WaterRose, Meadow Mountain, Grier Country
Sebastian woke slowly. Awash with pain.
He saw a dark head lowered over him and met the gray eyes of his friend.
"Chavias." He greeted through a throat that felt stuffed with cotton.
How'd I get here?
"Your bloody luck is astounding! How you're alive escapes me." Chavias' gray eyes were wide.
"Me as well." Bast tried to sit but felt the cutting pain stabbing through his back and into his chest. "How am I alive?"
"I'm not sure this time. You healed. Did you manage that?"
"I don't recall attempting to heal myself."
"Well, you should have. I would've."
Bast laughed humorlessly.
"You must quit with all this recklessness. We all knew it was a matter of time before some woman's angry husband stuck you."
"I'm glad you did."
"You had to have guessed?" Chavias said sternly. His look incredulous.
"How'd you find me?"
"I didn't. The Captain was passing through Mane and caught a whiff of your blood."
"Where was I?"
"Thrown into the underbrush."
"Is Moira well?"
"I haven't the faintest idea who or what a Moira is. But perhaps you should worry for your own welfare this moment. Least until you heal."
Bast grunted and flopped back to the pillows. Staring at the unfinished ceiling above him. The stronghold isn't half done yet. It was a monument to the Captain and his mate. Despite that she never made it off the mountain that night.
All the more reason. He hoped it'd give their Captain some comfort when finished.
"Rest." Chavias ordered. Pushing a palm to Bast's forehead which caused Sebastian's body to go limp.
"How is he?" Captain Deragan asked from the doorway.
"Still weak."
"Did he mention who did this?"
"No. But in his sleep, kept asking, 'who needs to look after me. Who?' Then he'd quiet."
"Any idea what he spoke of?"
"None." Chavias was baffled.
They were quiet awhile.
"It's remarkable he's alive. How?"
"I don't know."
"Well, bless your skills in battle wounds." Deragan put a hand to Chavias' shoulder. "I had little hope for him when I got him here."
"I did very little." Chavias shrugged.
"What?" Deragan frowned. "That's impossible. He was covered in blood. Laying in a pool of it. That should've been enough to hollow him out..."
"Well, when I examined him, he was relatively healed already."
"That was a life-threatening wound." Deragan objected.
"I know." Chavias nodded solemnly.
"We don't heal from those."
"I know."
***
1700 LandingTown, Igonox
Elsabet knew precisely what she was. How dangerous she was.
As did most who crossed her path. Instinctively sensing danger at the flick of her gaze. Feeling like a mouse in the cross hairs of a cat's gaze.
Currently, she was watching him from across the room.
Sebastian Bodane.
Chavias and Sebastian strolled the room. Elbowing each other and laughing jovially.
"Chavias, it was so long ago! Do let it go!" Bast had chuckled.
"She had the bluest eyes I'd ever seen and hair as black as mine. We'd have made a fine pair."
"Like horses?" He jested. "Calisto was not for you." Bast shouldered him. "You can't harbor me ill forever."
"The devil I can't! You pulled the fur from under me feet! And placed her squarely in Raese's path." He feigned outrage but there was a laughing note in his voice.
Bast was grinning broadly when his eyes had lit on Elsabet. Returning her thorough assessment.
Her blue eyes narrowed on him warningly.
He was tall and tawny. With long waving gold hair that moved around him like a crowd. His skin a similar shade. But his blue-green eyes a bit too keen for his own good. Tonight, he wore an open green overcoat over his usual flowing white shirt which was ruffled at the collar and wrist in such a way it should've made him seem less masculine. But it did not.
Not this man.
Instead, it drew attention to the sinewed lines of his lean hands and corded throat. Making him look as though he needed touched by a woman.
But Elsabet wasn't one to be so easily distracted.
Not by prey.
She could tell from the way his gaze continually flicked back to her that he had noticed her intense stare.
Surprising considering how many he's getting. There was no jealousy in her thoughts as she assessed the women staring at him so hungrily.
They can have him.
Where are all the stuffy dowagers that should be protecting their daughters from the half-clothed rogue?
The answer dawned on her immediately. Probably staring at him themselves.
Elsabet knew of his reputation with women. They're mesmerized by him.
Even now the women at this ball were staring at him open-mouthed and sweating.
Elsabet watched a woman arrive at his side, tugging his arm. Forcing him to break his study on her. The delicate beauty, dangling off him like a necklace, giggled at something he'd said. Basking in his attentions.
Elsabet cocked her head, watching the interaction.
Chavias wandered to the refreshments table.
Elsabet was relieved the massive redhead man, Mardichi, was absent tonight. Not wishing to contend with the big beast.
***
Bast turned to talk to a small brunette at his elbow. Making the flowing white shirt swathe around him, leaving his collarbone and the defined lines of his upper chest exposed. Fitted breeches molded a well-muscled body and his boots were at a high shine.
A man who pays attention to the details in his appearance. Likely not much going on in his mind. She quickly assessed him as shallow.
Elsabet rose purposefully and glided through the crowd.
The brunette drew him onto the dancefloor. He engaged in the dance with her. Seeming utterly oblivious to Elsabet's dark intent.
Stealing from him.
Bast had lifted his arm to spin his dance partner.Pleasantly oblivious at that moment.Elsabet caught the glint of a gold chain falling over his collar and dangling just beneath those laces. Stark against his tanned skin. The candlelight caught the shimmer of a gold ornament on the chain. Nestled against his defined chest. A serpent twining a thick cross.Her target.The one thing she needed for her to return home. To Sanctuary Island.Even now she was calculating his next step.Her plan was simple: She'd intercept him as he turned in step with the dance, she'd hook the pendant on her claw and let his movements tear it off him. Freeing it into her waiting hand.Already hanging open, his shirt would offer little resistance.Amulet in hand she'd exit the dance floor. Likely while he stood in surprise.Her detail in LandingTown settled. And free to return home.Elsabet watched him, nearly shaking with intensity. Anticipation heightening as he danced closer. She was already reaching, wai
She hissed. Her irises bled to ruby. Slamming her hands against the sides of the coach she screeched.Cracking her neck, she looked at him. Last warning.The coach rocked. Long brown wings snapped out from her body, one shattering the narrow coach window.The driver lunged off his seat. Hitting the ground and desperately crawling through the dirt to get as far from it as possible. Vanishing down the drive yelling in horror.Sebastian was unmoved by the woman's violent fury."Out!" The valkyrie shrieked in his mind.To any mortal, the sight of the Valkyrie with red eyes and brown wings spanning the coach, would've been an intimidating sight.Shredding her slippers, her feet became taloned claws embedding in the coach seat. She emanated predatory hunger.Cocking his head, he studied her new visage, fearless.That really should've been her first hint. He mused. Toying with the book in his hands.Her skin was as pale as when she'd been beautiful. However, hair pins clattered to the floor
Drawing from his training over the years, Sebastian forced himself passive. Eying the creature carrying him into the night.She shook her black mane like a bird settling ruffled feathers. Glowering down at him, her eyes completely red. Absent any white.She tossed him once more to get a better grip. And to emphasize to the male that she was the one in control.You're merely prey. For me to kill any moment...An inhuman growl rumbled from his throat. A cautioning that he was coming to the end of his vast tolerance.The woman-bird glanced down at him, surprised he was capable of such a noise. Tightening her grip, she pierced those claws deeper into his arms and shoulders. One hooking painfully under a shoulder blade.He allowed her the flight. Though his anger had set in."You shouldn't have tried to steal from me." He lifted the pendant still gripped in his fist. His lip curled, he continued working to control his irritation.They'd long since passed over the villages bordering LandingT
The odd-shaped bird-woman dove through trees of Warwood, rattling the tops in a spray of green leaves and tree needles. Staying low to escape her pursuer. Weaving through the shadows of thick tree trunks and splashes of blinding gold light which shimmered between.It was cool and dark this low. Smelling of wet dirt. Concealing her movements better than the cresting dawn above which threatened to reveal her altogether. Manipulating through trunks by twisting and arcing, she was careful of her dark, bony wings. Likely to snap if she crashed into a tree.Already breathing heavily, she struggled to keep moving. Clearly unaccustomed to fleeing.She won't escape today. Not from me.Sebastian's eyes focused on the strange look of her. Like nothing I've witnessed before.A distance above, and behind her, tree trunks snapped like kindling. An immense black shadow spread its silhouette over the tree canopy. Darkening the trunks below. And casting over her.She sped up. Wings pumping in a determ
Meagerly covered. Sebastian thought as he watched the soaked woman breathing heavily as she gasped for air.Knocking the hood of his cloak back gave him a better view. And revealed the shine of his gold hair in the morning light. Long tresses which swayed as he moved.His gaze traced her from head to toe. She was hiding a lot under those LandingTown clothes.Hovering over the water, she reached delicate toes to step onto the bank. Her sparking eyes flitting over the clearing. Flashing from dark blue to blood red and back again as she laid eyes on him. Face a mask of fury. Her head fell back as though her damp hair weighed more than she could hold up. Her legs shook and gave as she collapsed.The reins of Sebastian's mount slipped from his shoulder to land amongst heavy green leaves littering the ground as he moved from Sivikon.Reaching her side, he caught her just before she'd have hit. Sweeping her into his arms. Come on Little Bird. He grunted. Let's get you inside and have a look a
His eyes roved her assessingly as he decided how he'd put his newest decision into play. Keeping her.But fighting her magic will be a matched battle.I'll borrow hers. Turning his outward palm in, he clenched it and pulled it toward his midsection. Abdomen reflexively tightening around the thrill of magic.The dark brown of her flesh was stolen from her. Leaving her skin porcelain perfection. Her head fell back, and the red drained from her eyes like a retreating pool. When her head jerked forward, those eyes were so perfect blue they were nearly purple. Her hair changed from the roots. Spinning back into a moonlit silver glow. Twisted tresses straightened as they dropped around her shoulders. The glistening cover of brown fur running along her sides disintegrated in dark flakes. She dropped naked to her knees, a whoosh of air erupting from her lips. Lurching forward she landed on her palms, back heaving. Struggling for air, since she'd not been able to breathe during the process.Hea
She nodded sure that she'd been followed."Why was it after you?""I-I can't remember. My head," She put a hand to it. "It feels heavy."Your head? What happened to your head? He realized then that his wing must've struck her in the back of it."Did you hit it?" He frowned.Tilting her to examine the back but observing no injury.She's okay. He blew a relieved breath."I don't know." She murmured. Eying him. "Who are you?"The man you tried to steal from."Who do you think I am?""What are you?" She asked through narrowed eyes.Predator, though she was, she knew an instinctive wariness of him.What are you? And where have you been hiding?"I'm wondering." He puzzled aloud. "Does what I make you feel now reflect how you've terrified others in the past?"You're obviously accustomed to having other creatures fear you. He'd noted that back at the ball."Not in the least." Her face jerked in distaste. "I don't fear you. Whereas I've never met a creature that didn't fear me."Doesn't hold tr
He climbed the few steps to the heavy dark wooden doors. Pushing one open with his foot to step into the opulence of the expansive foyer. The triple chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The second dangling from chains connected to the first. And the third hooked to the second. All of them laden with a tight circle of candles. Glowing brightly over the gold trimmed red carpeting beginning at the stairs, leading to the dais where the stairs split into mirror images turning out toward the walls and winding up to the second level. Torches glowing up there.But there was a dark hall passing the dais and continuing to darker chambers down the hall. Lined with elaborate frames along the right. As he passed a few she realized they were portraits, the eyes following their progress. He suddenly turned sharply to take the stairs up the dais.She glimpsed a door going beneath it.My lower room. He often slept in the servant’s chamber under the stairs when trying to recover from some injury or anoth