A Warrior's Quest (18 page)

“How can you not?”

“Because Warriors are not trained to
love.
We are trained to protect, defend. Provide. Our honor is dependent on such. Not love. Love is weakness for Warriors.”

She could see his confusion, could read it on his handsome face. He
was
her
Rajni,
and she hurt for him, too. “But Incubi
do
love. And you love Cerridwen, and Danae. Even Rathan and Iaschu. Why not your
gamata
?”

“I have always been more Warrior than Incubus. I am nothing like my brother.
He
is full Incubus, I am more Warrior. It is who I
am.
”

“Is it? You need to think about that.”

***

She left him in the hall, after scooping up the clothing that had fallen at her feet when she
’d held his daughter. The daughter she took with her. He just watched them walk away. They were his life, did they realize that? He would die for either one of them. Surely he had made that clear to them? Surely that was what mattered, not some notion of soft, girly, flowery
love?

He had questions, both about what she had said and about how
he
felt. Was it as simple as she said? Did he
love
the warrior girl? How was he to know?

He did
care Danae and Cerridwen. And he felt a great deal of affection for Rathan and their half-brother Iaschu.

But how was he to know if what he felt for the warrior girl was the kind of
love
she described? He needed more information before he could answer that question.

He flashed to his brother
’s side, ending up in his brother’s private sitting room. Rathan held Kindara on his lap. His sister-in-law was sleeping; why hadn’t his brother put her in the bed just a room away? It would be far more comfortable for both of them.

Rathan stared at him for a moment. “Something wrong?”

“Yes. There is. Tell me...do you
love
her?”

“Of course I do.”

“How do you know? Is it because you are Incubus? Because of your spawn? Why?”

“I know it because without her I cannot breathe. I love her because of the spawn, yes. To some extent, but it is far more than that. I would love her if there were
no
spawn. Ever. She’s my reason for waking, brother. More than two thousand years I was alone; I am not now. And that is what matters. Why do you ask? The warrior girl...?”

“Thinks that I cannot
love
her. So why should she be with me? Thinks I see her as little more than an obligation.”

“Well, do you see her as more than that?” His sister-in-law had apparently
awakened and was staring at him like he was nothing more than a specimen in her lab. Ren did not like it. At all.

Her eyes were too much like the warrior girl
’s. Too knowing. Too accusing.

“Of course I do. I could have protected her just as well without taking her as
gamata.
And she knows I am her mate. I do not understand why she kept that withheld for so many months. Unless…she found
me
lacking? Because I could not give her
love
? I do not understand. Explain it to me, please.”

Kindara stared at him for a long, quiet moment. “You really don
’t get it, do you? You have to understand. Dardaptoans find their
Rajnis
and from
that
moment on, they care more about that mate than themselves. And what’s more…they
expect
that in return. From the very beginning. And that is where you’ve failed her.
If
she says you are her
Rajni,
Aureliana
knew
it the moment she laid eyes on you. And we both remember what happened in
that
moment.”

Ren understood then. Nine months had passed, and though he
’d spent a great deal of his time thinking of her—more than he’d realized—he had not sought her out. Or made her feel like she was more than what she had accused him of viewing her— an obligation. Surely she knew she was more than a damned obligation?

Ren thought on Kindara
’s words as he crossed the outer courtyard a few minutes later. Was it as simple as that? He had failed to give the warrior girl the soft words and foolishness that she apparently wanted? That did not sound like the Aureliana he knew. At all.

But Kindara had known her for more than four hundred years; wouldn
’t his sister-in-law understand her better than he ever could?

A rush of envy hit him. Would he
ever
know the warrior girl as deeply as he wished? Even brushing her mind hadn’t yielded the results he’d wanted. Far from it. His female was far more complex than he had thought. And he wanted her. Now.

He almost flashed to her but changed his mind. She did not like it when he did that. It startled her so.
 

He started across the courtyard in search of his
gamata
.

The only female he passed was Isolde, looking pale and tired. He paused a moment. She was not Warrior, was more Witch than anything. Much like his sister Danae.
“Isolde? My spawn?”

“She is still with Aureliana, sir. She came to fetch young Thas a few minutes ago. Cerridwen pestered her into a trip to the
inner courtyard grotto, I believe. If you hurry, you should be able to join them.”

“Thank you. Please, take the rest of the day for yourself. I shall be spending the time with my family. My
gamata
and I will tend to our spawn.” A great roar went up from somewhere in the castle. Screams. The sounds of men fighting; sounds he’d recognize anywhere. “Isolde! Inside, sound the alarms!”

He flashed to his
gamata’s
side.

What he saw horrified him.

He drew his sword, and charged.

Aureliana used every bit of her skill to battle back the weird yellow demons surrounding her and the children. These bastards would never harm
her
children; she’d die stopping them if that was what it took.

Cerridwen was behind her, wrapped around Thas and emanating a strange greenish glow. The girl
’s eyes had clouded over at the first sign of attack and she’d seemed to disappear inside herself. Aureliana couldn’t worry about that now.

These demons were smaller than her, but larger than the shojo. They resembled those other beasts to some extent. Same demon family, perhaps?

They were around her, battling her back, keeping her separated from the rest of the Warrior demons in the courtyard. Why? Was it just because of the children, or were they after something else?

Someone else?

Her? But why?

She refused to look toward her
Rajni.
If she did she was afraid of what she would see. He would be right in the thick of any fighting, probably more so than she would. He’d fight to
get
to her and the babes, while she fought to defend. She sought no battles, but the battles sought her in this strange demon world.

There were more demons coming, yellow and red, and a mix of orange. Ren
’s men stood out for their being blue and purple skinned. Aureliana swung her sword, surprising those coming toward her.

They stepped back until more joined them. She could not get through them; they numbered in the dozens, and still more filled the courtyard. Where were they coming from?
Was it just like the Shojo attack? Hadn’t Rathan and Ren put better security into place? The guards Ren had insisted she have were fighting with everything
they
had to protect her and the children; she would not forget the three who had died fighting the Shojo. But this threat seemed so much more determined.

She glanced toward Ren, worry for him making her momentarily clumsy. A demon slashed across her forearm with a nasty, filthy razor claw. She stepped back, and something burned the back of her leg.

She looked down. Green light.

Cerridwen.

Somehow the children had moved from where she’d put them. She scooped the little girl and the babe up in her arms. Cerridwen’s strange green glow burned her skin, but Aureliana ignored it. She shoved them beneath the stone bench behind her as the largest of the yellow demons wrapped his hand in her hair and yanked her closer to him.

He hissed something at her but she didn
’t understand his language. She drove her sword through his heart, then pulled it free and shoved his body aside. She faced the next set of attackers.

They rushed her.

***

Ren battled the
rhacshas
demons with everything he had, trying to get to his female and his spawns. So much separated him from them, despite the relatively small size of his brother’s courtyard. He could see the yellow and red bastards climbing the walls of the inner courtyard, and dropping from the trees his brother had brought from Gaia. The
rhacshas
were everywhere. He allowed himself no time to think of what had befallen his brother, Kindara, Danae and Zephra, the little healer Bronwen. They all were somewhere, threatened by these beasts. If they still lived.

These beasts
closest to him were intent on getting to his female, his spawn. Why? Were they after the spawn Thas? Aureliana? He roared, the sound filled with the rage running through his blood. Some of the
rhacshas
demons pulled back. They, at least, knew
who
they fought, knew what kind of demon they faced. How had they gotten in to his brother’s castle? It was doubly fortified after the last attack; Ren had made certain of that for himself. So how? Why? Someone had to have
let
them in. Someone had betrayed his brother. And him. Again. And he would not rest until he found that traitor and kill him.

He sliced with his sword, cutting two of the smaller demons nearly in half. Aureliana was fighting; he could see her across the courtyard. Cerridwen was behind her, the magics his daughter now possessed keeping her and the spawn Thas surrounded with a strange glow of green. His daughter, at least, showed little fear in this battle. She trusted him and her new mother to keep her safe.

He would die doing just that.

A cold wail came over the demons, freezing many where they stood. Ren had heard that sound once before, and nothing had ever frightened him more than it did in that moment.

The
Beansidhe
. How had it gotten in to his realm? Had it followed her brother? Aureliana must have heard it, too. Her fighting turned more panicked, more desperate, before she regained control of herself. He could feel her fear straight in his heart.

It would not take her from him. He roared her name, slashing at the demons surrounding him. If he could get to her, he would kill the Beansidhe before it took her.

A rage unlike any he had ever felt filled him.
The creature would not take his female from him!

He could not live without her.
The mere thought of
that
was terrifying.
Now
he understood what his brother had meant.

His roar was louder now, far louder than even the battle raging around him. It had several of the demons—enemy and ally alike—turning in his direction.
Two grabbed for his sword, suicidally brave. He dealt with them quickly. More were on his back, but it was a simple matter of dispatching them to follow their brethren.
Rhacshas
demons were only moderately aggressive fighters, preferring stealth and trickery to accomplish their dirty ways. They were not trained for face-to-face combat.

But like the Shojo, never had so many participated on a direct assault,
especially
against the ruling Malickus family.

No, they were after something
other
than control of this world. They must have been sent to his brother’s castle for another purpose, by someone after something much more valuable.

And Renakletos knew it had to be Aureliana or the spawn Thas they were after. Why had such trickster demons invaded his brother’s castle, knowing they would face such obstacles? What hold had the traitor over both Shojo and
rhacshas
strong enough to compel the lesser demons to act so foolishly as to attack the High King’s lands?

He cut his path through them, ruthlessly pushing
rhacshas
demons out of his way. Those that wouldn’t move met their final moments on his sword.
Nothing
was going to stop him from reaching the warrior girl. Nothing.