Daughter of Anat Read online

  “I’d made a trade with Ryan’s father long ago. I had to make sure you were taken care of. I had no way of knowing that the Vampire would be as taken with you as he was. But I had to have a back up.”

  “But you knew he and I heard each other at birth.”

  He twitched his face around, “Yes, but that was a minor detail, not a deal breaker.”

  He saw me as a business deal. I angered easily and popped off, “Well, father. You don’t have to worry anymore about me. I have plenty under control now.”

  He still wouldn’t explain how to contain the Valkyrie power I possessed as a female from the bloodline. I would just have to ask someone else. And I knew who.

  He looked my face over once and again. “Yes, I see your control and your lack thereof daughter, as you are here to question me about clues to your Vampire. I can help you or you can continue to stand here and judge me for doing what I thought was the right thing to do for my daughter. I will not apologize for being prepared.”

  He was right. I was wrong. No matter how warped his outcomes were, his intentions were to have the best for me. Guess I was the pot calling the kettle black in a way.

  “Your right, father. Thank you for trying to pave the way. I wish sometimes you had the power to change it and make it all go away, but that wouldn’t be destiny would it?”

  My father nodded a sad no and I hugged him. “Lee only just called. I know he is in the house where he said. I have Granite in sight, but won’t be able to hold him long once Thorn is secured. My people left five minutes before you came. Go get him, but be careful of what you find.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Torture isn’t always nice, Anastacia. I know this is what is supposed to happen, but it isn’t good by any means.” The man was tortured himself with the pains of knowing the future. I never really felt close to him, but couldn’t help but be in awe of a man who sacrificed his entire life for a handful of events.

  I’d lost fifteen minutes now and with that, left my brother behind. He knew where I was headed.

  The old tutor I spent so many hours and days with was right where he always would be. In the library. His bristly hair was sticking up and over his glasses as he stooped over his books. His mussed up shirt told me he’d been that way for hours. Without a young person to teach, he was doing what he loved best. Reading.

  He supplied the information I needed. Strictly confirmation though. It was all true and I was even more potent then the lesser girls of my court due to my actual birth mother. She, being a goddess, made it so when she “created” me. Very loving mother, let me tell you. How do the Valkyrie mothers tell their daughters something like this? I didn’t have one of those. A real mother.

  I stopped at the training warehouse to get supplies knowing it was the time of day Cord had been getting there daily to practice. He’d been avoiding me lately and I didn’t know why or care. Mostly. But I needed his help. I texted him and told him what happened. That Granite was a traitor who was after his faction and went straight to the source who could help him get it. Borgon.

  The code for the voice box was changed again and Cord started muttering anything he could think of to get it to open. It was fun to watch him out of sorts. When Cord spoke in Spanish and said, “The dog is in heat”, I almost tossed my cookies.

  “What did you say that for?” I asked Cord hysterically. Being alone with him was horrible. I had a feeling he felt just as strong at finding him and just wanted him safe. Something in common was unusual for us.

  “Do you know what you said?”

  “No Princess Know-it-All. I’m guessing he messed with me again. What does it say?”

  “You just said the dog is in heat,” I held back the snicker.

  “Hell, I knew Cas was screwing with my head. Friend or not, this means war.”

  I shook my head left and right and headed in to get the weapons and ammo needed. The small amount of humor eased my aching head enough to gain a little focus. I needed that. I’d lost twenty-three minutes now.

  I shouldn’t have done what I did next, but unease was setting in with knowing Cas was not safe.

  And I knew he’d help me.

  Alone with Cord while looking for Cas was disquieting and crazy in all kinds of wrong. How I ended up with him in this sordid quest was worse than fake cheese on nachos. An injustice.

  “I’m sorry it was so hard for you to ask for my help in finding Cross. I don’t want to see him harmed either.”

  He doesn’t?

  “Did you wonder yet what the envelope holds?” He changed the subject either to ignore what he might say and regret or to help me keep from thinking about Cas as we scrambled to pack our weapons on.

  So much for quiet time in thought. And mysteries. “I know what belongs in it. The only curiosity is how it plays into this whole mess.”

  Cord pushed both hands in his pockets waiting for me to finish with my knives. Perhaps he was nervous. Perhaps some truth was coming. Doubtful.

  We drove along in an unmarked black car tinted so dark no one would know if we were little green aliens or anything human or not. I didn’t even know the make of the car was to tell someone I’ve been kidnapped by a Were boy who had ulterior motives other than helping me find my very heart that was stolen away from me. How romantically driven I was. How far from myself I’d become.

  We drove on for a few more minutes before I finally asked, “What does it say?”

  I heard the soft folds a long ago lose of crisp paper open for me from his shirt pocket. The single piece of paper so familiar to me was suddenly a grail. It was the only one I hadn’t seen.

  Dear Son of a Human,

  The Valkyrie court has and will keep watch over you. At the appointed time, lord of the manor will see to it that you are properly prepared for your destiny as the Scorpion. Know that your original lineage stems from great rulers and will allow you to harness the power you will need to lead the most ruthless of the factions. Guard it well.

  With Thanks.

  Anat.

  There was nothing about the Were faction or how he got to where he was now. What if all of it was a guess? Had my father orchestrated his own understanding of the prophecies or were they really just playing out the way the gods wanted? Were the letters just clues for us to be helped in believing their sincerity of unchangeable fate?

  “So it’s true. Everything they told me about you. And you still try to help me.”

  Cord’s hand strangled the steering wheel. That was my answer.

  “It’s okay you know,” I wasn’t sure why I was defending him, “I know what they tried to do. Make you marry me. I don’t blame you.”

  His dark, brooding eyes found mine now. Had I screwed up saying the truth?

  “I never intended to force you into anything.” His face lingered too long and then turned back to the traffic. “I wanted you to choose. You chose.”

  Very super clear on that! “Do you mean that—

  Nope! Can of worms. I stopped myself from saying it. He would have done it. Married me. The solidarity of that single fact made my back shiver from the understanding of true fate. He’d...we’d changed it. Fate didn’t own me.

  Maybe...just maybe the gods had us bamboozled into a corner making us think we had only one clear path. What if we made our own paths, regardless?

  I wanted Cord to feel strong again. Where this came from must have been deep down in my psyche, but it made me feel better. Like he was someone who could be cared about. Cord didn’t deserve loneliness just like none of us did.

  “I would have done what my father asked if it meant something for the greater good. I just don’t think an arranged marriage where the two people do not love each other is for the greater good of me or to anyone. Besides, knowing what we know now, I question if my father really had the intentions he did.”

  Cord pondered this with his head tilted down a little, watching the front window of the car with his upturned eyes.

  “Might be,
but I have a feeling your father had us all in a net we couldn’t escape. And it always came back to you.”

  “What happened to your parents? How did you end up with the Ryan’s?” I’d known the family for well, all my life. But I’d never known Cord. Weird.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t ask that question.”

  “Why not?” Sure, I was way curious now. I checked my watch. Thirty minutes had passed. We knew what we’d do at arrival, so there was no discussing it.

  “Because you might change your perspective on your boyfriend.”

  His way of saying boyfriend was a little bitter though his mouth curved upward as if in a devious, well thought plan to make me angrier.

  “Tell me anyway. It’s not like our lives have ever been in anyway normal. What possible secrets could devastate us past what we already have perversely learned?”

  He eyed my way with the lift of one eyebrow and a shoulder to match, but dropped both with the reminder of whatever bad news he had forming in his brain. “This could.”

  Cord was refusing to tell me. It must be that bad.

  He sighed and said remorsefully, “Thorn’s court killed my parents. He was sent on his first mission with his father to take them out.”

  Who wouldn’t gasp a little at that? It was shocking, but not so much in my world. “Does Cas know?”

  His look was so ridiculously funny, I looked away from the smarmy smile I had no reason to given the news. His face was scrunched up, making the tiny spikes of his hair move up with his brows. I’d never noticed the movement of his hair before.

  “I was a ward of your father’s estate after that until Ryan took me in. I took it to rid myself of the Valkyrie court only to find out in the same way Thorn and Calum and Szar did that it was always planned anyway. Ryan took me in because he knew I’d be bitten and raised me to the killer I am.” He sounded in pain.

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “You know much Stace, but there are things you will never know about men no matter what kind of warrior you become.”

  He was barely a man himself, but like Cas, he sounded so much older. I feared the things the two of them have seen. Lived through.

  I had a sudden other fear. “Is this what Cas deems as what he calls worse? The worst he’s done.”

  “Killing my parents?” Cord laughed. “He didn’t actually do the deed. He was just there. Watched. But yes, he’s done worse. It’s why he feels unworthy of you.”

  I assumed he registered himself the same. “It doesn’t make you who you are now.” I was speaking to him as well as referring to Cas.

  “It doesn’t make a man feel any better about holding a woman that surpasses the punishment he deserves. Forgive me Stace for saying so, but you are a chink in our armor. We can never live up to what you want of us. We are loyal, yes. Worthy, no.”

  I knew Cas felt this way. He’d said as much. Hearing someone else put it into perspective gave reality to it.

  “Okay. Suppose I agree with the conclusions you both have made up in your heads. Can’t we just moved past them and find a way to accept each other for the misshapen choices in our lives and see that innocent or not, we can get through this only if we do it together.”

  Tough call.

  He turned his head to me as he pulled into a dark parking space I didn’t recognize. Obsidian orbs of sadness drilled into me. “Yeah. For now. ”

  Why do men always think they have it all figured out?

  “I went to see my father first. He confirmed that Lee called him and told him Cas was here.”

  Cord parked a block away.

  We walked the length of the sidewalk to place where Lee told me the old decrepit shack would be. They didn’t meet us this time. Why, oh why Elves were holding anyone captive in a rundown old house in the middle of a huge city was beyond me.

  It’s now or never. It felt like I’d been crouched in the dark corner of the alley letting my imagination create disturbing images of what could be happening to Cas for more than an hour, but really was only ten minutes. In the back of my mind the amount of danger was ever present, but I just didn’t want to think about it. I’d let my normal careless attitude drift me from Szar’s ornery bliss, to Lee’s bizarre hidden messages, and now Cords revealing nature. I just wanted Cas safe and something called FRANTICALLY NUTS was about to settle in.

  Shaking my limbs and closing the back door to the car cautiously after grabbing an extra blade for comfort, I checked the inventory of my weapons. Cord nodded as he headed for the back. I headed for the front feeling the prickle of awareness to Cas crawling its way up my torso and resting all over my body like a hummingbird. Right then I was so thankful for it, but there were times that I questioned its purpose. Calum’s electric connection also.

  But the real question was why I hadn’t caught it when we were here earlier. I usually only need to be a few feet away to feel him which only means that coming to the sidewalk before didn’t put me close enough. I knew now he was right in the next room, but I still should have known. It had been hidden somehow before. I wanted to know how, but that could come later.

  I didn’t knock.

  They sat at a round table. Me on one side, them on the other. I could tell their weapons were drawn under the table like my own at the ready. I could also tell they left themselves a wide birth from the distance of the table for standing quick enough to land a dagger between an intruder’s eyes.

  Course, staring at Vampire Elf zombies that spewed ill-content in my direction didn’t improve my staying power for just taking them out now. I was also relying on the fact that they also didn’t know a Werewolf stood a mere six feet from the room and could hold me back. Boy was he wrong.

  If they had Cas, they were as good as dead by my knife or not.

  I watched each of them subtly reminding myself that this situation needed caution and intellect. A gimmick. Take them by surprise and they’d never know what hit them.

  Their blood lust. That was it.

  On the side of my belt I sliced my finger just enough their necks stiffened, their bodies yanked into erect positions. Their noses were on alert. They were definitely new Vampires. Just then, the only inside door opened and another Elf-made-Vamp came through sending the others into a crouched animal-like position ready for attack. Now would be a good entrance for Cord.

  Anastacia. Go. You can’t be here.

  I heard him.

  Not an option.

  I had a feeling negotiations weren’t an option here either. I saw the way the taller Elf dude looked actually frightened when my first knife rose. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat going to town with his fangy hisses. I was still wagering the best first move, confirming and changing. That is until the one on the uneven legged chairs lifted and his nose went to the air...and smelled me.

  That was it. I’d had it with them.

  I tossed it through the air aiming for the neck and missed. That was a shock for me. The dude had ducked. He actually had time to duck. With that surprise, I didn’t hear the approach from behind or feel the arrow whiz by me nailing it between the eyes. I recognized the arrow even with its dynamic speed in the air.

  Szar hunched back and faced the opposition aimed and ready for another go at it. He dared to speak holding a one-eyed concentrated stare and came out with, “It’s just my highly educated guess, but I don’t think they are happy to see you.”

  I glared and ignored his attempted jab at me leaving without him. I just know my brother.

  “Just a hunch you say?” Calum huffed and aimed his sword from beside him.

  “How did you know?” I circled the room to allow us all to attack at the same time.

  Cord bungled up beside the other two spitting out words too inappropriate to repeat. Szar motioned an elbow in his direction indicating Cord informed him. He texted us. “We live to serve you oh goddess of our world.”

  My control with the wolf boy snapped. I growled at him and went for the door where I knew Cas was. “Take c
are of them. I’m getting Cas.”

  Don’t.

  Why not? I stopped in the doorway now. I could see him tied to a chair, his head hung low. His face was hidden and blood was everywhere.

  Snap! Like a helium balloon, I let out every ounce of ill-will I possessed.

  Gathering my knives into my palm for cutting the rope I head Cas call for my brother rather oddly. “SZAR! I.Need.You.NOW!” I screamed mentally stringing a song of curse words in my head vowing to end each with little mercy.

  Szar was there without a second in passing seeing Cas.

  “Take her out of here,” Cas hissed to Szar.

  “NO! I’m not leaving.”

  “Stace. He’s hungry. You can’t stay.”

  Cord stepped into the room and threw a knowing look at Szar that I couldn’t interpret but knew they were mind reading the guy clues or well-known histories of each other.

  “I’m not leaving,” I screeched out mad as anything and poorly making my point as they kept on their silent decision making without my input. So much for them beating each other up all the time. The friendships these boys held were well rooted and strangely demented.

  And Cas was in constant awareness of my own whereabouts and what circumstances I might be in to be rescued from so I knew he had no ground for being rescued himself. His manhandling controlling nature that wanted to fix everything for me and kill anyone who went against me in our path was instinctual to all things male. But I felt just the same.

  “He will not be able to control it. By the looks of it, he has fed and he’s well, in a bit of a spot when it comes to being a Vampire.”

  “Tell me what to do then, but I’m not leaving.”

  Calum screamed from somewhere behind me and one of the remaining Elf-vamps went down. The walls waved and moaned like a rubber band about to snap. Calum slammed what I guess was a fist into the wall next which didn’t help preserve my likelihood of the stud beams still standing when he was over the adrenaline rush. This was just how he got his energy out. The enemy just got in his way.