by Brenda Trim
Talysia chuckled and shook her head after taking a sip of the wine the waitress delivered to their table. “That’s not what is believed in my realm. Because I cannot compel others with my voice I am seen as weak and an abomination.”
“I’d say it’s better that you can’t compel others. No one should have that much power over another being. I’m not surprised they’re assholes. I think you’re stronger than any of them. You have powers from your dad, right?”
The smile that spread across her face stole Finn’s breath. At least he thought it was Talysia’s smile when his head spun, making him nauseous. “If you count freezing stuff as a power, then yes,” Talysia replied.
“Are you kidding me?” Finn said on a cough. “That’s badass. I met the Vampire Prince and Princess in the Tehrex Realm and watched them wield their twin powers. Breslin controls fire and Bhric the ice. The shit he created was unreal. He could decimate enemies or stop catastrophes or make a drink cold.”
“Could he make a sculpture like this?” she asked as she poured her water from her glass and cupped her hands around it. Before the water hit the table, it became a block of ice she kept suspended in mid-air. With a finger pointing at the large cube, she ran it up and down the ice and it wavered, became water then moved and re-solidified in a new shape.
Finn gaped at the miniature dragon sitting in her palm. “I have never seen anything like that before. That’s far cooler than compelling others. You could even create weapons if you had to. I wish I could do that.”
“You think about weapons a lot.” she observed.
Pointing two fingers at his chest Finn chuckled. “Cuelebre Maahes. Comes with the territory.” Suddenly it became difficult to breathe as Finn’s chest tightened and he started gasping.
Talysia jumped to her feet and rushed to Finn’s side. “What’s wrong?”
His face went from a golden bronze to bluish, and he couldn’t respond because he was too busy gasping for breath. “T…t…” was all he managed to get out before falling out of his chair.
A waiter hurried over when Talysia started shaking Finn. “Is he okay? Should I call a munundugu?”
How the hell was she supposed to know? It was clear he was sick and something awful was making his body writhe, but he was a knight. Would Angus want just anyone to treat his best protectors? She doubted that. If this was something that could affect the entire realm, he would want to contain the knowledge to avoid mass panic.
Blaine, she thought a second later. He’d given her his communicator when she went to Finn’s house to take care of him. His friend wanted to make sure she had help if it was needed.
Tugging the communicator from her purse, she fumbled to turn the thing on and pressed Blaine’s contact. A second later his deep voice called out, “Hey, Talysia. You get tired of Finn already?”
“No,” she shouted. “Blaine, I need your help. There’s something wrong with Finn. He can’t breathe.”
The sound of coughing filled her ears before Blaine asked, “Where are you guys?”
“At Titan’s Fall. Are you okay?”
“I’m not feeling the greatest. I’m sending Legette there to get Finn. He’s close by,” Blaine replied.
“What should I do? He’s turning blue,” she cried out.
“You can give him mouth to mouth,” the knight replied.
“This is no time to make jokes,” she reprimanded.
“He’s not making jokes,” Legette’s deep voice intruded behind her. “That’s how you help him breathe. Watch out. I’m going to pick him up.”
“Go with Legette, Taly. I’ll see you at Tatenen,” Blaine said before their connection ended.
Legette leaned down and hefted the knight into his arms as if he were picking up a small child. These males were impressively strong. It made her miss her dad even more. He was the strongest male she knew until meeting the Maahes.
Sure, she’d seen shifters, vampires, and other creatures in the Tehrex Realm, but she’d never seen their strength. Talysia wasn’t sure what to do when Legette set Finn down on the sidewalk then started stripping his clothes.
“I need you to climb on my back then I will have Samuel lift Finn to you. You need to hold onto him for the short ride to the castle,” Legette instructed her.
Keeping her gaze focused on Finn, she nodded her agreement while sending a prayer to the Gods that Finn was okay. He’d stopped gasping, but now his breathes were shallow and uneven.
In a flash of light, a dragon stood in the street close to her and she realized why there were streets on Khoth. If there weren’t there would be nowhere for the dragons to shift and take off or land. She’d wondered about that from the moment she learned there were no cars in this realm. It wasn’t all that surprising to her given there were no cars on Calypso, either.
Rolling her eyes at her random thought process, she climbed on Legette’s back and Samuel, the waiter that approached her in the restaurant, lifted Finn to her. It was awkward and after she nearly dropped Finn, Legette was forced to lower his body to the ground and tilt to one side, so it was easier to get Finn in place.
Wrapping her arms securely around Finn, she called out, “Okay, I’m ready.” And, prayed she wasn’t lying.
With a flap of his wings, Legette’s massive dragon form lifted into the air with Talysia and Finn on his back. She was jostled, but it wasn’t too bad. The short flight to the castle was so fast that Talysia barely had time to think about losing her grip on Finn.
She liked him more than she expected, and didn’t want anything to happen to him.
When Legette’s feet touched the ground, he lowered his body and a group of knights hurried to his side. “Taly, push his leg over the side and we will catch him,” Blaine ordered.
“Don’t let him fall,” she warned as she pushed Finn’s leg over and held his hands while gravity took him down.
She was jumping down when Blaine chuckled and winked at her. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Finn would kick my ass if I did.”
Talysia followed Blaine and the others inside the stone structure. They walked quickly toward the room she was taken to a few days ago. Several males and females were waiting and one male in particular took charge and began giving orders for blood to be drawn and other exams to be done.
Talysia stood off to the side and watched as they worked. Blaine approached her side and bumped her with his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Dyson is the best healer we have. What happened?”
Talysia found herself replaying the past several days. How Finn recovered, yet still seemed tired and weak, but had insisted on taking her out to dinner. She told him how Finn was distracted when they arrived and started coughing then couldn’t breathe.
It seemed as if the doctor was listening to her recount the events because he ordered images of his chest which would include his heart and lungs.
“It’s a good thing you were with him. The restaurant would have called the closest munundugu to help him and without knowing what’s going on that could have caused more problems than it solved,” Blaine informed her.
“I thought about the same thing which is why I called you. He’ll be alright, won’t he?” she asked as her heart pounded against her chest.
Blaine wrapped an arm around Talysia’s shoulders and hugged her close. “He’s going to be fine.” The promise didn’t ease any of the tension stiffening her shoulders. “C’mon, let’s get you a drink and sit down.”
Talysia followed and practically fell into a chair. It wasn’t until she was seated that she realized ther
e were a ton of people sitting there, including two kings and queens. The Cuelebre King, Angus, and the Vampire King, Zander, along with, their mates. Suddenly, she thought she was losing her mind for coming here. She could get an update from Finn later.
Before she could get up and escape the table, Blaine handed her a glass of what smelled like tea as he took a seat next to her.
“Thank you for calling Blaine, Talysia,” Angus said in his Scottish accent. It was shocking to learn the leader of the dragons’ accent came from Earth. Now, it made her wonder about his story.
She recalled the tidbits Finn shared with her about Angus searching for the love of his life, Keira and being stuck in the Tehrex Realm for a hundred years. There was so much to the story Finn told her about their portals being sealed and them being isolated for the entire millennia their king was missing.
“Of course, Your Highness. I wasn’t sure of protocol but thought it best to contact one of the other Maahes.”
“Och, you’ve a keen sense aboot you. It was the safest option.” Talysia thought the King’s praise should have made her feel better, but she couldn’t think of anything except whether Finn was going to be okay.
Nodding, she glanced over at the table Finn was resting on. It seemed as if he was coming around. His head turned from side to side and she swore he locked gazes with her.
Without thinking, she got up and crossed the room. Footsteps echoed behind her, but she didn’t pay them any attention. She had eyes only for Finn.
“Sorry,” he croaked when she grabbed his hand in hers.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I just hope they have some answers.”
“We do, actually,” Dyson said from her right.
“What happened to him?” Angus demanded from closer than she expected.
Both she and Finn looked toward the doctor as he addressed the king. “Long story short, parasites are attacking his system.”
“What?” Angus barked at the same time Finn choked the word from his dry lips.
Dyson’s expression was unreadable, and it was all Talysia could do to keep from jumping down the doctor’s throat. “There are parasites in his blood stream, and several have attached to his heart and lungs. I think one of them punctured a small hole in one of the lobes of a lung,” the male explained.
“How the fuck does he have parasites in his body?” Angus barked.
“Not exactly sure. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dyson admitted.
“How do we kill them?” Angus ordered.
“I need to do more research, but I recommend we quarantine him and Talysia in separate suites in case she is infected,” Dyson replied.
Talysia barely heard the responses before Blaine was pulling her from Finn’s side and telling her to remain in her room until she heard anything further and to also report any changes she might feel. As the doors to the room closed, Talysia’s heart started racing in her chest. She hadn’t said goodbye to Finn and now she was locked inside a room.
The last vision she had of Finn was of him looking around with wide, panicked eyes. That could not be the last time she got to see his gorgeous face. She had no idea if anything would grow between them, but she was wanted to find out.
* * *
Chapter 10
Pacing the stone floor, Finn was about to go postal. He would lose his fucking mind if he didn’t get out of the small room. In the past twenty-four hours, he vacillated between his worry for Talysia and the parasites choking the breath from his body.
As a Cuelebre dragon he had superior healing capabilities and was stronger than most beings. He could crush an enemy with one blow, but there was nothing he could do to combat these microscopic creatures swimming through his blood stream.
The mere thought of a foreign entity inside his veins wreaking havoc on his internal organs made him sick to his stomach and infuriated Finn at the same time. It didn’t seem right that he was at the mercy of something he couldn’t fend off.
All of that was compounded by his worry for Talysia. What was she going through? Was she being tortured by repeated blood draws like he was? If it wasn’t for his preternatural healing, he would have passed out from blood loss hours ago. And yet, Dyson kept returning for more.
A noise in the hallway brought his incessant pacing to a halt. It sounded as if there was a contingent of Maahes outside the door. Blaine’s voice was among those he was able to discern.
Heading for the door, Finn was surprised to find it unlocked. “What’s going on?” he blurted when the door swung open. He made sure to take a couple steps backward in the event he was indeed contagious.
Blaine shook his head, but Caleb ignored him as he spoke. “You’re not the only one infected with these ticks.”
Finn gazed at Caleb and horror dawned on him. “How’s Talysia? Please tell me she’s okay.”
“Told you jackwagon,” Blaine cursed at Caleb. “The siren is fine, actually. She was sent home. Seems you haven’t given her anything. But there are several of us that have the same parasites in our system.”
“I don’t understand,” Finn said as he breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t realized how heavily his concern for Talysia weighed on his shoulders until it was removed.
“C’mon. Dyson, Angus, and Declan are waiting for us in the throne room,” Blaine encouraged.
“Someone better start talking. If Talysia is fine what’s going on? Did Dyson find a cure?”
“We’re all infected,” Caleb admitted a second later.
“What?” Finn exploded.
“What the prole is trying to say is that anyone who fought those small bastards in the training yard the other day was infected with the bugs,” Blaine informed him.
It was after Blaine explained the extent of the problem that Finn realized his closest friends didn’t look so great. He was too preoccupied moments ago to notice the sallow pallor of both Caleb and Blaine, as well as, Slate and Bane. Their normally tanned skin was pale and sickly.
And, Slate was wheezing while Bane had coughing fits every few steps. Finn was so busy wrapped up in his own head and dealing with his own bouts of hacking to realize they were just as affected.
“What the actual fuck is going on?” Finn asked as he followed the knights toward the throne room.
“I wish I knew,” Blaine replied. “Best Dyson can figure is that those things passed something onto us when we were bitten.”
Finn was lost in thought for several seconds trying to remember if there was anything that he could recall about the small Unseelie they faced a few days ago. Entering the throne room, Finn scanned the gathered males and grimaced when he saw the metal tray that was set up next to the large table.
“Well,” Angus asked the palace Mundunugu. “Is that what has affected my Maahes?”
Finn held his breath as he walked with said fellow knights to the group. The small, hairy body was sliced open and splayed on the table while Dyson used some contraption to get a close look at the creature’s innards.
Dyson’s head lifted and he picked up a pair of metal tweezers that he used to point at something inside the creature. “Yes. The parasites infiltrated their bloodstream and are also in their saliva. Although, it doesn’t appear as if they are damaging this host.”
The room was silent for several tense seconds. If this was Unseelie in nature, then there was likely no easy way to eliminate it from their system. Nearly half of the Maahes were involved in the battle. It wa
s terrifying to think about the realm being in so much danger without them to help protect the civilians.
“Shite. How do we kill it?” Angus demanded, and Finn didn’t miss the concern in his light green eyes.
“I’m not sure, Sire. I haven’t discovered anything that impacts it. This creature has been dead for days, yet the parasites are healthy and active as ever.”
“Cyril designed this. There’s not going to be an easy solution,” Legette added. “We can’t afford for half of our fighting force to be out of commission. No doubt the bastard’s been planning this for years.”
“We knew he wasna silent for no reason,” Angus acknowledged as he rubbed his jaw. “Every being has a vulnerability. We need to find oot what will destroy this bug. I know Cyril planned his attack to weaken us. We must remain vigilant in the event he makes another move while we’re dealing with this issue.”
“The fucker’s trying to distract us,” Finn blurted. “I’ve wondered why he launched so many attacks after the bombing at the beach, and now it makes sense.”
“Aye,” Angus agreed with a nod. “He has us right where he wants us. We canna leave Raynah Beach unattended, nor most of the outlying cities for fear he will cause more damage.”
“At least he cannot attack you here at the palace or the civilians within Duamutef. Perhaps we should evacuate the outlying cities and towns and bring everyone here,” Legette suggested.
Angus began pacing across the stone floor much in the same manic manner Finn was back in his room. “Nay. There isna enough space to fit everyone. Besides, we would be leaving areas vulnerable to the Unseelie. I willna allow them to claim anymore of our land. Run as many tests as you need to find oot what kills that parasite,” the king ordered Dyson.
