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“Of course,” He nods. For once, I notice the darkness that usually surrounds him with death doesn’t this time. This thought makes me stare down at the basket in my hands of the tiny birds responsible for bringing him back to us. There is no cold feeling through the bond, no numbness, just Kalen.
“More importantly, how are we going to feed them? I am not worm hunting or feeding them with syringes,” Lycus growls.
I look at what's left of my men. They all begin to shake their heads, their eyes darting to each other nervously. They may be fine with the tiny powerless chicks, but I can see they don’t want them as pets.
“We'll figure it out, but we can't get rid of them,” I tell him. They saved Kalen and sacrificed their lives for my mates and our recruits. I will make sure each one survives. We lost a few that were drained when killed, no magic left to bring them back. The flock is now down to half of what it was, so these ones need to survive.
“We'll go look for worms and small critters,” one of my men calls out. They may not like the phoenixes, but they all know the phoenixes and Aleera are the only reason any of them are still breathing. At the same time, some part of me knows the attack wouldn’t have happened if the phoenixes hadn’t been here.
“Be sure to be inside before the storm hits. I don't want anyone out after dark, not tonight,” I call to the few men headed toward the treeline. They wave me off, and I head inside and back to our room. All three baskets of chicks are set in front of the fireplace where it is warmest.
Ryze flies in the window moments later, perching on the windowsill. He watches his paired Fae as Kalen sets Aleera on the bed. I have no doubt he is paired with her now and I know all the Phoenixes have bonded to her. I suspected they were linked already but today proved it. The remaining fully grown phoenixes outside keep flying by the window. Protective of her and keeping watch of their master.
Tobias glances at the window, watching the birds zip past, peering in the windows as they do so. “Aleera, Queen of the flock,” Tobias chuckles, shaking his head.
“Queen of Darkness, more like it. I don't know what she did out there, but I have never seen power like that,” Lycus says, moving toward the bed. Lycus sits beside her where Kalen had set her down, tugging the blanket back to reveal her back.
Her clothes are barely hanging on her body, her hair wild and unruly. She had cut it off a while back, which was my fault, but now, after her power surge, it is to her hips. Her hair is so dark it’s almost obsidian, the ends show blue and red hues under the light from the fireplace. Lycus sweeps her hair aside and rips the rest of her shirt open, his fingers lightly tracing over her skin and the markings of her wings.
“How is it possible?” he murmurs in awe. I never thought I would ever see wings on a fae again. Yet, hers are something out of this world, no, out of the darkness that enveloped her.
Lycus traces his fingertips over her tattoo-like wings etched into her delicate skin. Marvelous patterns of red, black, and gold feathers lay tattooed into her flesh from between her shoulder blades to her lower back.
Lycus strips her fully, revealing the same patterned feathers down the outsides of her thighs. Lycus traces them. When he reaches the end of her wings, Her skin ripples and she shivers. A rippling wave effect has the feathered design moving in waves as her wings flex beneath her skin, making him jump.
“That is cool, but damn, it’s creepy too,” Lycus mutters before sucking on his finger. The feathers sliced him as they rippled from his touch.
“But fuck, they are sharp!” he curses, examining his finger.
“We'll figure it out. She'll learn to control them,” I tell Lycus, while wandering over to her and examining her wings, it wasn’t until she exhausted herself that she was able to get them to bleed back into her body. White fae's wings didn’t retract like that, they remained but could flatten pretty neatly to remain hidden, however Aleera’s receded becoming part of her morphing into tattooed outlines in her flesh.
“Whatever it was, it was darker than anything I have ever felt before. Even now, with her magic running through my veins, it feels cold,” Tobias states, flexing his fingers in front of him. His magic glows, and magical mist runs between his fingers like snakes coiling and getting ready to spring.
“It's her dark side. It was triggered. She brought it forth to protect us,” I tell him.
“That was more than darkness, Darius. Did you not see those things? The shadows she brought forth?” Tobias asks worriedly, shaking his head and dropping his magic.
“Hell's shadows,” I murmur. I have heard of the legends of demonic-fae being able to raise the dead in a sense. What Aleera did was similar to casting, only these casts became real, tangible. Casting is only something demonic-fae can do, but Aleera isn't a demonic-fae, so it makes little sense to me. But few things about her do.
Harmony-Fae are extinct, so it is hard to tell what we were truly capable of. Feeling her out there when she awoke that part of her, it felt like the dead feeling I get when my incubus side takes over. But, she has done similar before she had picked up on auras and empathic senses that were part of Kalen’s magic. It makes me wonder if it was us she draws on, our power morphing hers.
Time will tell when she has marked all of us. All I know is she’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
Running my hand down her back, her wings move beneath her skin, and she moans softly at my touch, making Kalen laugh. He swats my hand away from her.
“Don't rouse her. She needs some rest before her shredding wakes her,” he scolds. Ryze screeches loudly and I glance over at him. He has flown over to the baskets of chicks, all of them jumping up hungrily and I sigh. Now to play mother hen. My eyes go to Tobias. He is the best with them. He holds no fear of them. Neither do I, but there are a lot of chicks to feed and I am not a man of great patience.
“Fine, but you’re helping with the night feeds,” he snaps, walking out of the room to find them something to eat.
“Aw, look at you both co-parenting your killer flock of demon birds,” Lycus laughs.
“You’re in charge of the third basket,” I tell him, making his cheeky smile slip right off his face.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Tobias Wraith
I have officially concluded that I am not father material. Aleera has been asleep for two days and is showing no signs of waking anytime soon. Her phoenixes are driving everyone insane. They’re chirpy little fuckers that are always hungry. Plus, we have to syringe feed the balls of fleshy mush.
