Urian flinched at his father’s question as he came into the study where he’d been summoned. “Of course I know.”
“Did you talk to her like I asked?”
“I tried. She wouldn’t listen.”
“Did you get her children to talk to her?”
Urian arched a brow at that question. “Didn’t you?”
“Of course I did!” His father paced back and forth. And then he saw it. The tears that glistened in his father’s swirling silver eyes as he choked on the sobs he was doing his best to hold back. “She’s going to die, Urimou.”
He barely heard those words and the nickname his father hadn’t used for him since he was a child.
“My precious girl. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I even tried to trick her. To bespell her. Damn her for her stubbornness!”
Choking on his own grief, he went to his father and pulled him into his arms. “I’m sorry.”
Urian was unprepared for the ferocity of his father’s hug. While he’d known his father was a powerful man, he hadn’t realized just how much until those arms wrapped around him with the strength of a Titan. Burying his face in the crook of his neck, his father wept with soul-racking sobs the likes of which Urian would never have imagined him capable of making. They made the ones he’d shed for his brother pale in comparison. He fisted his hands in Urian’s chalmys and held him there as if terrified of letting him go.
He had no idea what to say or how to comfort him. So he merely stood there, holding his father and rubbing his back while his own tears fell.
When his father finally pulled back, he buried his hand in Urian’s hair in each side of his face and glared at him. “A father isn’t supposed to bury his children. We live to protect them, and we die first so that we can be there to welcome them on the other side. This is so wrong, Uri.”
“I know, Baba. I know.”
His lips trembling, his father wiped at the tears on Urian’s face, then kissed his cheeks. “I love you, pido.” With a ragged breath, he released him and headed for the door. “Let me go and sit with your sister.”
Urian couldn’t move as he heard him walking away. He was paralyzed by his own grief and anger. This was so wrong. And he felt horrible for his father. Furious for his sister who had to leave her own children.
And madder than hell that he would be forced to watch her agony on this day.
Not like they all hadn’t seen it before.
Countless times.
They even had a term for it. The Thanatogori—deathwatch, or day-long vigil—whenever one of their species turned twenty-seven and decided not to turn Daimon.
Already his sister would have begun the painful process of dying. Urian had seen enough of his friends die like that. He’d never watched family perish.
Dreading this, he knew he had to go sit with his father. So he left and headed to her house, where all of his family was already gathered.
Even Geras and Nephele, along with Nephele’s husband, were there. The only one missing was Xanthia. But then she hadn’t really spoken to him much since the night he’d returned Nephele to Kalosis. He wasn’t sure why, and since she refused to speak, he didn’t press it.
Besides, her psychosis wasn’t really his problem, especially now that she was remarried. Though it was ironic that Geras and Nephele still considered him their father. And that was fine by him.
He continued to think of them as his children.
Paris and Davyn greeted him first at the door. Both had swollen eyes.
“I can’t believe she’s doing this.” Paris wiped at his cheeks while Davyn held him.
“Me either. She’d always seemed more levelheaded than this.” Trying to distract himself, he glanced over to the table, where a strange urn had been set. “What’s that?”
Davyn winced. “Tobias made it. He wants to put his mother’s dust in it so that he can keep her with him after …” His voice broke off as his tears began to flow.
Urian understood. Tobias was Tannis’s youngest and her only son. He was the one who was closest to his mother. “Where is she?”
Paris drew a ragged breath. “On her bed. He won’t leave her side.”
“Let me go see them, then.” Urian headed to the back and had to finagle his way through the crowd. By the time he reached Tannis’s room, he barely recognized his own sister. She was so much older already.
Her two daughters lay on each side while her son was at her feet on the bed. His father knelt on the floor, holding Tannis’s infant granddaughter, Marcella, whom her eldest daughter had birthed only two weeks ago.
Helena, who’d been named for their mother, clung to Tannis, but her other daughter, Rhoda, launched herself at Urian as soon as she saw him. “Uncle Uri! Make her stop this!”
“I wish I could, stormy. I tried all day yesterday. All I got for it was insults.” He kissed his niece’s head.
Rhoda wailed in the shrillest of tones. “I’ll never die like this. So help me, I’ll eat every human alive first!”
“Good girl,” his father snarled with pride. “Make sure you pass that fire on to your children.”
“Baba!” Tannis snapped. “Don’t you dare encourage her to such things.”
Someone took Urian’s hand. He glanced down at first, thinking it would be a niece or nephew.
It was Archie.
“Think if one of us bit her, it would keep her from dying?”
Urian considered it. “Might. But then she might kick our asses for the effort. Feel free to try.”
He snorted.
And so their day went, with insufferable slowness as they listened to her screaming in agony and watched her dying. Urian had never felt so helpless. Nor had he hated so much.
By the time dawn came to end her suffering, they were all scarred so deeply that none of them could speak as their father slowly gathered her dust to place in Tobias’s jar.
Tobias cradled it with the tenderest care and placed it on the mantel before he and his sisters went to hold their silent vigil. Urian’s brothers began to disperse with their families. Theo spoke in a quiet whisper to his father while Paris and Davyn came up to Urian.
Paris glanced over to their father. “Davyn and I are going Daimon tonight.”
Urian arched a brow at that. “Pardon?”
A tic started in his twin’s jaw. “After this … I’m not waiting another day or night. Davyn only has a few more months. We decided not to push our luck. You’ve been one for two years now, yeah?”
“It’s not so bad, is it?”
Urian scratched at the back of his neck. “Honestly? It’s not the best. Especially in the beginning. I spent a lot of those first months sick with it. Tricking a human into granting permission to take their soul isn’t as easy as you think. Picking a human with a strong soul is even harder. They’re corrupt little bastards. And the constant whining will drive you to insanity.”
“Then how do you cope?”
Urian gave them an evil grin. “I live on venom.”
“I could do that.”
He snorted. “You’re too much in love. But I’m here to help. If you need anything, you let me know.”
Nodding, they left him alone. Urian waited on his father since they were the only two who didn’t have anyone else.
“You worried about me?”
He heard the stern note in his father’s tone. “A little.”
“Don’t. I’m not that fragile.”
Perhaps. But unlike his brothers, Urian never forgot the fact that his father really wasn’t that much older than they were. He’d been a teen when Archie and Theo and Tannis were born. Barely twenty when Urian and Paris had come along. Too young to have been thrust into the decisions that Apollo had forced onto him.
Too young to be cursed to die.
His father met his gaze. “So are you.”
“Pardon?”
“I can hear your thoughts, Urian. And you’re too young to have been put through so much.” His father picked up Tannis’s pillow from the bed and pressed it to his face so that he could breathe her scent in. Then he cradled it to his chest like an infant and closed the distance between them. “I don’t want to bury another child. Help me protect your brothers.”
“I intend to.”
“Good. And I’ve been thinking about what you said.”
“About Helios’s prophecy?”
He nodded. “Apollo had another Apollite mistress. We’ll start with that line before we worry about ours. I want you in charge of hunting down every last one of them and cutting their throats. Let’s see if there’s any truth to this.”
“You sure?”
Tears welled in his eyes as he stroked Tannis’s pillow. “Kill them for me, Urian. Every last fucking one of them.”
He winced at the agony in his father’s voice. It mirrored his own. “I will see it done, Baba.”
Urian sat by Xyn’s pool, with his feet dangling in the water, seeking some form of comfort, even though there was none to be had for his vacant and damned soul. I am too young to feel this old and defeated.
Because today, he felt ancient. Indeed, the weight of his soul and grief was so heavy that if he were to throw himself into the water, he had no doubt it would drag him to the bottom of those black waters and drown him. He’d have no ability to swim with it wrapped around him like this.
How did his father manage? If he hadn’t respected the man before, he definitely did now. Because this shit sucked the very breath out of his lungs and made him want to just surrender to the pain and end it all. It was a struggle to come up with one single reason why he should bother to find another soul and not just allow the one that was currently screaming in his brain to take him to the grave and end it all.
Unlike the rest of his family, he was completely alone. Even his father had a girlfriend or wife or whatever Nelea was.
Urian wasn’t really sure what her true role was, other than a convenient meal. As much as she stayed at their home, he was rather sure she lived there and nowhere else. But neither she nor his father had made a firm declaration of their relationship, and Urian wasn’t certain if he wanted to know whether he had a new mother. So he didn’t ask, and they didn’t say.
He simply remained cordial with her, and passed brief, polite conversation with her whenever their paths crossed.
Sitting up, he rubbed at his head. For some reason, the human soul inside him was screaming louder than normal. He didn’t know if that was because of his grief or perhaps the human had been whinier than most.
Whatever it was, it only added to his misery. He should probably go to the hall and find someone to feed with. It might help alleviate some of the internal screaming. But he wasn’t hungry. What he wanted was real comfort. Too bad there was no one to make him feel better.
“Urian?”
His heart stopped as he heard a voice he’d never thought to hear again.
Nay, it couldn’t be. Stunned and unable to believe it, he turned, then stood up slowly. “Xyn?”
In human form and dressed in bronze armor over a red chiton, she walked slowly toward him. Her vibrant Titian hair was braided and coiled around her head, exposing her pointed ears. “I felt as if something was wrong.” She glanced about nervously. “If Apollymi finds me here, she’ll have a fit, but I had to come and see if you were all right. I can’t explain it. I just had to check on you.”
His throat was so tight from the sudden rush of happiness and grief that he couldn’t speak. Cupping her face with his hands, he did the one thing he’d always wanted to do.
He kissed her.
Xyn gasped as she breathed Urian in and melted against him. He smelled so intoxicating. Of leather and haxyn, and sweet rowan. No one smelled quite the way her Apollite did. They never had. And she shuddered as his tongue swept against hers. Fisting her hand in the linen of his chalmys, she felt his muscles bunching beneath her fingers.
When he finally pulled away to stare down at her, she smiled impishly up into those beautiful blue eyes. “I take it you missed me?”
He laughed at her question. “More than you can imagine.” A stricken expression darkened his eyes. “I found your letter. And I’m sorry for everything.”
She toyed with his soft hair. “So am I. But I can’t stay.”
The agony in his eyes tore at her heart and made her ache for him. She brushed his hair from his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
His lips trembled. “Tannis died today.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”
A single tear fell down his cheek. “I’ll be fine.” He cleared his throat and fell into that staunch, tough leader role of his. “You should go before you get into trouble.”
How could she leave now, knowing what had happened? Knowing what his sister had meant to him? “Do you have anyone with you?”
When he hesitated, she scowled. “Where’s your wife?”
He sighed. “Sheba was killed.”
Xyn felt sick to her stomach. “When?”
“A few years ago.”
Years? He’d been alone all this time? She couldn’t believe it. “You haven’t remarried?”
He snorted with a hostility that set her back. “Why would I?”
Companionship would be the normal reason, but he had one that made a lot more sense. “To eat?”
“I have women willing to feed me now. No need to rush into that again when I don’t have to.”
She barely caught herself before she rolled her eyes. He sounded so much like her brother Veles that it was frightening. “So you’re alone?”
Well … aye. But she didn’t want to think about that. She was a dragon. It wasn’t quite the same thing. They were used to being alone. It was in their DNA. In all her life, his was the only company she’d ever craved.
And crave him, she did. More than had ever made sense.
Burying her hands in his hair, she tugged playfully at it. “My poor Uri. You’ve ever been my aggravation.”
He arched a brow at her.
“It’s true.”
With a tender light in his eyes, he buried his hand in her braids so he could toy with them. “I’m so happy that I got to see you again. But how did you get in without being detected?”
“I have friends among the Charonte. You’d be amazed what they’ll do for a taste of honey cake.”
“I’ll have to remember that in the event I ever get locked out of here.”
She smiled. “Well, I should be going.”
The sadness returned to his eyes. “I’m sure your husband misses you.”
“I don’t have a husband.”
When he opened his mouth to speak, she caught his jaw to keep him from speaking. “I’ve already told you. There’s only one person I love, Uri, but as much as I love you, I can’t stand by and watch you feed on the blood of another woman, knowing you’ll be cheating on me.”
His eyes turned dark and stormy. “I hate my grandfather.”
“So do I.”
He hesitated. “But what if I could find a way to break the curse?”
For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. Could it be so simple? “What do you mean?”
“We think we might have a way out from under the death sentence.”
“You know my answer. I want to be with you, Urian, I do. But I can’t share you. That’s not fair to me.”
She saw Urian’s happiness return. “Then I have twice the reason to end this curse, twice as fast.” And this time when he took her into his arms, his kiss was possessive and filled with a deep promise. His lips tasted of passion.
Wanting something she knew she might never have another shot at, Xyn unpinned his chalmys and let it fall to the ground. When he didn’t complain, she made sure his chiton followed it down to their feet, exposing his chest to her hands. He sucked his breath between his teeth as she touched his hard, hot body.
Gingerly, she traced a line over the healing wounds on his chest. “What happened?”
He smirked. “Apparently, you’re not the only one I annoy.”
“I don’t find you amusing at all.”
“That hand you have on my cock says differently.” His voice was deep as he cupped her fingers with his palm so that he could show her how to stroke him.
“You better be glad that I can’t harm you.”
Heat stung her cheeks as he cupped her face in his hand and looked at her fiercely. “At this moment, my lady, I’ll take your attention any way I can get it.”
Xyn smiled, until her gaze went to the Daimon mark over his heart. “When did this happen?”
“Does it matter?”
“My conscience says that it should.” Biting her lip, she wanted to pull away and leave him where he stood and not look back. If only it were so simple.
Or easy.
“You live by killing others. Obliterating their souls for all eternity.”
“I do what I have to.”
Her heart broke with those words. He didn’t even seem remorseful about the lives he took.
His eyes darkened. “What do you want from me, Xyn? To lie down and die, or to fight and live?”
She wanted him to be human. Whole. To live without preying on the souls of humanity.
The hurt in his celestial gaze tore through her and made her stomach ache. She knew that look. It was what had caused him to divorce Xanthia. “I’m not judging you.”
“Aye, you are. Don’t lie to yourself. And don’t lie to me.”
She caught him as he started to leave. “Urian …” She used her powers to remove her armor.
The moment she was naked, the anger evaporated from his eyes. Never before had she been more grateful to her brothers for their candor about how to immobilize a man or to catch his attention.
It worked.
Urian’s gaze darted all over her naked body and with every part of her those eyes licked, the hunger in their depths darkened. The air between them became charged.
“I will always love you, Urian. Nothing you do will ever change that.”
Closing the distance between them, Urian curled his hand against her cheek, then buried his lips against her throat. A thousand ribbons of pleasure tore through her as he nibbled a trail around her neck, his warm breath tickling as his tongue gently licked her skin.
Xyn shivered as she ran her hand down his naked spine and pulled him closer.
Urian shuddered in ecstasy. Never in his life had he felt this way. Never had he been with a woman and felt so welcome and wanted. All he could taste was this moment, and all he could feel was her love. Her warm acceptance. Even though she didn’t approve of his Daimon lifestyle, she still loved him.
That was a miracle.
He trembled from the force of it and from the need he had to possess this woman who was the closest thing to Katateros he would ever know.
He pulled back and stared into her vibrant green, passion-dulled eyes. “You are beautiful,” he whispered.
She answered his words with another kiss that left his lips tingling. And he had to remind himself to be careful with his fangs. She wasn’t an Apollite.
Xyn was a dragon. And her boldness amazed and thrilled him. He pulled back slightly as she placed her lips to his jaw so that she could gently tongue her way down the line of it, teasing his whiskers. Urian closed his eyes as a thousand chills went through him.
Her breath electrified every part of him and made him harder than he’d ever been in his life. He nipped playfully at her earlobe and smiled as he felt the chills spring up along the length of her body beneath his hands. Her nipples tightened to rigid peaks that beckoned him to taste them.
Xyn sucked her breath in sharply as Urian dipped his head. Her senses reeling, she’d never felt anything like it. But then, she’d never been with a man before.
Because she’d been sequestered here so young, there hadn’t been anyone she’d wanted. And once free …
Her heart had stayed with Urian.
There was no need to find another when she knew it wouldn’t satisfy her. She wanted this … Daimon. Good or bad, he was the only one who made her heart race and made it weak and strong at the same time.
And when he picked her up to carry her to their cave, she laid her head on his shoulder, unable to believe it was real. How many times had she dreamed of this?
She gasped as they entered it. “You’ve kept it up?”
His eyes sparkled in the darkness. “It was all I had of you.”
Tears filled her eyes as she realized he’d turned it into a shrine. Everything was exactly as she’d left it. “You still come here?”
Laying her down on her pallet, he gave her a sheepish smile. “Only when I miss you.”
“It looks like you miss me a lot.”
“Of course I do.”
Her head swam as he laid his body over hers and his naked flesh collided with hers. The hard planes of his chest pressed against her breasts, which hardened ever more as they brushed against his muscled pecs.
Urian moaned against her lips as his hands pressed her hips closer to his. He could feel the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs against his swollen shaft as she ran her hands down his back.
Damn …
He was torn between ravaging her and taking his time. The two urges were killing him. He reached out and cupped her breasts in his hands, then skimmed his hand over her stomach toward her dark auburn curls. “Your skin is so flawless.”
“The beauty of being a dragon. The skin doesn’t take much damage.”
He smiled at that. Then dipped his head down to toy with her right breast.
Xyn hissed as tendrils of pleasure shot through her. He trailed kisses to her other breast. She moaned, marveling at the mixture of pleasure and desire he stoked.
He returned to her lips as his hands ran the length of her body, stroking and exploring everywhere they went. She craved his touch with a blinding need.
Honestly, she didn’t think anything could feel better until he ran his hand down her stomach and touched the center of her body. Xyn curled her fingers into his hair and arched her back against the intensity of that pleasure. Never had she felt anything like it as all the heat in her body pooled to the point where her legs met.
Suddenly, she felt Urian’s entire body stiffen as he pulled away from her with a curse.
“Did I do something wrong?”
His jaw slack, he stared at her in utter disbelief. “You’re a virgin?”
She blushed at his question. “I didn’t realize you’d be able to tell.”
He gaped even more. “Little bit, um, aye. You really weren’t going to tell me?”
“Why are you so angry?”
“I’m not angry.”
She gave him a mocking, pointed stare. “Really? Then what would you call that tone? Where I live, it’s not happy.”
“Confused.”
“Not even close.”
He snorted. “You’re being impossible. I’m upset that you’d hold back something so … so …”
“Personal?”
“Aye.”
“My business?”
He visibly cringed. “Now you’re making me feel bad.”
“Good. You should feel bad.” She tweaked the edge of his nose with her fingertip. “Actually, that’s not true, you should feel special that I want you.”
He took her hand in his and led it to his cheek and then his lips so that he could kiss her palm and then hold her hand against his heart so that he could stare into her eyes. “I’m just angry at myself. I wish I were as pure for you, Xyn. You deserve that.”
Those words touched her so deeply that for a moment she feared she might cry. Loving him more than she would have ever thought possible, she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him closer so that she could kiss him with everything she felt.
Growling, Urian rose up on his knees between her thighs. The expression on his face was one of utter desperation. “I’m sorry, Xyn. I can’t wait for you,” he whispered. “I want you too badly.”
She didn’t understand his words as her gaze ran down his muscled chest and lingered over the dark mark that covered his heart.
He kissed her, then gently entered her body.
Xyn cried out at the feeling of him deep and hard inside her as his muscled thighs pressed against hers. For a full minute, she couldn’t breathe. This was unlike anything she’d imagined. He was humongous! And it burned a lot more than she’d have ever thought.
“Are you all right?”
“Um-hmm.”
“The bleeding death grip on my back refutes those words.”
Sucking her breath in, she realized he was right and immediately withdrew her claws from his flesh. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, says the one who’s been flayed.” He glanced back at his side. “Is there a lot of blood loss?”
Xyn wrinkled her nose playfully. “Minimal.”
With a laugh, he leaned down to capture her lips before he began to slowly thrust against her hips.
Her body on fire, Xyn held her breath.
Urian buried his lips against her throat and made sure not to harm her with his fangs. He hated the way she remained tense. “Relax,” he breathed in her ear.
But she didn’t. If anything his words seemed to distress her more.
He cursed himself for not knowing what to do to alleviate her discomfort, but he’d never been with a virgin before. Wanting to make it better for her, he breathed in her ear and then ran his tongue over her lobe.
She immediately moaned in pleasure and ran her hands over his ribs. He could feel her supple form against him as she surrendered herself to his touch. His body burned with need, but he forced himself to move slowly so that he didn’t hurt her.
Xyn whimpered when Urian left her lips to nibble a trail down her cheek to her neck, and up to her ear. She writhed in pleasure as her body shook in response to his tongue while he swirled it around the outside, and then darted it inside the tender, sensitive flesh. Holy Olympus, she’d never imagined anything like this!
Forget dragons … she couldn’t imagine anything better!
His warm laugh echoed again. “Like that, do you?”
“’Deed I do.”
He moved lower with his kisses. To her breasts, her stomach. His warm breath tickled her while his whiskers gently scraped her skin as he licked her all over.
Xyn closed her eyes and savored the feel of his warm skin against hers while he rolled his body against hers in the most delectable strokes and nibbled her in time to them.
She buried her hands in his hair and lifted her hips to draw him in ever deeper. And this was why she knew she would never be able to share him with another woman. She felt too close to him right now.
This wasn’t simply sex. Not with him.
He was hers.
As a dragon, that meant something. For they were a jealous breed and they shared nothing.
But Urian would have to eat, and sex was part of that for his species. How she hated Apollo for what he’d done to Urian and his people. Damn him and all the gods of Olympus.
Staring up into those blue eyes, she knew that she’d never want anyone else. Not like this. He was her best friend. The only one she felt truly comfortable with.
In all things.
A strange light came into Urian’s eyes a moment before he stopped moving.
“Is something wrong?”
The most wicked of grins spread across his face before he slid out of her and shifted his body. Xyn wasn’t sure what he intended as he moved lower down her body. Not until he gently parted her tender folds and took her into his mouth.
Her head spinning, she cried out as pleasure ripped through her. Never had she felt anything more incredulous than the sensation of his tongue doing the most wicked things imaginable to her body.
Relentlessly, he teased her, making her body hotter and hotter. Her pleasure greater and greater.
Her ecstasy mounted until she was sure she’d die from it. And then, just as it became a very real possibility, her body exploded with pleasure far greater than anything she had ever experienced.
Throwing her head back, she screamed out in release as her entire body convulsed from a force unimaginable.
Urian took her hand into his and slid back inside her while her body was still in the throes of her orgasm.
She cried out even deeper in her throat, then pounded the ground with her fist.
“Are you all right?”
“Aye,” she breathed, wrapping her body around his with a dragon death roll.
Laughing, Urian closed his eyes to better savor the feel of her surrounding him. If he could, he’d stay like this forever. How he wished he could. That there were some way to convince her to stay.
But it wouldn’t be fair and he knew it. If only he could leave with her.
Yet sooner or later, he’d have to feed. While he could go back to blood donors, it was such a disgusting way to feed that he couldn’t bring himself to contemplate it.
Not really.
Why can’t I find a spell or a god who could lift this from me?
But there was really no hope.
Trying not to think about it, he moved slowly against her hips. Her sighs of mounting pleasure delighted him, especially when she began to move her hips so that she could meet his strokes.
And when his release came, he thought he’d go blind from it.
Xyn smiled as she felt him shuddering. Then he collapsed and gently laid himself over her like a blanket. She savored the sensation of his skin against hers. The feeling of him still inside her.
For the longest time he didn’t move but simply stayed there until she feared he’d fallen asleep.
Or worse, had died.
“Urian?”
“I’m here. Just thinking.”
“About?”
“The fact that when I get up, you’ll leave. And that when you do, my heart will go with you.” He lifted himself up on his arms. “Promise me something?”
“What?”
“That you’ll meet me at least once a year.”
“Uri—”
“It doesn’t have to be here, Xyn. I’ll meet you in the human world. Or wherever you pick. That way you don’t have to know about my meals, or even think about them. We’ll meet for one night. If you find someone who makes you happy, then we never have to meet again. You don’t even have to tell me. Just don’t show and I’ll know.”
“And if you find someone?”
He scoffed. “I swear that I won’t.”
Leaning up, Xyn kissed him. “All right. I’ll meet you. And if you ever stand me up for another woman, Urian Deathbringer, I’ll kill you both.”