Kliev’s home was a sprawling estate in the town of Cheshunt, north of London. On its north lawn stood a solitary oak tree thought to be at least three hundred years old. The shifter had left instructions that he be buried under its boughs, should anything happen to him.

The Guild was gathered in the tree’s shade along with members of the Syndicate. Bertie, the group’s talkative leader, stood next to Trix, wringing her hands and shifting from foot to foot like a worried mother.

“It’s just terrible, isn’t it?” she said as the Guild’s men transported the enormous coffin towards the eight-foot-long pit that had been dug into the soft ground beneath the oak. They lay it on the ground, awaiting Lumen’s arrival. The service would only begin when the Alpha was present. In the meantime, the gathered crowd was buzzing with chatter, some of which wasn’t entirely the tone one would expect to hear at a funeral service. “Such a nice fellow, that Kliev was,” Bertie moaned as she stared at the casket. “And so handsome, too.”

“Yes, Bert, he was,” Trix replied. “Though I think his death would have been awful even if he weren’t terribly handsome.”

“Yes,” she said, “it would. But it’s all the more devastating to lose such a gorgeous specimen, don’t you think?”

Trix nodded reluctantly, grinding her teeth as she told herself not to encourage such talk about a man whose body hadn’t yet made its way into the ground. Her madwoman of a boss was incorrigible when it came to fawning over Dragon shifters.

“Did he…did he have a…mate?” Bertie whispered the last word as though she were talking about something profoundly intimate.

Aegis, who’d overheard, leaned towards her from the other side. “No, Bert,” he said in a louder tone than was necessary. “No mate. Kliev was alone for years and years. He often spoke of you, though.”

“Did he then?” asked Bertie, her eyes all but bugging out of her head.

“Oh, yes. I recall him mentioning a deep-set lust…”

“Aegis!” hissed Trix in a reproachful tone. Cruel man, to tease the woman like that. It wasn’t her fault that she had an incurable desire for Dragon shifter flesh.

“Poor man,” Bertie said, shaking her head solemnly. “And such a shame to think I could have had a roll in the hay with him, had I only put my mind to it.” She let out a loud sigh.

“Jesus, Bert,” Trix retorted, her sympathy fading fast. It was definitely bad form to be speculating after Kliev’s death about his status as her potential lover. The poor guy wasn’t around to defend himself against such allegations. Of course, he probably would have laughed. He’d always been a good sport, and much as he’d never actually expressed a desire to sleep with her, he’d had a soft spot for Bertie despite her utter lack of tact.

“Well, I realize I’m ancient, but Kliev was hundreds of years old, wasn’t he? I probably would have seemed like a sweet young thing to the likes of him. Besides, I suspect that his equipment still worked just fine. It was a crying shame to waste it.”

“Bertie, we’re about to bury him,” said Ashlyn, leaning across Aegis to speak for the first time. “I’m sure you can talk about his family jewels at a later date.”

“He must have been so lonely,” Bertie lamented as though she hadn’t heard a word.

“Not always. He had a mate,” Aegis replied, drawing an irritated glare from Ashlyn for encouraging the conversation to continue. “Many, many years ago he was married. She died a long while back, but still, he was happy back then, and I believe he was happy in his last days. You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Hmmph,” Bertie replied as if to convey that Kliev would have been far better off if only he’d gotten a taste of middle aged woman before his time had come.

“I’m just sorry we lost him this way,” said Trix. “He didn’t deserve to be murdered in cold blood.”

“No, he fucking didn’t.” It was Minach who spoke this time, stepping forward in an attempt to diffuse the too-light mood. “Now, can we treat his funeral like what it sodding is, and stop speculating about how the poor dead bastard’s love life would have benefited from a grungy romp with Bert?”

The others promptly clammed up. Satisfied, Minach looked around. Several Hunters, most of whom were female, were gathered around the area where Bertie stood, but he wasn’t particularly interested in them. It was only Amara who had his mind racing, and she was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she didn’t know about the funeral, but that was his fault. He should have found her and notified her of what had occurred.

Trix silently sidled up next to Minach and whispered in his ear, “Amara is coming across the lawn, in case that’s what you’re wondering.”

The shifter felt his flesh heat up, annoyed to have such an instant and obvious reaction to the words. He turned his head to see the Enlightened making her way across the vast expanse of grass towards the group, a solemn expression on her face.

Quietly he pulled away from the others to approach her, stopping some distance from the crowd to ensure them a little temporary privacy. She looked so beautiful under the warm sun, her eyes brighter than usual as she looked up into his own. “So you heard about…” he said.

“Yes. I was with Trix when she got the news.”

“With Trix. Ah, so that was your mysterious meeting yesterday.”

Amara nodded. “She wanted to tell me about a potential job in London. I’m to meet with Bertie tomorrow about a position with the Syndicate.”

Minach’s face lit up at the news. A job with the Syndicate would mean that he’d doubtless get to see more of her. “That’s great,” he said. “A perfect job for you.”

“It’s what I know,” she replied, shrugging. “Seeking out enemies of Dragon shifters and humans. I’m a regular bloodhound, only without the blood.”

“You know a great many things,” he replied, his eyes locked on her. Damn, she was lovely. “Come, let’s join the others.”

He guided her to a place next to the burial site, pleased to find that Amara positioned herself just close enough for her shoulder to press slightly into his upper arm. Minach revelled in the sensation, knowing that it was perhaps the most intimate touch that he would ever receive from her.

He wondered how long he could stand to be around her without succumbing to his desire to press her back to a tree trunk and consume every inch of her body.

Stop thinking such inappropriate thoughts, he told himself. You’re as bad as Bertie. No doubt it was his grief that compelled him to distract himself in this way. The combination of grief and the most beautiful woman he’d ever known was proving a potent one.

The Guild hadn’t buried one of their own in some time, not since the Forsaken had first made their presence known in London. Their funeral services tended towards the informal; a get-together such as this was simply a means to show respect for the fallen. Lumen, who’d arrived late, finally stepped forward to address the Guild and the Syndicate at once.

“Lower the casket into the grave,” he said to his fellow shifters, his pale eyes masking the sadness that everyone present knew he must be feeling to lose such an old friend. “Then I’ll say a few words about Kliev.”

The shifters, including Minach, advanced. Each lifted an end of rope that had been fastened to the casket’s handles and eased the massive wooden box into the ground gracefully, slowly and in perfect synchronicity. When it had settled, they returned to their spots among the crowd.

This time Amara didn’t position herself to lean against Minach’s body, much to his disappointment. Instead she crossed her arms, seeming to create a deliberately safe distance between them as he edged in behind her. As he looked at her back, the sudden urge overwhelmed him to wrap his arms around her and to hold her tight, both for his own sake and for hers. He needed comfort, and she was the only one who could provide it.

“Kliev was one of my oldest friends,” Lumen began. “He’d lived for hundreds of years, though of course he didn’t look it.”

The other shifters nodded in agreement, and Bertie muttered something about his devilishly handsome features.

“He fought in the Dragon wars in Cornwall,” Lumen continued, “and in the wars in the North. Because of Kindred such as him, our kind has survived through centuries of hostilities from many enemies all over England. He was a strong believer in solidarity and in the community of shifters. Dragons, long ago, were a solitary species, but Kliev saw the benefits of strength in numbers, and it’s partly because of him that our Guild even exists. He’s been with the organization since its inception, and he was the man I trusted to protect the three Relics that we’ve gathered thus far. He did so with honour and skill.”

More nods and murmurs of agreement erupted from the group.

“With that, we’ll conclude this brief service,” Lumen added. “Unless someone has something they’d like to say.”

Bertie opened her mouth as if to speak, but Trix grabbed her arm and squeezed hard, shaking her head almost imperceptibly as her boss clammed up.

“Minach,” Lumen added when the gathered crowd stayed silent, “I would like to speak to you inside for a moment, if you wouldn’t mind.” The Alpha turned and began to walk towards the large house in the distance, leaving Minach to look about at his colleagues, his expression questioning.

“I’ll be back,” he whispered to Amara, who replied, “I have to take off anyhow. Trix has offered to take me to the station.”

“Are you sure? I could fly you into London…”

Amara shook her head. “It’s all right. You do what you need to do. I’m sure I’ll see you soon, if all goes well tomorrow with Bertie.”

“Just get her talking about the merits of sex with shifters and you’ll no doubt be hired immediately to the highest rung of the Syndicate’s ladder.”

“I’d consider it if I knew what it was like to have sex with a shifter,” she replied. Minach wasn’t sure if he was imagining the slightly suggestive nature of her stare. “Anyhow, go. Your Alpha is waiting.”

With that, Minach nodded wordlessly and turned away.

* * *

He found Lumen standing in Kliev’s large library, a dark room filled with the musty smell of leather-bound books. Something about it pleased Minach to no end. He’d never spent a lot of time with Kliev outside of the Guild’s chambers, but this place reminded him of the ancient shifter. It was warm, comfortable and if a room could ooze sincerity, this one did.

“I didn’t know Kliev was such an avid reader,” he said as he stepped inside.

“Living on one’s own for centuries tends to do that to a man,” Lumen replied, eyeing the floor-to ceiling bookshelves. Minach moved forward and began examining the tomes.

“Aristotle, Dickens, Shakespeare…” he read. “What? No Harlequin Romances?”

Lumen chuckled. “I suspect he just repeated his own love story in his mind and had little use for fictional ones,” he replied. “He was with her for a few hundred years, you know. He had lots of material to mull over.”

“Centuries, eh?” Minach asked. “I knew that Kliev had a mate long ago. I was sorry not to have met her, but I always assumed that she died a century before Lyre and I were born.”

“More than that, even,” said Lumen, pointing up to a set of portraits that hung on a far wall. One was of Kliev, though his clothing was that of an 18th-century aristocrat. The other was a beautiful dark-haired woman with light grey eyes, clad in a long blue dress.

“A shifter?” asked Minach.

Lumen nodded. “A Wolf, in fact,” he said.

“Like Amara,” Minach murmured.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, nothing. Did they have offspring?”

“They had two children, two shifters. But they died in the wars up north. She died of an illness shortly afterwards. After that, Kliev was on his own for a long time.”

“He was a good man,” said Minach. “Level-headed, kind, calm. The Guild will miss his presence.”

“We will, but we must carry on. Which is why I asked you to join me in here.” Lumen crossed his arms. “There is the matter of the fourth Relic to discuss.”

“The fourth is lost,” Minach said quietly. “We’ve been over this; Kliev was a Dragon of the line of Earth, and his killer most likely hunted him down to prevent the discovery of the Relic.”

Lumen shook his head. “Yesterday after I spoke to you, I made a discovery: Kliev wasn’t the only Dragon of his line. There is another, in Cornwall. A distant cousin of his named Duncan. It seems that Kliev wasn’t as alone as we’d initially thought.”

A quiet gasp emerged from Minach’s mouth. This was unexpected and excellent news in a dark time.

“Do you know where to find him?” he asked, “or what sort of man he is?”

“No,” said Lumen, shaking his head gravely as though reading Minach’s meaning. “But if he’s related to Kliev…”

“Still, he’s not one of us, not a Guild member. He could be a rogue, like Tryst has become…”

“Don’t speak her name, not today,” Lumen shot out, his anger forcing the words out in a hiss. “Don’t say that traitor’s name in Kliev’s home. I never wanted to descend to the level of hating her, but I do right now. I despise her with everything in me. I have no doubt that the Red Dragon was responsible for Kliev’s death, whether she killed him herself or not.”

“I’ve been reluctant to face it, but I have to admit that I do as well.” Minach’s heart ached with the pain of everything that had happened. Their Guild had already been irreparably damaged with Tryst’s betrayal. If it turned out that she’d grown violent, there was no telling what she might do. “We need to find her, Lumen. We should have finished her when we had the chance.”

“I know, and trust me, I intend to see to it that she gets the punishment she deserves, if indeed she’s guilty. In the meantime, I’m afraid I have a job for you. I need someone to head to Cornwall on behalf of the Guild. I would do it, but with Neko and the baby…”

“It’s all right. Of course I’ll go. Just tell me where this Duncan fellow is.”

“I’m not entirely sure, though apparently he lives near Land’s End. His full name is Duncan Marlowe. And Minach—he’s our only hope at this point.”

“I’ll do everything that I can, but I can’t promise anything. We haven’t yet found the verse to guide us to the Relic. Even if he’s willing to cooperate, without a Seeker, this could be a dead end.”

Lumen walked over to a table that sat beneath the library’s row of windows, and pressed his knuckles into its dark finished surface. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from our months of madness, it’s that everything happens for a reason. If we haven’t yet found the verse, it’s probably only a matter of time.”

“Time?” Minach retorted, his tone betraying impatience. “It’s been months since the Relic of Fire was uncovered. Months of waiting, watching. Months of nothing. And now Kliev…” He cut himself off even as his loud voice echoed around the room. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to take my frustration out on you.”

Lumen sealed his eyes tight before opening them again. “It’s all right; I’ve wanted to scream, to break someone’s face. You’re right to be angry. But let’s also make sure Kliev’s death wasn’t in vain. Let’s find this Dragon shifter, Duncan, and do what we need to in order to ensure that the Relic is found. For Kliev, and for us all.”