Chapter 1
Ciyrs shot up from bed. After days, the king had forced him to rest. He finally fell asleep until the dream. He blinked his eyes and looked around his room. The sun had risen and peaked around the corners of his curtains. After Eden had tried and failed to reach out to Eliana, he had all but given up. If he couldn’t sense her, he couldn’t find her. The warriors were out searching for her, but so far nothing.
He jumped up when he heard a loud banging on the door. “Ciyrs you fucker get up!”
He groaned when he heard Gyyx yelling outside and he ran to the door wondering if something had happened. He pulled open the door and frowned. Gyyx stood on his porch heaving and his eyes were orange. “You’re mate—I think I might have found her—the general area she is in anyways.”
He stared at Pyra’s younger brother and couldn’t get over how much they looked alike. The long white Mohawk, the blue eyes that were orange at the moment. He was huge but not as big as his older brother. Wait did he just say he might have found her? In a moment too quick to stop, he wrapped his hand gripping the shirt Gyyx wore and lifted him off the ground.
“Where?”
“What the hell Ciyrs? Put me down you asshole.”
“Shit, sorry. I seem to be changing.”
Gyyx chuckled and smoothed his shirt out. “Apparently. But anyways, for the past day and a half, some of us have been searching further out looking for your lady. And now I’m reacting just like my brother. My eyes shift, and I’m hard as shit. Basically I am pretty sure she’s my mate too—”
Ciyrs roared. “No way. She’s mine. You’re mistaken.”
“Why the hell am I freaking out then?”
Ciyrs’s eyes widened. “Maybe your mate is here. These Klimnu seem to be pretty good at getting on our land. What’s to say they haven’t intercepted visitors?”
Gyyx’s jaw clenched. “So what you’re saying is—my mate could have already been taken by those slimy bastards, and I’m just now figuring it out?”
“Yeah sounds plausible.”
“Shit, I’m already a terrible mate. She’s gonna hate me.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I didn’t know what was going on until Pyra laughed at my temper.”
“But shouldn’t I have sensed her?”
“Not if she hasn’t been here long. She’s got to be close.”
“And I have a feeling where we find your Elaina, I’ll find my mate. Unless Elaina is meant for both of us.”
Ciyrs’s hand glowed red and he held back from killing the man before him. He had to remember he was a friend. “No, she’s only meant to be mine.”
Gyyx backed away with his hands up in surrender. “So fucker lets go find our women. You are connected to your mate already I’m not. We need to find them and then figure out how the hell the Klimnu are taking our women.”
“Let’s go,” Ciyrs replied. The sooner he found Elaina the sooner he could really sleep, and next time he wouldn’t let go of her. She wasn’t leaving his sight—ever again.
Gyyx led the way slowing to a normal speed so Ciyrs could keep up. He was grateful because even though he learned he had warrior abilities he still wasn’t a warrior, he was a healer.
“Where did you get a sense that—” Ciyrs said and froze when a vision of Eliana slammed into him.
She ran frantically through the maze of halls. Her feet were dirty, and she ignored the rocks beneath her soles. The pain of something sharp imbedded into her foot and she sucked in a breath but kept moving. She had to get away. She shoved her hair out of her face and bit her lip tasting the copper of her blood. She hurt everywhere, but she couldn’t stop moving. She didn’t know when more would come. She didn’t know how she turned the one to ash. She was a freak. Tears slid down her cheeks, but still she kept moving.
The sound of sobbing startled her and Eliana froze looking wildly into the darkness. Her eyes had finally adjusted and she could make out a shaking figure. Red flags rose and she was about to keep moving until she heard the mere whisper, “help me.”
Eliana was scared, but she edged her way closer to the figure. When she stood over the prone woman she gasped. The woman was rail thin and pale. She had bite marks all over her body and she wore only a bra and panties. Her ribs poked out of her side and the stench filled her nose. She did her best not to gag, but this woman had been there for a while.
“You’re not one of them?”
The woman didn’t speak but she saw the slight shake to her head.
“You better not be,” she grumbled and bent to lift the woman.
She shrieked and her body shook before she stopped moving all together. Eliana felt for a pulse and sighed when she realized the woman was unconscious. Lifting her from the ground the best she could, she half carried and half dragged the woman from the small prison. Taking a deep breath she sent out a prayer that she would find the damn exit.
“I found her; she has a woman with her.”
Gyyx froze and spun to look at him. “A woman?” his eyes shifted to orange.
“Yeah, she’s unconscious, sick, injured, but alive. Eliana is bringing her out. They’re at the old warehouse. The one that was supposed to be torn down. How the hell did we miss it?”
They ran using their speed. For the first time Ciyrs used all the things he locked up inside. He had no idea what they would come across on the way, but right now there were two women who needed him. One needed some major healing and the other—well she just needed him.