right?” Dre’Kariston yelled over the screams and Dra’Kaedan shot him a glare to let him know what he thought of his brother’s question.
“Is he dying?” Derwin wailed out, as he wrung his hands with worry.
“Dying?” He barely managed to get the question out before the screeching and thrashing abruptly stopped, and the man stood up.
“I am not dying,” the blond informed them.
“Then what the hell is wrong with you?” It was probably rude, but Dra’Kaedan had had a pretty momentous last twenty-four hours, and this was supposed to be an easy freaking spell.
The blond looked annoyed, “Hello! Look at me.”
“You look all right to me.” Great, maybe his familiar had a screw or two loose from Carvallius’ dark magic.
“I’m short. I’m shorter than you and your mate probably has to put you in a car seat when you want to travel.” Aleksander roared with laughter as Dra’Kaedan pulled the corners of his mouth inward to hide his smile. Dra’Kaedan shook his head and thought that it was only natural his familiar would turn out to be a little shit.
“I’ve got the perfect name,” Brogan announced from the couch.
“What is it?” the familiar asked Dra’Kaedan’s mate.
“Renny,” Brogan offered.
His familiar appeared to be mulling it over. “What does it mean?”
“Small and defiant,” Brogan informed him with a grin.
“I like it,” Renny declared and Dra’Kaedan knew without a doubt that his familiar was going to work very hard at living up to his rebellious new moniker.
“Welcome to the family, Renny D’Vairedraconis,” Aleksander said, after wiping the tears of hilarity from his cheeks and Renny offered their king a bow.
“Thank you, King Tut,” Renny replied to Aleksander and they shook hands with a smile. Dra’Kaedan’s familiar was going to fit right into this crazy ass house. It was possible that he was going to turn out to be an even bigger brat that Dra’Kaedan himself.
Walking into the living room, Brogan was immediately assaulted by loud music and a female singer promising to marry the night. Blodwen, Dra’Kaedan and his brother, and both of their familiars were grinding their bodies to the tune, and Brogan nearly forgot why he’d come into the room in the first place. His eyes locked onto the firm; denim-clad ass of his mate and he couldn’t help but lick his lips. Dra’Kaedan was a very talented and sensual dancer. Brogan would have been content to watch his mate all day, but Dre’Kariston spotted him standing there and turned down the music to see what he wanted.
“What’s up?”
“Emperor Chrysander just called, the council wants us to come to headquarters.” Brogan was disappointed that the dancing stopped as they all reacted to his announcement.
“When do we go?” Dra’Kaedan asked and came over to tug Brogan down for a kiss.
Brogan smooched his mate twice before responding. “Tomorrow.”
“Did the emperor give Aleksander any clue as to whether or not he thought we would get approved?” The question came from Blodwen and unfortunately Brogan was unable to offer her any reassurance.
“He gave him no clue at all.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll convince them,” Dre’Kariston said and wrapped his arm around his friend. The truth was they had no idea if they could convince the council to allow them to run a sanctuary by their own rules, but Brogan was hopeful that it would happen.
But right now, Brogan wanted to watch his mate dance again. “You should go back to what you were doing, you looked hot,” Brogan told Dra’Kaedan, who was also doing his best to reassure his pals.
“Why don’t you join us?” Dra’Kaedan invited, which caused Brogan to laugh.
“Yeah, no one wants to see me dance; it’s not pretty.” Brogan wasn’t joking, his ability to move in any discernible rhythm was nonexistent.
“So you think I’m just going to perform for you?” Dra’Kaedan asked, his tone teasing.
“Exactly, I am going to sit here and enjoy.” Brogan took a seat on the couch and waved his hand in a lordly manner. “Go on.”
His mate slapped his hands on his hips. “So not happening.”
“It’s not like you haven’t danced for anyone before,” Dre’Kariston accused his brother and Brogan watched as Dra’Kaedan gave him a murderous glare.
Brogan had to know what Dre’Kariston was talking about. “He did what?”
“Nothing. I did nothing,” his mate said way too quickly.
“Liar,” Dre’Kariston said, as he poked his twin in the arm.
Brogan leaned forward to grab his mate, but Dra’Kaedan backed out of his reach. “Spill.”
“Well, there was-” Dre’Kariston’s explanation was cut off abruptly as Dra’Kaedan set his brother on fire. Unlike Brogan’s experience with Dra’Kaedan’s fire spell, Dre’Kariston appeared not to take any damage. He just stared at his brother in boredom as the flames licked around him.
“Really?” Dre’Kariston drolled out and waved a hand over himself that extinguished the flames. “Anyway, as I was saying-” He was interrupted again as Dra’Kaedan turned his brother into a little black puppy.
“Oh! A puppy! Can we keep him?” Renny exclaimed as he dropped down to the floor to pet the puppy version of Dre’Kariston.
Clearly Brogan needed to reign in his mate. “Dra’Kaedan, turn your brother back.”
Dra’Kaedan let out a gusty sigh. “Fine.”
Renny was practically knocked back on his ass as the puppy changed back into Dre’Kariston. Dra’Kaedan’s familiar stuck out his bottom lip. “I liked him better as a puppy.”
“Hey shitface, do that again and your ass is going to be covered in giant hemorrhoids.” Brogan let out a bark of laughter at Dre’Kariston’s threat. Dra’Kaedan turned to look at him with a smile.
“Your brother threatened me nearly the same way once,” Brogan told Dre’Kariston, as Dra’Kaedan glared at him for laughing.
“You going to let me tell the story or do I need to turn you into a cactus until I’m done?” Dre’Kariston’s threat filled Brogan’s head with all sorts of jokes about prickers, but he feared Dre’Kariston’s wrath, so he wisely stayed quiet.
“Tell the damn story,” Dra’Kaedan conceded to his brother, after they eyeballed each other fiercely for a full minute. Brogan tried again to snatch his mate, but he still wasn’t cooperating.
“Fine, when we were in our teens our parents made us attend dinners with guests at the castle,” Dre’Kariston sat down on the floor next to Renny as he began his story.
“You hated them,” Dra’Kaedan said to his brother as he too sat.
Dre’Kariston smiled. “And you loved going because they always had the best food.”
Surprise, surprise.
“So true,” Dra’Kaedan agreed.
“You don’t seem anti-social to me, why did you hate the
m?” Brogan asked his mate’s brother.
“Because we were meant to lead our race. We were young and not yet mated. We had suitors,” Dre’Kariston said with disgust.
Dra’Kaedan laughed. “Dre’Kariston hates to flirt.”
“I hate to flirt with men who are only interested in me because of my power.”
“None of them bothered me,” Brogan’s mate said smugly.
“Of course not. You told anyone who would listen you were going to mate with a dragon. You also said you were saving yourself for your dragon. I think a lot of them were afraid you were insane. If that didn’t scare them away, you just stuffed your face and ignored them,” Dra’Kaedan’s brother explained in exasperation.
Brogan smiled at Dre’Kariston’s accusations. “So how did he wind up dancing for anyone?” he asked.
“V’Adryann showed up,” Dre’Kariston replied.
“He was hot,” Dra’Kaedan added and Brogan frowned at his mate.
“Hey, you aren’t supposed to say that about other men and I thought you were asexual before we met.”
“As a familiar I was, but warlocks are not. Besides, it was centuries ago, and the man is dead,” Dra’Kaedan argued, but Brogan continued to glare at his mate.
“He was a dumbass. ‘Dra’Kaedan, our names rhyme. We were meant to be special to each other,’” Dre’Kariston mimicked the long dead V’Adryann.
Dra’Kaedan chuckled and met Brogan’s gaze. “I guess I’ve always had a thing for cheesy lines.”
“That is way cheesier than anything I’ve ever said,” Brogan defended and he knew Dra’Kaedan agreed when he gave him a wink. “So, you danced for a dumbass?”
“Yeah, and after I did he came to visit the castle again,” Dra’Kaedan replied and cast a rueful glance at his brother.
“And then you punched him in the nose,” Dre’Kariston added.
“All I wanted was to look at a pretty man. But he tried to get me to kiss him and then he tried to grab my dick under the table. He deserved it,” Dra’Kaedan explained.
“I’m surprised he got away with just a punch,” Brogan mused.
Dra’Kaedan gave him a look of dismay. “You know me better than that, mate. After he left that night, I cast a spell that turned his ass into such a mess I heard he had to stand for a week straight.”
“You’re insane. Get over here and kiss me.” Dra’Kaedan came over and pressed his lips to Brogan’s as the room filled again with loud music. Pulling away from him with a smile Dra’Kaedan joined the group of D’Vaires already moving to the beat. Brogan sat back on the sofa and prepared to spend a little time drooling over his mate.
Chapter 26
The next morning the entire family gathered in the living room. They were all making the trip to council headquarters. Looking around at everyone dressed in their ceremonial attire, Dra’Kaedan could not help but think back to the last time he was on his way to the council complex. He had just arrived at Court D’Vaire with Latarian and his fondest wish at the time had been to stay with the people he wanted so badly to call his family.
Now just a few months later he was mated to one of the two dukes that Court D’Vaire had to protect them and, instead of standing next to a witch who had been dubbed as the last living example of their race, he stood next to a warlock who happened to be his twin brother. Of course, that witch was now missing, and Dra’Kaedan found that he truly did not care. He had his life to live, and he was not going to waste his energy worried about her. As far as he was concerned, his revenge was in surviving. Actually surviving was not the right word; he was finally getting the chance to live. As for Latarian, she was back to what Fate had intended her to be, a novice warlock without even the power to obtain her own familiar. Dra’Kaedan did not have anything to fear from a novice. He was not going to allow her to steal anything else from him, which meant he had one more thing to do.
The council had altered the name of warlocks to witches when it was thought that Latarian was the only one left. Dra’Kaedan hoped that today he could have his race once again officially referred to as warlocks. Like his brother, Dra’Kaedan refused to refer to himself as a witch. He had no issue with it being the female term for his race. Dra’Kaedan’s issue was that he refused to acknowledge Latarian as the head of their now defunct race. Although he wore the gold circle and blue dragon mark that heralded him as grand warlock, Dra’Kaedan didn’t feel it was necessarily important for the council to recognize him as the leader of the warlocks. Officially, their race no longer belonged to the council, and he was content to be known as a dragon.
Putting his runaway thoughts aside, he did a quick head count and, getting a nod from Aleksander, he cast the spell that sent them to the council headquarters. They headed straight for security and one of the fallen knights, upon hearing who they were, escorted them to the council assembly room. The wide doors of the room opened, and Dra’Kaedan swiveled his head from left to right and back again, as they were ushered to an area near the center of the room. Each of the D’Vaires took a seat silently, and Dra’Kaedan went back to surveying the enormous room and let the sounds of the voices in the room wash over him.
It was a circular room with a small area for each race that the council represented, each area had a large table at the front of a dark wooden alcove that proudly displayed a banner that bore the name and symbols of their race. Although the room was well lit, it was difficult to see what the alcoves contained behind the expansive tables, but squinting his eyes Dra’Kaedan could see there appeared to be people sitting behind some of the council leaders.
The cavernous room was set up in wide tiered rows to accommodate the many leaders and at the moment it was nearly full of people. On the top row, dead center in the middle of the round room was the emperor’s spot and seated next to him at the Draconis table was his brother the imperial duke. The room appeared to be designed to intimidate, and Dra’Kaedan was not immune to its effects. He realized he had a death grip on his mate’s hand and relaxed his hold slightly.
“Relax, baby,” Brogan whispered in his ear and Dra’Kaedan almost jumped out of his skin as he heard a loud banging. It took a moment to comprehend that the sound came from Emperor Chrysander thumping a gavel, trying to garner the attention of all the occupants of the large room.
“This council calls forth Duke-mate Dra’Kaedan D’Vairedraconis and Dre’Kariston D’Vairedraconis and their familiars Renny and Derwin.” The emperor’s voice carried throughout the hall, thanks to the microphone in front of him and Dra’Kaedan gave his mate a look that was a mixture of both the fear and surprise he was feeling, but Brogan just gave him a shrug. Without any real choice, Dra’Kaedan got to his feet to comply with the emperor’s request. The four of them were directed to stand at a wide podium not far from their seats, to answer to the council.
“Your Grace, I must begin by saying that, on behalf of all the leaders of the council, we were thrilled when we learned that you had survived your ordeal.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Dra’Kaedan could only assume that Aleksander had filled their leader in on recent events.
“When I became aware of your true identity and yours Dre’Kariston, I immediately notified this council. It was Arch Lich Daray that made all of us realize our responsibility toward not only the four of you, but to any other warlocks who may remain in hiding.” After speaking, Emperor Chrysander looked to his right and, with a nod turned the floor over to the leader of the necromancers. Dra’Kaedan had no real clue where this was going, but he was glad that the whole warlock name thing had apparently already been taken care of.
“It was your parents who created our council, thereby making the Coven of Warlocks the very first race to be represented. A few months ago it was our belief that your race was extinct. When Latarian arrived here, we believed her to be the only living member of your race. Due to her lineage and the fact that Fate had not marked her as a leader, it was decided that the warlocks would not rejoin this council as an official rac
e. We now know that you both live and it is our hope that there are other warlocks that may someday come forward.”
The arch lich gave a short nod to Emperor Chrysander and he once again took charge of the room, “The Council of Sorcery and Shifters officially recognizes the Coven of Warlocks, you were the first race and your place in this assembly room will honor that distinction. Grand Warlock Dra’Kaedan you are hereby recognized as the leader of the Coven of Warlocks, a title you will now share with your mate when he is not representing the Draconis Court of D’Vaire.
“Grand Summoner Dre’Kariston, you are hereby recognized as the alternate leader and advisor to the grand warlock and his mate, as is the custom of your race. When found, your mate will share your title. Your familiars and their future mates will also have access to assembly room rights, as is the custom of warlocks. You are all welcome to wear the colors and all ceremonial attire that the Coven of Warlocks uses to represent their known leaders. Gentlemen, welcome back to the council.”
When the emperor finally finished speaking, the entire room erupted in applause and many of the leaders, including the arch lich and emperor, took to their feet as Dra’Kaedan struggled to contain his tears. He had been content to be a dragon, but to be able to represent the warlocks as a part of the council was an honor he had not thought to ever be his. He knew it had been the fondest wish of his parents to see him and his brother at the head of the Coven of Warlocks and it was an unexpected honor to be given back what had been meant to be his. Carvallius had tried to destroy that dream, and he had failed. The council that his parents had begun had given them all their redemption. Happiness and pride bubbled through his veins until it nearly overwhelmed him.
Looking at his brother, he could see that his thoughts were along the same lines and, like him, Dre’Kariston was doing his best to contain his emotions. The applause eventually died down and once everyone was back in their seats Dra’Kaedan gathered his wits and spoke.
Grand Redemption (D'Vaire Book 1) Page 26
