by Ophelia Bell
I looked down into eyes the same gray-green as Bodhi’s and Maddie’s that were at odds with her dark skin and hair. “I don’t know if they’ll let me in this ward after tonight,” I said.
As if summoned by the suggestion, the night nurse appeared and gave an exasperated huff. “Mrs. Dylan! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You need to get back to bed.” She shot me a glare. “And I told you to leave.”
Susannah’s back went rigid and she turned to face the nurse. “I want Miss Rainsong on my approved visitors list, you hear me? She’s to be permitted to see me and my grandson and daughter if she comes, got it? Now tell me where you lot took my family.”
The nurse pressed her lips into a thin line. “If it’ll get you back into bed and resting, I’ll make it happen. Now will you come? Your daughter and grandson are off getting tests done. I’ll let you know when they’re finished.”
Susannah nodded and left, turning once to look back and wink at me. “You go do what you need to do, girl. I trust you.”
3
Deva
I stepped into the women’s restroom outside the ICU and glanced into the mirror. My shifter powers hadn’t manifested yet so I couldn’t shadow myself or change my appearance the way other members of my family could. I could do a couple simple things, at least, which would help disguise me a bit for my next task. I’d have tried this before, but after hanging around the ICU for three weeks, there was no way the nurses there would fall for it.
Taking a deep breath I focused my dragon nature, dispelling the conjured clothes I wore and summoning sky-blue scrubs and a white coat. At the same time, I added a bit more heat to the process, cleansing my skin of the last day’s worth of grime. Hanging around the hospital wasn’t exactly a strenuous ordeal but I liked to stay presentable, especially if I was going to impersonate a doctor.
If I’d been a full-powered member of one of the higher races, I could have gone even further with the disguise, changing my skin color and even my gender to elicit the maximum level of respect from the other employees. Three weeks of observing social dynamics around the hospital was more than enough time to grasp that human social norms were far different from the higher races. The most powerful creatures among the higher races were invariably females who resembled me in some fashion: robust and curvy with darker skin and hair. But humans somehow always seemed to defer to gray-haired, pale-skinned men. My dragon father, Aodh, would have found this task a cinch, but my surrogate mother, Vrishti, an ursa female who arguably possessed more power than either of her immortal mates, would have been ignored.
I was banking on something in between. The white coat would earn me some level of deference from the techs I was about to face, but being a dark-skinned woman made me forgettable to most of the humans I encountered—at least the ones who weren’t part of the bloodline, which accounted for the majority. To them, I may as well have been invisible, and I could use that to my advantage.
After securing my thick, black hair into a ponytail, I took a breath and closed my eyes, reaching for the threads of energy that signified the bloodline in my mind’s eye. Ever since the Spring Equinox three weeks ago, I’d been linked to the web of brilliant souls that made up the bloodline, so it was second nature now for me to find them, even if I lacked the power to communicate with them telepathically again.
The very first moment I linked to them, I had experienced the wonderful brilliance of all those souls connected. In a way, I had fallen in love with every last one of them in the blink of an eye, and the act of reaching out to them during the ritual had been a more intimate act than what I’d been doing to reach that level of power.
I suppose the experience had left me with a sense of responsibility to ensure their protection. Even though the message the higher races had me deliver promised protection, they hadn’t seemed interested in actually following through.
Not that they had any evidence that suggested there was a reason to. As far as my family was concerned, there was nothing wrong, and I couldn’t convince them otherwise. They couldn’t look at the bloodline the way I could, see the lights of a million souls happily blinking against the velvet backdrop of existence as they went about their lives. And they couldn’t have seen that moment when I’d first connected to the bloodline and dozens of those lights flickered and faded to black.
The hounds had to be the cause of those lights being snuffed out, I was sure of it, but since I’d arrived it hadn’t happened again. Still, it was clear that the bloodline was in danger, and two of the souls I’d promised myself I’d protect were somewhere in this hospital being tested for human ailments when what afflicted them was magical in origin.
I stuck my head back out the door, checking quickly for observers. Seeing no one at this early hour of morning, I slunk out and tried to look like I belonged, picking up my pace and walking with purpose in the direction of the two souls that needed saving most right now.
There was only slightly more activity in the imaging lab when I got there. A weary looking on-call doctor eyed the scans and shook his head, muttering something about them being inconclusive. Bodhi and Maddie still lay unconscious on their separate gurneys in the wide hallway. The hounds were nowhere to be seen, though, which meant it must be close to dawn. I wondered if they had an aversion to sunlight in particular or if any fire would work to repel them, or, dare I hope, kill them.
Their absence hadn’t halted the steady seep of soul juice from the pair of victims, however. It trickled out in slow droplets, fading into mist as it reached the air and floating in a faint stream across the hallway and clear through the wall. A person’s soul essence didn’t seem to follow the normal laws of physics, and I knew if I could pick up the trail and follow it, it’d lead me to the den of those beasts.
I’d take care of that soon, but for now I needed to make sure Bodhi and his mother were safe. The doctor still hunched over the tech’s shoulder, shaking his head and gesturing at the scans. The tech was getting defensive about his skill with the machine, assuring the doctor that it had been calibrated and was working the way it should.
I took a deep breath and stepped into the control room, hoping I’d picked up enough hospital lingo since being here to make my request sound plausible. “Doctor, if you’re finished with the tests, I’ll take the patients up and get them admitted.” The doctor glanced at me and made a noncommittal noise of gratitude and waved his hand. As I stepped back out, I shook my head and muttered, “You just keep looking at that scan like there’s something you’re missing. Don’t mind me.” Within moments, I had both Bodhi and his mother wheeled around the corner into an alcove by the stairwell.
Once we were out of sight of the doorway to the imaging lab, I slipped up to Bodhi’s head and bent low with my mouth close to his ear.
My musical talent was one of the few things I possessed that I could truly be proud of. I’d been told all my life how much potential I had as a hybrid of all four higher races, but had yet to see any true evidence of that. But singing I could do, even if it had no power but to strengthen someone’s soul. In this case that was all I needed.
Keeping my voice low, I sang the simplest of the pretty love songs I’d heard repeated over the hospital sound system for the past three weeks. Gazing at Bodhi’s damaged soul, I was gratified to see the sickening dimness brighten as his aura solidified around him and the link to the soul hound who had bitten him grew weak.
A heavy breath gusted against my neck as Bodhi exhaled, the sensation sending a shiver of desire through my body. My awareness suddenly filled with him; his solid presence and warmth, his salty seawater scent, the bright, beautiful glow of his damaged soul. I stopped singing abruptly when I realized the words to the song had morphed into something different . . . something instinctual that I knew better than to let out again. I could wake the man up just fine without singing him a mating song.
His chest rose, stretching the threadbare fabric of his t-shirt across sculpted muscles. I stood up as he exhaled and
was happy to see his eyes were open, studying me. He swallowed and glanced around, then sat up, groaning and holding his head.
“What the hell happened?”
“You were attacked when we stopped singing,” I said. “The hounds apparently weren’t too keen on losing the sustenance they were getting from your grandmother, so I think they took it out on you and your mother instead.”
“Hounds . . .” He squinted and looked at me. “The . . . shadow thing. Strangest fucking thing. It was like it appeared out of thin air, latched onto me and wouldn’t let go. What the hell is it?”
“We need to get you out of here first, all right? Help me wake up your mom.” I went to Maddie’s gurney and bent down and started singing. Bodhi hopped up and added his tenor to my soprano and seconds later his mother roused.
I ushered them back to the elevator, explaining my plan along the way. “Get your grandmother and go home. I have an idea to help, but I need to do a little footwork first. I’m sorry I didn’t figure out they responded to music sooner. If I’d been around when you were playing, I’d have seen it before today.”
“Are they gone?” Maddie asked. “Sweet Jesus I feel like I just woke up from a bender, does that go away?”
“I don’t think you can break the link without getting the hounds to attack someone else. Susannah’s soul stopped being drained when you were attacked, and so did the other man’s.”
“The other man?” Bodhi asked. “You mean grandma wasn’t the only . . . ah . . . victim?”
I shook my head. “There’s an older man in the ICU. He didn’t wake up but I don’t think he’s in danger of dying now that the soul link is broken. We need to figure out how to fix the two of you without risking the lives of anyone else to do it.”
“These hounds . . . Why are they after us? Is it because of who we are? Because we’re linked to you somehow?”
The elevator stopped at the fifth floor and the doors opened. I needed them to get moving so I could do what I could while the hounds were dormant. I sighed. “I don’t really know what they want, only that they feed on your souls. Somehow playing music helps shield you from them, so get your grandmother and go home and surround yourself with as much music as you can, all right? I’m going to get help. I’ll find you when I’ve got a plan.”
Maddie pulled me into a fierce hug. “Thank you,” she said, then released me and broke into a jog toward the doors to the ICU ward.
Bodhi stood in the open elevator doors a moment longer, staring at me. He glanced at the floor and shoved a hand into his pocket, then pulled it out again. “We live in Venice Beach . . . I don’t have a pen or anything. I could give you my number . . .”
“I’ll find you. Trust me.” I gave him a tight smile.
“Then I’ll, ah, see you soon?”
I nodded and our gazes remained fixed on each other as the elevator doors closed, my heart pounding the entire time. The way his aura flared reddish violet with desire reminded me so much of someone else’s aura . . . Two people, in fact, who I’d rather not waste time thinking about. The worst part was that my vocal cords ached to sing the words that had threatened to burst forth earlier. I had to rein in that unruly instinct, though. It had already bitten me on the ass twice in my short life. Finally the doors closed and I pressed the button for the parking level, breathing a sigh of relief as I descended.
Once in the solitude of my small car, I closed my eyes to get my bearings again. The parking garage was awash in gray dawn light, the spring morning gilded at the edges as the sun broke over the hills to the east and burned off the marine layer that lay over this coastal city most mornings.
My chest ached with longing for my mother every time I watched the sun rise. My biological mother, I meant. Because there were three women in my life who would happily claim me as their daughter. But my biological mother was the human one and the one I thought of most often when I found myself overwhelmed by the weight of this task I’d taken upon myself. Diving into the human world the way I had, without any preparation or a tour guide had been terrifying and exhilarating. My wish had been to experience it wholesale, all the darkness and light that went along with simply being human, so I could understand that side of my identity as much as the other four pieces that I’d inherited from the higher races.
I hadn’t counted on taking on the responsibility of being a savior to a segment of the human population that only I had the power to easily find.
It had required a crash course in human social customs, and that quick-study trait of mine came in super handy. As a result I blended in as well as any of the higher races did. Better, since even my own kind could barely recognize me as one of them.
I’d learned to drive on my second day, discovering the perils of public transportation and wanting a reliable mode of transport since I only had so much power remaining. I would only drift in emergencies if I needed to get somewhere fast, and save my remaining power for bare necessities, like conjuring myself clothing and currency. I realized that currency could get clothing, of course, but that took time I didn’t believe I had. The second I’d gotten a good look at a twenty-dollar bill, I used my power to conjure a stack of them, got myself a car and learned to drive it. My third day in the human world I’d bought a smartphone after trying and failing to conjure one of those . . . I thought I knew magic, but those things were truly baffling.
After replacing my scrubs with an outfit more appropriate for where I planned to head next, I pulled out the smartphone and did an internet search. A variety of options came up, none of which seemed likely as I scrolled through. Finally, I found the place that had to be the one I wanted. I tapped the address and set the phone in the cradle on the dash.
Music blasted through my speakers the second I turned on the ignition and I started singing along to one of my latest favorite human bands. Every time I heard one I wondered if they were members of the bloodline and perhaps had been imbued with turul genes and the magic of the Four Winds in their ancestry. That’s where my own singing ability had come from, along with plenty of practice and the best teacher a girl could ask for, even if he’d stopped speaking to me months ago.
Traffic was picking up as the little woman’s voice from my phone instructed me to turn right and I headed in the direction her voice guided me. The music possessed a hint of magic, but nothing like the power I’d witnessed when Bodhi and his mother had sung the duet together. There was no doubt in my mind that his family carried turul genes that had likely been activated on the Equinox. I doubted they’d ever acquire power as strong as a full-blooded turul, but something close to what I possessed couldn’t be out of the realm of reason.
That was, if I managed to keep them alive. I pressed my foot harder on the gas pedal and sped down the road. The Dragon’s Scale music store would be open in less than an hour and I wanted to be there the second they unlocked their doors.
4
Rohan
I was in love. With the world, with this city, with this beautiful, sunny morning and the scent of salt breeze that came off the Pacific. I almost wanted to take another jaunt around the block just to bask in the growing bustle of humanity around Santa Monica. But the guys were waiting, so I dutifully carried my haul back to the Dragon’s Scale to deliver it.
The door made a happy jingle as I opened it. I loved music, even little bells.
“Breakfast is served!” I announced to the room, pushing through and letting the door swing closed behind me. Nobody moved or said a thing, which was odd because I’d have at least expected Keagan to be drooling on me the second I walked in, his hand already down the bagel bag pulling out an everything bagel and then swiping the lox. I had to get two of everything. One for him, and one for everyone else. The man was a beast.
By the time I made it around the counter and deposited the bagels onto the corner table, the three of them still hadn’t budged, and my empathic nature clued me in that mood in the room was distinctly interested in something. Keagan was propped back again
st the checkout counter, his attention following something in the store. And both Willem and Sandor were leaning over onto the glass top behind the register just as transfixed.
I handed out coffees, which my apparently hypnotized friends accepted wordlessly and began to drink.
I leaned close to Keagan and in an exaggerated whisper said, “What’s up, dude?”
He tilted his scruffy chin toward the store at large.
I didn’t see her at first, my gaze scanning the racks of instruments and shelves of sheet music. Then she appeared, standing up beyond one of the shelves, her dark hair shining in the sun in an ebony cascade over warm, brown shoulders. She held a guitar and my heart skipped a beat.
“Who is she?” I asked, barely able to breathe.
“Better question is why is she here?” Sandor asked. “Humans don’t come into this store. The door’s warded to repel them.”
“Maybe she’s a member of the bloodline,” Willem said, his deep voice rumbling like rocks covered in velvet. “The wards may not work on them now.”
“How would it be any different now than before? They’re still human right?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the woman as she reverently caressed the neck of the guitar. My cock roused at the sight and I let out a faint, involuntary grunt. Keagan gave me a side-eye and lifted one dark brow.
“They are more than human as of the Equinox,” Willem said.
I glanced at him, my eyes wide. “How’s that?”
The big white-haired dragon was the oldest of our group of friends. Willem had managed to escape the last dragon Renunciation and gone into hiding in a turul enclave for five centuries. Now that the Dragon Council had pardoned all the dragons who hadn’t committed the required ritual suicide, he was finally free to just live his life after more than fifteen hundred years. He and Sandor owned the Dragon’s Scale together. They were like brothers . . . closer, even. Kind of like me and Keagan, I supposed. Fuck buddies with emotional benefits. They acted more like close friends than mates, at any rate, and I hadn’t seen a dragon mark on Sandor yet. But they could also just be old fashioned. It’d only been within the past year that it was kosher for turul and dragons to mate each other anyway.
