Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,73

a Lesser Beast, for Beasts could only transform their whole bodies. At least, that’s what Eveline’s research into the subject told her. She’d never encountered an animal spirit in person.

There were very few animal spirits in the world, she knew. Most of that Kind had been hunted to extinction in ancient times. And now, within the span of a few hours, she’d already met two such individuals, Rhys and the bird-man.

Hmm. She should give her possible husband-to-be (if his intention tended toward bride-stealing) a better name than bird-man.

Wings? Too generic.

Eagle? Too obvious.

Okay, bird-man it was.

She really didn’t have the wherewithal to come up with something better right this moment.

Another option was that he was hungry. Maybe he was one of those flesh-eating harpies who wanted to feed her to his nest of baby harpies? Well, harpies were usually female and ugly, so there’s hope he wasn’t one. But, he could also be a predatory Stymphalian bird or a Strix, both of which ate human flesh. Both of which were also mythological, it was true, but Eveline knew very well how every myth was based on fact.

Eagle. He looked like he had pretty eagle wings. Strix had owl-like wings. And Stymphalian birds had metallic feathers and poisonous dung. She decided he was definitely an eagle. Noble, beautiful birds. Who hopefully didn’t eat small, red-headed librarians. Well, his wings were black like a raven’s actually. Ravens were known to be a bit carnivorous, weren’t they?

And round and round, Eveline’s thoughts circled, getting nowhere and everywhere all at once.

She hoped she hadn’t tossed the scrolls that were actually useful in her desperate bid to stop the bird-man from strangling Ramses. There was one left in her backpack still.

Her poor, priceless artifacts!

They’d been sacrificed for a good cause. But even so, Eveline spent a few minutes wallowing in despondency over their flaming departure from this world. Words that would never be read and understood. Symbols of wisdom that would never be learned. She was relatively certain that wasn’t what the scrolls were meant to be used for—as projectiles of death to be hurled down at unsuspecting warriors in the heat of battle.

And then she had one last thought, which by necessity she couldn’t avoid: She hoped the bird-man would land soon.

She really had to pee.

*** *** *** ***

Ramses came to with a roar.

And just about took out Devlin and Maximus with a double-fisted punch as he sprang up to his feet, ready for battle.

“Easy there, King,” Anastasia said, though she uttered the words from a safe enough distance, putting both hands palms up in front of her to ward off Ramses’ undiscerning aggression.

“You’re still bleeding out of several wounds, and your lungs are full of water. You’re in no condition to start any fights right now.”

Ramses took a few deep breaths to control himself as he took in his surroundings.

He was at the bottom of the falls, on the bank of the reservoir. His Chosen were all present, save Ryu Takamura who was still abroad on mission.

Maximus, Ariel, Devlin, Anastasia, and Rhys.

His eyes narrowed on the eagle spirit, recalling that Rhys had shifted into humanoid form mid-flight and plummeted into the rapids from a great height.

“Are you whole and sound?” he asked his Chosen gruffly.

“Aye. I—oomph.”

Rhys grunted in pain as he staggered back and almost fell on his ass when Ramses shoved him hard enough to leave extra large handprint bruises that even his immortal healing abilities would take a while to remove.

“What the fuck were you thinking?! Transforming mid-flight? How could you let her go?!”

Ramses got right in Rhys’ face, bearing down on the other male, his entire body quivering with barely controlled rage and the stress of his wounds.

“It’s not my choice,” the eagle retorted, his own expression both stubborn and regretful, and he was quickly working himself into a temper as well.

“He’s my king. He commands all things aviary. He willed me to transform and let go. There was nothing for it.”

“I am your king!” Ramses practically shouted. “You pledged allegiance to me!”

“You are my chosen king!” Rhys couldn’t help but yell back, both males’ testosterone escalating beyond control. “He is my natural king! I physically cannot disobey him!”

“Ramses, calm down,” Maximus tried to insert the voice of reason. “It’s not Rhys’ fault.”

“You should never have brought her here!” Ramses was not backing down. His temper only boiled higher.

“What possessed you? She is a civilian female! A tiny Keeper of history. What the fuck were you thinking?!”

Aaaaand, they rounded right back