21. Cress
There was a timeless bubble around Phaeron and me. I slept a bit, then drifted in and out for a while. Eventually, I couldn’t sleep any more, but I lay still for him. I enjoyed being in his arms, warm, safe, and glad he hadn’t seemed to stir this whole time. He’d needed this so badly.
With the lights off and his eyes closed, the only light in the room was a bedside clock and a smoke alarm on the ceiling that flashed occasionally. I wouldn’t have noticed it if this wasn’t an underground room coated with eddies of shadowy mist that occasionally rolled off of Phaeron’s skin, swirling with his deep, slow breaths.
The unrestrained shadow magic was just one more quirk to love about him, and I was smitten. I drank in his presence even though I could barely see him—his night air scent, the press of his muscles against my curves, and the possessive way his tail had coiled around my legs.
We’d fit so well together last night, and I was deliciously sore, sure to feel the evidence of his claim when I did eventually get up. My body’s needs would be the only thing that’d drive me out of his arms before he woke. At least, I thought that until Braza’s presence brushed my mind.
“Sorry to interject. I was not able to stall any longer,” she said apologetically.
“Is something happening?” I asked. When I stirred, Phaeron gripped me to his chest tighter in his sleep.
“You could say that. There is another newcomer to the pocket dimension, and he has demanded to see Phaeron. Ben’s memories show that he is Auric et Vess, an old friend. You remember him?”
“I think so,” I replied. That sounded like the name of the Vrassorm man who’d had the idea to take the survivors of the Age of Decay off Soiluire for good. “But is he still a friend?”
“If he is not, he is an enemy of our enemy. The effect is the same.”
Before I could ask how she could be so sure, someone pounded on the door. Phaeron woke with a growl and raised his voice in the direction of the insistent knocking. “Go away!”
“No can do, Big P.” It was Ben. “Can I come in?”
“Braza says it’s important. Apparently, Auric et Vess is here,” I said.
He stared at me in shock. “Auric? Here?” He muttered something I was starting to notice as his go-to curse in the dimensional language, but then he nuzzled into my hair, breathing in the scent of me with a sigh. We held tighter to one another for a moment before getting up.
I turned on a lamp and tidied the bed while he dressed in his old leather armor and answered the door bare-chested to let Ben in. I identified the scraps of colored fabric on the floor as the remains of my clothes and shook my head, going to don the black shirt of the set of clothes I’d gotten for Phaeron. It fit on me like a dress, the hem stopping mid-thigh. Not bad for the inevitable walk of shame across the hall.
I emerged from the bathroom and caught the end of a backslapping hug between the two men. I hung back a moment, oddly touched. Ben and Geo had seemed to be growing into close friends. Maybe this was a glimpse of a future where I was dating an inseparable trio. As long as Geo could finally accept Phaeron.
Ben turned and spotted me, making grabby hands in my direction. “Morning, babe.” He had a hug for me too before tucking to my back and resting his cheek against mine. His clever hands slipped under the hem of my oversized shirt.
I felt him smile. “I see I was right. When Geo told me what happened, I kind of assumed.” His thumbs brushed up and around where the band of my panties should be.
“He punched Phaeron for no reason,” I said, still pissed that was Geo’s first reaction to seeing him awake.
“I greatly deserved it, actually,” Phaeron put in. His fingers traced his jaw, where a bruise was starting to bloom on his gray skin. “Your safety is his duty, and I have been a threat to it. I am surprised he’s not here now.”
His yellow gaze cut curiously to Ben, who I felt shrug. “We had a long chat about you after the powercore sent word you both were safe in the library. I think he doesn’t know what he’s feeling after seeing you and Cress fighting.”
“Phaeron wasn’t in control,” I argued.
“Yeah, but we’re talking about someone who’s been a rock more hours than not lately. Just remember that he’s not the bad guy, all right? He’s just figuring himself out. That rock loves you as much as I do, babe, and that’s saying something.” He gave my bare hips a squeeze and planted a kiss on my cheek.
If we hadn’t had an audience, I’d be tossing this shirt aside…hell, Phaeron had already seen us going at it, so modesty wasn’t the best excuse either. The dimensional cleared his throat as I considered. “I expect you have a reason for disturbing our peace?” he prompted.
Oh, right. A living legend of a dimensional was here.
“Yeah, this dimensional man appeared out of nowhere while there was a fight with some of Myuna’s creatures outside of the hospital. He made the unnaturals disappear with a flick of his wrist and said he wanted to speak with you, Phaeron. He also idly threatened to make our friends vanish one by one if we did not find you.”
There was a knowing glimmer in Phaeron’s eyes. “You barely need to say more. What color was his skin? Did he have one blind eye?”
“Blue. And…yeah. I believe one of our friends correctly summed up his appearance as ‘creepy fuck.’”
Phaeron snorted a surprised laugh. “That does sound like Auric. Don’t worry, he’s all bark and little bite, as you humans say.”
“You sound positively ancient right now, Big P,” Ben commented.
He rolled his eyes. “When Cress is properly dressed, we shall go.”
The blue-skinned dimensional held a cigar while seated on a granite wall next to a set of steps that led up to the hospital, smoking without a care in the world. I was posted several yards away across a concrete courtyard. My obsidian wings and wide stance blocked a second, smaller staircase right before the hospital doors. I stood next to Madigan’s red-armored form and brandished warhammer.
Behind us ranged several more defenders, including Bianca with her crossbow and the rough-voiced shifter she’d come to spend most of her spare time with. We couldn’t be sure this man wasn’t another puppet of Myuna’s and about to make a move to teleport us all in front of the goddess. He hadn’t spoken to us much at all to dispel the notion, only demanded Phaeron and refused to move, creating this stalemate of wills.
A curl of shadows, distinctive on this bright winter day, crossed the sky and took form next to me. I swung my head around, surprised to see only Cress and Ben take shape from curls of black and purple magic. When I looked back toward the unknown dimensional, Phaeron had already taken form and was speaking to him in the language of Soiluire.
“Oh, wow, he looks much cooler in person,” Cress commented. “Also, hi, Geo.”
“Hello,” I gritted out.
It was a relief to see her whole and hale again, but that feeling was quickly pushed aside at my annoyance with her so willingly disappearing with a man who’d harmed her so badly. Magical influence or no, Phaeron was still the cause of the mostly healed wounds and bruises that’d peppered her body. I should’ve pummeled him further so he felt a fraction of the pain he’d inflicted on her.
She glowed, beaming like she held some sweet secret. A glint of her usual curious awe at learning something new about the supernatural community shone on her face as she watched the two dimensional men interact.
The newcomer spoke in a voice nearly as gravelly as mine. He’d leveraged himself to his feet with his tail alone, and I registered it as a natural weapon. It was a muscular coil compared to Phaeron’s whip-thin version, heavier with a layer of back-facing spikes and a cluster of them at the end like a club. He rested it around his feet while he grasped forearms with Phaeron, bowing his head in a brief show of deference.
“That’s Auric et Vess,” Cress explained in an undertone. Even Madigan tilted her head to listen in. “He’s from the Vrassorm tribe, the rarest of the three types of dimensionals. They usually have power over cold or the Void, and the stronger they are with either, the more potent the poison is that they store in their tail spikes.”
“What is the Void?” Madigan asked.
“It’s…” She circled her hand vaguely. “Like, it’s the darkness between worlds. Less like space and more like a plane of existence that links a universe together. It’s what the dimensional peoples escaped through to come to Earth…and also what Myuna traveled through to get here.”
“Fuck,” Ben muttered.
“Agreed,” I rumbled.
“Auric is a Vess. That’s a title that means…” She seemed to search her memory. “Voidwhisperer. He sacrificed one of his eyes to the Void so he can better sense it and use it.”
Auric glanced our way, maybe hearing his name. One eye was wholly a cloudy white. The other had a teal glow, with an unusual pupil like one black line with two darker blue scratches on either side of it. When he flicked out a forked tongue, he resembled Phaeron’s unchanged form, complete with heavy claws and mouthful of sharp teeth.
His horns and build were different, though. He had one impressive backswept horn, and the other, on his blinded side, was cut short and resembled a tree trunk with a crack on the side. “Was the horn a sacrifice to the Void, too?” I asked.
She considered and answered in a voice combined with another woman’s. “No, that’s new within the last two centuries.”
Both Ben and I flinched and pivoted her way. “Sorry. Did that startle you?” Cress asked in her usual sweet tone. “I wanted to take Braza out into the sunshine, and she just so happens to know this guy already.”
I only relaxed when she further explained that Braza was the name of the powercore. She sounded like someone Cress trusted deeply. I’d found her judgment dubious in the past, but it hadn’t been wrong about Ben…and it seemed it wasn’t wrong about Phaeron, as conflicted as I felt about him.
When he turned and beckoned to Cress, she didn’t hesitate to come forward. Madigan shifted to cover my post while Ben and I both accompanied her for protection.
Auric hissed something at Phaeron, who smiled politely while responding in a tone of warning.
The powercore’s voice flowed into my head. Braza felt familiar, carrying the reassuring electrical presence I’d served for decades in Moongrove Library. “Auric asked if Phaeron claims Cress in name only, and his response was to threaten to break his other horn if he’s rude to any of you.”
My stone lips curled toward a smile. I’d gladly help if it was necessary.
Phaeron switched to English. “My mate, Cress Darkmore. Her anam cara, Ben Evenstar. And her protector, Geo.”
“Charmed,” Auric replied flatly. His single eye held a full sentence of judgment as he took in the four of us together. “As I was telling the prince, I’m here to wage war on Myuna the White. You lot are a hodgepodge in need of a Vess. I felt her arrival, as she ripped a wide hole through the Void and that has to be repaired. Plus, I later heard this one’s silent screams trapped within the darkness and thought I’d be saving his sorry hide again.” He tipped his good horn toward Phaeron.
He replied by resting an arm around Cress. “While I appreciate that you would rescue me, I’m pleased to inform you that my mate has already done so.”
They had another verbal spar in their language. It seemed Phaeron won the quick exchange.
“I am Auric,” he said toward the rest of us with a hint of reservation. He tugged the collar of a fine suit tailor-made to cover his thick barrel of a chest. Tattoos peeked from his sleeves and covered the back of his clawed hands. “Once a power and a threat, a leader of a resistance, now doomed to tiptoe around human-dimensional conflicts lest the rest of my Vrassorm brothers and sisters get crushed between prejudice and threat. I’ve saved this kid a time or two. Who knows, maybe I’ll save you lot with what I have planned.”
“I’ve known Auric most of my life. He is an elder of our kind,” Phaeron supplied, and I realized he was the one Auric had called a kid. How mind-bogglingly old the Vrassorm must be to make such a claim.
“So, is joining us part of this plan?” Ben put in.
“I suppose so. On my way here, I sensed the scope of the rip where Myuna landed. If I had the proper support, I could catapult the bitch back where she came from and seal the hole behind her,” he said.
Phaeron frowned. “The Void most certainly does have a lingering presence around her.”
“Wait,” Cress said, holding up a hand. “When my friends say you made unnaturals disappear…were you sending them into the Void?”
“That’s right.” He bared his fangs in a vicious smile. “They’ll wander a while before its chill overtakes them, then they’ll be broken down until only their voices and memories remain to haunt its nothingness forever.”
“That’s kind of fucked up,” Ben muttered.
Cress shivered from more than just a cold breeze. “Myuna’s victims don’t deserve that,” she said. I quickly muttered in agreement with her.
“If you intend to stay here, you will save the Void treatment for Myuna herself,” Phaeron added.
For a moment, I thought Auric would step into the Void and leave with how disgustedly he looked at the four of us. “Fuckin’ hell,” he muttered. “Fine, you soft-hearted fools. But even the Void cannot save you if an unnatural rips out your throat.”
Phaeron grinned and clapped the other dimensional on the shoulder. “I’m pleased you’re here, old man,” he said with affection. “I must face the judgment of this group for my own deeds, but I imagine they will offer you entry and a room if you attempt to play nice.”
We turned and approached the hospital and the cluster of supernaturals guarding it. Madigan listened to Phaeron’s explanation of why Auric was there, then her red helmet turned toward me. “Can we trust this as fact?” she asked.
I dipped my chin in a slow, grinding nod. “No agent of Myuna has had the presence of mind he has,” I said.
“Good point,” she mused. “Let’s talk about your plan in more detail, Auric. I have a few augurs you should meet as well.”
I cleared my throat, a sound about as pleasant as two rocks grinding together. “While you do that, I wish to have words with Phaeron.”
She considered for a couple moments. “Yeah, all right. No one’s using the conference room right now.”
I shook my head at Cress when she looked ready to pose a question. She’d be all right without us for a while, considering how she carried a powercore’s might with her. Her gaze softened with concern as she watched Phaeron and me head for the hospital, with Ben hesitating before catching up to us.
The dimensional followed us as we took the familiar path from the lobby to the conference room that’d become somewhat of a war room. Tourist maps of Cerris City peppered the walls, each covered with different notations. One was stuck with red pins each time there’d been a sighting of unnaturals. Another marked battles and skirmishes, while a third noted suburban areas we’d tried to evacuate already.
Phaeron paused in front of these maps, his tail flicking against the carpet in agitation. He read over them for a few moments before crossing the room to have a seat at the head of the conference table. “I suspect this conversation has been due a while,” he commented.
I transformed back into my human form while he and Ben got comfortable. Feelings both positive and negative flooded in, as well as the phantom sensations of hunger and thirst. I’d need to satisfy both if I intended to spend more than an hour as a human.
“Yes. We should talk about how you’ve put Cress in danger,” I said. My voice just didn’t hit the same kind of dangerous rumble in this form, but I glared across the room at him as another way to express my displeasure.
Before I sat, I fiddled with the light switch, dimming the room and earning a grateful glance from the dimensional. I went to sit across from Ben, the three of us completing a seated triangle.
“I would not willingly harm her. I am fated to her, same as you both,” Phaeron answered.
“I am aware,” I gritted. I’d already expressed my frustrations about this to Ben last night, once I’d calmed down in the aftermath of finding him disconnecting Cress from the machine monitoring her vitals. “All three of us are fated to the same woman, and yet we could not be more different.”
Phaeron’s eyes glimmered like gemstones as he took in Ben and me. “A relationship with one man and one woman can be needlessly complicated, let alone adding in two more partners. Yet it is easy to love Cress, yes?”
“Yes,” Ben and I answered at the same time.
“That’s the fate part of it,” Ben added.
I scoffed lightly. “Fate,” I echoed. “It pales in comparison to being made for her and only her.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “All right, if you want to measure dicks about this, then my soul is the other half of hers. We share a deep bond.”
We both glanced toward Phaeron. “She is my True Light, the only woman capable of quelling the rages of my shadowborn side,” he said. “Were she one of my kind, she’d also be a perfect biological match capable of carrying my life force and thus my child.”
“So, we’re all specially bonded to her,” Ben said more to me, with a gesture toward Phaeron.
“But that creates the other side to being her mate. We must find a balance where we can support her while not hating one another for her shared affections,” Phaeron said. “I have shared a mate before. It was not always easy.”
“You have?” Ben asked.
He nodded. “With my brother. She was the first mate either of us had, before we fully developed our magic and abilities. I’m glad of the experience, as it taught me that a heart like hers or Cress’s should be trusted to expand to love her mates equally. It is better for all of us not to expect her to cut herself in portions and jealously look over to see if we all received an equal piece of her.”
My hands softened from the fists I had resting on the table. Somehow, he’d taken what I was feeling and phrased it just right.
“I have only seen you both as my competition,” I admitted quietly. They were unpredictable and changeable, unlike myself. But that wasn’t a fair summation either when Cress had already improved me just by being her.
“That is quite clear,” Phaeron said. “Do you remember what I said when I offered to temper your stone form?”
I thought backward. My memory used to be crystal clear, but I was starting to forget the edges now, especially moments when my human form was involved. “You helped me to make peace between us.”
He nodded. “I wished to establish some common ground for Cress’s sake. I still hope to build up a foundation like that with you both. As long as we can be friends, we can focus on her despite our differences. What do you say?”
Ben’s answer was quick. “I’m in.” He was already in, though. I was the one who found this difficult. My gargoyle side still saw the world in binary, so there was no “I will try” like I’d promised before.
I was the one who needed to change here. With a gargoyle’s brevity, I answered, “Yes.”