Savagery & Skills: Books 1-4

by Ciara Graves

“Really? You’re going to make me work for it.”

  “He’s searching for any signs of my coven. They’re out there somewhere, and if we face Rudarius, we need them. Need as many vampires willing to stand against him as we can find.”

  “And why didn’t you just tell me?”

  “You needed your rest.”

  “So does Shane,” I countered, to which he hissed. “You can’t keep me safe forever,” I added quietly. “I’ll have to face him again and when that happens—”

  “It’s not going to.” He jumped to his feet and stalked around the kitchen.

  “You’re being ridiculous.” I picked up the broken mug and chucked it in the trash can. “I could be helping find your coven. Why aren’t we out there with Shane every night? It’s not like I’m doing anything else around here, is it?”

  “It’s not safe.”

  I rolled my eyes as I picked up my coffee mug and traipsed through the broken door and into the garden.

  The last rays of the sun weren’t enough to keep Draven away, but when the magical orbs of light floating through the air that often reflected my mood turned dark shades of red and orange, I figured that’d be warning enough for him to keep his distance.

  We’d been tiptoeing around each other, and I was tired of it. Tired of doing nothing day in and day out. Of waiting for Rudarius to break through the veil and kill Draven, and then take me back. Despite the warm evening, odd for this time of year, a strange cold gripped my body. A breath of icy air brushed across my neck, and my eyes slid closed as if forced by someone else. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t do anything, but stand there.

  Hands aiming to cause pain squeezed my arms. Sharp pinpricks found my neck. My head was shoved to the side, and just when those fangs were going to pierce my skin, someone else spun me around and drew me into his arms. In relief, I sagged against Draven’s chest, not having to say a word for him to know what just happened.

  “Damn it. I didn’t think he could reach you here.” Draven held me in his arms as I clung to him, shaking and shivering. “Do you still hear him?”

  The words were stuck in my throat. How did I tell him I didn’t hear Rudarius? I felt him as though he stood in the garden, just as Draven did now. If I admitted the truth, Draven wouldn’t let me out of his sight from now until forever. But he had to go with Shane and find the survivors from his coven. I knew it and deep down, so did he. The only reason he hadn’t yet was his fear of what he might come back to. He never said it, but as optimistic as he tried to pretend to be, the truth was clear in his midnight blue eyes. The dark power brewing inside me was strange. To both of us. After seeing firsthand what I could do, even I was apprehensive about using it in the upcoming fights. Not that was even sure I could use it without any rings. Never tried.

  Draven cupped my cheeks as he kissed my forehead. “You’re freezing. Let’s get you inside, get a fire going in the hearth.”

  “I’ll be alright. Just give me a minute.”

  He scowled, but we stayed put in the garden. His gaze shifted around as if Rudarius was going to appear at the fence and ask to borrow a cup of sugar then drain us all dry. “Seneca, what are they doing?”

  “What are what doing?” I muttered, annoyed, my face pressed against his chest. I winced as the pain in my head increased, like someone attacked my skull with a jackhammer. I pressed my forehead harder into Draven, but he tilted my face up and turned it. “What—I’ve never seen that,” I whispered confused.

  The orbs usually reflected my mood with their bright colors. But now they were dull and grey. They hardly moved around the garden, which badly needed tending. The harder I looked at my rose bushes and lilies, the more weeds I noticed sticking out of the ground. Twisting vines with massive thorns. I’d never seen those here.

  “I need to take care of my garden.” I pulled away to find my trowel and small garden rake.

  Draven caught my hand.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Those orbs say otherwise.”

  One hovered close by. As we watched, the greyish hue gave way to a calm blue and green. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

  He let me go, and I picked up my gardening tools from exactly where I left them, as though we hadn’t been taken into Otherworld and chased by Rudarius’s army of vampires and shifters. As if we hadn’t watched the three fae kingdoms fall. As if nothing bad at all happened. I took my trowel and rake, then set to work at the first bed near the back fence. The vines were thick and the thorns damned sharp. Their roots were set deep into the ground, but doing the work pulled my mind from thoughts of Rudarius and my never-ending nightmare. Draven might say he wouldn’t kill me, but I needed him to admit there was a chance it could end up that way.

  That there was a chance he would have to be the one to end it.

  I sensed Draven nearby while I worked, but he didn’t stop me, and after a while, I found myself alone in the garden. My shoulders sagged as I tossed away another vine bearing my blood on its thorns. I’d scratched up both arms, but that wasn’t what had me sitting back, looking up at the twilight sky. The stars peeked into view one at a time, pretty as always.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  I jumped, then smiled to find Helena standing close by, in jeans and a green flannel shirt. Nice to see my clothes fit. Her white hair was drawn back in a long ponytail. If I were an outsider looking in, she’d appear as nothing more than a normal grandmother in a garden. Not a fae queen seer.

  “Not at all.”

  “Hand me that trowel, would you? My, these beds are certainly in need of love.”

  “Haven’t really been home to take care of them.” I handed my grandmother the trowel and watched as she dug into the earth without concern about getting dirty. I smiled, unable to picture my mother doing this by my side.

  We tore out the vines, not saying a word, not needing to. Having her here, someone who was my flesh and blood, filled a hole I’d had for too long. We raked, dug, and tugged, then laughed each time one of us landed on our asses. The pile behind us grew larger as the evening wore on. It had to be getting late, though the full moon, stars, and floating orbs gave us enough light to see by. Dirt smudged our faces and was embedded under my nails.

  Knowing Draven was inside, along with my brother and Macron gave me a sense of home I’d never had before. It was strange and made me pause. Would it last? Rudarius was out there somewhere in Otherworld building up his army and preparing to make his next move. He could take all of this away from me.

  Or I could, if I gave into the darkness.

  Helena brushed the dirt from her hands after sticking the trowel in the ground. “I have missed this.”

  “Getting dirty?”

  “Working with the earth. So, I suppose, in a sense, yes.” She laughed, the sound musical and light. “I never dreamt of seeing the moon or the stars again. Nor did I think to find you, my granddaughter. Alive and well after all that monster put you through.” She cupped my cheek, and I leaned into her touch. “I will never forgive your parents for what they did to you. Not ever.”

  “You might not have to worry about them, depending on what Rudarius did.”

  “Something tells me he’ll keep them alive.”

  I scooted nearer, and we leaned close, looking up at the heavens.

  “I wish we could stay here and enjoy this life,” I whispered. “The cottage and the garden, the town. I wish I had no knowledge of Rudarius or the war he’s bringing.”

  “But we do, and therefore we must act.”

  “I know. But what are we supposed to do? Draven is too scared to let me leave this cottage.”

  “He’s a good man, despite being a vampire,” she said with a wink. “He cares for you deeply. Every time he looks your way, there is nothing but love burning in his eyes.”

  “It’s love that might kill him in the end,” I said it on a breath, barely audible, but I could tell she heard me all the same.

  Gently, she swiped her thumb across my cheek, catching
the single tear that fell without my noticing.

  I sniffed. “I saw what’s to come and it’s not good. Not even close.”

  “The vision Briar shared with you?”

  “Yeah, that’d be the one. You know what it is?”

  “I don’t, but you can’t take those visions as definite outcomes. The future is constantly changing, depending on what you do in the present.”

  “But what if that is the truth?” I gulped as I squeezed her hand. “What if I give in and the only way to stop me is for Draven to kill me? I can’t ask him to do that. I won’t.”

  “You would what, push him away? How well do you think that’ll work?”

  I shrugged. “Better than being in love with me and killing me.”

  She pulled me around, so we sat face to face. “You worry about the evil claiming you, but Seneca, the best defense against such evil is love. Kindness. If you push Draven away, if you bury the love both of you share, you’ll have nothing to hold onto. You cannot let anything come between you.”

  “Even if I can keep him safe by pushing him away?”

  “Would you be? Or are you doing it to save yourself?”

  I hung my head, and she wrapped a warm arm around my shoulders. A maternal and nurturing arm.

  “I thought I had love before,” I told her quietly, “but that was nothing compared to what I feel with Draven. It’s like my soul feels his.”

  “A true love, a strong one. That’s what you must hold onto. Understand?”

  I hugged her back in reply, and we lay on the grass, talking about the garden and flowers, planting, anything that did not have to do with Rudarius or Draven or what my future might hold.

  Lark joined us later, and when I sat up, he was frowning.

  “Something wrong?”

  “As long as you’re not going to run off.”

  “Why would I do that?” I rose, helping Helena to her feet, then brushed the grass and dirt from my jeans. “Lark?”

  “Draven went with Shane tonight. He won’t be back ‘til morning. Marlie went with them.”

  I hissed quietly, and the orbs shifted from a calming blue to a dark shade of red. “And he left me behind to keep me safe.”

  Lark shifted on his feet, looking like he wanted to duck back inside.

  “Lark, you have something else you want to say?” I crossed my arms and stared the large fae down. “Well?”

  “It was more to keep everyone else safe.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, but that’s what he said, and the others agreed with him. As do I. Your connection to Rudarius, we don’t know if he can see us or not and Draven doesn’t want to risk Rudarius knowing what he’s up to.”

  That was what he told Lark, but it wasn’t the truth, since Draven told me to my face what he was doing. After my episode in the garden earlier, after seeing me use my dark power during the fights in Otherworld, it worried him what I’d do if pushed too far. He didn’t trust me.

  “Seneca.” Helena took a firm hold of my hands and forced me to look at her. “Don’t be angry with him.”

  “Why not? He’s not going to stop doing this.”

  “When he returns, you need to talk to him, actually talk to him,”

  “He has a habit of avoiding the conversation we need to have,” I muttered with a hiss.

  “Then don’t let him. Whatever you’re thinking, I guarantee you, that’s not the whole story. Give the man a chance. He took a chance on you.”

  That he did. A big one, considering I tried to kill him at our first meeting. I promised him I wouldn’t hold it against Draven, then said I was going to get cleaned up.

  The night was young, and Draven wouldn’t be back until the sun became too much of a threat to him. That gave me plenty of time to figure out what I was going to say to him. I wasn’t truly and completely angry at him. Aggravated maybe. I blamed it on his age. He was two hundred years old. He thought he knew better than me. He was stuck in that protective state of mind. But I could take care of myself. I was not going to go off and slaughter another group of shifters or anyone else. Unless they attacked me first. He was the one taking a risk tonight. We had no way to know how long Rudarius would be trapped in Otherworld.

  After my shower, I threw on my sleep shorts, and a tank top then sat in bed and looked out the window, waiting for him to come home. The conversation we had to have would not be easy. I’d have to tell him the truth of what I’d been seeing. Tonight wasn’t the first time it seemed as though Rudarius was standing next to me.

  My eyes drooped, and I rested my head against the wall. I shouldn’t have been tired, but not sleeping well was catching up with me. As my body slumped and turned heavy with impending sleep, the temperature dropped in my room.

  I screamed at myself to open my eyes as the temperature plummeted and my teeth chattered. The sound of dripping water was around me. Torches flickered in the harsh draft that gusted through stone corridors. The softness of the bed beneath me turned hard and grimy. Chains rattled when I shifted. Something, maybe me, begged my mind to slip back to reality—

  A hand closed around my throat.

  My eyes shot open.

  “Hello, pet.” Rudarius’s red eyes filled my vision, his hand cut off the air I needed to scream.

  Nightmare, this had to be a nightmare.

  His hand was firm and real around my neck, as was the pain when he tightened his grip. “Now then, you and I need to have a chat.”

  I clawed at his hand, but he cackled my feeble attempts. I was weak as if torn between two places. “What… did you… do?” I gasped

  “You’d be amazed at what having so many mages under your control can do.”

  I hissed and snarled, attempting to bite his hand. I realized too late that my hands were manacled.

  He grabbed the chain and tugged, so my arms were forced to his side. His other hand switched from holding on my throat to snarling and tangling his fingers in my hair. He yanked it back hard, exposing my neck.

  I struggled to pull away from those fangs shining in the torchlight. Sharp canines ran along my skin.

  I screamed for help, but there was no one here to save me. I couldn’t really be here, not back in his dungeon.

  “As I said, my pet, we need to have a chat.”

  I screamed all the louder, but it did nothing to stop him from moving closer until red eyes were all I saw.

  His fangs pressed against my throat.

  Chapter 2

  Draven

  “She’s going to kill you.”

  “And if you warn me one more time, I’m going to kill you.” Sitting in the rear of the bar, watching the crowd, I spun the beer bottle around and around. “You’re sure he’s coming?”

  “He said he was still unsure of my motives, was figuring out if he could trust me.”

  “And if he doesn’t show tonight?”

  Shane shrugged, raising his hand to a passing waitress for another beer. “Then we come back tomorrow night. Then the next, until he shows up with an answer. Like I said, you don’t have to tag along until I have a solid lead.”

  Not that hanging around the cottage would do me any good. Seneca was as restless as I was to get out and do something, anything, toward a plan to stop Rudarius. But that was just it. We had no plan, no real idea of where to turn. Macron was of no help. He and Minnie had been going out every day searching. What for, they kept to themselves. Not sure I enjoyed having two seers around Seneca, not after what Briar shared with her. She was so close to pushing me away for my own good. I could not let that happen, which was the only reason I came out tonight.

  She needed space, so I gave it to her. The orbs in the garden changing to grey and black had me on edge. Was it a sign she was closer to giving into the evil taint rushing through her veins or was it because Rudarius reached out to her? It wasn’t the first time I saw her have a fit like that, but the first one that lasted so long and left her cold and pale. Like he sucked the life from her.

  But the v
eil was sealed. Rudarius would not be getting to us any time soon.

  I looked around the bar searching for Marlie. He’d separated from us once we got here, spotting a few fae he wanted to speak with. I wasn’t sure how many knew the kingdoms had fallen. Most of the fae here weren’t exactly visiting. Most had been exiled or came here to get away from the ruling monarchies. I hadn’t had the heart to tell Marlie a fae prince was probably the last person they wanted to see. They had a right to know about Otherworld. He caught my eye from across the room, giving me a wave.

  “I’ll be back,” I muttered to Shane. “Our dear prince calls to me.”

  Shane smiled and said he’d keep an eye out for the vampire. As the hour was turning late, I sensed we wouldn’t be seeing him tonight. Marlie sat with three other fae at a round table. All were male with long blond hair and light blue eyes. They had to be related.

  “Draven, I’d like you to meet Ash, Ember, and Finch.”

  My brow arched at their names. “Pleasure to meet you.”

  “It’s alright,” Ash, the one who appeared the oldest, assured me. “Our parents weren’t the best with names.”

  “No, I think they’re great. Really.”

  “Marlie just told us about the fae kingdoms,” Ash said, lowering his voice as he glanced around the bar. “It’s true you are fighting against Rudarius?”

  “It is, along with Marlie’s sister, Seneca. A few of us made it out, and Rudarius is currently trapped. We’re not sure how long it will last.”

  “The brothers came here of their own choice,” Marlie explained. “They’re part of a larger community of fae who all did the same.”

  “And you’re willing to help us?”

  Ash, Ember, and Finch nodded as one. “We never had much care for vampires. No offense.”

  “I understand. I find myself disliking my kind more and more. When my coven fell, I hoped the others would join together and stand against him. All they did was come here. They ran from him. The ones too scared to do that joined his ranks. His army is vast.”

  “And you think he’ll come here next?” Finch asked, eyes shining eagerly.