Kings and Sirens (The Blood Falls Book 2)

Atsila

“That couldn’t have gone worse,” I swore, then chugged down a beer.

“Or…it was perfect,” Klah countered. I hated when he did that.

“How so?”

“Well, you wanted her to know about the Salishan and now she does. Completely. Up close and visceral.”

That part was true. I was glad I wouldn’t have to spend hours explaining and describing. But the other part… “She knows about the Line.”

Kuruk shrugged. “So show her that too. Take her there. Once she knows everything she can decide what they need to know and what they don’t.”

I sloshed more beer into my mug and slammed the empty pitcher on the table. “She’ll tell them everything.”

“No she won’t. Not if it doesn’t matter to the prophecy. The outsiders are completely focused on it. We should be too.” Klah changed out of his hunting clothes into a pair of loose pants and nothing else.

“We have a real problem right in front of us. Why should we spend time preparing for something that might not even happen?” I sounded like Lyla. Fuck, maybe she was right.

“Look, I’m not arguing against the Line or finding a solution to our salishan infestation. But I am saying maybe a team of us should be focused on the possibility of a war.”

“I agree,” Hex said as he stepped inside our tent. “It’s all important. And since you were there you can head it up.”

Klah pointed both his index fingers at himself, eyebrows raised. “Me? In charge of something?”

I chuckled because Hex had clearly lost his damn mind.

The King glared at me. “Yes, Klah. You. You’ve been to the outside, you’ve seen this disturbance and these ghosts, and you have at least some sort of relationship with these outsiders. So get to work.”

Klah glanced at me, then shrugged.

Well at least someone was focusing on that problem. And who knows. Maybe Leena will find something in the archives that helps, too.

In the meantime, the King and General of our people was here to talk. “Any news?”

“The Doctor will arrive tomorrow to examine the body.”

“You told him?”

Klah poured out another pitcher of beer and filled our mugs, then threw himself onto the couch, propping his feet up on the table, grinning at us.

Apparently he was to be our audience.

Hex shook his head and turned to me. “Nothing specific. Just that we have a situation that needs an expert pair of eyes, and that he needs to be discreet. He wasn’t pleased, but he complied. So I need you to be on guard duty tomorrow. If anyone but the Doctor appears at the door, they get turned away. Even future Doctors.”

I nodded once. Hex and I didn’t always agree, but on this we were aligned. “Will we make changes to the Line?”

The King grimaced. “I want to double the patrols. He got through somewhere. We have a hole. Find it.”

I followed along and then froze. “Me?”

“You. You are the once and future King. This will be your Line one day. Or not…if it doesn’t hold there will be another attack. And then another.”

My blood ran cold. Memories of that day flashed, but I smothered them. Banished them back to the cold darkness of my mind. “I will go to the Line and find our weakness.”

“Thank you, brother.” He held out his hand. We clasped near the elbows. A seal and a command in one. “Now, what’s the deal with the Wren?”

“What do you mean?” Anxiety hit me in the gut. Did he know what we did at the archives?

“Can we trust her? Can we trust any of them?”

Of course he didn’t know. Even if he did he wouldn’t care. “Leena is trustworthy. But the outsiders…it depends. There are so many of them and each House is a variable. Variables on top of variables.” It was easy for me to know who triggered my trust or skepticism, but that was really only good out there.

Hex stewed on that while Klah kept smiling at us as he drank. “You know, she could be an asset for us.”

“What do you mean?”

“She knows these outsiders better than any of us ever will. She seems to like you assholes. If you could convince her to stay with us she could be our liaison. Our…consultant on outsider matters.”

That was the exact opposite of getting her to leave quickly.

Klah’s smile widened. “You know what would really keep her here? Marriage. She should marry a Heida.”

Hex frowned then shrugged. “It’s not the worst idea. It would solve our need for new blood for a long time to come, too.”

Fuckkkkk.

“Well then that settles it. Leena will go to the Line with Tee,” Klah said, eyes bright because he was damned proud of himself, the asshole. “She’ll get to meet many of our fine fellows. By the end of her trip I bet she’ll be commanding a harem of Heida and never want to leave.”

A harem? Over my dead body.

I crushed my mug into a thousand pieces.

Midnight Dreams was still nights away but everyone was feeling the early changes to the Plane. An eclipse of this nature is almost drugging. The power it holds over emotions, dreams, and desires is stronger than anyone’s will.

Especially at night.

Even I felt the effects, even though I didn’t want to. My head was lighter once darkness fell. My blood pumped harder. I was half aroused for no reason other than the alignment of the moon and stars.

I kept my head down as I hurried along the path towards home. I didn’t want to see the drinking or hear the singing. I didn’t want to get caught up in the trance of watching others lost in pleasure. I wanted to get home, into my bed, where I could be alone and away from all the bodies.

So many bodies.

They began to blur together. So did the sounds. The smells. One laugh rippled on and crashed into another, harmonizing and elongating. Every light had a halo that blended into another, creating an aura of candle and lamplight. It made the writhing bodies seem like they moved in slow motion. Every erection twice as large as it should be. Every pair of tits a bullseye to be found.

I had to stop as three women led their men across the path. Holding their last bits of power over them. Once their bodies touched it would be over. The beast would unleash. There was no stopping a Heida male who wanted pleasure.

And perhaps that was part of my hesitation with Leena. My brothers weren’t wrong. I could have an affair with her and move on, even if she stayed. Fucking her didn’t bind me to her eternally.

But I wouldn’t be quite me if I gave in. The limited power she had over me would dissolve. Could she handle it when the bear inside me takes charge? When I was the aggressor? I saw how the outsiders mated. It was intense. But in many cases it went one way and then the other. Mates traded power. And often power was simply a form of play. It wasn’t a natural, uncontrollable instinct.

The group finally passed, panting and growling for relief, and I managed to duck into my tent without succumbing to the need myself.

There was only one problem.

My tent was full. There had to be at least twenty inside. Beer flowed, food passed on trays, and there was very little clothing to be found. Of course Klah and Kuruk were having a party. They probably didn’t think anything of it. They were probably as high as everyone else on the vibrations of the Plane.

“Brother!” Klah came clambering over all arms and smiles. He was drunk again, completely naked, and followed by two females who were only wearing belly chains, arm bands, and anklets.

Fuck me.

Actually no. Not that.

Klah placed a big sloppy kiss on my cheek. “You’re here! Get in. Have some fun. Relax, man. Aren’t you tired of always having a stick up your ass?”

I stood perfectly still while he drunkenly serenaded me with all the reasons I had to strip off my clothes and join them. Normally I would. None of the samhain here were familiar to me so there was no reason to feel an attachment. Easy, free sex. I could let some of the built-up tension out, maybe get enough relief to survive a trip to the Line with Leena.

A female smiled at me, bit her lower lip, and dipped her fingers into my waistband. Suddenly it wasn’t this stranger. It was Leena from earlier, in the archives, wanting me.

I jumped away. “Whoa there. Nice to meet you too. How about I grab a beer first?”

She frowned but nodded, then dropped to her knees and began giving Klah a good time instead. He barked his approval into the air and fisted her hair, pumping into her mouth several times. “Off to bed with you! I shall have my way now!”

She scampered off to his part of the tent, giggling. Klah shot me a wink before he disappeared after her.

Ten to one my bed was being used too. There was no escape for me here, so I ducked back outside and decided the best place to hide was the archive.