Hour of the Dragon - Heather Killough-Walden Page 0,96

lamb – and all he could do was think about who she’d met under the sheets since she’d vanished fifty years ago?

He seemed to have little to no control over what his mind did right now. This inability to focus on what mattered, this wasn’t the first time today he’d experienced it. He was pretty sure it started when he and Leia were in the house, sitting on the floor. He hadn’t been as quick to comfort her as he should have been. It wasn’t like him to respond to something important with anything but practiced and effective speed, especially when it mattered as much as Annaleia did. And nothing mattered as much as she did.

So, what was the deal?

It certainly didn’t help that these damn wayward thoughts did nothing to improve his mood.

But it turned out, a warden didn’t need to get hitched or have kids, good friends were dangerous enough.

On either side of Anna’s agitated form, colors swirled and blended, one moving into the next. When the colors turned a certain way, he knew they were getting close. Cain would be joining them any second now—

“Mace,” said Cain from behind him.

Mace turned, lowering his hand, which he hadn’t realized had remained fisted in his hair until he was un-fisting it.

“Man,” Cain said, shaking his head as he met Ares’ gaze. “You’re a mess. Swallow this.” He tossed something very small to Ares, but the black dragon easily caught it. He turned it over in his hand and stared down at it. It was a tiny ball, no larger than a pearl, but colored matte-black.

“What is it?”

“Notice that shit going on inside your head messing with your focus?” Cain asked as he stepped past him to approach Annaleia. She stopped pacing to look up at him.

“Yeah?” Ares told him.

“That’ll put an end to it. At least until Maze figures out how to bypass it. But it’s not as big a deal for you. This is an extra layer of protection for when you aren’t with the clan.” Ares studied the small sphere. It felt strangely heavy in his hand. … for when you’re not with the clan, he thought, turning Cain’s words over in his head. Then he understood.

Each time he hadn’t been able to concentrate, it had been when he’d been too far away from Cain. The clan leader was inadvertently protecting his wardens from Victor Maze’s control. Or maybe it wasn’t inadvertent at all. Maybe he knew damn well what he was doing. It didn’t matter. The important thing was that Cain was strong enough to withstand the fucking chaos god.

Ares physically turned his back on the scene as his clan leader held the same small black pearl out to Annaleia and asked her if she could swallow it without a drink.

Oh you want to know if she’ll swallow something for you, huh? Fucking powerful fucking vampire. Antares muttered softly to himself, “What the hell are you, anyway?” He absently wondered why that thought was louder than the others but let it go quickly as his mind began conjuring all sorts of terrible images of Leia and Cain and bedrooms with black sheets – because of course the bastard would probably have black sheets because all vampires had black sheets, right? “Huh,” he said not even slightly realizing he’d said anything out loud yet. He’s not a vampire. If he is, he’s like no vampire I’ve ever known, but we already knew that, didn’t we?

But seriously, where did the inscrutable son of a bitch get off having the abilities he had? Ares had never been able to wrap his head around it. He wondered if anyone in the clan were privy to Cain’s secrets. I mean, how many guys can step into a moving portal as it just passes by at the speed of light?

And Cain was a warden, but had any of them ever seen him with his sentinel? Did he even have one? Even Antares, a black dragon, had been in situations that forced him to call his sentinel. It was rare, but it had happened! Oh look at me, I’m the cryptic Cain, check me out, he sing-songed in his fevered mind. I’m just so murky and obscure and unfathomable but notorious and legendary and so very illustrious even though I run a goddamn motorcycle gang made of real, live monsters who might eat children any day now, he thought as he heard Leia tell Cain it wouldn’t be a problem and all Ares