I feel like I’m violating them.
“Keep going Raynie, you’ll need all the strength you can get to help us all get out of here.”
I spin on my heel, my lips dripping with Jason’s blood. “Who are you?” I ask, looking at the man before me. He’s not much taller than Rourke, standing about six foot four, but there’s something almost animalistic about him that makes me cautious.
“Thorinthistousmanicus, Prince of the Seelie’s at your service my dear Raynie.” He bows from the waist, smirking up at me from his bent position. “Only my blood left to go, it’ll all make sense as soon as you take that first drop.”
Once more my body moves without my say so, the bars disappear in the blink of an eye and I’m moving to stand before the man who looks so familiar, yet so unfamiliar at the same time. “The last time we saw each other, I looked more like this.” I gasp, despite not feeling very much of anything right now. The man who looked like a god turns into a creature with ink black skin and the face of a boar that should make me scream in fear, but I know him. We’ve met before in a time that was stolen from me by Richard’s father.
“Manny?” The name is dropped from my lips as though a prayer as the memory hits me full force…
“I trusted you to take care of her. Don’t you understand, she’s special, needs to be protected, not handed over to that asshole.” Manny screamed at his mother, the Seelie Queen, as he encouraged me to run. His parting words echo in my mind as I run through the woods, heading in the direction he told me the Shifter’s lived. I arrive on the outskirts of the shifter territory, barely able to speak let alone beg for help, but it’s too late. I’m captured by someone and knocked out. I awake to find myself strapped to a hospital bed, wires running out of my arms and chest. A man leans over me, smiling like the devil I know him to be.
“My greatest achievement, you have no idea just how special you are Eliza.” He pats my hair, stroking the strands like he’s caressing a lover's hand.
A woman leans over the man’s shoulder, peering down at me with a smirk, “She’s bonded to all strands of the DNA, you were right, Dragons really are the strongest Breed.” She kisses the man’s cheek then turns her gaze back to me, “Shall I wipe her memories and prepare her for the next phase of the experiment?”
“Set her free on the streets of Cageton. It’ll make it easier for surveillance.”
I snap out of the memory with a jolt, staring at the man who’s neck I’ve just drunk from. I don’t know what to say or do right now. Not only has my past finally come back to me, but I’ve been reunited with the boys who tried to help me along the way.
THIRTY-THREE
Manny
It’s been far toolong since the girl before me was in my arms, but I don’t push her. She doesn’t seem to remember me. Before seeing her in person ten minutes ago, I’d never have guessed that my Raynie was the very same girl for whom I’ve been searching. My Raynie is none other than Areyna Rose, the girl I knew as Eliza Raven Adel, Raynie.MyRaynie. The girl I thought lost to me forever. I mourned her loss like I’d mourn my own family. She might have only been with me for a few months when we were nothing more than young kids, but she was my entire world.
Until she wasn’t.
I’ve hated my own mother since that day. Never forgiven her for the pain she caused. I dreamed every night since that day that I would find my Raynie, but never truly believed I really would. She’s not just my childhood friend though, she’s mymate. The fates must be playing one hell of a joke on me right now cause I can’t have predicted this even if I had a crystal ball and the biggest stockpile of the most powerful magical artifacts the world has ever seen.
My Raynie.
I can’t stop staring at her. She’s the same yet different at the same time. Her hair is still that breathtaking combination of blue and black as naturally coloured as my own deep red hair, but so unique that there’s no mistaking who she is.
“Raynie.” I breathe her name aloud, almost afraid to hear her speak.
“Why do you call me Raynie?”
“In the Seelie tongue, it means raven with the blue kiss of the brightest sky. I’ve called you that since the moment I met you. Do you remember me at all, Raynie?”
“Sort of.” She whispers before dropping to her knees, her face screwed up into a snarl of pain that makes my heart break. I knew my mother’s prediction was right, I just prayed that she was wrong. My mother’s words ring out in my mind once more,“One day you’ll meet a girl who will rule your heart but she won’t be yours alone.”
There’s nothing I can do for Raynie right now besides hold her as she goes through the pain of her first transformation. My mother warned me before she betrayed us. She warned that Raynie would have to meet her mates and start the bond before she could transform into her Dragon form. Mother told me that when it happens I had to just stand back and watch without interfering. Until this very moment I didn’t understand why my mother had given me that warning, especially since she’s reminded me of it for the last five years and never once relented.
Watching Raynie change in the confined space that was once my jail cell, I fear that she’s going to keep expanding until there’s no room left and she’ll break through the ceiling. Not that that would be a bad thing but I don’t want to have to dig her out of the rubble if something goes wrong.
Trying to figure out what to do, I rush over to the corridor just in time to see the rest of her mates emerging from their cells. Each of them look interesting, the first, Torren if I’m not mistaken, is a man with flaxen hair and dark blue eyes that seem far more mature than his baby face makes him appear.
The next is a man in his late teens older than me, but not by much. He’s a man with his heart on his sleeve and the lines of someone who smiles easily. I just know from the look of him that he’ll be one of my favourite new brothers. I can only guess from the hybrid combination, but I’m assuming he is Torren.
Rourke the famous Guardian of the Dragons emerges next, his eyes tracking my every move as I lift my girl into my arms and rush her out to the corridor they’re all crowding into. Next comes the witch police officer, Jason, followed by an incubus/vampire hybrid who I can only assume is Remington Salvis. He has the same dark hair and golden skin as his mother who I’ve met a few times when I was working for the witches. I almost rush over and deck the glasses wearing prick as I get a glimpse of the bloody kiss print on the side of his face.
My Breed has resigned themselves to sharing our women, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have trouble sharing. Especially when we can’t claim our mates as easily as telling them who we are. No my Breed are far dumber than that, we allowed ourselves to be captured and tamed by the asshole witches who cursed us to spend an eternity of torment being trapped in our demonic form if we were so much as rejected by our mate and if the worst were to happen, we somehow lost our mates or didn’t meet them in the first place, we’d be nothing more than mindless beasts for them to control.
You’d think they’d have gotten over their grudge by now, it has been over fifty years since the generation of Mephisto demons tried to kill the Council and every familial person related to them in an effort to eradicate those they deemed did something wrong, but no, the curse is still active and slowly ticking down the days until I have to kiss my girl to seal my fate.
Unfortunately not just any kiss will do. It has to be a kiss that speaks without words. A kiss full of promise and devotion that will make ever the most beastly of hearts skip a beat. Considering the lack of people knowing Mephisto demons have another form, you can guess just how often we actually succeed in finding the one whose kiss is worthy of breaking the curse for us.