In the Beginning...

In the Beginning…

Dardanos, Co. Box Set

Contains

The First Four
Dardanos, Co
.
Books

The Blood King

The Seer’s Strength

Live or Die

&

The Warrior’s Woman

Excerpts

Other Titles
by
Calle J.
Brookes

Paranormal

Dardanos, Co.

The Blood King

Awakening the Demon’s Queen

The Healer’s Heart

Once Wolf Bitten

Live or Die

The Seer’s Strength

The Warrior’s Woman

The Wolf’s Redemption

A Warrior’s Quest

The Wolf God & His Mate

Out of the Darkness

Warrior Blind

Dardanos, Co: The Adrastos

The Outcast

The Forlorn

Romantic Suspense

Watching

Wanting

Second Chances

Hunting

Running

Redeeming

Revealing

Stalking

Coming Soon

The Witch (Dardanos)

Waiting (PAVAD prequel)

THE BLOOD KING

Copyright 2011

Rydere Dardanos studied the darkness
surrounding him and his three men. Blackness suited their purpose
this night. “Are you sure?”

His second-in-command Aodhan stood a yard
away, stroking the head of the wild wolf at his side. Both beasts
were only black shadows in the dark night. “As I can be. It’s
distasteful, but this is war. We all agreed on that.”

“Yet they are so young. Probably innocent of
the old man's sins.” Aodhan’s words seconded what was in the back
of Rydere’s mind. It had to be done; he did not have to like what
they were about to do, but as king, he knew it was necessary. His
people deserved retribution. 

“Mercy, Aodhan? That’s unlike you.” Cormac’s
snort was almost too loud in the darkness as the four men watched
the small cluster of houses on the Taniss Compound. “This was your
idea.”

“Momentary weakness brought on by lack of
feeding.” The men knew Aodhan was lying.

“Perhaps Aodhan has the right of things,” the
final man said and had Rydere’s attention sharpening. Theodoric was
the gentlest of his three advisors, and the visions that plagued
the half-blind man had proven invaluable to the men in the
past.

“Mercy again? For the children of the man who
has killed hundreds of our kind?” Cormac nodded toward the
headlights coming up the drive. “Speak now, if you’ve predicted
something, Theo, let us know. If not, I say we get ready. I’m
hungry. I want a Taniss for dinner.”

“Theo?” If Theodoric said stop, Rydere would
stop. He wouldn’t like it, but he would give the orders to do just
that.

“Nothing specific, just vague unease,” Theo
said as the sound of car doors opening and closing drifted to them
on the still autumn night. The sounds mingled with the light
laughter of females. “Something that tells me my life is going to
change. But that this is where we need to be.”

“For good or bad?” Aodhan asked as Tajic’s
attention sharpened and the wolf raised his head to sniff the
air.

“You are just hungry, Theo.” Cormac stepped
closer to the other man, clapped him on the shoulder. “Smell the
dinner on the air, my friend?”

There were four distinct scents on the air
now, one sweeter than the rest. “That will be rectified shortly, my
friends.”

“It’s the older granddaughters.” Aodhan’s
voice was flat, disgusted. Resigned. “The grandsons could not be
found alone tonight.”

“That’s fitting,” Cormac’s laugh was low in
the darkness. “As it is our women who suffer the most, physically
and emotionally, from this war.”

Rydere felt a stab of grief hit him as he
thought of Cormac’s younger sister, who’d lost her mate thirty
years earlier. Kindara had suffered so greatly, and had also lost
the child she carried.

She’d grieved for her mate
until only a shell of the bright Kindara he remembered remained.
Now she just haunted the residence. Rydere tried but couldn’t quite
understand that grief—he’d yet to find his mate, his
Rajni
. And he half hoped
he wouldn’t. How could he, leader of the entire race, sit back and
watch his own wife suffer?

Rydere’s people, the Dardaptos, were being
attacked on multiple fronts; Kindara and her family were only a few
of the victims. Dardaptoans were disappearing, taken when they
searched for the food they needed to survive. It was easy for the
Dardaptoans to blend in with the human population, as they shared
similar physical characteristics and needs. But a Dardaptoan needed
to supplement their regular diet with blood, human blood. That’s
when they were being taken. Add to that the curse of an angry god
that condemned the Dardaptoans to suffer great losses in
childbirth, and Rydere’s people had dwindled to only a dozen or so
tribes worldwide. Rydere would do anything to stop the suffering of
his people. Especially at human hands.

“They are splitting up now.” Aodhan had the
best hunter sight of the four men and he kept that sight trained on
their targets. “Separate houses, though two share. Finally we will
have our vengeance.”

It had taken Rydere all of the last decade to
isolate the human problem facing the Dardaptoan race and to learn
that their problems were connected and were laid at the feet of
only one human—Leonard Taniss. He’d been taking Dardaptoans for
years, draining their bodies dry for his macabre experiments.
Kindara and her adopted daughter were only part of a handful to
survive.

 “I have never taken the time to play
with my food. Especially a female morsel.” Cormac’s smile was just
visible in the darkness.

Rydere felt a rush of sympathy for the
unknown Taniss female who would satisfy Cormac’s appetites. Cormac
was by no means a gentle man.

“So when are we to do this?” Theodoric asked,
his words hesitant.

In tonight’s plan, the Taniss grandchildren
would die to serve the war. Rydere and his people would have their
vengeance, then Rydere would kill the old man himself. Had there
been more Taniss heirs in residence on the man’s Colorado compound,
Rydere and his men would have killed them, too. All Taniss would
eventually die for Leonard’s sins.

“As soon as they are in their houses.”

“And the two in the same house?” Aodhan
asked.

“You and Theo will take those two. Cormac,
you take the smallest house there on the end of the drive. I’ll
take that one there.” He pointed to the middle bungalow, with its
lit front porch light that beckoned him. “We’ll reconvene back at
the hotel. Once you have your target, don’t stick around. Taniss
has some strong security on this damned property. We don’t need to
get caught.”

“Taniss still underground?” Cormac asked.

“Old bastard is hiding,” Rydere said.
“Protected by his security.”

“Too bad for them that the security didn’t
extend to his grandchildren.” Aodhan and Tajic took off at Rydere’s
nod.

“Gentleman, happy hunting.” Rydere said as he
followed. “Tonight, this war ends.”

Emily Taniss hated birthdays, especially her
own. The finite aspect of time and years gone always depressed her,
but her cousins had insisted she celebrate with them. So she’d gone
along with Josey, Mallory, and Mickey when they’d pulled her from
her office and dragged her to the bar two blocks from Taniss
Industries. And she had had a good time. With them, she didn’t have
to pretend she was a cold, ruthless businesswoman following in her
grandfather’s footsteps. With them, she could just be Em, the
oldest Taniss cousin who liked coconut drinks and slow music.

She closed the front door behind her,
grateful to finally be inside her house. The cat opened his one
good eye—the only one he’d come with—and greeted her from his perch
by the window facing the bungalow shared by Mal and Mickey. Their
lights were on, the two sisters probably just as exhausted as
Emily. They’d been working hours on end trying to figure out just
what type of mess their grandfather had left TI in before he’d been
forcibly retired and Emily had taken over.

She bypassed the living room and went
straight to the master bedroom and slipped her heels off next to
the closet. She turned, nearly tripping over the cat. She bent to
pet him, ruffling his fur. “I’m never doing it again, Maury, never.
I am never having a birthday again.”

****

“That’s the truth of it.” Rydere had watched
the small woman as she’d entered the bedroom, studying the eldest
grandchild of the man responsible for everything that had happened
to his people. He doubted she stood mid-chest on his six-foot-eight
frame. Her hair—the deep rich color of the best earth—was pulled
back, the style too severe for her elfin face.

She screamed and tried to run past him. He
grabbed her so easily. The tiny skirt she wore had hindered her
escape attempt, but it didn’t matter. She fought and kicked and
bit. He froze her with a small one-word command that even the
youngest of Dardaptoans knew. It allowed them to feed without
interference, though the human was aware the whole time, unable to
fight or move. Green eyes followed him as he circled her where she
stood, inert. Terrified.

He inspected his small instrument of
vengeance, fingers trailing over the dove gray suit she wore. He
knew which one this was. This was the heir, the one his sources
told him would replace old Leo Taniss himself. This was Emily.

He stroked one finger down the side of her
delicate, feminine face, lingering a moment on her lips, before
trailing to her neck. He'd always been partial to feminine necks.
Hers seemed so frail beneath his palm.

“You will be quite a delicacy, my little
dove. Pity you won’t live long. You were Taniss’s heir, but not
now.”

He lifted her into his arms, tucking her
floral-scented head beneath his chin. She weighed very little. At
any other time, a Dardaptoan Rydere’s size wouldn’t look twice at a
human such as her. She wasn’t even snack sized.

He was the first back to the hotel that
served as his home. The hotel housed twelve hundred of his kind; an
additional thirteen thousand lived in the area surrounding the
hotel. Rydere’s suites were on the bottom floor, and it was there
he headed.

He carried his captive into his sitting room
and placed her on the couch, more gently than he had intended. Her
eyes were wide and frightened, young. Her flesh was chilled and he
frowned before grabbing a blanket and covering her while he studied
her in silence. Cormac arrived carrying a bound blonde woman and
leading a dog. He dropped the blonde on the couch.

“Find a new pet?” Rydere studied the woman as
she struggled. They shared the same eyes, his little captive and
this woman. Leo Taniss’s eyes. Damn them.

“Present for Aodhan’s wolf. She’s in heat and
seems to be a smart dog. Figured Aodhan might want to breed them.
I’d like a pup or two.”

Rydere nodded. “Aodhan and Theo?”

“Already in their suites. Aodhan had a bit of
trouble. His prey was a bit of a fighter.” The darker man touched
his face where Rydere could see several fresh scratches. “Seems to
be a family trait. You have any trouble?”

He waved a hand toward Emily. Rage filled
Rydere when the other man’s hand grabbed her chin, when the other
man pulled her face toward him. “Ahh, you’re too compassionate, Ry.
You’ve mind-numbed her.”

“Why didn’t you numb yours?” Rydere knew what
they were to do was necessary, but was there any reason to keep the
women so terrified? It was almost cruel...it was cruel the way they
were toying with them. Shame hit him but he shook it off. Cruelty
was war, and war was cruelty. He’d learned that long ago. Both
sides would host sacrifices.

“Where’s the fun in that? Besides, damned
woman is deaf. She couldn’t hear me issue the command.” Cormac
tilted his blonde’s chin up and she tried pulling away. He smiled
and held her still. “Pretty thing, isn’t she? Scared and pissed,
too. As is yours. Only they’re now more terrified for the other
than themselves. Both of them are. Admirable. Pity.”

Cormac could read the minds of animals and
humans and some Dardaptoans. That trait suddenly angered Rydere—he
wasn’t sure he wanted Cormac knowing what his Emily was thinking.
Fearing. Rydere nodded toward the blonde woman. “I suggest you
adjourn. I’ve a desire for privacy while I eat this evening.”