by Elle Boon
The air stirred near the large fireplace. What made her look she wasn’t sure, only knew something seemed familiar. She expected to see Damien or Lucas, heck her heart actually sped up at the thought of seeing them. However, her body froze as the man from the darkness appeared. “What are you doing here?”
She whipped her head toward the door the young girl had gone out. Although Jenna’s senses weren’t on track, she was sure she’d been a human, especially since it was daylight. The being in front of her came out of the shadows, allowing her to get her first real glimpse of him without the cover of night or a trick of his keeping his identity hidden. Oh, he was gorgeous, there was no doubt of that. But, what was most startling was his resemblance to Damien and Lucas.
“Hello again, Fey. You are looking slightly ill. Are my…family not treating you well?” His eyes flashed from obsidian to red. Where her men had gorgeous eyes, she wanted to get lost in, this mans were cold and lifeless.
His words finally registered. “Your family?”
He raked his claws together, making them clack in a way Jenna was sure he did to scare his victims. Newsflash asshole, I’ve faced bigger, badder, uglier, and hopefully deadlier foes, she thought.
“I’d love for us to stay here and chat, but I fear the big guy is waking, and well, I’m not in the mood for a reunion just yet. By the way. Sorry, my pet. I don’t usually put females as pawns, but in this instance, it’s a must.” He flew across the room, eliminating the space separating them.
Jenna fell back against the bed, nearly falling on her ass. His quick reflexes kept her upright. “What the hell are you talking about?” She pressed her hand to his chest, trying to put space between them.
He shook his head. “You’ll find out in due time, my pet. Now, we must go before father-what-a-waste, awakes.”
She knew the telltale signs of magic and could feel it as the man in front of her began to manipulate the fabrics of time and space. “Who are you?”
He flashed her a smile, white teeth with two canines much longer than the others prevalent. “My name is Khan, son of Zahidda. Bastard son of Damikan at your service.”
The door flew open, giving her hope she’d be saved. The sight of Damien and Lucas had her shoving harder against the rock-hard chest. “Let me go, asshole. I’m not your pawn.” It was like trying to move a mountain if you were a mere human. Goddess, she hated being so weak.
“Jenna, flash away,” Damien growled.
“Ah, but your female can’t. It seems I’m her cure, little brothers,” Khan taunted.
Lucas stepped forward. “Who are you and what do you want?”
Khan tilted his head to the side. “You have nothing I want. Tell your father I’ll be in touch. Oh, here,” he tossed a necklace onto the bed. “He’ll know who I am with that. If not, then you’re little plaything will become mine…until I tire of her.”
Blackness swirled around Jenna as she heard both Lucas and Damien roar her name. A sick feeling hit her square in the gut, one she knew all too well. Khan was playing a game with the Cordell’s. One only he knew the rules to, and he had zero compassion for anyone getting in his way. Jenna just happened to have gotten in his way, or more aptly, given him something to use. Shit, she so could use her Fey powers, or her bestie Kellen right about now. Or even better, if she’d not have been so stubborn and mated with Lucas and Damien, instead of waiting, then none of this would have happened. “Well, what if’s do nothing but make big girls cry over spilled milk,” she muttered to herself.
“What?” Khan asked as he opened the portal allowing light to filter in.
She blinked a few times. “Huh?”
“You mumbled something about girls crying and spilled milk.” He carried her over to a couch and set her down. His gentle touch and actions at war with his words to Damien and Lucas.
The light airy room reminded Jenna of a lake cabin, one that families would go to on vacation. “Oh, um, nothing. I talk to myself sometimes.”
Khan shrugged his shoulders. “Make yourself comfy, you’ll be here for a spell or two.” He winked.
A growl rumbled in her throat. “Hahaha, very funny.”
He was next to her in a blink. “No, I’m not funny at all. What I am is deadly. You will do best to remember that.” He raised his nails, the longer lengths looking ominous now, reminding her of the night he’d cut her cheek.
“You did something to me when you sliced my cheek open.” If he was going to kill her, she’d at least know the hows and whys.
“I didn’t realize I’d poison you the same as those ghouls. I spelled these.” He clacked his nails together before continuing, “to kill with maximum efficiency. I thought I’d scented something different on you and was just going to take a taste. When I smelled my…the Cordell’s blood in you, I realized my chance to finally exact justice on their father was now.”
Her world righted itself as she realized why he looked and smelled like her men. “You’re their brother?”
“Ding ding ding. Give the girl a prize.” Khan walked away, his stride not quite as smooth.
“But…how? I mean, are you?” She was at a loss for words. She’d met both the elder Cordell’s, Damikan and Luna and couldn’t imagine either of them giving up one of their beloved children.
Khan turned around, his eyes glowing red. “Damikan seduced my mother, then left her for his queen, the shifter bitch. My mother was ruined in the eyes of her clan, tossed out like trash since the Vampire King wouldn’t acknowledge her or her child. We had to fend for ourselves, fight for everything we could get, including the ability to sleep without fear we’d be staked at sunrise. All the while, his greatness lived in his grand home with his Hearts Love and created a new family, while me, his eldest son was a beggar in the streets. The things my mother had to do in order to keep us safe would turn your hair grey, until I was old enough to help. Would you like me to tell you some of them, Fey?”
Jenna swallowed, knowing what he was implying. The thought of anyone, man, woman, or child being forced to do anything made her want to rip the nuts off of the ones who did the making. “No, I don’t need the details. However, I don’t believe for a second that Damikan knew. He’s an honorable man.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth, before she found herself against the stone floor, an angry Khan looming above her. “You don’t know anything. What have you ever had to suffer?”
She wanted to reach out with her powers and soothe his pain away, but had nothing except her arms, yet she didn’t want to touch him. “I’m sorry, Khan.”
He flashed across the room. “They will come for you, and when they do, I’ll kill them and then Damikan will know what suffering is.”
Jenna gasped, a spark of her powers flared to life at the thought of Damien and Lucas being hurt. “Over my dead body.”
Khan raked his gaze over her prone form. “That can be arranged as well.”
In a blink he was gone, leaving her on the cold floor with nothing but a small bit of her former powers. “Goddess, wherever you are, help me please.” The last thing she wanted was for her guys to try to save her, only to be hurt or worse, killed in the process. Khan had powers that rivaled that of Damikan, only darker. No, she’d find her Fey spark, and save herself, then figure out what the fuckity fuck happened all those years ago. How the heck could Damikan have fathered a child, a son, and left him with his mother without giving them his protection? By her calculations, he was…thousands of years old at the least since Damien and Lucas were over three millennia. Luna was going to rip his dick off. Jenna smiled in spite of her situation. It was either that or curl up in a ball and cry. It had been thousands of years since she’d indulged in a pity party for one and didn’t think this situation merited one, yet.
*****
Damien looked at the empty space where Jennaveve had been only moments before, then at the shocked face of his brother, knowing his own reflected the same. “That couldn’t be who it appeared to be.” He paced away, his
wolf scratched beneath the surface of his skin.
The bedroom looked as if a F10 tornado had been through it in the short amount of time since they’d entered and watched the bastard disappear with their woman. He knelt next to the bed, scenting Jenna’s blood. A small smear of her precious life force coated the tile flooring. He ran his finger over the red stain, bringing it to his nose, inhaling, focusing on what had caused the injury. Instant jarring took him into the exact moment their Hearts Love had fallen onto her knees, her cry of pain was like a blade slicing through his own chest. “Why did one of us not stay with her?” Anguish and regret filled him.
Lucas’s roar had the windows rattling, his wolf every bit as angry as Damien’s. “I don’t understand this, but we were both only away from her short periods of time. Whoever…that being was, he knew when to strike. It was as if he had a connection to her.”
Distaste soared through Damien. He glared at Lucas, wanting him to take the words back. Their Jennaveve didn’t belong to anyone but them. “We must summon father. This happened in his household. Surely he has a way to track whoever came and went.”
His brother’s eyes flashed blue. “Whoever he was, he’s a dead man.”
Damien nodded. “In that, we agree.”
The door flung open, wind pushing him and Lucas backward as Damikan entered, their mother Luna rushing behind their father. “What the hell is going on? First, I feel a breach in my wards, then I’m summoned,” he paused, pointing at his chest. “Me, summoned to a guest suite as if I’m not the King. You have thirty seconds to explain before I teach you and your brother why I am the ruler.” The air crackled with power.
It took all his control not to cower in the face of his father’s fury as the King of Vampires blasted his dominance at them the very air became heavy, threatening to push him to his knees. He and Lucas both stayed on their feet, fighting the power, holding their bodies straight by sheer will. Blood seeped from his nose, but he wasn’t willing to show any weakness, not now, not when Jenna’s life was on the line.
“Enough,” Luna yelled, stepping between them, holding her arms out. Their mother’s head whipped back and forth, tears falling down her cheeks, blood ran from her nose as well.
“Someone took our Jennaveve from your home. He was right here, looking just like you.” Lucas stabbed an accusing finger toward Damikan.
Damikan’s deep rumble made Lucas’s from earlier seem tame as he took a step forward. “What are you saying?”
Damien glanced between his mother and father. No matter how pissed he was, the thought of hurting his mom was something he didn’t want to do, but Jenna’s life was on the line. “Look into my memories,” he said instead of speaking out loud.
“Oh no you don’t,” Luna spat, blood on her face from where Damikan’s dominance had pulsed through the room.
Their father broke his gaze from them, sucking in a breath. “Luna, what…come here.” His gentle tone at odds with the anger still simmering in the air.
Luna shook her head. “I want to know what is going on and I won’t be brushed aside. Speak, Damien.”
With a nod, Damikan wrapped his arms around their mother. “Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of your mother. We have no secrets.” As he spoke, his right hand went up and down her body, cleaning the evidence of blood from her.
Luna relaxed into his embrace, the strain melting away.
Lucas came to stand next to him, folding his arms across his chest. “This is the most fucked up thing we’ve ever encountered and let me tell you, between the two of us, we’ve seen and done a lot. I know you’re both older than dirt, but you’ve been together since you were both basically kids. In our world, it’s unheard of for two to find their Hearts Love so young the way you did, father.”
Damikan nodded, his chin resting next to their mother’s ear. Damien wondered how they were going to react to the next words that came out of Lucas’s mouth. He looked over at his brother, waiting for him to finish.
Lucas shrugged. “I started, you get to finish, old chap.”
“Fuck,” he swore.
“Damien, really, was that necessary?” Luna asked.
Damikan growled.
Every moment they stood there and put the conversation off, the longer Jenna was in the other man’s hands. “Use your senses, dad, tell me, us, what do you smell. Who do you sense when you enter? You felt the breach to your wards, track the intruder and tell us who it was, or who you think it was. Then I’ll tell you who was here.”
“Enough of these riddles, Damien. Your Hearts Love has been taken and you want to play games? If it were my Luna, I’d rip the very fabric of this world apart to reach her.” His father’s eyes flashed to obsidian.
Damian nodded. “It seems there was a woman before our mother who you must’ve felt something for since you gave her a son.”
His words fell like stones dropping down the side of a mountain. Again, the pressure built in the room. His mother’s gasp and shocked disbelief was clear on her beautiful olive complexion.
“What the hell are you talking about? I have no other sons.” Damikan turned Luna to face him.
“He is not mother’s child, but yours. Look into my memories. Both of you.” Damien wasn’t willing to force himself into his parent’s mind, but he opened his memories for them, allowing them to see and hear what the stranger had looked like and said.
“How?” Luna asked, her hand cover her mouth, the other over her heart.
Damikan released her, moving around the room in a slow methodical way. His head tilting this way and that. When he reached the far corner near the fireplace, he stopped, inhaled deeply then disappeared.
“Shit, where did he go?” Damien tried to trace and follow, calling out for his father’s elite soldiers as he did, only to come up against a solid shield, keeping him locked inside the castle. “No,” he roared.
Lucas reappeared next to him, his fist bloody. “I tried to break out through the back gates, but he has us warded in. Why would he do that?”
Pain and betrayal slashed at Damien, echoing through the twin bond he shared with Lucas. Looking over to where their mother stood, she seemed smaller, more fragile than ever before. He took a step toward her. “Mother…I,” he stopped.
Luna held her head up. “Do not apologize for something you have no control over. We will get Jennaveve back, and I will handle your father.” Her eyes flashed blue, fur rippled over her and then their human mother was replaced by that of her wolf. Anytime she needed time or space, she’d always told them she needed her fur. Now, was clearly one of those times.
“Fuuuck,” Damien roared, his wolf and vampire being battled within him. He wanted to shift to his wolven form and rip through the walls of the castle until he found Jenna, but knew she was not anywhere near. The link that bound them was tenuous at best, and it seemed to be fading.
“What about the Iron Wolf? They have a…special connection,” Lucas spat.
Walking over to the shredded bedding he picked up what was left of the pillow case, pulling it to his nose. “I think I just threw up in my mouth when you said that, but it has merit. Can you link with the asshole?”
*****
Lucas opened his mind and concentrated on Jenna’s best friend Kellen Styles of the Iron Wolves. He knew the shifter had just become a father to quadruplets and truly, almost, in a slight way, hated to bug the bastard. However, he also knew if Jenna couldn’t reach them, she would try to get into contact with the one she called her bestie. Yeah, like Damien, just thinking that way had him gagging. One day she’d look at him and his brother as her besties. Fuck, he was becoming a giant pussy thinking that way. Next, he’d schedule them regular mani and pedi sessions together.
When the link didn’t immediately link him with Kellen, his fists clenched at his sides. He felt a pain behind his eyes as he strained harder. “Motherfucker, why would he do that to us. It’s like he’s crippled us here while our woman could be.” He swallowed unable to con
tinue with the words.
Damien waved his hand around the room, putting everything back to the way it had been when they walked in. They could erase the damage, but not the memory of watching her frightened face or the words that came out of the man, no the beings mouth. “He called us his little brothers. That would mean our father had him with another woman. Clearly, he’s walking around during the day, so he’s not a full vamp. Is he like us?”
Lucas thought back to the very beginning, rewinding it in his mind then allowing the scene to unfold in slow motion. The man looked almost identical to their father, down to his towering height, to the obsidian eyes. Damien and he had blue eyes thanks to their mother, but not him. Their father only had blue eyes when he became a wolf/hybrid and that was if he wasn’t angry. His memory latched onto the nails the other man had flashed, the sharp points looked as if he purposely made them sharper, longer. “He wants to appear sinister. Everything he did was to scare Jennaveve. If he wanted to hurt our dad, killing her would hurt him, but it wouldn’t truly devastate him. What is his end game?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what his end game is, I’m going to end his game,” Damien promised.
He met Damien’s stare, nodding. “If he’s hurt one hair on her head, he’s a dead man, brother or not.”
“I’m going to bleed him for taking her and scaring her, brother or not, that’s non-negotiable.” Damien crossed his arms over his chest.
Lucas put his hands on his hips. “You looking for me to argue, cause newsflash, it ain’t happening.”
Damien put his hand out, waiting for Lucas to take it. “Jennaveve is ours to protect, ours to love, ours to get back, no matter the cost.”
Lucas gripped his brother’s palm, each one shifting until a nail elongated, slicing into the others palm, sealing the vow. “We will do whatever it takes to bring her back to us safely. Damned to all who stand in our way.” Magic crackled between them as they both made the blood oath.
