The Seer sighed and shifted her robes around her. She didn’t often wear the full ceremonial regalia, but she’d come here to ask a favor. A big favor, and she thought wearing something official might help seal the deal.
Thalos could be an arrogant and stubborn male when he wanted to be, but he owed her one. She was there to collect. She watched as the male completed another length of the pool, his powerful arms slicing through the water. Last time she’d seen him had been over a decade ago, and he had not aged one day.
“Are you going to make me wait much longer? This sun is bad for my skin.”
The heat of the Corfiot sun beat down on her, and secretly, she loved it, but it didn’t do to give the hired help too much leeway.
He did one more length and then clambered out of the pool. Golden limbs dripped with sparkling water, his shoulder-length blond hair darker than usual, wet through as it was.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?”
He grabbed a towel and wiped himself down, looking every inch the swimwear model he wasn’t. What he did with his days, she had no idea.
“I need your help.”
He nodded. “Thought as much. You don’t often come visit for a chat and a coffee.”
She laughed. “As if you’d want me to.”
“So, out with it. What do you want?”
“Oh, Thalos, stop with the politeness and manners and say what you think.” She batted her lashes at him, but he didn’t smile. He also didn’t appear remotely cowed by her. She could make the biggest bear shifters tremble. Strike fear in the hearts of centuries-old vampires, but Thalos merely looked at her with impatience.
“I need your help. And you won’t like what I ask of you.”
He sighed. “Again, I thought as much.” He gestured to a table on one side of the sun lounger where he now sat, and she looked to see a pitcher of ice water and some glasses. She nodded and sat on the lounger opposite him.
“Are you aware of the herd of horse shifters that have been living out their lives in mainland Greece?”
He poured her some water and nodded. “The ones who shun all human society and live mostly in their horse form? Yeah, I’ve heard of them. There’s a couple, aren’t there? The freaks.”
“Whoa… They are your kin, so don’t speak of them in such a way. And, yes, there are a few. The Lysee are the bigger herd and the most well-known. The herd I speak of is a smaller group who live nearer to this side of the mainland.”
He took a sip of water, the long column of his throat working as he swallowed. “Not my kin, Seer. I’m a Centaur, not a horse shifter. And my kin are nearly all dead and gone. And as you are well aware, when I first became able to shift form, those damn shifters shunned me.”
“Well, that’s ancient history now. A long time ago, Thalos. You haven’t done badly in life.” She indicated the luxury in which he lived. As far as she knew, he had a companion too. Some witch who lived with him. Although, she wasn’t sure if their relationship was platonic or romantic.
“Perhaps not. But those horse shifters can go to hell.”
She gave him a long look. “Well, it’s too bad you feel this way because the herd I speak of are now nearly all dead. Wiped out in a bloody massacre a month ago.”
For a moment, she saw a brief crack in his façade. A second when sorrow filtered into his green gaze, but he blinked and it was gone.
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure yet, but someone slaughtered them. On purpose. There are two elderly males left alive and a young female. She’s a shifter, but she’s rarely been in her human form since hitting adulthood. She has no understanding of the modern world, and now, no home left among her kind. The two males have been keeping her company on a ranch owned by a vampire, of all things, but it’s no future for her. She either spends her life in equine form and lives with those two old males, or…well, someone helps her understand her dual nature. Helps her learn the ways of modern human society, so she can go and perhaps live with one of the shifter herds in America or Canada.”
“And you think I’m the best person to do so?”
“I can’t think of anyone better.” She waved her arms to take in the stunning villa. “After all, Thalos, you seem to like the finer things in life. I think after spending some time here with you, she’ll be civilized enough to fit in on any ranch and with any modern shifter herd. Don’t you?”
He narrowed his eyes at the slight sarcasm in her tone. “Let the old men do it for her. The others who are left alive.”
Gods, but he could be infuriating. She gritted her teeth and plastered a pleasant smile on her face. “I’m not leaving her education to two males who have spent their lives living mostly in their animal form—and who shun all other contact with shifters and any others of their kind. If I send her straight to a herd, they’ll immediately pick up on how different she is. Herds are tight-knit, and they may reject her. Most certainly, make life difficult.”
He watched her through half-closed eyes. “Say I do this for you. What, then? What happens to her when I’ve taught her how to live in her human form so she can straddle both worlds? You’ll send her to one of these modern shifter herds?”
“Well, then she can choose, can’t she? She can choose to go and live with other shifters who spend far more time in their human form than she ever has. I thought perhaps, as I said, one of the North American herds. They won’t accept her now, not as she is.”
“No. You know what? Not interested.”
He stood and stalked into the house through the open glass doors. She followed him, welcoming the cool of the reception room. And wow, what a room. He clearly had a taste for the opulent. She looked around at the marble floor, the huge Persian rug covering half the room, and the art on the walls. “Did you become a shipping magnate or something in the decades since we last met?”
He turned to her and laughed. “No. I cashed in some investments. Decided to live a little. I’d grown a touch…bored.”
“So, you decided to live like a movie star? I don’t see how this home, as palatial as it is, stops the boredom.”
“The finer things in life can make up for a lot,” he drawled.
“Yes, they can. But what you need is a challenge.”
He scoffed at her. “And I suppose that challenge comes in the form of a young female horse shifter who needs help adjusting to a new life, right?”
“Yes. It will do you good.” And then she went in for the kill. “And you owe me.”
He narrowed his eyes at her and then sank his still wet derriere down on a white couch, making her frown. “You’ll stain your sofa with the water.”
He shrugged. “Leather.”
She hid her surprise. Most horse shifters would not have leather in the house. But then again, Thalos was so much more than a mere shifter, and he’d clearly never forgiven the shifters for their rejection.
“I owe you, yes. But this is asking too much, Seer.”
“Too much!” She had been reining in her temper, but now he’d pissed her off, to use modern parlance. No one spoke to her that way. She was treated with deference and respect.
“Look here.” She pointed a finger at him. “The only reason you’re sitting dripping on your couch in that pretty human body is because of me. I helped you secure a way to live in a dual form, either fully horse or fully man. Until I helped you, you were stuck in the body of a Centaur. Unable to play among the humans. Not welcomed by the animals either, and after the death of Chiron, ignored by the gods too. I gave you the life you have, with the help of magic from some friends. I gave you, and the others remaining of your kind, immortality and the skills to shift. That’s a pretty big debt from where I’m sitting, and I’ve never asked you to pay…but now I am.”
She sighed and decided to be honest with him. “Things are happening, Thalos. The Kikan Myre are active again.”
She referred to the so-called dark creatures of their kind. Supernatural beings who lived hidden away in the shadows and who now seemed to be planning increasingly regular attacks against shifter communities. “They’re working against the shifters, launching assaults. I can’t be sure they didn’t commit this terrible crime. They want to restart the war against humanity, and to do so, they seem to think they have to decimate those among us who believe in peace. Right now, the only thing standing in their way is my Warriors.”
He didn’t look particularly bothered. Gods, he’d become so jaded. She realized then, he did need this, maybe as much as she needed him to do it. He’d grown callous. Bored of life. Everything came too easily to him. He’d become very rich, not difficult when you’d been alive since the days of Ancient Greece. He didn’t look a day over thirty, and she knew for a fact he’d spent decades indulging in the pleasures of the flesh. Now he lived in lonely grandeur, high on this hill overlooking the bay of Corfu Town. Only a female witch for company, and she’d bet good money the woman wasn’t a lover of his. A male in love wouldn’t be so utterly relaxed about the Kikan Myre once more posing a threat.
She looked out of the doors again to the view beyond. A beautiful spot, but she sensed it had become a luxurious prison of sorts for him. She took a stab in the dark.
“I know you’ve grown bored of playing among humanity. You could join my Warriors. You’re more than capable, but you’d hate working in a team. You’re too intelligent to waste away up on this hill, like some sort of superrich hermit. You need to do something, and this is going to be good for you. Besides which, you don’t have much of a choice. The magic used to give you two forms can be reversed, and you can spend your days half man, half beast again. Torso of a human male, legs of a horse—if you’d prefer?”
She was bluffing, but he didn’t have to know as much.
He narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”
She narrowed hers right back. “Try me, Centaur.”
“Fuck.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Okay. I’ll do it. But why does this female matter so much?”
The Seer smiled. “She would matter anyway, but interestingly, she’s more like you than her shifter brethren. Her mother comes from an ancient line traced directly back to the ancient gods and goddesses themselves.”
Thalos stared at her a moment, his eyes widening. “She’s a goddess?”
“No. But, unlike most horse shifters, she has powerful and ancient blood in her veins, or so I believe. I want her kept safe. Alive. And I want her to have the choice of how she lives. One of those choices will be to join the fight against the Kikan Myre. The American herds are beginning to organize to protect themselves against attack. The British one too. The Scottish wolfpack has been targeted numerous times, and they are spreading the word among the British shifter community. She might not want any part of it, but at least she gets a choice. However, to be able to have a choice in the first place, she needs to be able to fit in. Which is where you come in.”
He blew out a heavy breath and glanced at the floor. When he looked up at her, she saw the resignation in his gaze. He didn’t like it, but he was going to do it.
Her heart quickened as relief soared in her chest. Thank God, because without help, the young female would struggle to acclimate to life as a shifter. The Seer had always thought the way the Greek herd lived was crazy, with their belief that the gods and goddesses were still watching over them and wanted them to endure an austere life. She’d tried to tell them the gods and goddesses were long gone and to enjoy their lives in the here and now, but they didn’t listen and that wasn’t her decision to make. Now, the Kikan Myre, those of their kind who wanted to bring only death and destruction, had possibly targeted the herd and nearly wiped them out. The young female was in a very vulnerable position.
The Seer stood and leaned over Thalos, giving him a quick hug. “I will bring her to you tomorrow. She’s spent years in horse form. It won’t do her any good to spend more time that way. If she comes here, you can get her used to living in her human form the majority of the time, the way other shifters do. Since she was a child, when the herd did at least get the children to live in their human form for their schooling, she’s been mostly spending her days as a horse. Once she’s adept at changing form regularly and living in her human skin, and you think she will be able to fit in, call me and we can see what she wants to do.”
As she reached the door, she turned to look back at Thalos. She hoped he wouldn’t be this cold with the female. The poor girl had lost everything.
“Until tomorrow. And try to find your empathy switch. Turn it back on.”
She didn’t wait for a reply as she swept her robes around her and left.