Blood Chained (Dark Siren Book 3) (28 page)

Chapter 39

Almost too far gone for his help, Rhane eased Jethra down to the fine sands. Her wounds were catastrophic. Deep lacerations covered her torso and limbs. Multiple fractures in her left arm should have made use of the limb impossible. She was bleeding internally, and strange burns marred her back.

Starting with the worst of her injuries, Rhane fed enough life into Jethra to mend her shattered bones and repair the bleed. When both of his hands began to tremble, he stopped to collect his strength. He had to be careful. If whatever had done this still hunted her, Rhane would have to fight it. And he was already weakened enough to impair the healing of his own self-inflicted injury.

Luckily, his efforts were enough to bring Jethra around. Her pale eyelashes fluttered against an even paler face as she moaned, moving her head from side to side.

“Take it easy. I’ve got you.”

Hearing Rhane’s voice must have triggered something inside her, for Jethra’s ice blue eyes flew open. Ignoring his pleas to slow down, she struggled to her feet, wincing in pain the entire way. “There is no time. They are coming.”

Ears straining and eyes searching, Rhane found evidence of no one. “Who’s coming?”

She pointed. “Them.”

Rhane followed the extended finger, searching the dark horizon. Finally, he spotted the orange haze moving swiftly across the desert sands. Its scent was the same one from Jethra’s clothing he couldn’t recognize earlier. “What is that?” he said while keeping his gaze on the approaching threat.

“Builders.” Jethra grabbed his arms. Her bony fingers dug into his flesh, forcing him to look at her. “I came here to warn you. Builders have ordered the Primes to release you, but you will not hear of it until you return to Golden Mountain. By then it will be too late. They are going after your family, Rhane. I could not stand by and let them take another child from you. You must get back to them.”

Rhane’s head was reeling, struggling to keep up. Memories from the wolf surged to the fore of his mind. Flashes of Rhaven, happy and alive. Then Rhaven was dead in his arms. Hundreds slain by him on the battlefield. Bailen basking in the sunlight of the manor’s green fields, watching him with laughing eyes. Kalista was there too. She reached out to him, trusting him to help her. But that faith morphed into terror and she screamed. Rhane clutched his head, nearly dropping to his knees.

“I can’t leave without Warren,” he panted. The red haze grew closer. “I can’t leave you here like this.” He shoved aside the memories, corralling them to a place where they couldn’t paralyze his thinking.

Jethra caressed his cheek tenderly. “I knew you would say this.” Though her hand remained where it was, something hardened in the Mother’s eyes.
“Change now.”

Finishing the transformation even before she had completed the order, Rhane landed on all fours as Banewolf and took a protective stance in front of Jethra. He sensed the energy approaching from a different direction less than a second before the attack came. Before the warning growl could escape his lips, Jethra had already cried out in pain. Then the light engulfed them both—a blistering, blazing brightness that scorched both fur and flesh.

Red tentacles tangled the wolf’s extremities, binding its torso and head, lashing Jethra to its body. She screamed in agony as the light seared her fair skin. Rhane smelled the char of her flesh as it was burned away.

Adjusting to the blinding radiance, the wolf’s eyes made out a human shape within the haze. Fighting for every inch, Banewolf lunged with snapping jaws, tearing at the tentacles as it did so. Razor sharp teeth found their mark, closing down with the force of twenty-thousand newtons. Retracting in a serpentine fashion, the tentacles released them. Jethra fell from the air, but somehow landed on her feet. Powerful bursts of energy flew from her hands as she targeted the orange haze in the desert that was nearly upon them.

But the wolf kept hold of the thing trapped within its jaws, shaking its powerful neck until the creature ceased to struggle. Then the wolf flung it to the ground. The halo of light evaporated and the Builder’s human form emerged, bloodied and limp, but still breathing. Banewolf took a menacing step toward it.

“Rhane!”

At the sound of Jethra’s scream, he turned and saw the creature, an odd and terrifying mixture of fins and claws that stood as tall as the wolf. This form was only two dimensional. Flat planes of orange light flickered and pulsed, moving faster than even the wolf’s eyes could follow. Jethra was barely staying ahead of it, beating back the Builder’s assaults with a barrage of pulses from her hands.

Banewolf dove into the fray, ignoring the biting shock that rippled through his body upon contact with the orange entity. Rearing onto its hind legs, the wolf dug its claws into the creature. It roared as lightning engulfed its blood, boiling it from inside out. But the wolf held on. Stalwart muscles powered the spread of each paw, ripping apart the creature inch by inch. The orange glow began to oscillate. A human face appeared, but was quickly replaced by the finned monster that became human yet again. The cycle repeated in growing intervals until the illusion erupted, exploding into a firework of bright stars.

Then the brilliance was gone. Simply vanished. And the night fell quiet again.

Letting go of the wolf, Rhane hurried to Jethra’s side. The Mother stood watching the dying Builder from a safe distance and barely turned her head at Rhane’s approach. “They would have killed me if not for your strength.”

Rhane regarded Jethra and her power with new respect. He could hardly believe she had taken on two of those things alone and lived to tell about it. “How did you hold them off for so long?”

“The dilemma of their existence makes them vulnerable.” As the Builder took its last breath, she finally turned and looked at him. “They equally want to save and destroy us. Interference weakens them, makes them mortal.”

Rhane nodded, remembering what Kali had told him. The Faction and Builders each had their own agenda, but acting to achieve it came at a great cost. He wondered which side these dead ones represented. Before he could pose the question, Jethra clutched her side and collapsed. Catching her crumpling form, he eased her onto her side.

The damage was bad. Even worse than what he’d previously repaired. The fist-sized hole carved through the center of her abdomen must have caused her considerable pain, but the Mother smiled up at him peacefully. Rhane’s heart lurched.

“Don’t,” she said. “If you save me, you will never see them again.”

Jethra was right. Healing her would weaken him severely, likely for days. He might even lose consciousness. A furious roar built in his chest, and Rhane let it escape. Echoing into the desert, the sound reached for miles, alerting every living thing to his sorrow.

“You have to go, Rhane,” she said once the cry had faded. “You have to let me go.”

He shook his head. “I will stay by your side until the end.”

“You are as stubborn as your father.”

Flinching, Rhane looked away. Jethra grabbed his hand weakly. “Don’t let your ire burn against him.”

Thinking of Jehsi made him feel sick all over again. He tried to change the subject. “How do you know Bailen is my son?”

Pupils wide and distant, the Mother’s empty gaze made Rhane fear she had slipped away. “Jethra?”

She took a rasping breath. “Yes, Rhanelin?”

“How did you know about Bailen?”

Jethra smiled proudly. “He gave up everything, you know. The others claimed you were an abomination and a curse to our people. They demanded your life be ended, but Jehsi refused. He did send you and your mother away. But when forced to choose again—between you and his rule as Prime—he walked away from his people and his brothers to make sure you had a chance. He chose you. And with that choice, a horrid plot brewed in his absence.” The first sign of pain crossed her placid features. She reached for his face, but was too weak to complete the movement. “Jehsi loves you more than anything. He loves you more than his own life. No matter what you hear, what others tell you…”

Her body went limp. Her eyes closed.

He shook her gently. Tears fell from his eyes, dripping onto her graying skin. “Jethra?” She remained still. “
Ushka
,” he called urgently.

With one deep and rattling breath, the Mother spoke a final time. “Call out to the boy,” she whispered. And then she was gone.

Chapter 40

Kali bolted upright in bed. Heart slamming against her ribcage, she called out to York at the top of her human lungs. Several pair of feet pounded up the staircase, but when the kin burst through the bedroom door, Kali had already shrugged into jeans and a thin sweater to combat the oddly chilly summer night.

York scanned the dark room with wide eyes. “Kali, what the hell is it? Another bad dream?”

“No.” She yanked on the laces of her sneakers, pulling them tight. “He’s gone.”

“I know, babe. But we’re going to get him back soon.”

“No,” she said again. “Bailen is gone.”

“Bailen?”

“Yeah.” She secured her unruly curls into a thick ponytail and was surprised at how calm she was able to act while inside, waves of deep panic threatened to overtake her. “You need to track him.”

Looking at the others, York gave a curt nod over his shoulder. “Get dressed,” he ordered. When they had gone, he turned back to Kali. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t look for him. But the kid runs off all time. Don’t panic.”

“I’m not panicking,” she lied.

“Your heart is racing a mile a minute. The smell of fear on you is so thick I can practically see it rolling off in waves.”

“Fine, York. I am scared. But it’s because this time is different. Something is wrong. I can feel it.” She pushed past him and into the hall. “Put on a shirt. You’re wasting time.”

#

Each of the kin wore their wolf forms, silent as ghosts as they moved through the forest. Even Matthias stalked alongside them in the odd manner and shape of a kindred troll beast. Only Rion remained on two legs beside Kali, barefoot but otherwise fully dressed. He stayed as such in order to guide her through the night, especially when the others, with their superhuman speed and agility, pulled away.

They had tracked Bailen’s scent all the way to the stream flowing near the edge of the manor’s property line. Picking her way through the darkness as quickly as her duller senses allowed, Kali and Rion arrived several minutes after the others. Seeing their approach, the big black wolf shifted and York stalked toward them. His face was grim. “The scent stops here. We searched the other side for a quarter mile each way. There’s nothing.”

Bailen’s words echoed in Kali’s ears.
They are going to take me. It has to happen.

#

He carried her lifeless body through the ruins, reflecting on ambiguous memories that remained of the fallen Mother. He couldn’t remember a time when Jethra had not accepted him. Upon Rhane’s eventual return to Golden Mountain—well before meeting Kalista and the massacre—Jethra had acted as his
ushka
in both word and deed, nurturing and caring for Rhane when his own mother had not. But she was also acquiescent in a diabolical plot to murder her own son and destroy mankind. Yet, she had risked herself to save Rhaven, delivering the boy to Rhane and thereby freeing Kalista from the Primes’ clutches. More recently, Jethra had stood against her sisters in defense of him and Jehsi, ultimately leveraging for Rhane’s freedom. And here at last, she had paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of his family. 

Lifting her higher, Rhane touched his forehead to Jethra’s cold skin.
At least your love was never confusing at all. Maybe your choices weren’t so either.

When Jehsi had abdicated his throne, by Warekin law, Jethra could no longer rule as Mother. Gabriel had become Prime. So his mother, Galena, ascended to the most coveted position for a woman of royal blood. It was possible that the murderous plot against Jehsi and the human world was already in full swing by the time of Gabriel and Galena’s ousting. Like Jehsi, Jethra had returned to a pit of madness where complicity meant survival.

He laid her in the Courtyard of Primes, asking the sentinels to guard her eternal rest. He didn’t mark the grave or cover it with stones. Rhane had buried her deep enough to deter even the most resourceful desert scavenger. Throwing back his head, he bayed in mourning, a cry for her life and his loss, a howl that demanded silence from all that scurried in the night. Rhane stood there long after the last echo had faded, wondering where her spirit would go with no monument erected in her image.

Hearing a soft noise behind him, he turned. Rhane closed his eyes in gratitude, silently thanking Jethra one last time.

Warren took a timid step forward. “She told me to stay hidden until you called for me.”

Rhane nodded in understanding.“It’s good to see you,” he said gently.

“Is she gone?”

“She is.”

“I’m sorry, Rhane.” Looking away, War shuffled his feet. Then he lifted his head and closed the distance between them, embracing his warlord as family. Their foreheads touched, and Rhane took a shuddering breath. After steadying himself enough to speak, he stepped away. “What of Gareth and my father?”

“She forced the guide to swear an oath not to involve Jehsi. And then she knocked his lights out. Jethra is one scary lady.” War finished in the present tense. It hadn’t quite sunk in that such a formidable warrior could really be gone.

Rhane smiled faintly but didn’t speak again. War allowed him the silence, but eventually had to ask. “What now?”

“Our family is in trouble. Now we go back and even the score.”

“The nearest airstrip is at least fifty miles away.”

“We better get moving then.”