20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  “You stay here and protect the hatchlings,” he ordered, as if the twin goddesses had left the earth dragon as the sole ruler of Nebty and guardian of the Gateway of the Two Ladies. They hadn’t. Nut and Geb ruled together. Some days, like today, when the inevitable war for power and dominance erupted, Geb’s protective nature made him high-handed and unyielding.

  Glancing behind her at the cracked white shell and to the baby dragons huddled behind the fragments, Nut understood Geb’s position, although the thought of leaving her mate set the fire in her belly to boiling.

  “If I fall in battle, your sky magic and ferocity will be all that stands between the foolish among us from getting their claws on the scepters.”

  “I know.” Nut stepped closer to her mate, her snout going to one of his thick necks and rubbing. “It’s not just our dragon betrayers who want the power of the scepters that you must defeat, but the Demon Kingdom who seeks unfettered access to the human realm.”

  That was as close as Nut would get to acknowledging the very real possibility that her mate may not survive this dark and dangerous night. For years, the Demon Kingdom, led by King Sansabonsom, had sought to undermine the rules set forth by the goddesses after they’d sought eternal rest within the scepters, leaving Nut and Geb as the gatekeepers between the preternatural and human realms.

  Even as they spoke of Nut fleeing with their daughters and Geb remaining behind, sounds of warfare permeated the cold winter air, echoed by bodies crashing from the sky in flaming scales of defeat.

  “Not all want the scepters. The strongest of our allies will stay and fight.” Geb lowered his heads and licked Nut’s face, an affectionate gesture she feared would be their last. “I need you to lead the others to safety, especially the young ones. If they stay, I can’t guarantee their safety.”

  A stream of fire emerged from the darkness and behind Geb. The spray of molten heat slammed into the earth dragon. His wings, instinctively, snapped out and up to shield Nut and their hatchlings. With a bellow of fury, Geb leaped into the air, his wings taking him on a collision course with a lava dragon who possessed none of the earth dragon’s size or might.

  In a matter of seconds, Geb had one of his mouths locked around the dragon’s reddish-black neck, and the other jaw clamped onto a black wing. With a hard tug, the wing and head disconnected from the dragon’s body. Magma spurted and oozed. The dead lava dragon smashed to the charred ground with a resounding thud.

  Spitting out the wing and head, Geb turned to Nut, who still stood at the mouth of the cave. As they stared at each other, dragons not involved in the war began to move toward her. Most of them were dragon mothers with their hatchlings or dragons too young, old, or small to fight on either side but old enough to help tend to the youngest in their party.

  “Take care of them, Nut. Fighting is easy, living and building from the ash of ruin are hard. Be well, my queen. And be safe. Tell my daughters I love the—”

  Six dragons attacked Geb. Claws, tails, and fire sent him flying backward but not down and definitely not out of the battle. With an ear-piercing roar of rage, the two-headed earth dragon counterattacked. Fire, wings, and scales collided in the morbid, dark sky, the dragon battle epic in its savagery and sacrilege.

  Dragons weren’t created to fight each other or intended to use the goddesses’ magic for personal gain and short-sighted goals of power and privilege. Yet, anarchy reigned. Her beloved Geb would fight the dragon traitors who would steal the scepters, rule the preternatural realm, and turn a blind eye while the Demon Kingdom invaded the human realm and feasted on the flesh of children.

  With a heavy heart, Nut looked away from her heroic mate and to the dragons awaiting her directive. She would lead them to safety, as Geb had ordered. He and his most trusted allies were fighting to give Nut time to get as many dragons through the gateway and into the realm of humans.

  With a low rumble, she called her daughters to her. On young, unsteady legs, they came, and she used her tail to lift them onto her back. She took to the sky, leading a caravan of dragons away from the only home they’ve known and toward the Gateway of the Two Ladies.

  Makara, mate to Asir, one of the border guards who’d aligned with the demon king, flew by her side. Her oldest hatchling, Osiris, trailed behind his rock dragon mother, as best he could. Set, Makara’s youngest dragon, held onto his mother’s back, dark eyes wide and frightened.

  Nut heard the demons before she saw them. Not only did demons have a taste for human children, but they were also known to eat the young of any species, including demon hatchlings. The sound of bat wings chased the caravan as they sped through the sky and toward the gateway that would take them to the other side. A few more miles and they would reach their destination.

  In no time, two columns with an archway and hieroglyphic writing decorating the divine structure loomed before Nut and her charges. The demons right behind them, three hundred or more, from the sound of their wings.

  Nut couldn’t risk opening the gateway and having the hordes of demons follow them through.

  “What are we going to do?” Makara asked. “The young ones are exhausted. If the demons catch up to us, they won’t have enough energy to fight or flee.”

  Nut knew. She’d set a demanding pace from the Cave of Dep and to the Gateway of the Two Ladies. Increasing her speed when the demons began their pursuit. During the race to safety, she’d lost no dragon. Mature dragons had to secure the hatchlings who’d started out flying under their own power and load them onto their backs. Makara had wasted no time coiling her strong, long tail around Osiris’s winded body and setting him behind his younger brother, who cowered between his mother’s rock indentations and wept like the terrified three-year-old he was.

  Not questioning the ramifications of her plan, Nut called to the two border guards stationed at the gateway, both ice dragons. They responded with a quickness that gave Nut renewed hope.

  “Yes, my queen.”

  “An ice wall between them and us. Now.”

  “Yes, my queen.”

  “Will the ice stop them?” Makara watched the ice dragons fly past the group, her question likely shared by others.

  “Not for long and not without my help. Do you have room for two more passengers?”

  Before Makara could reply, Aset, a fifteen-year-old shadow dragon, young yet big for her age, answered. “I’ll take the princesses, my queen.”

  Under different circumstances, Nut wouldn’t entertain the thought of having such a young and inexperienced dragon serve in the role of protector for her hatchlings. But these times demanded decisive action, earned trust, and unflinching faith.

  Aset’s parents, members of Geb’s personal guard, were back there, fighting for not only Nebty and the human realm, but for all preternaturals who would be threatened if the demons controlled their realm.

  Nut turned her daughters over to Aset, who used her shadow magic to blend into the darkness. Even she could barely see the onyx dragon.

  Unburdened, Nut turned to face the three demon hordes. The ice dragons, as white as freshly fallen snow, blew out torrents of white-and-blue liquid crystal that solidified when they hit the air. The wall began to form, long and high but not strong enough to keep the demons, with their sharp claws, razor wings, and elongated fangs, from slicing through.

  There simply wasn’t time for the two ice dragons to build an impenetrable barrier.

  The first set of demons broke through, crashing into the weakest and lowest part of the wall.

  “Strengthen the barricade but fly backward.”

  The border guards did as commanded. Nut would not leave these dragons behind as they covered the caravan’s retreat. No more sacrificed dragons.

  The sky dragon hovered in the air, her eyes cast upward and to the stars above. She called to them, sparkling lights of order to the demons’ chaos.

  With a roared command, the stars above the demons lowered, and the sky below rose. The heavenly bodies stretched and arch
ed, resembling a dragon on its back clawed feet while extending the massive girth of its body over a copse of trees, with its clawed front feet on the other side.

  “I hold your souls between my sky,” her voice boomed. “You will not see the light of another day.”

  Sky and stars corralled the demons, as the ice dragons not only built an ice wall but an ice fortress that encircled the demons.

  The sky above the wall lifted, and the stars multiplied, creating a dome of cosmic energy.

  “Go through the gateway,” she ordered the ice dragons.

  Taking off, Nut waited until the two dragons were safely through. She flew backward, her eyes on the prison and listening to the sound of demon claws scratching at the thick ice, followed by the thudding of rammed bodies against the prison.

  When she reached the Gateway of the Two Ladies, a king cobra image of Wadjet on the right and Nekhbet, in vulture form, on the left of the arc, Nut took one last look at her beloved Nebty. For over a thousand years, dragons served as the gatekeepers, determining the preternaturals who would be permitted to leave their realm and travel to the realm of humans.

  The goddesses created dragons for this very purpose, placing the floating island nation of Nebty, the name ancient Egyptians gave to the twin deities, in front of the gateway. No preternatural could pass through without permission from the King and Queen of Nebty—Geb and Nut.

  Now, with the harsh sound of battle and the scent of blood carried on the wind, Nut’s heart broke. Dragons were meant to protect the human realm at all cost. The Demon Kingdom could not be allowed to win, even if Geb and Nebty fell to King Sansabonsom.

  Resolve had Nut flying through the gateway. Darkness and godly magic met her. From there, she could see both realms. The bright light of early morning in front of her and the dark clouds of midnight behind. The tunnel between the realms had many names, depending on the preternatural culture. Gargoyles called it Borlun, elves Gweyr, griffins Ghostcrest. For dragons, the tunnel was known as the Eye of Ra because it saw all.

  Flying to the edge of the tunnel and cursing the traitorous dragons and opportunistic demons, Nut filled her belly with sky magic, breathed deep and brought it from her stomach, up her body and out her throat in a devastating rush of fire.

  She scorched the Gateway of the Two Ladies and the Eye of Ra, refilling her lungs with fire and releasing it over and again until the gateway collapsed and the space between the realms disintegrated under the heat of her dragon fire.

  Geb, forgive me.

  Chapter 1

  Upstate New York

  Philae Manor

  One Hundred Years Later

  "This one's from me."

  Nephthys handed Isis a flat rectangular box covered with shiny red wrapping paper. It didn't look like the other gifts she'd opened. There were no cute baby bows and ribbons, no pinks, yellows, or whites, no "For baby," tag hanging from it.

  Isis frowned, knowing her twin sister far too well to think that what she held in her hand was appropriate for a baby shower.

  "Are you going to open it or what?"

  If it weren't for the way Nephthys's brown eyes sparkled when she was up to something mischievous, Isis might have been fooled by the dragon’s innocent smile and bubbling enthusiasm. But she did know her sister, which had Isis leaning forward as far as she could in a chair that had been decorated with white silk fabric and pink bows for the occasion.

  Nephthys, as tall as Isis at six feet and with the same rich brown complexion, almond-shaped eyes, and braided hair, which fell to her sister’s waist, knelt in front of Isis with an impatient smile. She lowered her voice. "Have you forgotten that Mother and Makara are sitting behind you and that this is a baby, not a bridal shower?"

  At the mention of their mother and Osiris’s mother, her sister crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "You're no fun. How can you possibly know what's in the box?"

  Isis smiled and resettled her back against the plush, red leather throne chair Aset had insisted on for the shower. She was positive, the overpriced chair was one of those baby shower rental chairs intended to make the mother-to-be feel like a queen. Funny, since Isis, technically, was Queen of Nebty.

  "I have no idea what's in your indiscreet box, but I do know my little sister."

  Isis and Nephthys may be twins, born of the earth dragon Geb and the sky dragon Nut, but they didn’t hatch on the same day or even during the same season. Isis came first when the sun reigned high in the sky and a white-tailed kite, a great sparrow, a lappet-faced vulture, and a king cobra settled, at once and in harmony, on the ancient sycamore tree on the floating island nation of Nebty.

  As Isis claimed the summer solstice as her birthday, Nephthys entered the world the day of the winter solstice, the light of the moon to Isis’s heat of the sun. On the day of her twin’s birth, white lotus grew around the same ancient sycamore tree. The white blooms created a path from the one-hundred-foot tree to the Cave of Dep.

  Nephthys returned Isis’s smile, white teeth and youthful beauty. She stood, kissed Isis on the cheek and then whispered in her ear. "It's just a little something to make you feel sexy after having the baby."

  Ah, Isis liked that idea.

  "Red or white?" she whispered back.

  "Both." Nephthys placed another kiss on her cheek. "And I know you, big sister. Enjoy."

  Nephthys turned away from her and raised her voice so Isis’s mate, who'd been hovering at the edges of the female gathering, could hear her. "You're welcome, Osiris."

  Osiris narrowed his eyes at Nephthys, knowing her antics almost as well as Isis.

  Nephthys laughed, and so did she.

  Isis spent the next thirty minutes opening gifts for the baby while all the women in attendance oohed and aahed.

  By the time she finished, Isis was overwhelmed. Not by the gifts, although she appreciated each one, but by the love and friendship that surrounded her, filling her home and her heart.

  Isis closed her eyes, placed her hand on her protruding belly, and sighed with joy. Soon she would be a mother, and the thought no longer frightened her as it did when the doctor had confirmed her suspicions. Isis had moved past fear and was now in a state of anticipated bliss.

  Osiris’s father had betrayed Isis’s father, which had too much significance to others but none to the couple. They’d decided, when they began dating, to not allow the past to taint the present or the future.

  Dragon history noted that Wadjet and Nekhbet, twin deities, helped unify Upper and Lower Egypt under a single pharaoh. Afterward, they turned their attention to the preternatural realm and its disparate species, some of which preyed on humans. The goddesses used a portion of their godly power to create dragons, first Nut and Geb, and then other dragons. Eventually, the goddesses converted their essence into two scepters, the Moon Scepter of Nekhbet and the Sun Scepter of Wadjet.

  As with many powerful objects, they were prized commodities many would do anything to acquire, including betraying friends, family, and king.

  A hand joined hers on her stomach. Isis opened her eyes and met her mother's teary ones.

  "I thought you promised not to cry."

  "I promised not to cry in front of everyone." Nut glanced about the spacious living room where family and friends had gathered. "No one's paying me the least bit of attention, so I can shed a tear or two without embarrassing us both."

  Nut smiled at Isis, all her love and hope for her eldest child shining through a watery veil. This was the side of Nut, founder of Dragon Investment Group, that people rarely saw. To many, she was a cold and calculating businesswoman with a heart of marble. She was a viper in the boardroom. But when it came to her family, her daughters, there was no more loving of a dragon mother.

  "My hatchling is about to have a baby." With grace, she settled in the chair next to Isis and rolled her eyes upward. "I'm too young to be a grandmother."

  Isis opened her mouth, ready to remind her mother that while she may look and play the role of a
fifty-four-year-old human that being a dragon over a thousand years old couldn’t be considered young by any standard. She stopped and closed her mouth when she saw the way Nut glared at her with a silent challenge to dispute her claim.

  Yes, well, sometimes Nut could be a viper outside of the boardroom too. Taking a page out of Osiris’s book for dealing with difficult people, Isis smiled politely and shut her mouth.

  Appeased, Nut nodded and patted Isis's hand. "All will be fine."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Have I ever lied to you?"

  "Never."

  "Then trust me when I say, all will be fine."

  A tear slipped from Isis, then another and another. She wiped at them. When in Nut’s presence, she could admit that she wasn’t as confident about becoming a mother as she would like to believe.

  Three hours later, Isis stood in front of her full-length mirror, examining the changes her pregnancy had on her body. Her breasts were huge and heavy, and Isis didn't even want to think about having a baby suckle from her sore breasts. Not, she admitted with a sensual grin, she ever minded having Osiris suck them.

  Speaking of Osiris, what was taking him so long to shower? Isis was in one of her moods, and it had taken all her composure not to do something about it earlier when the house was full of well-wishers.

  At eleven o’clock, everyone had gone home or to bed. Well, not Nephthys, who liked to dance, party, and drink, almost as much as she enjoyed the attention of men—dragon and human. Her twin was likely in a New York City club somewhere, a sexual predator among unsuspecting male prey.

  Thankfully, Isis had convinced Aset to tag along to keep an eye on her, which meant Serqet, Hathor, and Merit would follow. Her friends needed a night off from serving as her Tyet guards, which they wouldn’t have taken if Isis had given the night to them. This way, Nephthys could have her fun and so would the four dragons. Her sister could take of herself, which would leave the Tyets no choice but to relax and enjoy themselves. A win-win for all involved.