Chapter Six
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
—Aristotle
Ben flew by dragon back to the northern stronghold by the Beaufort Sea.
He’d toyed with the idea, however impractically, to invite Michael on the trip. He knew that the man couldn’t possibly have been serious when he mentioned to the lioness at the cookout that he was traveling with Ben, but…
Ben was tempted to make it real.
He didn’t invite Michael, of course. Even if Tal’s enigmatic apprentice knew about the Immortal Kinds, Ben couldn’t imagine the sharing of their defense plans would ever be justified. They still didn’t know whether he was friend or foe. It didn’t help that Tal said: “He has the potential for greatness, both great triumph and great calamity.”
Those were risky odds. And Ben wasn’t one to gamble. Certainly not when lives other than his own were involved.
So, why did he feel like betting on Michael?
I can hear you think, the Black Dragon, his ride of choice intoned telepathically in his startlingly deep and growly dragon voice.
Ben could practically feel the vibration underneath him, even though Ere didn’t vocalize any sounds. Ben was an expert dragon rider by now. When he was on the back of one—any raptor in fact—he became one with the Beast.
All of the other animal spirits mostly retained their physical traits in either animal or human form, in the sense that if they were big and rough as animals, they were big and rough as humans. Only Ere was the exception, which was nothing new.
Ere was always the exception.
Whereas his bipedal form was lithe, almost delicately beautiful, and lean, his dragon form was a huge, ugly, badass MF.
Well, okay, maybe not precisely ugly. Intimidating. Thorny. Threatening looking. Like Jaws or that man-eating croc from Crocodile Dundee. The stuff of nightmares.
Ere often complained that it wasn’t fair his Mate, who was cruising beside them, gliding effortlessly through the skies, got to be so resplendently beautiful in his Phoenix form, a perfect match for the golden behemoth of a warrior in human form.
Why did Ere get all the ugly? Why did his dragon form look like a cross between an overgrown reptile and a flying rodent? (Ere’s words, not Ben’s).
On the other hand, he also took advantage of his much brawnier dragon form to lord it over Sorin. Or he tried, in any case. He didn’t always win their sexually charged tussles.
Ben rolled his eyes.
Everyone knew about the mock battles between the Black Dragon and his Phoenix Mate. On the occasions that Ere won, the ferocity of their fucking could be heard for miles around. Wherever Ere managed to pin Sorin down was wherever the warrior got the reaming of his life. Public or private, it didn’t matter. The Mates were too wrapped up in each other to care.
Just going through strategy in my head, Ben telepathed back.
He didn’t know when precisely he began to hear animal spirits in his head and gained the ability to talk back to them. Perhaps it was when he traveled back in time to the Rule of the Dark Queen Ashlu for the Forgotten Truth.
It was a welcome Gift.
Most of the time, Ben appreciated being human. But sometimes, he wished he was more like his family and friends, who were almost all Immortal. If for no other reason than to relate to them better. See things from their perspective.
But Ben reminded himself that he’d been unbelievably fortunate in this incarnation, surrounded by love and everything he could ever need. He’d had an idyllic childhood. Though there had been dangers, he’d never suffered the impact of them. He’d always been protected and cherished.
He was more than satisfied with what he had, a human with the ability to see people’s true forms, and now the ability to communicate with animal spirits in his mind.
If he felt a little lonelier, a little edgier, with each passing year…he’d take that in stride. He shouldn’t be greedy.
The dragon made a rumbling noise that sounded like a harrumph. As if he didn’t believe Ben’s deflection for a second.
Soon, they had the fortress and the smattering of human shelters on the outskirts within their sights.
This was a mostly uninhabited part of the Yukon. Only adventurous researchers and taciturn fishermen came this far to set up makeshift bases.
Cloud was one of the warriors in residence at the fortress, along with his Mate, Aella. While Cloud could no longer transform into a Celestial Dragon as punishment for choosing his earthly Mate, he still retained some Gifts. Like the ability to create illusions in people’s minds. And the command of air and water.
As such, the sparse humans that dwelled in the surrounding areas didn’t even know there was a mile-long ice and rock wall along the coast, curving around a stone fortress that overlooked arctic waters from high upon its jagged cliff.
Ere let out a soft, carrying roar to signal their approach. The warriors who manned the fortress walls waved them through, seeing that they were friend, not foe.
Dragon and Phoenix landed next to each other in the circular, stone-paved courtyard, their massive wings churning up dust and snow. As they transformed into their human forms, Ben slid off of Ere’s back and stood next to them.
The three men were almost the same height, well over six and a half feet tall. But then, all Immortals were tall. The shortest of the warriors Ben had met was the Pure Ones’ Paladin, Dalair, and he was still over six feet.
Based on Ben’s recollection of his birth mother, Olivia, she was a human woman of average height, He was glad to have inherited Ere’s height genes. Despite being human, at least he blended in physically with his family and friends. He worked hard at martial arts and dragon riding to be able to hold his own alongside them in battle.
He never wanted to be the “weak link” in their armor.
“Brother,” Sai was already waiting and greeted Ere with a clasp of forearm.
He was the very first sea dragon that the Twin Goddesses created, to Ere’s sky dragon and Kai’s earth dragon.
Kai was stationed at the southern outpost. It was Ben and Ere’s strategic decision to separate the three eldest dragons, for they were the most powerful in their respective elements. Thus, each of the fortresses were balanced in terms of might.
“It’s like you grow prettier every time I see you,” Ere quipped, affecting an envious look. “Brigid’s love must be doing wonders for that irresistible glow of virility you have about you.”
Sai merely took his teasing in stride, very much used to Ere’s irreverent ways by now.
“And you, Sorin, Ben. Welcome,” he nodded to them in turn.
“All is well?” Ben asked, as they began to walk inside.
“Mmm,” Sai hummed noncommittally.
Shit.
That wasn’t the positive definitive answer Ben was hoping to hear.
“Let us gather for a light repast,” Sai said instead, ushering them into the open banquet hall.
The fortress was constructed with the aesthetic from both ancient and modern times. Strong and stalwart with contemporary amenities. Including electricity and satellite internet. Though the lighting and heat source of choice were burning fires.
“The others are waiting.”
By others, Sai meant his Mate, Brigid, a faerie queen; Sin, a rare liger Beast, his dragon Mate, Zai; Cloud and Aella from the Pure contingent; Rhys, an Eagle Beast from the Dark Chosen warriors; and Shai, a celestial sky dragon, with his now Immortal Mate, Heba, who used to be the most powerful queen in ancient Egypt.
Ben had powerful friends.
After everyone greeted the three visitors, Ben, Ere and Sorin sat down at the large oblong table.
“Don’t keep me in suspense,” Ben said to the table at large.
“What’s happened?”
They ate as they talked, efficient with their time.
“The sky, land and sea are eerily calm,” it was Zai who began.
“In this season, there should be plenty of unpredictable weather. Big storms that churn the waters, rain and snow that bury the lands. But everything has been unexpectedly quiet. Too quiet. Even though there is a distinct scent in the air.”
He pierced Ben with those gun-metal gray eyes, the same shade as the scales of his winged dragon form.
“The scent of blood.”
It was then that Ben noticed the subversive smell as well.
If Zai hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint the specific scent himself. It was as if there was extra iron in the air, leaving a sharp, metallic after-taste in his nostrils and mouth once he breathed it in.
“I have searched the seas,” Sai said, “for hundreds of miles around. There is nothing out of place. Nothing suspicious to report.”
“And I have looked into parallel portals that converge with this plane,” Brigid added. “Everything is as it should be. I do not sense imminent invasions from another realm.”
“But the local animals know,” Sin growled from across the table.
“The bears have gone into hibernation well ahead of schedule. The seals are migrating to the west, leaving these parts for Alaska. The muskrats and snowshoe hare have gone to ground, not even coming out to forage for food. I’ve seen many hungry lynx wandering beyond their usual hunting zones. But they are frightened to be out in the open tundra. They sense something other here, though they cannot see it.”
His lips twisted as he added, “And that something other is not us.”
This report did not bode well at all. Ben had been hoping for a quick, routine visit. At the same time, this was what they were preparing for.
A strange steady calm settled over him.
“Why hasn’t anyone notified us?” Ere asked. “Have you informed the southern fort?”
“We told them to be on guard,” Aella, the Pure Ones’ Strategist, answered.
“Well, heavier guard, in any case,” she added ruefully.
They were always on guard.
“But without anything tangible, we don’t know how to better prepare. We knew you were due for a visit from Mount Wilson. We thought it was easier to explain if you could feel it for yourselves.”
Yes, it would have to be “feel,” taste, and smell, for there was nothing to see or hear. The sense of foreboding felt as if a giant was sitting on top of Ben’s chest. But there was, of course, no giant.
Whatever created the threat couldn’t be pinned down.
“What do we know about the shadow dragons?” Ben asked.
They’d all discussed and compared notes about this before, but he wanted to retread their steps. Perhaps they’d missed something important. Some clue.
“They can appear in both the Celestial Realm and on earth,” Shai began.
“Though they are difficult to destroy, it is not impossible. And when they are killed, they turn into smoke.”
“They can merge or separate like clouds,” Heba added.
“They can form swarms of smaller dragons and gather together into a much larger dragon. And they do feel pain. Or at least anger. For they scream when they are severely wounded or a target escapes their clutches.”
“They can also turn into humanoid assassins,” Ben put in. “I’ve encountered those in both realms as well.”
“It seems they take whatever form is most effective for the task at hand,” Aella said. “When we went to the Celestial Realm to bring Lancelot back, their force was proportional to our own. There’s no guarantee, of course, that they wouldn’t suddenly multiply to overwhelm us, but…”
She shared a look with her Mate.
“What is it?” Ben urged.
“It’s as if they are testing us,” Cloud spoke aloud their shared thought.
“Or toying with us,” Ere muttered from beside Ben.
Raising his voice to be heard, he said, “Whoever commands the dragons, assassins, whatever they are—seem to be always one step behind us. Letting us win. I don’t trust it. And yet, everything that’s happened has the feeling of a…a big fucking game.”
At this, he curled his lip in a savage snarl.
“Just like the Jade Emperor’s quests. What if this is all just a game?”
“That’s some high-stake shit,” Rhys growled. “I’m not looking forward to a repeat of the Hydra.”
“But that’s the thing,” Ere latched onto that thought.
“This is totally different from the Hydra. Wan’er, AKA the fox spirit, AKA the multi-headed ugly, wasn’t playing a game at all. Medusa might have been. I don’t think she was after anything in particular so much as mass chaos and destruction. Suffering and pain. She was a sadistic bitch and megalomaniac with Immortal powers. That’s the long and short of it. But the Hydra wanted to be a god. She came for Sorin’s feather.”
Ere grasped the small amulet with its ruby stem on a fine golden chain around his neck, holding it tight in his fist.
“My feather. It was the last ingredient for her to ascend to godhood. That’s a very specific goal. Nothing else mattered. She wanted ultimate power for herself, as well as create the most powerful army at her behest—an army of dragons. For what purpose after that, I don’t know. The point is: she had a plan. Everything she did was not executed for its own sake, for some immediate benefit. They were all part of a larger plan.”
These shadows were dragons too, Ben thought. Could they possibly be related to the Hydra? he wondered with an involuntary shudder. The dead should stay dead.
Right?
Where did the dead go, exactly? As far as he knew, only Pure souls had the capacity to be reborn. Did others simply…disappear? Or were they all eternally part of the universe, never truly gone?
Suddenly, he felt the heat from Ere’s concentrated gaze on the side of his face. Everyone around the table was looking at him too.
He looked back, expectant.
What did he miss?
“She wanted you, Benjamin,” his sire whispered, as if afraid of being struck down for speaking something blasphemous.
It worried Ben that the Black Dragon would show fear of anything.
“The Hydra seemed to want you just as much as she wanted my feather.”
They’d never really talked about Ben’s role in the whole Hydra equation. Personally, he just assumed she was interested in him because he had the potential to become a dragon without any manipulation on her part.
He possessed all of the ingredients already—something genetic infused into his being from every Kind in the Universe. That was how dragons were “made” or transformed, if they were not born. He’d be a quick, easy add to the army she was trying to amass, and because he’d been a boy, maybe she thought he’d be easily manipulated to do her bidding.
Little did she know about his stubborn old soul.
He remembered hearing her voice calling to him in the forest before she abducted him, and Ere became the Black Dragon to save his life, battling the then much more powerful Hydra. Ere had lost his own life in the process. Or, he’d been literally torn apart. It had taken Sorin’s intensive healing to make him whole again.
And that’s a whole other story in of itself.
“I’m just a dragon-in-waiting to add to her arsenal,” Ben said with a shrug, trying to downplay it. Wanting to settle Ere’s nerves.
“Lilly had bigger plans than me.”
“Did she now,” Ere murmured, his gaze shrewd and scrutinizing.
“Lilly…” he drew out with a hiss, as if he found Ben’s nickname for the monstrous Hydra utterly distasteful.
Ben didn’t know why he said it. Why he still called her that in his mind, never mind out loud.
It was something intimate, rather than the impersonal moniker of Hydra. Even more intimate than the Hydra’s name—Lilith.
For everything Lilith did, all the destruction and disgusting deeds she perpetrated, he could never bring himself to truly hate her. Deep down inside, he knew why. No one else but he knew. After all, hadn’t he gone back to the Age of Dark Ones to discover his own Truth? He might have buried it from conscious thought, but the memories were still there.
Waiting.
“I think you’re right to note the difference, Ere,” he said, bringing the topic back to their immediate threat.
“The shadow dragons and assassins are different from Medusa and the Hydra. For one thing, they could very likely be controlled by someone else. A higher power. The Jade Emperor comes to mind, but I can’t figure out why. For example, the assassins attacked Arthur and Lancelot, and Arthur was mortally wounded. Yet, the Jade Emperor seems to collect dragons. Why would he send assassins to damage the very beings he wants to amass?”
“Well, that was before Arthur and Lancelot manifested their dragon powers,” Ere put in thoughtfully.
“And I don’t think the JE ‘collects’ dragons so much as recalls them to the Celestial Realm, where he intends to keep them. As Cloud here knows well, the unwritten but well-known rule is that dragons should not exist on earth. Except due to divine intervention.”
They both looked at the Pure warrior (and Ben’s dragon trainer) in question.
“I do believe that the shadow dragons are from the Celestial Realm,” Cloud said, “whether they belong to the Jade Emperor or not.”
He inclined his head toward Shai.
“You’ve experienced it too, warrior. The Jade Emperor keeps innumerable dragons there. In hidden caverns, on mountain peaks, and beneath the Four Seas. There are a few chosen dragons who are allowed to roam free. Or perhaps, they choose to be out in the open, unlike their more solitary brethren. Before I was incarcerated for breaking the rules, I, too, was one of the chosen few.”
“I chose not to roam in the open,” Shai said. “I preferred to keep to myself when I wasn’t sent on missions in the human world.”
He shared a look with his Mate, Heba, and tightened the clasp of their hands.
“I wish I could have slept through it all, until I could be reunited with my love, once I knew she was out there in the world. But I learned early on that rebelling against the Jade Emperor’s wishes only worsened the pain of being kept from my Mate. Being physically imprisoned as well as mentally was too hard to bear. It was simply easier to do his bidding.”
Heba smoothed a palm over his face and cupped his jaw, her look so full of tenderness and love, that Ben had to lower his eyes from the intensity of it.
“What exactly did the JE have you Celestial dragons do?” Ere asked.
“Also, I want to talk about the difference between Celestial dragons and earth-born dragons. We’ve theorized before that they are borne of different creators, that the Celestial dragons, like Rui, Cloud, Wolfe, Shai, Lancelot, Divina, maybe Merlin too? I can never be sure—are created by the Jade Emperor, while all the rest of us are earth-born. Either created in the first place by the Twin Goddesses, or transformed through…other means.”
Ere flinched almost imperceptibly toward the end, but only Ben and Sorin seemed to notice, for they knew how the Black Dragon came to be all too well.
“But is the distinction of creation even real?” Ben argued, making Ere squint his eyes with consideration.
“What if all of the dragons were actually created by the Twins, or through their magic, and the JE has been trying to corral them all by sticking a chimu on their foreheads? Not all but some? What if the chimu was a form of control or containment? Merlin wasn’t sent on missions, as far as I know, maybe because he was too damaged to release into the world. But Kai was. Yet, Kai is definitely an earth-born dragon, created by the Twins. And Zai…”
He looked to the male in question.
“Aye, I recalled my time in the Celestial Realm after my dragon awakened,” Zai picked up the thread.
“While I was in this Dark One form in the mortal realm, my memories were lost. I do not know how I was created, but I remember being content in Heaven. Before I was sent to earth and met my Mate.”
He and Sin shared a look.
“For my part, I was sent to aid humans during critical moments in time,” Cloud put in, “when miracles needed to happen to turn the tide.”
“I could disguise my dragon form entirely and merge with the clouds and storms. Humans never saw me unless I allowed it. Unless their minds and hearts were open to it. All they knew was that the ‘heavens’ heard their pleas.”
“I just did what I was sent to do,” Shai added. “There weren’t specific instructions. I just knew. I never questioned whether the side I was helping, in the case of a war, was the right side. We’re not built to question. Like soldiers serving a greater purpose.”
Like keeping Universal Balance intact.
Shai and Cloud shared a long look.
“We don’t recall our Celestial existence when we are sent to earth,” Shai continued. “We are there in human form until our dragon powers are critically needed. There are mythical heroes in the legends of every human civilization. I imagine most, if not all of them, are dragons in disguise. I don’t know how long I’d existed before meeting Heba in ancient Egypt. I don’t recall all the things I did when I’d been sent to earth before. Nor the times I’d been sent down after meeting Heba.”
He looked into his Mate’s shining eyes.
“I only remember you,” he said huskily to her.
“I don’t recall any of my ‘missions’ either,” Zai said. “I only retain the memories from the time I was sent to the Rule of Dark Ones, during the reign of Queen Ashlu. But for what reason I could have been sent to fight for her, I cannot imagine. Dark Ones were the oppressors of every other living being. I was her Master Hunter. I killed…”
He bowed his head in shame, shuddering when Sin laid a hand on his shoulder.
They were an unlikely couple—a Dark Hunter and a Beast. Zai had killed many Immortal Kinds at Queen Ashlu’s behest. But most of all, the Beasts.
But love had a way of overcoming all obstacles. Every pair around the table was a testament to that truth.
“I think we just isolated another clue,” Ben interjected, and everyone looked back at him.
“I’ve always assumed that dragons transformed when they found their One True Mate. It’s the endangerment of that Mate that triggers their transformation. Which, in a sense, is true. But what you’re telling me, all of you, is that you’ve always been able to transform into dragon when you’ve been sent to earth. You simply don’t recall those experiences. You only recall your time with your Mate.”
Ere’s eyes gleamed as he caught on to Ben’s train of thought.
“You’re onto something, my brilliant Padawan,” he crowed like a little boy stumbling across an unexpected treat.
“It isn’t the transformation that matters, so much as how a dragon feels and experiences the world. There are always dragons existing on earth, either sent down from the Celestial Realm or born and bred here. That’s not the rule that gets broken. It’s when a dragon falls in love and rebels against whatever their role is in the Universe, that’s when shit hits the metaphorical fan.”
He looked to Cloud.
“Your powers were stripped when you chose to be with Aella on the earthly realm, but Wolfe and Rui were allowed to keep all of their dragon powers when they dwelled in the Four Seas, in the Celestial Realm. And Divina, despite choosing to be with Andros in ancient Greece, eventually got back the ability to transform into dragon.”
“All of the dragons we’ve broken out, or the JE has let out, have retained their powers. Either the all-powerful god has lost his edge or we’ve figured out a way to bypass the restrictions. Have you really tried to harness your dragon powers, Cloud? Maybe you still have them, despite the removal of your chimu.”
“And if I’m right,” Ben interjected, “that the chimu is a control mechanism to suppress your powers, rather than imbue you with something you inherently possess, then you should still have them.”
Cloud’s elegant black brows drew together in concentration.
It was clear he’d never considered that possibility. He’d merely accepted what he was told by the emissary of the Jade Emperor, the Master, as he always did.
“Once you’re dragon, you’re always dragon,” Ere posited.
“It’s who we are, not a power we have. Just like, even when Sorin’s wings had been…”
Ripped out. Torn apart.
“…lost,” Ere resorted to euphemism, seeing how his taciturn Mate had stiffened as he spoke, “he was able to regenerate them as the Phoenix. Our powers are always inside of us. It’s just a matter of channeling them.”
“And the consciousness of dragons, the independent thought and will, is what truly matters,” Ben said.
“I believe the love of Mates awakens a dragon’s soul. A soul has its own desires, its own will. When this happens, dragons can no longer be controlled by an external force. That makes them, in some ways, dangerous. Unpredictable. If you look at it from the Jade Emperor’s point of view, all that uncontrollable power could lead to mass chaos and destruction if it’s used in the wrong way.”
“So where does this leave us?” Sai asked, bringing them back to the beginning.
“Are the shadow dragons and assassins dragons without souls? Ghosts? Or simply the magic of an all-powerful deity? Are they even the dangers we should be guarding against in the first place? Or is there something else even more threatening?”
“My gut tells me it’s the shadows that will come,” Ben said grimly.
“It’s the scent of their particles in the air. Not the smell of fresh blood, but of stale rust and smoke. As to why they will come and who might have sent them, I don’t think we’ve gotten any closer to the answer. Or even a likely hypothesis.”
For some reason, his mind went back to Lilith.
The Fox Spirit who inhabited nine skins. Including one that had loved him and hurt him in equal measure in a previous incarnation. And the final skin was that of the Hydra.
What remained when the skins were shed? What happened to the soul that wore these skins? Was it erased from the Universe as if it never was?
Ben felt an inexplicable sadness at the thought.
He could feel Ere’s gaze on him, watching intently. As if the male could see into his convoluted mind.
No one, most of all the Black Dragon, would ever understand Ben’s feelings on this matter. But then, they never knew Lilith the way Ben had. Even if it was only for a few short decades. They’d shared a life together.
A daughter.
And a love that, while it might not have been True, had been so damn close, Ben still ached for it.
Maybe this was why he couldn’t feel attraction to anyone in his present incarnation. (At least, before Michael). Because his soul remembered what he used to have. Even if it was only the shadow of real love, he felt, he knew, it was more than what most people had.
Determinedly, he pushed these irrational and irrelevant thoughts aside, focusing on the task at hand.
“Let’s talk tactics,” he said to the table at large.
“We have the physical defenses already established. What about ones of magic? Wards? Shields? It is each of our task to tap into the fullest extent of our powers.”
He nodded to Cloud. His trainer nodded back. Ben’s words applied doubly to both of them. One who thought he’d lost his abilities, and the other who sought his own Awakening.
“Once we’ve done that, we combine our powers. See how we can enhance each other’s strengths, mitigate each other’s weaknesses. Amp up the training. Take the mock battles to the next level.”
Sin’s sonorous growl all but shook the room. He arched his back and stretched his neck in a very masculine yet feline way. Then, he transformed in the blink of an eye into his giant liger form.
Now we’re talking, the liger telepathed.
The night is just starting. Let’s get out there for some ass whooping.
Ben met his toothy grin with one of his own. Yeah, the blood sport of mock battles was exactly what they all needed to clear their heads.
Human handicap or not, he was looking forward to pitting his skills and strength against these immortal warriors.