Daeton's Journey (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 10) (6 page)

Chapter 5

Perseus watched as his papan swam from the lake, his face red with exertion.  When he stood up in the shallow water, Perseus and Ekho moved quickly to him and helped him onto dry land.  He fell to his knees with the object clutched in one hand, as he gulped in big breaths and shuddered from head to toe.  Perseus’s moman laid a blanket around his shoulders.

“I didn’t think I would be able to find it, the water is so murky at the bottom,” his papan said.  “But then there was a faint red glow and I knew it was lighting the way for me to find it.”

Cosmo lifted the object and Daeton knelt before him to take it in her hands.  It was a crudely carved blade about eight inches long with a thick handle.  Perseus knelt next to his wife and looked at the blade.  It was grayish-white with dark lines and grooves along the surface.

“We can leave this realm, sweetheart,” he said, trying once more to shake her from the desire to listen to her vision.

She looked up at him, her brown eyes narrow with accusation.  “You don’t believe me?”

“What?”

“If you think I’m lying about the vision, or I’m insane, then say it.  But don’t tell me that running and hiding is the best option.”

“Of course I believe you, Daeton.”  He scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration.  “I just don’t want anyone to die.  Not today.  Not any other day.”

She cupped his face with one hand and said, “Then trust me.  I was meant to find this blade and face whoever is coming for us at sunset.  I can’t do that without you and Ekho by my side.”

Ekho dropped down next to them and put his hand on Daeton’s shoulder.  “We do believe you, honey kitten.  It’s just frightening to consider the possibilities of facing whoever this menace is head-on.”

She smiled at them both.  “I want all of us to live to see the sunrise, the threat of danger gone from our lives for good.”

Perseus pulled Daeton into his arms and looked at Ekho over her head.  Ekho’s eyes were dark and his face was troubled.  Perseus knew he must look the same way as well.  But their bride was determined to follow the vision and if he’d learned anything about her since they’d met, it was that when she set her mind to something, she did it.

He stood and helped Daeton to her feet.  Looking up at the sky, he said, “The morning is already wasting away.  Let’s eat and then train.”

“Train?” she asked.

“You need to know how the blade feels in your hand.  Bone is not the same as metal.”

She nodded and they headed back home.  While his father cleaned the blade and wrapped the handle with strips of leather, Daeton helped his mother and the girls with breakfast.  Perseus gathered his swords and sat down on the sofa to sharpen and clean them.

Ekho came to stand before him.  “If it gets dicey, you should grab her and head the Hades out of danger.”

“I wouldn’t leave you behind,” Perseus argued, his hand pausing on the blade he was polishing.

“Daeton is the most important woman in both our lives.  I’d rather die and let you both live, than for both of us to die and leave her alone.  Promise me.”

Perseus growled internally, but knew that Ekho was right.  In his half-shifted form, Perseus was much faster than Ekho, and if Daeton was in trouble, Perseus was the best option for a quick retreat.

Perseus reached his hand out, and he and Ekho grasped each other’s forearms.  “I swear it.”

* * * * *

Daeton’s nerves were jangling like bells at Christmas.  Each hour that passed drew them closer to sunset.  Closer to facing whatever was coming for her.  It didn’t really matter to her who was coming.  The bear in her wanted justice for the person who planned to kill her mates, and that meant facing the danger head on.  She had spent most of the day practicing with the blade.  It was well balanced but oddly shaped, and although wrapped in leather, the handle was hard to hold and made her hand ache.  But she powered through and continued to train with Finn and Odin, who were the best in the herd with blades.

Perseus had practiced all day with his own swords, working nearby as she practiced fighting with the blade.  Ekho was a hand-to-hand fighter and didn’t use weapons because of the claws on his fingertips.  He, Rysk, and Tyrant trained together.  Although the bears used enormous swords that they swung as if they weighed nothing, they were also adept at hand-to-hand combat and grappled with Ekho in training.  Any other day – when their lives weren’t in danger – she’d think about how sexy her mates were, their brows furrowed in concentration, their bodies slick with sweat from hard work.

Daeton wiped the sweat from her brow and put the blade in a makeshift sheath on her hip.  She flexed her hands, wiggling her fingers.

“I have no doubt that you will do well, my daughter,” Cosmo said.  He’d been overseeing everyone’s training, including hers.

“I don’t have a choice.  If I fail, I’ll lose my whole family.”  The son she’d seen in her vision was haunting her.  If she believed her vision – and she did – she was carrying that son right now.  “Adriel.”

“Excuse me?” Cosmo said.

“I think I’d like to name the baby Adriel, after my dad.  I just…sorry, I know I’m supposed to be concentrating, but the vision has stuck with me.”

“They tend to do that,” he said, smiling gently.

She focused on Finn and Odin, gripping the bone blade.  As they attacked her, she tried to remember everything she’d been taught.  Her brother Axe had taught her about blade fighting when she was young, but she knew that unless fate was on her side – and she sure hoped the fickle bitch was – that she wouldn’t succeed.

* * * * *

Ekho stood with Daeton and Perseus on the streets of Cholas.  The sun was setting and the streets were clear.  Rysk and Tyrant stood on either side of their trio, and the Centaurs stood behind them, ready to fight.

The Centaurs had cleared the streets, urging the shop owners and residents to stay indoors and out of harm’s way.  Some other species that called Cholas home had volunteered to fight and Daeton welcomed their help.  In reality, Ekho knew that the real battle – the true life-and-death match – would be between Daeton and whoever was coming for her.  He wished to Hades he knew who it was, and could stop them before they ever reached Daeton.  He’d gladly give up his life to save her.

The sun set and Daeton tensed beside him, softly growling.  He flexed his claw-tipped fingers, and Perseus, in his half-shifted form, stamped his hooves, his swords flashing in the dying light.

The scent of sulfur filled the air and a chilly wind began to blow.  Lightning flashed in the sky, but there were no clouds, so he knew it wasn’t a natural storm but one born of magic.  His fur stood on end and he snarled as thick, dark smoke billowed down the main street.

“Brace yourselves,” Perseus warned.  “Watch each other’s backs.”

Out of the clouds poured the creatures that had already attacked the Centaur settlement – the Vehsi and the Urtals.  Ekho tensed and bared his fangs and the creatures raced toward them.

Rysk and Tyrant surged ahead with the Centaurs, fighting the coming throng and keeping them at bay.  Ekho knew it wouldn’t last.  Eventually some of the creatures would get through the fighters and come for them.

He grabbed Daeton around her waist.  “Up!” he shouted above the din.  “We have to get past the fighters.”

He lifted her onto Perseus’s back.  Daeton shouted as Perseus bounded away and Ekho felt a creature bearing down on him.  He twisted to the side, skidding on the cobblestone, as two Urtals swung heavy clubs, narrowly missing him.  He saw Perseus and Daeton fighting their way past the creatures to where the smoke seemed to be most concentrated, and he trusted that they would reach their target, whoever, or whatever, it was.

Ekho’s claws scraped on the cobblestone as he moved around the larger creatures.  They were strong but slow, their bodies too bulky to move quickly.  He ducked one club and thrust his claws into the fleshy belly of one of the creatures, ripping and tearing at its flesh.  It bellowed in pain, falling to its knees as Ekho rolled on the ground, avoiding the second creature’s club.  He leapt to his feet, slashing at the creature with both hands.

At the sound of hoof beats drawing near, he looked up and saw Casper coming toward him, one hand outstretched.  Ekho grabbed his forearm and swung up onto his back.  As Casper wheeled in the street, he shouted over his shoulder, “Let’s go help your mate!”

They fought their way toward the smoke where Perseus and Daeton had disappeared.  Sending up a silent prayer to whichever deity kept were-bears safe, Ekho took out two Vehsi and knocked a club from an Urtal’s hand as Rysk and Tyrant raced behind him and Casper, heading for the smoke.

* * * * *

Daeton was scared as she and Perseus moved swiftly toward the smoke.  It covered the street like a wall, the Vehsi and Urtals battling in front of it, their strange yelling and hooting filling the air.  She held herself closer to Perseus’s back.  The bone blade was too short to be much use against the creatures, but she knew that she and Perseus weren’t looking to fight them, just whoever was controlling them.

Perseus swung his swords, chopping the creatures down as they rushed them.  He never faltered and never lost his stride, pushing forward until the smoke was thick around them and she couldn’t see anything.

Her fear rose, but she pushed it away, calling on the strength of her bear to heighten her senses.  She reminded her beast that they had a baby to care for and two mates to live for, and a rumbling in her mind let her know that she and her beast were of the same mind.  Whoever was behind the attacks needed to be put down.  Period.

She felt something to her left.  A coldness she couldn’t quite explain, an evil that made dread pool in her stomach.  Closing her eyes, she gave herself over to her bear and let her senses heighten to the point where she was hovering on the edge of shifting.  Her bear snarled in warning and her fangs elongated in her mouth as claws sprang from her fingertips.  She leapt from Perseus’s back with a roar, landing on her feet as a chill rolled over her.

She opened her eyes and saw a shadow in the smoke.  Raking the bone blade down her forearm, she ignored the pain as she covered it with her blood.  It began to glow and she held it aloft, causing the smoke to clear around her.  She twirled, cutting the smoke away as if slicing fabric.  The shadow danced away from her, and she felt the presence of evil around her.  She heard the yelling and hooting of the Urtals and Vehsi, but they seemed unable to come near her.

“Reveal yourself!” she shouted, slapping the blade onto her bleeding arm, coating it again and making it glow brighter.

The smoke parted and the shadow came into view.  She gasped.  It was the white-haired wizard!

“I killed you!” she exclaimed as fear rose inside her.

The man smiled and it sent a chill down her spine.  His long white hair was tied in a thick braid that hung over his shoulder, and he wore a black cloak, his chest bare of clothing but covered in red tattoos.

“You killed my brother.”

Her grip tightened on the blade.  She pushed aside the sudden fear.  Now was not the time for panic.  “Urijah tried to kill me so he would have enough power to take over the realm!  I did what I had to do to protect myself and my family.”

His eyes flashed bright yellow and his voice thundered as he shouted, “Never say my brother’s name!”

Her ears rang and she shook her head to clear them.

“What do you want?”

“I want your family dead and for you to suffer.”  He regarded her for a long moment.  Around her, she could hear the battle still continuing.  Her family fought for her life.  They were honorable people, not like the cowardly man before her who hired thugs to kill on his behalf.  Her bear growled in agreement.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said.  “You can leave me and my family alone, and never come back.”

The earth trembled as he raised his hands.  “I want you to know that I’ll enjoy watching you be sold on the slave market, to see the look on your face when you realize that your future isn’t your own anymore.  That you’re entirely alone for the remainder of your life, however short it will be once you’re sold.  I had a vision of you, naked and bleeding, weeping for your loss.”  His head tilted and he smiled, almost sweetly, as if he loved the idea.

Her bear hovered under the surface and a plan formed in her mind swiftly.  “I had a vision, too,” she said, growling the words.  “And it begins and ends here.”

Letting go of her bear, she shouted for Perseus.  She could feel him nearby; she just hoped he could get to her in time.

* * * * *

Perseus heard Daeton call his name.  She was hidden behind thick smoke, but he could sense her through their mating connection.  Ekho suddenly leaped up onto his back and said, “Into the smoke, I’ve got your back.”

Perseus gave Ekho one of his swords and leapt in the direction of his mate.  The smoke was cold and thick, and he was disoriented for a brief moment as he passed through the thickest part of it.  As his hooves hit the ground, he saw Daeton facing off against a man who looked exactly like the white-haired wizard.