Last of the Temple Line Page 19

  Dalaric continued to feed her his power despite the fears of destroying her in the process. He had no choice. Emersyn would die by the toxin or be saved by his Ki.

  It was not until her skin began to split from veins that were swollen with his power that he felt how weak he had become. He had drained himself. But the poison was gone. He fell back, stumbling into the chair that sat beside the bed. Aegwin worked over Emersyn, his own eyes glowing while he gently urged her body to heal from the other wounds she had received.

  “Her mana is accepting me,” Aegwin breathed, astounded when he watched flesh knit together to cover a nasty bite wound on her shoulder. He had healed humans in the past, but it had always caused pain to both the human and himself. To delve into Emersyn was as familiar and welcome as when he joined with Dalaric. “What you returned to her has already begun to retreat to Enkidu but does not fight me. Her flesh does not reject my Ki either. It recognizes our bond.” His eyes softened on the slight figure of the female who had put up such a fight against the twisted darkness. “She will rest easy, now. I will see to it, my Sydae-Ra.”

  Dalaric only nodded. Meghara's visage swam before his eyes. "Possessive male. As always, you never do anything by halves. Even this claiming. You used too much. Come, lay beside your female and sleep, my foolish son. Aegwin will guard your rest and I will care for the palace."

  Suddenly lethargic, the dragon barely managed to avoid crashing to the floor when he rose from the chair. He banished Enkidu back to its safe place within him. His mother directed him to lay next to Emersyn and he had not a drop of Ki left to resist. Aegwin brushed a hand over his forehead and he closed his eyes at the soothing touch of Ki. Dalaric fell into the waiting darkness.

  ∞∞∞

  Groaning, Sarah struggled to wake up. An insistent nudging in her side made her snap, "What?!" before looking to the one disturbing her. Blinking, she frowned. The leaves of the trees around her shadowed them from the heat of the morning sun. Willa whimpered from the blanket that laid on the moss-covered ground next to her. Jaela kneeled beside her. Sarah smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Jaela, I was still half asleep," she apologized.

  Jaela stood. "I kept you in the shadows too long. It caused you to fall into a deep sleep. But I could not chance sending them away until the sun rose." Jaela looked behind her at Narina. The mare stood ready to carry them. "We need to return to find Emersyn."

  Everything that had happened the night before crashed down on Sarah. "Is it safe?" she asked, clutching Willa to her.

  "They are specters. They cannot come out into the sun," Jaela answered.

  "How do you know?" Sarah stumbled to her feet. "You saw them?"

  Jaela helped Sarah mount Narina's back and pulled herself up behind her. "The Matrons warned us about them. The shadows are where all those women who have sinned are lost. Men usually only move from death to life and back again. But women are believed to hold deeper secrets. The same ability to foster new life can also be stolen in death. If her death is fraught with evil or pain it can be given a life of its own with the last of her soul mana. Wraith gives me a connection to their world of shadow paths and broken bridges. They cannot touch me as long as I hold my dagger, but should I release it while I am in the shadows, I will become food for their hunger."

  Sarah sniffed. "And those are the things that could have Emersyn? Or Bannon? We have to find them!"

  Jaela hugged the other woman to her and squeezed her knees to direct Narina to the large city. "I am taking you to Wulfram. It is too dangerous for you and Willa. I will pay for an inn and you will wait there while I search for Emersyn. Bannon will have to wait. It will be easier if I travel alone."

  Sarah nodded. She swallowed. Hard. "We can only hope they're there, and not... not..." Stumbling over her words, she fought back the tears threatening to fall. Even knowing she had to protect the life of her baby did not make it easier to know that she had left Emersyn or her husband behind. She could only hope that Alvin and Paelia had found them.

  Jaela suddenly sliced a hand through the air. "Quiet," she whispered.

  The rustle of leaves came closer. "Come out!" Jaela commanded. "Show yourself!"

  A vaguely familiar Akkadian stepped out. His hands were held in front of him. "I hold no weapon," he said.

  "Akkadians do not need weapons to kill," Jaela countered. "Why are you following us?"

  He bowed. "I am from Lord Dalaric. We search for survivors. She should know me," he said, gesturing to Sarah. "I came to speak to Lord Dalaric while Emersyn was in a deep sleep. You were outside with your husband of his blood."

  "Does he speak truth, Sarah?" Jaela asked without taking her eyes off the stranger. Narina stood stock still, eyes rolling and ready to defend her mistress against an attack.

  Sarah nodded. "I heard them talking. He was the slave Nialle had sent to attack Emersyn."

  "I am Jocale," the former slave introduced himself. "I will take you to Lord Dalaric's palace. Emersyn is there. Your husband was also found seeking you. He had been gone on a night hunt and came back to find the village decimated.”

  Sarah gasped then started crying. Her sister and her husband were both alive.

  Jocale's lips turned down. He did not wish to give them false hope. "She was in poor shape when I left.”

  Jaela closed her eyes. It was unheard of for any to survive the touch of a specter. She opened her eyes to glare at the back of Sarah's head. If any could do it. . . Emersyn had pushed back the darkness from Wraith. Her mana was different. Special. Even if it was anchored, it had to give her some protection. It had to.

  "Take us there," she demanded.

  He Regrets Nothing

  “They will not know who she is. They will never know.”

  -Sariah’s Grimoire-

  Dalaric fought the steel grip of weakness that pressed him into the softness of the bed. His eyes slowly cracked open. Green eyes blinked at him over a narrow, white snout. Caelwin. His son dropped off the bed and ran from the room. Too drained to lift his head from the pillows, Dalaric listened to claws scratch stone before they halted just outside to room.

  "My Lord," Loren's voice came from the doorway. "May I enter?"

  Dalaric lifted two fingers, the small gesture almost beyond him.

  Loren soon gazed down on him with deep concern aging his previously ageless features. "Do not trouble yourself to speak, Lord. Your lady mother has called your father home. Aegwin is within the palace. After he tended to Emersyn he took over defense of the palace while you recovered. Your son are safe. Rest. Regain your strength."

  Dalaric managed to growl out, "Her sisters?" He flexed his muscles, ignoring the flare of knives along nerves. Ki flickered. Banked sparks ignited. Stretched in preparation of healing.

  Loren smiled. "Jocale found them. They are safely within the guest wing and wait for the chance to come see her once she awakens." His smile died. "Many in Gilvern were lost but there were some survivors. Your nephew was one."

  Dalaric willed strength to his limbs. "Help me rise," he ordered. His pride balked at asking for assistance, but he had no choice. There were preparations to be made. He had no time to lay abed.

  Arm behind his back, Loren assisted his lord to sit up. He quickly pulled the pillows up to support Lord Dalaric’s against the wide, teak backboard. Lord Dalaric leaned back against them; his breath was labored as if he had flown the length of the continent in a day.

  Emersyn shifted at Lord Dalaric’s side. The arm that had been flung across her eyes dropped next to her head. She shivered in her sleep. Loren quickly moved around the massive bed to reach her side. Intensely aware of the silent male's scrutiny, he pulled the downy blankets she had kicked off in her sleep up to cover her sheet clad form.

  The steady beat of her heart reached his ears. "She should rise soon," he told his lord. "Her signs are improving greatly." He paused. "It is a shame about the scarring. Humans rarely understand such things."

  Dalaric's eyes did not leave her small face. He c
ould feel the gentle heat of her body as her chest rose and fell beneath the thick blankets. Thin, silvered scars stretched from under her chin to cross the bridge of her nose on each side with gentle swirls. He could see a pattern of the same flow down her neck and across her chest, ending where the blanket covered the rest of her flesh.

  Where his Ki had burned the poison from her body, it had split her skin and left a magnificently beautiful and permanent reminder of strength. Both his and hers. Aegwin had healed her from all other wounds, but no amount of green Ki could remove the mark of a Sydae-Ra on his female.

  Loren's words penetrated his contemplation of how her whole form had been altered, marked with the Ki of his blood. Shame? Any who would look upon her and feel anything except awe did not deserve to possess eyes to see with.

  "Call my mother to me," he ordered with a hoarse growl.

  Loren bowed. "At once, Lord. Do you require your morning meal, as well?"

  "Prepare a meal for below stairs. Freshly butchered haunches. Organs. Nothing more for me. Prepare human foods as well," Dalaric answered. He enjoyed many fine foods, but right now his body only desired a bloody hunk of flesh.

  Loren bowed once more then quit the room. Dalaric watched the play of light across Emersyn's fine-boned features as the sun's rays broke over the garden wall and into the spacious room. He could feel every breath she took as if it were his own.

  The consequences of his decision would change his clan forever. Old promises and future plans would have to be abandoned.

  He remembered the feel of her in his arms, her blood staining his skin. The meek little witch had fought the fiercest of battles to save his son and had risen to the challenge of battling a foul darkness. Yet even in the midst of her pain she had gracefully submitted to a claiming that even the gentlest Akkadian female would have refused. Smoke curled from his flared nostrils. He regretted nothing.

  Meghara strode into the room in a cloud of crimson silk and feminine pique. "So, you have done what you have said you would not," she stated with an imperial wave of her clawed hand. She stopped at his side of the bed and arched a brow before sinking into the armless chair that sat next to it.

  Dalaric narrowed his eyes on his mother. "You would prefer her dead?”

  Meghara inhaled deeply. "I would prefer," she snapped waspishly, "for one male of my clan to follow propriety. Just once I would enjoy approving the female before they claim her."

  Dalaric growled low in his throat. "It is not as if I knowingly sought such a state."

  "You may lie to yourself another century more, my son, but you and I both know the Ki would have never entered her flesh had you not desired a permanent bond. You cannot mate one who your Ki has not tasted and found worthy. One you do not desire for yourself."

  His jaw set. Meghara's shoulders hit the back of the chair as she stared up at the ceiling. A floral motif had been painted to cover the stone with bright colors. She had once been as foolishly romantic as her mate. "As I said," she finally spoke, "you have never done anything by halves. Most males give a small taste of their Ki to their mate to bind them. There is not an inch of her body not covered in your claiming. When did you first know your Ki would respond to her?"

  Dalaric contemplated ignoring his mother, but he would need her full support to face what would follow. Emersyn would need her.

  "She could not control her mana. It was too much for her when she came under duress. My Ki forced it to calm. It controlled her essence more than once." He closed his eyes and remembered the first time. Remembered the deep hunger to force her essence to submit. The need to dominate he had never known. Then the gentle lapping of her essence against him while he pleasured her at the Falls.

  "How many times did your Ki touch her mana?" Meghara asked. What her son spoke of should not be possible. She had expected him to mention the Rite. That it had happened sometime during Caelwin's Ascension and Ki had crossed with mana accidentally.

  "I do not know," he admitted. There had been many touches. Many instances of her mana sparking against his essence outside of the times when she had needed him to keep her from burning out of control. She had responded to his Ki as well as if she had been born to his people. It had felt natural.

  Looking back, Dalaric now questioned it. Between males, Ki was a weapon or a means to bond seconds for their Sydae. Between male and female, it was the height of intimacy to share essences. It was only to be done with his Ki-mate. His Sydae-Va. His essence had known. Aegwin had sensed it as well. Dalaric had finally allowed himself to contemplate claiming her, but it had been with a false sense of control over the situation. He could see now that it was never a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when.’ She was always meant to be his. He knew it to the Ki in his bones.

  "And yet you say you did not expect this outcome?" Meghara dryly huffed.

  "She is a witch. Mana and Ki are not the same," he growled. Even if it had responded to his will as easily as a mate's would. He had been blinded by her humanity from the truths staring at him from behind soft brown eyes.

  "Apparently they are not so different," she retorted. She stood and walked to Emersyn's side. She stroked a claw over the limp strand of hair that lay upon the pillow beside her head. "She is comely in her own way," she admitted. "And your marking will display the power she possesses. Even the clans of the first line will not be able to dismiss her as a mistake of mana wine, though there will be questions."

  "Questions?" he inquired coldly.

  Meghara stroked the soft skin on the woman's hand. Ki rose to caress her flesh in recognition. Dalaric's Ki. "That she survived a true mating will cause stir enough. Even forgetting the amount of power involved to etch her body so completely, it still lives beneath her skin and she rests easily. How is she holding Ki within her now when the Rite for Caelwin saw her in pain?"

  "I do not know," he answered honestly. He could feel it within Emersyn. A small portion of his essence, his Ki, had settled beneath the delicate layer of her thin flesh. As it should. If she were Akkadian.

  "What will Aegwin's place in this mating be?" Meghara inquired with a cool smile. She huffed when Dalaric narrowed his eyes on her. "I may have argued profusely against your taking him as your second, even in light of your professed vow to take no mate, but it is done already and cannot be rescinded." She glanced down to consider the silent woman once more. "She is human. Perhaps she will accept the male she has not chosen for herself, but I suggest you tread lightly in that regard until she does." A hard light entered the gaze that speared him. "I will not abide coercion, Dalaric. As the matriarch of our clan, do not test me on this."

  Meghara sighed at his strained senses when all he managed was a pained growl in response to her command. "Sleep. I will handle the arrangements until Aegwin returns from his patrol. Loren will hold the meal you requested for hours yet."

  Too weak to argue Dalaric drew closer to the sleeping witch and fell into healing nothingness.

  ∞∞∞

  A muted cough broke into the room. Meghara turned from handing Dalaric a portion of meat. Dalaric had rested for too long and a meal had been fetched to his room to give him strength before venturing below stairs to confront the humans. She noted that Loren stood at the door, arm blocking it from opening fully. A scowl marred his smooth features.

  Dalaric snorted at the sight of the ivory dagger held to the male's jugular.

  Loren’s scowl deepened. "My Lord, your Lady’s sisters and your nephew wish an audience with you now," Loren bit out as formally as possible under the circumstances.

  "Let them in," Dalaric ordered. It was time to confront what needed done. Loren would bleed out in the doorway before allowing them to pass if he did not allow it, regardless.

  Loren stepped aside to allow the two women, one of them carrying a baby, and Bannon to enter the private rooms. With a short bow Loren exited the room and closed the door firmly behind him.

  Dalaric was surprised to see his mother's calm gaze rest upon Bannon and his wife
without a hint of animosity. Had Caelwin's Ascension healed a piece of her hardened heart?

  "She lives," he told the humans and his nephew.

  Distrustful of the Akkadian's intentions, Jaela ignored the female to walk around the bed to inspect Emersyn's current state for herself. Upon sighting the mass of silvered scars that cut across her poor sister's face, her lips curled into a snarl. She pulled Wraith free, muscles tensed to leap the distance to slide it between the male's ribs.

  "There will be none of that," Meghara coldly warned. A clawed hand snapped out and caught the woman's arm before she could give harm to her son. Jaela whipped an arm around to chop the Akkadian's wrist and force her release while simultaneously kicking toward the female's knee.

  Jaela's teeth clacked in her head from the shaking the female gave her. Her hand was already swollen, and her foot felt broken from where she had connected with hard bone.

  "I am not a weak human," Meghara spat. "You may prey upon petty criminals with impunity, but do not test the boundaries of my patience again," she warned. She squeezed the wrist she held until the bones twisted and creaked. The dagger clacked upon the stone floor. Meghara barely resisted the temptation to crush it beneath her foot.

  Willa slung across her chest in a borrowed blanket, Sarah ran up to the pair, grabbing Jaela's hand in her own and begging, "Please! Stop, Jaela. Emersyn is alive. Why are you attacking those that saved her?"

  Jaela bit out, "Look at her! The bastard marked her! He stole from her what was not his to take!"

  Sarah turned around at the sound of Bannon's indrawn breath. Holding the panting woman to her while Jaela cradled her wrist, Sarah warily saw Meghara move to the other side of the bed to stand protectively over her son. Bannon approached the foot of the bed.