Protector of the Flame (47 page)

With eyes that missed nothing, Sothis watched their interaction. Then her mother’s gaze darted away.

“How long were you in labor?” One female had remarked the
ordeal
, as she had put it, could take days.

“Quiet.” Sothis looked around as if in search of something that she wasn’t quite sure was there. Deep lines creased her brow and she shut her eyes. For the longest minute, she stood so still the unease radiating from her was palpable.

Serenity scanned their surroundings. Everything appeared the same as always, cloudless blue skies, warm gentle breeze blowing, stately garden fragrant as ever, but a shiver raked her skin, raising goose bumps.

Some unknown question had been answered and Sothis unsheathed her double-bladed sword. She crept around the room, shifting her gaze from the ceiling to the walls.

A chill licked Serenity’s heart. “What’s wrong?”

Her mother zeroed in on an open air outlet on the opposite side of the room facing the garden. “I sense the vibrations of my collective.”

That could only mean one thing.

Paladins were on the island.

Chapter Forty-Five

Serenity loaded her crossbow with a diamond-tipped explosive bolt. It could bring down any Kindred. All she needed was a clean shot.

Talus drew her sword, but Sothis held up a hand, warning her to stop. “Go sound the alarm.”

In a flash, Talus disappeared.

Adriel stood and turned to focus on the same point near the other end of the room in the garden.

The wind blew, rustling bushes across the lawn to the west side of the lounge. Everyone watched, waiting for something to emerge.

Serenity reached out with electric tentacles of her stream, brushing past Adriel’s dim current to see if she could detect anything unfamiliar with this
seventh
sense. Beyond the lounge in the garden, nothing stirred. She stretched farther, unhampered by ordinary Kindred constraints, and canvassed the area until an ache coiled in her body as she hit her limit.

Power rippled in the air, a tight hum of vibration. The scintillating undulations of a force she didn’t recognize drew closer like a storm about to break.

A foreign energy stream nipped at the tentacles of her outstretched pool, forcing her to withdraw. She shook off the sting and searched again. She had to strain this time, but it was still there, just out of reach.

Even with every recalled record-keeper swelling their ranks to six hundred, Neith’s collective had merely percolated as separate rivulets of shared energy.

This was different.

The stream that had barely brushed her extended probes was…well it wasn’t a stream at all or even a pool. It was an ocean pulsating like one massive heartbeat. Immense power pounded through the electric current. She’d never experienced anything so alluring and terrifying. There was no way to distinguish how many there might’ve been, only that they throbbed as one ferocious fist.

And it had felt as if it was coming from everywhere.

A man dressed in black, long golden ponytail swinging behind him, sauntered into the south side of the lounge from the garden. Silent and deadly, he never even made a sound.

Sothis spun in lightning quickness. He drew two swords from vertical scabbards strapped to his back and blocked her. Their movements, faster than anything she’d seen, flowed with artistic grace. Fiery sparks came from every clash of their swords as they parried.

Serenity stood, taking aim.

The slightest miscalculation and she would hit her mother. She sucked in a long breath, tracking each blow and block. The startling dance of swords increased tempo until there was a blur of gleaming silver.

She exhaled slowly, keeping her arm steady, holding her position, waiting for an opportunity. In a fluid rotating maneuver, Sothis drove the male backward, putting just enough distance between them for a shot.

A tingle twisted in her spine. A whisper of that incredible power stroked her stream.

“Hello, cherub.”
 

Every fiber in her chest wrenched tight at the familiar male voice.

As she swiveled to her right, Archimedes knocked the crossbow from her grasp and tossed something white at her. She caught a dead pigeon with a broken neck; its cold head flopped against her hand.

She dropped the stiff bird and faced her Paladin uncle.

He was just as she remembered, sly eyes and rich brown hair plaited in a long braid. An obsidian blade at her throat glinted in his hand. She eyed the crossbow on the floor. Archimedes pressed the blade to a throbbing vein and shook his head, killing the idea.

Adriel turned, making a motion toward them, but Archimedes tsked at him as if he was a dog and gestured for him to sit. Adriel stepped back and took his seat. “Sothis,” said Archimedes, sweet as sunshine, “we come in peace, put your sword away.”

Her mother didn’t hesitate or look in her direction. “You never go anywhere in peace.”

Arms twirled with razor-sharp precision. The fair-headed man deflected each deadly blow from Sothis, seizing any chance to advance.

Archimedes stepped closer, angling the tip of the blade against Serenity’s pulse, and kissed her cheek. “Sothis, stand down.”

“You have a knife to my daughter’s throat and you tell me to stand down, you bastard.”

Archimedes sighed. “Stand down, my pet, and so shall I. I haven’t come with war in my heart today, although I always have a thirst for blood to flow.” He pressed his lips to Serenity’s ear. “For you, cherub, there may be hope. For your
kabashem
, there is none.”

Without Cyrus, there was nothing. No hope, no happiness, no future. Without him, there was only darkness.

Sothis continued to fight the golden-haired man, both of them spinning,
barenpetium
clanking and glinting in the light. One of the man’s swords clattered to the floor.

“Rayhan,” Archimedes bellowed. His eyes left her for a second, knife dipping. “Enough!”

The man with hair the color of sunlight floated backwards on his toes. Kneeling, he sheathed his remaining sword and raised cupped fists before his bowed head. Sothis swung, bringing her sword to his neck, stopping short of cutting off his head.

Serenity flicked her wrist, ejecting the concealed blade and shoved it into Archimedes’s throat. A gurgle left his smiling lips, blood trickled down his neck.

“No!” Sothis ran to Archimedes.
 

Serenity twisted the blade, severing an artery, and yanked it out. A spray of blood splattered across her neck and chest.

Sothis caught him before he hit the floor and pressed a hand to his wound. “What have you done?”

“He threatened to kill me.” To threaten Cyrus was to threaten her. “If he wanted you dead, you would be.” Sothis turned to Adriel. “Heal him.”

Adriel looked to Serenity, but she couldn’t agree to help him.

“We need him alive. He cannot die. Not at her hand.”

“Only Archimedes had the message meant for you,” Rayhan said to Sothis. He retrieved his other sword, the movement sharp and quick like his whole body was a finely honed weapon.

Serenity picked up her crossbow, gaze glued to the fair-haired Paladin.

“Heal him. Now!”

Adriel dropped to his knees and clamped the wound. Sothis dragged Serenity several feet away, giving plenty of room for his healing powers to work.

Palms glowed bright white. The rush of blood stopped flowing. The wound mended. Adriel wiped his bloody hands on his pants and stepped away.

Archimedes gave a bright smile, as if the near death incident had only entertained him, and rose smoothly to his feet. “Guess my thirst for blood has been temporarily quenched.”

Three sentinels rushed in followed by Nakia.

“Did you see them coming?” Sothis asked the young girl.

“No.”

Sothis stared at both of the Paladins, chest heaving.

“We’re under strict orders not to engage. Arcturus says although you are a wicked minx, hell-bent on breaking our hearts for a second time, he will uphold the blood vow made to the cherub, keeping it sacred,” Archimedes said.

Her mother maintained a defensive hold on her sword. “Why are you here?”

“To track, surveil and guide.” Rayhan crept closer to Serenity.

“Scouts?” Sothis asked. “When did we lower ourselves to this?”

Archimedes hooked his thumbs on the utility belt around his waist and glided to Sothis with the gait of a lithe dancer. “Arcturus refused to lead the lions in the slaughter of your lamb, but we had to appease Sekhem somehow. After what happened to the last scouts they sent, how could we refuse? We couldn’t deny our sweet brother every request.”

Serenity couldn’t take her eyes off her uncle. The intonation of his voice, the way he moved, even the cockiness of his stance mesmerized her.

Sothis lowered her sword. “How long have you been here?”

He smiled like a man aching to spill a secret. “Long enough to know your change of guard at dinner is sloppy and that you always start your shift by exiting through this room. You’re slipping,” Archimedes added. “I’m rather disappointed. I was hoping for more of a challenge.”

“How many are coming?” Sothis asked.

A laugh, pleasant and bubbly as champagne, floated from Archimedes. “Enough.”

Her mother didn’t look amused. “How much time to do we have?”

“The first wave will be here shortly,” Rayhan said.

Sothis signaled to the sentinels on the other side of the room by snapping twice, and then twirled her hand, index finger raised, in circles above her head. They took off running in different directions. She looked at Archimedes. “First wave?”

“Different tactics for a special mission. I highly recommend vacating the premises.” Archimedes touched his ear piece and listened.

Nakia gasped, her eyes clouded to a milky white and she shivered as if in a trance. “Hundreds are approaching the island by air and sea.”

Archimedes fixed his slithery gaze on her. “What’s your name little one?”

Serenity moved to safeguard her, keeping the girl from his reach. She held the crossbow low, but put her finger on the trigger in case she had to fire quickly.

“Nakia.” His voice rang light as a bell. He spun on his heels as though someone behind him had said something and stared at Adriel. “How do you know me?”

He was a powerful empath indeed.

Cyrus and Caelius appeared from the garden. Serenity met her
kabashem’s
hardened gaze, but two Paladins stood between them.

Archimedes slipped a dagger from his belt, holding the blade behind his forearm. Rayhan twirled his swords.

“Best stay there, Cyrus. No need for bloodshed at Paladin hands today,” Archimedes said. “I have more to share that could prove most helpful, but I shan’t do so until you—” Archimedes waggled a finger at Adriel, “—tell me how you know me.”

Adriel moved back next to Cyrus and Sothis inched closer to the Paladins.

“I told him all about you, Uncle Archie.” Serenity tightened her grip on the crossbow.

His eyes locked on hers and he licked his lips. “Is Arcturus slipping or have your memories been restored? Either way it pleases me to bring my brother down a peg or two.” He tapped the tip of his dagger against his bottom lip. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you last. You’ve grown into a lovely rose like your mother. Come and give me a big, wet kiss.”

Sothis raised her sword to his neck. “Tell me what else you know.”

“You didn’t save my life simply to take it.”

“I said you couldn’t die at my daughter’s hands. I made no mention of mine.”

Rayhan stood with both swords at the ready.

Smiling as if this was all a big game, Archimedes gestured for him to put them down. “She’s only playing. Sothis likes to roughhouse.”

“Don’t make me gut you like the pig that you are. What else did you come to say?”

“I love it when you talk dirty with that sweet mouth. How about you give me a kiss instead?”

Sothis pressed the sword against his throat. Blood ran from a fresh wound. Archimedes moaned as if it felt good.

“We don’t have time for this!”

Archimedes laughed. “You really don’t.”

She lowered her weapon.

He pointed to his cheek, just shy of his lips and said, “Tick tock, tick tock.”

Hundreds were on the way to kill them all. They didn’t have a second to waste.

The choice clear, Sothis kissed him on the cheek. Archimedes grinned with a shiver of delight.

Hooking his thumbs back on his belt, he circled Serenity. She was grateful her tunic fell loosely enough to hide her small belly. Things could shift from dicey to deadly in a breath if the Paladins knew she was already with child.

Rayhan held the invisible line keeping Cyrus on the other side of the room.

Her mother’s gaze bounced between Archimedes and Rayhan as she remained poised to strike.

“Here are the rules,” Archimedes began. “The Paladins will abide by the blood oath. We won’t harm the cherub or any with her.” He stared at Cyrus. “But the minute you leave her side…” A poisonous smile full of death spread slowly.