Page 19 of My Guardian Gryphon

“You know why you’re here, Naram.”

He leaned against one of the massive pillars holding up the room and slid down it to the floor with a sigh. “She’s dead because of you, not because of anything I did and you know it.”

“Lies! You and Rose took her from me.” I hissed. They’d killed Cera and my child, taken her in the night and stabbed her in the heart. The dragon fire weapon had been in Rose’s hand when I entered the room, fresh blood still dripping from the blade. “Leave the bag.” I turned to Cal, and he immediately dropped the canvas backpack to the floor with a thud and stepped toward me.

“She killed herself and the baby. You raped Cera.” Even in his weakened state, his voice thundered through the enormous room, anger and something else—pity—laced his voice. “You ruin all you touch, brother.”

“I suppose Earth’s ruin is imminent then. Everything you thought I would accomplish has come true, brother. I will soon be the monster you feared all those years ago.”

“If you had the Sisters, Xerxes, you’d never waste time taunting me again. So someone has them, and they are protecting them. You’ll never get back to Orin.” He sucked in a haggard breath and closed his bright white eyes to the beam of my flashlight.

“Rose’s bitches are not the only way to the Veil.” Fuck.

Naram chuckled, actually laughed, a hollow pathetic sound that echoed through the room and my soul.

Exasperation clawed at my chest like an annoying child begging to be picked up.

Then his gaze changed, suddenly becoming more focused. “You didn’t kill her. Did you? You sick son of a whore. All this time, she’s been evading you. That’s my girl.” His tone had switched from anguished to a strong sneer of defiance.

“Rose will see you again, brother, at least the pieces I choose to send.” Once Rose and Naram were dead, I would be the only Lamassu left alive, and I would be unstoppable.

Dragons. Gryphons. Phoenix. It didn’t matter in the least. I’d pick them off one by one until they were alone and running for cover. Without Rose at their side, they would be nothing. She was the strategist behind everything they’d done, every plan of mine they’d thwarted.

Soon, nothing they did would matter.

Each day my army grew. Each day they showed the humans who was superior. Soon humans would hide in the shadows and the Earth would be ours.

Once I’d accomplished a pandemic of terror, I’d take Earth.

Then I’d take the Veil. That damn fucking dagger was in Sanctuary. It was the only place it could be hiding from the spell my witches continually cast to locate it. Rose had the Sisters and my key, but not for much longer.

“You will fail, brother. She will find a way—”

I kicked the canvas bag full of bread and dried meat toward him before squaring my shoulders. It didn’t matter what he thought, what he said. “I’m the one taking over the world one country at a time, Naram. You’re the one slowly wishing for death beneath a city that’s been extinct for thousands of years.”

“Thousands?” His eyebrows raised in surprise before his head dropped low. “I knew it’d been a long time. But—”

“Over four thousand years,” I scoffed. “And your stupid prophecy still hasn’t been fulfilled.”

He glanced up at me again and snarled, but didn’t speak. The expression he wore screamed his frustration.

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “It shouldn’t be taking this long…should it? What do you know that Rose doesn’t?”

No answer. Naram turned and walked away from me, disappearing into the shadows again.

“What do you know?” I asked again.

“Kill me or leave me alone.

Anger burned inside my chest. I could stand there and yell at him. Beat him. Threaten him. It wouldn’t make the slightest difference. Whatever piece of the puzzle Naram was keeping to himself would go with him to his grave. He’d never tell me.

Some things never changed. I’d won all those years ago. I’d taken everything from him, and yet there were still things my brother carried that I could never know. Things apparently even his fucking wife didn’t know.

Chapter 8

ALEK

Rose’s Cafe was extra busy today. The scent of sugar and cinnamon filled the air like a cloud. The Brownies had put their famous sticky buns back on the menu, and Sanctuary’s pregnant mothers were flocking to the booths. Eira, Sanctuary’s freshest vampire Protector, sat with Diana Blackmoor, both their bellies swollen with child. Their mates walked through the door a moment later, ringing the little brass bell wildly. The two Drakonae and the Elvin slid into the seats next to their respective mates, laughing and joking with each other about never getting to taste one of the elusive sticky-buns.

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