“Kendrick,”I scream through our link.
“I can’t hold on,”Venus gasps.
Her control slips. I feel him reaching in for my thoughts, but this time, I fight harder. Reaching for my power, I pull it all to my hands and lift them.
“No,”I roar.
Purple light bursts forth and sends him flying back across the warehouse into the wall. I’m grabbed on both sides as I stand in awe.
And then the room shakes as the sky rumbles outside. Good, I won’t have to kick all their asses by myself.
* * *
Kendrick
“King Alaric will see you now,”one of the gargoyles’ servants says once the sun has gone down.
We arrived just before sunset to be the first to have an audience. Not that Alaric or Carlisle would keep me waiting. Alaric and I are old friends. I knew him before the disaster that destroyed his kingdom and turned him into a shell of himself.
Dagger, Rock, and I follow the servant to Alaric’s throne room, if that’s what you want to call it. He sits upon his throne in this gentlemen’s lounge, but it’s a far cry from the throne he once occupied.
I look at my friend. He looks well but still sad and broken. Like me, he sports some gray in his dark hair. His black wings are hidden as this place will be filled with humans this evening.
Membership to this place comes with a heavy price tag, but the members are never late with a single payment. The connections alone are worth every penny.
Alaric and the others have done well for themselves. I’m proud of him and his accomplishments after all he’s been through. I’ve trusted him with my source stone because of his understanding of loss.
“Kendrick,” he rumbles as I grow near.
“Alaric, it’s good to see you, brother.”
“Kendrick.”
I freeze in my tracks as Ray screams for me through our bond link. I can feel her panic. This meeting will have to wait.
“My mate is in danger. I will return,” I say quickly before I vanish, following the pull of my mate bond.
* * *
Ray
I kick out,buckling the knee of the hooded figure to my right. As he releases me, I go to shove the one on my left. I get ready to launch a full-on attack, but I’m swept up in a strong wind and lifted in the air.
As the tornado-like wind keeps me high above the room, Kendrick appears with Dagger and Rock. My eyes widen as Dagger’s long dark hair is pulled up in a ponytail and a tail is now whipping from his backside as he floats above the ground.
I look to Rock, who’s standing on the other side of Kendrick. He looks around, assessing the situation. Then he rubs his hands together and shrugs.
The next thing I know, he has transformed into a dragon. The bishop is now surrounded by men in green robes with hoods. They all look larger than life. Shit is about to get real.
“They are all original kings. Except for that one, the small one off to the side,”Venus says.
“You mean the putrid one?”
“Oh gods, you smell that too?”
“Yeah, what the heck is that about?”
“I think he’s human. He smells of necromancy.”