Chapter 30
~Sylas~
“No more!” Velra cried, batting Lazriel away as he tried to grab at her to pull her back into bed.
Again.
“Hell, my naughty little wolf-vampire,” she breathed. “I’m gonna be late to lunch with Warlow and Cornelius at their place.”
“I’m sure they’ll understand,” he crooned at her.
“Yeah, and I’m sure I’m not gonna be divulging the details of our dirty sex lives to the two people who are like father figures to me.”
I finished shrugging my shirt on, then walked back to the bed and slapped Lazriel’s ass.
He made me laugh, and had my cock jerking in my pants, as he wiggled it on his hands and knees while he stared out at Velra as she backed away further from him at the foot of the bed. “The way I’ve heard it, the two of them can really bring the filth when they get it on, too.”
Velra held up her hand. “I know. I know all too well. And I don’t want to hear more. Father figures, remember? Walking in on them accidentally a couple of times while I was living there was more than enough.”
I chuckled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Such a sweet little thing, Dark Beauty.” I wiggled my eyebrows. “Except when you’re being devoured by us.”
“And begging for more and more,” Lazriel said.
She rolled her eyes at us, but unable to hide her sexy smile, as she snapped her fingers and produced Lazriel’s jeans with her magic. “Put these on,” she said, tossing them to him.
“Can’t handle me in my boxers?”
“It’s… distracting, yeah. Happy?”
“Oh, very,” he said, flashing her a winning smile. “Although, I could be happier if you jumped me right now, love.”
“I’m sure you could. But I need to go. And you need to study.”
He grumbled, but listened and put his jeans on with a burst of speed. “Yeah, since you all convinced me to finish out the year, now I’ve gotta study my sweet little ass off.”
“Sweet tight little delicious ass,” I said, grinning at him.
He smirked back, eyes hooding. “Velra, Sylas is teasing me and tempting me.”
She gave me a look.
I held up my hands with a laugh.
Then she told Lazriel, “I’ll see you up at Crossborn right after your class and my lunch. Then following that reunification meeting, we’ll head back here and the four of us will fuck all night long. Okay?”
Their reunification meeting was the first coming together of Crossborn following the takedown of Puritas. There was obviously a great deal to discuss, damage to be dealt with.
“All night long?” Lazriel asked. “Really?”
“I promise.”
“That’s one hell of a deal,” I said.
“Here?” Lazriel asked, gesturing around Velra’s dorm room in Wraeven Academy where we’d all slept together last night.
Cassius had left an hour ago to go downstairs and teach his class.
Although I’d officially dropped out now, Lazriel was still a student in the class, but Cassius had given him a free pass because Lazriel had been up really early at the building of Vyrn Hollow Shifter Habitat.
That had passed as a non-personal reason and not been classed as favoritism, thankfully, so it wouldn’t cause any issues.
A lot of people knew about the four of us now, but Cassius had struck a deal with the dean that, so long as he kept things strictly professional in class, it would be allowed—especially with there just being a few months until Lazriel would be graduating anyway.
Word had spread about our efforts in the war, so it hadn’t been difficult for Cassius to seal things there.
The door burst open, then Cassius strode in, flicking his hand to lock it with a spark of his magic.
His gaze swept over us and lingered on Velra in her black off-the-shoulder top and her fitted violet jeans.
Since the war, she’d moved away from her black leather ready-for-anything battle gear again.
Lazriel was even going the jeans route instead of his tactical pants get-up.
I was still doing the whole hooded leather jacket thing, but because that was my signature.
“Excellent,” Cassius spoke. “I managed to catch you all before you left for your respective tasks today.”
As Velra met Cassius’ approach, she confirmed to Lazriel over her shoulder, “Yeah, here.”
“Here for what?” Cassius asked.
“Some all-night, hardcore, down and dirty fucking,” Lazriel told him.
Velra stretched onto her tiptoes and kissed Cassius’ check, then he held her hands between them. “Hmm,” he said, eyeing each of us in turn.
“You’re not down for the fucking, Cas?” Lazriel asked, his disbelief clear.
I was right there alongside him with that.
“We have all been emotionally raw since the battle against Puritas and Morien. The close calls, the intensity of it all… it’s understandable.
As is our reaction being to drown ourselves in sex—and a mass amount of it at that.
However, I believe now we should begin to ease off a little bit.
” He smiled out at us warmly. “I suggest a dinner. All four of us and Ketheron. At the apartment. I will cook.” He winked at me.
“With your help, of course, to ensure everything is fully edible.”
I smiled out at him.
Who would have thought with how he’d been when we’d first come together that Cassius would become so emotionally intelligent and so incredibly attuned to us? It was a hell of a thing.
We’d all made great strides, actually. In different ways.
In different necessary ways.
For ourselves and for each other.
“I like it,” Lazriel said.
“Me too,” Velra chuckled, stroking her hands over his teal tee, beaming up at him proudly.
“I believe it’s perfect timing,” I told him. “In fact, I’ll invite Ketheron when I see him in a few moments.”
“Very good.” He held up a finger. “Oh, you need to be made aware that Ketheron will wish to spend some time analyzing the object Remnant will be bringing along with him.”
“Already factored in.”
He nodded and breathed Velra in for another few moments, before he said, “I wish I could stay longer, but I need to get to Haven Initiative with Ariana.”
“No worries,” Velra told him. “I need to leave too.”
I ruffled Lazriel’s hair as he leapt off the bed and landed firmly on the floor. “You go to your own room and study. I’m leaving now as well.”
“Cross my heart, necromantic heartthrob,” he said, in his sexy, growly voice, as he stepped up to me and grasped my belt.
Mmm… maybe just once more and—no. I needed to focus for what I had to do.
A lot of people were counting on me. And, while I did enjoy that, I also respected it.
I kissed the top of Lazriel’s head, then extricated myself.
“See you tonight,” I told them, sweeping my gaze over each of them in turn, before then teleporting out.
Mystic Heart.
Here I was holding it in my hands.
Well, levitating it a few inches from my hands.
A fantastical magical object that had been forged like an impossibility.
It pained me that this would be the first and only time.
Ryker had been right—it couldn’t exist much longer.
It was too dangerous should it fall into the wrong hands.
I was pulled from the reverence I was lavishing on it from incessant beeping.
I swung my head to my left where Remnant stood with me on the mountaintop as we awaited Ketheron’s arrival.
A translucent film encompassed him, which was the work of his magic-wielders shielding him temporarily from the sun.
It was something he’d used several times when business couldn’t only be conducted at night.
He was clad in his leather jacket, a hood hanging low and his metal mask in place, but I could at least make out his eyes from this close range position.
Thick mist hanging heavy surrounded the entire expanse of the snowy Mordrek Mountains.
It was primarily a Guardian Movement training ground, but we were using it for what needed to be done today because Ryker had imbued it with his defensive power, which turned powerful magics into harmless mist should they rage out of control, something that protected both the environment and the wielder—an out-of-the-box failsafe.
While I was certain I could do this, it did actually bring some comfort.
Repairing the Valley of the Dead was no small thing after all.
In fact, even though Ryker was bogged down with the fallout of the war, he had a shimmering green holoscreen hovering near us, keeping an eye on the situation.
“I thought you said things were in a calmed state for you with The Shadowed in the wake of the war?” I spoke, closing the distance between us as I found Remnant typing rapidly on his secure phone.
“That remains so. This is Lazriel.”
“Texting that much?” Worry flared.
“Your pulse just started racing,” he said, still focused on his phone. “Rest assured he is well. He’s texting about his school work.”
“His school work that he’s supposed to be immersed in right now.”
“Yes,” Remnant said, amusement dancing in his eyes. “He’s asked me whether there exists vampiric speed in our thought processes.”
I burst out laughing. “Of course he did.”
“He is still coming down from the war, so he is experiencing trouble focusing.”
“I know. He just needs time. Injecting a sense of urgency often helps, and giving him something to look forward to—only once he’s finished the task at hand.”
Remnant put his phone away and stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You will make a fine father. You’re deeply attuned, fair, yet firm, coming from a positive place despite frustrations. Yes. You will do very well.” He chuckled to himself. “As will Lazriel, albeit in a very different way.”
I smiled out at him.
Any further conversation there was paused as Ketheron teleported in via a flash of his golden power.
He looked between us, greeted us very briefly, then his entire attention went to the Mystic Heart, his excitement barely contained.
As he stood before it hovering in a field of my crimson magic, taking in the shimmering golden valves and veins, he asked me, “Sylas, may I—”
“Study away.”
“Yes!” he cried, examining it.
While he did that, Remnant told me, “Rhyza wishes me to invite you and your loves to dinner.”
“Huh. So the two of you are—”
“It’s a work in progress, but things are well, yes. Very well.”
“Text us some days and times and I’ll see to it.”
“She will be thrilled, thank you.”
She would be? He was clearly trying to tamper down how he truly was looking forward to hosting a very family-oriented dinner like that also. He wanted to maintain his focus for what was to come.
While he didn’t have a role beyond bringing the Mystic Heart here in repairing the Valley of the Dead, he and I were slated to meet with the other being involved in Requital immediately afterward—Charles Petrone—which would involve detailed, high-level strategizing.
We talked for a while to give Ketheron some time, keeping things light for once, discussing pregnancy and how we could help Velra, child-rearing, balancing our work with our family life, me explaining some complex necromantic spells that I’d fashioned which could assist him with The Shadowed and reinforce the Shadow Tunnels.
“Done!” Ketheron called out then.
“Right,” I said, breaking from Remnant and joining Ketheron. “Let’s get this done.”
I moved just to the left of him and called my power.
He guided the heart from my magical hold and levitated it with his own power, widening his stance as his golden magic surged in preparation for what was coming.
I uttered the incantation I’d crafted to pull this off—something that had never been done before. It was a reversal of Auctoritas Mortis in a way, not dominating death, but… soothing it, calming it, healing it.
I streamed my power up into the atmosphere, a red film forming, as I called a portion of the Valley of the Dead forth into being.
My hands shook as it happened, a shimmering near-translucent entity coming into view with amber and green threads all over it—the patches of repair that Gabriel and Ryker had put in place.
A temporary solution that now needed to become permanent.
I strained, weaving my hands, and watching as a small window opened—a path into the Veil, with the Valley of the Dead just beyond.
“Now,” I told Ketheron.
His magic was glowing near blindingly as he guided the heart through the window.
As I kept it open, his magic swirled around the heart inside, until white and gold power was leaking from the valves and out into the atmosphere of the Veil.
It grew more vibrant, spreading everywhere, until I saw through the window that it was filling up the entire space within.
I saw the patches begin to fade away, the film being healed quickly, as though there had never been any tears
And then Ketheron thrust his palms forward and the heart exploded, becoming fluid golden and ivory that flooded the Valley.
I could feel through my death connection that it was encompassing the entire Valley, not just this section that was visible to us from this entrance point.
A shudder rolled through me as I felt the reset, the stabilization.
“Done,” I breathed, closing up the window, then the shimmering entity itself fading from view, settling back into its dimensional positioning.
“All is well,” Ketheron confirmed. “Well done, friend.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “We must make sure we take care from here on out, as there is no more Mystic Heart to assist now.”
“We will.” I added. “I’ll be careful.”
He smiled. “I know you will.”
I sucked in a breath as the weight of that rolled over me.
His faith in me.
So many people’s faith in me for vital things.
Then I looked out at Ryker’s holoscreen and gave a thumbs-up.
It dissipated in the next moment.
I smiled, then told Ketheron, “Cassius just announced that he wants us to have dinner at the apartment tonight.”
“Really? Yes! I’ll be there. Send me the details.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “I need to return to Haven, but I will love to see you all later.”
“See you soon, C.”
He beamed out at me, then teleported out.
“Charles is incoming,” Remnant told me.
I shifted my weight, then called forth the items for Requital that we’d already worked out. “Time for a quick review then.”
“We can’t remain stagnant. As the world shifts, so must we.”
Ryker’s words to me.
The world certainly had shifted lately.
It was the dawn of a new age.
One that would serve to right the wrongs of the past.
One that would be better.
One that fucking had to be better.
For us.
And for our baby boy.