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Come with us, sweet pearl,an oily voice whispered from below.We will care for you.
Great Ancients! What were those things?
Her heart shuddered as she looked into a pair of glowing eyes attached to a gaping maw that stretched open even wider just below her foot. She had enough sense to jerk her foot up just as the maw came snapping down. She heard several other snaps echo around her.
Come to us, sweet pearl,their sibilant voices whispered through her mind like nails raking down a chalkboard.
She thrust her hand into her pocket, clutching the claw.Save me.
She shot back up through the water like a geyser, hurtling above the surface at breakneck speed before landing hard on a rocky shore. Rolling onto her side, she cradled her sore arm with a groan.
The sound of howls and snapping fangs brought her back to her senses. She rolled onto her side, heaving salty, rancid water and fighting back dizziness. Where was she? What was happening with her mates? After the dizziness subsided, she finally sat up on her elbows. Her clothes looked as if they’d been thrown into a paper shredder, hanging off her in strips, exposing cuts and bruises all over her drenched body. She hadn’t realized when she’d gotten such injuries. Her mates were fighting in the shallow end of the pool, fur and fangs flying.
Cadmus was still in his wolf form, the back of Damon’s neck in his maw, pinned beneath him while flailing face down in the water.
She stumbled to her feet and ran toward them. “You’re drowning him!”
Cadmus refused to let go of his prize as he snarled louder and louder, shaking Damon’s neck like he was trying to break it.
Magic arched from her fingertips as she blasted them apart, throwing them to opposite ends of the shore. She dragged Damon to the rocky beach and flipped him over, ignoring the chafing in her exposed knees when she fell on top of him. Blood and foam pooled around his mouth as he made grotesque choking sounds. He had no nose, only a disgusting black hole oozing green goo that smelled like rotting fish guts. Fighting the urge to retch again, she pressed the claw to his chest and recited a healing spell, letting her magic pour into him in great, pulsing waves.
By the time her magic subsided, the creature beneath her had turned into a silvery demon with spiked horns, broad shoulders, and a youthful, smooth face. She resisted the urge to kiss those parted full lips as he slept like a babe. She rolled off him with a groan and fell onto her bottom, releasing the claw and flexing her sore fingers. Every inch of her body felt bruised as if she’d been run over by a steamroller.
Rolling onto his side, Damon tucked his hands beneath his head and mumbled in his sleep. “I love you, Bennu.”
Her heart sighed at his admission of love. The pain had been worth it. She gave a start at a feral growl behind her. Spinning on her bottom, she looked into the red glowing eyes of a zombie wolf! His black fur was matted with blood and a pool of drool dripped from his fangs, sizzling when it hit the ground.
Fuck. Damon must’ve bitten Cadmus.
He lunged toward her with a howl, and she hit him hard with a blast of wind, sending him skidding across the rocks. When he kept jumping up, she hit him again and again. He’d just get back up, heedless of the blood streaming down his tail or the breaks in his bent legs. Each blast that streamed from her fingers was weaker than the last. She was running out of magic.
With a roar, she lunged for the claw, feeling a surge of magic rush through her. She unleashed a thunderbolt, hitting him in the chest. When he crumbled to the ground with a yelp and a whimper, she latched onto a broken back leg and poured every last drop of her healing magic into him. He flopped around like a fish out of water before finally going eerily still.
Only when his ragged breaths slowly returned to normal, the breaks in his legs straightening, did she finally let go. A rising tide of fatigue weighted her eyelids and threatened to sweep her under and drag her down into a deep, deep sleep. Releasing a shuddering breath, her head fell back on the rough soil, and she was vaguely aware of rocks chafing her cheek and the claw tumbling out of her hand. She was too tired to care as she let sleep claim her.
* * *
MY NAME IS EILEA LUPESCU. I’m mated to Boris, Jovan, Geri, and Marius. We have five beautiful children.Eilea silently repeated this to herself as she followed the djinn Jezebeth into the forest, Tor Thunderfoot at her side.I am also the reincarnation of Elria Fangborn. I was once a powerful queen with four strong sons. I am both of these women. My heart is big enough to love both of my families.
But would her mates’ hearts be strong enough, their minds open enough, to share her? Her breath fogged the air and a chill swept up her spine as a soft snowfall dusted her ebony skin.
My name is Eilea Lupescu,she repeated when Tor opened up the djinn’s lamp.My name is Elria Fangborn.She sucked in a scream when the lamp’s magic pulled her in, sweeping her into its spout in a whirlwind of steam and smoke.
She hit the floor with athud,cradling her knee when she landed.
Jezebeth slanted a grin as she held down a hand. “It takes some getting used to.”
“Thank you,” Eilea mumbled as she took her hand, ignoring thepopin her knee when she stood.
Tor landed beside her with a harderthud, and together they went to the fire in Jezebeth’s hearth. Jezebeth mumbled a spell and the same whirlwind of smoke and steam appeared, sucking her down another drain.
This time she was ready, smiling to herself when she landed on two feet. Tor landed beside her, and Jezebeth floated in, her feet dragging behind her and ending in a whisp of smoke that was tied to a hearth at the end of the room, her soul still attached to that lamp somewhere in a New Mexico forest.
It took Eilea a moment to adjust to her surroundings, a room that was both familiar and foreign. Several recognizable woven murals depicting dragons, demons, and witches hung from the gray brick walls, and the slate floors were covered with striped fur rugs. She recognized the raised stone well with mists that swirled in the middle, gently spilling over the stones in thin whisps. How many times had she and her sister used that well to conjure spells and try to glimpse into their futures? But, no, that wasn’t the same well. It had to have been a replica, because the Vindictus had destroyed everything from her past.
She blinked when six shadows lengthened along the walls.
“Sister.”
