The Forlorn (2 page)

It was of a woman, almost human in appearance. The ears were higher on the head, and pointed. The eyes were big and tilted. Exotic. They were half naked, and were dancing around something. Not an altar, but some type of religious figure.

She ran her fingers over one of the women’s faces. She was smaller than the others in the relief, but Mara did not think she was a child. It was to her that Mara kept returning.

Just small. Probably around the same size as Mara, at almost five-five.

Not
small by human standards. But almost unheard of for full grown Dardaptoan women.

What kind of demons were the women? What had happened to them? And what legend was the relief depicting?

Real curiosity burned in her for the first time in months. She’d always been fascinated by ancient mythologies.

The city of Thrun was well developed, she supposed. The homes were made out of a mud similar to adobe, though mostly white with black stone flecks throughout. The colors of black and white were repeated within the city multiple times. There were plants growing plentifully, almost everywhere she looked.

Half the relief itself was covered in a vine similar to Gaian morning glories. She pulled some of it aside to see the full scene.

Someone had mentioned that the plants with the turquoise fruits growing on them were edible, and safe, for all Kinds to eat. Mara hadn’t been so sure, at first. But she’d found that they tasted like a cross between an orange and a blueberry, with the texture of a pear.

At least they had some food that she could deal with in this strange world. She still hadn’t gotten over the fact that her mother had been lacing Mara’s food with blood for her entire life.

Why
had her mother kept her Dardaptoan heritage a secret?

Part of Mara’s confusion stemmed from the fact that the one person she’d thought she could trust had been lying to her from the beginning. And her mother refused to tell her
why.

Raejel dodged the issue whenever Mara would ask.

Why did it matter what her mother’s reasoning was? It still ended up with them in the same place.

This
place.

Mara touched the statue woman’s eyes again; they were inlaid with what appeared to be a purple stone of some sort. Or with what
had been
a purple stone. Most of it was chipped away.

She looked closer, thankful that there was natural light filtering in from some of the holes in the roof.

Several rather large, rather unstable holes in the roof. Some unease at what she was doing filled her.

Maybe she should get out of there? Before something bad happened? There was probably a reason people were supposed to stay out of there…she should have just ignored the draw of this place, and
stayed
away.

Dread filled her next, but she didn’t step back from the woman’s image. Instead she looked closer.

Hadn’t the woman been facing left earlier?

Had the face shifted? Just an inch, maybe? Mara stepped back. Surely she’d imagined it?

The eyes glowed, the purple stone was back, intact. She
knew
most of it had been missing only a moment ago. What was happening? Mara stepped back.

She stepped back again. Right into a large, hard male chest.

Chapter Four

Rion knew exactly who—and
what—
she was the instant he smelled the clean scent of her skin, the moment her back pressed against his front.

His.

He’d waited for this woman for almost five hundred years. A Dardaptoan had one mate, a
rajni,
and that mate’s name was whispered by the Goddess of their people when a Dardaptoan was born.

Most Adrastos waited centuries for their mate. He was no exception. Once an Adrastos found their
rajni
they did not let go.

Ever.

“Careful, little one. The demon world possesses magics we do not know a great deal about. It is not safe for you here.”

The first words spoken to the woman he would spend the rest of his life with, and they were a warning, a chastisement, a caution for her going against the rules put into place to protect her.

Would that bode trouble for their future?

She gasped and turned around.

He got his first real look at the woman he’d be with forever.

She was smaller than average, but built thin like most Dardaptoan females. Her eyes weren’t exactly Dardaptoan, though the dark gold color fell well within the typical color range of his people.

She looked at him with fear and mistrust.

Rion held out his hands toward her.

Chapter Five

Mara shivered, then studied the warrior in front of her. There was no doubt he was Dardaptoan. They looked slightly different than any of the other Kinds. Their eyes, for one thing. A Dardaptoan always had gold in their eyes. Hers were a darker gold that she’d always considered a light brown until she’d found other Dardaptoans.

She thought. Dardaptoans really looked no different than humans to her—although
demons
did come in far more color choices than Dardaptoans.

She’d even seen one that was purple walking around the city. That had taken a bit more getting used to than she’d expected.

This guy was as tall as any other of the warriors she’d seen, or spoken with. A bit more muscled.

This one wore white, which she wasn’t entirely sure the significance of. Some of the Dardaptoans wore that color, but not many.

Her mother had never explained, even with Mara’s questions of her mother’s origins.

He wore a sword strapped to his left side. She’d taken several classes on ancient civilizations, drawn to them from the time she was a young girl, and she knew with one glance that the weapon was old and immensely valuable.

He was someone important, then.

Was she about to be arrested? Did Dardaptoans even do that?  “I wasn’t do anything…I mean…”

He held up a large hand. “Do not be frightened of me. Tell me, what is your name?”

“What is yours?”

He wasn’t a sort of authority, was he? He was just a warrior who had followed her in here. What did he want? What was he intending?

Maybe going in the abandoned library alone hadn’t been her best idea? This guy could do anything he wanted to her, there was no way for her to really stop him. “I…need to get going…”

He wrapped his fingers around her elbow. “Shhh.”

Chapter Six

Rion knew he was frightening her. He could feel her shivering, but he also felt something else. Something that had him drawing the girl to him and gripping the handle of his sword.

Something was coming.

And it was coming
for
her.

“Listen closely. We need to head for the doors, as quickly and quietly as we can.”
Nothing
would hurt this girl while he was alive. Nothing, no matter what he had to do. “When I say run, you are to go as fast as you can, three hells bent on the doors. Do not stop—no matter what—until you are out the door. Do not stop even then. Keep going if you have to. And I will be right behind you.”

She nodded.

“Go.”

Rion kept his body between hers and whatever lay in the depths of the library. They were still in the main hall, he could see the entrance about seven hundred feet from where they were. She had been near the back staircase—a large, probably hand-carved stone monstrosity that dominated the entire back wall of the library—studying an intricate stone relief when he’d first found her.

There were stone chunks between them and the door. Invasive vines covered much of the debris.

It had started to rain before he’d followed her inside—and the holes in the roof allowed too much of the water in. With the vines and rubble everywhere, it was going to be slippery as all three hells for them.

He fought the urge to pick her up and haul her over his shoulder. Then he decided that was exactly what he should do.

Rion grabbed her and lifted. She wasn’t exactly burdensome. But she was so infinitely precious. He could feel something behind them, watching.

Waiting.

He ran.

Chapter Seven

There really wasn’t any time for her to think. The man—whatever he was, though she suspected he was Dardaptoan—ran through the library as if she weighed nothing.

She screamed and wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him when the first stone tile fell from the roof. More followed.

The building around them shook, so loud she could not hear anything but the horrific rumble.

Another earthquake?

He made it to the edge of the library, and carried her free of the building.

Into screaming chaos.

It wasn’t another earthquake—it was another attack.

Dear God, what about her mother and brothers?

He dropped her on her feet and wrapped one hand around hers. He pulled his sword free with the other hand.

“Stay close to me. I will keep you safe!”

“My brothers—they’re only twelve! I need to get to them.”

“I will get you there.”

For some reason she trusted him to do that. 

He said nothing else. The big warrior used his sword to cut down a
something
that flew straight at Mara’s head.

Mara screamed—she couldn’t stop it, even if she tried. The sound just came from her when the black and gold animal dove right at them.

He cursed, something in another language that she could not identify. If she’d known what words he was using she would echo them.

Instead she just stayed with him, even after he let go of her hand.

What else was she supposed to do? There was no way she was going to make it through the attack on her own.

The man pulled her behind a stone pillar, a large one as big around as her old car had been. “Stay here. It might be safer to stay hidden until this ends. And it will end, I promise you that!”

She wanted to protest, but how could she? The creatures were everywhere. People were screaming and probably dying.

The demons and Dardaptoan warriors were everywhere, fighting the creatures back with swords and fists and whatever else they could find.

The big male in front of her was battling back the flying black and green monsters with a sword almost as long as her body.

She didn’t know him from Adam, but then again, she barely knew
anyone
in this world enough to have people to trust.

Especially in the second demon attack of her life.

What she really wanted to do was find a hole somewhere close and hide there until the monsters went away.

She was old enough to know that wouldn’t really work.

He pulled on her arm, guiding her toward the back alley that stood behind the old sanctuary of some type of church. It hadn’t been used much since the Great Relocation.

People were running toward it, seeking shelter from the flying beasts above them.

The screams echoed around the stone buildings and dug their way into Mara’s head. One creature swooped down and clamped his claws around Mara’s arm. He yanked her from the big man’s hand. She screamed and shoved at the beast with her free arm. He bit at her hand.

Mara fell to the ground, screaming, unable to fight the demon off.

Others were attacking the man, the warrior, the whatever he was.

Mara didn’t care, all she could focus on was the pain.

On fighting, on surviving as best she could.

***

Rion felt his
Rajni’s
pain the instant the carske demon sank his fangs into her skin. He used his sword to defend them both but it took him much longer than he would have liked to behead the animal tearing into his mate’s skin.

When he pulled her into his arms, fear was greater than he’d ever experienced before. She was covered in blood and for a small Dardaptoan female that was life-threatening in itself.

She could not afford to lose so much blood.

The battle had started to reside and he gave thanks to the Goddess. There would be time, then, to get her to the safety of his cousin Nalik’s great hall, where she could be healed by the Dardaptoan healers, or the Laquazzeana Eaudne, even. He would be fine with that—Eaudne was the mother of the greatest healer of all time. Rion wanted the best for his female.

He did not even know her name, only that she was young and beautiful.

He tore the turquoise
hasha
scarf he always wore in half and wrapped the two pieces around each arm, hoping to stem some of the blood. He lifted her against his chest and held her tightly. Rion would get her to the great hall, and the healers.