Fifteen
Fractured
Saber would have laughed if he were capable of it. Instead, as his attackers beat the ever-loving snot from him, icy rain fell in a deluge from the sky. Saber retreated into his mind, seeing a pair of sparkling amber eyes. Eyes he imagined laughing, flashing darkly, or teasing as they haunted him for the past ten years.
He’d been an arrogant ass to believe she’d be easy to find. The first being to ever slip away and keep out of his reach for so long … this female was good. A few times he’d been close to catching her, but she always managed to escape. So much for his vow.
Fists pummeled him, hitting everywhere, until Saber lost his balance and fell into the mud. He lay still, dreaming of what he’d do if he ever found her. At first the dreams had been of how he’d get the info needed to free Adarias, yet his body had other ideas. Soon his dreams morphed into erotic fantasies of him fucking his amber-eyed sorceress, and in those dreams, she begged him for more.
Damn, what was wrong with him? Despair settled in, and he realized it no longer mattered. It was too late for him.
“That’s all you got?” Saber asked, pushing the female from his mind as he taunted the men. He tilted his head to the side and spit blood from his mouth.
“Get all his coin,” the leader told the one closest to Saber.
Saber didn’t care about the money in his pocket, or much of anything anymore. Until the man held up the only thing he had left from his brother.
Fury rose in a dark, deadly cloud.
Head pounding, and not just from the beating he’d willingly taken, Saber leaned up and snatched the sacred medallion from the man’s greedy grasp. In a blink, he gained his feet and no longer unsteady, he let his beast engulf him.
When Saber finally came back to himself, all six men lay deathly still in the mud.
Sliding the medallion back into his pocket, Saber gripped his throbbing temple. Broken visions of blood and killing raced through his mind. He scanned around and grinned when he spotted a pub. Using his power, he drew on his invisibility, shifted into his dragon, back into human-form, and then let the cloak hiding him go. Clothes clean and dry, Saber crossed the dirt road. Once at the door, he finally looked back at the carnage. Disgust welled inside of him, and turning away, he shoved the door open and walked inside.
***
A week or—who knew how much later—Saber groaned. Pain sliced his mind into slivers of fragmented images. Images of him fighting, not fighting, and letting others beat the shit out of him. Images invaded, taunting, showing him spewing dragonfire, and burning the enemy to ash. Yet, he really didn’t know if it was only the enemy he killed. It all sped through his mind like an out-of-control avalanche, and try as he might, Saber couldn’t hold onto a single image or even a recent memory. Disgusted, and more than a little worried, he pushed the maddening darkness away until he could see through the cobwebs of his fracturing life.
Saber tried to remember something, anything at all, about the last week and came up blank. Fuck. Then he listened to the variety of voices surrounding him. Humans. Walkers. Elvren. Shifters, and others. Mixed species. Yet no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn’t remember where he was, or how he’d gotten here, and certainly not what he might have done. Yeah, this wasn’t anything unusual these days, and he stressed that whatever he’d been up to, it probably wasn’t good. He should be used to it, as this had been happening for the last few years, but the increase in frequency worried him.
“Brother, are you all right?” Zales, who was a year younger than Saber, asked with worry in his voice.
“I’m fine.” Saber didn’t want his brother aware of how far gone he actually was. Not yet. He had unfinished business. He had managed to exterminate all those responsible for Maya’s death and Adarias’s imprisonment in Hades—all except the female. Saber shook his head, it was unacceptable. While there was breath in his body, he’d continue to hunt for her.
“I’ve been trying to reach you for days, where are you?” Zales asked.
His shields must’ve been strong if Zales couldn’t get through to him. What the hell have I been doing?
“Do you need me to come to you?” Zales asked.
Saber scanned the room again. It didn’t help. While he recognized the drinking hole, he couldn’t place the town or village. “I told you, I’m fine,” he snapped, then regretted his attitude. Zales was only trying to watch out for him. “Don’t you have a job to do?” Saber toned down his anger. Zales was the leader of a faction of rebels whose purpose was infiltrating the Ilyium.
“Doesn’t matter. You know I will be there if you need me,” Zales answered.
“No, I’m good,” Saber said, and suddenly, the name of the town came to him. “I’m just having a drink in Seldom.”
“Fine, call if you need me,” Zales said, but Saber didn’t answer. “Promise me, Saber.”
“Fine. Fuck. What are you, my babysitter?” He knew he wouldn’t call Zales. His brother didn’t need the hassle of dealing with his stupid ass.
Saber ignored the flirtatious invitations of the different females serving drinks, and instead stared into the amber liquid in his mug, as if it could tell him the future. Or the past.
“Hey, honey, can I cheer you up?” One daring soul, a Nightwalker who drank blood to survive, tried to slide onto his lap.
“Not interested.” Saber shoved her away. The smell of her perfume was cloying, and the touch of her fingers on his skin grated painfully.
“Well aren’t you a grump.” With a huff she sauntered away.
Yup, that’s me. Saber sighed. Being a walking hard-on for ten years didn’t help his pissy mood either. Ever since he’d spotted that female sorceress across the witch circle, he hadn’t been interested in bedding anyone else. Oh, he’d tried, many times, and came close. But as soon as any female touched him, he’d been turned right off. Yeah, she’d bewitched him for sure.
Besides learning how to free Adarias, he needed the witch to free him as well. Just the memory of her amber-eyed gaze and lush body was enough to make him excruciatingly hard.
Saber let out a low growl, drawing fearful glances from the other patrons. Not in the mood to play today, he gave a mental shake, trying to fight the clinging darkness laughing at him. Yet the demons tearing him apart screamed for him to scorch the world and watch it burn.
Saber met and held each gaze of those watching him. Some seemed curious, while others had a calculating gleam in their eyes. He stared back, daring them to take him on, and one by one, each turned away. Then he downed the rest of his Nectar-infused ale, set the mug down, and stood. He reached into his pocket and tossed some coin on the table. It was time to go.
Yet as he left the pub, his mind fractured all over again.