Shadow Queen (26 page)

              There is no absolute truth.  I could exist without Cassius Cross, but not live.  As sad a truth as it is to reach in conclusion, the reality of it is just this...we are who we make ourselves to be.  No one can decide for you.  Not a god, not a person, not anyone.  I’ve loved and I’ve lost. 

I will live out what I have left of my life cherishing the memories of who molded me into the person I am, not what the heavens deemed me to be.    I have moments I would change, done differently, but my mother reminded me that even then, life
sometimes
has a way of circumventing fate and making it happen anyway.

Gravity!

It is what holds us here. 

Love!  It is the gravitational pull that grounds us to the earth.  Hate!  It’s what pulls us apart. 

Destiny!  It’s what decides our fate only after we accept that it was DESTINY in the first place.

The Valkyire, the Hunter, the Vampire, the Were and now the Elf working together as one. 

The cabin cell was empty like we thought.  The bat crazy Nara was out and no doubt, headed straight for Anastacia.

              Ryan and I didn’t mince words, we just headed back to my place.  If she wasn’t there yet, she would be.

              Before we could get far, we were intercepted by Drac.  I’ve never told anyone the man changed his name from Frederick to a shortened form of Dracula.  But one day I might.  He was one scary ass man, but at one time I was told he was a gutter rat whose only job prior to becoming a Vampire was a thief.

              “What do you want?”

              The rich laugh he liked to use for amusement, but was meant as an intimidation tool, didn’t work on me.  Becoming the rank I am, it just doesn’t hold merit.  But he held leverage over me at the moment I didn’t know he had already.

              “It is not a matter of what I want at this point, for I have it.  What you have to decide now dear son of mine is whether she is worth it.”

             
Anastacia.

              “Is currently lying in her own blood at the base of your manor with my sweet daughter holding a certain weapon above her neck.  Or rather, she will before too long.  We know where to look for it.”

              Cord was silent in the seat of the Hummer.  He had his weapons drawn and ready, but he knew to stay still and in silence.  Attacking the man who stopped our vehicle without strength going seventy miles per hour down a highway wasn’t going to get what he wanted. 

              I gripped the hood of the car to hold my tongue and my thoughts.  “I repeat, what do you want?”

              He lit a cigarette and watched me with slow intent.  His attire matching my own in the dark, a human would see the lit tobacco and nothing else. 

              “If you want her alive, you will come with me.”

              I have never had a choice.  It has always been about this girl.  It will be my end. Anastacia consumes my brain and leads my steps.  I will do what it takes to have her safe.   A man really will do anything for the right girl.  I’d never admit that aloud.  And it’s the only way men would come together in the gods eyes.  For her.

I shoved myself in the Hummer and drove to Drac’s. 

              Without a second to lose, I slammed the door to his lazy drawn sit down in the middle of his club across the street from where Cord, Calum, and Szar one stood waiting at my own.

              “Talk!”

              “My offer still stands from before.  You take Naracrissa as your own and I will let all my men separate from Borgon and his stupidity.”

              “It won’t happen.”

              The cigarette flamed once before he continued, “I will have her stand down if and only if you do a job for me?”

              The door opened beside me.  A familiar face that, until now, I wagered going strictly to Borgon after the hell he’s been through.  He closed the door and waited for an announcement or proclamation for he knew what this meeting was about.  It was written all over his Hunter face.

              “This Hunter came to me.  He wishes to help Borgon, but needs a new armor.  If you make him one of us, I will stand down with Naracrissa and leave your female Shadow Queen alone.  But you have to also.  I want her out of the manor and away from our people.”

              “What purpose does that serve?”

              “Naracrissa will abandon this idiocy and return to her own.  Her determination to have you blinds her ability to act appropriately.”

              No argument there.  “Done!”

              Drac opened his phone and dialed a number.  His fingers moved across the keypad, and then it closed. 

              I texted the three in wait across the street with what I wanted.   Anastacia would never understand, but she would question the validity.  This would be over in a week and I would hold her in my arms again for a month if it means making her know it was all for her own safety.

              I didn’t hear from any of them for longer than I cared for.  When the deal was struck, I set to the task within minutes.  I didn’t speak to Dr. Mar Quinn about the whys, I just bit his damn neck and started the process.  It would take a careful estimated amount to turn a person to one of us.  And this man was a Hunter.

I am not coming back. Plz listen to Szar 

              I didn’t know how else to say it without sounding hateful.  I just stared at the phone and typed the only message I could send.

             
Go on wo me.  Not everything we say is within our own ability to make come to pass.

Nothing was returned and for the first time in months, I felt more alone than I ever had.  It was like death to say I didn’t care for her.  Hopefully, my girl is sharp and reads into my words.

Days passed.  Another text came through.  It was the first from her I’d seen since I told her to leave me.

Calum missing.  Will U help?

I texted Cord with the whys. 

Hours later, I knew where he was. Where I asked him to be.  At my court, watching Nara unpack her things in my girl’s room.  He’d been investigating across the street at my club, trying to find out more about Borgon’s plans and spending the nights watching my manor.  I hated telling her nothing, but Calum was fine.  She would know soon enough.

NO

              My text was quick and my phone was off.  I hated myself.

              A few days more and Quinn and I hadn’t spoken once.  I needed to know his intentions because I had a pretty good idea, it wasn’t for Borgon.  I told Drac I was taking him to the blood bank.  Drac laughed at my ways of eating and gave Quinn the long speech of our kind and ingrained survival instincts.   When he was finished, I told him I was going anyway. He didn’t stop me, but his anger was present.

              “If you want to send a man to follow, fine.  Just make sure he keeps his distance.”  I needed to talk to Quinn.

              The ride there was the key.  We were followed, but we weren’t heard.  I learned that he did in fact at one time want to off my beloved.  But is was short lived and out of hate. Hate was an emotion I could understand.

              When they took Szar to get to Stace with a two-sided duplicity going between both sides, Borgon called himself enlisting Quinn to his side.  It turns out, Borgon was replaced with Quinn in the Hunter school and all his animosity roots from that replacement.  When Borgon’s family was threatened, he did the same to Quinn.  At the risk of losing his wife and children, Quinn agreed to send information about Anastacia while she stayed at the Hunter school.  In turn, Quinn hoped the messages he sent to Anastacia were effective enough to get her brother safe, and her to end this whole fiasco by fulfilling the legacy they set her with.  In his mind, it would be quick and done and his family safe.

              It didn’t pan out that way. 

              When his family was murdered in their sleep, Quinn took a different course.  As any man would.  He initially intended to take down Anastacia, blaming her for the death of his family.  But when he came to his senses, he called his only nephew and made it clear what his intentions really were.  He would filter information, false or with purpose, to the enemy and allow the information Lee sent out to be enough to keep him alive also.  They worked together with Lord Hathown and Dr. Green to assure that I didn’t know so that Anastacia wouldn’t.  When I asked Quinn if he was really that untrusting to me as the lord of my faction and the safety of my people or Stace, he laughed.  He told me he knew we could read each other too well and he made a promise to Dyer Lee to keep it from her.

              I accepted it, but didn’t agree.  If Anastacia knew how much has been kept from her, she’d nail me to a wall and leave me there in the sun to stew in pain.  And the other three would hang with me.  Of that I would make sure.

              Quinn asked to become a Vampire to appear joining Borgon and take out my girl, but in reality, it was to make him strong enough to take out the whole gang.  He wanted Borgon and everyone with it, dead.  I couldn’t say I didn’t agree.  Just the part about becoming a Vampire.  It wasn’t going to make him invincible, just thirsty. 

              With a new ally, I felt this thing to be over before it could escalate too much further.  Quinn agreed to help me take Drac out. 

              Before another day could pass, Anastacia Anat Hathown showed up in the very room I never intended for her to ever step foot in.

ANA
T
(goddess within many)

...goddess who destroyed Orion with the Scorpion to punish his misdeeds including stealing her bow, excessive bragging towards the intention to kill the earth’s creatures, and ignoring her. Legends say Artemis, and even Apollo her twin brother, set out to punish him but Anat beat them to it using trickery and good timing.   She used her sordid past to help solve an escalating dilemma among the supernatural factions on the earth.  The humans were passive and set in their ways, but those living among them are restless.  They want to own each other.  That could never happen.

Anat set out to create only one, but that would be impossible.  It went awry last time.  She would need reassurance when the time came.  Who would make the group compatible?  Who would make them achieve their goal?  Not all decisions can be easily identified as explainable, but sometimes you just know. The goddess rings made available will keep them safer.  All asked have willingly accepted her plea for help.  The five chose
n
wil
l
bring back unity.

STAC
E
(marked with ALL signifying the connection between the five)

Goddess ring
- multi-colored and blocks thoughts from Cas (and ability to have power increased when touching Cas physically but not revealed until later), enhances electricity with Calum (doesn’t officially know it yet), shields others combined with Szar (finds out later), sees specific future events with Cord (later)

...is the child born to a goddess- daughter of Anat who killed her lover Aqhat (Orion) in the legends.  She was created to change a dying supernatural world from destroying itself from the inside out.  After many dangers, traitors, and feuding allies she finally makes the group whole in book two with a unified beginning towards peace.  But it’s a long road.

Anat tells Stace in book two that she took the name Anat over any other simply because she wanted to and that all the names she and the other gods have held are synonymous regardless of how the different people of the world change it.  Her name well become legend.

SZA
R
(SHIELD
)
(other connections- Saiph, star in Orion)

Goddess ring
- seemingly useless at first and he sees it as a dud especially when he sees the others in use, but later a happy chance brought about a situation where Szar actually felt the group in real danger and his own high emotions created a shield from any danger (thus a shield- hasn’t happened yet...)

...is the half god/ half Valkyrie- son of Lord Hathown, leader of the Valkyrie court faction in the supernatural world.  He doesn’t find out till much later that his sole purpose is to save Stace.  Can he run a faction and save her too?   Stay tuned...

CALU
M
(ORION-Hunter strength
)
(other connections- Rigel, star in Orion)

Goddess ring
- enhances the power of electricity through Stace when he wears it combined with highly intense emotions- allows an alert system to know when each is close

...is the half god/ half Hunter- who was created to make sure Stace stays safe from all with his brute strength alone, but ultimately in the end he is still (Orion) and Cord (the Scorpion) does show up.  Can legends be broken?

CASSIU
S
(SUN
)
(other connections-Ra, the sun god, Hathor and Sekhmet)

Goddess ring
- increases any power Stace holds if he is touching her (not aware of it until later) shares telepathy, as well as magnetic alert system when each other is close

...is the half god/half Valkyrie turned Vampire-who was created to stand beside his beloved and never let her feel alone even when all else seems at an end.  To be her stronghold in the darkest moments.  Her balance in the fight for their lives.

He
(
chose
)
to turn vampire to save her finding only his destiny was never his own even as far back as at birth when she spoke to him in her mind.  Made a vampire and moved up in status to be the next lord allowing him to be her equal and therefore fulfilling the destiny of connecting the five intended to bind together to change the supernatural world.

Incidentally, Cas has studied his roots extensively, for he is born of the very powerful god, Ra.

COR
D
(SCORPION
)
(other connections-enemy used to kill Orion by his love, Anat)

Goddess ring
- sees specific futuristic events that only he and Stace can envision when joined together by blood (Ewww!) ...and heals her!  (New reveal in book 3). And the same type of system feeling like a head rush to alert each other to their presence

...human turned Werewolf-didn’t
(
choose
)
to become a Were and didn’t know his destiny as the scorpion he was marked with from birth.  His destiny is still unknown in most ways for we know not why he was sent to Stace like the others though he was born in the same Val court as the others, except the Hunter.  For now, we press on and wait.

Everything was set in motion until Cas was told to go to him and ask his faction to allow him to be the new Were leader at the other's demise (by Lord Hathown).   He was a human in the Val court that Stace doesn’t remember and doesn’t find out until end of book two.