Balt

 

I stared at the male lion shifter, trying to place him. His features were familiar to me, but it was like grasping after the remnants of a dream. His sneer grew pronounced as the two women flanking him moved in closer. Both were wearing long, black dresses, their hair braided and pinned up. Meanwhile, the man was wearing dark clothes and had a sword at his waist.

In the setting sun, the three of them looked like ancient guardians of the citadel.

“You don’t recognize me, younger cousin?” he asked in flawless English.

Shaking my head, I stared at him, then at the two women again. Suddenly, I saw that they were twins and their names came into my mind. Athena and Angele.

I could see them, two serious nine-year-olds with their eyes on the ground as my grandmother spoke. And this was their older brother, Altair.

Saying nothing, I glanced around, wondering if more family was about to pop out. The silence stretched on, with Altair glaring at us and the twins standing impassively on either side.

Raising an eyebrow, I said, “If there’s nothing else, we’re leaving,” I said, stepping forward, wanting nothing more to get Desmond and Piper out of there. The last thing we needed was a confrontation with my cousins. “Maybe we’ll catch up another time, Altair.”

"You do remember," Altair said, tilting his head and giving me a once-over. "You are quite the brute, cousin, but I assure you, you cannot hope to take on me and my sisters as well as protect the inanis.” Piper stepped forward, her eyes flashing and Altair looked nonplussed. “Who are you?”

“Piper Weslark,” she said in a strong, clear voice, putting her hands on her hips.

At that, Athena and Angele looked at each other and Altair looked taken aback. “We’d heard Baltsaros fell in with the Weslarks.” He gave Piper a derisive smile. “I hadn’t realized how far.”

Piper went to step forward and I caught her arm. “No.” I was looking at Athena and Angele, remembering how fast they’d been. “What do you want, Altair?”

“Not what I want,” Altair said carelessly. “You were spotted here when you arrived and word was sent to Kyría. She has requested you at the Main House.”

I sucked in a hard breath and shook my head. “That’s too bad. Tell her I’ll see her next time.”

“She knows you have questions, Baltsaros,” Athena spoke up now, her voice soft and sweet in Greek. “You came to the Mycenae seeking our family’s secrets. But you won’t find the answers here.” Her eyes landed on Piper and I was surprised to see a look of sadness cross her face.

“We do suggest your friends stay behind," Angele added.

“Oh no, we’re coming," Piper said in a loud, hard voice in perfect Greek.

All three of my cousins regarded her in surprise. Angele and Athena began to smile, while Altair gave her a look of grudging respect.

I hedged. While I’d always known I’d have to go back and see my family one day, I just hadn’t expected it to be today. Or with Piper and Desmond.

“You know what a summons means, Baltsaros,” Angele suddenly said. “Do not disregard it – she will take it as the deepest offense.” Her eyes were wide, urging me to say yes.

“Let’s not trespass on hospitality as well as sacred grounds,” Piper said under her breath to me. “Balt, it will be fine. We need to do this.”

Desmond came up on my other side. “You’ve wanted these answers for a long time.”

Nodding stiffly, I announced, “We’ll come.”

 

Less than a half-hour later, we were pulling up to the massive gate that cut the Kazan family property off from the rest of the town of Nafplion. Lions paced and snarled across the two doors, captured and brought to eerie life within the twisting metal. My hands clenched the wheel as we drove up the drive to the house upon the hill, the house lit up brilliantly. If someone didn’t know any better, you’d think it was overflowing with people.

But if it was anything like my childhood, it was empty, with cold rooms and beds with no occupants. A ghostly remnant of what once was, still clinging to days long past. Once inside, Angele and Athena took pity on us, while Altair strode ahead and vanished up the stairs.

“Come with us and you can get freshened up,” Athena whispered.

“I can bring you clothes, too, if you’d like,” Angele offered.

The foyer was smaller than I remembered, all black and white marble, though the statues of lions in the alcoves were still massive and imposing. Passing through, we went down a long hall to a bathroom. Here, we scrubbed off the dirt and sweat of the long hours at Mycenae.

In the mirror, I looked wild. My hair was long and my beard badly in need of a trim. Whenever my father and I had visited, he’d always been clean-shaven and well-dressed.

Angele came back with clothes, handing pants and shirts to Desmond and me, while Piper received a white dress shot with gold and silver patterns. Her hair was also unruly from the day and she gratefully accepted a headband from Athena.

As Desmond and I changed, he commented, “This isn’t exactly what I was picturing.”

“What, empty opulence?” I asked, my voice hard. Then I winced. “Sorry.”

“Yes, actually.” Desmond shook his head. “Does she live alone, your grandmother?”

“I think my aunts live here.” I paused. “The widowed ones, I mean.”

We met Piper and the twins in the hall and for a moment I forgot where we were. The gown, hugging her body, rendered her a goddess, with the gold headband holding back her tumbling curls.

“Come along,” Angele said. Walking along, she slipped up next to me and her fingers brushed my arm, then caught my wrist and turned it towards her. There was the black mark of the Kazan and her face fell. “I was hoping you wouldn’t get it, little cousin,” she said in a whisper. “We all prayed you’d be spared since it didn’t–”

She cut off abruptly as we turned a corner and saw Altair waiting up ahead, his scowl evident even from here. As he lifted up his hands to rake back his hair, I almost stopped in my tracks. Only a gold tattoo swirled across his forearm. No black.

Jealousy surged through me and when Altair shot me a dark look, I returned it. Surprise flashed over his face and then he smiled. For a moment, I saw the cousin I’d once known.

But as soon as it appeared, it passed.

Altair was nothing like the jubilant, laughing boy I could now remember. One who had loved all animals and taken care of the many cats roaming the grounds.

Now he was hard and mangled, bitten to the core by life.

The double doors jumped from memories as we turned to them. Dark wood, now peeling and tarnished gold handles. Altair knocked politely and then opened them, ushering us in.

Shadows danced and leaped inside the dim room. Only lit by candles, the flames sputtered in the breeze coming through the open windows. Along the walls were huge vases with plants overflowing from them. Trees stood between them, their branches crowding the ceiling. The whole place had the feel of a room receding into a forest.

Ahead was an ornate, claw-footed desk with a black marble top. A woman sat behind it, almost melting into the shadows. She wore all black, from her dress to the scarf wound around her hair. The pale light washed out her skin to the point where she looked like a statue. Her stiff posture didn’t help – she sat erect, hands folded in her lap and chin tilted up. Long diamond earrings fell from her ears and her dark gaze was as fathomless as the night sky. Kyría Kazan.

Angele and Athena held back Desmond and Piper as I continued to walk forward with Altair.

Kyría’s eyes flashed over me, then went to Angele. “Well?” She prompted in Greek.

I heard my cousin hesitate, then answer, “He has it, my lady.”

“I told Kyros as much. But he was a stubborn man, my youngest.” My grandmother was looking at me now. “You have your mother’s eyes, Baltsaros, but you could be my Nilos otherwise. Standing there and demanding to be exempted from honored family traditions. What an impudent boy he was, my eldest. But loving and full of life.”

I said nothing. Her voice was different than I remembered. Older and more careworn, lacking that hard, stubborn conviction which had made it pure ice.

“So, Baltsaros. Today you went to the Mycenae, hoping to find what, exactly?” She paused and I gazed at her. “Of course. Well, this is because you only know the bits and pieces your uncle told you of our family’s ‘curse,’ hm?” She shook her head. “I wanted to take you back after his death. But Kyros had already arranged for the Weslarks to take you and his poor daughter in should something happen to him and Maria. Foresight I would not have credited him with.”

I swallowed. I’d never known that. Did my uncle know that he might not live to see Isla and I grow up? How did Kyría know? And what did she know about Isla?

“To think I lost a son, daughter, and granddaughter all in one year.” Looking away from me, I thought I saw that proud mouth tremble. “A cruel fate visited on an innocent babe. I’d wanted to meet her – my youngest grandchild. I’d hoped perhaps then the rift between Kyros and I could have been healed.” She looked back. “Instead, my hand was moved to seek revenge.”

“Revenge?” I asked, startled. Did Kyría know the TLO was involved?

Her eyes were cold as she looked back at me. “Revenge on the Frost family, of course. Their meddling and murderous ways took my youngest son and granddaughter.” A strange feeling of guilt and relief went through me. Kyría didn’t know about Isla. Abruptly she stood. “Altair, twins, please take these other two and have Syma feed them. I need to talk to Baltsaros alone.”

Piper let out a noise and darted forward. “I’m staying,” she said in Greek, grabbing my arm and daring my grandmother to say otherwise. Internally, I groaned and tried to shake my head. Now Piper glared up at me. “I am staying.”

“You must be Piper Weslark.” My grandmother raised an eyebrow at her. “You are your father’s child, I see. Though you look like Palila.” Kyría permitted herself a smile at our astonished gazes. “They attended the wedding of your mother and father, Balt.”

Glancing back, I nodded at Desmond. "Go with them, it's fine," I said. “See you in a bit.”

He looked bewildered but allowed himself to be lead from the room with the twins, while Altair followed and hovered on the doorstep. He seemed on the verge of saying something, but then nodded curtly and closed the door behind him.

“A Weslark and a Kazan,” my grandmother said, walking from the table over to the chairs by the tall window and gesturing at them. “Your grandfather would have been delighted. He was a believer in strengthening the bloodlines of shifters.”

“It’s not like that,” I said in a tight voice.

Settling herself down, my grandmother sighed and nodded. “Of course not.” My heart was pounding rapidly and I almost asked Piper to leave, when she added, “You have the mark.”

“Yes,” I said in a low voice.

“And you believe yourself cursed?” My grandmother’s mouth twisted with dark humor.

“Isn’t that what it means?” I asked bitterly. “The mark of death?”

Piper’s fingers tightened on my arm and I thought I could sense her heart racing just below her skin. She was poised and ready to fight, my Piper, but against what, she didn’t know.

“No, it means you’re a Kazan, boy, nothing more,” my grandmother said in a dismissive tone. “It has been a mark of our family for centuries.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said in a hard voice, suddenly starting to get angry. This woman, who I’d been terrified of as a child, who’d become a target of my anger and bitterness as a man, sat there and smiled at me like nothing was wrong. Our lives were mere fodder for Kazan pride. “But then, you don’t care who dies and lives in this family, do you, Yiayia?”

Kyría’s face went white and I saw her hand tighten on the armrest. “Watch your tongue.”

“I’ve watched it long enough,” I retorted, my voice growing louder and stronger. “Tell me what this mark means – tell me why we are cursed. Or I will find out for myself.”

“The Shifters of Anubis have done a number on you, haven’t they?” Kyría asked. “And this American, too.” Her gaze flicked to Piper. “Your father stood there with the same look on his face almost thirty-seven years ago, saying much of the same. I will tell you what I told him.”

Sitting back, my heart thundered in my chest and Piper moved closer.

“There is no curse. What the Kazan family has is merely insurance.” She arched an eyebrow at the sound of disbelief I made. “In the late 1600’s, an enterprising member of our family began to research a way to protect his children and all future descendants.

“Kyros Kazan – the man your uncle was named after. For in antiquity, the stories told us our family had been part of the order who bestowed the rites to turn inanis into bellator sacroanimalis.

“However, most of those rites had been lost. But with the help of some advances in science, a grandson of Kyros was able to take those pieces and create a new ritual.”

Just like Frost, I thought with horror. “What?” I asked harshly.

“Don’t look like that boy. This is what ensured the proud Kazan line of the lion-born would continue forever. His name was Nilos. Your father was his namesake, boy. Remember that.”

Her eyes glittered strangely and she stood up, walking over to a cabinet standing along the wall. Lifting up her necklace, I saw there was a key on the end, which she used to unlock it. From what I could tell, there was almost nothing inside, but she reverently lifted up a small gold box and brought it back. Slowly, my grandmother smiled as she opened it.

There, nestled on a cushion of silk, was a silver metal lion head about the size of a fist. It was snarling, with two sharp fangs glinting in the light. Carefully, Kyría picked it up, turning it over so we could see the back. Here it was clear, with liquid moving inside and a latch above it.

“What is this?” I asked, my stomach churning. My body was tingling with dread as I looked from the strange talisman to Kyría. Part of me almost didn’t want to know the answer.

“Capitis Leonis. The Head of the Lion. Sometimes called the Blood Lion.” Kyría answered, closing the box with a snap and looking over at Piper. “On the day, a Kazan male is wed, the bride is pricked by its fang. Inside is Nilos’s elixir. One that lays dormant in a woman until she becomes pregnant. Then, it goes to work, activating the genes in the babe that will make it a lion shifter.” Bile rose in my throat and my body went cold as Kyría smiled happily at Piper, then looked at me. “That, my dear Baltsaros, is de leonis sacrosantcum. The Lion Blood ritual of the Kazan family.”

My stomach was now churning and my lips felt numb. Looking down at the mark, I suddenly realized. “I’m not a true shifter. You’ve been altering the DNA of unborn babes…” I swallowed down my revulsion. “And Shifters of Anubis found out and banned you, didn’t they?”

“Hmph, it only took them three-hundred years,” my grandmother muttered. “And no, not exactly. They never knew for certain, but rumors were spreading. Honestly, they became jealous. Why your uncle decided to prostrate himself at their feet and bring you down along with him, I’ll never understand.”

The room seemed to be spinning around and only Piper’s icy fingers were keeping me hinged to reality.

“Ah, now,” Kyría said. “I did tell your father after he was already wed about this. So at least I did you the small mercy of telling you ahead of time, Baltsaros,” my grandmother said cruelly. “You can’t say I’m not generous. This is our grand legacy, don’t you see?” Her eyes were shining. “We have found out a way to always birth lion shifters. Sacrifice for blood by the tooth,” she quoted in a dreamy voice. “Forevermore, we are the lion-born.”

“Except for the part where those same babes born as men die early deaths,” I said.

At that, she swallowed and looked away. “There is no proof of that, boy.”

“My father,” I snarled. “My uncle! My grandfather, too. None of them lived past their late thirties or early forties.” I paused, thinking back on Kyros’s notes, as something suddenly became clear to me. “He left to look for a cure – a real one – for me. That’s why he sacrificed everything he’d known – why he went to Shifters of Anubis.” Another realization hit me. “My father’s dying wish was for me to be free, was it not?” She didn’t answer. “Was it not?!”

“Free from what?” Kyría asked, looking down and straining to hide her agitation.

“This twisted legacy!” I cried. “You’ve all been lying to yourselves to try to justify the terrible fate you’re visiting on your own family. Pride above lives. And you, you sit there, trying to pretend the Kazan family didn’t trick you into living out this nightmare.” Her lips flattened. “I guarantee they didn’t tell you what Capitis Leonis was on your wedding night.” She looked at me and said nothing. “Yiayia, please. Do you know of a way to stop it?”

Her lips pursed. “No. And if I did, it would be unspeakable.”

“Tell me,” I snapped.

“I’ll tell you this. You hold your uncle in such great esteem.” Kyría said bitterly. “He was a fool. Getting into bed with the Frost family after they tried to rob us – after they tried to get us to reveal the secrets of the Kazan’s. And then your uncle goes and tells them everything.”

“What?” I asked, swallowing hard and pulling away from Piper.

No, it can’t be…

Uncle Kyros wouldn’t have worked with them… Not with the Frost’s…

“I’ve heard rumors, Baltsaros,” Kyría said. “Your uncle has brought shame on our line with his actions. Forming the TLO, kidnapping the inanis who come from the bloodlines of shifters and trying to use the rites to force them to become shifters. Lilith Frost started it. She wanted her child to be a shifter as much as your uncle wanted you not to be one. Between him, Maria and Lilith, they were the founders. It’s time you knew. That is the Kazan family secret.”

My mind went blank as Piper demanded in an incredulous, hard voice, “Really? How did you know and Shifters of Anubis didn’t?”

“Please,” Kyría snorted. “What loyalty do I have to the order that spurned the Kazan name – only agreeing to take in Kyros and Balt after Kyros promised - promised…” She huffed. “It doesn’t matter how I know. And I only have put all of this together in the last few years, as you have. It wasn’t easy tracking down information about Kyros and his death.

“Nor did Shifters of Anubis ever know the true extent of the Lion Blood ritual, only that we were meddling with things they didn’t agree with. In our shifter world, they are not our kings – they are our guardians. Who gave them the power to dictate how a lineage should be continued?”

“They were trying to save lives,” I said slowly. “They must have realized that Kazan males were dying out at an extraordinary rate by the same random and diagnosable disease.” I stared at my grandmother. “You didn’t create some kind of boon for shifters – you created a cancer. One that is now in the hands of maniacs like Lilian Frost. She did manage to steal the rites. Do you know what the Frost family has done, grandmother? What she did to Kai? What she tried to do to Isla? Although she technically succeeded, so I suppose you’d be happy.”

“Isla?” My grandmother asked and too late I realized I’d gone too far. Piper grabbed my arm, her fingers digging in and I bit my cheek hard. “Why do you say that name like it should mean something to me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I asked bitterly.

Kyría’s face contorted and she stood. “I’ve told you all I know.”

“At least have the courtesy not to lie to your grandson,” I said in a cold voice. A wild idea darted into my head and my heart began to pound. “I’ll tell you about Isla if you tell me the cure.”

“Balt!” Piper whispered, outraged.

My grandmother shot a cruel smile at Piper. “It seems you have more Kazan cutthroat instincts than I thought, Baltsaros.” She paused, studying Piper who glared back at her. “And I have to hand it to you – a Weslark is quite a catch for a Kazan.”

I pulled away from Piper and crossed my arms. “That’s none of your business.” Horror and remorse were rising in me. What am I playing at? I’m giving Kyría too many openings.

“I knew when Kyros took you overseas you’d find a shifter mate I’d be proud of.” I recoiled and Piper even stepped back as Kyría stepped forward and spread her hands. “I have to admit, I hoped it would be a family of note. And you’ve restored some honor to our name with those close-minded fools in Shifters of Anubis. Piper, you’d make a fine Kyría someday.”

Piper made a sound and then turned, storming the length of the room and exiting with a loud bang. Part of me wanted to go after her, but I stood and stared at my grandmother.

“I’ll think about your offer,” Kyría said, looking bored and she rang a bell. “Now leave. You’ve taken up more than enough of my time.”