Just as druids needed sex.
Taking a deep breath, I walked down the hall to where Aiko had been offered a bed. I knocked and waited.
The door opened a moment later, and he stood there, silhouetted by the setting sun.
“Mistress.” He bowed.
“Aiko, please, please, call me Kimber. You revert to that every time.”
“It’s a sign of respect.”
“I understand, but this isn’t a place where we need such formalities between us. This is intimate.”
Stepping out of the way, he nodded. “I know. I just feel that perhaps leaving some distance between us will make the inevitable more tolerable.”
I closed the door softly. “I don’t think anything is going to help us, Aiko.”
He’d crossed the room while I’d been talking and stood facing the sunset. “I know. I didn’t mean to…”
Resting my hand on his shoulder, I nodded. “None of this should have happened.”
“Or maybe all of it was supposed to happen,” he answered.
The sun was dipping down behind the hills to the west, lighting the evening sky with orange that turned blue higher in the sky.
I sighed. “We should—”
There was a bang on the door. Somewhere between a knock and a slam making the door rattle in the frame. Aiko was momentarily surprised but hustled over and pulled the door open.
Dorian stood there.
The twins were immediately behind him.
“I’m sorry, ilati,” Rilen said. “I tried to stop him.”
Dorian’s eyes snapped with cool, angry power. “Out. Now.”
I stepped in front of Aiko. “Excuse me?”
“I said, Out.”
Roran slowly shook his head, a grimace clear on his face.
“Why?”
“What do you mean, Why?” Dorian’s face grew red. “Because I said, Out! This ends now.”
“What ends now?”
He flipped his hand between Aiko and me. “This.”
“This what, Dorian?” I knew I was pushing him.
“This sharing thing.”
I glanced at Aiko, and then at Rilen and Roran and folded my arms. “No. It doesn’t. He needs blood, and so do I. This arrangement suits us.”
“I said out, girl!”
“Ohshit,” Rilen breathed.
Cocking my head, I stared at Dorian. “One. I am not girl. My name is Kimber Raven. And two, just who the hell do you think you are ordering me around like that? This is not a military maneuver. I am not your slave or your pet. I am a grown woman with a will of my own.”
“I want you out of here.”
Grabbing the edge of the door, I stared at him. “I don’t give a damn what you want!” The door slammed in his face.
He kicked it open a second later, yanking it off the hinges and sending it through the air into the wall. Storming into the room, he reached out to grab my arm.
“Touch me, and I’ll castrate you,” I stated calmly.
Only just able to arrest his motion, Dorian stood inches from me.
“This is over, Kimber. It’s over. You don’t need his blood. You can take it from any of us. He can drink from the supplies that Odom brought. I won’t allow this.”
“You don’t own me, Dorian.”
“I am your—”
“My what?” I snapped. “You’re my lover. You share a bed. You haven’t claimed me as a mate. You haven’t formalized anything with a sealing ceremony. You fuck me. That’s it. I am a toy, a thing you amuse yourself and your mates with. And I won’t be told by anyone what I must do.”
“You’d walk away from me for this?”
“For someone who treats me with kindness? Who doesn’t mind sharing his blood with me? For someone who has treated me as a rare specimen? I’m not walking away from you, Dorian. You’re pushing me out.”
Rilen stepped forward. “I told you not to do this. She and Aiko have a bond. This is important for them.”
Dorian whirled on Rilen. “Shut your mouth!”
Roran came to stand next to his twin. “Calm your attitude, Dorian. Walk out of here, right now, and go dunk your head in the lake to cool the hell off.”
His eyes jumped between all of us, and he was suddenly gone in a blast of wind.
Roran shook his head.
Rilen let out a breath. “I told him not to come here, Kimber. I told him to let us all talk this out.”
“How did he know I was here?”
“The note was on the desk, and the flower was in a vase.” He smiled at me. “I recognized the gesture. I explained it to him.”
“I’m going to go find our idiot mate,” Roran said. He studied the broken door on the way out and shook his head. “I’ll send someone to put up a new door.”
Rilen held my gaze for a moment after Roran left the room. “I’m going to go help him. But, ilati, know that he doesn’t speak for us.”
He touched the back of his hand to my cheek. I pressed against his skin. “I know, Rilen. I’m not property. He doesn’t have a right. Not even if he had claimed me as a mate, not even if we’d had a sealing ceremony.”
“I know. We’ll get his head out of his ass.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Rilen turned to Aiko, and I saw Aiko swallow hard.
“Master Rilen, I will try not to ask for her favor again. Not if Master Dorian is this angry. I just need time and direction to find someone willing—”
Rilen stepped into him, grabbed his chin, and silenced him with a hard kiss.
He was gone the next moment.
9
GWYNNORE
I groaned under my breath as my eyes started to open. I blinked hard, my thoughts muddled in the subdued sunlight poking at my blue peepers. Red velvet tickled my cheeks and caught on my long eyelashes. My brows shot together. I shook my head hard and tried to sit up—my last memories starting to unravel in my mind.
I had been kidnapped.
I was still in a bag.
And a train whistle flirted with my eardrums.
Apparently, I had been moved from the wagon to a locomotive if the shuddering vibration under my palms was any indication. I released my claws, more than happy they were working properly again, and carefully began to cut myself free of my confinement—staying as silent as I could, still incredibly dizzy.
I poked my head out of the bag.
Blurry vision assaulted me. I squinted hard.
Two individuals sat with their backs to me. One was sleeping with his head falling to the side, a small snore slipping from the man. The other person was staring out the train window, trees passing by at a decent clip.
I liked my odds—if only I could see correctly.
I grabbed for my guns…but they weren’t there.
Fuck. That was right.
My captor had disarmed me.
Perhaps, I didn’t like my odds.
I would need to run in my addled state.
I…kind of…wished I hadn’t taken the necklace off. I would never tell King Belshazzar that, though. I would quietly take it back from him, clip it back on, never to be removed again. I didn’t particularly enjoy being kidnapped.
I shimmied the bag over my shoulders, catching it gently as it fell, lest the heavy fabric thump on the ground. I curled my body up, slid my legs out of it and turned silently on my hands and knees.
I crawled with delicate movements, shaking my head again and again as I tried to clear my vision, toward the back of the train cart—where a beautiful door was located. It would be a bumpy fall, but my ass was jumping off this train pronto. If my captors wished to follow, my claws would be waiting for their necks as they landed.
The snoring cut off abruptly behind me.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
Two pairs of eyes were staring right at me.
“Shit,” I hissed.
My captors charged to their feet, jumping over the backs of their chairs, their hard boots landing
solidly on the vibrating ground.
I jumped to my own feet and lunged at the door, catching the handle just as two hands grabbed onto my ankles and tore my legs right out from underneath me. My forehead smacked the floor as the door crashed open, wind whipping into the train car. Struggling from the ground, I kicked my feet cruelly against my aggressor’s nose—a beautiful crunch breaking beneath my boot—as I shouted in a fury, “Motherfucker, let go of me!”
With blood covering his face—and his huge hands not releasing my ankles—he barked a harsh order, “Dose her good, dammit! She must be old. She needs more than that!”
My eyes tore to my other kidnapper.
He had two darts in his palm but had swiftly turned back to a small cabinet to grab more, shoving a variety of bottles aside in his haste to find what he wished for.
“Oh, the fuck with that shit,” I growled. I grabbed onto the edge of the train car just outside the door, holding tightly to the cool metal, and slammed my boots furiously again and again against my captor’s face. One kick. Two kicks. Three kicks. Four kicks. “Fucking hell, let go, you crazy son of a bitch!”
The second kidnapper pounced cruelly on top of my chest, his darts at the ready, knocking the bloody breath right out of me.
My vision swam. I jerked underneath him as five goddamn darts stabbed into my neck. I blinked in a blur up at the man, and I sputtered, “One for each kick, huh?”
His fangs flashed. “You hurt my mate, bitch.”
My eyes began to cross, lethargy shooting through my veins. “I would rather have killed him…”
Fuck these kidnappers.
A vicious punch caught my cheek.
My head flew to the side as blood splattered the floor of the train car. My eyes didn’t open again.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
“What the hell is that?” I moaned. I scrubbed at my forehead where wetness was falling onto my face. I cracked open my weary eyes—odd light surrounding me—and my stomach clenched in hunger for more than food. I pulled my hand away from my forehead and sniffed at my fingers. I touched the tip of my tongue to my digits when I smelled salt, tasting the sea. “That’s ocean water. What in the world?”
Oh, yes. I had been kidnapped. Pleasure.
Where was I now?
I rolled onto my side on the cold, hard floor I lay upon, my clothes damp and my hair entirely soaking from the continuous drip I’d been laying under. I narrowed my eyes at the scenery. “Okay. This is downright peculiar.”
The most beautiful gems I had ever seen sparkled back at me—and there was no light in this space to make them shine. The minerals that made up the small, domed wall of this…cave?...were jagged and uncut, all tremendous colors I had never seen before. They stuck out at odd angles, some sharp and some rounded. Each one reminded me of an eyeball watching me with the way their sparkle tilted to the side, staying on me as I stood up—even the gems on the ceiling.
I held my woozy head gingerly. “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be here.”
The multi-hued gems warmed with more color.
“Yep.” I dropped my arms and nodded grandly, attempting to stay calm in the face of cognizant stones. “Definitely not supposed to be here. I think I want to leave now.”
The gems blinked in a fast cadence. Tittering.
“Not funny,” I grumbled. I gradually walked around the tiny, circular room with my nose up in the air, trying to smell everything I could. Like blood, for instance. I needed it—now. “How the fuck do I get out of here?” The room was solid, except for a large boulder that covered what I predicted was the only exit.
The sparkling gems dimmed.
I sighed. “It’s that bad, huh?”
They darkened even more.
“Hmph.” I wasn’t giving up that easily.
I pressed my hands to the boulder and set my feet, pressing with all of my might. The dust puffed by the edges. I growled and shoved again, shouting with the effort, my veins bulging on my neck, and my teeth bared in anger. My face flushed with exertion, but I kept pushing with every bit of strength I had.
My right foot slipped on the wet, stone floor.
I fell to my knees hard, cracking my head against the jagged boulder. I touched my left eyebrow, finding a deep, slicing cut, and screamed, “Let me out of here!”
No answer came. Not even a footfall.
My warm blood trickled between my fingers while the wound quickly healed itself. Not one to waste blood in this deadly situation, I licked my fingers clean, groaning at the taste of sweet, sweet blood. I needed more of it, from a source not myself—since I’d more than likely drain my thirsty self dry. That was not the wisest course of action, many a fool vampire having done that before in desperation.
I sat down on my ass and leaned back against the boulder. I pulled my legs up and curled my arms around them tight, trying to stay warm—it was damned chilly in this cave.
I grouched, “So, are you from Ota’ano?”
Cognizant gems normally were.
The radiant minerals sparkled blindingly.
“That’s what I thought.” A small smile touched my lips. It was official. I was whacked in the head. My partners in crime were now beautiful gems. “Do you know Belshazzar?”
Another blinding flash of colors.
I put a hand up in front of my eyes, shading my sensitive gaze. “Tone it down a little bit, please. That is far too much excitement for one man.”
They tittered again, blinking in and out.
I rolled my eyes and thunked my head back against the boulder. “Any clue how long the mad queen plans to keep me prisoner?”
The bright stones quieted their hues.
I closed my eyes. “Just great.” I sighed. “We are still in S’Kir, right? We’re not in Ota’ano? Wherever the hell that is.”
They burned bright once more.
“That’s good, I suppose.” I settled in for a long wait. “Bel will find me.”
10
KIMBER
I wandered through the remains of the beautiful building that had been the temple masters’ quarters. I stood in the hall where I had first seen the magic cascading down from walls and windows, where I had first met the man who was now the bane of my existence.
Well, the living bane, anyway.
No one would ever be the bane of my existence more than my father.
Everything was screwed up now. The queen was missing, probably taken by the mad queen of our land.
The king wasn’t acting rationally, and certain generals and masters had to keep threatening him to remind him that we couldn’t rush to her rescue.
A bang and clatter behind me had me spinning and drawing my sword.
It was only a construction worker walking into the area, and I immediately felt foolish for pulling out my sword on him.
“Hello,” I called so he wouldn’t be startled either.
Slowly turning in a circle, looking at the room, his meandering, dark amber gaze finally landed on me in the door to the remains of the common room.
“Oh.” He wasn’t startled at all. “Lady Stormbreaker. Forgive me if I don’t bow. My back is not what it used to be.”
I laughed. “I don’t stand on protocol, sir. I prefer to be called Kimber.”
His head of silver hair bobbed with respect. “Kimber. I’m… Oz.”
“Oz.” I tried the name on my tongue. “That’s an interesting name. Your skin says that you are from the East, near the Spit.”
“A bit further.” He laughed, his eyes wrinkling with mirth.
“So you’re a vampire?”
“When I want to be.” He smiled.
What kind of answer was that? I blinked and nodded. “You’re part of the rebuilding crew then. Did you travel here after the Spine fell?”
“I did,” he said. “I was curious to see what the druids were up to, as there were stories that had grown old and stale.”
“Much like the druids,” I grumbled.
Tossing
his head back, he laughed. In that instant, he reminded me of King Belshazzar the way he moved his head as he let out the laugh.
“Mistress, both races have stalled in their time apart,” he offered. “But I have noticed that the druids are a bit…stale.”
“Like crackers that were left in the oven too long.”
“Overbaked. In desperate need of some butter or to be dunked in soup.”
“Oh, I’d love to dunk a druid in soup. Headfirst.”
The chuckle echoed in the mostly empty room, and I realized I had said that aloud. I sighed.
“Forgive me, that was out of line. I shouldn’t speak of my fellow masters in such a way.”
“It’s fine. We’ve all wanted to dunk someone’s head in soup.” Oz stepped out and continued his inspection of the room around us. “Will they try to save this?”
I glanced around. “I hope.”
“Didn’t this used to be a throne room?”
Shaking my head, I followed the dance of light around the walls and falls. “There have been no druid kings or queens for millennia.”
Oz’s eyes were full of shock. “No one holds the crown?”
“We don’t even have a crown in a museum for you to see. The temple masters have ruled us since the Spine rose. We have provincial councilors, governors, town councils, and mayors who either govern locally or bring their provincial concerns to the temple masters. No kings or queens.” I pursed my lips. “And if you’ll forgive me, from what I saw on the other side of the Scar? We are better off as such.”
“Nothing to forgive,” Oz answered. “The absolute mess that the vampires find themselves in sort of speaks for itself.”
He surveyed the room one more time and headed for the remains of the front door, inspecting the detailed threshold with its carvings and molding.
“Mistress Kimber, there is more inspection to be done. Thank you for your company. I do hope I wasn’t an imposition and that I see you again.”
“Of course, Mister Oz.” I smiled. “Thank you for helping us rebuild our home—I hope we don’t suffer many more attacks from the mad queen.”
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