Change is sweeping through the world, as humanity fights for autonomy, discord tears apart the foundations of the vampire order, and dhampirs return to the world after centuries of war between two powerful peoples. Dhampirs, creatures known to heral...
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Silver threaded through the air just beyond Tara as she spun around. The sun had yet to sink below the buildings and it lit the edges of a black-clad woman standing just a foot behind her. Tara had never seen a person dressed in that much leather in her life, and it accented the woman's long white ponytail that hung to her hips in the afternoon light. The tight fabric hugged the woman from her ankles to her neck where moons gave away her mage status. An Aurion, just like Selena and that ghost in the corner.
Cold, white eyes flicked to Tara for only a moment, and a thin frown strained the lines of the woman's face before she looked to Ezra's back. Such callous dislike wasn't reassuring, but the mages were supposed to be the good guys, right? Tara was doubtful as she recognized the way the woman carried herself with dangerous pride. Tara'd had teachers like that growing up, the ones that smacked her with a ruler when she dozed off.
"Ezra!" the woman called ahead, the tone so commanding that Tara flinched. She hadn't referred to Ezra as a 'slave', so she likely wasn't an enemy, but man she didn't look friendly.
Ezra turned, and his teal eyes glittering with adoration so powerful that Tara's heart skipped. In a quick hop, he repositioned back next to the woman, and Selena preceded him by just inches to jump on the woman's leg.
"Momma!" Selena said, rubbing the tears off her face on the woman's pants. The gesture made Tara wonder if the woman normally scolded her daughter when she caught her crying. Selena's long golden hair matched her mother's in sheen and length, but Tara couldn't process how this brick wall of ice had ever had a kid with Ezra. This was the Luna, he'd spoken so fondly of and swore he loved.
"Luna," Ezra whispered before he bowed his head and curled his hands into his chest. "Forgive me. I was unable to protect the mage attendants at the entrance.
"Ezra, you aren't trained to fight nor sense intruders. It's not your fault." Luna said the words, dropping a hand to her daughter's hair, but they sounded mechanical rather than consoling. "I also highly doubt it was coincidence that Fiorello de Fleur and Dev Zehir happened upon the complex during the hour I left to fetch Meredith and Remus Shade."
"That you are right." A sickening laugh came from Fiorello behind them, and Tara stood and backed up behind Ezra and Luna. Matt was more reluctant, but she yanked him behind her and put a finger to her lips. "Removing the Fleurs from the complex was a nice touch, but we have spies who are more subtle in their loyalties. It is a shame you showed up, but Dev and I will have no issue dispensing with a single grand mage and her band of misfits."
A burst of magic similar to what she'd felt from vampires had Tara's knees knocking, and it took her a moment to realize it was beside her. Tara craned her neck up to a wall of muscle she had not noticed a moment ago, and she was pleasantly relieved to find the hostile emerald eyes lifted to Fiorello.
"Do not insult my mate, Fiorello de Fleur," he growled, baring his fangs in a snarl that only lifted Fiorello's smirk.
"Damn, Rush, everyone insults me. You have to learn to take it in stride," a woman said slipping between Tara and what was nearing a rabid animal. With slender hands, the woman pushed the wall of death, and he moved a foot before tilting his head in question. "You nearly stepped on the poor girl."
