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“I’m glad,” he murmured at last.
“And Kai sounds very much the way he used to be too, according to Ere anyway,” Ben added.
“The big earth dragon loves to sleep, eat, fight, and fu—”
Ben cleared his throat.
“—ah, spend time with his Mate, Eir.”
“Kai has a Mate now?” Sai snapped his head back toward Ben, eyebrows lifting with surprise.
“Oh yeah,” Ben grinned. “Apparently, a Mate who used to be a Valkyrie.”
Sai’s brow furrowed slightly with incomprehension.
“A badass female warrior,” Ben explained.
“Ah,” Sai said. “Makes sense. Kai would only accept a partner who is as strong and as true as he is.”
Ben nodded.
“We all live in the same town. It’s very remote, away from large human cities. Surrounded by tall, snow-capped mountains, with lots of rivers and lakes. The Tiger King, Goya’s, enclave is there at the base of the tallest mountain.”
“Goya…” Sai mused. “I remember a little of him. He was just a cub during the War of the Gods.”
Ben thought of the impressive and majestic giant white tiger who reigned over the Beasts of Earth. He couldn’t imagine Goya as a cub no matter how he tried. He could more easily believe that the Tiger King emerged on earth fully formed like Athena from Zeus’ head.
“Kai makes his home within the caverns,” he related, “and Ere and Sorin have their own private nest at the top. I live with my parents, Tal and Ishtar in a normal house in the village. I need my human comforts, thank you very much.”
“Like a large, soft bed and plush carpets?” Sai wondered, his tone wistful.
“All that and more,” Ben replied. “Most important of all are my devices and the Internet. But that’s a story for another day.”
“Inter…net…” Sai repeated slowly.
“Ere, Sorin, Kai and Eir come to visit almost every day,” Ben said. “Or we’d meet up at the café-diner-night club, Drink of Me. A few times a year, a group of us might travel to New York City where our friends, the Pure and Dark Ones, reside for the most part.”
Ben rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly after his long-winded recitation.
“That’s about it, I guess. We’re a family. A very close one. We all have our own lives. Like being students—me and Annie, for example. Or shop owners like Ishtar and Tal, or property development moguls like my mom. And we all have our roles to play in maintaining the Universal Balance. Fight against evil and all that. It’s a tough balance, and dangerous and fucked up at times. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Are they home now?” Sai asked. “Your family.”
Ben frowned, the troubles he’d pushed to the back of his mind coming quickly to the fore again.
“I don’t know about the others, but Ere and Sorin are in New York City.”
“Why do you say that as if it is undesirable?” Sai asked, immediately alert, narrowing his eyes.
Ben sighed.
“Because Sorin is hurt somehow. Badly. He’s lost all consciousness. Ere took him to our friends in NYC to seek help.”
“Will Sorin recover?” Sai pressed. “Can your friends indeed help?”
Ben clenched his jaw and stared straight into Sai’s intense, diamond eyes as he answered:
“I don’t know.”
