Lachlan slammed his fist once again across his chest. “To Remelius, then and now.”
Black chakra burst from Gidon and settled on his body like a second skin, as the demon in him reacted to Lachlan’s vow.
“And who is Remelius?” Talon snarled.
Gidon stepped forward and held out his forearm which Lachlan clasped.
“My demon,” his king said, his voice a brutal throb of power and savagery as he and his beast accorded. “Hail, Orochi, high king of the serpents.”
Something inside him contracted to hear his other name on the lips of his king. Talon sent Gidon a sharp assessing look as their king acknowledged the demon bonded within Lachlan, for it hinted of power and knowledge they’d not known their king and friend possessed.
Lachlan glanced at Drac and said, “And to you Abaddon, hail.” Speaking directly to the beast buried in Drac El Kyn. Immediately the tattoo on his skin—the fearsome winged Dracan shifted, its serpentine eyes opening, and darkness beheld darkness.
Talon had stepped back. “What are you?” his voice was more curious than wary, but Lachlan could sense the rising cruelty in Talon as he shifted the hold he had on his beast. “We do not know the name origins of demon names,” Talon continued. “How do you know it?”
Another wave of power crested through Lachlan. “I am what I am.” He met his King’s eyes unflinchingly. “My loyalty is yours then and now, Remelius, and Gidon…” Memories washed through Lachlan of running through the snow of the high mountains of the Darkage, training together and honing their taijui skills, and the many nights they had dined together and spoken of the many ways in which they could lift their people to prosperity and peace. The darkness seeded through his bones and blood tried to bury the memories of how his friend had fought with him atop a mountain coated in black ice as Lachlan tried to find his sanity. But they roiled through his mind, anchoring him, and reminding him of the love and respect he had for his king. “And you Gidon will always have my friendship and loyalty.”
That seemed to satisfy Gidon for he nodded, a smile curving his lips, his eyes forever filled with cunning glinting with an odd sort of satisfaction. And Talon’s malice receded.
“Come, let’s break bread, drink wine, and you tell me
of the witch Amirah and the Serangite Kala you dumped on us. They were given a chamber each with servants to wait upon them. The Serangite watches us with fear and refuses to speak. The witch is with child, and I can sense the need in her to flee from us, and I can also feel the power in the child. Its origin is of darkness.”
“I believe the father of her child is the hunter.”
Gidon faltered, shadows crossing his face. “And she is unclaimed by him?”
“They may not be mated.” While rare, it was possible for non-mated Darkans to breed with each other, and even others not of their kind. “They met at the Taryllion Inn, and somehow became lovers.”
“Curious,” Talon said. “The hunter is not known to allow anyone close.”
For he was an abomination to some of their people, hated by his own kind for possessing two monsters within him, and a force only a few could reckon with. The hunter gave his loyalty to Gidon, uncaring to connect or blend with the society who had cast him aside as a fledgling, and it was for that reason he was the leader of the cadre of five whose sole job was to hunt and kill those Darkans taken over by their demons, the Senjis.
“It is interesting she got close enough for a bedding,” Drac drawled, falling into step beside Gidon as they flowed from the chamber and out into the hallway.
“I will send word to him that she is here,” Gidon said, sliding with the shadows, traveling to a high balcony overlooking his kingdom.
They followed, and Lachlan moved to stand beside his king, but not too close. A warning still hummed beneath his skin, and the darkness in him stretched, burning the memories away, inviting him to partake in murder and mayhem.
As if Gidon sensed the rising demon in Lachlan, his king shifted to face him, and merciless silver eyes ensnared Lachlan.
“Much has happened in the few weeks you’ve been gone. We’ve learned Emperor Khan is working tirelessly to prevent the Nurian King from consolidating any more power. The Emperor sees Nuria as a threat, and Darkans working with him attacked Nuria. In her fight to save the king, it was revealed Tehdra El Kyn is his mate. We have received a formal declaration from King Ajali claiming her as his consort only a few hours past.” Unholy amusement glinted in Gidon’s eyes. “He found it fit to point out in his missives that he considered all Darkans but Tehdra enemies of his realm and trading between our borders will remain closed.”
King Ajali had been a powerful stumbling block in Gidon’s vision of changing their kingdom’s wealth and fostering trade with other realms to enhance the prosperity of the Darkage which had seen no economic growth in centuries. A stain of treachery followed their people, and they were reviled. Gidon planned to show the other realms they were more than their beasts and the merciless reputation that accompanied them. And a large part of his plan was contingent on presenting their people as rational beings who desired peace and wealth like the other kingdoms.
But the prejudice of the other kingdoms was so entrenched, they could not be told this, they had to be shown Darkans were people who loved and laughed with families too. And Gidon vowed to show them that side of his people.
Lachlan peered over the jungle like courtyard below. Great torches scattered about keeping the darkness at bay and washing the balcony where they stood in white light. The air seemed crisp and fresh, the night a cool blanket. A child’s joyous, and unfettered laughter rode on the air, pulling a curious smile to Lachlan’s lips. A young boy played with a kruwak, a carnivorous bird, whose claws rivaled Lachlan’s own. What would it be like to see his mate’s belly swollen with their child? Something inside his chest twisted, and unfamiliar sensations poured through him. They felt odd, as if they weakened him, for his heart raced in a manner not felt in centuries. “Are we certain King Ajali and Tehdra have mated?” Lachlan asked.
“Despite how strange it might seem to us, their mating is absolute,” Drac drawled, leaning his hip against the balcony stone edge. “My princess and I were in Nuria ourselves only a few hours past, she said she felt the love the King had for Tehdra, and I witnessed King Ajali’s reluctance to bring her any harm.”
Lachlan considered him. “In our history, we’ve never seen Darkans finding their mates with others not of our kind.”
“And now we’ve got two,” Talon said, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Our elders are still researching the archives, trying to figure out what changes we can expect from the bonding in the non Darkans.”
Three, Lachlan said silently, thinking of his woman in the heated cavern waters. How badly he’d wanted to join her. The need to slake his desire in her body was all-consuming, and it had taken every discipline and control he’d learned over the centuries to not take her in the caves. At times, her thoughts spilled over to him even when she tried to keep him out. She thought of him carnally, of him taking her with a tenderness that was foreign to the violence stamped in his bones. Yet she made him want to offer it to her, to strip her naked and worship her with his tongue.
He glanced down at the wickedly curved claws prodding from his nails. He would rip her to shreds touching her with hands like these. He had been indelibly altered. His beast wasn’t a taunting voice in his head, a chakra that he had to be careful in how much power he allowed. He and his monster were one in the truest sense, their chakras now inseparable in a manner Lachlan knew no other in their history had ever experienced before.