"Let's head out then," Jared spoke up. "We've still got a lot of ground to cover after that."

I wiped my cheeks. There would be time for tears later. Jared was right. We needed to bury our dead and move on. The living were counting on us... at least, I hoped they were.

Chapter Seventeen.

XERXES.

I walked down the row of cells where the soldiers had locked up the Lycans caught in the raid. One of the Djinn stood guard in the black uniform of the SECR. He was still a low ranking soldier. Most of the Djinn in the SECR had been pushed by Manda into officer positions.

His blueish eyes caught my scrutinizing gaze, and he looked to the floor. Only the smallest hint of lavender showed through the special contacts, making him invisible as an Other to the humans around him.

I had Djinn hiding in a dozen different SECR units along with Manda as the Secretary of Defense for the entire Republic of the South East Coast. Her position was the only reason I hadn't retired her rebellious a.s.s to a quppu box and thrown her in a closet. She was too valuable an a.s.set in their government.

I shouldn't be surprised. She had a military mind. She did lead her people for nearly two thousand years before I took over. But she should have hidden her father better. With him as my puppet, she had no sway over her people. They would always answer to their king. And he wore my enchantment, which meant he answered to me.

Manda wore the same enchantment now, but I knew that b.i.t.c.h still tried to sidestep my orders when she could.

Like what had happened at the attack on the bridge.

They were supposed to kill that b.i.t.c.h of a vampire, Eira. But instead, she'd only brought me angry wolves. None of them would desert their pack. None would ever work for me. They knew too much. And they were loyal to that blood-sucking b.i.t.c.h.

Without Eira to help them sneak in and out of the SECR, the Masons were just a bunch of dogs scurrying around for sc.r.a.ps. I wanted the Lycans still living in the SECR to be enlisted into my private army. Many had already agreed and joined, but the Masons kept sneaking them away.

Slowly but surely, I would replace humans with supernaturals until I had complete control of the entirety of the government. The broken-up United States was the perfect breeding ground for building a new empire. Europe was already controlled by too many powerful supernaturals. It would be a bloodbath not even I was willing to take on, but here... here in the SECR, I could gain a solid foothold.

h.e.l.l, I already owned the Secretary of Defense. The presidency wasn't far behind.

I stopped in front of one cell and stared at the man behind the bars.

His brown eyes glowed yellow, and a growl rumbled from his chest.

I raised my hand and grabbed his neck with my magick. The woman in the cell to his right screamed for me to stop. A younger brunette to his left cried out in protest. These were Eira's personal friends. The Mason alpha pair and their daughter ... Charlotte.

The alpha didn't struggle against my magick. Resignation burned in his angry yellow gaze. He knew he was about to die, yet he refused beg for his life.

His indifference was irritating. He knew who I was, and still he didn't quake in my presence. Fine. I'd just have to use a different tactic to break him down. I enjoyed pain and suffering whenever possible. It's what made me an excellent guard dog in Babylon. I relished a good fight. Enjoyed killing those who tried to enter the temple of Shamesh without permission.

I glanced away from him, dropped him to the floor with a thud, and turned my attention to the sobbing woman in the cell on his right. If he wouldn't beg for his life, perhaps he would beg for hers. A smile tugged at my lips. Perhaps a little fun could be had from this situation after all.

"You will lose this war, Xerxes," the alpha Lycan growled, climbing back to his feet.

I stepped to the right and motioned to the Djinn guard at the end of the hall to open the cell. "What war are you fighting, Lycan? Because from where I'm standing, it certainly appears that I'm winning."

The guard slid open the reinforced steel door, and I stepped inside with the alpha female.

"Mom!" Charlotte screamed from her cell. "You leave her alone, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

The woman in front of me trembled, but said nothing. Strong and stubborn like her mate.

I lifted my hand and took a deep breath, feeling my magick wrap around her, a constrictor crushing its prey. Her heart raced, and her breathing was rapid and shallow. She might not be screaming for her life, but her body was. I pulled a long knife from the sheath at my waist.

"Please." His voice was broken and choked with emotion.

There it was.

He would beg for his wife.

"Please? You brought your family to my doorstep, Lycan. You handed me your pack, pulling them from the relative safety of their homes into my territory." I slid the knife down her throat, pressing in just enough to slice the top layer of skin. Crimson flowed in rivulets down her white neck where they disappeared beneath the collar of her black shirt. "You did this to her." The words tasted so good coming out. I glanced back at the male and felt a flutter of satisfaction. His expression was pained and desperate now, even a bit guilt-ridden.

The female growled and snarled, but didn't have a chance in h.e.l.l of slipping loose from my magickal straightjacket. I raised my hand, levitating her off the floor, and pushing her arms up so they extended over her head.

"Please, kill me and let my family and pack go. They will stop coming into the SECR. They'll disappear and you'll never see them again."

"'Let my people go'? That's original." I turned toward him with a smile, pulled the knife away from his wife's neck, and then plunged it deep into her stomach.

The male lunged for me, reaching through the bars in a desperate attempt to pull me off his wife. The girl screamed and called me some names I hadn't heard in years. The sound was music to my ears. They would pay for their interference, and then that b.i.t.c.h of a vampire would pay, too.

I turned to the female alpha. Blood darkened her black shirt, and clung to her abdomen where I'd stabbed her. A pool spread across the floor as well.

"I really don't like people meddling in my business. You dogs thought Manda was your ticket in and out without being touched. Well, guess again. Manda belongs to me."

I jammed the knife into her stomach again, twisting the blade. The scent of her punctured bowels smelled of sweet, agonizing death. Pulling the weapon free, I shoved it into her lower diaphragm. Once, twice, again. Her moans mixed with the sound of her choking, the wheeze of punctured lungs, and the exhale of b.l.o.o.d.y gasps. Her werewolf DNA and magick attempted to heal her body, but eventually, the wounds would be too much.

"Let her go!" the male snarled again. "My love, I'm so sorry."

"I l-love you," the bleeding woman choked out.

"Oh f.u.c.k, isn't that sweet?" I drew the knife across her throat, cutting deeply, and released her from my hold. She fell to the floor with a thud, and I stepped out of the cell as her blood spread across the floor to the cells on her right and left. "Now it's your turn," I said, pointing the b.l.o.o.d.y knife at the enraged man.

Glancing down the row, I noted that Charlotte was curled up on the floor in the corner of her cell, sobbing. But she was the only one. The other Lycans in the cells up and down the aisle shouted obscenities and rattled their doors.

It was utterly useless. I could care less if they howled for hours. Their pain brought only pleasure to my ears. No one could hear them outside of this soundproofed concrete room.

Chapter Eighteen.

EIRA.

I knelt beside the still body of Chad and cursed away the tears that threatened to fall. His body was not the only lifeless on the ground. The entire field was soaked in the blood of Lycans I'd called friends for so many years.

My fingers feathered over his open gla.s.sy eyes and closed them so he could rest more peacefully. The initial bullet wounds in his chest should have been something he could've recovered from, but the darts had incapacitated him enough for the soldiers to slit his throat.

Emotion welled inside me, and I wipe away tears from my face. They continued to trail down my cheeks, and I let them go. These were my friends. Family. I'd been with the Mason pack almost twenty years. Fighting by their side to save their kind from those who would hunt and kill them.

My species were natural loners, but I'd never been able to turn away from anyone who needed help -human or Other. Rose was right on that account. I'd been protecting people for so long I couldn't remember a time when I hadn't.

Killian's hand rested on my shoulder. "What can we do, Eira?"

I swallowed a sob and tried to clear my battleground of a mind. "There." I pointed to the edge of the forest about twenty yards in front of me. "I'll dig the graves if you can help move their bodies and find some stone to mark the site."

"I'll let the guys know. We can dig the graves if you need to take a moment."

My head started shaking. "No. We don't have time to wait. I'll do it."

I blurred from his side to the rear door of the SUV I'd ridden in. I pulled the large steel shovel from the storage area and then blurred to the spot next to the tree line I'd pointed out. It was a beautiful ridge overlooking the bank of the river. It would be a good place. Peaceful.

I had the graves dug a few minutes later. All twelve.

Ten people were missing, and I prayed that they were still alive.

The men gently placed the bodies inside the graves, I took a moment to say a prayer to the old G.o.ds for each lost friend then covered them with the cold soil. One by one, Mikjall followed along behind me, burning the names of the fallen into the large stones he'd pulled from the riverbed.

I leaned against Killian, watching as Mikjall burned Chad's name into the flat rock he'd found to mark the Lycan's grave. The heat from the young dragon's finger burned hotter than a blowtorch and singed the rock permanently. It was the best that could be done for now. Later, we would return for them and bury them closer to home. For now, they were protected from the elements and wildlife.

A low howl echoed from the forest behind the graves. I turned toward the sound and took a deep breath.

"It's Lycan," Travis said, reading my mind. He and his brother shifted in mere moments, their clothing faded into fur, and they bounded into the brush on four paws.

"Mikjall, can you see them?" I turned to the tall, dark-haired Drakonae male.

He met my gaze for a moment, his eyes blank and without emotion. Then I watched as his eyes glowed flame orange, and he focused his gaze into the forest where Travis and Garrett had disappeared. His heat vision would allow him to see through the brush.

"They are nearly to the wolf. I can see them running." He took a step to the side, like he was trying to see around something. "They've gotten to him and all three have shifted to human form. The third is moving slowly. Travis and Garrett are supporting him as he walks."

"You don't see any other heat signatures?" Remembering how Manda had used witches to cloak the soldiers last time we were here made me nervous. If they were using magick to fight now, everything had changed. We had to fight magick with magick, which meant risking exposing even more of our kind to humans.

"No. They are the only people around for miles." He looked toward me, and his eyes returned to their natural brown shade. "Even if there was a spell, I could see through it. We are alone."

Relief and thankfulness for the dragon settled into my heart. I touched his arm. He jerked, but didn't pull away. "Thank you for coming to help."

His brow creased, and he shrugged away from my touch. "I am here to take my vengeance on the man who took my wife from me. If I can help others he has wronged in the process, Isl would approve."

"She wouldn't want you to die before you succeeded in making Xerxes pay."

"Don't worry, little vampire. I won't."

The corners of his mouth turned up into a wicked smile. Had my blood not already been cold, he could've iced it over. His anger came from a place I'd been at one time. Alone. Frightened. Everything I'd know had been taken from me. If Xerxes were anything other than a Lama.s.su, he'd be a dead man the second Mikjall walked into the same room with him. But as it stood, I feared for the carnage we might see if Mikjall loosed his wrath in Savannah, the military base of the SECR.

"You better not turn into a f.u.c.king fire-breathing lizard while we are trying to break the Masons out," Alek said from across Chad's grave. "Not only is that a stupid idea, the SECR has weapons you've never even imagined. I remember how your mother almost died. Two holes in her stomach, both the size of a man's fist. It took old blood magick to save her. Stick close to us, like we've trained you, Mikjall. Time for vengeance may come soon or it may come later. You must be patient or your thirst for it will destroy you and us. As Eira has said, your beloved would not want that."

I glanced to Alek. His hair was s.h.a.ggy, and he had at least two days of stubble on his face. At first glance, other than his large size, no one would think he was anything other than human. But it was a perfect facade. He could shift as quickly as the Lycans, but was much more deadly. Unlike the wolves, he was bigger -weighing in at two-tons of bad-a.s.s winged lion-eagle. Diana told me she'd seen him stop a brawl outside the Castle with a mere display of his Gryphon body. The two Lycans in question had separated and disappeared from Main Street Circle before he'd returned to human form.

He couldn't shift here or in Savannah without risking exposing his species to the public. He knew this. I knew this. But at the same time, I knew he'd do whatever was needed to help save my friends. He wouldn't have come otherwise.

Jared would do the same.

Mikjall was the only wild card. I'm not sure either of them knew exactly what would happen if and when he saw Xerxes.

Travis and Garrett emerged from the woods with a Lycan male I recognized. Somehow he'd escaped the carnage. Not all of it, judging by the gaping holes in the front of his shirt. He'd taken at least three rounds.

I stepped forward. "Patrick?"

He raised his head. "Eira. You made it, too. I thought I saw you go down before I dragged myself into the trees."

The MacKay brothers stayed next to him, supporting Patrick's weakened body. The wounds had sealed over and were healing, but he appeared to still be in a great deal of pain. Every time he moved his face twisted into a grimace.

"I barely made it out. Why are your wounds still causing you such pain?"

"The bullets are still in there," he groaned. "I've stayed in wolf form to avoid attention by any pa.s.sing humans, but I couldn't cross the bridge. The soldiers at the TR gate would've shot me."

"We'll take you across into Texas so you can see a doctor ASAP," I said.

"What?"

"We have allies with the soldiers," I a.s.sured him. "They will help you."

Patrick lowered his eyebrows, suspicion blanketing his face, but he didn't say anything. Just nodded and let Travis and Garrett help him to the SUV.

I straightened up and pushed down the emotions bubbling at the surface. Focus was needed now. The warrior emerged, stepping in front of the woman. The weight of Killian's sword was fortifying. It was time to fight.

Now we just had to make it across seven hundred miles of highway without drawing the SECR's attention, then hunt our way through the military-base city of Savannah, and search out where they were holding my friends.

Chapter Nineteen.

XERXES.

"You killed them!" Manda exclaimed as I followed her into the hall of cells in the SECR Federal building's bas.e.m.e.nt.

It had been used for dog kennels, but I'd had Manda order it to be remodeled with reinforced steel cells and a natural gas-fueled cremation chamber to discreetly dispose of bodies without public knowledge.

"They were going to be executed anyway." I shrugged, irritated with how distraught she was over the death of less than a dozen Lycans. "There's still a few left. The one you and that vampire b.i.t.c.h are friends with is one of them. She'll come for her. And when she does, I'll find out who has my dagger and why the witches can't locate it."