"Beautiful night, isn't it?"
Dáithí looked around and scowled. "Fuck off, Juniper." he snapped.
"Rude." She kicked him lightly and flopped down next to him, ignoring his growls.
"What did you do to her?"
"Relax. I dropped her off at the house with her mom and a couple of Atticus's sisters."
After a tense minute, he followed her gaze out towards the city. The humans called it the city of angels. It was just one big, bright, noisy mess to him. Like they all were. He much preferred the desert. Or the swamp. Anywhere that was generally less inhabited by mortals. In all the years he lived out in the desert, this was the first time he'd ever come into L.A. proper. To follow Rhia here... He was instantly reminded of how he'd followed Juniper into New Orleans. Why did he keep letting females drag him into places he didn't want to be?
"You didn't tell her she was in heat." it wasn't a question.
"I didn't know she was."
"Don't give me that bullshit." She snarled. "You knew. You were hoping she would give in to her urges. She told me about the dream."
"Did she tell you about the nightmares she was having?" he snarled. "Since the start she's been dreaming about being tortured, I've been stopping them."
"Blocking her nightmares and injecting yourself into her unconscious mind are two very different things, Dáithí." Her voice was level and ice-cold. "You took advantage of her."
His lip curled. "I suppose you were more than happy to tell her?"
"I don't need to tell her anything. You're doing enough damage on your own."
He scowled. "She should be with her own kind. Luna has taught us well enough that nothing good comes out of sleeping with vampires."
Juniper stared at him and a long, silent minute ticked by. "You should leave." She finally said. She never was one to play around with her words. "She's better off without you."
Dáithí snarled and stood up to give himself space to shift. Juniper followed him, never letting him have that space. She grabbed his shirt by the front and pulled him forward sharply. Her foot hooked around his ankle, and he went down. She went with him, straddling his waist, grabbing his wrists, and pinning him down.
"She's better off without you, Dáithí." She said again softly. "Sleeping with you, cheating on Nolan... it would have broken her. Haven't you burned enough bridges with Nolan? Why come back if you were just going to do this to him?"
"Get off." He flexed his arms to throw her off, but she was a lot stronger than he remembered and she kept him pinned.
"You think I don't know what it looks like when you're in love?" Her voice was pleading now.
He froze, torment and conflict glittering his sandy yellow eyes. "She's different." he said quietly. "There's... something different about her."
"I know." Juniper whispered. "I know. In a few decades, she could have a following as dedicated as any of the dragons and she wouldn't even need to bind them. She will have enough power to rival even Quin."
"That's exactly why I-"
"That's exactly why you need to leave her alone! Quin might think you inconsequential, but Keoni is no fool. He's not going to just stand by and let you train her to be your weapon."
"I don't want her to be my weapon." he breathed. "I want her to choose me. I want her to be mine. I want to be hers."
"Dáithí," she slowly loosened her grip on him and sat up. "As long as you're thinking about what you want instead of what she needs, you will never be even a choice."
Slowly he pushed himself onto his elbows and met her eyes. He always loved her eyes. Juniper was full-blooded dragonkin. She came from a long line of unbound. She was confident and beautiful, and somehow managed to rock a full leather outfit without looking like a dominatrix.
But she a far cry from Rhia. Rhia was... she was... the only word that kept coming to mind was raw. Raw passion, raw power... She felt things on such a deep level it was hard to believe that she came from one of the most emotionally stunted species in existence. She was beautiful and stubborn, almost to her detriment. She didn't seem to give a care for herself but would throw herself in danger for another.
Why did it have to be Nolan? Why did it have to be him? The one vampire he couldn't kill. The only vampire he wouldn't kill. She had to choose... him.
"What if I can't leave?" he asked her quietly. "What if I would rather die than walk away from her?"
"Then someone else will get hurt. Just like it always happens."
They stared at each other for a long, silent minute. Slowly she took his face in her hands and kissed him. Dáithí closed his eyes, willing himself to believe she were Rhia, and let his arms snake around her waist. Her body was warm against his. She was always warm. Rhia had been warm too.
She was gone too soon. She stood up and stepped away, giving him a sad look. "Do what you do best, Dáithí." she said quietly. "Walk away."
~
Laughter and the smell of microwave popcorn filled the small kitchen and living room. Atticus's three sisters were tall, dark skinned, and white haired, just like him. The oldest of the three sat in the living room, bouncing a toddler girl on her knee while Madeline played with the identical twin on the floor. The youngest was sorting through the collection of DVDs and complaining loudly that their brother really needed to catch up with the times and get Netflix.
The middle sister came back from the door with three boxes of pizza. She slid next to Rhia and spoke softly. "Nolan's outside. Do you want me to tell him to go away?"
"No," Rhia shook her head. "I should talk to him. This herb stuff will keep me from losing my mind, right?"
"It keeps us shifters sane. Didn't think we would ever have to try it on a dragonkin."
"What's a dragonkin if not a fire-breathing shapeshifter?" Rhia shrugged with a laugh.
She stepped past her and headed out to the front lawn. Nolan paced the street in front of the house, a safe distance away from her scent. When the door closed, he looked up and stopped. "I'm an asshole." He declared.
Rhia raised an eyebrow. "Beg pardon?"
"I'm an ass." He repeated, taking careful steps up the walkway and stopping a good ten feet away. "An absolute bastard."
She laughed without meaning to. God, he was a handsome man. His eyes were so intensely blue, she could just fall into them forever. "It's okay. Things haven't exactly-"
"Don't." he interrupted. "Don't make excuses for me. Don't let me get away with that."
She crossed her arms over her chest and walked towards him. "Alright." She said quietly. "Yeah, you were being a dick. I know it might not seem that long to you, but Church and I were together for four years and what he did to me... I'm still healing. Maybe not physically, but you don't just forget something like that. You don't just forget the lies and the manipulation and..." she shook her head. "I know you're not Church, I never meant to imply that you were... but I didn't deserve that."
"I am so sorry." He whispered.
"So am I. It wasn't fair for me to tell you how to feel. It's not like I didn't want you to eventually fall in love with me or don't eventually want to fall in love with you, I just... I just need you to be a little patient."
His smile sent thrills through her whole body. "I will wait as long as you need me to." He promised and took a step closer. "I'm going to kiss you- oh gods!" he reeled back. "You reek, what the hell is that?"
"Oh, thank god you can smell it too." She wrinkled her nose and scratched her neck where she'd applied the oil. "It's some herbal concoction Atticus's sisters gave me. It's supposed to curb the heat hormones, but I think they gave me a particularly foul-smelling snake oil. They claim they can't smell it, and neither can my mom, but it's awful!"
"Is it working?"
"Well," she said slowly. "We are talking and I'm not currently imagining you bending me over the porch rail."
"Then I think there might be some validity in that snake oil. Even if it does smell like warmed up death." His eyes sparkled with amusement. "How was your walk with Juniper."
"Enlightening. I didn't realize how off-kilter I've been since waking up in the hospital."
The door to the house opened and Madeline poked her head out. "Honey, we're starting the movie. Oh, hi Nolan. I thought you weren't going to be coming tonight."
"I'll be there in a second, mom."
Madeline nodded and retreated back into the house. "You're talking to your mom again."
His smile was contagious. "Juniper had her and Maddox following in a car the whole time just waiting for me to ask to call or see them. Turns out heat hormones have no boundaries, and I don't think I'll ever be able to look my brother in the eye again."
"Oh no..."
"Oh yes. If I have one single heat dream about Maddox, I will wash out my eyes with bleach."
"I would not blame you."
They laughed and she sighed heavily. "I need to apologize to you." The guilty feeling weighing her down made her voice cracked.
"I thought you already did."
"Not for the argument. For..." she took a breath. "I should have told you about Dáithí. Especially when I found out you two had a past."
A flicker of several different emotions flickered across his eyes. "Why didn't you?" he asked in a breath.
"There were a couple reasons. The big one was because... then I would have had to admit, not just to you but to myself, that... that I was scared of Constantine."
"What?" he stared at her. "Rhia..."
"You had just tried to break up with me because it was too dangerous to be anywhere near him. You said it yourself, your partnership works best when he has no one to use against you. You have been through too much for that to happen with us. I couldn't be your weakness. I thought that Dáithí, being dragonkin, could help. Be a deterrent or... something." She blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears from rising once again. "I guess I hoped he would want to make amends. But now that my head is clearing up... I'm starting to think he may not have been entirely honest about your past together."
"What did he tell you about our history?"
"That you were close as brothers. But he turned his back on you like the rest of the dragons when you were turned into vampire. He said it was a lot worse that he did it because you were so close."
Red flickered at the edge of his irises and he looked away from her. "Leave it to Dáithí to oversimplify everything." he hissed.
"What did he do?"
"What was the other reason?"
The statement made her feel cold. It had been twenty thousand years, and yet it still affected him like it were yesterday. "He said no." she said quietly.
"He said...?"
"He wouldn't do it. You were in a bad mood, I didn't want to make it worse, and... and I wasn't ready to admit defeat. I thought I would think of something. And I didn't think I would ever see him again until he showed up at the mall."
"But he did show up." A growl built in the back of his throat and the angry flare in his eyes completely took over. She took a hesitant step back. He blinked a few times before taking a deep breath. "If you think he can help you in some way then I have no right to send him away."
"Dáithí's anger is... cathartic." She admitted quietly. "I feel like I could justify my own emotions because of how intense he is. But there are better people who can help me. You. My mom. Maddox, when my hormones aren't trying to convince me to engage in incest. Ian."
Nolan felt his throat go dry. "Rhia, about Ian."
Her eyes widened and her breath hitched. "Is he okay?"
"He's fine."
"Were you able to talk to him? Did you ask him to call?"
"I did, Rhia, he... he didn't..." he swallowed. "He doesn't want to talk to you."
She blinked. "Oh."
She stumbled backwards until she was sitting on the steps of the porch. Nolan rushed to her side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. The herb oil was horrific, but he would overlook it to comfort her. "I'm so sorry." He whispered.
She sniffed back tears again and shook her head. "It's fine." Her voice was dull, telling him that it was very much not fine. "It's probably better that he doesn't get mixed up in this anyway."
"Rhia,"
"I want to go to my mom's gala tomorrow night." She said in a rush.
Nolan raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked gently.
"God no," she snorted. "That's probably takes the number one spot on 'Rhia's top ten stupidest ideas'. But I want to go. I... I need to go. One last hurrah. One last... human experience."
"Okay." He nodded. "Okay... we can make this work."
"Make... what work?"
He blinked at her, like he wasn't really seeing her before. "You haven't talked to Richard, have you?"
To his surprise, she burst out laughing. "No." she said gleefully. "Madeline kicked him out. When Sophie called them to come to the compound hospital, he basically said he didn't care what happened to me, he wouldn't step foot on dragonkin land. And she told him that he had to be gone by the time she got back, and he was. She's already talking to a divorce lawyer."
"Congratulations... I think. I guess Atticus can pull his people out of the neighborhood." She gave him a questioning look and he added; "Richard Kincaid is officially wanted by the Counsel for... morally and legally questionable actions. But he's in the wind. The shifters were busy with the demon situation, and without Nova..." he hesitated for a second. "Atticus thinks he might come for you. The gala might be an opportunity to draw him out."
"So, I'm bait?" she raised her eyebrow.
"You wouldn't have to do anything. I'm going to get all dressed up in my suit and escort you around in your dress. We're going to look at some art that could be done by a shoddy printer that someone is trying to justify selling for five figures. And at the end of the night, I'm going to bring you back here and, heat hormones or not, I am going to make love to you until you forget all your troubles."
Her eyes fluttered as he pulled her into a kiss. "I have a lot of troubles, Nolan." She whispered.
A wicked smirk widened across his face. "I do love a challenge, pet."
She hissed and leaned back against the railing. "You are a cruel man, saying something like that to a girl in heat."
He chuckled and pushed back to lean against the other rail, giving her some much-needed space. "It'll all be over in a few days."
"When it is..." she hesitated. "I want you to take me to the compound to get those stupid plates taken out. Then I want you to take me to France."
His smile could have let the entire city. "Anything you want."
~
Luna was extremely impressed.
Over a hundred dragonkin, all of which were once bound to Nekros, stood in their true forms along the ridges of the steep valley. Slender, winged wyverns and amphipteres flew overhead. Hulking drakes stood as massive sentinels. Serpents and lyndwerms prowled low to the ground, ready to strike. Just below the surface were the wyrms, churning up the ground. They were all drawn here for one reason. This was where Nekros led them.
There was a rhythm to the horde of dragonkin. Every few seconds there was a pulse of powerful magic from deep underground. It rippled up from nearly a kilometer underground, all the way up to the surface before expanded outwards. A song of war rose and fell to the beat of the magic, reaching the peak of the crescendo just as magic released. None of the dragons had ever seen something like this. None of these kin were technically bound. They shouldn't be able to coordinate to this level.
The valley was just three hundred kilometers away from the flight path Luna took around the Gobi Desert. She had been so close so many times. The valley itself bore no sign that anything was hidden. Not surprising. Wherever the entrance was, it was probably no where near this place. This was directly above the hidden enclosure. A perfect, one-foot circle of green smoke rose in the center of the valley. A perfect target for the dragons to focus their own magic and get him the hell out of there.
"Brother?" Luna tried reaching out with their unique bond.
It was a long minute of silence. "It is good to hear your voice again, Luna."
It was him!
A shrill cry of pure joy erupted from Luna and she damn near did a flip in the air. A chorus of roars went up as she relayed the news to the dragons and the kin. Finally. After twenty-six torturous years. He was back!
"We're getting you out." she told him, barely able to contain her excitement.
Quin banked hard and positioned himself to hover over the target. He opened his massive jaws and a beam of pure golden light erupted towards the ground. It hit the exact mark, as Luna knew it would, and began to drill through the ground. Ares landed a safe distance away and slammed his front talons against the ground, echoed by the drakes following his movements to enhance his power, and the hole began to split open wider and wider. "Luna," Nekros' voice was filled with panic. "Be careful. They-"
His words were cut off and a second later she heard the sound of high-powered jet engines coming their way. Really? Now? What did they think they could do?
Her question was answered when three missiles struck Quin in the chest and another two hit Ares before the jets shrieked past. Overwhelming rage took over Luna's better sense. She knew there was nothing in the world that could harm either dragon. But that these insignificant little fucking ants would raise a finger to her family was enough to drive her to an eleven on the crazy scale.
She was summoning her power before she fully realized what she was doing. The wyverns and the amphipteres scattered, diving to the ground where they wouldn't get a face full of magic colder than absolute zero.
The air seemed to ripple and a massive display resembling the northern lights descended across the desert, saturating the entire area with dense magic. There was no way in hell any man-made electronic could enter the area now.
That did not, however, stop the chemically propelled rocket that struck her in the soft underside of her left-wing joint. That hurt. That really hurt. Way more than it should have.
Unable to support herself in the air, she started to fall. There was another shriek of the jets blasting over the dragons, passing through the magic as if it weren't even there, and releasing another volley of ammunition aimed at Quin and Ares. The golden beast had recovered from the shock of the first attack, but was not ready for the second, and he was soon engulfed by a cloud of flames, smoke, and dust. The earth quaked as he crashed to the ground.
Valkyr, the fastest of them all, appeared out of the sky and managed to catch one of the jets in her talons. The yellow tone of her magic flared brightly as she pumped magically charged lightning into the war machine. It exploded in her talons and she ascended sharply again. Her screeching battle call was what the rest of the dragons needed to move.
Ozin's power pulsed, and a huge canopy trees exploded upwards, providing them and the kin cover from the enemy. Tiamat shot forward to catch Luna on her back, lowering her more gently to the ground. Her usually perfect white feathers were stained red where large chunks of shrapnel had punctured her flesh. Before either of them could wonder how the hell that had even happened, there was a loud boom.
A massive arrow-shaped projectile shot through the trees and straight through Tiamat's wing. The head of the arrow expanded open and just as suddenly dragged back with the chain attached to the base. Still too shocked, she wasn't prepared to be dragged by her wing towards the edge of the trees. Her scream was filled with pain and terror, spurring the dragonkin to hunt down the source.
The source were tanks. Monstrous, heavy things that anchored themselves to the ground, ready to drag down whoever they hit with the arrows.
Enraged by the pained cry of his mate, Ozin rushed after the tanks. The wyrms got there first. They burst from the ground, disrupting the earth, destabilizing their anchors, and their heavily armored bodies crushing the tanks like bugs. Ozin landed hard enough to shake the ground, bit down on the specialized turret, and ripped it off. Tiamat twisted around and shot a blast of water so fast it sliced through the heavy armour and split it in half.
Finally getting the chance to recover, Quin lifted back in the air and aimed his power at the ground again, increasing the power. Ares' roar preceded the quaking of the earth and cracking around Quin's target. As with everything, they would do this together.
The jets were back. Valkyr managed to grab another, but there were too many and they were too fast. How were they flying through Luna's magic? They released their entire payload. Quin braced himself, but he couldn't have prepared for how much it hurt. Humans built these weapons. He collapsed again, his legs unable to support his weight. His wings felt heavy. He smelled blood. Luna's blood. His blood. Ares' blood. Tiamat's blood. How were they so unprepared for mortals?
"Soleil." He heard Luna's pained voice calling to him. "Soleil, are you... please... I can't lose you too."
"I'm here, Luna." He tried to get up. Something was wrong with his back legs. "Everything is alright. I'm... I'm going to fix this. We-"
Pain seared through his head, shattering their link and he could hear Luna's scream. Valkyr shrieked and fell from the sky, landing near Luna and not moving. The jets above them slowed and started passing over them much lower, dropping even more missiles and firing their main weapons. In the distance, he could hear more tanks. Ozin and Tiamat were falling too. Was this how they got Nekros and Phoenix? Numbers and weapons that could overwhelm even the dragons? Did he just get them all killed?
World suddenly went still and quiet. Quin could feel something underground. The power was... indescribable. A thin beam of emerald green light shot up from the broken ground. The planes turned sharply to give it a wide berth, but it didn't matter. The light expanded in a silent explosion, taking over Luna's aurora and changing the colours to darker greens and black. Every jet exploded simultaneously, crashing to the ground in columns of fire and smoke.
The original beam of light expanded, disintegrating the ground in its path until the hole was thirty feet across. A set of black talons gripped the edge of the hole. A massive head came soon after, followed by a pair of shoulders and a pair of black wings. When he was fully out of the hole, Nekros stretched out his wings to reveal his full glory. His jaws opened and a roar both great and terrible shattered the dull quiet of the valley.
Raw emotion rang in his cry. Rage. Loss. Triumph. Every single dragonkin raised their voices to meet his in a song of jubilation and loyalty to their dragon. It was a sight to behold.
Quin was frozen to the ground, staring up at his old friend. Was Nekros... bigger? How? The nine of them had stopped growing millions of years ago. Nekros turned to meet Luna's embrace, running his head along the side of her neck. Her magic embraced him, as his did to her.
A huge wyvern, the biggest Quin could ever remember seeing, hoisted himself out of the hole after Nekros, followed by a second, then a third. Human forms slipped off their backs and took their true shapes. Several of each species of dragonkin, each larger than they should have been. The drakes, in particular, were notably huge. A huge scar wrapped almost completely around one male's neck. How he survived whatever attacked him was incredible. The rest of the kin descended from the ridge, lead by a female drake and two identical younglings. Families reuniting.
A different wyvern bounded up to Nekros, making almost bird-like chirping sounds of happiness. Nekros pulled away from Luna to press his forehead against the wyvern. The wyvern went completely still before his eyes turned green. Quin's eyes widened. Were they... memory sharing? When the hell did Nekros learn to do that? This was... this was not good.
A moment later and Nekros turned back to his sister. "Can you fly?" He asked her. "I need you to take me to her. I need to see Rhiannon."
Tiamat appeared from nowhere, took the piece of shrapnel in her mouth and ripped it out of Luna's wing joint. Luna yelped and jerked away, but not before getting doused in water mixed with Tiamat's healing magic. She tested her wing. "Give me a few minutes." She finally said. "I will take you to her."
Happiness glittered in his vibrant green eyes. "Tell me about her. No, wait, don't. I want to get to know her myself. Is she happy?"
"Nekros," Quin stepped forward. The pain in his legs were beginning to fading. "Where is Phoenix?"
Nekros seemed to wilt. The illumination of his power dimmed. His feathers flattened against his body. A big, jagged scar became evident on the junction between his neck and shoulder. "She didn't make it." he said softly.
A stunned silence filled the valley. The dragons and the kin stared at Nekros, unable to believe what they just heard. Valkyr sat back on her back legs and stared blankly at the ground. She and Phoenix had been close. They had all been close. None of them had expected this. Even after all this time... None of them had really thought that either Nekros or Phoenix would actually...
Nekros turned his head in the direction of the States. "If you need time to heal, I will go alone to find Rhiannon."
"No," Luna snapped, raising her wings to show she was ready to fly. "Not again. We go together."
"Tiamat cannot fly yet." Ozin draped his wing over his mate protectively. Tiamat was shaking slightly. The arrow was still lodged in her wing.
Ares stepped forward. "You three go ahead." He said. "Valkyr and I will stay here."
"Are you sure?" Quin looked at his brother with concern.
"It is only a matter of time before word of Nekros's escape reaches her captors. Keoni and Lysander will not be prepared for what they are capable of."
Nekros's power returned in a rush of anger as he rounded on Quin. "Are you saying she is still with them?!" he screamed. "She is awakening, and you idiots left her alone?!"
Quin's golden eyes met Nekros's angry green ones. There was a lot more than just anger for his daughter's safety.
Hatred.
Fury.
Nekros knew. He knew... everything.
A roar had every wyvern and amphiptere preparing to fly. Several of the drakes mounted the wyverns while the rest along with the terrestrial kin formed a protective circle around the valley. Nekros spread his wings and lifted himself effortlessly into the air. He was going to find his daughter now!
~