Remembering Yesterday (9 page)

Yesss let us kill
.

His beast’s voice, familiar and insidious, slithered through his mind. Drac was in agreement. No mercy. No forgiveness. He would bring only death to those who thought they could threaten the life of his king and jeopardize the rise of their kingdom from the dark times they had suffered through.

Chapter Two

Taryllion—near the northern border of the Darkage

“Kill them and take the Princess.” The words from the enemy were brutal and decisive.

Refusing to bow to fear, Saieke harnessed her chakra, drew the wind to her with strength, and lashed power at her attacker. Sharp winds sliced from her hands cutting him deep, spewing blood. A force slammed into her from behind, propelling her several feet into the air. She twisted, using the power of her wind to softly land, then spun and sank into a crouch with her daggers in hand, the wind swirling around her.

Kamu scanned each attacker, probing for an opening. “You cannot be taken by any kingdom. Employ any means to flee from their clutches, even if it means using your keni.”

Her stomach clenched at the thought of the situation escalating to where she would need to use such a power. She was one of the few people in her kingdom that controlled two
Shenkiri
, manipulating both water and wind. With the combination of the two elements, she possessed a far too destructive bloodline power. “I will do all in my power to not be taken,” she assured.

Thyon and Kamu blurred, flashing toward the attackers, slashing their daggers with deadly precision. One of the assassins swept under Kamu’s flank and barreled toward her. She dove, rolling away from him, slicing cutting winds from her hands. Blood sprayed, slapping her cheeks from the multitude of cuts that appeared on his face.

“Why does Mevia hunt me?” she demanded from her crouch.

She thought it would have been Nurian assassins they fought, but they had been attacked by two warriors from the kingdom of sound. No one should have been privy to the information that she fled Boreas, and the implications left her cold. Spies haunted her kingdom.

For the first time, she got a caricature of a smile and a response from her attacker. “Are you not the Nurian king’s intended?” His voice was a melody of destructive power.

Saieke cringed. Before she could formulate a response, he flashed toward her.

“Get back!”

At Thyon’s yell, she ducked, missing the fist that slammed towards her head. Her heart jerked. She had not seen him come under her flank. Her Queen’s Blades flashed in front of her, forming a protective barrier. Dread knotted her stomach as the Mevian on the left opened his mouth. Power in its purest form flowed from his lips, the sound eerie and high pitched. The earth roiled under their feet.

Her stomach heaved, and Saieke’s mind muddled, the beauty and pitch of the sound holding her in enthrallment. She flung out winds of such intense cold they struggled to breathe. Wind howled from her Queens’s Blades as they attacked, and she waved her hands in rapid patterns, drawing water from a nearby lake toward them in a tidal wave. She focused her chakra and combined her elements, forming a block of ice as an impenetrable defense barrier. Sounds grated and pulsed around the block of ice in a harmony so beautifully haunting, her body trembled. Two distinct shrieks rose in the air like a banshee wail and slammed into the ice wall splintering it into mere shards and frost.

“Aahhhh,” the scream strangled in her throat.

Saieke labored to breathe, her chest tightening. Her ears rang and her throat constricted as pain gripped her. Thyon stumbled, vomiting, and Kamu recoiled, blood spewing from his shattered eardrums.

Her stomach bottomed out. The Mevians stood relatively unharmed with only slight blood trickling from their face and neck.

“Your highness, please flee as fast as you can. Go! We will hold them off,” Thyon said with quiet intensity.

“I cannot leave—”

“Go!” Kamu growled, swiping at the blood tricking along his neck. “Stay true to our course and we will find you. We will lose everything if they take you, Princess.”

After a slight hesitation, Saieke nodded. “You are forbidden from leaving this world before your time,” she ordered, flashing away with speed.

Her skin prickled, she glanced back to see one of the assassins moving with ruthless purpose to reach her. She frowned, her hands trembling as she coaxed the wind, harnessing it to propel at a faster speed. The assassin emitted another intense sound, and the vibrations slammed inside her body, cracking her ribs.

She stumbled, her knees smashing to the ground. And then he was upon her. She lurched to her feet unsheathing her dagger, slashing at his throat. He parried the thrust, and Saieke’s head snapped back as he backhanded her with a force that split her lips. She dove away from him, throwing her dagger with precision, using the force of the wind to embed it high in his right shoulder.

She wiped the blood trickling from her lips down to her chin. She clenched her blade, trying to control the shivers racking her frame. Her breath hitched as she shifted, lowering her hands to feel gingerly along her ribcage. She flinched at the sharp bite of pain. Her close combat
Taijiu
was well honed and deadly, but her opponent seemed just as skilled. She struggled to battle down panic and think of a strategy to get herself out of the situation she stood in.

***

Drac
shiktred
—using the shadows to travel—from castle Kerberos, inhaling the dark beauty of his kingdom. Animals slithered from the rocks and underbrush, scuttling to safety as he uncoiled from the shadows. Growls, frenzied cries and screeching rose in a crescendo of sounds as he disturbed the predators of the forest. His mind worked cold and calculating, as he wove the pattern of how he would trap the enemy. An eight legged mammoth of a beast roared a challenge at Drac. He disappeared from its sight, roiling with the darkness, covering thousands of miles in only a few minutes to enter the Morie—the forest that led to his domain.

He halted as energy, live and crackling caressed his skin. Drawn by the need to feed, he shadowed to the edge of the border. The man and woman were so intent on killing each other; he doubted they had noticed that not two hundred feet from them lay the border of the Darkage. Certainly they would not have lingered had they realized. Drac’s chakra pulsed as he consumed the dark energy leaking from them.

The female’s distress hit him, and he relished her fear and rage. Drac’s blood churned, and his beast uncoiled and stretched as it fed for the first in a long time. Darkans fed from the negative energy others gave off. It was not their only source of nourishment, as the other six kingdoms believed. They ate food, laughed, fought, and fucked like everyone else in Amagarie.

The darkness he possessed also needed to be fed, and as its chakra was pure malignity, it got satisfaction from absorbing only the darkest of energies. The more it fed, the stronger it became. Many of his kind tried to suppress the savagery of their beast by not feeding it at all. Drac thought that was nonsense, as power and duplicity were necessary to surviving in any kingdom, and his darkness knew all about that.

He tracked the female as she fought with skillful grace. Rage rolled off her in waves. Her eyes were wide, face pale, but the grip on her weapon never wavered. Her dance with her dagger as she attacked and defended was graceful, ageless. He assessed her poise, curiosity stirred and a deep pulse of something he could not identify slithered through him. He felt her anger bank and it turned into something even sweeter: pain. Drac’s gut tightened and a groan rumbled in this throat as the rush became more pleasurable. He inhaled her pain, and the beast within raised its head, savoring the decadent taste. Power hummed and stretched beneath the surface of his skin.

Fear rose in her, intoxicating his senses. He glanced at her opponent to see what constituted the change. Ahh… another had joined him. A snarl of satisfaction resonated within him as her dread fed his beast to satiation. Drac leaned back on a tree as he observed the scene before him keenly.

***

Saieke stumbled, grief cramping her stomach. Her Queen’s Blades had to be dead or dying. The other Mevian presence indicated their defeat. Please protect Kamu and Thyon, and if they have perished, safely shepherd their souls to the other side.

“You are without options, Princess. Cease resisting or suffer the consequences.”

Fighting to resist the enthrallment in his tone, Saieke flared her power, searching for water to execute her keni and found none. She refused to panic, trying to stay calm and unemotional. Surrender was not an option. To attack another royal was bold. Mevia wanted something from her kingdom or from Nuria. The Mevians could demand an outrageous ransom and her parents would pay it—even if it crippled her kingdom.

She straightened her shoulders, widening her stance. There was one option they would never dream she would pursue. She had glimpsed the border behind her—the utter darkness—and only felt dread. Taking an even breath, she speared her senses, seeking other chakras and found none. If there were anyone else within a mile’s radius, she would have sensed them. Saieke hoped the Mevians also feared the Darkans’ brutality and would not pursue her into their domain.

Saieke’s heart thrummed and apprehension skated up her spine. The dark ones fed from the people of Amagarie, and they were just plain evil. Rumors abounded that the chakra from demons lived within Darkan—a chakra so malevolent it could not face the light. Legend held that millenniums ago their king, in a bid for power to rule all kingdoms of Amagarie, made a deal with the Demon King. A bargain that destroyed one of Amagarie’s suns leaving them in darkness and with the presence of a chakra so vicious they were reviled by all.

She was royally screwed. It was the Mevians or the Darkage, and in the darkness there was only death. Yet after assessing her situation, it seemed her only chance of escape. She dismissed the inner voice screaming that she was afflicted with insanity, anyone from Mevia was better than Darkans. Saieke drew a deep breath, harnessed her chakra, and ran with the wind beneath her feet to the darkness.

***

Drac’s indolent posture disappeared into sharp predatory awareness. Her two pursuers rushed after her with no hesitation, and within seconds they crossed the border into his realm. Slight fear wafted from her attackers, which they quickly suppressed. Interesting they had such control over their fear, knowing where they trod.

A soft bluish light glowed around the female. She was not fast enough, a beacon for her pursuers to follow. Drac coiled with the shadows, keeping pace as they moved further into his kingdom.

Who was she?

She stopped and wiped away the glow of chakra, plunging her attackers into unrelenting darkness.

He observed her as she stood with absolute stillness. Unease snaked from the two men, who slowly unsheathed the swords strapped to their backs. She looked in their direction as if she could sense their presence.

Drac glided behind her soundlessly. She was breathtakingly beautiful. He reached out, almost compelled to touch her hair. It hung to her hips, its hue a mixture of fire and jasper. A sharp stab of arousal lanced though him as he drank in the slant of her cheekbones, soft lips, and her lush figure. She wore a blue caftan that molded her curves with precision, hugging her breasts and rounded hips that were more than a handful.

And her scent.

He inhaled deeply, clenching his hands as something inside of him twisted viciously and lunged. Her scent was intoxicating. But it was her eyes that had him gliding even closer—the deepest blue he had ever beheld. They swirled and darkened with dread and something akin to determination.

Drac checked his thoughts and moved away from her, but not far. He did not mingle with females outside of his kingdom, and to have been engrossed with her was a perplexity he wondered if he should pursue. He dismissed the thought; outsiders only viewed his kind with revulsion, and the fact she could not defeat her attackers indicated a weakness he could never tolerate.

Drac thought fleetingly of leaving them in the forest. The intruders were not a threat to his kingdom; it was impossible to survive in his obscure world if they thought to remain and venture further. Yet he did not leave.

Against his own volition, he leaned in and breathed in her fragrance. Decadent. The beast in him—a creature of blood and rage, growled in pleasure at her scent. The anomaly of it froze him, and he ruthlessly suppressed the hot hunger flaring to life.

“You have entered the Darkage without the expressed permission of the Ricarkri. You will be allowed to leave the way you entered immediately without repercussion. Do so now,” Drac commanded.

***

Fear sliced through Saieke’s veins. She stumbled, and her breath wheezed at the dark drawl. Someone else was with them? Impossible. She flared her senses, seeking for any other chakra and found none. Yet the voice indicated that he stood near. What was even more unbelievable was that he offered them passage to leave. Other kingdoms would arrest and question if the sentry entrances were not used.

Hope stirred in her breast. “I seek sanctuary within your forest. I am being pursued. My kingdom, Boreas, will recompense yours favorably and honorably.” Saieke made her voice firm and even, though she was anything but calm and collected.

“Denied.” Came the voice silky with menace.

“Please…I am the Princess of Boreas. For your aid, I will honor you with several jars of my kingdom’s elixir,” she countered.

“We will depart,” one of the assassins interjected. “But the princess leaves with us. We are Grand Generals from the great empire of Mevia sent to retrieve her. If you interfere, you risk death. If you think to offer her sanctuary against our emperor’s order, both of you will die. Is that understood, Darkan?”

The suddenness of their decision to kill her was so startling it rendered her speechless. They must have thought the Darkan would agree with her bargain, but why would Mevia murder her if they could not take her?

A chuckle of amusement echoed from the dark before she was buffeted with feelings of such blood thirstiness she trembled. Without thinking, she expelled her energy to light up her surroundings to see where such a chakra came from.

She stared at the Darkan mesmerized, fascinated, yet repulsed. She was within touching distance of the most primal male she’d ever seen. He was darkness and sensuality. Black chakra pulsated around him with menace. He stood less than ten feet away and observed her with an awareness that had her instincts screaming at her to run.