Chapter 1 – Atlas
The self-declared prince was looking at me with wide, shocked eyes.
“I’m guessing Princey Pants here doesn’t get talked to that way very often, Atty,” Asher said with a chuckle down the mental link.
“Obviously not,” Saint said.
Prince Alok turned, completely disregarding us men, and talked to the empty area of the roof. “Goddess, we have been waiting for the portals to open for almost one hundred years. Why have you kept them shut to us? Have we offended you in some way?” His shimmering cheeks were burnt with red as his tricolored eyes glinted in the early afternoon sun.
“You might as well unmask yourself, Kiema and Scarlet. We know you’re not behind us…where you’re supposed to be,” Taryk said out loud, his voice clipped and harsh.
I smiled again, glad neither of these two troublemakers were my mates. Thank Gaia for small favors.
Kiema and Scarlet popped into view.
The men and women standing behind the prince all dropped to a knee, their heads bowed, clenched fists over their hearts.
“Goddess?” Alok asked.
Kiema cleared her throat, looked at the group of us ineffective men. Her silvery eyes were wide. She turned back to the newcomers. “Hi, I’m Kiema.”
“Goddess Kiema,” the group intoned in one voice.
Kiema’s nose wrinkled. “Just Kiema. I’m not actually a goddess. I think there’s been some kind of mix up.”
Alok took a step in her direction.
All of us men edged forward and growled as if we were one giant animal. “Take one more step towards our women, and you will find yourselves flung off the roof and shot down,” Ransom said.
I didn’t have to look at him to know his teeth were clenched and his dark blue eyes were sharp enough to cut skin.
Alok stopped in his tracks, turned back to the men, hands up in the air. “We do not have time for this political posturing. The Beast comes.”
“Kiema,” Saint said, a warning and an order clearly heard.
She grabbed Scarlet’s hand in hers, walked back over to our side of the roof.
Asher and Xander clutched at Scarlet, huddling her closer into their arms. Taryk took a step forward, blocking the newcomer’s view of his tiny mate.
Kiema didn’t cower, nor did she huddle. But her mates did come up and stand behind her, hands on her shoulders, death in their eyes.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about, and we aren’t posturing. We have no idea who, or what, you are. No one in this world can fly without machinery,” Kiema said, raising her voice slightly.
Alok turned to the group he’d brought. A low, hushed conversation in a language I’d never heard rose into the air. Just as things were getting heated, Alok sliced through the air with his right hand. All noise cut off in an instant.
Alok spun back to us, put himself within striking distance of Saint’s lethal legs. “We are the Wardens.”
Kord sucked in a breath. “No fucking way.”
Alok looked at the bigger man. Dipped his head once in acknowledgment. He looked down to Kiema once again. “We are more commonly known as—”
“Vampires,” Kord said, his voice holding a brush of reverence. “Magical ones at that.”
Alok dipped his head again, a small smile tugging on the corner of his mouth. “We are the –”
“Special police of the magical world,” Kord finished the other guy’s sentence again.
Alok glared at him this time. “If you know who we are, why am I trying to explain this to you?”
Kord flushed. “I’ve read all kinds of stuff about your race, but that doesn’t mean I’ve ever met any of you.”
Alok studied him. Nodded. “Would you like to share the knowledge I see burning in your eyes?”
Kord nodded, stepped forward, crowding into Kiema’s back. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind, he moved both of them out so as to be seen by the entire gathering.
“Wardens are the Black Ops Elite teams of Earth magic. They do all the policing and enforcing of the rules there. They are vampire Fae. I’m not really sure what role they play here since magic isn’t nearly as prevalent, but I’m guessing that will come out with time,” Kord said. Once he was finished speaking, he looked at Alok for confirmation.
Alok nodded.
“So Earth’s magic police are creeping on Azica because they need our Ki-Ki’s help?” Asher asked while he tried to push Scarlet behind him and Xander.
Alok narrowed his eyes at the bigger man. “We know our princess is here, my good man. Do not think to hide her or protect her. Her skills and abilities far surpass any of ours.” He waved a hand to indicate himself and his entire entourage. “And we need the help of the Goddess Kiema, yes.”
“Well, I don’t care if you know she’s here, she’s not going anywhere she doesn’t want to go, so you can just suck it,” Asher said.
“Always the diplomat, Asher,” Ransom said softly.
Alok chuckled softly. “I prefer plain speaking.”
This time, Kord snorted. “Yeah, because these guys are unable to lie. They’ll wrap you up in legal, parsed terms, but they can’t lie. Any deal we strike will need to be combed through with a microscope.”
“I still don’t know why you’re here,” Kiema said, patting Kord’s arm braced over her front.
“The Beast. It comes,” Alok said, his pale blue eyebrows dipped low over his tricolored eyes.
“Right, yes. You’ve mentioned. What is the beast and why should I care?” Kiema asked.
The group of Wardens jerked back as if Kiema had punched them in the bellies.
“The Beast is the natural apex predator of all magical kind. It is the antithesis to any Prime or Prime descendant.”
Chapter 2 – Kiema
“Awesome. Super glad to know that simply by existing, I’m now a wanted woman.” I pulled from Kord’s arms. It felt like someone had told me I needed to go back to Feuer Tower and willingly submit myself to slavery again.
Here was another group of freaking people who needed me. I didn’t know them from the Joneses, but they were bound and determined to make their mess mine. For some unknown reason, everyone wanted to party with Kiema Freaking Feuer.
“Then you’ll help us,” Alok said, a smile of relief banishing the stress that had pinched his features.
“I said nothing of the sort. Why should I help you? Were you here when Juan and Ferria were slowly trying to kill me? When the guys needed days without pain? When Scarlet was homeless? No. You don’t get to roll up on us like this, drop your pile of shit at our feet, and expect us to clean it up for you. You are all free to leave,” I said. I waved a hand in the air and began pushing through my men.
“But Goddess!”
I swallowed the feral growl that wanted to lift from my throat. I wasn’t a damn goddess. That had been Anda. My friend. My sister. The woman who had died for me. I wouldn’t besmirch her name by claiming her title for myself.
“You heard the woman, jump off the roof for all we care. But you will be leaving,” Saint said behind me.
“You don’t understand. The Beast is headed here. To this world.”