Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) Read online

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I sneered and felt completely justified. Kahina was framing me. Worse, her only reason to try and get back into my life wasn’t even for me. It was for blood. “See it going away? Not yours anymore. Not ever going to be, even if you came clean now.”

  Kahina whimpered, then grew frustrated.

  I clenched my fist. I would need to wash it out, and bind it as soon as possible. Maybe it would heal as easily as Stacy seemed to think. The pain didn’t matter, though, victory was mine.

  Kahina’s face twisted for a moment then turned to a snarl. She swung herself to the side and for the second time today Stacy went flying. My now extremely ex-girlfriend dove for me. Her shoulder collided with my stomach and knocked us over. There was a crack of noise as my head slammed something behind me and the world went fuzzy.

  The world spun and my mind tried to get a grip on the sudden change. The first thing I became aware of was a mewling sound and a tongue licking along my palm’s inside. It didn’t hurt. There was only pressure. Things came into focus slowly. Kahina was curled up nearby with my hand at her mouth. She was licking the blood straight from the wound where it slowly trickled. I jerked my hand in momentary panic. She didn’t release it.

  “Kahina, let go!” I tried to pull my hand away. She locked her free arm around my elbow and kept me in position. My feet scrambled to get under me but the more I pulled away the more she tightened her grip.

  There was a groan of noise to my left. It wasn’t female, though. I looked around. Julianne and Stacy were standing back a ways with an expression that bordered between uncertainty and fright. It wasn’t directed towards Kahina.

  They were looking at where the groaning noise had come from. Evan.

  His lips were moving, but no audible words came out. I panicked. Evan had answers. He had information. Kahina needed to return to her senses and let me go. At this point, Evan was the only thing keeping me here. My vision started spinning. Maybe all the blood loss in such a short time was adding up.

  “Kahina, let go, you damned crazy bitch.” I gave my arm a jerk and pushed at her shoulder. She snarled and tried to get back to the blood.

  “Let go!” I caved to her pull and slammed the thin black woman into the wall behind us. Her eyes crisscrossed as the house shuddered a third time. One moment of confusion was enough to yank my hand away.

  I quickly stumbled to the elf. His chair ground against the carpet as he was dragged across the room.

  “Keep her the hell away from me unless you want this to get worse,” I said. My hand stung again from moving Evan’s chair.

  There was a budding anger in the back of my brain. Everything spun and the room felt dim. Something that was mine was being messed with. It felt like I was being robbed and was frozen, completely unable to prevent it.

  I shook my head and tried to focus. My healthy hand shook the elf’s face. Any traces of my blood that had dripped onto him were gone. I must have gotten it all in his mouth. Julianne’s carpet was safe.

  Evan was mumbling in that weird language they had. It sounded like the wind pitching itself through a long tunnel with waterfalls on both sides. Some women loved it. I got annoyed when I couldn’t understand them. Especially right now in the midst of all this other madness.

  “What the hell are you saying, Evan?” I put my hand over his head and jostled. “Earth to Evan.”

  I could hear Julianne and Stacy muttering to each other behind me. They made soothing sounds to Kahina. She was sniffling. Evan kept on muttering.

  “Speak English.” I rolled his head around while getting angrier. It was hard to focus. I had been violated. Been stolen from. What was mine was in danger.

  Evan’s eyes opened and stared intensely at nothing.”A Lord calls. He calls.”

  “What the hell do you mean by that? Evan, tell me what a Lord is to you.” I said desperately. He slipped back into the other words again. “Answer me, you worthless spawn of a weed!”

  “He calls.” Evan’s eyes seemed to gain slight focus once I stopped shaking his head.

  “What are you doing here?” His eyes found mine and a look of terror passed over him.

  “You are one of their hunters, how did you find me? Who?” He started panicking, bucking weakly against his restraints.

  “You’re bound hard, Evan.” I leaned in close with my damaged hand cradled. My vision was doubling up. “Now answer the question.”

  He was looking behind him, trying to figure out an escape route. Evan’s eyes only got wider as time passed.

  “Evan, why did you call me Lord?” I spat.

  He turned back to me and locked eyes with an intense focus. There was more muttering coming forth that didn’t make sense. Pressure started to build in my mind. His form started to blur and shake. He seemed to vanish. Then seemed to be waving from outside a window. But it was my eyesight that told me these things. My feet were still firm on the floor. The girls were still behind me talking. My hand was still cradled. Vision lied. I reached out to where Evan should have been and found purchase. Then shook.

  “Evan!” I was shouting. “Why did you call me Lord?” The vision before me snapped away and the elf looked more panicked than ever.

  “No, not you, not you. It cannot be. You are merely a thug, a minion, you are not one of them.” He was babbling. My mind was functional enough to register the elf’s worry.

  “I saw you, Evan, I saw you talking to me in the forest, through that other body.” He was having a disconnection between me in front of him, and my tracking spirit in the forest.

  He blinked, then blinked again and the babbling only increased. From the corner of my eye, I could see Kahina curled up. She looked distraught over what had happened. Stacy was watching me and Evan as much as she was watching Kahina.

  “You need to run, you need to hide. It is not me they want, it is you.” Evan said. “They want you. Run away, Lord, run away, flee.” He kept going and I shook him again. His head flopped back and forth while his body remained bound by iron.

  I could see little sparks of color appear. His eyes rapidly turned into a firework show as all sorts of hues flared up around us. Evan’s eyes crossed again and he seemed to be looking elsewhere.

  “Run away, run far away, to the woods, we can hide you. We will take you away and shelter you. The old ways. We can flee and restore what was lost.” He kept going on and on.

  “No!” Kahina had regained enough of her senses to hear what he was babbling. “You will not leave me, Jay! Don’t leave!”

  I turned around. Both Stacy and Julianne were holding Kahina back. Her face was a wreck, but there wasn’t a spot of blood on her except for two small dabs by either eye. My head throbbed and hearing had started ringing. The doubled vision grew worse. Something important hovered on the edge of my memory, but nothing made sense.

  “Why, Kahina? You don’t want your meal to get away?” My snide attitude felt like an afterthought as I tried to concentrate.

  “No, Jay, I love you, you’re mine, mine! Not his, no one else’s!” Her babbling was getting similar to the elf’s. I wasn’t sure I could take standing in the middle like this.

  The drop of blood slid further down her face. Oh Hell. She was crying. It had been a while since we were officially together, but part of me still wanted to go to her, to help her. She was strong a lot of the time. To see her breaking down was disturbing.

  Vampires can’t fake crying blood.

  Kahina made short surges across the floor as her strength and desperation mounted. She was strong enough to overcome the other two holding her. Evan rattled his restraints while mumbling the word ‘run’.

  My next words were lost in a new bombardment of noise. Stacy’s head jerked up to look at me for a brief moment. I wasn’t even sure what I had said to Kahina.

  The front room window shattered as something was tossed through. A pop and hiss barely preempted smoke filling the room. Seconds later the door was rammed open. Shouting threatened to destroy
what was left of my concentration. Multiple someones had invaded and they were moving quickly. Their guns were heavy. I saw a Western Sector logo through the smoke.

  I didn’t react well. The sense of violation started to grow increasingly, driving a need to protect what was mine. My mind had failed to understand this maze my life had become. Being attacked made things simpler. This was now a fight, something I should excel at. Something I needed in order to vent the feelings that had piled up inside me.

  Kahina and the others were quick to move to the ground. The smoke grenade that had been thrown inside probably had bits of silver mixed with other particles. Enough to shut down most non-humans. My skin twitched and rolled as I went into action.

  They opened fire and it felt like I was being punched with tiny lead tipped beanbags.

  I dove for the couch and tipped it over. Hands knifed through the cheap fabric covering the bottom. Fingers curled around the wooden beams inside. Another few beanbag pellets connected. With a yell, I propelled the three seat couch in front of me like a shield and slammed into as many as I could. It felt good. There was a blow to the side of my head that should have put me down but didn’t.

  I wouldn’t let them take what was mine easily.

  Things got choppy after that. Real life flashed by in a series of still-life snapshots. One such picture was me throwing someone through the window while smoke filled my vision. Angry snarls came from behind me. Another flash and I was stepping out the broken window of Julianne’s house.

  The yard was full of quite a few, more than the five of us could handle. Evan was back there uttering his stream of words. A moment later and I was charging across the lawn with a yell. One of the guns I had ripped away from our assailants was tossed at the vehicles outside. The makeshift projectile created a dent that seemed insanely big.

  There was a loud succession of shots which resulted in more painful little rubber bullets. A dog pile of bodies landed on me and word were shouted. After that, my mind stopped registering things.

  Chapter 13 – Most Other Races

  I came to in a small run down room with a long table in front of me. The chair I sat in was heavy. Its material wasn’t iron or silver. My arms and legs were tied up in a manner that stunk of military precision. They gave me enough slack to raise both arms up. Julianne and Stacy could have learned a thing or two.

  The rest of the room was equally depressive looking. Someone had slapped over-sized blue glow sticks on the walls that served as the only lights. The walls were stripped bare of even plaster. One armed guard stood inside the door. His gun didn’t appear to be loaded with the friendly suppression bullets that I had been playing with at Julianne’s.

  My eyes closed and tried to recap what had happened. A sudden shake of my head brought no clarity. I used what little give these bindings allowed in order to scratch my nose. Once that immediate problem was resolved it was time to inspect the damage from the excitement at Julianne’s. There were no signs of bruising or other wounds. Either I was extremely lucky, or had already healed. Even my formerly split open palm felt okay.

  I couldn’t remember healing this fast. Then again there hadn’t been a lot of need for it in the last four years. My wanderings about the countryside were indistinct and probably boring. Honestly, before that vacation I had been able to avoid being hit in the first place. My tactile senses and a young man’s reaction speed had done wonders. Hell. Now my wrist itched.

  The bindings jangled around as I tried to get to the spot. The latest round of actions made the guard look over. The gun raised slightly in my direction. I lifted my right arm enough to wave. The guard’s response was elevating his weapon higher.

  “I’m behaving,” I said.

  The guard used his free hand and knocked on the door in a short series of raps. A slit of light appeared in the door-frame. There was no outright communication between the two people, only a quick nod between them. My babysitter turned back to the room. He had a robotic gaze that seemed to look at nothing in particular in the entire room.

  I was starving. Despite all the noise my stomach was making the guard kept ignoring me. Finally, the door opened and Daniel stepped inside the room. At least it was a familiar Western Sector employee. This was probably going to be my least favorite part of the last few weeks.

  There was a hasty whisper as Daniel muttered to the guard. The guard nodded then stepped outside and the door slid shut behind him.

  “You have five minutes to tell me how this is going to go, Jay.” Daniel pointed a finger at me. ”Five minutes in which I have to decide if you’re an undercover asset, or you go in the deepest jail cell I can find. Your charges include kidnapping a key witness and assaulting multiple officers.”

  “Crummy…” I started to respond.

  “Don’t start that with me. Do you have any idea of the fucking mess you’ve made? Getting caught in there?” He waved an arm at one of the walls. “It’s bad enough you’re in with a small time bookie like Julianne, but Kahina? Keeper’s scion?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “No? Didn’t tell you?” No, she had probably told me. It was another thing my mind glazed over. “How about this Stacy Watershed?”

  The agent shook a stack of papers that he pulled out from somewhere. Daniel and his files. The man loved them. I watched the pile bob up and down in the air as he kept up his rant.

  “Looks harmless enough at first glance but wanted for assault and battery on at least three occasions. Only a level two rehabilitation?” He snorted and shook his head.

  “She seems like a winner,” I said. The Bitch and I would probably never be friends.

  “Then there’s the elf, wanted in regards to the biggest missing person case this Sector has seen in years.” Daniel dropped his pile of paperwork onto the table. I leaned back and attempted to cross my arms. It wasn’t easy with the rigging they tied me up with.

  “Where is this going, Crummy?” I asked.

  “I had people watching those woods, Jay, and watching your house. So when I get a report on my desk that says the elf I’ve been tracking, the elf that may hold the key to our missing person case…” Daniel’s eyebrows shot up as he leaned over the desk. “was found, not only by the local pack which I’d been putting pressure on but by my friend?”

  I would have sunk into the chair, but the way they had me chained to it didn’t leave room to maneuver.

  “Jesus, Jay! You went into the house, and I could see how you wouldn’t know until then. After, though?” He stomped away to the other side of the room.

  Okay. I officially knew where this was going. None of it was good for me or anyone involved. The agent had a right to be upset. This whole thing had gotten wildly out of hand because of my desire to learn information. I should have called Daniel the minute the elf showed up and washed my hands of the situation.

  “A booty call to a different elf that didn’t go well. A trip to the bar, for another drink I’m sure. Then your wreck of a home then back again to” He recited some mental list. “Julianne’s house.”

  A drink did sound amazingly good. It practically made my mouth water. Plus it would mean that angry Daniel Crumfield was nowhere near me.

  “Tell me how this looks good, Jay, tell me something. Neither of us wants to be here right now.” He said.

  “I needed an elf’s help, and she was the only one that I was on speaking terms with.” He must have been talking about Candy. It was hard to explain how she factored in.

  “You sure you weren’t telling her where to find her long-lost clan member? So they could fucking stonewall me along with the wolves?” Daniel dug through his papers and spun out a file with Candy’s face printed on the top left.

  “Why would I do that, Crummy?” I was too irritated to tell him that they weren’t members of the same house. Or else Candy would have known one of her elves wasn’t feeding their addiction, or whatever it was she kept track of.

  “I don’t know, man, I don’t fucking know. The reward
money? Tell me something so I can make this go away.” He said.

  Right, like I was going to tell him something that would dig a bigger hole. Daniel and I were friends outside of work. Out there I would take a bullet for him. But in here, with Daniel the Western Sector agent, it was a different story.

  “The moment my team marked you leaving that house I should have had a phone call. One fucking phone call, to tell me you had him.” Daniel was back in front of me pounding his finger on the desk. His face nearly matched his blazing red hair. “But no, they find you wandering the God damned city. For what, Jay? What the hell is so important that you couldn’t call me and let me do my job?”

  “I had some questions of my own,” I muttered.

  “Like what, Jay? What was so fucking important?” Part of my mind was focused on that finger. He kept jabbing it into the table. Each pound grabbed my focus and irritated me.

  “Some of the stuff he said to me,” I answered.

  “He would say anything to get away, anything to escape.” Daniel stepped back and took a breath. He was trying to be calm but failing. “Don’t tell me you believed his story for a moment. Don’t tell me you’re that dense.”

  Maybe I was that dense. For a moment, I had believed Evan. He actually sounded like he knew what I was. Being a Lord had to mean something. It had to tie into my issues, in the same way being a wolf caused allergies to silver. Or how being a vampire caused the blood thirst. I wanted to have a reason for why I acted how I did.

  “I should have called,” I admitted.

  “But you didn’t. You didn’t do shit to help me out. You’ve avoided me this entire case, saying you couldn’t help, that you weren’t any good anymore.” Daniel had worked himself back into full-on rant mode again. His hand waved at walls and the other jabbed into the table again.

  My three seconds of silence didn't deter him. He kept right on going.

  “My men saw what you did to Francis, saw you walking fine yesterday, a few days after he clawed the shit out of your legs.” How long had Daniel been watching me? Did he always watch me? “You’ve got it still, at least a little bit, and you could have helped me close this a long time ago, but you dragged your feet.”