by Kim Faulks
He’d hurt. He’d bleed. He’d do anything we demanded and all without saying a word.
Family defines you, even if it does demand sacrifice.
“We need to find the name.” Marcus scanned the room. “X, where’s Alpha?”
The small shifter never moved her head, only stared at Thorn. “He’s gone, with Gunny. I don’t know when he’ll be back.”
“And Irwin, is he gone with them?”
X shook her head.
“You think he could find this Dunford?”
X raised her head, cold rage burned in her gaze. “If he can’t, then I will.”
10
Lucas
Glass crunched in my grip. Hot pain flared, biting my palm to spill warm and red.
I unfurled my fingers catching the glint as glass shards fell, but it was the label stuck to my skin that held me.
My blood smeared the black markings of her fingers.
The vial came from the mountain. I lifted my head. If she brought it here, then…“It’ll take time, won’t it? Time for Irwin to come. Time for him to find this…Dunford. I want to see this mountain.” Glass shards fell from my hand. “What’s left of it anyway.”
“No. You stay here,” Marcus snapped and cast a glance sideways. “The Huntress is our priority. Everything else can wait. Including the damn mountain.”
The corner of my eye twitched and the hot bite of anger followed. Just breathe. He doesn’t mean it.
“I understand what you're saying.” Darkness leaked into my words. “But you might want to check your tone, brother.”
Dark eyes from the Bloodletter glinted with the challenge. “You forced our hand with the other packs. They might’ve been pissed before, but we were nothing to them, just whispers for their men to cast around. But you going there with your threats made us real. You made Haruin angry, and you put Abrial and the rest of my pack in danger. I won’t let that happen again.”
My stomach tightened. Was he fucking shitting me? His pack? What about Thorn, what about us? I glanced to the others for help. Bastian was gone—again—Isaiah was no damn help, giving me a small shake of his head. Imploring eyes murmured, don’t do it. Just let it go…
He was right. I knew he was right. But one day. One goddamn day I’d tell him what risk was.
A sharp cry came from the table. “You’re okay honey,” Doc crooned. Black glinted as she scooped the child into her arms. “She’s okay, but I need to run more tests.” She lifted her gaze. “Marcus, is there a room I can use? I need plenty of space, lots of power outlets and I need help moving this stuff here. Marcus? Marcus.”
My bull-headed brother wrenched his gaze to her. He blinked, and then slowly nodded. “Yes, anything you need Doc.”
“You can take my car,” Michael muttered and dug into his pocket. Keys clanged at the end of his fingers. “Unless you need me to come.”
I shook my head. He cast the keys high. Marcus turned following the movement as I took a step and caught them midair.
The bull could roar and fume all he damn well wanted. Other things occupied my mind.
Other things like the violent dark-eyed Princess.
She came here for death and blood—and it seemed she left with neither. But there was a loss of something. I felt it like the nagging voice inside my head. She took something that didn’t belong to her, and it wasn’t Thorn.
I left behind the words of war and hate and strode along the hallway, past Isaiah’s bedroom to slow at Bastian’s. The door was closed, darkness peeked out from under the door. I raised my fist and rapped on the door. “Hey kid, you in there?”
Silence answered. I tested the handle, finding the damn thing locked and leaned in close. “You’re starting to worry me here.”
A low growl slipped through the cracks. “Go away.”
I clenched my jaw until the muscles bulged. Stay here. Go away. I almost felt like a whipped dog. This damn family was fucking killing me. I stared at the chipped paint and waited. “I dunno what’s up with you. But your family needs you out there.”
“Leave me the fuck alone, Lucas. Just get away from me.”
I flinched at the hateful snarl and dropped my hand. Fucking brothers. “You want to be a moody brat, fine be a goddamn moody brat. But we’ve got bigger things to worry about than you. So get your ass out of bed, and go tell Marcus you’re fine.”
Inside the room the bedsprings howled, and then fell silent. I glanced over my shoulder to the voices of my kin, and then turned to the empty hall.
Sunlight splashed through the open door of my bedroom. I followed the glow, catching a thick smear of black blood mid-way along the frame. My feet moved on their own, closing the distance and then stopped.
The smudge was dried, three long fingers on one side and the print of a thumb on the other. I stepped closer, searching the corners and the walls. There was too much left unanswered to just walk away.
I’d always been the one to butt heads with Marcus—why stop now?
My trousers hung in one corner, just as I left them days ago. But the mess of purple, blue and yellow clothes that were scattered across the unmade bed were most definitely not mine.
A cot sat against the wall. Small, thin wooden spokes that belied the precious being it kept safe. These four walls had been mine for as long as I could remember, and now they belonged to another. I searched for a sense of loss and found none, only a glint of satisfaction while I stared at the child’s bed.
We came to this place to lick our wounds and hide, and we’d done that until we forgot there was a rest of the world.
But now the world saw us. Now the world wanted the blood that was owed.
First Zadoc, and now his Dragon daughter. I searched the room, lingering on the bare wall where three lonely hooks held nothing.
The prophecy was coming.
An end to end it all.
The urgency sped my heart. My damn fingers trembled as I reached for the barren hooks. She’d taken something that didn’t belong to her, without knowing it was magic. “Very sloppy, Princess. Very sloppy indeed.”
The clothes in the cupboard could be replaced. The goddamn room meant nothing…but the arrowhead…the goddamn arrowhead. I turned away. Of all the fucking things to touch, of all the fucking things to take. That smug fucking chuckle echoed inside my head. “Say one fucking word, and I’ll bash my own brains in to shut you up.”
Still the sonofabitch sniggered as I turned from the room, filling my head with the hateful sound. I’ll go back there, to that fucking underground cave and take the stone.
Joslyn cradled Thorn as I stepped into the lounge room. But the young mother no longer bounced, and she no longer wept. She looked hollow now, eaten from the inside out with hate and fear. But she held our purpose, our future, all in the palms of her small hands.
I slipped from the house and headed for the cars. Michael’s four-wheel drive was older, battered. Deep scratches marred the paintwork along one side. I hit the lock and climbed in. The inside stank of wolf and blood. I shoved the key into the ignition and turned my wrist.
Dark eyes floated to the forefront of my mind. The Princess came to my home to take a life, and yet she took something else—something that belonged to me. Something I wanted back. But first I needed to know, and understand. Why the fuck did she take something of mine—something that had no significance—not to her.
First, I wanted to see this mountain, and what the Huntress left behind. My family was hurting. I’d lost my brother for long enough. I sure as Hell wasn’t going to lose him again.
If I could see the vile things they did to Thorn, then maybe I might begin to understand.
Why? Do you think it will help you? The Archer’s muffled words filled my head. You think it’ll somehow help you understand? Help you fight what you really are?
“Shut up. Just stay behind that fucking wall, and shut the Hell up. I don’t want to hear it, and I don’t want to hear you.”
My empty threat fill
ed the cabin as I headed along the drive and turned left.
A snigger slipped underneath that wall and lingered. I pressed the accelerator and the car surged forward, as though the metal beast knew the way on its own, and all I had to do was hold on.
An ache flared. I did hold on while the icy wall inside my head smoked and weeped. I held on while silver flames danced inside dark, brooding fucking eyes. I held on while that deep voice whispered. You think knowing her will know me? You think you can outrun what you really are?
“Fuck you.”
The snigger grew louder, filling my head with the wretched sound. Oh, I’m sorry. I didn't realize the truth stung. He inhaled hard, slowly exhaled and the rush of breath filled my ears. You want me to kiss it better?
“Fuck you.”
A nerve jumped at the corner of my eye. I focused on the road and the endless damn green as the miles and the hours slipped by. I thought about the child…and the excited whispers from Xael. More Dragon babies…
I almost wanted to believe her, almost wanted to be happy for her. But we were never supposed to fall in love, and our line was never supposed to continue. Xael of all people should understand that. The fate of our kind was always meant to end on our final death. Twelve Dragons. Twelve Signs. Twelve Guardians to last until the Gods decided to grant us final peace.
Maybe the prophecy was real…maybe this was the end.
I pushed the car harder, glimpsing Flinders City in the distance, and imagined this world filled with fire and flames. Still the pieces of this puzzle didn’t make sense. We had a demon army filled to the brim with young shifters and a cruel fucking bitch who wanted Thorn for herself, so why the Vampires…and why the Princess?
The questions nagged me, even more than the damn Dragon in my head. Now we had a name…Dunford. It sounded like a family name, and given by someone we couldn’t trust. Gas stations passed by with a blur. The front of the car rose, climbing the first of a long ridge.
But could we? The Vampire came back to the house knowing what waited, knowing we would… Our alliance with the Vampires was a farce, somehow I knew that from the very beginning. But the real reason was why?
Too many damn pieces, and the puzzle seemed to get bigger by the fucking day. Flashing lights on the road up ahead caught my gaze. I slowed the car, checked my speed, and then turned my head to the crater in the goddamn earth.
My brother lied, and so had the others. The humans will never suspect…landslide…he warned me. But this was more than a few cast aside boulders. This…was utter devastation. “Jesus brother. Remind me to never piss you off.”
The red beacon waved back and forth. I slowed for the road worker and rolled down the window. He dropped his head to peek into the car as I slowed to a stop, fluorescent yellow beamed bright. I glanced at his weather-beaten face. “Looks like a mess.”
“They’re calling it a landslide, but there’s word it could be a bomb—so the entire area is being shut down. Where you headed?”
My mind raced. I glanced at the side of the road and wracked my brain. “Cardiff, for a few days and then back to Flinders.”
He nodded and shifted his gaze to the passenger’s seat and the back. “I’ll let you through, but check the conditions on your way back. Goddamn bombs. This whole fucking area could damn well blow.”
I gave a nod and forced a smile. “I will, thanks.”
He stepped backwards, making his way to the orange traffic cones and dragged them along the asphalt. I rolled up the window and eased the car through. “Bomb huh? The humans will never suspect my ass.”
Caution tape cut across the dirt road that speared from the highway, and up ahead there was the same. The glint of red lights peeked through the mass of green. I stared at the annihilation. Mammoth trees lay on their side, blocking the well-worn tracks.
From the highway the place didn’t look so bad. But here, up close I could see the utter devastation. Trees with roots and all had been ripped from the top of the mountain and cast aside. They lay scattered around the base, blocking the dirt tracks. This goddamn open canker spilled more than Vampires and wolves for the world to see—it shoved us out in the open with them. The humans were already panicking, calling for a damn war to wipe us from the face of this earth.
But so far there’d been nothing more than quiet threats and whispers of war.
Until now…
But we couldn’t fight everyone, right?
The car climbed, leaving the flashing red beacons behind, and as I crested the rise, the more destruction I saw. The earth was gouged, not just a boulder here and there, but hunks of dirt and rocks savaged and clawed, leaving the top of the mountain open and raw. No wonder they suspected a bomb. I divided my focus between the road and the mountain, trying to find remnants of the Huntress’s caves.
A white news van parked on the shoulder cut into my view. A male aimed the camera at the carnage, a perfect backdrop for the young reporter who spoke into the lens.
“Gotta be more careful, Michael. Just one more reason why I can’t…”
Can’t? Can’t what…trust me?
Can’t give in, can’t trust the beast. Not now, not when I need to be in control.
The sight slipped behind me as I crested the rise. I squinted with the glare of an afternoon sun and caught the edge of a track. Long grass hid the entrance, too long to be well worn. I glanced to the rearview and tapped the brakes. If I couldn’t come in from the main track, then maybe there was a way to the mountain from the other side.
Only one way to find out. I downshifted and turned the wheel, finding rocks and grass, then the steep decline. The wheels slipped, and then caught. I used the gears, slowing the descent and cut through the middle of a bank of trees until the hard rise to the road was a blur of pine and fir.
I crawled the car forward, until the faint track disappeared under a mess of saplings and brush. Branches scraped the car’s underbelly as I carved a new path until one toppled gigantic pine pulled the car to a stop. It was crushed, one side beaten and broken by the biggest boulder I’d ever seen.
The dirt was still dark and wet, freshly torn from the ground and cast into the air. My brother did this. The thought stilled my hands as I killed the engine. Love and fear. Hate and passion. Both were two sides of the same coin.
But it wasn’t a coin for me. Not while the beast inside waited, and not while he yearned. Never had I battled with anything as dark as my own soul.
I turned off the engine and shouldered open the door. The thud of the car door echoed, and fell flat, consumed by the forest around me. I glanced at the trees and the rise of the ground and started. Night was coming, and I wanted to be home well before the darkness settled in.
I took stock of the markings, the boulders and the trees, stopping once to gain my bearings before surging forward. Rocks skidded from under my boots. I found footings in soft fresh earth and unearthed rocks forcing my way higher until I skimmed across the flat face that was once the mountain summit.
Trees leaned, dropping lower with exposed roots pointing skyward. This place was still alive, still moving, settling. I glanced at what was left of the ridge to find remnants of the entrance. The way Doc spoke it seemed as though there were two ways into the underground lair. One for military operations, and the other for whatever sick shit they did to the child.
I wanted to know…no, I needed to know. I’d left my family, right before they needed me the most. No matter how many times I whispered the words, the truth was, it still felt like betrayal. I swallowed hard and searched the fallen trees. Maybe Marcus had been right. Maybe I turned the spotlight on all of us, and for what?
To make ourselves heard.
The Archer’s whisper slipped through the cracks. “Well, we did that, didn’t we? We made ourselves a bigger enemy than we wanted. Almost feels like we walked into a battle at the wrong goddamn time.”
Or the right time…
A glint of something cut through the trees. The right time. That was
what the Archer wanted me to think; maybe that was what he needed me to think. I crouched, and speared my fingers into the cold dirt. Pebbles tumbled, falling in my wake as I skidded down the mountain face. I focused on that glare. It was big. Bigger than shattered glass, bigger than any fallen debris.
The hard edge stuck into the air. A box of some kind. The face was hard against the ground, but I didn’t need to turn the damn thing over to see what it was. A generator.
I scanned the area. Steel glinted from under the rubble. I followed the path of destruction to the darkened hollow in the middle of the rise. One side of the tunnel was caved in, and the other held strong. It had to be the cavern. A burrow speared out on the right, and I followed the trail until there was no more.
I wanted to see the room, see the horror of the tubes and the blood. My world, my family’s world had been turned upside down and I needed to understand, to somehow make sense of all this. Michael said this path was slippery, he said we had to be careful, and he wasn’t talking about the grip of our damn boots.
I shoved my heel into the dirt and climbed. Zadoc would’ve slaughtered that Vampire without a second thought. We all hurt, we all felt…even after all these years. But after a thousand years we still hadn’t learned.
My boots skidded, driving me forward against the earth. I shoved, scurried, and climbed to where the shadows waited. I took one look behind me and stepped inside. I kicked stones and reached for the sides, following one slow step after another. Sunlight flooded the gaps in the ceiling, enough to show me the way.
Dirt rained down from above as I pushed through. I sucked in my gut and squeezed my thick chest around boulders and jutting edges—still the way was clear enough. I followed the tread made by heavy boots until a dark drop caught my eye. I knelt and pressed my fingers into the dirt. Fresh blood.
The blood was hours old…not days. I blinked and stared into the darkness as my heart picked up pace. “Anyone there?”
Outside the screech of an owl answered, and the icy breath of rage followed. I glanced to the blood. The Huntress could be down here, hiding. And if she was?
