Rhia's phone vibrated, interrupting her music again. She silenced it without looking at the caller I.D. She knew it was Nolan. He'd been calling more and more frequently since she'd left the city. A few minutes later, a message shone up at her. I understand if you don't want to talk yet, it said. Just tell me you're safe. Constantine is acting strange.
Ah. That explained it. He already knew she was struggling. He wanted to give her space. But he was terrified that Constantine was already up to something. She tapped out the words; I'm safe. I'll call you later.
Her thumb hovered over the send button. 'Safe' was probably not the most accurate term. The coordinates Rowan had given her led her to one of those highly concentrated areas of magic, creating a landscape she wouldn't believe possible if magic didn't exist. She was standing in a dark forest in the middle of the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The trees were thicker than she was tall and glowed an eerie dark green, the canopies blocked out any view of the sky, and dim blue lights flitted among the lower brush like fireflies. The map on her phone, that still somehow had service, told her that she was about half a mile from her destination, and she had no idea what was waiting for her.
"I mean," she said slowly to herself, dragging out the word and tapped the send button. "I'm not currently in danger. It's not currently a lie." She stared at the screen. "Aaaand I'm talking to myself. Might not be mortal danger, but I've definitely crossed the line into crazy... If I haven't already by dating a vampire... Who said he was in love with me..."
It finally sunk in. The enormity of his words weighed heavily on her shoulders. She sat down on a root of a tree and stared blankly at a group of the weird blue lights without really seeing them. It had to be a mistake. A moment of passion, maybe, like her mother said. Or maybe something a lot... deeper.
Fuck.
What the hell was she supposed to think? It had taken Church over a year to finally spit it out and he'd made it an entire evening out of it. At the time she had thought it was sweet but completely unnecessarily over the top. Nolan had said it a split second before biting her while they were having sex... she didn't even have a chance to acknowledge his words before the euphoria hit. Maybe he was expecting her not to remember.
She lowered her head in her hands and groaned. "I am so fucked." She muttered.
"Not yet, you're not."
Rhia stood up sharply at the female voice. Two females and a male walked through the dark trees. The edges of their eyes were glowing red. The woman in the middle was licking her lips, long fangs elongated to sharpened points. Vampires. "His majesty was right," the male said, his eyes boring into Rhia. "She's pretty. I wonder what she tastes like."
"I don't think she's that pretty." The female on the other side of the first snarled. "His lordship has done better."
"Jealous?" Rhia snapped, a rush of fear-fueled adrenaline went coursing through her veins.
She didn't know what was going on in her head to antagonize the vampires, but it had a definite effect. The second female let out a violent hiss, spittle and venom spraying from her mouth. The first female reached out to grab the second. "Calm yourself, sister." Her calm voice was an uncomfortable contrast to the crazy glint in her glowing eyes. "We're not here to hunt. Not yet."
Rhia's legs moved faster than her brain could catch up. She ran. Somewhere, she knew logically that there was no way to outrun any ancient, let alone ones that hunted humans, but logic had vanished a long time ago. Her mind registered laughter behind her, spurring her to run faster. The male appeared in front of her out of nowhere, and she skidded to change directions. A small, rock-hard something slammed into her, and she went flying into a tree. The first female pinned her against the bark, her face uncomfortably close to Rhia's. She licked her lips again. "Why are you running?" she panted, even though she hadn't put any actual effort into the chase. "We weren't sent to hurt you. His majesty just wanted us to pass on a message."
"What, your lunatic of a king can't do it himself?" she spat, clawing at the hand at her throat.
The first female leaned into Rhia's neck and let out a rattling breath. Her fangs grazed her skin and sent jolts of fear through her. She felt a tongue lick up from her collarbone up to her ear. "If I were you," a quiet warning filled her voice. "I would refrain from speaking ill of our king. It's only a matter of time before he becomes your king as well."
"Fuck you." Rhia growled. "I will never-"
"If you want to continue seeing his lordship you will." The woman interrupted. "Every king needs his general. Lord Wes is our general. We can't have him worrying about his little human back home. He'll get us all killed." Rhia went still. The female let out a low laugh and her grip eased slightly on her throat. Her thumbed grazed the delicate skin over her jugular. "Lord Wes has a thing against turning humans. His majesty is offering to do it himself. He won't even make you sleep with him, although you'd be insane not to. Our venom gets more potent with age." A different chill ran through her as the female pressed her body completely against Rhia and rubbed sensually against her. She moved so her lips hovered over Rhia's. "You humans don't have anything that compares to what he can do." She moaned. "Who knows, maybe you'll change your mind. There's always room for one more in Constantine's bed."
The earth trembled. The female backed away enough to look over at her companions. The ground shook again. "What was-"
Before the male could finish his question, a creature longer than a double semi-trailer exploded from the trees. Enormous jaws clamped down on the second female's midriff and blood sprayed everywhere. Her scream was lost to the forest as the creature shook its head like a dog, ripping her apart.
The first female shot up to face the thing and Rhia got her first good look at it. A long body supported by four short legs coiled tightly, ready to spring forward. A large head sported glowing yellow eyes with slit-like pupils. In Asia, they were called the lung dragons. Here, they were known as serpents. "This is vampire business," the female said warningly. "It does not concern you or your kind."
The serpent responded by launching towards her, jaws open and bloodied, ready to kill again. She leapt out of the way, but just barely. The male took several paces back before tuning and vanishing into the trees. The kin wrapped itself around the tree Rhia was cowering against without crushing her and came back around to place its head and front talons between her and the vampires. Its roar sounded like a thousand screams of the damned. The female didn't need any more encouragement. She chased after the male in a fluttering of leaves.
The dragonkin turned its head towards Rhia. This was the first time she'd ever seen one of the kin in their true forms up close. The scales on its face were longer and thinner, like flattened porcupine quills. Starting at the corner of its eyes and extending alone the ridge of its spine was a mane of longer, thinner, finer spines that looked almost like fur or feathers. The rest of its body was covered in the smaller scales. While it looked like its body was soft and exposed, she imagined that those scales were harder than any substance known to man. It was beautiful.
"Thank you." She breathed, caught by the depth of the bright yellow eyes.
The scales began to recede into its body, slowly at first, then more quickly and before her eyes, the dragonkin condensed from the impossibly large serpent into a much more compact humanoid body. The male that stood before her was almost as tall as Nolan, though much bulkier. He devoid of shirt or shoes, and his ragged jeans hanging off his hips just barely covered the important bits downstairs. She swallowed audibly as he knelt in front of her. "Are you alright?" he asked in a soft Celtic accent. She nodded wordlessly, struck by the gentleness of his voice. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for Dáithí." She managed to say through her dry throat. "Rowan Chambers sent me."
A blond eyebrow lifted quizzically. "Why?"
"I need help."
He let out a bark-like laugh that didn't match his previously soft demeanor. "That gaggle of vampires told me that much." He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. "I'll hear you out as a favour to Rowan. But don't get your hopes up."
He turned away from her and started walking back the way she had come. Rhia followed quickly, trying not to look directly at the blackening body of the vampire. "What are you going to do with her body?" she asked.
"If the vampires want to reclaim it, they're welcome to try." She shivered. He didn't even bat an eye at the brutality of his attack. Was this why Rowan sent her to him? "I'm only giving you as much time as it takes to get back to your vehicle." He called over his shoulder. "So you'd better get talking."
"I'm Rhia." She said quickly, trying to get her brain to work. Having no information except his name, she hadn't exactly thought about what she was going to say to the mystery man. "I kind of got myself in trouble with the vampire king. He wants to use me as a bargaining chip against my boyfriend."
"Your boyfriend is an idiot for getting on the wrong side of his king. Or you're an idiot for dating a vampire. Either way, you have better options. Go to the Counsel."
"What can they do?"
"They'll put you in contact with Constantine's babysitter. He goes by Nolan Wes. He's in Europe most of the time."
"You are a little behind the times." She had to jog a little to catch up with him. "Nolan is in L.A. He's the idiot who got on the wrong side of his king."
Dáithí stopped so suddenly Rhia almost ran straight into him. He looked down at her, all white-knight and heroism gone from his eyes and replaced by cold calculation. She wrapped her arms around herself, wary of his intense glare. "What are you?" he finally asked after a long moment.
"I don't know." It felt weird saying anything other than human.
"You don't know?" he questioned, turning to face her again with his fully imposing frame. "How can you not know?"
She shrugged a shoulder. "I was abandoned by my birth parents. My adopted parents were human and thought I was human. I thought I was a human. Nolan seems to think otherwise."
He leaned in and sniffed her. Instant alarm bells went off in her head and she was reconsidering asking the male for his help. This was a level of creepy she wasn't expecting. Even shifter wolves didn't just lean in to catch a whiff of a stranger. He fixed her with another searching look, as if he could stare the answers out of her head. "Why would Constantine need to use you against Nolan?" he finally asked slowly. His yellow eyes were still narrowed curiously.
"There's some kind of rebellion thing in France. As you said, Nolan is Constantine's babysitter. Even if I'm not human, I don't have enough magic or Ancient blood to defend myself against him if he decides that Nolan needs... encouragement."
Understanding dawned on Dáithí's face. "That's why Rowan sent you." He said more to himself than to her. "I might actually be the only one who can help you."
She felt excitement begin to flare in her stomach. He started walking again and she chased after him. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Politics." He said the word with true bitterness. "Constantine is the king of one of the representing bodies of the Counsel, so the other species cannot interfere in his affairs unless it directly threatens one of their own, and even then, they're not going to raise their hand against an orphaned mixed-blood. The only vampires that will stand against him are likely the very rebellion Nolan is supposed to fight. Then there are the dragons. Luna is certainly in the position to keep you safe, but her relationship with the vampire is self-serving at best. Her kin know better than to argue with her about him and are forbidden from hurting him. Which leaves the unbound."
"I think I need a bit more of a dragon history. What's an unbound? What does being bound even mean? Nolan couldn't, or wouldn't, explain it."
Dáithí glanced over his shoulder at her, hitting her with another curious look. She had no doubt he was only humouring her because she was not what she appeared. That was fine by her... as long as he didn't expect any real answers. "You know what he was before, then?"
"Yeah," she gasped, struggling to keep up. "He was yfeerie. A half-blood."
He slowed again, whether to give her a chance to catch her breath or deciding to indulge her, she didn't care. "If he's anything like the man I used to know, you would be the first he's ever told."
"You knew him back then?" she gaped.
He nodded. A deep shadow of sadness washed over his features. "I knew him. The yfeerie weren't so well protected then. We weren't seen as true kin until we regained our powers. No one else would look out for us... so we had to look out for each other. He was there when the human side of my family fell from grace... I was there for him when his father died... we stood up at each other's weddings... we were godfathers to each other's children. He wanted nothing more than to rejoin the kin. Nothing made him happier and lonelier when I regained my powers before him."
Dáithí cleared his throat loudly and turned away. "Being bound is like putting a collar on a dog." he continued, his voice hardening and completely void of any emotion. "We 'belong' to all nine of the dragons. We hand the leash to the dragon we wish to serve. We are hatched under the dragon our parents are leashed to, but we can transfer our allegiances to suit our needs and theirs."
"Woah, woah, woah," Rhia blurted out. "Nine dragons?! I thought there were only five!"
He barked out a laugh. "They decided a long time ago that it wasn't necessary for the world to know about them all. Soleil, Luna, and Ares are the three that interact the most with human governments. Ozin frequently makes trouble for the shifters and the lycanthrope in his territory, and Nekros is literally a creature of myth and legend in the Mediterranean. Their mates, Tiamat and Phoenix, prefer to keep a low profile. Valkyr isn't suited for modern life where you can't just kill someone if they annoy you. And Lysander has always been a bit of a recluse."
Rhia stumbled on a root at the mention of Phoenix. Dáithí's hand shot out and caught her elbow, stabilizing her easily. "Who is Soleil?"
"Right, he calls himself Quintiles now."
"Quintiles... mistook me for Phoenix when we met."
Dáithí shrugged. "I've never met her. But if her appearance matches her reputation and name, I suppose it's possible."
"Okay," she let out a breath. "So, there are nine dragons. The kin are bound to them. Being bound is like a magical tether to them, but you can choose who you're tethered to. You said you were unbound, so if I'm understanding this right... you don't have to obey them?"
"That's right."
"How? Why?"
His intense yellow eyes watched her silently for a few seconds. There was another flash of emotion, this time anger and hurt. "Nolan was turned into a vampire."
~