The two surviving Caradon parted ways not long after escaping the crispy slaughter of the other six of their pack. Pax chased down the larger of the two, watching its path through the trees, smelling and sensing it. There was no way to hide from a dragon’s eye. The moment the cat leaped into a clearing, Pax sent his fire swirling and the cat met the same fate as the others. It burned and died screaming.

It could not live to attack Linara again.

That left one. If the single surviving Caradon was allowed to live, it would try to exact revenge. It would be best to end it tonight, before the shifter had the chance to gather reinforcements. Pax flew until sunrise, searching for that cat, but the creature had gone to ground. It was in a cave, or underground so deep that there was no way to find it. Yet. Wherever it had gone, it was well hidden. There was no scent, no sound, no hint of a shifter’s energy.

He should’ve allowed the Caradon to end Linara. They’d save him the trouble of killing her himself.

Who was he kidding? He could not kill her, not even to save his own life. He could not, would not, allow anyone or anything else to harm her, either.

As the sun came up and the sky turned orange, Pax flew to the clearing where he’d left Linara. Knowing his secret, would she try to kill him now? That was her mission, after all, her reason for being here. Would he let her?

He knew as his talons touched the ground that she had gone. She was not in the cave or at the pond. She’d fled this place hours ago. Only the faintest of her scent remained here.

She’d be easy enough to find, if he were so inclined. Was he? Should he let her go?

He shifted into his human form once more, and stepped into the cave where he had first lain with Linara. Where he had kissed her. Where he had surprised her by his survival. It would be better to cut all ties, to release her. He wouldn’t have to kill her, and she wouldn’t kill him. They could go their separate ways, war or no war.

That was for the best, but it did make him sad. He’d miss her, his sexy half-demon assassin. He’d miss watching her, kissing her. He would definitely miss the sex. But still…it was for the best.

He would sleep today; he needed his rest. Tonight he would hunt the one remaining Caradon of the pack that had attacked his home and Linara. Would that shifter come after him or track Linara? Would he gather reinforcements or try to finish the job on his own? The shifter would be in for a surprise if he thought he was hunting a weak woman. Last night she’d been surprised, first by him and then by the attack. She would not be taken unaware again, and she would not be passive, as she had been last night.

Even though it was for the best, he longed for her already. He did not want to let her go.

As Pax settled on a fur rug to sleep, he rolled to the side and glanced into the far corner. After a moment his heart lightened, and he grinned. Linara had taken his sword. No matter what the circumstances might be, no matter what was best, he had to go after her and retrieve it.

* * *

Val had been riding for two days, following her instincts and Kitty’s direction. The sword did speak to her, but still, her travels were lonely. She missed Cyrus.

He is behind us, you know, Kitty whispered.

“I know.”

I can wound him so he won’t be able to continue.

“You will not!”

Just a small wound, Kitty said contritely. A minor…

“No.”

Kitty sighed. What an annoying habit in a sword!

“He’s a nice boy, and well-intentioned.”

He’s a pain in the ass and he’ll get you killed.

“Ridiculous.”

All too possible.

They were headed north, as Val had known she would when the time came. Jagged mountains much more majestic than those she’d left behind awaited in the distance.

She had no idea what would happen when she arrived there.

One behind and one ahead, Kitty whispered. One is real and one is not. This time, I do not know which is genuine and which is demon. She has cast a spell to confuse me.

“What are you talking about?” Val snapped, and then she saw him, directly in her path. Sitting his horse so straight and tall, as he always had. Sword at his side. Scowl on his face. His hair was much like hers, curly and occasionally unruly. He had a few strands of gray now. Gray he unfairly blamed on her.

She did not speed up or slow down, but approached with some caution. When she was almost upon him she nodded and said, “Father. I imagined I would see you at some point on this journey.”

He said nothing, but his expression spoke volumes.

Was this her father, the intimidating General Merin? Or was it Uryen wearing his skin?

Val stopped and dismounted.

“I’m going with you,” her father said. Snapped, really, as he sometimes did when he was unhappy.

She looked closely at the face she knew so well, wishing she were closer so she could study every detail. As if it was possible there might be a flaw, whether this was her father or not.

“It’s not necessary that you…”

“I’m not leaving.”

Of course not. Neither her father nor the demon who wished to separate her from Kitty would ride away, no matter what she said.

“I’m going to rest here for a while,” Val said.

“You won’t change my mind,” her father said as he dismounted.

“I am aware. You never change your mind.” She hitched Snowflake to a low limb of a nearby tree. “I need to wait here for a while, in any case. A companion is a short way behind. I need to allow him to catch up.”

Her father’s eyebrows arched. “A companion?”

“A friend,” she clarified. “Cyrus Bannan.”

Her father seemed to snort at the mention of the boy’s name, as fathers were wont to do.

Val stretched her legs and walked about, asking — as she should — about her mother and her siblings. The man before her offered short, insufficient answers. That in itself was not evidence, since that was General Merin’s way.

Soon enough Cyrus would catch up with them, and they’d be a party of three. Val, either a friend or a father, and a demon wearing the face of someone she cared deeply about. How was she to discern which was Uryen if even Kitty couldn’t tell?

No one had warned her being a warrior would be so emotionally distressing.

* * *

Linara walked with purpose, running when the landscape allowed. Over stone paths and into the woods. Out of the woods and onto rock again. When the path was steep she had to take care, but she moved as quickly as she could. It was difficult with her pack and the sword that was too large for her, but she managed. She needed to get as far away from Pax as she possibly could.

As if he couldn’t flap his wings twice and travel from one end of the mountain to the other.

Maybe he wouldn’t follow. Maybe he was glad to see her go.

His sword was heavy, but she was stronger than she’d been when she’d traveled up this mountain so she did not consider it to be a burden.

She didn’t need the sword to take a life and Pax wouldn’t need it to kill her, if he decided to do so. None of her Ksana sisters bothered with weapons. Why should they? She wasn’t sure why she’d taken the sword, but she had. It was hers now, a token of remembrance from the man — dragon — beast — she had come to…

Well, not love. Not that. The beast she had come to want, to need. To crave.

She’d been traveling as fast as possible and still at a pace that was agonizingly slow. The terrain was difficult. She kept the shields in her mind strong, as she thought of making her way to Stasio and killing him before he could hurt her mother. If he knew, if he even suspected…

Almost the entire day had passed and the sun was low in the sky when she heard the man coming. She even smelled him, with her newly awakened powers. He was a man, but he also had the odor of the cats who had attacked last night. Caradon. Shifter. There were many shifters in these mountains. Was he one of those who had tried to kill her, or was he an innocent?

Was any man truly innocent?

She rounded a corner in the path and stopped, slipping Pax’s sword into a crevice between two rocks. Best if the creature coming thought her to be unarmed and helpless.

Linara had never been helpless, and now? No man or beast could harm her, as long as she accepted her powers and used them when necessary. Last night’s failure could not be repeated.

She stepped to the edge of the path she’d been walking and looked out over the land that was so wild, so majestic. Maybe when the war was over she’d return here, live here, hide from the rest of the world and the truth of what she was. With Pax?

Of course not. He would hate her now. She’d come to kill him, and he knew it. He’d murdered several of her kind, and would kill her if he got the chance.

Maybe. He’d had the chance just last night…

The scent of the creature grew stronger as he came near, but it was more than his smell that alerted her. She sensed the essence of him in a way that was new to her. Yes, he was one of those who had attacked last night. She’d not given much thought as to why the pack had attacked, but she pondered it now. The Caradon usually traveled alone on those nights when the moon was full and they were in their feline form. The Anwyn, wolf shifters like Aunt Juliet and most of her family, almost always traveled in a pack no matter what form they took. But the cats hunted alone.

What had brought the Caradon together to attack? Fear? Anger? A mission, perhaps.

She did not know how many creatures Stasio had influenced. Did the Caradon attacker work for him?

She had no answers, and there was no more time to ponder. The man who’d been tracking her arrived, and he claimed all her attention. He walked around a boulder and stopped suddenly, as if surprised to see her there. He was not truly surprised; his instincts were too keen for that.

Linara could pretend to be surprised, too. “Oh, my,” she said breathlessly, as she had heard young women speak in the past. “You startled me. I thought I was alone on this trail.”

The tall, solidly-built man had long, tangled dark hair and piercing green eyes. His nose was a bit sharp, and he had thin lips that attempted an insincere smile. “It is strange to run into another traveler here. Are you lost?”

Men! Pax had asked the same question. Best to allow this one to think she was incompetent. “Yes, I am.”

He didn’t believe her, not that that mattered. “You’ve run away, haven’t you?”

More than once…

He was still tense, very much on alert. Best to play the helpless female a while longer. It was like a silly play. She knew he was lying, and he knew she was not lost. And yet, they each played their part, waiting for the right time to make a move. What did he want? Why had he not simply attacked? “My husband was not a good man. I left the farm as he slept and ran blindly.” She clasped her hands. “I should have had a plan, I suppose. I did think there would be people here, someone who might help me.”

He walked toward her, his eyes narrowed and suspicious. “My name is Naal. I will escort you to a village at the foot of the mountain, if you’d like.”

“That’s kind of you. My name is Linny.” Close enough. Some of her nieces and nephews had called her Linny when they’d been small, and their tongues had had difficulty with Linara.

She could fetch Pax’s sword and quickly take this man’s head. She could take his face in her hands and kiss him, draining him of life. But she wanted to know why he and the others had attacked last night. Had they been looking for her or Pax? Did they realize he was the dragon?

Had Stasio sent the Caradon to do what she could not?

“Do you mind if we rest here a little while?” She gave a little smile. “My legs ache, and I’m a bit out of breath.”

He answered with a casual bow, nodding his head and briefly sticking out one booted foot. “As you wish, Mistress Linny.”

She sat on the edge of the path, so her feet dangled over the ledge. The view remained amazing, even though she was distracted by the presence of the beast who had tried to kill her last night. Hills green and granite stretched seemingly forever. In those hills there was no war. She could live here and with some care might never see another human being.

Without a man to feed upon, would she eventually die? Or would she just be forever weak and hungry?

Naal sat beside her, close but not too close. How fast was he? Did it matter that he was not disturbingly near?

“Did he beat you?” the Caradon asked, after they’d been resting a few minutes. When she did not immediately answer, he added, “Your husband, the one you ran from, did he beat you?”

It seemed a good enough reason for her to run from her fictional spouse. “Yes.” She had heard tales of men who beat their women, had even seen a swordsman in the village take his fists to a woman who had displeased him. But the men she had known — her father, her brothers, Pax — would never be so cruel. They used their strength to protect, not hurt.

Well, Pax had cooked a demon or two, but…

Naal did not allow her to look at the land before them and contemplate the kindness of the men in her life. “If I had a wife as pretty as you, I would beat her often.”

Linara turned her head to look at him, certain she must’ve misheard. She had not. “Why?”

“To remind her of her place. To make sure she never forgot that I was her master in all ways.”

No man would ever be her master. She thought of Stasio and added, to herself, never again. “Wives do not care to have a master. They wish instead for a partner. A companion.”

Naal scoffed, then whispered beneath his breath, “Stupid.”

Even though he was not in his feline form, he was quick. He leaped from his seated position and grabbed Linara, pushing her onto her back, pressing her into the stone. Her feet dangled over the side of the mountain as he straddled her and, with a hand on her throat, held her motionless.

Had he come for her? Did he know how to kill a daughter of the Isen Demon?

He dispelled her worries with a question. “Where is he? The dragon, where does he sleep?”

“I… I…”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know. You stink of him.”

Naal did not realize how strong she was, how dangerous she could be. He was looking for Pax, for the dragon, not for her.

“Why do you want to find him?”

The hand at her throat tightened. “That’s none of your business.”

“If I’m going to tell you where he sleeps, you must tell me why. Are you going to kill him?”

“Yes. My friends and I were promised a lot of gold if we would take the dragon’s head.”

“Promised by who?”

“A man you never want to meet,” Naal whispered.

Stasio. She was sure of it.

His hand tightened again. “I can take his head when I find him. It will be easier if he’s in his human form, but I will take him on no matter what shape he wears.”

Naal knew the dragon he sought was a shifter. He knew the man who walked by day and the dragon who flew the night sky were one and the same. Did Stasio know? Had he known all along? Why hadn’t he told her?

She reached inside and calmed her heart and her breath. Stasio must not have told Naal and his friends what she was. If he knew, he would not remain so close to her.

“I can take you there,” she said calmly.

“Just tell me where he is.”

“You’ll kill me,” she whispered, injecting fear into her voice. “If you don’t need me anymore, you’ll kill me here and now, I know it.”

“Maybe,” he admitted.

Linara felt the power growing inside her. She hoped it did not show, not to Naal. “I don’t want to die.” It was true, and surprising in some ways. She’d never thought much about her future, about what good the days to come might bring. She had Pax to thank for that.

Naal smiled. It was not pleasant, not at all. “You can probably find a way to convince me of your worth.” His hand wrapped around her neck and held her firmly. His head lowered slowly toward hers.

“You don’t want to do this,” she warned.

“Ah, but I do.” His mouth was almost on hers. There was nothing pleasant about the possibility of a kiss from the Caradon. His breath was hot and sour, his lips thin and dry. And still, Linara’s hunger came to life.

Again, she tried to warn him. “Stop.”

Linara’s entire body trembled. Naal likely thought she shook with desire in spite of her words of warning, that she was so weak and spineless that she would want a man who’d threaten her this way. It was not desire or fear that made her shake.

The longer he touched her, the closer his lips came to hers, the hungrier she became. That hunger grew inside her, stronger, more and more demanding. She did need him, but not in the way he imagined.

“If you kiss me you will know…”

He did not allow her to finish the sentence, but pressed his thin lips to hers.

The effect was immediate. Life and power flowed through her. Naal had to feel the drain on his life, had to know — too late — what she was. But he could not move, he could not save himself. They were drawn together, latched to one another. She was a parasite, and he fed her.

After fighting to block her thoughts from the wizard who had sent her to this mountain, Linara opened her mind to Stasio. She invaded his thoughts as he had so often invaded hers. See me. See what you have made me.

She was able to manipulate the images in her mind to tell Stasio the story she wished him to see. In her mind, the man who fed her was not Naal; it was Pax. She showed Stasio the amazing vision of Pax’s transformation.

You told me I would find a way, and I did.

She knew it was not Pax above her, but the image she created in her mind was so real, tears slipped from her eyes. Those eyes burned, her heart ached.

Stasio would see that, too; he would feel her pain and rejoice in it.

Linara threw off what was left of Naal. He maintained a human shape for a moment, and then there were bones and clothing and dust. Nothing more. She scooted back, jumped to her feet, and vigorously brushed away the remnants of the attacker that clung to her clothing. The tears continued to fall, running along her dusty cheeks, burning.

I knew you could do this, Stasio whispered. Now, it is time to come home. Come home to me.

Linara shut down the connection without responding. A new fury grew in her heart, and it had to remain hidden from the wizard, for now. When she saw Stasio again, she would feed on him as she had just fed on Naal. She could not allow him to see her hatred for him and all he had done. Not yet.

Fed and powerful, her abilities still growing, Linara briefly reached out to her sisters, to the others who were touched with the evil that had been their father. Some were completely lost to darkness. Others, like her, struggled. There was more dark than light, but the light lived. Her sisters were in many ways like any other living being. They were good and bad. Some fought while others hid from the war, from what they were.

Battles raged in many souls, as it raged in hers.

Some, a lucky few, had had the darkness taken from them by a witch. Stasio had hidden the knowledge of the witch from her; he had kept close the fact that the demon could be stripped away for some. She saw it, in vague images and streaks of energy, in dancing colors that reminded her of the dragonstone. Looking out upon the world, Linara roused a name and an image. Lyssa. Stasio wanted to end that witch’s life; he’d been trying to do so, unsuccessfully, for a long while.

Could that witch help her? Could even the first Ksana be…healed? It was too much to hope for, and yet she did hope. Before she met this remarkable witch, she needed to find Pax and warn him to move north, to hide himself from eyes that believed him to be dead.

Linara collected his sword and began to retrace her steps, sparing Naal no more than a glance. She should continue to the south. She wanted to end Stasio. Was the threat to her mother immediate, or was it as empty as Stasio’s soul? Wouldn’t she feel it if the danger was close?

As for Lyssa…when she found the witch, would she use her? Would she willingly give up the strongest part of herself? This Lyssa could save her from the demon, but with power flowing through her as it was at this moment, Linara wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to be saved. The battle inside her continued. Still, she walked on, back toward the dragon’s lair.

Why did she care about saving Pax? What difference did it make to her if he lived or died?

Love, a voice within her whispered.

She shook off that ridiculous word and once again walked north.