A Warrior's Quest Read online

  “Un-uh. Just that we’d be going home to daddy soon. Do you think he misses me yet? I miss him when he goes away. This is my first go-away. I bet he misses me.”

  “I bet he does, too.” She settled the babe in the sling, and then searched the rest of the cabin. She had her sword, but no money—if this world even used money—no coats, if it was a cold one. And it must be—why else would there be a fire burning to heat the cabin? And she desperately wished for a map of some sort.

  Or a passage key in the particular color that signified an entrance to Relaklonos or Levia. Not Gaia, not with the Beansidhe waiting. She could not risk the babes. “Cerri, we need passage keys. They are little balls the size of those cottleberries you like so much. But they are funny colors like blue or purple.” Cottleberries were the size of blueberries and perfectly rounded. They only grew in Lothicano, and Cerridwen loved them. “And they are kind of slimy when you touch them.”

  As if someone was still watching them, the next small cabinet Aureliana opened contained a bowl of passage keys.

  “Take them. You will need them someday soon.” The voice came again. Auri bit off another scream, and placed one hand on the babe’s back, and grabbed Cerridwen with the other. She took a second piece of the cloth and fashioned a harness. She slipped it over Cerridwen’s shoulders, then knotted it behind the little girl’s back. She tied the other end around her own waist. “Now I won’t lose you, baby.”

  Aureliana didn’t see any of the particular teal and gray passage keys that would lead her to Levia’s first opening—the realm of the gods had two—but she found one that she thought meant Relaklonos. She scooped the rest of the thirty-plus passage keys into a small bag and tucked it into the deep pocket of her pardus. “We need to get outside, sweetie. Are you ready for this?”

  “Are we going home?”

  “I hope so.” Unless she’d grabbed the wrong key, the deep red ball she’d kept out should take them to Cerridwen’s home realm. Hopefully.

  She opened the door to the cottage and grabbed Cerridwen’s hand. The babe slept peacefully against her chest.

  The door jerked fully open, and the vacuum sucked them all three into another cloud of nothingness.

  Cerridwen screamed, and Aureliana fought the winds pulling them away from each other. She wrapped her arms around the little girl, the babe tucked between her chest and Cerridwen’s.

  And then she knew nothing at all.

  ***

  Renakletos had his forty best Warriors gathered and prepped for battle. Whatever and wherever that battle might be. He had sent an emissary to the Dardaptoan girl goddess, hoping maybe she could find her warrior girl.

  They were waiting for return word before he and his men set out to where he thought the purple cloud passage key had taken his females. He would not rest until he had them where they belonged.

  Rathan understood. Ren had told him what the Wolf god had told him concerning the warrior girl, and Ren’s vow to protect her. Rathan had been angry Ren had not told him sooner. But that mattered little to Ren. What mattered were his daughter and the warrior girl. They must be found, safely, and quickly.

  If anything were to happen to the two of them...

  Someone in the central hall was shouting, fear and screams again filling his brother’s home. He ran, his men just steps behind him.

  Purple mist was filling the main hall. Mist he had seen before. “Get back! Everyone, back!” Before someone else was swallowed by the mist.

  He had his sword ready for whomever this passage key was bringing to his world.

  The cloud was as gone as quickly as it had arrived.

  At his brother’s feet, dropped carelessly by some unseen wind, was the warrior girl.

  His daughter was clutched to her chest.

  He dropped his sword, not caring about any damage that he might have done to the priceless weapon. He scooped Cerridwen into his arms and hugged her for a few seconds. His daughter seemed quite unharmed, and was holding his neck and laughing, calling for her pup. He cut the cloth tethering her to the warrior girl and thrust her into the nearest arms—Rathan’s.

  The warrior girl wasn’t moving.

  But something strapped to her chest was.

  He rolled her more completely onto her back, careful not to hurt her any more than she already was.

  She looked at him, but didn’t recognize him. She hissed and bit, like one of her Kind was wont to do. He yanked her off the floor and into his arms. Ren held her as tightly as he had his daughter until she stopped fighting him. Did she realize where she was? What was clutched against her chest? Did she know it was he who held her? “You are safe, pet. You are safe, you are safe. I have you now.”

  Her narrow fingers clenched in the cloth covering his shoulder. “Ren. Ren. It is you.”

  He had never heard her so vulnerable. He sank his fingers into her hair and kissed her forehead. “Yes, it is I. You are safe. You are both safe. You are home now, my kitten.”

  “Three.” Her grip was still tight on his shirt but she pulled back a bit. “Three.”

  Ren looked down between them, at the bundle in her arms.

  An infant squalled up at him. An infant without horn nubs.

  “What in the five hells is that?”

  She yanked out of his arms so fast she almost fell. “He isn’t a that; he’s a babe. And he’s mine now.”

  “But where did he come from?” He pulled the bundling back and looked at the infant again. He supposed it could be a male. It had the generic appearance of any newborn. Definitely wasn’t demon. But what Kind? “And what Kind is he?”

  She soothed the child, brushed a kiss against his forehead. How bonded could she have gotten with this babe when she’d yet been gone ten hours? “I’m not sure. I need Kindara or Thad to examine him. I’m not even sure how old he is.”

  “Does he at least have a name?” Rathan asked, his hand on the warrior girl’s shoulder as he too looked down at the spawn-of-whatever.

  “Arthaios. I am calling him Thas.”

  The prognosticator and his quiet mate were there. Kindara, her body heavy with the spawn a few weeks short of his date of deliver. Her worry and relief plain on her face for all to see. She hugged the warrior girl and clucked over the spawn in the girl’s arms.

  A spawn. He’d been worried that something had happened to her and his daughter and they returned with a spawn-of-whatever.

  Was this part of the girl’s destiny the Wolf god had warned him about? A spawn? Or was there more coming?

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Oh, Auri. He is beautiful.” Mickey, Theo’s mate, cuddled Thas close, her own belly protruding before her. She was due in two months; though Theo claimed she would deliver closer to a month out. Her daughter was healthy and strong, and Rathan’s healers said the same. Theo had also proclaimed it was his daughter’s destiny to be born in the demon realm. “I cannot wait until my daughter gets here.”

  “She will come in her own time.” Kindara rested against Aureliana’s pillows, far more cranky—and far less glowing—than Mickey. “And probably before mine own. Aureliana, I’d say he is only a day or two old at the most. Unless the Kind he is runs to smaller babes. Other than that, he appears perfect. I’m not so sure of his manner of arrival.”

  Aureliana resisted the urge to take Thas back, to hold him close. “I am not so sure of that, either. But I know he is meant to be mine. At least for now.” She knew not how long she had left, but she would speak of that with no one. Not yet, not until after Kindara was delivered of her own babe. “But I am not sure what he is, or what to feed him. Or anything about him at all. I was hoping you could tell me.”

  Kindara nearly grunted. “I don’t have a clue. He meets the criteria for none of the Kinds described in any of the books that I can find. We will need to speak to Rathan, see if he has any ideas.”

  “What did this woman who gave him to you look like?” Mickey asked.

  “Old. Wrinkled. Dark skinned and dark
eyed, with white hair. Not gray. Grizzled and leathery. I think she made herself that way on purpose so that I would not remember her.”

  “Weird. And where were you?”

  “I don’t really know.” She had yet to explain exactly what had happened to her, had said only that the passage key had taken them to somewhere she could not name yet. She would delve deeper in to what had happened to her on the morrow. Today was for Thas. She sank on to the bed between the two pregnant women. “I don’t think we were actually in a realm. I think it was between.”

  Kindara pulled herself up into a seated position, looking more like a beach ball in her blue and white vestis than Aureliana thought her friend would want to know. “Auri, was she a Laquazzean?”

  The term was vaguely familiar. “One of those higher than the gods beings?”

  “Exactly what they are. There’s a book in Rathan’s library. It was his grandfather’s. It tells of these beings.” Kindara reached for the babe and Mickey passed him gently. Aureliana smiled. The two had been touching him nearly constantly, tiny pats and caresses. Love. He would grow up with love surrounding him, whether she was with him or not. “Do you think he is one of those?”

  Aureliana thought about it for a moment. “No. No I do not. The woman said he would be the first of many. A new Kind is what I thought she was implying. I don’t think he is a Laquazzean.”

  Thas fussed and she took him from Kindara and snuggled him against her chest. “He must be hungry. But what do I feed him?”

  She brushed a hand against his cheek and he turned, searching. He was hungry. Intense worry rushed through her stomach. How could she care for this babe when she didn’t even know what he needed to survive?

  He bit her finger, hard. He had tiny teeth. Why hadn’t she seen them before? “He has fangs, Kinney.”

  “He may be a bloodsucker, then,” Kindara said. “Is he suckling?”

  He was, pulling against her finger, determined. “Yes. I think he is. Goddess, Kinney, what if we’re wrong and blood hurts him?”

  “You were chosen for a reason, Auri. I don’t think the whatever-she-was would have given you this baby if you didn’t have what he needed? I’m new at this, but I don’t think goddesses and gods or Laquazzeana work that way. At least not according to legends. And Theo says there are all kinds of rules that higher beings go by. I’m still trying to figure it all out.” Mickey leaned closer to watch the babe. “I do think he’s eating. Nursing. Whatever you want to call it. Kinney, will my baby do that?”

  “No. Our Kind nurses like a human babe. They don’t start needing blood until they are between two or three, and completely weaned from milk.” Kinney was also watching the babe. “There are a few vampiric Kinds in some of the other realms, according to Rathan’s books, that nurse on blood. He could be something similar, I suppose.”

  “Whatever he is, he’s beautiful.” The babe was content now; maybe he was a bloodsucker. Maybe feeding him would be that simple? Some of her worry lifted. She kissed his forehead once his feeding slowed. She put him over her shoulder and rubbed the little back until he burped.

  “So you’re going to keep him?” Mickey asked. “Is there anything you have to do legally? Who are his birth parents?” Mickey had been a lawyer in her human life, and Aureliana knew she spent much time at her Rajni’s side. Theo was the head of their judicial council.

  “The woman said they were gone, that they were destined to birth him and that was it.” Like she was supposedly destined to raise him. How was that supposed to make her feel? Was it supposed to terrify her?

  If so, it was succeeding.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ren sat in the courtyard the next morning, watching the warrior girl as she and Cerridwen played. That damned babe was strapped to Aureliana’s chest and Ren felt his ire growing. And his concern. How was he to protect her and some spawn-of-whatever given to her by a damned Laquazzean?

  His task was getting more Herculean. Did she know yet that she was destined to save the worlds? If she knew would she still be as reckless?

  She scooped Cerridwen up and twirled her gently. The warrior girl still favored her injuries from five days ago. She did not need to be running and playing so roughly yet. She was going to hurt herself—especially the way she was favoring the side the spawn-of-whatever was strapped to.

  He stood, and then stomped over to her. Damned girl was going to hurt herself if she continued as she was. Or hurt the spawns. “Give me the boy if you insist on running around so rashly.”

  She stared at him. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. You cannot play with Cerridwen and hold the spawn. He is sleeping, is he not? Give him here. I shall hold him until you are finished with your foolishness.”

  “Playing with a child is never foolishness. It’s a necessity.”

  “You are injured, are you not? Does playing so foolhardily hurt you? Then it is foolish.” He did not wait for further compliance, just unknotted the spawn’s carrier.

  Her hands went to the spawn’s rump. “He’ll wake hungry.”

  “And what is it this little creature eats?” That had his thoughts darkening. What had she brought back with her from wherever? What if he was a threat to Relaklonos? It would not be the first time a spawn was used for treachery.

  “He’s a bloodsucker.” She held up a finger, where tiny puncture wounds were visible. “Kinney and Bronie are trying to figure out exactly what Kind he is the most like.”

  “I have ten fingers he can suckle from if needed. And my demon blood is far stronger than your puny Dardaptoan. The spawn will be quite content with me.”

  Her reluctance was quite evident on her pretty face. Did she simply not trust him with this spawn of hers?

  A spark of hurt had his skin turning red, but he suppressed it. She did not need to know she’d affected him thus. “Give me your spawn. Then go play with mine.”

  She complied. “Just don’t scare him. He’s in a new place with new faces. And don’t turn purple. You’ll frighten him.”

  “I will not scare him. Ridiculous female.”

  “Auri, Auri! Catch me!” Cerridwen’s calls had them turning.

  “Go.” He nudged the woman with one hand while balancing her spawn with the other. “I have cared for a spawn before, you need not look at me like I am a big purple monster. Or incompetent.”

  He settled on a stone bench, the spawn—still wrapped in his bundling—balanced on his lap. He was a small creature—his fist smaller than Ren’s thumbnail. Not very threatening. The hair on the spawn’s head was deep black, not unusual for Kinds in his realm. He looked like every other spawn Ren had held. So what was so special about this one that a Laquazzean would give it to the warrior girl in such a dramatic manner?

  The spawn’s eyes opened and he blinked a few times. Fussed and rooted around. Ren slipped his finger near the tiny creature’s mouth. The spawn latched on and fed voraciously. Ren watched him closely, looking for any sign of evil in the way the boy moved. Blinked. Nothing, just an innocent spawn in appearance. Why did he still feel trepidation where the boy was concerned?

  “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Is my new brother awake?” Cerridwen ran up to his side and leaned over the spawn. She kissed his head. “Isn’t he cute? Hi, Thas, hi!”

  “Her new brother?” Ren looked at the warrior girl as she approached much more slowly.

  “Apparently the Laquazzean told her she would be as his sister in this world. Cerri has taken that literally.” She held her arms out for the spawn and he gave her the boy. She soothed him, looking all soft and maternal. Nothing at all like a warrior girl. Did she realize that? She was far more suited to female ways than those of a warrior. Mayhap she did need a strong male and a couple of spawn pulling at her tunic?

  Mayhap such a life would keep her safe and out of trouble...until she could save the worlds?

  And she did look entirely natural holding the one spawn; with his spawn dancing around her knees. Perfect and beautiful. Soft and feminine
. The way a female not of his Warrior ancestry should look.

  Yes…perhaps the warrior girl needed a strong male to keep her. She had turned down his consort offer twice before, but perhaps he could soften her toward him? Make her see that a bond with him would only be advantageous to the both of them. Make her forget any ridiculous notions she may have of finding this so-called destined mate of hers.

  She could wait forever for this male, while he was right there in front of her.

  Yes.

  That was what he would do. If he had to seduce her to do accomplish his goal...well, his father had been the high Incubus, capable of seducing even the coldest of hearts.

  Aureliana Adrastos would not stand a chance at resisting.

  He would begin now.

  ***

  Renakletos towered over her and glowered down at her. Aureliana fought the urge to step back. Why? What had changed with him in just an instant? He reached out and pushed the hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. Her skin burned where his fingers had touched. “The Laquazzean chose well giving the spawn you for his mother. But come, his sister needs fed.”

  His hand was hot on her back as he guided her toward the dining hall. And why was he walking so close? He carried his daughter one-armed, but the other hand he kept on Aureliana. Why? What was he doing? And why was she so suddenly nervous of him in a way she hadn’t been before?

  Even after the incident in his bedchamber, she had not felt the little hairs on the back of her arms stand at end when he was near. Not like this.

  He leaned closer. “Your little spawn there will need fed quite frequently, and when you find yourself feeling a bit low and in need, feel free to seek me out. I will be happy to provide for you. Whatever you wish…”

  He nipped her neck, just below her ear. In the spot that drove female Dardaptoans wild with lust. Did he know that? Or was that something he’d just figured out drove her wild, somehow? She fought a shiver. Him this close…it was too much. Especially with him looking at her just that way…She tried to step away.