In a battle on the barren fields of Arberfan is where this story
will end.
The story that began as a simple Retriever case has become
the tale of the fight against a thousand years of evil.
The wolf shifters have Niceros to take down. The
Vampire Twins have to deal with Cassius. The Second
Kingdom is in disarray and Simeon, Asher and Phin are
desperate to calm the unrest.
An alpha needs to accept his role, a blood demon has to
become the King he was meant to be, and the Vampire twins
have to end the war.
Against all this, Reuben and Ethan, lovers separated for a
millennium, are thrown back in to a war to end the poison
that is Ludvik Peitrol.
In a battle on the barren fields of Arberfan is where this
story will end.
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is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents either are products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.
The Third Kingdom
Copyright © 2014 RJ Scott
ISBN: 978-1-77111-924-5
Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the
reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part
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the written permission of the publisher.
Published by eXtasy Books
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The Third Kingdom
By
RJ Scott
Dedication
To the absolute poetry of timing that is me sending Ludvik Peitrol,
the evil villain that lies and manipulates, to his deserved end.
To endings and beginnings and all the journeys we take to finally
vanquish our demons.
For Chris Quinton who thought of the names for my shifter good
guys.
And always for my family.
Books
Book 1 The Vampire Contract – Micah, Vampire &
Conner, Wolf Shifter
Book 2 The Guilty Werewolf – Declan, Wolf Shifter &
Levi, Incubus
Book 3 The Warlock’s Secret – Joseph, Vampire & Phin,
Elf
Book 4 The Demon’s Blood – Simeon, Cat Shifter &
Asherkan, Blood Demon
Book 5 The Incubus Agenda – Brody, Incubus & Nick,
Wolf Shifter
Book 6 The Third Kingdom – Ethan (aka Methulan),
Human & Reuben, Vampire
Characters
Micah – Vampire – Joseph’s twin brother
Conner – Wolf Shifter – Retriever for Glitnir (Alpha)
Declan – Wolf Shifter – Retriever for Glitnir (Beta to
Connor’s Alpha)
Levi – Incubus
Joseph – Vampire Leader of the Resistance Underground
– Micah’s twin brother
Phin – Elf - Son of King – Asherkan’s half-brother
Simeon – Cat Shifter – Former ambassador for the Feline
Guild in Glitnir
Asherkan – Blood Demon – King of the Second Kingdom
– Phin’s half-brother
Brody Lennox – Incubus
Nicholas Tarrant – Wolf Shifter
Reuben – Keeper of the Vampire Book of Days – Nearly a
thousand years old
Ethan (aka Methulan) – Murdered husband of Joseph
Jason – Leader of the Feline Guild – Simeon’s brother
Ludvik Peitrol (aka Lekland) – Councillor of the Fae
Alliance in Glitnir
Cassius – Leader of the Vampire Clans Council
Niceros – Leader of the Wolf Shifter Retrievers
Places
Glitnir – Corrupted and controlled by the Fae Alliance
Second Kingdom – The Feline Guild owns a quarter, the
elves half and the rest minorities with the Blood Demons
(created by Vampires long ago to be a food source) a strong
presence. Has a restrictive caste system with blood demons
indentured with no rights.
Third Kingdom – prophesied new world after unification
of Glitnir and Second Kingdom
1
Chapter One
Arberfan
euben stumbled over loose stones and wet grass in his
hurry to get down into the space at the bottom of the
incline. Methulan was here, standing in the centre of the
destroyed space and waiting for him. Sudden doubts forced
him to an abrupt halt when he reached level ground. Was
this a trick? Some old magic that gave the illusion of the
other half of his heart standing so lost and lonely in the very
place of the last battle—the spot where Methulan died and
Reuben lost his will to live?
“Methulan?” he called uncertainly. He hoped to hell
Brody and Nick weren’t watching this epic uncertainty.
They would surely think him one hell of a coward for not
striding forward and damning the consequences.
The figure held out his hands. “Reuben,” he said.
That was Methulan’s voice, his beautiful face. The only
thing that was different was his hair: long and white-blond,
it framed his features. Reuben pushed aside his fear that this
was all some kind of cruel revenge from a past foe. Someone
like Lekland the Kappa—or Ludvik as he was known now—
a creature bent on becoming a god in his own lifetime and
not letting anyone stand in his way.
Reuben took a step forward, then another, faltering over
discarded rocks, evidence of the battle that had once been
fought on this sacred earth. Soon his walk grew into a steady
run. Methulan moved towards him and suddenly he was
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2
right up to Methulan before he could think of any more
reasons why this was a bad thing. He fell into Methulan’s
arms, a cry of wonder passing his lips as Methulan
embraced him and held him steady. For long minutes they
held each other, and Reuben fought back the emotion that
threatened to push him to his knees.
“Reuben,” Methulan was saying over and over. “Reuben.
My love. I thought you were dead.” Methulan tightened his
grip and Reuben grabbed at his jacket and held tight, the
supple leather wrapping around his fingers. The feel of him,
the scent of him, every part of Methulan was here. This was
no apparition.
Methulan pulled away and Reuben could see the agony
carved into the other man’s face. “Too long,” he murmured.
Reuben shook his head. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“You died. I saw you kill yourself because of me. I don’t…”
He couldn’t think of the right words, let alone utter them in
a coherent fashion. Instead he released his hold on the
leather and cradled Methulan’s face. He stared directly into
silver eyes, one flecked with blue, the other green. Then,
before he could question anything, he kissed Methulan, at
first a soft reconnection, then forcefully enough to have them
both gasping for air. It was always like this, incendiary,
instant, a passion so quick to ignite it burned them both.
They kissed again, but this time Methulan gentled the taste
and twisted his hands into Reuben’s long, unruly curls.
Anchored this way they kissed for the longest time, with
Reuben desperate for more.
They pulled apart at some unspoken agreement, and
Reuben glanced at Methulan’s plump lips, swollen from
their kisses. His lover hadn’t changed much apart from his
hair, which used to be dark and thick and short. Other than
that he hadn’t aged and there were no scars, so he looked as
perfect as the very last minute before he died. His white-
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3
blond hair made a veil around his face and his beautiful eyes
focused only on Reuben.
“Where are your friends?” Methulan asked softly.
Reuben cast a look up the side of the incline. “You knew I
came with someone?”
Methulan nodded. “The incubus I sent to Joseph and the
wolf I showed the name of this place to. I knew their
curiosity would mean they’d accompany you, and I could
see you.”
Reuben felt an irrational burst of temper. “You’ve been
watching me,” he stated with heat. “How long? Where have
you been? Why couldn’t I see you?”
Methulan gripped his hands tight—he looked broken,
devastated, and so sad. “Please don’t be angry with me,” he
pleaded.
“Why didn’t you find me?”
“I can’t help the connection we have, but it’s the only
thing that kept me here for a thousand years.”
Methulan wasn’t answering the question at all. In fact he
was being deliberately vague about everything.
“I saw you die,” Reuben repeated.
“Even when the knife stabbed through my heart, I didn’t
die.”
Reuben wished he’d had the luxury of being able to know
that Methulan had been alive. Being spelled into the
Vampire Book of Days had been a prison sentence where he
could see everything except his lover.
“So you knew I was still alive,” he said. “But you didn’t
find me.” He repeated the same words as before, but this
time they were tinged with desperation.
Methulan dropped his gaze, then just as quickly lifted it.
His eyes were bright with emotion, and his voice choked as
he spoke. “I couldn’t. He told me you were safe, that you
would be freed when the twins released you… Please, I
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4
can’t…”
Reuben’s heart twisted and he yanked Methulan to him.
“Don’t” was all he could say. “Just don’t.”
Holding hands, they left the crater and climbed to the top.
A heavy, oppressive air cloaked this place, and Reuben felt
the weight of memories as they settled on his shoulders. Too
many people had died on this battlefield all because of one
person’s need for power and Reuben’s own betrayal of
himself and Methulan. He’d loved Methulan, hell, he still
loved him, but they were poison to each other, and they
always would be.
They topped the slope and Reuben was never more
pleased to see Brody and Nicholas standing uncertainly by a
large boulder. Having two others there to break the tension
between him and Methulan was probably a good thing.
“Methulan,” Nick said warmly. He stepped forward and
held out a hand that Methulan shook readily.
“I go by Ethan now,” Methulan offered. He looked
pointedly at Reuben. “I’ve been Ethan on and off for a long
time.”
Reuben closed his eyes briefly. Ethan was the name
Methulan used when he’d been undercover with the
vampires, when he and Reuben had first met. What was he
saying by making that point and looking so thoughtfully at
Reuben?
“I owe you my life,” Brody added and also extended a
hand.
“I was just doing what I could,” Ethan offered in a gentle
tone. “Others saved your life.”
“Well, whatever you think you did or didn’t do, we’re
thankful for it.”
“So what now?” Reuben asked. He glanced back at the pit
below and shuddered. Too many ghosts of yesterday in the
mist down there that had him chilled to the bone.
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5
“We should move away,” Ethan said. He gestured at the
battlefield. “It’s cold here, and I’m hungry.” He didn’t let go
of Reuben’s hand as the four of them walked away from the
stones and into the forests that surrounded the place.
“I don’t like it there,” Nick offered quietly to Brody as
they walked ahead. Reuben knew exactly what Nick meant.
It wasn’t just a vampire that felt the death in the place, and a
wolf shifter would be doubly sensitive.
They stopped half an hour’s walk away from the site, and
Reuben checked out the area before agreeing that this was a
good place to stay. They were slap bang in the middle of the
Red Mountains and far too close to the contested Badlands
to be entirely safe, but he wanted to talk to Ethan and they
couldn’t talk seriously while they walked. They set up for
the night, a fire giving warmth and Nick throwing his pack
with blankets to Reuben. Nick didn’t need anything to keep
him warm, and Reuben appreciated the gesture, even if
being cosseted angered his warrior’s heart. Brody would be
warm enough with Nick.
After they’d eaten, it was Reuben that asked the first
question. He couldn’t hold back his need to know.
“Tell me what happened. I watched you kill yourself with
a knife in your heart. I don’t understand how you can be
alive.”
Reuben saw Brody wriggle closer to Nick and envied that
touch. He wanted to be in Ethan’s arms as much as he
wanted to push the man away in fear and anger.
“When I came onto the battlefield, you were near to
death,” Ethan began. He reached over and traced a path
from throat to navel over Reuben’s jacket. “You’d fought ten
shifters and each of them lay dead around you, but you’d
been injured, the slice of a knife had cut you open, even
through armour. You were lying in a pool of blood and I
held you as the life drained from you. Our army was
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6
victorious under the Kappa, the other side, the elves, the
felines, in complete disarray. There was no cohesion or
agreement in how they had to fight to succeed against us. It
was chaos and I sat there in the middle of this chaos and I
felt my life crumble around me.”
“Wait,” Nick interrupted, “you were on Lekland’s—
Ludvik’s—side in the last battle?”
Ethan stared blankly at Nick. “He was fighting for
change, we all wanted that change. We just didn’t know that
the change he wanted was so wrong. He wanted things that
he was never going to have and it made him mad with
desire to get what he wanted, but we never saw it.”
“He wanted you,” Reuben said. That much was true.
Lekland wanted Ethan and would have done anything to get
Reuben out of the picture. Even as he lay dying on the
battlefield he wondered why it was that so many shifters
had concentrated on taking him down and him alone.
“He wanted me,” Ethan repeated the point, then sighed
deeply. “I saw it in his face as he looked down at you dying
with such concern on his face. None of it reached his eyes,
and for the briefest of seconds he was scarlet with lust. I saw
that and in just that single moment of time everything
became clear. You were dying and if you couldn’t be with
me then I wasn’t becoming a free man for Lekland and
others like him.”
Reuben glanced over at Ethan and saw the determination
written into every line of his lover.
“So you bound us,” he said.
“Cast a spell that bonded us until death. If you were
going to die at Arberfan, then I would die with you.”
Ethan was using such simple words filled with absolute
certainty that what he’d done was right.
“But Lekland saw you do it?” Nick asked from his side of
the fire.
The Third Kingdom
7
“Unfortunately the bonding was perverted by Lekland.
He became as embroiled in us as we were each other, but I
didn’t see it.”
“He did?” Reuben looked horrified. “No. He couldn’t
have.”
“But he did. At the end of things, he could see I was
prepared to sit next to you until you died and that it didn’t
matter who may come to us and kill me. I saw he was so
angry, more than angry, nearly seething with fury, but in an
instant he pulled it back and he was again the sane, stable
person we had all followed into battle. He said he could save
Reuben.” Ethan stared directly at Reuben and his eyes were
filled with desperation. “He said he could save you. That he
would spell you until a cure could be found for your
wounds. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t thinking about
myself or Lekland but just about the life that was draining
from you. I loved you so much, I wanted everything for you,
for us, and I couldn’t bear it.”
“You should have let me die,” Reuben snapped. He was
angry at the past tense in the love part of that entire
description.
“I was wrong,” Ethan said, miserable and slumping lower
in defeat. “I just wanted you alive and living to fight another
day, but as soon as Lekland cast the spell, you vanished
from before me.”
“I was still there,” Reuben insisted.
Ethan nodded. “I don’t doubt it, but I couldn’t see you,
and Lekland helped me to stand. Told me he had failed. That
he was sorry. I just took my knife, I was hysterical with
losing you, and when I pushed the knife into my chest all I
felt was peace.”
“I was screaming at you not to kill yourself,” Reuben said.
He recalled those moments—the knife, the fear and horror
on Ethan’s face, and the knife parting skin.
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8
Ethan closed his eyes. “I didn’t hear you, I couldn’t hear
you. Then I don’t remember anything else.”
“But you said yourself you couldn’t actually die,” Brody
whispered, “because you had bound yourself to Reuben.”
Nick finished the thought. “And Reuben wasn’t dead, he
was just…disappeared.”
Reuben shook his head. “Sent into the book, he made me
the damn Book of Days, and for nearly a millennia I have
seen every day through a thousand different eyes. And not
one sign of you. You were dead.”
“I was in another world. I don’t remember much, just that
I was a different man in many centuries. But suddenly I was
here, thrust into something I didn’t understand, hundreds of
years past where I had been. I befriended Joseph and Micah,
began to think there was some way that you had to be alive.
After all, if I was alive, then you should be. Lekland, or
Ludvik, he found me every single time I came back. I don’t
know how. But then this time I came back and suddenly you
were there and I could feel you.”
“When Micah and Joseph opened the Book of Days and
set Reuben free,” Brody summarised.
“Vampire legend spoke of twins bringing about the
opening of the Book of Days and a final unification of all the
groups and kingdoms into one cohesive whole,” Ethan
intoned.
His attitude pissed Reuben off. “I know my own species
and their damn legends,” he snapped. Then he shook his
head. He was frustrated and irritable and he didn’t know
what the hell was going on.
“There were a couple, Sarah and Benjamin—you know
their son Levi. They found evidence you were spelled into
the Book of Days, and they died at Lekland’s hands because
of this knowledge. I almost gave up at that point. I knew you
wouldn’t want people to die for us, but I couldn’t stop
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9
searching for a way to get you out. I followed the bloodline,
finally, to Joseph and Micah, these were the twins, your clan,
and they would be the ones who would be able to get you
out. I had to bide my time. When they were born I watched
them and got close to them, but Lekland found me, and for
the twentieth time he killed me, always with the same
vampire symbols carved into my skin, always to stop me
from being who I was meant to be. He’d had a millennia to
grown into madness; I’d had a millennia clinging to hope.”
“I don’t understand. Where do you go between the times
you are alive?” Nick asked.
Ethan glanced back over his shoulder the way they had
come. “Always Arberfan with a thousand lost souls, always
on this battlefield, then I journey home when I come back. I
can’t explain it, but this time I was only asleep for a short
while, and when I woke up there you were alive. I used as
much magic as I could to hide myself and I convinced
Glitnir I was part of their Retrievers system.”
“You can’t have pretended you were a wolf, we’d have
scented you,” Nick defended his species.
“Not with the magic I used. When I came back this time I
was different because Reuben was there. I was stronger, I
could wait, then I saw Nick help Brody and I followed the
Retrievers. That is all I have to tell you, my part in all of this
has been small.”
Reuben hung his head and stared down into the fire. Each
of the days he recorded, the emotions, lies, the actions of
every vampire, he knew he had been connected to Ethan.
Then here he was—within touching distance of the man he
loved. This was killing him all over again.
Ethan stood and Reuben instantly felt intimidated and
scared. He didn’t want to feel that way with Ethan.
“I can’t think,” he said a little desperately.
Ethan was pleading with him. “You have to believe me,
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10
Reuben. Joseph thought he was protecting me when he took
me in, but all it meant was that Lekland could find me. He
thought he had taken me down again, but I lived, and the
only reason I lived was to find you again.”
Reuben fought the instinct to simply take Ethan’s hand
and walk off with him. He didn’t understand half the story,
and the conflicting emotions inside him—lust, anger,
disappointment, and so much else—made him incapable of
actually settling on one feeling.
“I can’t breathe,” Reuben snapped. Then in a quick move
he left the campfire and stalked into the forest. He heard
Ethan call out after him, but he wasn’t ready for this. He was
a warrior, the blunt instrument that the leaders used to win
wars. He thought he’d known Lekland, and Ethan, but
abruptly he wasn’t so sure. All this talk of magic and of
Ethan being alive was too much to take in.
What do I do now?
“Should we go after him?” Nick asked. “At least one of
us, to keep an eye on him? He can be pretty intense.”
Ethan wanted to follow Reuben. He imagined meeting his
lover again as something so different, but Reuben appeared
angry and mistrustful, and there was pain in his incredible
eyes that Ethan wished he couldn’t see.
When they’d kissed on the remains of the battlefield,
Ethan had felt the snap of connection, of his soul calling to
its fate. What did Reuben feel? Anything?
“I’m going,” Ethan said. “Stay here and I’ll be back soon.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” Brody offered. “He was lit up with
confusion. You need to ground him or you’ll just make it
worse.”
Ethan looked down at the incubus and the wolf who held
him in a close embrace. “I will,” he solemnly promised. Then
he left the warmth of the fire and made his way into the
forest. It wasn’t difficult to follow Reuben’s path. There was
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11
an instinct inside Ethan that connected viscerally with
Reuben and he just followed his head and heart. Reuben had
taken a path up past the tree line to the emptiness of an
outcrop of stone and stood silently staring out over Arberfan
and the battlefield that was beyond the peak.
“Is there anything I can say?” Ethan asked. He drew to a
halt some six feet from Reuben and waited for Reuben to say
something. Anything.
“So you’re back to fight this new battle?” Reuben asked.
He didn’t turn and face Ethan, which wasn’t an encouraging
sign. “This final battle where the twins will remake the
kingdoms, blah blah blah.” Derision dripped from Reuben’s
words, and Ethan didn’t think he’d ever heard such pain in
someone’s voice before.
“No,” Ethan began. He wanted to be honest, whether he
was setting himself up for a fall or not. Reuben had to know.
“I came back for you. It’s always for you.”
Reuben stiffened, then slowly turned to face Ethan. “I get
that,” he said with a tired expression on his face lit only by
the huge moon that hung low in the sky. “Can we break it?”
he added.
“Break it?” Ethan was confused. Break Lekland? Break
what?
“The connection between us. So that I can die and you can
do whatever it is you want to do.”
Horror chased down Ethan’s spine. What? “I don’t want
to break the bond,” he said urgently. There was a flare of
something on Reuben’s features, hope maybe, then his
expression became neutral like he had nothing invested in
Ethan’s answer.
“You only did it so Lekland couldn’t have you,” Reuben
said. He sounded tired now.
Ethan huffed a laugh of disbelief. “That entire story and
you focus on that one thing.”
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12
“It’s pretty important,” Reuben defended.
“I did it because I wanted to be with you in death as I was
in life.”
Ethan took a step closer to Reuben. He didn’t like the
scents in the air up here, too many ghosts from the Great
Battle for Ethan to be entirely happy. But for Reuben he
would face anything.
“Reuben?” he began, keeping his tone gentle. “I loved
you.”
He wasn’t expecting Reuben’s reaction to that statement.
Reuben’s lips twisted into a sneer. “Sorry you’re trapped
here with me now, then.”
“I don’t get…” Ethan couldn’t understand what was
happening here, then it was as if a light switched on inside
him and suddenly he knew. “I loved you, and I love you. I
always have and I always will. I don’t want the bond broken
because you are the other half of my heart and I can’t
imagine a life without you. It hurts when I consider what it
would be like.”
There. He’d said it. He’d laid his entire raft of emotions
out in the open for Reuben to see. Now he just had to see
what Reuben would say back. Emotions passed across
Reuben’s features in quick succession. Hope, despair, need,
anger, then finally, like he was a marionette whose strings
had been cut, he fell to his knees.
“Reuben!” Ethan shouted and dropped to his knees right
in front of Reuben. “Talk to me,” he ordered desperately.
“I love you,” Reuben said. “I don’t want the bond broken.
I’m yours.”
Ethan gripped his lover hard, and for the longest time
they clung to each other on the outcrop with the past horrors
beyond.
If he died now he would die a happy man. When they
pulled apart, they kissed, a soft chaste kiss that promised
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13
more. The moon’s light had shifted and it took everything in
Ethan not to push Reuben to the hard dirt and kiss him until
they couldn’t breathe. But it wasn’t right. Not here, this close
to the memories of pain and despair. Instead he clambered
to his feet. “We should sleep.”
Reuben took Ethan’s proffered hand and they embraced
before leaving the shelf and walking back down to the fire.
Brody was asleep in Nick’s arms, but Nick was vigilant
and watching out for their return. Only when they were
huddled under blankets in a close embrace did Nick finally
succumb to sleep.
“You think we can ever have anything as innocent as love
again?”
“We can try,” Reuben replied. “So Methulan, tell me your
stories.”
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14
Chapter Two
The Second Kingdom
sher watched from a distance. The cats may have
accepted him and Simeon as a matched pair, but that
didn’t mean they tolerated a blood demon in their midst.
King of the Second Kingdom or not, there was no way
Asherkan Iblis was ever going to be invited to sit with the
cats at the dinner table. Simeon glanced his way and nodded
imperceptibly. They’d exchanged heated words this
morning in bed, which wasn’t the way Asher wanted to
spend time with his shifter.
They won’t talk to you, Simeon had said. And just that
simple statement was enough to start an intense discussion
about why the cats should damn well pay attention to the
king of the kingdom they lived in.
I am their King. And Hell, it was weird to say something as
sweeping and dramatic as that. Being King wasn’t
something he’d exactly ever imagined. That was Phin’s job.
Phin was the one with the one hundred percent elf blood.
Still, Phin was meant for other things. He was so strong with
magic, and his journey wasn’t to stay here on this side of the
Red Mountains but to become a liaison between all the
parties looking to fight for equality and liberty for all. Asher
didn’t feel very kingly at the moment. Yes, he wore the
uniform, yes, he attempted to walk the walk and talk the
talk, he even had eight guards flanking him at all times.
A
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15
Eight. But when he woke next to Simeon and their first
words were an argument that made him less a King and
more a troubled lover.
They won’t talk to a blood demon, even one with royal blood,
Simeon said way more specifically. Saying the words hurt
Simeon so deeply, Asher could see that. Didn’t mean he had
to like the way Simeon was so adamant. Wasn’t that what
the Underground was fighting for? Joining species together,
starting something new?
Asher nodded at Simeon’s glance, then smiled softly. He
so desperately wanted Simeon to know he felt guilty over
some of the words he’d thrown at his lover as dawn stole the
night, words that painted Simeon with the same brush as the
other feline shifters. Simeon smiled back at him and briefly
brought his hand up to touch his chest, right over his heart.
That was enough. Knowing he had Simeon’s love was just
the right thing to balance the stress in his mind. Not only
was he attempting to unite the disparate groups in his own
kingdom, he had far worse things to handle. Not least of
which was the fact that only a handful of blood demons
thought they could work with the vampires. And that was
going to be a breaking point.
“You okay?” Phin asked at his shoulder. Asher wasn’t
even surprised that his brother had suddenly appeared at
his side. He looked down at Phin who stared up at him with
concern on his face.
Asher nodded tightly. Then, indicating his guards should
stay where they were, he led Phin away from the delicate
Feline/Second Kingdom negotiations.
“The felines hate the demons, the demons won’t talk to
the vampires, the elves who backed elf/demon segregation
are demanding a vote, and the remainder of my Kingdom is
sitting and waiting for me to pull something out of the hat so
all of this makes sense.” Everything tumbled out and Phin
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16
stared at him, wide-eyed. Asher hadn’t meant for everything
to just spill like that, but he was sick of it all staying inside in
complicated political webs. The words needed to be spoken,
to bring this whole thing down to who the hell would speak
to who, and why.
“I’m sorry, Ash,” Phin said softly. “I know you didn’t
want this.” Phin gestured around him at the forest, but
Asher knew the indication encompassed the entire
Kingdom.
“I was born to it,” Asher said tiredly. “Doesn’t mean I
have to think any of it makes sense.”
Phin hugged his brother and held him close. Asher drank
in the scent of Phin, the mix of magic and fall that was so
familiar. When they separated Asher felt somehow lighter,
and he wouldn’t put it past his brother to have pushed
magic into Asher to calm him down. Now it was his turn, as
the eldest, to worry about Phin.
Phin looked tired, his pale silver eyes bloodshot and his
smile just ever so slightly forced.
“And you?” Asher asked.
“And me what?” Phin yawned behind his hand.
“Are you okay? What’s the news with the Underground?”
“I’m fine, but too many jumps to talk to everyone. Joseph
and Micah are approaching the Vampire Clans Council.
Cassius may well be sucked into the whole Glitnir/Ludvik
mess, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the Council isn’t
willing to back a new way.”
“And the rest?”
Phin shook his head wearily. “Declan and Connor are
running down the Retrievers and getting intelligence on
what Niceros is up to. Levi is over in the Trent Forest talking
to the Bears. Brody and Nicholas went off with Reuben to
find this Methulan guy. I can’t get to them because they’re in
the Badlands.”
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The Badlands was the boundary between the Second
Kingdom and the Glitnir territories, a magic-free zone
allegedly. There was a horrible darkness in that place from
the last Great War a thousand years before.
“What about Ludvik? And Glitnir?”
Phin lowered his voice. “They moved away from fighting
the Bears at Trent, and all intelligence points to everything
being pulled together somewhere else. Glitnir is in turmoil
after anyone deemed not pure was rounded up, some
murdered in cold blood. Any child that was a mix of species
was locked away. Rumours and half truths for the most part,
although I have seen the imprisoned children.”
Simeon joined them, and instantly Asher was on the
defence, waiting for his lover to say the Feline Guild had
told Asher to shove it where the sun didn’t shine. Instead
Simeon looked calm.
“I have about eighty percent saying they’ll follow the
directions of my brother Jason,” he said. He didn’t bother
saying hi to Phin, they just exchanged handshakes and
subtle nods of the head. “And given he is loyal to Asher
now, I think we can count on the felines to have our backs
here.”
“Think?” Asher said tiredly. “If Glitnir decides to send an
army here, I’ll need more than think.”
The three men stood silently for a while, then Simeon
finally spoke. “There’s nothing I can do for now. I need to go
deeper into the forest for a full Guild meeting to ratify what
we said today, but that isn’t until the day after tomorrow.”
Asher turned to his second in command. There was
something Asher had to do, needed to do, for his sanity and
for Simeon’s. “You’re in charge for tonight alongside Phin,”
he said softly.
Phin glanced at him sharply, then at Simeon, who looked
as surprised as Phin.
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“Please, Phin,” Asher pleaded.
“Of course,” Phin said, despite appearing confused.
“What do you need?”
Asher glanced at the trees. The felines had all melted
away into the forest. The only people left were him, his
second, a bemused Simeon, a smiling Phin and the eight
guards who all stood resolute as close as they could manage
without Asher turning on them.
“Just one night,” Asher pleaded.
Phin nodded. “Go, I’ll be fine.”
Asher turned to his guards, spoke to the most senior of
them, tasked them with watching Phin. The captain opened
his mouth to argue, but Asher leaned over and in a direct
contrast to protocol, he placed his fingers on the captain’s
mouth. “I’ll be back in the palace in the morning,” he said.
The captain looked from Asher to Phin. “You’ll report to my
brother, Phin, and to my second. Phin knows how to find
me.”
With that he gripped Simeon’s hand and began to pull
him away from the meeting area. At first Simeon was
pulling back, confusion a cloud over him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked and yanked Asher to a stop.
Asher released his hand, then, with a wide grin he simply
said, “Let’s run.”
He left the clearing at a dead run, up the hill, away from
the palace and the meeting area, away from responsibility
and decisions and the hell that was diplomacy. He needed
time with Simeon, and when he reached the brow of the hill
he felt Simeon’s cat at his heels. He didn’t stop running and
with every second he ran he felt lighter. He needed to
recharge after the months of fear and worry and he needed
Simeon. He ran faster as they neared the one place he and
Phin had always been safe. Magicked and hidden from all
but him and Phin, he finally leaped into the nothing that was
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the entry to the secret place and Simeon, in full-on Mountain
Lion form, leaped after him.
They splashed into the wide pool at the bottom of their
fall, and Simeon shifted as they swam to the side and hoisted
themselves out.
“Ash?” Simeon asked worriedly. He ran his hands
through his shaggy golden hair and blinked water from his
gorgeous amber eyes. Asher had never seen anything so
beautiful.
“We argued,” he said. Holding out his hand, he linked his
fingers with Simeon’s. “You’re the only one who believes in
me. I don’t want to argue.”
Simeon sighed and tightened his hold briefly on their
entangled fingers. “Everyone looks to you,” he began in a
very gentle tone. “Whatever you think, we all believe in
you.”
Asher couldn’t help the huff of disbelief that escaped his
mouth. “What if I don’t believe in myself? What then?”
Simeon pressed his lips closed in a thin line, then scooted
closer. “No one can make you believe in yourself, your
Majesty.”
Asher pulled back to gauge Simeon’s expression. Was his
lover teasing him? He did that sometimes, playing about on
the whole Asher is King thing. Simeon looked deadly
serious.
“Simeon?”
Simeon inclined his head, exposing his throat, then
moving closer to rub his cheek against Asher. He was wet,
but the scent of him was intoxicating and pushing through
the water. He was marking Asher with that scent, and Asher
loved nothing more than knowing Simeon wanted him as
much as he wanted Simeon.
“I love you,” Simeon murmured, “more than life itself.
We could leave. Run for the mountains, hide here maybe.
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20
You wouldn’t have to be King if we did that.”
Horror pricked Asher. “You don’t mean that!”
Simeon chuckled against Asher’s throat and the prick of
descended canines caused Asher to gasp. The erotic touch of
something so lethal against his most vulnerable place was
something that never failed to make him hard. The trust
between him and Simeon was unparalleled in any
relationship Asher had ever had before, except maybe with
his brother who he trusted more than life itself.
“No, I do. I’ll go anywhere you want me to go, your
Majesty. Follow you to the ends of the earth, throw myself
on my sword—”
Asher shoved his lover away with a snort of laughter.
Never let it be said Simeon didn’t know how to pull him out
of his blue-assed misery and self-flagellation. “Fuck off, cat,”
he cursed on a laugh.
Simeon twisted his body and pinned Asher to the hard
ground. With claws extended he ripped through the
fastenings of Asher’s gold-coloured jacket. Hell, for all Asher
knew it had actual gold in it and Simeon was even now
destroying some kind of royal heirloom. He couldn’t find it
in himself to care and instead arched up into his lover, his
cock hard and his need great.
Simeon pushed and shoved at clothes until, with a low
purr, he finally seemed happy to have Asher naked from the
waist up.
“So gorgeous,” he muttered before leaning forward and
worrying at Asher’s nipples with sharp teeth and tongue.
Asher was on sensory overload; what his cat did to him was
so far beyond what he ever imagined making love could be.
Alternately a kitten in bed, all pliant and amenable, then a
hell cat, all teeth and demands, Asher never knew which
version of Simeon he would be getting. It seemed like now,
right here on the side of the pool in the magicked secrecy of
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his and Phin’s hiding place, he was getting mauled and
pushed higher without having any say-so in the matter.
This was what he needed: for Simeon to stop his thinking
and worrying and cursing being the eldest son of the dead
King.
“Simeon… Simeon…” he began to repeat over and over.
He was so close just from his nipples being played with and
the weight of Simeon on his groin.
“Shhhhhh,” Simeon demanded and travelled with lips
and tongue up to a full-on open-mouthed kiss. They kissed
this way, deeper than they could breathe, a desperate taste, a
need so real that Asher could feel tears in his eyes. He
needed to touch Simeon, and he tried, but all Simeon did
was grab his hands and press them into the cold dirt. “No,”
he said as he momentarily broke the kiss. “No touching.”
Asher moaned in his throat as they separated for those
words. He wanted more kisses. Simeon read his mind.
Mine. All. Fucking. Mine. Simeon’s thoughts whorled in
Asher’s head, a mix of want and need and passion so great
that orgasm began to boil inside him. He arched up again
and rutted against Simeon, getting off against his lover just
by touch alone.
“I want you inside me,” Asher managed between kisses.
“Please.”
Simeon shook his head. Not now, he spoke inside his
thoughts, for now, come on me, use me. Just that demand was
enough to have Asher coming, with Simeon naked on top of
him, with his fang-tipped smile, feral and challenging, as
Asher shouted his completion.
When he was done, when his body was limp and lifeless,
Simeon scooped him up and assisted him to the bedroom,
stripping him of his boots and pants as they moved.
Together they tumbled onto the wide bed in what had
become their bedroom since they’d first stayed here as a
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22
break from everything else. The lube was in the drawer, and
Simeon wasted no time in resting slick fingers against
Asher’s ass. He pressed inside, not waiting for politeness,
and initiated a deep kiss. Asher was more than ready to let
this happen. He wanted Simeon inside him, taking control,
allowing him to let things slide. When Simeon was seated
deep inside, he shuffled forward, pressing his thighs against
Asher’s ass and tilting him.
“I love you,” he said again, his amber eyes burning bright.
“No more arguments,” Asher demanded as he pressed
down against Simeon’s cock.
“No more,” Simeon agreed. The rhythm Simeon set was
punishing and there was pain alongside the ecstasy. Asher
wasn’t sure he was going to come again so soon, and
something in his expression must have relayed this to
Simeon. Suddenly Simeon slowed his movements, becoming
more controlled, calmer, softer, and he leaned over to kiss
Asher. “And no more believing you can’t be King.”
Asher stiffened momentarily. He didn’t want to think
about that.
“Say it,” Simeon demanded. “I’m King and I believe in
me.”
“I can’t—”
“Say it. I’m King.” Simeon quickened his pace and Asher
was suddenly so damn close and out of his mind.
“I’m King,” Asher managed hoarsely.
But Simeon wasn’t done. “And I believe in me.”
“Sim…please…”
“Now, Ash. Repeat what I say. I believe in me. I believe. In
me.”
Orgasm chased him, riding on the whispered words and
the absolute trust and love in Simeon’s beautiful eyes.
“I love you,” Asher forced out, “I believe in me. I believe
in me.” He said the words over and over until they ran
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23
together in heated kisses to Simeon’s skin.
“My King,” Simeon said. Then he was pressing harder,
deeper, and Asher was lost.
“Simeon,” he shouted, “I love you…” He was coming,
impaled on Simeon, the man he loved. He was losing his
mind in passion and Simeon stiffened and shouted his own
love as he fucked Asher through his orgasm.
They lay entwined for the longest time until Simeon
softened and slipped out. Using the discarded pants Simeon
attempted to clean them up but finally fell boneless next to
Asher.
“I am so sorry,” Asher said softly. “It isn’t your fault that
the Feline Guild doesn’t acknowledge me as King.”
Simeon sighed and rolled onto his side to rest his cheek
against Asher’s chest, right over his heart. Asher wondered
if his lover could sense the pain and worry inside there,
lodged and unmoving.
“You are their King, and mine. And you are a strong man,
a stronger demon.”
Asher smiled up at the ceiling. “You think if I say it
enough I’ll actually get others to believe it?”
Simeon raised his head and his gaze bored directly into
Asher’s. “If you believe in yourself it will be so much easier
for everyone else to have that same feeling.”
“So it’s my fault?” Asher didn’t mean to sound hurt, but
he knew it came over in his words.
Simeon shook his head. “Felines always have their heads
up their asses,” he said in a very matter-of-fact tone. “No
matter what you say, they will take a while to get their heads
out long enough to smell anything other than their own
shit.”
Asher shook his head. “You have a way with words,” he
said.
Simeon laughed and climbed him like a tree to steal a
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kiss. The brush of his lover’s body on his had his poor cock
valiantly trying to rise.
“I try,” Simeon said on a laugh. “Now sleep, and when
you wake up we’ll go home and be all big brave and strong
and all that other Kingly stuff.”
Wrapped in Simeon’s arms with Simeon spooning him
from behind and whispering all kinds of hot sexy promises
in his ear, Asher actually slept. It had been a long time
coming.
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Chapter Three
The Vampire Clans Council
oseph gripped Micah’s arm and yanked him into the
shadows. They’d been here at the Council for a week now
and things had finally come to a head. Not that it was
obvious, but between him and Micah they had managed to
get enough of the twelve Council members on their side to at
least be heard. Micah had persuaded three, Joseph four,
which meant seven of twelve were prepared to actually
debate about what was happening with Glitnir.
“Abnor said yes,” he whispered into his twin’s ear. They
didn’t normally need to whisper, but something in this
place, this old dark house in the forest, was playing havoc
with his and Micah’s ability to talk via their twin bond.
Micah looked up at him and nodded. He’d heard the
words that meant finally they had a quorum to push for
debate. This was what they wanted, what Cassius would
block as soon as he arrived here.
Joseph and Micah had stayed on the down low, not made
a big deal that they were at the Council, but everyone knew.
It was weird that Cassius and two others hadn’t made a
move to get here as well. They would be informed if a full
Council was called.
“It’s now or never, then,” Micah said. He looked as
determined as Joseph felt, and Joseph was never happier
than to have his twin at his side here. This was the last
J
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chance for a peaceful resolution. Bringing the vamps onside
was just one move in a whole series of moves. Connor and
Declan with the wolves, Phin in and out of everything, with
the fae, out to the Second Kingdom to talk to Simeon and
Asher. Levi was with the bears, and that was a pretty
conclusive win for the Underground. The bear shifters in
Trent Forest were a large clan that would add strength to the
side of the Underground.
“As the oldest it’s me who calls the Council to session,”
Joseph said. He didn’t need to say it out loud, Micah knew
this, but he had to because of what he was saying next. “I
want you to leave,” he added on the end.
“Leave where?” Micah was confused and he frowned up
at Joseph.
“Here.”
“No freaking way.”
“If it all goes to hell, if the vote goes against us, we’ll be
outlaws here.”
Micah shrugged. “Then you’ll need me to have your
back.”
“You have Connor—”
“And you have Phin, so stop with the self-sacrificing
bullshit, O Great Leader of Ours.” Micah quirked a smile.
Just that smile was enough to lift Joseph. He’d come to terms
with the fact that he and Micah had such a big part to play in
this fight for freedom. The legends spoke of twins who
would bring harmony and balance where there was none.
Great sweeping statements like that were difficult for Joseph
to get his head around, but he’d always known, as senior
vampire to his clan with all that entailed, that he would play
a huge part in whatever was happening.
“Are you disrespecting your elders?” Joseph joked.
“All the time, old man,” Micah answered.
They finished the walk back to their shared quarters, a
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large room at the rear of the Council and one of the only
ones with a window that looked out over the trees and to the
mountains beyond. They’d been here a week already, but a
full Council wouldn’t happen until all members had been
contacted and had arrived. They could be here another
week, or more.
“I hate this protocol shit.” Micah sighed. He leaned
against the window frame and looked out at the view in the
brightening sky of dawn.
“Phin is up there somewhere,” Joseph commented as he
joined his brother. “Said he was going to check in on Asher
and Simeon.”
“When is he coming back?”
Joseph shrugged in answer. He had no idea when he’d
see Phin for any longer than a half hour at a time. That was
the name of the game at the moment. It wasn’t as if Micah
got to see Connor either.
“I wonder if Connor and Declan found the wolves?”
Micah was just making conversation but his voice held
worry and concern. He knew his place was here with Joseph
but that didn’t mean he wanted to be here when Connor was
out there hunting down Glitnir Retrievers.
“We won’t know for a while, I guess we just have to trust
that he and Declan know what they are doing.”
“What will you have Levi do now he’s finished with the
Bears?” Micah was looking to Joseph for an answer and
Joseph really wished he had a ready reply. Levi and Brody
were two of the last few remaining incubi but trying to track
down any other incubi out there in the vast Glitnir realm
was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nigh on
impossible to find.
“Levi’s moving back,” he said cryptically. Back to base, to
the Badlands, to the one place the Underground felt safe
from the reach of Ludvik’s perverted magic.
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“Okay. What about…” He trailed off and looked
pointedly at his brother. Ludvik. Neither vampire had to say
it, both knowing what each other was thinking even without
the connection of minds they usually had.
“Next on our list,” Joseph said. He wasn’t lying. Getting
close to the man who ruled the fae, and thus the majority of
Glitnir, wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to do. But he
needed to. His damn principles demanded that he at least
give Ludvik a chance to see sense, even when his vampire
heart demanded death, and memories of being tortured at
Ludvik’s hands pushed him to act on that need to kill.
Micah lay back on the soft bed that was his side of the
room and stared up at the ceiling.
“I miss Connor so much. He’s like a furnace to lie next to,
and when we’re close he warms me up, and my heart
doesn’t seem all iced over.”
Joseph nodded. He knew what Micah meant, not exactly
about the hot wolf thing, but he himself missed Phin like he
missed a limb. Like he missed Ethan when he’d first moved
to the City to live with Micah. And that was a long time ago.
“It’s weird to see Ethan again, Methulan, whatever he calls
himself,” he said.
Micah hummed under his breath in agreement. Neither
he nor Micah had talked about the reappearance of a man
they’d thought dead and the knowledge of it was like an itch
under his skin. Micah still said nothing even now. The last
time Micah had seen the man he’d been dead and Micah
framed for his murder. In a pool of blood with runes carved
into his skin there had only been one suspect and Micah had
nearly been tried and executed. He’d only lived because he’d
escaped and the Retriever sent to get him back had been
conflicted and instead followed Micah away.
“You want to talk about it?” Joseph finally prompted.
Micah made another non committal noise, then in a flurry
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of movement he sat upright in his bed and swung his feet to
the floor.
“You didn’t see him,” Micah said. His voice held a whole
new level of anger and misery that Joseph had never heard
from him twin. “I was supposed to be looking after him, and
someone got in and killed him. Gutted him Joseph, carved
into his skin, they even took his eyes. There was nothing left
of the man I thought you loved.”
“I know,” Joseph encouraged.
“When they came for me, at first I was convinced maybe
it was me, that some preternatural instinct had surfaced in
my dreams and that I had been the one who murdered him.”
“You couldn’t hurt anyone. I know my brother.”
Micah huffed and buried his head in his hands. “Then
he’s back, with his eyes, and his skin, and fuck Joseph, he’s
alive and whole.” The words were mumbled but Joseph got
the gist of them. “And he’s what? Over a thousand years
old? And he’s got how many lives? Is he even real?”
Joseph mimicked his brother’s stance, resting his head on
his hands and staring over at his twin. “You think your grief
was wasted? You shouldn’t think that. Neither of us knew.”
Micah lifted his gaze then nodded his agreement. Both
looked at each other and Joseph attempted to connect to
Micah but all he had was the emptiness of no connection at
all.
“What’s stopping us?” Micah asked. “Why are we being
blocked?”
Joseph wished he knew. Something in the Council
quarters was messing with their connection, and it had to be
a very strong shield for the twins not to be able to connect.
“Ludvik maybe?”
“He knows we’re here, why isn’t he taking the
opportunity to get rid of us?” Micah voiced the same worry
that was in Joseph’s head. They hadn’t tried to portal out of
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the Council chambers as yet, and Joseph imagined they
would be blocked the same as the telepathy was. They were
sitting targets but still no Ludvik.
“Ancient magic protects the Council, we know that,”
Joseph began, “the same magic that held Reuben in the Book
of Days for so long, maybe even the same that Ethan has.
Even if Ludvik has the power we know he now has, maybe
whatever protects the Council is just too much for Ludvik to
fight?”
Micah nodded his agreement to the hypothesis then shut
his eyes and massaged his temples with his fingers. He
looked pale, even paler than normal, and a frown creased his
forehead.
“Are you okay?”
“Connor,” was all Micah said. He didn’t have to add
anything else. Connor’s wolf was bonded with Micah and
when they were apart it never meant good things for either
of them. Connor was so strong, an Alpha whether he liked it
or not, and his connection to Micah was intense.
“You worried about him?”
Micah half smiled. “He’s with Declan and five other
wolves trying to track down Niceros and his Retrievers, I’m
not thinking it’s going to be a walk in the park.”
“He’s safe,” Joseph said.
Micah widened his eyes. “You know that?”
“No. No more than I know Phin is okay,” he admitted.
“We have to believe they’ll be safe.”
Micah rolled back to lie on his bed, letting out a loud sigh
as his head hit the pillow. “You ever think this isn’t worth
it?” he asked. Joseph knew his brother didn’t mean that. If
anyone, Micah, with his grasp of ancient language and
history, was the person who could see the way things had
gone to hell despite the best intentions at the beginning.
“Never,” Joseph lied. “We’re the twins,” he added. “All
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powerful, magical, ending the rot inside Glitnir, bringing
together everyone who wants to fight, and creating a Third
Kingdom where everyone has liberty and equality.”
Micah chuckled and crossed his hands behind his head.
Vampires didn’t need a lot of sleep, if any, but this was a
good place to at least rest up. “You’re believing the
publicity?”
“Twins, me with magic, Reuben out of the Book Of Days,
Glitnir that is on a course to self-destruction, perverted
magic in a Kappa like Ludvik, me and Phin together, you
and Connor…” He stopped there in the list of very
impressive things.
“You’re saying it couldn’t be anything else but a new
beginning,” Micah said. He turned his head to glance at
Joseph. “Okay, then.”
The next day it rained nearly all day. Vampires weren’t
known for their love of rain, but Joseph was out walking the
perimeter of the Council buildings and every so often he
stopped. To anyone who observed him, he appeared to be
looking up at the impressive structure. Low buildings at the
end rose to a gorgeous dark building, all tower and turret,
with small windows, black and shiny with rain. Joseph
loved this place, the seat of power for the Vampire Clans.
His place was certain on the Council when the next space
became available, if he and Micah lived that long. He still
had his doubts about their part in this end-of-times story.
He stopped at another gap in the wall. He was looking for
a chink in the magic laid around the Council and as yet he’d
found nothing, not even a small space he could push
through.
“Joseph.”
Joseph spun on his heel and came face to face with the
leader of the Vampire Clans Council. Cassius. The old
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vampire looked grey, his hair tangled, his eyes wide like he
was high on something, and his clothes spattered with mud.
“They told me you were out here.”
Out of respect for the position Cassius held and with
nothing concrete as to what side the vampire councillor
would fall on, Joseph bowed his head slightly. When he
looked back up, he didn’t know quite what to say. A single
tear ran from Cassius’s left eye and travelled down old, pale
skin.
“I have to talk to you,” he said urgently, before coughing
with his hand over his mouth.
Joseph looked left and right. There was no one else here in
the persistent drizzle of rain, just him and Cassius. “Under
here.” He gestured towards an outcrop of rock from the
walls that had probably once been a shelter of some sort to
weary travellers. Cassius moved slowly into the space and
Joseph followed him under.
Cassius pressed a hand to the stone of the wall and
muttered under his breath. “Even here.”
“What do you need to say to me?” Joseph asked. He
wanted to know what Cassius meant by ‘even here’ but he
wasn’t entirely convinced he was going to get an answer to
that.
“I understand you have a quorum for a vote.”
“Seven of the twelve,” Joseph said. He was proud that so
many had agreed to debate the vampire position despite the
leader of the Council, Cassius, evidently being involved
somehow with Ludvik.
“Eight,” Cassius offered. He held out a hand, palm
upwards, and Joseph glanced down to see black lines traced
from a small centre mark on the skin. Joseph reached out to
touch the tracings, but he stopped when Cassius clenched
his hand into a fist.
“Eight means we can debate without the other four. Nine
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including you.”
Joseph was puzzled. “I’m not on the Council.”
“Emery is dead.”
Grief coloured Cassius’s words and that same grief
snapped suddenly inside Joseph. Emery was the oldest of
Joseph’s clan and as such took one of the seats Joseph would
one day fill. They were as close as distant family could be,
which wasn’t that close, but that didn’t make a difference as
to how Joseph reacted. Any vampire loss was felt keenly by
all.
“How?” he asked.
“Sterling too,” Cassius added. “I’m the only one that
made it out.”
Joseph recalled the last known place Cassius had been
was at Glitnir, seemingly plotting with Niceros, the wolf
shifter, and Ludvik himself.
“From Glitnir?”
Cassius nodded. “You have no reason to trust me, but I
swear on my clan’s lives that I thought I was doing the best I
could by protecting the vampires’ stake in whatever came
next.”
Joseph didn’t reply, he simply listened as Cassius
continued. At times he was choked with emotion as he
spoke of Emery and Sterling, good vampires, now both dead
at Ludvik’s hands.
“He cursed all three of us, but he didn’t realise what I had
inside me, a strong heart that has enough magic to stop itself
from being destroyed. Sterling was turned to ash in front of
me, Emery…” Cassius stopped and more tears joined the
first. “I loved him…”
Sudden realisation flooded Joseph. Cassius and Emery
were partners? Why had he never seen it?
“He died screaming for me, tortured and killed, all for me
to continue helping. I tried to do what Ludvik wanted. I had
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to keep Emery alive, but at the end, when I cleared the path
for Nicholas to get Brody out of Glitnir, I knew Emery
would die.” He reached out and gripped Joseph’s arm. “You
remember what it was like. You knew the pain under
Ludvik’s hold. Ludvik was destroying his mind and I
couldn’t stand to see Emery in pain. It was me that pushed
the dagger into Emery’s chest, me who held him as he died.
He wasn’t even Emery anymore.”
Cassius bowed his head and compassion swelled inside
Joseph. The vampire that stood before him was broken and
had just lost the greatest part of himself by his own hand.
“Your hand…”
“I don’t have long. Ludvik poisoned me with his curses
and sent me back here as a warning. Even my heart will stop
now I have lost Emery.” He looked up, his gaze direct and
focused on Joseph. “Call the Council, take your place, and
we’ll win this thing before it’s too late.”
He stumbled and his grip on Joseph’s arm tightened
momentarily. Instantly Joseph knew what to do. Helping
Cassius to the side gate, he waited until the older vampire
pulled himself upright and with great authority strode into
the inner courtyard. He shouted forcefully as he entered the
main building and it seemed to Joseph that within mere
minutes eight Council members, with him as the ninth, were
in the room at the centre of the Council’s home. They took
their seats and momentarily Joseph hesitated, as his seat was
where Emery would normally be. He hovered behind the
chair, but Cassius indicated he should sit and no one else
argued.
“Sterling is dead,” Cassius announced strongly. “Emery is
dead. Both killed by Ludvik Peitrol.” The others on the
Council looked at each other but stayed silent. More than
one of them looked over at Joseph and he moved
uncomfortably on the cold stone seat. Sitting here still didn’t
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seem right and neither did the grief carved into Cassius’s
face.
Cassius carried on. “You need to pull every vampire back,
protect the clans. He’s ready to destroy anyone who isn’t on
the same path as him.”
“How do we know this?” Eben of the Sinclair clan spoke
up when everyone else had fallen silent.
Cassius looked at Eben pointedly and the other vampire
visibly wilted. “On the life of my clan I swear this is true. I
tell you that Joseph and Micah are the twins said to bring
around the emergence of a third Kingdom, where even
vampires and blood demons work side by side.”
He let the bombshell sit for a while. A couple of the
Council members looked concerned, old guard who still
thought that vampires had done nothing wrong when they
created blood demons a millennia ago. And that no one
should be changing the status quo.
Finally it came to the vote. They’d need seven of the nine
here to agree to the recall and the position with Joseph and
the Underground. Cassius and Joseph raised hands, three
automatically followed. Another stood and left the chamber.
Cassius glanced at the three remaining members who looked
from Joseph to Cassius and back again. One of them raised a
hand.
“Agreed,” he said firmly. Finally it was down to Eben and
one other. Eben looked to be having some kind of internal
battle but he finally raised his hand. They had their seven.
Relief poured through Joseph. Recalling the vampires,
hundreds of families over the entire Kingdom and beyond,
all answering the call of the Underground, standing their
ground and wanting a better future for all, was impressive.
“I have one final thing to say,” Cassius said. He stood up
and crossed his arms over his chest. “As leader of this
Council it is my right to choose who succeeds me. I wanted
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to choose Joseph—”
“No,” Joseph said vehemently.
Cassius released a hand to hold it up and forestall
Joseph’s arguments. “But Joseph is meant for greater things.
As one of the twins he has the hope of an entire Kingdom
resting on his shoulders. So, I call for Eben as my
replacement.”
Eben looked up at him, surprised. Joseph agreed that the
choice of Eben was a shock. He and Cassius butted heads
every time they met up.
Eben stood up and looked about him uncertainly. No one
else seemed to have an issue with what Cassius just said,
and finally he simply placed his hand over his heart. “It’s an
honour,” he said.
Cassius merely nodded to acknowledge the commitment.
“Can you take care of bringing everyone home?”
“Absolutely,” Eben said. Then it appeared everything that
needed to be spoken had been said.
Cassius left the Council chambers and Joseph stood and
followed. Outside he found Cassius leaning against the wall
and breathing heavily. Up close in the well-lit hallway
Cassius looked ill and Joseph helped him to his room. Micah
was there in the hallway, and between the two of them they
managed to get Cassius onto the flat pallet he used as a bed.
“I’m sorry about the wolves,” Cassius said directly to
Micah. “I had to play along, but I tried to stop their hurting
your incubus friend.”
“Brody.”
“Yes, a good man, and Nicholas is a brave shifter. I’ll take
my shame to the grave with me, but you have to know I had
no choice. It was betrayal of you against losing Emery.”
Micah crouched down next to him and gripped his hand.
“You didn’t betray us,” he said. Joseph looked down at
Cassius and his brother. Micah always seemed to know
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exactly the right thing to say.
“I checked the magic here in the walls of the Council and
far into the forest beyond. It’s enough to keep Ludvik out,
old magic.” Cassius coughed and Joseph observed the fine
black lines that traced Cassius’s temples. The curse was
shifting, moving inward. He knew what it was doing, taking
Cassius to a place where only horror lived. Hell, if it hadn’t
been for Phin rescuing him, then Joseph would have
descended into madness and died. “If all else fails, you can
hide here.”
Joseph joined his twin at Cassius’s side and placed a hand
over his heart. “We’re not hiding,” he stated simply. “We’re
taking this right to Ludvik’s door.”
“He’s moving,” Cassius offered on a cough. “He had
intelligence. The Badlands. Some place called Arberfan.” He
lay back on the thin pillow and closed his eyes. Joseph
wavered with what to do. Arberfan was where Methulan,
Ethan, said he would be, the place of the final battle a
thousand years before. Was it really going to be the single
place where everything came full circle now? Ice shot
through his heart. He’d said everyone should try and make
it there when they accomplished their missions. Had he sent
his friends into a death trap?
“You’re sure it was Arberfan?” he asked as he exchanged
glances with Micah.
“Yes.” Cassius’s voice was weaker. “My knife,” he added.
Cassius reached for the knife in his belt under the
voluminous dark cloak that hid the dark veins all over his
body. Joseph assisted him and Cassius closed his fingers
around the steel blade. Engravings were on each side, and
Joseph thought of his own knife. Each vampire child was
given a knife when they were born, passed on by parents, by
the clans themselves. The knife meant life—and death.
Cassius pulled the blade free from the cloak, but his hand
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was shaking badly. He placed it tip down against his
breastbone, but he didn’t have the strength to do what every
vampire did, used the knife they were born with to end their
lives. Tradition. Joseph considered if it had been Emery’s
own knife that Cassius had pushed into his heart.
“Help me,” Cassius ordered in a firm voice with no signs
of hesitation.
“Cassius—”
“Emery is waiting,” Cassius replied. “Help me.”
Micah released his grip on Cassius’s hand and instead
wrapped his hand around the hilt of the beautiful blade.
Then he looked very deliberately at Joseph.
“Together,” he said.
Joseph placed his own hand above Micah’s, and with a
small smile Cassius closed his eyes.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “Thank you.”
He tensed his hand and pushed down and a millisecond
apart Joseph and Micah assisted the knife into Cassius’s
heart. The effect was instantaneous, Cassius’s body
disintegrating into fine ash before them. Joseph closed his
eyes and sent a wish after Cassius that he find his Emery.
Then in a smooth move, he released the knife and left it in
Micah’s hold. Micah seemed to understand that Joseph
couldn’t hold the blade and instead tucked it into his jacket.
It would need to be returned to the Fletcher clan for a
newborn.
“They’ll be safe here,” Micah suggested, “any vampire
that rallies to the cause and comes home. We need to leave.”
“We need to get to the Badlands, to Arberfan. If we get
outside the perimeter of the Council we could port out…”
Joseph stopped. They wouldn’t be porting anywhere. Using
magic would leave a trail for Ludvik to follow, but did that
even matter? Phin used his magic. “Yeah, we’ll port out.
Can’t be any worse than knowing Ludvik is already on his
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way to the one place I thought was safe.”
Micah smiled. “I’m up for a run until we’re clear of the
barrier.” He stood and held out a hand to help Joseph stand,
then pulled him in for a hug. “Come on, big bad Council
member, it’s been a long time since we ran together.”
Micah was right. Joseph couldn’t recall the last time the
two of them were together and just went for a run for the
hell of it. He enjoyed the embrace of his twin, then pulled
back.
“First one to the end of the magic barrier wins,” he teased
in an attempt to lighten the situation. Micah looked at him,
puzzled, then shoved him hard so he stumbled, and quicker
than Joseph could shout, he was out the room at a run.
Freaking brothers. So competitive.
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Chapter Four
The Forest
onnor paced the clearing as naked as the day he was
born. Declan hadn’t returned to the camp yet, and
Connor didn’t like the fact he was stuck here until his entire
pack was back with him. They’d split into groups, the five
shifter-Retrievers that had all submitted to Connor as Alpha
had become two teams, one led by him, the other by Declan.
And where the hell was his Beta? Declan was not only his
deputy but also his friend, and unease prickled down his
spine. This was a reconnaissance mission only. They’d been
tasked by Joseph to see if they could turn any of the other
Retrievers. Joseph reasoned if five would bow down to
Connor, then surely more would follow. He was playing on
the fact that Declan considered Connor an Alpha, as did the
five that had left Glitnir’s employment. It meant, to Joseph,
that surely Connor was indeed an Alpha.
“I don’t like this Alpha shit,” he said to no one in
particular. One of his team, a muscle-bound bear of a wolf
called Flint moved closer, and Connor deliberately changed
directions in his walk to avoid getting too close. They might
have all sworn some Wolf Shifter promise to Connor but that
didn’t mean Connor entirely trusted either of the two that
remained with him while Declan ran off with the other
three.
“Alpha,” Flint said respectfully. “Should Merrick and I
C
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check the perimeter?”
“My name is Connor,” Connor said firmly.
“Yes, Alpha-Connor,” Flint responded with a deferential
nod. Connor sighed inwardly.
“Take Merrick and see if you can scent the others circling
back. I’m going direct to where they were.”
“With respect, Alpha-Connor, I don’t feel happy letting
you go after Beta-Declan on your own. We have no way of
knowing if they came across the Glitnir Retrievers, and you
could be walking into a trap.”
Connor tensed at the words. Yes, he could be walking into
a trap, but Declan was out there along with three loyal
shifters, and he needed Flint to check the other routes back.
“I’ll be fine,” he said absently.
“Alpha-Connor.” Flint drew himself tall and looked
Connor in the eye. “Declan could be dead.”
Temper spiked in Connor. Who the hell was this wolf to
tell him that his best friend could be dead. Some of his anger
must have showed in his face, as Flint instantly backed away
a step and tilted his head in respect.
Connor winced. He should say something to Flint,
reassure him that he took his opinions seriously but that
really, he shouldn’t mention dead and Declan in the same
sentence. But he didn’t. If what Flint needed was a leader,
then Connor would have to be that leader and try to fake the
whole Alpha bit.
“Do as I say,” he said firmly. He left no room for
argument and both Flint and Merrick disappeared down the
trail that Declan would use if everything had gone to plan.
Connor glanced up at the sky and the heavy harvest moon
that lit the clearing with a soft haze. The moon’s phase gave
Connor the thrill of the wolf, but it lit them too well for any
kind of quiet approach to wherever the damn Retrievers
were holed up.
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Shifting, he stretched under the moon, then shook from
nose to tail. Being his wolf self was enough to settle his fears.
He would know if Declan was dead or hurt, surely? He had
to believe Declan was okay, because he didn’t want to be the
one to tell Levi if things had gone to shit. Connor’s pack was
due to meet up with Levi at a town in the foothills of the
mountains, and he expected them to be there tomorrow.
Lifting his snout he scented the air, easily picking up
Declan’s scent from hours earlier when he and his three
supporting shifters had left this clearing. Then with the wind
against his muzzle, he sped off in the direction of his friend.
The closer he got to where Declan was designated to check
in, the worse his apprehension became until it was a knot
inside him that wouldn’t clear. When Flint and Merrick fell
in beside him as he ran, he didn’t even stop to order them
away. Their instinct was to be with their Alpha and
Connor’s instinct was to find his friend.
They reached the top of the valley, Connor peering down
into the dark and attempting to pull out any detail that
would mean Declan had been here any sooner than a few
hours before. All he could scent was blood and the horror
inside him had him panicking momentarily. He looked back
at Flint and Merrick, then set off down the main path to the
source of the blood. Nosing his way through bodies, at least
ten, he couldn’t find Declan, but he mourned the young wolf
called Kyle, one of the shifters who’d decided to follow him
rather than Niceros.
Niceros. That was the familiar scent in among the blood.
Retrievers, Niceros, other wolves. Then Declan’s blood. So
clean and clear, but there was nothing here in the way of a
body. There had been a bloody battle here with many wolf
shifters dead. Cautiously he rounded the bodies and carried
on past the blood of his friend and the other freed wolves
until finally the three of them were on a clear path running
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down to the middle of the valley.
He stopped when he reached the edge of the trees. The
smells here were of death and fire.
“Took you long enough to get here,” Niceros shouted
from beyond the trees. He stepped into the moonlight and
Connor immediately shifted to human. He stepped into the
same moonlight to face the senior Retriever, the one he
looked upon as his Alpha until he had proved to be nothing
more than a puppet for Glitnir.
“I’m here now,” Connor said. He kept his tone even and
attempted to push all worry to one side. This showdown
had been threatening for a very long time. The cat shifters
had their territories, the vampires had their magic and their
secrets, but the wolf shifters had the fight, the battle.
“We have Declan,” Niceros said with a definite tone of
self-congratulation.
“We saw the ten bodies and one of our own. I guess he
didn’t go down without a fight,” Connor said proudly.
Declan was a good fighter, a strategist, absolutely loyal.
“He told us everything when I burned it out of him,”
Niceros pointed out dryly.
“And I am supposed to believe that?” Connor said. He
sensed Flint and Merrick move to stand behind him, shifting
and forming a guard of honour, just as they had done on the
run here.
“I have fifty,” Niceros said on a laugh. “You bring two
traitors and think you can face me down?”
“Alpha-Connor?” Flint whispered low. He was asking for
what next and Connor wished he knew. Then it hit him—he
was Alpha to these two men, to Declan, and the two other
remaining converted. That must mean something.
“As Alpha I challenge you,” he called firmly into the
night.
Silence. Absolute silence broken only by a soft chuckle
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that Connor would have missed if he wasn’t so attuned to
the noises in the dark.
“You would challenge the wolf that taught you
everything you know?” Niceros said.
Connor moved closer to the voice and the scent of death
hit him like a wall.
“You call yourself a leader, but are you an Alpha?”
Connor asked.
Niceros stepped into the glow of the light from a fire in
the centre of the clearing. Connor could look at him closer
and didn’t see his clothes covered in blood. Did he even join
in the fight against Declan? Come to think of it, Connor had
always offered Niceros his respect, but why? Certainly not
because of some ancient pack instinct, hell, he’d had to fight
his instincts where Niceros was concerned far longer than
he’d even admitted to himself. He may well have hunted
Micah down with the utmost focus, but his wolf had always
second-guessed his human need to show respect to the
captain of the Retrievers. He’d fought his nature for the
longest time. Was Niceros merely a politician? Was he ever a
warrior like Connor and the other Retrievers?
Niceros moved closer, two of the biggest and oldest
shifters flanking him. Connor recognised them both but
didn’t acknowledge them, instead focusing on Niceros.
“I lead the Retrievers,” Niceros said firmly. “You deferred
to me until you got fucked over by the vampire.”
Flint growled low in his throat at the slur against his
Alpha’s mate. Flint and Micah were friends now, a
friendship forged over a shared love of vegetables. Who the
hell heard of a vegetarian wolf? Connor pushed the thoughts
away and focused on the actual words Niceros was
throwing at him.
“I deferred to you because I didn’t know any better.”
This time it was Niceros’s turn to growl and step closer to
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Connor. “I don’t need to fight you,” he said. “I won’t fight
you for control of an army I created and trained myself.”
Behind him the two lieutenants looked at each other,
confused. They clearly expected Niceros to do the
honourable thing and prove to them he was the leader of
this group.
“How many do you have now?” Connor asked. “How
many are loyal from when I was with you, and how many
new shifters have you blackmailed into this army you talk
about? Ten? Twenty?”
Niceros snarled his words, “I have fifty souls here with
me and all loyal.”
Connor did some quick calculations in his head. Not the
kind where he judged how outnumbered he was, that was
obvious, but the kind where he assessed what levels of
training each of these fifty wolves would have had in the
hurried days since everything had gone to shit. Maybe he
had six or seven that Connor had worked alongside. Maybe
less. The rest were new, uncertain, green.
“You have loyalty only because each Retriever fears for
the family they are protecting,” Connor said. He didn’t hold
back, he knew the other wolves loyal to Niceros were in the
shadows waiting. He was dead, and certainly there was no
hope of getting Declan out alive if this didn’t go well. “Each
Retriever is blackmailed into service, for sins some of us
didn’t even commit. I have been estranged from my family,
my mother, father, sisters, because your Glitnir threatens
death to them if I dare to step out of line.”
“No one is listening to you,” Niceros blustered. He looked
sideways at his lieutenants, who were visibly stepping back
and away. Niceros was showing vulnerability, and Connor
may not know much about being an Alpha but he knew that
every Alpha, every leader, earned respect by not backing
down.
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“We fight. I win, you release Declan and every single wolf
here will choose whether to swear fealty to me and submit to
me as Alpha. I die, then you’ve proved that you are the
better wolf.”
“You need to fight,” one of the lieutenants said. Niceros
reacted instantly, slashing sideways with claws extended
and catching the lieutenant across the chest. The wolf
stumbled back at the sudden attack but he didn’t fall.
Instead he moved away from Niceros and into the night. The
other lieutenant waited a moment, then followed suit and let
darkness hide him.
“I’ll fight you,” Niceros snarled. Before Connor could
react Niceros was on him, pinning him to the ground with
claws dug deep into Connor’s biceps. A typical move from
the older man and one he’d evidently forgotten he’d shown
to Connor on day one of training. Connor flipped the other
wolf off, snapping his body to a crouch and only glancing at
the wounds in his arms. There was no pain, only complete
focus. This fight was to be done as a human? So be it.
Connor slowly extended his claws, but Niceros changed
the attack and took on wolf form in an instant, launching
himself at Connor and flattening him. Connor rolled from
under him and shifted as they moved. He was heavier, but
he fought cleanly, stopping each slash of claws with his own
and sinking his teeth into Niceros’s thigh. He heard
Niceros’s scream as it morphed into a howl and sidestepped
as the wolf shook free. They circled each other, and Connor
was aware of the shifters forming a circle around them even
as Niceros tore through Connor’s hip with his teeth and a
snarl. Connor staggered left, then in a sudden move twisted
back to pin Niceros to the floor, his teeth deep into flesh and
catching on bone even as Niceros clawed his way out of the
hold. This was bloody and evil and to the death. Niceros
clamped down with teeth and claws, then levered Connor
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against a tree.
Images of what they had been through, him and Micah, of
the love he had for the vampire, of his family, and how
much Glitnir had stolen from him flooded his fight or flight,
and a power he had never experienced before swamped him
with heat. In one push he was free of Niceros and had the
other wolf pinned, and for a second he stared down into
Niceros’s amber eyes. He saw utter defeat in them and a
glint of something else…hate. He finished Niceros off with
his teeth, tearing at his throat and biting down until there
was no life left in Niceros.
Agony and grief poured through him. His trainer, his
master, the wolf who had made him the fighter he was had
died at his hand. He stumbled back, the leg that was hurt the
most gave way under him, and for a second he thought he
would lose consciousness. Then a single spoken plea forced
into his thoughts.
Connor.
A voice he recognised. Declan? He was alive? Connor
stood unsteadily on his paws and stumbled his way through
foliage and the evidence of the Retriever camp. He could
smell Declan, and when he stumbled towards him, Declan
was in wolf form and tied down with silver that burned.
Connor shifted and yanked away the chains, wincing as they
left deep burns in his already damaged skin. Declan was
barely conscious, his fur missing in places where the chains
had done their worst, and cuts and claw wounds on almost
every part of him. As soon as Declan was free, Connor
shifted back to wolf, and in a smooth movement he curled
himself around Declan and closed his eyes.
No one else would hurt Declan. Connor would deliver
him back to Levi. And Connor? He would see Micah again.
But only if the rest of the wolves had their answer as to who was
Alpha.
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Chapter Five
ow long he was asleep or unconscious, Connor
couldn’t tell. Each time he opened his eyes he felt
stronger as he allowed his wolf to heal him, and he could
sense Declan was waking in a similar way. Flint and Merrick
stood guard, neither moving, but given they were only two
against many, Connor surmised the other wolves had
decided to wait this out. They were probably waiting to see
what Connor had to say about anything at all and weren’t
trying to dive in and challenge for leadership.
The sun was high in the sky when he felt able to move
away from Declan, and he shifted to human and rose to a
crouch. Both Merrick and Flint shifted as well and tilted
their heads in respect.
“Alpha-Connor,” Flint offered.
“What happened?” Connor asked.
Flint looked puzzled. “You defeated Niceros.”
“I mean…after that.”
“No one left, not even those most loyal to Niceros and
Glitnir. They are waiting for you.”
“And none of them want to fight me for Alpha?” Connor
couldn’t help the surprise in his voice. He was a sitting
target, but if he had to protect his position, he guessed he
would have to. Flint got that look again, the one that said he
thought Connor was talking complete rubbish.
“Are you able to talk to the rest of your pack?” This time
it was Merrick speaking, and he was looking pointedly at
H
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Declan who stirred and was concentrating on pushing
himself to sit. Connor stood, then reached to haul his friend
to his feet.
“You okay?” he asked Declan.
“Yeah,” Declan responded with a groan. “We were
outnumbered.”
“I know, I saw the evidence of the kills.”
“They got Kyle. Poor kid never stood a chance.”
For a second he and Declan bowed their heads in respect
for the dead. Evidently the other two who had gone with
Connor were still here somewhere. He hoped they were
alive, or as near as they could be in order to heal.
“Alpha-Connor?” Flint interrupted. “Everyone is
waiting.”
Declan waved a hand indicating Connor should go first,
then when Connor moved he fell naturally into the Beta
position at his side with Merrick and Flint alongside him.
Instinctively Connor walked back to the clearing. Wolves in
human shape were standing and waiting, some dressed,
some naked like him.
Connor stood silently and turned in a circle as each wolf
around him tilted their heads and bowed slightly, enough to
emphasise the loyalty.
“Seems like you have a pack,” Declan murmured. “Fifty
or so wolf shifters have just joined our side.”
Connor nodded and drew himself tall. “Every single one
of you has the chance to leave. Find your families. I will hold
no oath over you until you are happy that each of your loved
ones are safe.”
“Alpha, sir, our families will only be safe if we fight the
Glitnir that threatens them,” someone called with a
respectful tone.
“The only way to see our families is to make them safe,”
someone else joined in.
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“Glitnir needs to see what was happening.”
“Glitnir is poisoned.”
The words came at Connor like arrows and each one
pierced his determination to allow every wolf to take his
freedom.
“At dawn we leave for the others who would fight with
us,” Connor said softly. “Those wanting to go with us can be
here then, anyone else, you are free to go, and I swear on the
life of my sisters that I will not hold you to any historic
fatalistic oath.”
He turned to leave, but stopped when one wolf began
chant ‘Connor’ over and over, then another. When he turned
to face the shifters, he saw that every man there was on one
knee with neck exposed, calling his name.
“You have to do something,” Declan insisted in his ear.
“What?” Connor replied just as quietly.
“Go and acknowledge each shifter,” Merrick offered.
Connor felt alternatively embarrassed and empowered as
he approached each wolf and touched their head gently. As
he did, each man shifted to wolf until he was surrounded by
exactly fifty-three wolves, Declan included. When he himself
shifted he howled to the sun, and the chorus of every wolf
howling as one was as healing as magic but without the side
effects.
Connor, for better or worse, was Alpha.
* * * *
The ragtag group of shifters made their way to the new
meeting place for the Underground. Connor didn’t know
where Arberfan was, but he headed for the Badlands and
hoped to hell the rest would be obvious. The Badlands
wasn’t the best place to be, too many blood demons who
were taking the dissent in the Second Kingdom among the
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Feline Guild, the elves, and the blood demons and using it as
an opportunity to cause chaos. Too many murders and
robberies, and Connor was on his guard as they approached
the wide spaces of land that bracketed the Red Mountains.
They’d stopped at their makeshift camp to collect clothes
before they left, but most of the journey home they were
shifted and living for the run through the forests.
Declan watched Connor closely as they travelled. Connor
didn’t want to be Alpha, he was happy to defer to Joseph
normally, but from what Declan had heard the fight with
Niceros was brutal and Connor proved himself amazingly
well. How that was going to go down when they met up
with everyone else was another thing altogether. As they
journeyed, a total of eight days, he saw a marked difference
in Connor and he wasn’t afraid to mention it. At first he said
Connor was Alpha but didn’t act like it, then, when there
was any sign of question or dissent, Declan pointed out the
clear way Connor would deal with it, sometimes just with a
snarl. Obviously Declan had considered how this was going
to change the dynamic between Connor and his lover,
because he said so.
“What’s wrong?” Connor asked him.
“Nothing.”
“Your face is creased worse than yesterday’s shirt.”
Declan glanced around at the nearest shifters, all of whom
were far enough away so they could talk privately. Seemed
like everyone always gave him and Declan space and
Connor guessed it was because he was Alpha and Declan
was chief Beta, or whatever it was called.
“Micah is a strong man in his own right,” Declan began.
“Do you think you’ll have to act differently in private than
you have to now in public? Can Alphas even do that? Do
you think this will change you and Micah?”
Now it was Connor’s turn to frown. “What?”
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“Oh come on,” Declan sighed. “You can’t tell me you
haven’t considered what could change with you and Micah
now you’re all big bad Alpha with your own army.”
Connor shook his head, still with the frown. “I love
Micah.” That was all Connor was going to offer him but
Declan wasn’t ready to let this rest.
“Yeah, but it’s not going to be equal when you need
Micah to bow down to you.”
Connor snorted at the thought of Micah doing anything of
the sort. He leaned in to Declan. “You know we switch,
right?”
Declan shrugged. “Won’t matter when your wolf wants to
go all Dom on his ass.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” He leaned in closer. “My wolf
is very subservient to Micah.”
Declan blinked at him. “Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
They were interrupted by someone ahead calling back.
Both Declan and Connor ran to the front of the line of
shifters, some in wolf form, some human like them. The
advance security guard had returned.
“What is it?”
“Alpha-Connor,” Flint began urgently. “Our way is
blocked about five miles forward. Glitnir colours on an army
of fae, maybe two thousand souls.”
Connor sensed his wolves, his pack, close around him, all
waiting for his infinite words of wisdom. He just wished he
had some. Going around an army would add four days,
maybe more, to an already long run, and that didn’t even
begin to include the danger of each and every fae that would
be there. He tilted his head back to the sun’s rays and closed
his eyes. Was Ludvik there with the army? Had he left
Glitnir? If they ran round the army would they make it to
the rest as they met at Arberfan?
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At least no one was prompting him for an answer, not
even Declan.
“Okay, I need two volunteers with me. The rest of you
will circumvent the army and get to Arberfan as soon as
they can.” Everyone was silent for a millisecond, then chaos
broke out. Over and above it all two voices stood out.
Declan, who he expected, and Flint, who he didn’t.
“I’m with you,” Flint said forcefully. He moved to stand
right in front of him with his arms crossed over his broad
chest.
“I’m with you,” Declan said just as forcefully.
Connor looked at Declan with sorrow inside him. He
wanted to apologise, but something inside him, that
nebulous feel of Alpha, was enough to have him stiffening
his resolve. “You need to stay with the pack. As my Beta I
need you with them,” Connor said to his best friend firmly.
“Connor…” Declan began, then he stopped. “Yes, Alpha.”
“Flint, you’re with me.” Flint nodded and Connor turned
to the rest of the group. “I’m not ordering any one of you
closer than this, but we need to see what they have so we
can take whatever we find back to the rest.”
“Alpha-Connor,” Merrick stepped forward and
exchanged a determined look with Flint. “I’m with you.”
Connor glanced around him at every single wolf shifter
that stood and waited for him to speak. They all looked to
him for something profound, some kind of direction.
“Declan, as my second in command, will lead the run to
the grouping area.”
A chorus of ‘yes, Alpha’ echoed around him. The pack
moved away, and it was obvious they sensed Connor
wanted a short time with his Beta.
“If I don’t see you at Arberfan, can you tell Micah…” He
stopped. Declan waited patiently for more words, but when
it was obvious that Connor had stopped he simply closed his
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eyes.
“I won’t need to tell Micah anything.” He held out a hand
to shake, but Connor pulled Declan in for a hug. They’d
been friends since they were thrown together as Retrievers
and the thought of not seeing him again? It didn’t bear
thinking about. He hugged Declan, then released him.
“Stay alive, my friend,” he said.
“I’ll see you at Arberfan,” Declan replied. Then he jogged
over to the remainder of the pack and as one they took a
ninety-degree turn off the path and into the forest. Connor
watched them go and Flint and Merrick flanked him. He
pushed away the sudden fear that this was the last time he
would see Declan.
And Micah?
Connor’s wolf was restless at the thought of Micah. The
vampire was Connor’s lover, his wolf’s fated mate, and just
the thought that he would never touch Micah again had him
stubborn in his resolve that he would make it to Arberfan
alive.
I can take on a couple thousand fae.
I. Am. An. Alpha.
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Chapter Six
The Badlands, Resistance Camp
euben set the cup down on the table and slid in
opposite Nick. He nodded his welcome and received an
equally restrained nod in return from the wolf shifter.
They’d been in the Badlands for three days now and the
tension in the small camp was palpable. Levi had arrived
this morning fresh from his work with the bear shifters, and
he’d brought with him a couple of the largest bears Reuben
had ever seen. They were big, broad, burly men with a cool
line in sword fighting and wrestling. They promised more
would follow and Levi seemed convinced that this would
happen.
Levi and Brody were off to one side of the camp talking,
which left Reuben either sitting with the Bears, who didn’t
like talking much, or finding a drink and joining Nick. He’d
looked for Ethan, but just like the past three days, his
infuriating partner had taken to meditation. Sitting
absolutely still in their tent and chanting was not something
Reuben was really up for. Apparently Ethan was getting in
touch with the side of himself that he was slowly coming to
terms with, the magic that resided in his heart.
“Wish Joseph and Micah would get a shift on,” Reuben
said to start a conversation.
“And Connor with Declan,” Nick replied. It was the same
thing they’d said each morning they met here over herbal
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drinks and meagre supplies. Nick went off and hunted and
Reuben went with him each day after this drink. Reuben
didn’t have the luxury of shifting into a wolf, but between
him with his crossbow and Nick with his claws, they’d
managed to add meat to the crap that attempted to pass for
food here.
That was the sum of the conversation. They just enjoyed
sitting there looking out at the forest and knowing that the
inevitable battle was just out there waiting for them and
passed time until the hunt was done.
Nick frowned into his drink, then pressed one hand to his
temple.
“What’s wrong?” Reuben asked. This was new, this
expression of concern. Add in the pain in his eyes and
Reuben didn’t have to be a wolf expert to know something
was wrong with Nick.
“Wolves,” Nick blurted out and sat upright abruptly.
“Well that’s a good thing, right?” Reuben could do with a
few wolves to liven up the whole bear-wrestling thing.
Nick pushed up and away from the small roughhewn
table and shook his head. “No, only three,” he snapped.
Then, saying nothing, he dived into the forest down the hill,
and Reuben didn’t know whether he should stay or follow.
He sensed Levi and Brody behind him. “What’s wrong?”
Brody asked. Both he and Levi moved to Reuben’s side with
weapons drawn.
“Nick said he scented three wolves,” Reuben explained.
That could only mean one thing. Declan and Connor had
failed in garnering the support of the Glitnir Retrievers.
“We’ll be fine without them,” Levi said in his usual no-
nonsense tone.
Reuben wasn’t so convinced, as he knew Joseph had been
counting on the wolf shifters withdrawing their support
from Ludvik to strike another blow to Ludvik’s plans. He
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drew his crossbow from the hook around his shoulders and
notched an arrow in readiness with absolute focus on every
sound. All three men stood absolutely still. The noise in the
forest of footfalls and crashes had Reuben tensing. This
didn’t sound good. He counted down from five.
Five.
If Nick wasn’t back by one he was going in whether or
not that left the camp one more person down.
Four. Three. Two.
He didn’t reach one, as a small group, Nick included,
stumbled into the camp. Two wolf shifters held another up
and Nick was leading them this way. What he called out had
dread knifing into Reuben’s chest.
“It’s Connor, he’s injured.”
“Bring him in here,” Ethan called from behind Reuben.
The wolves did as they were instructed and Connor was laid
on the thin cot that Ethan had designated the sick area. He’d
stocked it with herbs and bottles taken from the bears by
Levi and added in some parts of his own making. Reuben
held back, hovered at the opening of the tent.
“What happened?” Ethan asked urgently. There wasn’t a
whole lot of blood, but Connor looked grey and ashen, near
death. One of the other wolves spoke up succinctly and with
no drama.
“Alpha-Connor led us as a scouting party into an area
where Ludvik has an army amassing, some twenty miles
from here. He sent the remainder of the wolves in a
circuitous route. We were attacked and rendered
unconscious and when we woke Alpha-Connor did not
regain consciousness. There are no obvious bleeds or
wounds.”
The report given, the wolf stepped back and straight into
Reuben who gripped him to stop his stumbling.
“Were you followed bringing him here?” he asked.
“We scented nothing in the way of being followed,” the
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second wolf shifter answered. “We need to report the
intelligence.”
“You can do that to me.”
Reuben stalked out of the tent and he couldn’t stop the
curls of fear inside him. They were a small group still, and
an army of two thousand was little more than a day away.
They’d have to move on, they couldn’t stay here.
“Report.”
“I’m Flint, this is Merrick.” Flint was a big wolf, all
muscles on muscles, with an intelligent gaze and claws
extended from his fingers. “Alpha-Connor instructed
surveillance, and this is what we did. There is dissent in the
ranks of Ludvik’s army. Word reached them of Niceros
dying and half the army began to drift away in small groups.
We saw glaistig, fairies, and dryads all leaving within an
hour of us watching. Alpha-Connor went closer, reported
back to us that the glaistig were talking of finding us to join
us. He chose to approach them as they were in a western
encampment and separate from the rest. When he came back
we had maybe moments before neither of us can remember a
thing. The rest you know.”
Reuben listened carefully to all the intelligence. Having
the glaistig on their side would be a big thing. The fierce
female warriors were loyal to the Fae Alliance ordinarily,
and for them to seek an alliance with Joseph was something
very important.
“In conclusion, Ludvik still has a thousand souls who
remain loyal.”
Merrick nodded. “He speaks a lot of rhetoric, and we
blended with the shifters from the City. What he says makes
the crowd want more. A lot of his focus is on the blood
demons.”
“Are you hurt?” Reuben asked. Both shifters shook their
heads. “And you say the remainder of the shifters that
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Connor recruited are on their way.”
“Maybe two days away. And no, neither of us are hurt.”
Reuben considered what to do next. “I’m sorry to ask this
of you, but I need you out there covering our six, watching
for anything out of the ordinary.” He wondered if the two
shifters would refuse to leave Connor’s side, but neither one
argued and in an instant they were naked, shifted, and into
the forest.
“What can we do?” Levi asked from behind him. Reuben
turned to focus in on the incubus.
“You heard?”
“Enough.”
“We need to post guards, the two bear shifters, and I need
you and Brody out there as well. We need a perimeter and I
want hourly reports and enough forewarning for what is
here to fall back to Arberfan or move into the Second
Kingdom. At least we know the King has our backs there.”
Levi nodded and sprinted back up to where Brody was
standing by the tent where Connor lay. In an instant they too
were into the forest. Intelligence was paramount and they
didn’t have enough to know whether to stand or run.
And what the hell had happened to Connor? Reuben
went straight to the tent and what he saw was enough of a
shock to render him speechless for a second. Ethan sat next
to a prone Connor on the bed and was staring down at
Connor’s exposed chest. The skin had been carved and the
patterns were bloody and engorged with pink puffy skin.
“What the hell?” Reuben asked in horror.
Ethan looked up at him briefly. “The same runes that
were carved into me. I know them.”
“Ludvik did this?”
Ethan shrugged and traced one of the runes with his
finger. As he did so the scar healed but literally seconds later
it reopened. “I can’t heal it. Not with anything I have here.”
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“What does he need?” Reuben couldn’t imagine Micah
being without his wolf, it would kill him. Reuben decided
there and then he would go and find whatever Connor
needed.
“Micah and Joseph.”
Reuben slumped to the nearest stool and steepled his
hands. “That I can’t do. We have no idea if they are still at
the Council. We need Phin so he could port there and talk to
them. There has to be a reason they’re not here yet.”
“His vital signs are good,” Ethan reassured. “He’s alive.
It’s almost like he’s sleeping.”
“You think Micah knows? Think he can feel this?”
“I hope not. I remember the runes, the agony of having
them carved into my skin. I was still awake each time it
happened. When Ludvik carved them he told me he was
teaching me, showing me his love.” Ethan stood from his
seat and wrapped his arms around his middle. Reuben had
never seen his lover look so utterly vulnerable. Without
words he rose and wrapped his own arms over Ethan’s and
pulled him back for a hug. Ethan appeared to sink into his
arms.
“I’m sorry you went through that,” Reuben offered. “If I
could have done it in your place…”
Ethan turned in his arms and locked his hands behind
Reuben’s head. “I wouldn’t have let you do it,” he said. “I
was the one he was punishing. He just wanted you dead.
Because of that I am alive now to be with you.”
Reuben rested his hands on Ethan’s hipbones and pulled
him closer until they aligned. He wasn’t hard, neither was
Ethan. This wasn’t the time or the place for carnal thoughts.
They just needed to get through this. Somehow.
“Wha—wha—” Connor murmured from the bed. Both
Reuben and Ethan turned to look, but Connor was merely
dreaming. When the dream became more, a nightmare that
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had him calling out, Ethan climbed back on the bed and
insinuated himself behind Connor and stroked the wolf
shifter’s long shaggy hair back from his face. The touch
appeared to settle Connor.
Ethan looked up at Reuben. “We need Joseph and Micah.
He needs his lover and Joseph’s magic. And we need Phin.”
Reuben would give Ethan anything, the sun, the moon,
the stars, his very last breath in this world. But unless
Reuben was suddenly gifted with the ability to port like
Phin and Joseph could, then he couldn’t do a damn thing to
supply Joseph, Phin or Micah here and now.
They looked at each other as hope began to chip away.
Connor was one of the good guys, and to see him and Micah
together was like looking at him and Ethan so many
centuries before.
What could he do? This was impossible.
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Chapter Seven
icah felt sick. It wasn’t the sickness of being ill, but an
utter dread that coiled in his stomach and wouldn’t
leave him. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t get a
handle on what it was. They hadn’t been followed from the
Council and there were no magic signatures that Joseph had
discerned. For all intents and purposes they had made it
away from there without issue. Joseph was even talking
about porting the rest of the way as soon as his body
recovered from being in the shielded Council chambers.
“What’s wrong?” Joseph asked. Micah frowned at his
twin.
I don’t know, he thought instantly.
Joseph smiled at him. Seems like we have our mojo back, he
thought.
Can we port now? Micah sent the thought even as sudden
excruciating pain knifed through his stomach and into his
chest. His insides were on fire and he fell to the floor,
panting through the pain. Joseph was at his side in an
instant.
“Micah!” he shouted.
Micah yanked at his dark shirt, ripped it apart and
pressed his hands to his skin. “Burns,” he managed to say.
Joseph pressed his hand to his temple, then to his own
stomach. Fuck. Whatever Micah was feeling, his twin was
feeling too. Micah breathed through the pain and ran shaky
hands down his skin. There was nothing there to see, but he
M
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could feel burning just below the surface. Abruptly he knew,
instinct telling him he was sharing something with the only
other person who got inside his head.
“Connor.” He forced the words out. Joseph yanked him to
stand as he muttered words and Micah saw a portal form.
Thank you, he mentally sent to his twin. Then he was sucked
into the swirling vortex, and when they landed feet first into
a forest glade, the pain inside him forced him to his knees,
then to his side where he curled up in a foetal position.
Joseph yanked at him again, manhandling him up to stagger
forward.
Connor was here. Sleeping, in agony, and Micah allowed
himself to be led wherever Joseph thought he should be. He
sensed Connor and a bed and fell down next to his lover, the
pain intensifying, then nothing.
When he woke he sensed Joseph there, heard words, felt
his touch, and thought he could hear Phin as well. Among
all of them the pain was receding and more of Connor
invaded his mind until Micah’s breathing became settled. He
turned on the bed and pulled Connor in close for an
embrace, ignoring the blood that was between them.
“Open your eyes,” he ordered the wolf shifter. “Connor!”
“Mic—” Connor murmured.
“Open your damn eyes,” Micah demanded, hoping to hell
that would be enough for Connor to snap out of whatever he
was in. He glanced down at Connor’s chest, for the first time
focusing in on what was causing the bleeding—runes, a
message that was disappearing as he watched. Joseph
reached over with a damp cloth and wiped gently at seeping
blood as the wounds began to heal until finally all that was
left of the deep carving were pale pink lines that crisscrossed
Connor’s chest and stomach. Micah was exhausted and
curled around his lover. Connor was colder than normal and
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Micah wished he was warm so that he could know Connor
was going to be okay.
“Micah,” Connor said a little more strongly than before.
“You’re here.” He coughed, then reached up and gripped
Micah hard. “Love you,” he mumbled.
“Love you,” Micah answered. Then he held Connor until
his wolf went to sleep, this time proper sleep, not the sleep
of the near dead. Carefully he extricated himself from
Connor and rolled to sit on the side of the bed.
Joseph was watching, Phin at his side, and Reuben
hovered behind with Ethan.
“What did they say?” Joseph asked immediately. Micah
knew what he meant. The runes. Micah was an expert in
vampiric runes, in fact all kinds of ancient languages. This
was an entirely vampiric letter set. There was a definite fae
feel to the angular letters, ancient words that meant little out
of context.
“It’s a message for us,” Micah began. “Now. The twins
will die. Ethan will know death.”
Ethan nodded. “He’s focused in on me again,” he said in a
very matter-of-fact way. “Then that’s sorted.” He turned and
left the tent with Reuben on his heels.
Micah stood and followed Joseph and Phin out to see
what was being said. Nothing much was being spoken, more
shouted.
“You’re not doing this!” they all heard Reuben shout.
“You heard Micah. He’s all about me. If I go, hand myself
to him, he could—”
“I’m not letting him touch you.”
Ethan took a step back and blinked up at Reuben. “I
didn’t say that I would let him touch me. I’ll get close
enough to use a knife. End this one way or another.”
“There is no ending this just by the death of one,” Phin
pointed out.
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“See, Phin gets it,” Reuben said loudly, although this time
it was less of a shout and more just firmly emphasising he
agreed with Phin.
“We won’t let you do that,” Joseph said.
“Let me?” Ethan shook his head. “No here lets me do
anything.” He sounded puzzled. “I’ll go to him, kill him,
and no one else gets hurt.”
“No.” Reuben moved closer and Micah lost sight of Ethan
behind the vampire. “I won’t let you. I’ll tie you down if I
have to.”
Micah sidestepped so he could see Ethan’s face, which
was blank of emotion. Ethan was planning to run and
sacrifice himself, any idiot could see that.
“Do something. We’re in that damn message as well,”
Micah said to both Joseph and Phin. “Stop Ethan from
leaving.”
Joseph glanced at Phin and as one they threw magic at
Reuben and Ethan, encasing the two men in a shimmering
white net that covered them like silk.
“They won’t get out of that,” Phin said proudly. He
snapped his fingers and the two men disappeared.
“Phin, what did you do?”
Phin grinned up at his lover. “Got them some alone time
with a little help there.”
“Where did you put them?”
Phin inclined his head. “End tent. Privacy. Let them talk it
out.”
Joseph’s expression became serious. “While it’s us, we
need to talk ourselves. The issue on the table is handing over
Ethan in the vain hope Ludvik calls off his attack dogs and
sinks quietly into obscurity. I vote no.”
A chorus of disapproval was a resounding no and Micah
added his own no. They’d made it this far with diplomatic
means. Joseph had managed to amass enough support so
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Ludvik may well be faced with enough force that he would
negotiate rather than fight. Maybe there could be the Third
Kingdom if only everything ran to plan.
“I won’t sacrifice a single person in this,” Joseph said
simply. “Not until the very last alternative is exhausted and
we have to fight.”
“Reuben says that is what it will come to,” Phin stated.
Reuben had always been the one who saw war as the only
way to build a new start. Joseph had been the one who
wanted diplomacy.
“I still hope this will be settled with a show of force,”
Joseph defended. “I don’t want anyone to die for the sake of
a new world. None of us do.”
“Except Reuben,” Micah said drily. “I think he has a
death wish.”
As a group they turned when Levi and Brody came out of
the forest with a long line of women behind them. Micah
recognised them immediately glaistig, a strong fairy clan.
Each one came straight over to Joseph and took a knee. The
oldest stood and bowed her head, long dark curls falling
around her face.
“Who are we reporting to?” she asked softly. Her voice
belied the warrior Micah knew she was.
Micah left his brother to it and turned back to the tent and
Connor. Expectation of what was to come hung heavy over
this place, and he needed the reassurance that Connor was
safe. Climbing back onto the bed, he cuddled close and was
thankful that Connor appeared to be back to his warm-oven
self.
Thank the heavens for small mercies.
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Chapter Eight
than struggled against the net of magic, then realised he
could no more escape whatever Joseph and Phin had
thrown at them than he could give himself up to Ludvik
now.
“Damn it, Phin,” he cursed under his voice. Reuben, the
bastard, was simply sitting on the cot and arranging the soft
flowing netting around him like some kind of bride before a
wedding. He had a smug expression and a smile on his face.
In the end Ethan stopped struggling and slumped to sit
next to Reuben. “This is stupid. They need to let me go—”
“So you can heroically sacrifice yourself for the good of
the rest of us?” Reuben asked. His voice was calm, his tone
spoke of buried anger, but he was still smiling. That contrast
scared Ethan with its unpredictable possible outcomes.
“Yes,” Ethan snapped. “I mean, no, hell, you know what I
mean.”
Reuben sighed. “I don’t get it. I mean we only just found
each other and you already want to go all self-sacrificial and
hand yourself over to a murderer who wants inside you.”
This time there was no smile accompanying the words,
simply a resigned expression.
Ethan struggled with the magic lace stuff that was
between them and in the end he managed to get the weight
of it rested on the bed. He reached over and took Reuben’s
hand.
“I don’t want to leave you.”
E
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“Then don’t.”
“I can’t see any other options to end this without people
dying.”
“I can see us all joining and presenting a united force,
making Ludvik see that the old ways—the segregation, the
inequality, the treatment of blood demons as slaves—are all
wrong and need to end. We can do that if we are a force to
be reckoned with.”
Ethan scooted a little closer to get off the net, which
sparked against his thigh. It was almost as if the thing were
alive and pushing him and Reuben together. The scent of his
lover was so close, and it intensified under this infernal
magic layer. For the first time in a long time, Ethan was
getting hard and needy and his own wants were pushing to
the fore. He’d buried them so deep that he thought his
sexual desire had all but disappeared.
“I thought you wanted war,” Ethan said.
Reuben looked right at him. “I was born to be at war,” he
said. “I was supposed to die in battle.”
The spark on Ethan’s thigh intensified and he winced and
moved away again. His left thigh touched Reuben’s and the
warmth of the man, so strong against him, was intense.
“I know that, and I was supposed to die with you,” Ethan
replied. He moved of his own accord this time, shuffling,
then huffing and moving until the only comfortable place
was straddling Reuben’s lap. At least in this position the
magic netting was wholly supported by the cot and not
heavy and draped around Ethan’s neck.
“This is unexpected,” Reuben said with a low cough. He
couldn’t look Ethan in the eyes and was flushed scarlet.
Under his own erection he could feel Reuben hard against
him. Ethan cradled Reuben’s face with his hands and kissed
him softly.
“I missed you… I can’t tell you how much I wanted you
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with me.”
“I mourned you for every single moment I was in that
book. I wanted to die without you.”
“Then we have a second chance,” Ethan whispered. “One
last chance before everything is decided for us. You have to
promise me something.”
“Anything,” Reuben said immediately, foolishly.
“That if it comes to it, that we can avoid war and death,
you will let me go to Ludvik and end this.”
Reuben considered the words and tilted his head a little.
“If that is the only thing left, then we’ll do it together.”
They kissed, Reuben keeping his head at an angle so the
kiss was deep, and Ethan lost himself in the sensation. The
taste of Reuben was sunshine and coming home, familiar
and hot all at the same time, and hell, he wanted Reuben,
wanted to have that reminder of what life was like when
you were loved and wanted. He wished they had oils in
here, then Reuben could stretch him and Ethan could slide
onto Reuben and ride him until nothing else mattered but
each other.
Something hit him on the side of the head and fell into the
gathered netting at his side and he winced. “What the hell?”
He glanced down to see a bottle on the covers, lying
innocently like it had been there all along.
Reuben followed his gaze and smirked at the newest
addition to their magic prison. “Think if you wish for a way
out that will happen as well?”
Ethan considered saying the words for all of a second.
Then, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, he
scooped up the bottle and flipped the lid, inhaling the
blossom-heavy scent of the oil within. Quickly he shut the
lid and dropped it back where he found it. This may well be
the last time that he and Reuben were together and he was
damned if it was going to be quick and over in the shortest
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time possible.
“Soon,” he said. Then he leaned in for more kissing. So
many hundreds of years, and in all that time no one had
been anywhere near what Reuben was to him. The kisses
deepened and he wasn’t sure if he’d wished away his clothes
or if Reuben had helped him undress, but they were naked
and Ethan wasn’t going to argue. He just hoped to hell that
no one walked in on them or even went past the opening of
the tent. As if on cue the small open entrance to the tent
sealed shut. For a moment it was too dark to see, but then
the inside lit with candlelight.
“Phin needs to bottle this experience,” Reuben joked.
Ethan didn’t answer, he was too busy burying his nose
against Reuben’s throat and inhaling the scent of his man.
The gauzy strands around them trailed over naked skin in
an erotic dance, and when Reuben’s slick fingers began to
stretch Ethan he nearly lost it there and then.
“Careful,” he warned in a heated whisper. “Too long,” he
added in explanation.
Reuben paid attention, slowing the touches, deepening
the press of his fingers and shifting Ethan so he could reach.
Ethan let himself be pulled and tugged into position and the
press of his own cock against Reuben was like coming home.
He recalled their first time, sunshine and a blanket and the
innocence. He remembered their last time, hurried and
passionate, the kissing and making love that would have to
last them until the minute they expected to die on the
battlefield.
“Please tell me you’re ready?” Reuben said, his voice
hoarse and his eyes dark with need.
Ethan said nothing, instead he lifted slightly and moved
so that Reuben could line himself up. The first press burned,
and the pain was enough to have Ethan leaning back and
exhaling noisily.
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“Okay?” Reuben asked urgently.
In answer Ethan relaxed and pushed down as Rueben sat
as still as he was able to. The oil eased the way and Ethan
wondered if it was too late to have asked for no initial pain
at the intrusion. He smiled at the thought and Reuben
captured the smile in a kiss. Then he began to rock, and inch
by inch he moved farther inside Ethan until finally there was
nothing left for Ethan to take. They stopped for a moment
and Ethan looked down at his lover, sitting on the edge of
the bed with his feet flat on the floor. This was always the
best position for them, where Reuben could use his powerful
muscles to force an orgasm from Ethan.
This was one of the memories Ethan took with him every
day, along with the scent of Reuben and the love he had for
the sexy wild-haired vampire. He twisted fingers into that
ebony hair and encouraged Reuben to expose his neck for
Ethan to kiss and bite. Reuben did what he was asked and
keened as he began to make love to Ethan.
For the longest time they rocked together, whispering
words of promise, of hellos and goodbyes, and all the things
between. When Reuben was close it was Ethan’s turn to tilt
his head, offering his throat to Reuben.
“Are you sure?” Reuben asked. His voice was slurred, his
canines descended, his eyes wide. “Be sure.”
Ethan used his grip in Reuben’s hair to draw the
vampire’s teeth to his vulnerable artery. He was so close.
Reuben groaned low in his throat, latching his lips to Ethan’s
delicate skin, then piercing that same skin with his teeth. The
act was too much for Ethan and he was coming between
their pressed bodies, his release hot against his skin, and his
muscles milking Reuben until Reuben was coming inside
him, painting him with heat. Ethan slumped boneless into
Reuben’s solid hold and waited as Reuben finished tasting
his blood. When Reuben retracted his teeth he licked the
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spot until the blood stopped, then pulled Ethan down for a
kiss. The coppery tang of blood filled Ethan’s mouth, the
nectar of Reuben mixing with it until he was hard again and
so damn needy.
Reuben gripped him hard as he softened inside and
didn’t seem to want to talk. He was hot to touch, his skin
traced with the threads of magic that had passed between
them.
Their lovemaking had always been like this. Perfect.
Utterly and completely perfect.
“I love you, McGregor,” Ethan whispered.
“I love you, Ethan,” Reuben answered. “And I can’t be
without you again.” He pulled back and his eyes shone with
emotion. “You hear me, Ethan, I can’t be in a world that
you’re not in. We live or die together.”
Ethan cuddled close to his vampire lover. “A warrior’s
promise,” he murmured.
“Aye. A warrior’s promise, and one I won’t hesitate to call
you on. If we are meant to die, then we die together.”
Ethan knew what Reuben meant. They’d promised
forever once before, but Lekland had driven a wedge
between them insurmountable by either partner.
“Together in life and death,” Ethan vowed. “This time
will be different. We’ll be together.”
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Chapter Nine
he remainder of the wolf pack arrived early the next
day. Shaking off wolf form as a group, they all went
immediately to Connor’s tent. Declan led the group but
melted away as soon as he got a handle on exactly which
tent Levi was in. They’d been back an entire minute before
Declan was ready to rip off the head of the nearest person if
he didn’t get to see Levi soon.
“Where is Levi?” he demanded of a bemused Micah who
had watched Declan sprint from tent to tent scenting the air
as he did.
“He’s on patrol.”
Suddenly deflated, Declan sat down exactly where he
stood. Naked and exhausted, he ran out of energy right here
and right now. The pack had run near solid for days and the
tiredness he felt was more than just a need to sleep. He was
aching in every bone and muscle he had.
“The pack will need…” He began talking but he realised
his words were slurring.
Micah inclined his head and Declan followed the look.
The wolf shifters were surrounded by everyone and he also
spotted Joseph in the middle there somewhere. “Everyone is
being taken care of. As soon as they saw Connor was alive
and well, they were happy to find places to sleep. All great
big piles of puppies.”
“Fuck you,” Declan said tiredly. He couldn’t even begin
to enter into sarcastic bantering with the annoying vampire.
T
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“Not if I get there first,” a voice came from behind them.
Declan closed his eyes and latched on to the love that was in
Levi’s voice. Incubi didn’t have scents but Declan could
discern the smells of the forest on his lover. He felt Levi’s
arms wrap around him and allowed himself to be guided to
stand and tugged to a tent. There was a whole field of simple
white canvas and he was never more grateful to fall onto a
pallet, dragging Levi down with him.
“Love you,” he said. Gripping his lover hard, he refused
to lessen the hold even when Levi chuckled and asked to be
released. “No. Love you,” Declan repeated.
Some other familiar scent came to him, an earthy smell
that he couldn’t quite identify, but none of that mattered.
Levi was kissing him, levering in his hold until he had
squirmed to lie on top of Declan. He was hard and the kisses
were enough to push through the exhaustion. They
murmured hellos and love yous, as they rocked against each
other and tasted each other. When they were done, when the
scent of Declan was on Levi, they curled up together and
slept.
This was where Declan wanted to be. With his Alpha and
friend safe and well, and with Levi in his arms. What else
did a Beta wolf need?
Something tickled his nose, and that something was
accompanied by giggles and soft feminine words. He moved
his head but the annoying tickle kept up. He batted the hand
away with his and growled low in his throat. If this was
Micah winding him up, then Connor be damned, he was
going to kill the freaking vampire. That familiar scent from
before he slept washed over him and the tickling stopped.
“Declan…” A woman’s voice. Gentle and encouraging,
forced its way into his half wakefulness and he yawned as
he turned in the cot, seeking Levi’s touch. “Wake up, son.”
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Words filtered through his exhaustion and he blinked his
eyes open to the light in the tent. There were faces close to
him, others surrounding him, but he didn’t panic. The scents
in the tent were of family, of things he found comforting. His
mother? Sisters? Father? He scrambled to sit upright and
pulled his vision into focus. Scanning the group he mentally
checked everyone. His parents, his younger sisters, everyone
was here.
Am I dreaming? he thought.
“You’re not dreaming,” his youngest sister, Olna, said
with a smile in her voice. Declan realised he must have said
the words out loud. He opened his arms and Olna settled
into a hug. She’d been only four the last time he’d seen her,
she would be eighteen now, but he recognised her like he
recognised his own image in a mirror.
One by one he hugged his sisters, his mom, his dad, and
when they left to let him get dressed and up with mention of
a run and that they’d be back later, it was Levi who replaced
them in the tent. He held out a hand which Declan took, and
with the other Levi grabbed clean clothes.
“This way,” he said. Together they scrambled down past
the tents and into a hollow formed by rock erosion. Water
fell into the pool from a standing of stone and it was warm.
Declan eased himself into the pool and realised that the
water spilt over the edge and joined the river below. The
water was constantly being changed, which was a nice
thought given the entire pack had probably used it. He
moved back until he could duck his head beneath the water,
Levi by his side. They sat that way for a while, the water
running over them and around them, only moving out of the
stream of it to breathe.
“What did Connor find?” Declan finally asked. He
wanted to talk about his family, but somehow it didn’t seem
to be right to be talking about them when he was naked
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under a mini waterfall. And talking about Connor is any better?
He laughed inwardly.
“That there’s an army,” Levi began. “Twenty miles from
here, the other side of Arberfan. Mostly fae. Micah and
Joseph have the vampires backing their play so Ludvik lost
them, but he still has enough covering him that this is a
show of strength on his side. As to us, Joseph wants to use a
similar show of strength, the whole idea of matching
numbers so that Ludvik will sit down to negotiate. The bears
are arriving soon. We’re just waiting on the Second
Kingdom, which is taking far too long. Here…” Levi passed
over soap and Declan luxuriated in the soapy water until he
felt squeaky clean. He ran a hand over the stubble on his
chin but that would have to stay.
“I like it,” Levi commented. “You look a lot more wolfy
with a scruffy beard.” He looked directly into Declan’s eyes.
“When you weren’t here, it was the hardest time.” They
kissed under the falling water and it wasn’t the easiest thing
to do, so Declan pulled Levi away and into the deeper part
of the pool where the water was still.
“No fucking in the pool,” Phin said from the bank.
“Hell!” Declan said with a start. Levi moved away and
swam lazily to end up just below Phin.
“We don’t fuck, we make love.”
“I cursed the pool,” Phin said in a serious tone. “Anyone
who fucks in there loses his equipment to the eels.”
Declan couldn’t help himself. He knew Phin was joking
but that didn’t stop him covering his balls and cock with his
hands, nor did it dissuade him from checking around in the
clear water for eels.
“Ass,” Levi said without heat. He pulled himself up and
out of the pool and made a show of rubbing himself dry and
getting dressed. Phin didn’t move from his spot.
“What do you want, Phin?” Declan finally asked.
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“I need to talk to you both. Together.” He sounded way
past serious now. And he had the expression of someone
with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Declan climbed out and sat on the nearest rock to dry in
the sun. Wolf shifters didn’t do all that towelling down shit.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“When Connor came back he had this message carved
into his skin, pretty nasty and spelled into him. Ludvik got
hold of him and sent him back as a warning to Micah. Turns
out Ludvik needed to tell us the twins are going to die, as is
Ethan. I need you to look out for Connor.”
“Connor?” Declan wasn’t following, and neither was Levi
if his confused expression was anything to go by.
“Micah loves Connor, he would lay down his life for
Connor, but he can’t, without him there isn’t a twin bond
with Joseph and the whole point of this whole thing, of
pulling Glitnir and the Second Kingdom together to form the
Third Kingdom, is lost.”
Finally Declan understood. “You want us to keep Connor
safe so that there is no reason for Micah to give up.”
“Exactly. Do what you have to, but at the end of this
Joseph and Micah need to stand united at the head of this
army of ours.”
“Consider it done,” Declan said. He was Beta to the
Alpha, it was his job to have his Alpha’s back anyway.
“What about you? You think Joseph would carry on if
anything happened to you?” Levi asked quickly. “Who is
watching your back?”
Phin sighed. “I’ll look after myself, but I already spoke to
Reuben.”
Declan lifted his head to the sun and ran hands through
his hair until it lay flat. It was drying in the warmth and his
wolf craved that heat.
“Maybe we should watch your back as well,” he offered.
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Phin nodded and added a genuine smile. “Maybe you
should.” Then he tilted his head as if he had heard
something, and in a click of his fingers he was gone.
Declan slid off the rock and wrinkled his nose in distaste.
Magic left a certain stench in the air and wolves didn’t
handle magic very well at all. Just scenting the burning smell
was enough to make him feel sick. “I hate it when he
disappears like that.”
“I think it’s kind of cool,” Levi said. He picked up clothes
and passed them to Declan who dressed quickly in the loose
pants and thin cool top.
Levi stopped him from walking with a hand to his chest.
“Don’t die on me. Whatever we have to do, just don’t die on
me.”
Declan clutched Levi’s hand close and placed it over his
heart.
“Not going anywhere,” he said, forceful and direct. “But
only if you promise the same.”
Levi tugged him in for a kiss, which turned heated before
Declan could say another word. They stood in the sunlight
and kissed for the longest time until they parted and Declan
rested his forehead on Levi’s chest.
“It’s coming, isn’t it? War.”
“I don’t think Ludvik will let us finish this any other
way.”
Declan and Levi made their way back up to the camp and
stopped by Connor’s tent. Declan just wanted to check in
and he was pleased to find Connor sitting up on the side of
the bed and looking way better than he had the night before.
Merrick and Flint were standing guard again, on chairs in
opposing corners. Declan knew Connor must hate the
attention.
“Can you give us a minute?” he asked Flint directly.
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Evidently being super-skilled-second was a benefit here as
Flint and Merrick both left the tent.
“Hey Alpha-Connor,” Declan teased.
Connor narrowed his gaze, then grimaced. “Can’t even
snore in peace,” he grumbled. Declan took a knee in front of
Connor and lifted Connor’s shirt to examine his chest. There
was no sign of the message Levi told him about, not that he
got a really good look as Connor batted his hand away.
“Hands off,” he growled.
“Levi here tells me Ludvik took a knife to your skin.”
Connor shrugged. “Not a knife, magic.”
Declan sat back on his heels. “Hell, Connor,” he said, his
gut clenching in sympathy. He felt his claws extend at the
instant need inside him to kill Ludvik, but he forced them to
retract and steadied himself. He exchanged looks with
Connor. He knew Connor would never talk about the agony
he must have felt or the fact he’d been turned into some kind
of message board to Micah. No wonder Phin said they
should watch over Connor. If Ludvik could do this to
Connor, what would he do next to him to throw Micah off
the endgame?
“Help me up,” Connor asked Levi, who gripped his hand
tight and assisted him in standing. Declan moved at the
same time in case Connor face-planted. “There’s someone
who needs to talk to Levi.” He indicated they should leave
the tent and they passed Merrick and Flint who fell in
behind them.
“Who?” Levi asked as they walked.
“Ethan. Methulan, the one who sent Brody to us.”
Declan saw Reuben first, with his wild dark hair, then
next to him a slimmer man—Ethan?—who turned as they
approached. The man was gorgeous, almost ethereal, hope
and happy spilling from him in waves, and his scent was an
intriguing mix of sunshine and earth. His glance went from
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the slim guy to Reuben and back again, he could scent the
connection between the two. They were lovers.
“I’m Ethan,” the second man introduced himself. “And
you are Declan,” he said softly. Declan shook Ethan’s hand
and Ethan gestured for him to sit at the wide table set in the
middle of a tent circle. Declan sat and so did Reuben. Then
Ethan did something very strange. He led Levi away from
them and took him into the beginning of the forest. Declan
could still see them but he moved to go after Levi.
Something felt wrong.
Reuben grabbed his hand to stop him. “Wait.”
Ethan and Levi were in deep discussion and Declan
watched his lover’s body language. He went from confused
to slumping miserably against the truck of the nearest tree,
to standing up straight in temper.
“What’s happening?”
“Ethan knew Levi’s parents,” Reuben said simply.
“How could he? He’s younger than me.”
“Long story,” Reuben said with a small sigh. “Just go
with it for a minute.”
Declan suddenly imagined a connection. “Is he like you?
Was he spelled into a book for a thousand years?”
“Kind of. He’ll explain. But at the moment I think your
man needs you.”
Declan cursed himself for taking his eyes off Levi and
immediately left the table, crossing Ethan on the way to
Levi. When he reached his lover he couldn’t bear the
absolute grief carved into his face.
“What?” Declan asked. He tugged at Levi’s hand and
held it firmly. He wanted Levi to know that he was here for
him—to ground him in the here and now.
“Ethan knew my parents. They didn’t commit suicide.”
Levi raised his green eyes to Declan. “Ludvik murdered
them.”
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Declan nodded. He knew exactly what Levi needed to
hear at this moment. “He’s a dead man, then.”
Levi nodded, and they embraced under the old tree. It
was an odd feeling, but knowing he could maybe give Levi
the closure he needed by removing Ludvik from this earth
was satisfying. As far from love as it was it didn’t matter,
Declan’s wolf scented blood and he wanted revenge for the
man he loved.
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Chapter Ten
Journey from the Second Kingdom
sher came to a complete stop and held up a hand so the
group behind him stopped also. Simeon was
immediately at his side, scenting the air and wrinkling his
nose in distaste. There was death here and Asher wanted to
check the clearing out ahead of them.
“Stay here, your majesty,” Simeon said, and in a second
he was gone, still in his human form but jumping obstacles
with ease. The small group from the Second Kingdom had
chosen this path because not many people recalled it was
even here. Legend said that the elves retreated from their
defeat at Arberfan into the Red Mountains using this path.
Its disuse was obvious, trees here, fallen and broken, weeds
the size of a man twisted in grotesque shapes around them.
This wasn’t the place of dreams or happiness. In fact the
dread had been building inside Asher since they left the
palace this morning. Phin hadn’t made it back to them but at
least they had the Feline Guild more or less agreeing to back
them in a move to start things all over again.
So the blood demons were still angsting over working
with vampires, and the elves in turn still had a huge issue
fighting alongside the demons, but they were united against
a common cause: Ludvik and his diseased Glitnir. Ironic
really, as the elves didn’t want to fight with the demons
because they considered them inferior, and the demons
A
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hated the vampires because they’d been created as vampire
food. Not a lot of equality as yet in the Second Kingdom, but
at least the different parties were talking.
“You need to see this,” Simeon called from a little way
down. With trepidation gripping him, Asher joined Simeon.
Here the stench of death was difficult to ignore.
“What is it?”
“Look.” Simeon gestured through a gap in the tangled
weeds, and the sight beyond was horrific beyond measure.
Fifty blood demons, maybe more—who could tell?—dead,
and to one side of them a group of vampire bodies. How
long they had been there it was difficult to tell, but it
couldn’t be more than a few days as the scent was of blood,
not of decay yet. He couldn’t comprehend what he was
looking at. His trained soldier’s eye took in the pile of
bodies, the separate vampires. To the uninitiated it would
look like vampires had set on the demons, or vice versa, and
that the carnage was as a result of that.
“The vampires would be in the pile, not to one side,”
someone commented from behind him. Asher recognised
one of his generals, Vackon, a blood demon who had served
the last king and sworn fealty to him. He was a good demon,
a strong man, and he’d seen battle when he kept the peace
on the borders.
“Agreed,” Simeon said.
“So this is staged,” Asher summarised. “Made to look like
what?”
Simeon huffed in disgust. “Like an ambush, and enough
to stir up more dissent in the ranks of demons when they
meet up with the vamps. Enough to disturb the delicate
balance we have in the Kingdom.”
Vackon interjected. “Sire, stands to reason that some of
the older fae may have heard the same stories as us about
the elf road up into the mountains.”
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Asher nodded. He’d reached the same conclusion. Ludvik
knew.
“This could be a good thing,” Simeon commented. Asher
shot him a sharp glance.
“How can all this death be a good thing?” he pointed out.
“Not the death.” Simeon was patient. “The fact that
Ludvik thinks he needs to use tricks to pull us apart. To
render us useless before we reach the rest. Seems to me he’s
scared of us.”
Asher agreed and turned to Vackon. “Spread word of
this, and send news back to the Kingdom for those that
follow us.” He faced the dead once more and said a quick
prayer over the demons and vampires who had lost their
lives. “Tell the rider you send back to bring a burial party.”
“Sire,” Vackon bowed a little and left to return to the
advance party to arrange a scout to return home.
“I’m sorry so many demons lost their lives, but you know
we can’t let this stop us,” Simeon said. He placed a hand on
Asher’s arm and held it there lightly. Asher could see the
compassion in Simeon’s face. What his lover said was true.
They had to make these senseless deaths right somehow and
the touch helped Asher.
He closed his eyes briefly but the scent of blood still
remained. “Nothing is stopping us.”
The rest of the group caught up, and Asher gave each
demon, elf and feline in their small group time to consider
the deaths and to pay respects to whatever deity they
believed in.
Then they resumed their journey. They had no other
choice.
Breaking out of the tangled forest and reaching the lower
tree line was one of the best feelings ever. They came out
about a mile north of where the main camp would be, and
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they knew that particular distance because Phin met them
on the flat land. Asher embraced his half-brother and
gripped him tightly. Seeing all those demons dead had
shaken him, and Phin was the only person other than
Simeon who he would show that vulnerability to.
“Everything okay?” Phin asked cautiously. He was
looking around Asher and Asher knew exactly what Phin
would see. A group of twenty, the advance party. Elves,
demons, and two feline shifters. A strange group and one
that would never have seemed possible before the old king
died.
“The rest is behind us,” Asher offered. “We came up
against dead demons and vampires, thought it was Ludvik
attempting to cause dissent.”
They caught up on everything, and by the time Asher and
his group arrived at the tented area he was up to speed on
most things. That a wolf called Connor had been captured
and released with a message, that Reuben was an ancient
vampire trapped in a book, that Ethan was just as old, that
they were lovers. He found out that Niceros was dead, and
that meant almost the entire Retriever force of wolf shifters
now had Connor as Alpha. Most of all he was interested to
hear that Ludvik only had a thousand souls at his beck and
call and that he had amassed this show of strength not far
from here.
Phin stopped them a little way from the main camp and
suggested they make themselves comfortable, all except
Asher as it seemed he was to accompany Phin. Of course
Simeon went with him. What Asher walked into was a
heated debate that was getting out of order. He watched as
Phin move to stand between two vampires who appeared to
be going head to head. Phin pressed his hands on their
chests and they stepped back and away from him.
“What happened?” Phin asked clearly.
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“Joseph is saying we need to negotiate—”
“It’s the only way—”
“Tell Phin who you think should go—”
“Micah—”
“Himself. Phin, he wants himself to go and negotiate. You
need to stop him.”
Asher watched the two talking at Phin. This was Joseph,
he’d met him before, and the other must be Micah, the
vampire twins. They didn’t look like twins, Micah was short
for a vampire, but they certainly behaved like brothers, very
much like he and Phin did. He glanced around to see who
else was witnessing this meltdown, but luckily there was
only a small group and none of them appeared unduly
worried.
“I’m King Asherkan Iblis of the Second Kingdom,” Asher
interrupted the faceoff with firmly spoken words. The two
warring brothers immediately stopped talking. Joseph
looked mutinous and Micah, grieving and pained. There
was an awful lot of stress in this conversation but from the
way other people in the group watched it would seem this
wasn’t a new discussion. Maybe the content had changed,
but perhaps Joseph was like this when he was in leader-
mode, all self-sacrificing and noble.
Phin huffed a sigh. “Let me introduce everyone,” he said
when all eyes turned to Asher. “Joseph you know, Micah is
his twin, Declan, Levi, Connor, Brody, Nick, Reuben and
Ethan and now we have you and Simeon. And I think
you’ve landed yourself in the middle of a war council.”
Everyone nodded and spoke a few words of greeting then
no one said anything for the longest time.
Phin sat heavily into the nearest chair. “When the legends
talk about the twins, there is something else in the
prophecies and legends.” He looked up at Ethan
expectantly.
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“The twins and the Council of Twelve,” Ethan offered.
Reuben crossed his arms over his broad chest, the sound
of the swords on his back clanging against his bow loud in
the otherwise quiet clearing. “So, we have our twelve. Now
what?”
“Most of the prophecy is lost in legend and exaggeration
now,” Ethan began. Everyone faced Ethan and a couple sat
on the ground as if this was going to take a long time. Asher
copied the action and sat with his hands around his knees
and his back against the nearest bench. He exchanged smiles
when Simeon came to sit next to him. Just having the big
feline close by was enough for Asher to feel safe. It was an
odd feeling to have, since apart from hiding his bloodline for
so many years and with the accompanying fear about being
found out, Asher wasn’t scared of much.
“So how do we know which parts are true?” Micah said.
“And whether any of it is real anyway,” Reuben
interjected.
“Because I know the real prophecy,” Ethan pointed out. “I
wrote it down the first time, from the battlefield, from when
magic connected me and Reuben and Lekland was dragged
into the casting.”
“You started the prophecies as what? Stories?” Joseph
looked horrified. “That is all they are? Just stories?”
Ethan shook his head and held up a hand to forestall
anyone saying anything else. Seemed like the action worked
because no one else said a thing. “Not stories. Visions that
came in my dreams when I thought Reuben was dead. I saw
you, all of you, the shifters, the incubi, the vampires, then
there was me. The twelve of us standing in a circle, in
different times.” Ethan looked around himself at the green
forest. “Nothing like this, though. Where we all stood was
barren and rocky.”
“Arberfan,” Micah suggested.
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“I think so, although most of what I saw was covered in
mist. I saw twins who pooled their magic and defeated an
army.”
Micah huffed. “I don’t have magic, so there goes that
theory.”
“You will do,” Ethan replied. If he was aiming for
enigmatic and spooky, then he was certainly succeeding.
Asher shifted a little on the ground to get comfortable. He
wasn’t going to point out the obvious issues with a lack of
magic in anyone. He caught a movement out of the corner of
his vision and watched as Phin backed away from the small
gathering. Seemed like he had a lot on his mind, his
forehead creased in a frown. From this position he was the
only one who noticed Phin leaving.
“So how many different dreams did you have?” one of
the wolf shifters asked.
“Enough to be able to detail in writing what could
happen.”
“Could?” Micah again. He sounded like he was one word
away from calling time on the whole thing.
“Would,” Ethan corrected. “I’ve seen the Third Kingdom,
I’ve seen equality and liberty, and I’ve seen Lekland die in
many ways.”
“So what is next?” Joseph asked.
“I know that you and Micah negotiate, but I don’t ever
hear what you say.”
Micah spoke up. “And how do I get magic?”
Connor stood up and took his place next to Micah. “And
if he has magic, how will we ever survive together? Wolves
and magic…”
Something niggled at the back of Asher’s mind. That Phin
had walked away was enough to worry him, but the
expression on his face was of an elf in thought. Asher leaned
in to Simeon. “I’m just going to check in with Phin,” he said.
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Suddenly it seemed more important to find his brother than
it did to stay here and listen to prophecies. Simeon would
tell him what was said. Without excuses he left the group
and followed the path Phin had used. The trail went into the
forest proper, darker and thicker with tangled trees and
plants. He found his brother sitting cross-legged on a fallen
tree, and he sat down next to him in a similar fashion.
“You want to talk?” Asher asked.
“There isn’t much to say,” Phin replied.
Asher didn’t believe a word. Phin wasn’t Phin at the
moment. He looked withdrawn and tense. “Talk to me, little
brother.”
Phin smiled but it didn’t really reach his eyes. “Micah
needs my magic,” he summed up everything he had to say
in four words that impacted his life heavily. Asher didn’t
need to be a psychic to see the fear on Phin’s face or hear the
reluctance in his voice.
“So he can be part of the magic twin pair.” Asher couldn’t
help the dismay in his own voice. The idea of Phin without
magic wasn’t something he really wanted to contemplate.
“Unless you can think of another way.”
“I can’t,” a voice interjected from behind them. Ethan. “I
wish I could.”
“What about yours?” Asher asked Ethan. “Couldn’t
Micah borrow your magic?”
Ethan shook his head. “Reuben and I have our own part
to play in this.”
“How do we do it, then?” Phin slid off the trunk and
stood straight. Any uncertainty or fear was gone. Asher
couldn’t help but admire that Phin was one hundred percent
convinced whatever Ethan was saying was true. He always
was the brother to make the quick decisions.
Ethan shrugged and emphasised his lack of knowledge
with a shake of his head. “I wish I knew how, I just know
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that it happens in the negotiations or after or… I wish I
could be more specific. I hoped I would have seen more.”
Shouting from the camp had all three men breaking into a
run and returning back. Several fae and a vampire stood just
outside the barrier that Joseph and Phin had cast to keep
anyone inside safe, albeit it temporarily.
“We’re here to talk.” The vampire spoke, evidently the
ringleader.
Asher slid to a stop, recognised no one in the group
waiting, and took his place next to Simeon who had claws
extended and a snarl on his face with eye teeth descended.
Glancing left he saw the wolf shifters were also in readiness,
and Reuben had his bow drawn and aimed at the group.
“Claude,” Joseph said as he stepped forward. “We’re
listening.”
Claude puffed himself up to full height. “I’m here as
representative of Ludvik Peitrol, leader of the Fae Alliance
and King of the glorious Kingdom of Glitnir.”
“Glitnir isn’t a kingdom,” someone muttered near Asher.
If Claude heard, then he gave nothing away in his
demeanour.
“Ludvik in his benevolence is willing to agree to the
following. You and your kind leave Glitnir and move to the
Second Kingdom, which will be a natural separation.”
“Our kind?” Joseph said evenly. “By that you mean
Elves? Half-breeds? Blood demons?” Claude curled his lip in
distaste. “Or maybe you mean shifters and incubi?”
“You’re being obtuse,” Claude snapped.
“What about vampires? The Vampire Clans Council has
voted to support the equality movement, the Underground.
How can you be a vampire yet not follow our clan rules?”
Claude appeared momentarily confused, then the
confusion disappeared under a smirk and the half smile was
enough to send shivers of apprehension down Asher’s spine.
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Apparently Joseph picked up the same feeling.
“He promised you control of the vampires, didn’t he? He
said what? That he was disbanding the Council? Will he be
doing the same thing to the Fae Alliance? Making himself
King?”
The fae standing behind Claude, three dryads, exchanged
concerned glances, but Claude stood unmoving.
“Those are our terms,” Claude said.
“Your terms? You agreed to this? What about the fae? Or
cross-species that Ludvik wants removed to the other side of
the mountain? What happens to them?”
The dryad piped up. “Everyone will have the chance to
choose their own paths,” she said confidently.
Asher heard Joseph chuckle under his breath in that way
you would do to show the other party the error in their
ways. It would either serve to irritate Claude or to put doubt
into the dryads’ minds.
“You have until midday tomorrow. Agreement will be
made on the Arberfan field at that time.”
Claude turned to leave, the fae with him less certain in
their posture.
“Claude? What about Leo? Does anyone else but me
know about him?” Claude stopped in his steps, then after
the longest moment he continued walking and finally
disappeared from view.
Everyone looked at Joseph expectantly, Asher included,
and Joseph sighed audibly.
“He has a son with a dryad. Leo, he’s twelve.”
“A cross-species son.” Asher whistled. That was some
heavy secret because if Ludvik found out…
“Is the boy safe somewhere?” Micah asked his brother.
“Hidden with his mother,” Joseph confirmed. He looked
up at the darkening sky. “One night,” he said. “We just have
one night.”
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The noise of voices heralded the arrival of the rest from
The Second Kingdom and Asher was never more pleased to
see so many of his friends and supporters. Elves, demons,
felines, and alongside them the bears who had evidently met
them at some point. A thousand or more fed and sheltered
with Joseph’s and Phin’s magic. Simeon didn’t really leave
his side all night. They talked into the dark and exchanged
information and news with the rest of this weird Council of
Twelve. Only when the sky began to lighten did each couple
drift away. He sat with Simeon and they simply held each
other close.
Their destiny was in fate’s hands now.
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Chapter Eleven
he trek to Arberfan took a little longer than an hour, but
Joseph wasn’t even thinking about times set out by
Ludvik. He was more concerned about how quiet Phin was.
He’d disappeared last night for a good three hours, where he
went he wouldn’t say, but something was troubling him.
They walked at the front of the group, protected by a shield
of magic that Phin had effortlessly thrown there.
“For a little one you sure look tall with worry,” Joseph
teased. The saying was one he’d used on Micah all through
their childhood and it worked just as well on Phin.
“I went home,” Phin said quietly.
“Last night?”
“Yeah. To the library in the palace, and I think I found a
spell to transfer my power to Micah.”
Joseph bumped shoulders with Phin in a gesture of
understanding. If this final battle was true, if what Ethan
was saying was right, then Phin was doing the right thing.
Didn’t make it the easy thing, just the right thing. Phin
wasn’t wearing anything in the way of armour, nor did he
hold any weapons, but then Joseph wasn’t any more
protected. Both were used to having magic as a shield. What
would Phin do if the magic wasn’t his?
“How long does it last?”
“Until Micah has the intention to give it back.” Phin
looked sideways at Joseph and smiled at him. “Can’t see him
wanting to keep it with Connor getting all sick on him every
T
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time they touch.”
“Does it worry you? That he won’t want to give it back?”
Phin looked past Joseph to where Micah and Connor were
walking close and talking low. “They’re so disgustingly
happy, I can’t see it myself.”
“Will it hurt you? For it to be taken?”
“Better question would be to ask whether it will hurt
Micah. The part of us that holds magic, the heart of us that is
the different part, he doesn’t have that. The magic will burn
him up from inside.”
Joseph fell silent. What did he do with the thoughts in his
head? Micah and Phin, the two people that meant most to
him in his life and both of them in danger. They reached the
brow of the valley and Joseph stopped. Behind him the
remainder of the group of twelve flanked him, and beyond
that, the thousand that Joseph knew was ready to fight if
they needed to. Some were in view, some cloaked, some
circling, Joseph wanted every base covered. Micah stepped
closer and next to him, Connor.
“What now?” Micah asked no one and everyone. “You
think we should make a move?”
Joseph viewed the small gathering on the ancient
battleground and the couple hundred fae as backup. Ludvik
wasn’t stupid, the rest of his army would be cloaked and
misdirecting, the same as Joseph’s.
“I don’t like this,” Connor said with a deep inhale. “We’re
being flanked.”
“Reuben?”
Reuben had been the one talking battle strategy until the
early hours of this morning, the one who suggested cloaking
half the army and splitting certain groups away to give
Joseph some kind of backup if the talking part didn’t work.
“Take the wolves” was all Reuben said to Connor, who
nodded and sprinted from the front. The wolf shifters were
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ready and waiting, that much Joseph knew.
“He’ll be okay, Micah,” he reassured his brother.
Micah smiled up at him, although the smile didn’t reach
his eyes so it wasn’t exactly reassuring. “I know.”
“Simeon, Asher, you take the right,” Reuben ordered.
“Ethan, you’re with me.” Joseph was happy to let him
organise that; he wasn’t ready to lead an army. He doubted
he ever would be. He didn’t want what Ludvik apparently
needed. The desire to control was something Joseph was
happy to leave at the door.
Joseph looked from Micah and Phin to Ethan, then to
Reuben. “Maybe you should stay here,” he said to Reuben.
“You’re in charge of this army.”
“Where Ethan goes, I go.” Reuben wasn’t going to be
moved on that one.
The four of them descended the rough pathway down the
side of the valley carved by magic and war to the base of it
strewn with rocks and boulders. Joseph shivered. You didn’t
have to have magic to know this place was full of sickness,
and black memories. How could Ethan and Reuben stand to
be in this place when they were so much a part of what had
happened before? They stopped about thirty feet from
Ludvik and his small party of supporters, one of whom was
one of the missing Council vampires, Claude, who stood,
very obviously, apart from the group.
“What now?” Joseph asked in an unconscious echo of
what Micah had asked earlier. Hell if he knew what to do
next.
“You need to step forward,” Ethan encouraged. “Follow
me.” Ethan walked towards Ludvik like he didn’t have a
care in the world.
“I don’t like this,” Phin muttered. Joseph silently agreed,
although he guessed being the first one to make a move was
probably a good thing in the psychological stakes. Joseph
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followed Ethan, catching him just as they reached a blank-
faced Ludvik.
“You’re back,” he addressed Ethan. His voice was raspy
and low, and Joseph had to strain to hear him. His skin,
normally grey, looked even sicklier than normal, and even
though he attempted to hold himself with some kind of aloof
bearing, it wasn’t exactly working.
“I always come back,” Ethan replied. “You can’t ever
separate me from the man I love.”
Ludvik pressed his grey lips tightly together, and Joseph
thought he knew exactly what Ludvik was holding back to
cause such a pained expression. He was staring at Ethan so
very closely, and the intention in his eyes was visible. He
raised a hand and muttered words, but Joseph was already
there, blocking whatever Ludvik could send towards
Reuben. The two magics met in the middle in a flurry of
sparks. Joseph pushed but Ludvik had the edge and Joseph
stumbled back as the magic snapped free.
“Enough,” Ethan shouted over the noise. He indicated
everyone around them. “This isn’t what you want. If it’s me
you want, then you can take me, but you don’t hurt another
person here and you listen to reason.”
Ludvik returned his focused gaze to Ethan, then simply
held out his hands, palms upward. “I can’t have you,” he
said with a wicked smile. “Because to have you would be to
leave Reuben alive. That filthy vampire needs to be in a
place with eternal fire suffering death over and over again.
And you”—he pointed at Joseph—“you think you are all-
powerful when I could kill you where you stand. Your old
man’s prophecy is nothing without a twin who has magic,
and I know enough to understand your twin has nothing.”
The fae that surrounded him nodded in approval of what
he was saying, sycophants all of them, and Joseph wanted to
shake sense into them. The talk of pure bloodlines, of one
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king to rule, of keeping wolf shifters as prisoners for family
crimes, or murdering innocents, was obviously what a lot of
people wanted to hear.
“Glitnir used to be a place for everyone,” Joseph argued.
“That is what you fought for a thousand years ago.”
Ludvik quirked a smile. “No you see, you have it wrong.
We fought to be separate from the vermin-elves and the
blood demons. Didn’t your human and his vampire tell you
that? That they were the same as you think I am now.”
“We were stupid, reckless,” Reuben shouted. Ludvik
snapped magic at Reuben and this time Joseph’s barrier
meant nothing and Reuben was flung backwards and onto
the hard ground. Joseph immediately stepped forward so he
was a barrier between Ludvik and the rest.
“You don’t want to talk,” he stated. “You never wanted to
negotiate. You just want to kill to maintain your control.
Segregation and murder is not the answer, Ludvik.”
“It is exactly the answer,” Ludvik said with conviction.
“Why should we muddy our bloodlines with the impure, the
vampires, the wolves? Elves who demand their own city,
demons created as food? Felines who refuse to follow rules?
Children with mixed-species blood?”
“You’re mad,” Micah said with heat. “You actually want
people to die. You want war.”
Micah’s words didn’t faze Ludvik. “Once every one of
you is dead, everything will go back to the way it was.”
Ludvik was confident and loud, but what he didn’t see
behind him was the vampire, Claude, looking wary, and the
fae looking at him with horror on their faces. Joseph pressed
the advantage.
“Look around you at the fae you control, at the fear you
instil in them, look at the vampire who only now sees he is
not in your future. Your control is weak—”
“They follow me because they know my way is the best
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way—”
“They follow you because they don’t know any other
way—”
“You think you can show them another way?” Ludvik
snorted his derision. The fae behind him took a step back.
“Purebloods know I am their leader and that this is the way
things should be.”
Joseph bit his tongue. Ludvik had gone from calm
confidence to allowing impatient temper to leak through in
his words. The skin around his neck bubbled and hissed,
exposing his Kappa bloodline. Joseph had always been
fascinated with stories of Kappas who took to land and
stayed there, but Ludvik was the only one of his species that
he knew had survived. He imagined it could only be the
magic that Ludvik had inside him that meant he could
survive out of water for longer periods of time than
expected.
“This is a negotiation,” Joseph began calmly. “Our terms
are these.” He held out the written list of carefully thought-
out aims. The demand for release of all blood demons and
wolf shifters tied to Glitnir, the equality of cross-species
relationships, the rewriting of laws that were first thought of
a thousand years ago when Glitnir was born. The list was
long and Joseph had no doubt that he would be fighting a
losing battle for a lot of them.
Ludvik tilted his head to one side as if considering
something small and insignificant, and for the first time
Joseph had a close look at the gills on the side of Ludvik’s
neck. They were oozing pus and blood and looked like
disease had eaten into them. Was Ludvik ill? Understanding
hit Joseph. Was Ludvik dying? He reached out with a little
of his magic and all he saw was black. No sign of light inside
Ludvik, just complete and utter black. Startled, he retracted
his magic but not before Ludvik snapped a defence and in
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the process set light to the papers in Joseph’s hand.
The ashes fell to the ground and the breeze that swirled in
this basin of death picked up the pieces and bore them aloft.
Joseph’s chest tightened and he realised what Ludvik was
doing. Restriction around his throat had him scrabbling for
breath and he fell to his knees cursing that for a second he
had let his guard down. As suddenly as he was caught up in
the vile black magic he was released and all he could hear
was maniacal laughter. Micah helped him to stand.
“You don’t want to talk?” Micah shouted. “Then we’ll
fight.”
Joseph wanted to stop his impetuous brother, but at the
core of it he wanted nothing more than to tear the Kappa’s
neck out. The violence inside him scared and frustrated him
in equal measure. He needed control.
“Fight with what?” Ludvik asked with genuine curiosity.
“I see elves with nothing more than daggers, wolf shifters
with no power once I explain how I will have each and every
one of their family members killed. I see blood demons who
are nothing more than vampire food, and what is that?” He
pointed at some vague spot. “Glaistig, women who should
know their place. How do you hope to fight an army of the
fae?”
Sounds of fighting echoed into the valley from the ridge
to his left, the clash of metal on metal. Joseph didn’t want
people to die here. All he wanted was to make Ludvik see
the old ways were destroying so many lives. In an instant
Ludvik vanished from before their eyes with his entourage
alongside him. All apart from Claude who stood with his
head bowed. The noise from the ridge grew closer as what
had to be three hundred fae spilled over the top, forcing
their way through a barrier of wolf shifters and running
towards Joseph.
So many thoughts ran through his head. He and Phin
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could port, save one person each. Who would he save? Phin
looked at him sharply as if he had read Joseph’s thoughts.
The blackness that was inside Ludvik’s soul had left Joseph
shaky. He didn’t know what to do. Phin pulled his knives
from the carrier laced to his back and next to him Micah
drew his own blade. Joseph felt his fangs descend at the
scent of battle and blood and the warrior he tried to
suppress was pushing to the surface. Reuben notched an
arrow, and Ethan simply clenched his hands into fists.
Joseph didn’t know the limits of Ethan’s power or much
about what he had become now, but the five of them here
would be ready to fight to the death if needed. A wolf shifter
sprinted down the hill ahead of the encroaching fae, shifting
in the run and sliding to a stop.
Connor was covered in blood, his eyes those of a wolf
even though he was human. “Broke through,” he panted.
“Brody and Levi on your six.” Then he shifted and loped
back the way he came to plunge into the mêlée that was wolf
on fae.
“I didn’t want anyone to die,” Joseph said desperately. He
had to let his warrior out, had to fight this battle. The fae
were closer. He could see the other combatants with fear in
every line of them, and the wolf shifters who attempted to
hold them back. Where was the twin magic? Why wasn’t
something happening to stop this?
Less than a dozen feet away a shifter fell in a twist of
limbs, entwined in a death struggle with a dryad. He
readied himself as the wave of death made its way closer,
and in his peripheral vision he saw Levi slide to a halt next
to Phin. Brody went to the other side, both of them covered
in blood, swords and knives in their hands and a swirl of
manic colour around them. Could other people see the
colours? There was beauty in the slash of scarlet on black.
The tide of fae formed a circle around them, the shifters
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trying their best to hold them back and slowly closing in
back to Joseph. He counted ten. Was Connor there? Declan?
He reached forward to Reuben and slid one of his wicked
long swords from its scabbard. They exchanged quick looks,
one vampire to another, one who had seen death like this
battle before and Joseph who had been hoping to stop this
from happening.
Phin turned to face Joseph. “I love you,” he murmured
loud enough for Joseph to hear. Why was Phin saying this
now? Did he believe they wouldn’t make it through to be
with each other the way Joseph had hoped? Being able to
create the fabled Third Kingdom where fae walked with
vampire and wolf friended elf?
“Phin?”
“Remember” was all Phin said. Then in the quickest move
Jospeh had ever seen, Phin gripped Micah’s hand and
everything snapped into clarity.
“No!” Joseph shouted. He knew he shouted the words,
could hear himself, but it was lost in an explosion of noise as
the battle descended right onto him. He attempted to defend
himself with sword and his ability to move fast, but he was
also trying to see Phin and Micah and couldn’t see either. He
watched as a knife caught Reuben high on the shoulder and
with a sudden clarity Joseph brought his sword down onto
the offending fae who had attacked Reuben. Micah was
abruptly close to him, shouting something, but he couldn’t
reach Joseph with the battle between them. What happened
next was a blur. He was exhausted, fighting and defending
back to back with Levi and Ethan, who had somehow
managed to stay close. Levi was wounded, one of his arms
limp at his side, and his face contorted in pain every time he
lunged at an attacker.
Then suddenly Micah reached his side and gripped his
hand. A blast wave knocked Joseph to his feet everything
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went black.
The darkness was momentary but the disorientation
lasted minutes longer. Joseph stumbled to stand and
couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Every fae and wolf,
vampire, elf, and demon were unconscious on the ground,
only he and Micah stood now in the epicentre of what had
been some kind of shockwave. They still gripped hands but
Micah let go as Joseph yanked free and went straight to
Phin’s side. His lover was breathing, but he looked as pale
and still as every other person around them. Except… Ethan
scrambled to stand and immediately helped a coughing
Reuben to stand.
Is this it? Is it just the four of us who are conscious?
“Is this what you saw?” Joseph asked urgently. “In your
dreams? Ethan?”
Ethan looked around them and he nodded, then turned to
face the same edge that the fae had descended from.
“There,” he said softly.
A lone figure came over the edge and stumbled down,
picking his way over unconscious fae and righting himself
with flailing hands when he tripped. Ludvik. He looked less
than he had been, and as he drew closer the blood from his
gills was around his neck and soaking into the material
across his chest.
“When they wake up, they will kill you all,” he
threatened even as he slid to a stop in a puddle of scarlet
blood.
“I don’t want this,” Joseph said. “We don’t need to fight.”
Power coursed through him and sparked at his fingertips,
demanding that he fling the strong twin magic straight at
Ludvik. He wouldn’t, he couldn’t, though, not unless it was
self-defence.
“You didn’t have power,” Ludvik slurred and pointed at
Micah. “These aren’t the twins.” He sounded hysterical and
was facing Ethan dead-on. “Why are you doing this to me? I
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loved you.”
“No, you didn’t,” Ethan said gently. “You just wanted
what you couldn’t have, and you bound all three of us in a
destiny that we could never survive.”
“You can’t kill me,” Ludvik said with an evil glee. “You
know I can’t die as long as you two live.”
“What does he mean?” Joseph demanded.
“The same magic that bound Reuben and I pulled
Lekland, Ludvik, into it, not to the same extent, but enough
that unless we two are dead, he will always find a way to
live.”
Joseph heard Ethan’s words and they stilled his heart.
What did Ethan mean? That he and Reuben should die?
Reuben grasped Ethan’s hand tight. “We have an eternity
together,” he said to Ludvik. “We’ll always be together, but
not in this world. All the time we live in this plane there will
be no way you can die.”
Ethan took up the explanation, then spoke quietly. “You
need to die. You, me, Reuben, this isn’t our time. We
shouldn’t be here in this time. The Third Kingdom has to
become more than just legend and fairy stories.”
Ludvik opened his mouth to talk, but what came out of
his mouth was an unearthly scream of ‘stop!’ Reuben had
released Ethan’s hand and with a sharp knife scored across
the vein in his arm. Ethan held out his arm and Reuben did
the same to him. Then they grasped hands again and their
blood mingled as they stood. Joseph watched as the long
white-blond hair disappeared and became dark and saw the
look of absolute love in Reuben’s eyes as he used his other
hand to twist into the short length of it.
Reuben glanced back at Joseph and he had a smile on his
face. “Look for us in the Book of Days” was all he said. Then
he urged Ethan to sit and they embraced. The two of them
were dying in front of Joseph. Going where? Passing to
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another realm? Becoming part of the Book? He didn’t know.
None of this made sense. Ludvik stumbled forward but
made it no closer than four feet from Reuben and Ethan.
Reuben fell to his side and Ethan with him, both with eyes
closed, clutching each other in death, and with an unholy
wail Ludvik collapsed to the floor and vanished in a cloud of
vapour, returning to his Kappa form at death.
Joseph didn’t want Reuben and Ethan’s last memories
here to be of that wail, and he fell to his knees at their side,
whispering the vampire prayer, and when Micah joined him,
they held hands and watched in amazement as two silver
images of Reuben and Ethan stood from the fallen bodies.
The ghosts, for that was what they were, embraced each
other then walked slowly away from Joseph and Micah until
they vanished into nothing.
“I don’t want magic,” Micah said softly. He held out his
hands and Joseph saw the burning that was beginning to
crack under the skin. Micah wasn’t born for magic. He was
beginning to die.
Phin laid a little way past them, and Joseph and Micah
clambered over to him with a renewed sense of urgency.
“What do we do?” Joseph asked helplessly.
“I don’t know.” Micah pressed a hand to Phin and Joseph
did the same but for the longest time nothing happened.
Then slowly, stealthily, the magic leached out of Micah and
slid back to Phin, and finally the cracking under Micah’s
fingers retreated and he slumped against Joseph. Phin
stirred where he lay and Joseph pushed Phin’s long hair
from his face, willing the elf to open his eyes.
When he opened them Joseph had never seen anything so
beautiful in their pale silver depths. Micah moved away and
was looking in amongst the fallen when with a cry he fell
onto Connor and gripped him tight. He was in human form
and despite the blood, Micah was kissing his face and
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Connor was kissing back.
Joseph couldn’t explain what had happened here, but as
his friends and foes alike began to wake and a vast swath of
the fae who had followed Ludvik were shaking their heads,
looking confused, as if they had woken from a spell. Joseph
stood and helped Phin to his feet and couldn’t believe his
eyes when every single person on the battlefield, including
his brother and Phin, took a knee in front of him.
No. He wasn’t King. He was just a vampire who loved an
elf and who wanted a peaceful life. Everyone looked at him
expectantly and he knew he had to say something profound,
something that would be meaningful and pass down
through generations.
What do I say? he thought desperately.
He was never more relieved than when his brother’s voice
echoed in his head.
Just say it’s a new beginning, Micah suggested.
Joseph closed his eyes briefly, then with a loud and
confident voice, sure that somehow they would all make a
new world that would have equality and liberty for all, he
spoke.
“For the creation of the Third Kingdom, for new
beginnings.”
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106
Epilogue
oseph and Micah’s steps echoed in the great hall at the
Vampire Clans Council.
“What if it isn’t true?” Micah said from his side. He
sounded nervous and Joseph wanted badly to reassure his
twin.
Micah had taken losing Ethan and Reuben the hardest,
determined to blame himself if they hadn’t somehow made
it to a better place.
“We have to hope it’s true,” Connor reassured from
behind them. Joseph glanced back at him and the others who
walked with him. Connor still bore deep scars from the
battle at Arberfan, but none as deep as Levi, who had very
nearly died. The losses on each side had been enough to
remind everyone of the futility of war, but not enough to
wipe out a generation as the first battle had a thousand years
ago. Joseph hoped they would all learn from this. After
Ethan and Rueben had gone, Joseph and the other nine
remaining of the twelve had become the unofficial new
council, a combination of elf, vampire, shifter, blood demon,
and fae.
Three weeks had passed from the time of the battle, since
Phin had passed magic to Micah and all the prophecies had
come true in one form or another. Joseph was tired, but at
the same time he drew on the energies of all those around
him. He refused the title of leader, instead the ten were
equally footed and there was space for two fae to round out
J
The Third Kingdom
107
the twelve. There was much promise in a glaistig and a river
fairy, both of whom were senior in their families.
Finally Joseph reached the box where the Book of Days
sat. He undid the box and pulled out the book, running his
fingers over the etchings on the spine and hefting the weight
of it. Somehow, somewhere, Reuben said he would be in the
Book of Days with Ethan. How did that even work?
Micah came up next to him and together they touched the
book to open it. It slid open smoothly, exposing the blank
pages. A breath of air turned the pages and finally stopped
at a single piece of paper inserted in the leaves. Joseph
traced the words and smiled.
To the Twins of the Third Kingdom. You know you will always
do the right thing. The words were signed ‘Reuben and Ethan’
and there was a small note that had to have come from
Reuben. I have forever again, but this time I have Ethan with me.
Then another from a different hand, Ethan, more time
lighthearted. More prophecies to follow…
Micah smiled as he read the words and bumped Joseph
with his shoulder.
“It ended okay,” he said softly.
Joseph returned the smile. “Ended?” he said wonderingly
as he closed the book. “It’s only just beginning.”
About the Author
I am a writer of male/male novels and short stories.
From cowboys to bodyguards, and firemen to billionaires
I write dramatic and romantic stories of love and passion
between men. My first real love will always be the world of
romance and my goal is to write stories with a heart of
romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and more than
a hint of happily ever after.
I am the author of the award winning books, The
Christmas Throwaway and Oracle. I am known for both my
Texas series charting the lives of Riley and Jack, and also my
Sanctuary series following the work of the Sanctuary
Foundation and the people it protects.