The ebony-skinned man tilted his head, studying Zorion for several moments before he spoke, his voice hard. “You betray her pain by denying me. We cannot exist without her—she cannot fully love without us both.”
“I’m protecting her from what you’ve become. She deserves a life free of those things that were done to her. If you love her, you’ll keep those memories far away.”
“None of us can be free if we don’t acknowledge the walls we build around our own souls. I can free her by showing her the way to break them down. All you wish to do is hide the darkness from her, but it will always be there. I will always be there. You know this as much as I do.”
“You shouldn’t even be free! If she didn’t wake you, how did you get out?”
A resonant roar echoed through the canyon, and Zorion jerked his gaze skyward. A shimmering white shape soared overhead, a darker figure riding astride. Asha banked and twisted, toying with the warm currents before descending. Zorion was too overcome by worry to be happy for his sister, but he had his answer. Somehow Asha and her new mate had figured out how to wake up his darker half.
“Where is she?!” he yelled.
“Taken while you slept,” his shadow answered. “You could never be enough for her. After all the time we spent sharing her mind, her soul, surely you realized we couldn’t take all her darkness. She needs us both.”
Asha landed, and her lover slid from her back and jogged toward them. Naaz’s blue gaze was startlingly similar to his sister’s, and a fresh pang of worry shot through Zorion. The involuntary reaction was telegraphed into the darkness with a surge of light from the center of his chest.
Naaz blinked at him, frowned, and turned to the more solid figure that stood facing him.
“Which one of you is the true Zorion?”
“I am,” they both said in unison.
Naaz uttered a soft curse. “One of you had better tell me what the fuck happened to my sister.”
“Taken,” Zorion’s dark half said. “I know not where, nor if she is even alive.”
“They can’t have gone far. The temple’s wards prevent drifting within a hundred miles. If it’s the Ultiori, they’d have to carry her over land,” Naaz said.
His gaze shot to the canyon’s edge, and he drew his blade. Zorion followed the direction of his gaze to the canyon face high above where the entrance to the warrens were concealed. Several figures were making their way down the rocky path.
“We heard your rally call, boss,” Paolo said when he reached them.
“Where’s the last?” Zorion asked.
“Phillips never returned from his whiskey run last night.”
“Did you lose one of your pets?” his dark half asked, taunting him.
“Where?” Zorion snapped, cursing himself for losing track. He’d had such a tight leash on all the men ever since discovering their little Ultiori cell and taking the time to break the spell Meri had over their minds. They’d been loyal to him for months without much effort beyond keeping mental tabs on them. Human men were easily influenced with either money, drink, or women, and two out of three generally did the trick. But he couldn’t influence them beyond the range of his power, which was limited by the location of the infernal dark creature who stood glaring at him now.
“Warburton, boss.”
“That’s where Neela and I flew in two months ago,” Naaz said. “It’s miles outside the zone.” He clenched his jaw as he shot a fierce glance between Zorion and the men who had joined them. “Are these fuckers following you? Have they been all this time?”
“Since Midwinter,” Zorion said. The Solstice was the first moment he’d been able to gather the power to push his fire beyond the confines of his prison. “I found their camp not far from the temple. It seems Meri keeps tabs on all the dragon temples, but has pulled her men from all but this one. It was easy for me to break her hold on their minds, once I learned the trick to controlling them.”
“We ran out of whiskey,” Paolo offered with a shrug.
“And the only female within a hundred miles was locked inside that temple,” one of the other men said.
“Are you sure you guys were Hunters?” Naaz asked, gaping at the group.
“Their darkest cravings were enhanced when I discovered them. Once I cleansed their minds of Meri’s influence, they became more human again. Meri’s power corrupts. Without that influence, they are honorable, loyal men. Provided I remember to pay them. It seems I must have lost track of that detail when you and your sister arrived.”
“If you’ve been their boss for the last three months … that means you’re the bastard who slowed us down.” He shot a look to Zorion’s dark half, who simply shook his head and pointed, shedding all blame.
“My sister’s important to me,” Zorion said. “I couldn’t very well let a man near her who hadn’t earned the right. You proved yourself adequately.”
“Proved myself?” Naaz said. “What the actual fuck, man? Do you know what I had to go through for the past three thousand years?”
“Did you feel worthy of Asha two days ago?” Zorion asked. “Until I gave you something else to fight for, you were floundering. You didn’t believe waking her was a high enough purpose. You needed a selfless goal to justify taking that step. Making you think Neela was in danger worked, but your sister was safe.”
Naaz’s eyes flashed with rage and he bared his teeth. “If she’s so safe, where the fuck is she now? You lost my sister, didn’t you? Somehow you lost control of your fucking dogs, and she’s paying for it. It’s a two-hour drive to Warburton on those shitty little roads we walked to get here. If the asshole who took her has a Jeep, he could have her on a goddamn plane by now. I don’t know what your plan is, but I’m going to save her before Meri gets her hands on my sister again. You have no fucking idea what she went through while stuck in that prison.”
“I know everything she went through,” Zorion’s dark half said. “I’ll follow. Lead the way, brother.”
Naaz climbed onto Asha’s back again, and the trio was airborne before Zorion could object.
“What’s the plan, boss?” Paolo asked. “We going after her?”
Zorion followed the dark shape of his physical body until he could no longer see it against the night sky. The tether tugged, but he waited just a little longer. The darkness that drove that creature was something he’d just as soon have left locked inside the temple forever, but now that it was out, he had no choice but to follow.
“To me,” Zorion commanded. The men obeyed, circling around him and resting hands on whatever parts of his outstretched arms they could reach. When they were all in contact, he closed his eyes and reached for the new boundary of his power, which shifted with every flap of his dark half’s wings. When he sensed the town Paolo had mentioned come into range, he moved, teleporting his entire squadron to the outskirts.
The drone of an airplane engine drowned out any other sound. He still couldn’t find a glimmer of Neela’s mind, no matter how hard he tried.
“Find Phillips,” he commanded. “I’ll start looking for Neela.”
Paolo hesitated. “The doctor …” he said with a worried frown.
“You stay within range of my power, you’re fine. Phillips strayed outside that zone.”
“We’re with you, boss, as long as you want us. What should we do when we find Phillips?”
Zorion resisted giving a kill order, though it was tempting. The man wasn’t in control of his actions. They’d all been Meri’s puppets, and didn’t deserve to die for it. Phillips’ only weakness was his need for booze, and chances were he’d found a woman while he was out too. If Zorion hoped to keep the men loyal, he’d have to remedy the third item to make sure they didn’t stray again.
But now that his dark half was free, their entire future was uncertain. He might be forced to tag along wherever the dragon went, b
ut he’d be damned if he merged with it again. He’d die before he inflicted that darkness on Neela.
The men scattered. Some drifted, their bodies fading like smoke, while others jogged away to closer targets.
A chorus of flapping wings approached, and he braced himself for more recriminations from Neela’s brother and his own dark half. They were justified, though. He should have sensed Neela’s departure, kept an eye on her, but they’d fallen asleep, tangled in each other’s arms after making love all afternoon. She hadn’t run after he’d fulfilled that singular craving he’d had for so long. That was a good sign that she was willing to stay, or at least not seek out more than he was willing to offer.
He watched them approach, his sister looking like she belonged beside Naaz, wearing the same black fatigues with her pale hair woven in a braid at the back of her neck. The darker forms of Neela’s brother and Zorion’s more sinister reflection flanked her.
Naaz opened his mouth to speak, but stopped short, his eyes widening at something past Zorion’s shoulder. Zorion turned to see a small plane starting to taxi with three of his mercenaries running toward it.
Paolo materialized beside him, breathless.
“She’s inside, boss. Phillips is dead. There are half a dozen other Hunters in the plane, all armed to the teeth. We’ve gotta take them down before they get airborne.”
He had a stricken look that set off alarm bells in Zorion’s head. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Paulo shook his head. “She didn’t look good … They had her hooked up to machines like Doctor Waters used in her lab. Her head was shaved with …” He wiggled his fingers over his skull. “With things stuck to it. Monitors showed a heartbeat, but someone said something about no brain activity.”
“I don’t know what the fuck that means,” Zorion growled.
“Fuck no. Don’t you fucking tell me that!” Naaz yelled. Turning, he pointed a finger into Zorion’s face. “If you don’t come with me, I’m going in alone. Asha, stay here, baby. This is going to get ugly.”
With that, Naaz disappeared, leaving behind only a wisp of red smoke.
“I think it means she’s brain dead, boss,” Paolo said softly. “Her heart beats, but her mind is gone.”
Denial shackled Zorion to the ground. An angry yell pierced the air. The sound hadn’t come from him, though the howl inside his own mind was a perfect reflection of the anger in his darker half’s explosive cry. Zorion reacted instantly to that sound, his fire blazing hot, propelling him as quickly as sunlight toward the plane that still taxied, picking up speed as it made its way toward the runway.
“No!” The yell was a command that yanked him back. “You were the cause of this,” his ebony reflection snarled. “Too fucking afraid of how perfect I might be for her. She needs me more than she needs you. She was coming for me when she was taken. I could feel her close. I heard her call before you even woke up.”
“Then let’s fucking make it right!” he yelled back. “Get over there and stop that fucking thing!”
The darkness grew around them, inky black blotting out everything but his sister’s anxious glow and his own fire. “What do you think I’m doing?” his dark half spat.
The agony of realization hit, Zorion’s heart shattering at what he’d caused, what he knew to be true. “I want all of you,” she had said, and he knew she’d meant it. He’d protected her for so long from darkness, but he couldn’t block all of it. Not even the worst of it, he realized. He never had any hope of saving her from the one thing that might have destroyed a woman weaker than Neela, yet here she was, seeking him out despite that loss.
“You finally getting it?” his darker half asked. “Come back to me and we can make this right.”
The plane was moving faster now, too fast for the mercenaries to keep up with on foot. Several drifted out of sight, and he caught movement within the small windows of the plane. The door flew open and a man sailed out, hitting the pavement in a crumpled heap. Not one of his men, he was gratified to see.
“Zorion, what are you waiting for?” his sister yelled.
“Go!” he commanded the dark figure who stood waiting before him. “I’m with you.”
His ebony reflection transformed into his true shape and took to the air, soaring above until he came down again in the center of the runway in front of the plane. More pitch black smoke billowed out of his mouth, immersing them in pure darkness that only his and Asha’s fire could penetrate.
“Come, sister,” he said, reaching out a hand.
They appeared inside the cabin amid a bloody massacre. Naaz had his blade out, blood streaking his face, tangled in a brutal fight with a Hunter. Two of Zorion’s own mercenaries were in similar straits.
Zorion ignored the others, heading straight to the gurney strapped down in the rear of the plane with Neela’s unconscious body strapped to it. Wires and tubes ran everywhere, connected to beeping monitors with blips of iridescent light glowing through the darkness.
The plane lurched to a sudden stop amid the sound of smashing glass. Then metal twisted and groaned, the entire cabin lurching from side to side. Asha let out a cry and grabbed at one of the seatbacks for balance. She took a deep breath and expelled a puff of bright white smoke that swirled around Naaz, creating a forcefield about an inch away from his skin. She did the same for Neela.
“I can’t tell them apart!” she yelled, giving Zorion an anxious look. “Which ones work for you?”
Zorion was busy unstrapping Neela’s body and yanking the electrodes off her bare scalp. His heart ached at the naked vulnerability of her now. They’d taken everything—her clothes, her hair, her mind. She had nothing, not even a spark left for him to cleanse of darkness with his fire. When he pulled the tube from her throat, she expelled one breath, but her lungs failed to inflate again.
Around him, eerie laughter filled the cabin. Naaz stumbled back in shock from the man whose chest he’d just buried his blade in. The other enemies all cackled in perfect synchronicity, and then their voices joined in harmony.
“I will find another, if I can’t have her. There are bound to be other Blessed females out there whose wombs are ripe for my use. I’ll let you have hers back, since she’s useless to you now. Her mind wasn’t necessary for me to fill her with another baby to suit my needs. I’ll be in the Haven soon enough. When I get to the Source, you are all doomed.”
Rending steel drowned out the rest of their enemy’s speech, and Zorion’s dark half tore the side of the plane apart. His black-scaled snout plunged in, followed by a big taloned claw. He grabbed two of the enemy soldiers, tearing them to pieces before reaching for a third. It gave Zorion’s men the distraction they needed to finish off the last three.
The destroyed plane lurched to the side. Acrid smoke filled the cabin, the men coughing and trying to catch their breath as they drifted out one by one to get away from the impending fire.
“Get Neela!” Naaz yelled at Zorion as he grabbed Asha around the waist, and the pair disappeared in a cloud of red. Zorion’s monstrous shadow reached a talon in, snapping the remaining straps that held Neela to the gurney.
Zorion grabbed her body in his arms, tearing the last of the wires off her before carrying them both in a flash of pure dragon fire.
Something was wrong. When he landed near the others with her limp body in his arms, he knew all he held was empty flesh. There was no spark of life left in her.
“No!” Naaz yelled, frantic as he knelt by her side. “They had her on life support. She’s going to die if we don’t help her. Oh, god, we waited too fucking long. Three thousand years to get here. There’s no fucking way I’m letting her die now.”
“Tell me what will fix her,” Zorion said. He pressed his hand to her forehead, the veins lighting with inner fire in his effort to seek out that spark of her soul to tell her to remain. He felt nothing. “She has survived as an
immortal all this time. How can she lose that spark now?”
Naaz yanked his sleeve up and took out his knife. With the sharp edge of the blade, he cut a slice across his wrist and held the bloody cut over his sister’s mouth. “We had dragon blood in our systems the entire time. Immortal dragon blood. It’s how Elites are made. Belah blessed us, and then we were fed either her blood or her brothers’ ever since. All it takes is a few drops every few weeks, but we didn’t expect this trip to take so long. Neela, please … drink.”
Zorion’s darker half landed nearby. The bright orange fire and rumbling concussion of an exploding plane highlighted his change to his human form. He ran to their sides and knelt, taking Neela’s limp hand in his.
“Your blood is human,” Asha said, grabbing Naaz’s wrist. “It won’t help her. Your power is dying too. Without my mark and my magic, you wouldn’t have survived that fight.”
Naaz let out a frustrated yell. “Help her!”
“I have no blood,” Zorion said. “And a body without a soul cannot absorb the power I do have. I’ve tried.”
“I have blood but no power to give life,” his darker half said. He leveled a piercing stare at Zorion. “We can fix her together, but we have to merge.”
Zorion was a hair’s breadth from blasting fire at his darker half for suggesting such a thing, but Neela’s lifeless body made him restrain himself. He didn’t want to damage her. And as much as he hoped to protect her from the memories his darker half held, he would rather she lived with those memories than died.
He stared down at her, brushing his glowing fingertips over her cheek. “Forgive me for this, my love. I will try to take them from you again however I can.”
He stood up, and his darker half rose as well, a perfect mirror to his own movements. He’d escaped that dark shell for her sake, but now he had to return to it to save her.
They lifted their hands in unison, palms pressed to palms. Zorion hesitated for only a second when his other half’s voice rumbled a warning. “She will be lost to us if we don’t do this.”
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