The smell of ash and magic saturated the air. Fires tore through the village, hopping from one wood cabin to the next, igniting the surrounding grasses and lapping at the woods beyond. Shadows flickered in an erotic dance of life and death. The light of the waning moon fought to be seen through the clouds of smoke.

Fresh blood and venom ran down his chin. His body ran hot and drunk with a blood lust he had never known before. The surge of power made his veins itch for more. More blood. More magic. More death. He would end this here and now. He would show them exactly what happened when they crossed him. When they dared raise their voices against him.

Glowing red eyes met those of the female at the end of the dirt lane. The look of shock overwhelmed any sense of anger or self-defense. Eve's dark eyes watched his every move as he pulled his hand back and carelessly hurled the lifeless body of the child to land in a heap at their feet. The silver-eyed male of her youngest son howled in despair and fell to his knees, gathering the remains of his daughter in his arms.

The vampire watched with cold pleasure as the male broke before him. As Eve's general, he had watched his siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and countless underlings fall. Just last week he lost his soulmate. Tonight, he lost his daughter. Everything that magic dictated he live for was gone. His soul shattered. He was an empty shell. A cursed being. Within the year, he would take his own life.

He wouldn't even make it that long. None of them would. The entire lycanthrope race would be exterminated from this world tonight.

The silver-eyed male roared and shifted. Ignoring Eve's pleading, the lycanthrope rushed forward to attack. He was too blind by grief and rage to comprehend that the vampire had a significant advantage. The vampire roared with laughter, drunk from fresh blood, the surge of power it gave him and tempered by fifteen thousand years of experience. He, who had the blood of dragons in his veins, would not allow this pathetic creature to draw another breath.

He moved faster than the werewolf could comprehend. Silver blades tore through flesh like butter. Blood sprayed across the battlefield and splattered into his mouth. The lycan's body hit the ground hard and slid meters back behind him.

There was only one left now. The originator of this cursed breed. Luna never should have saved her. She should have let the bitch burn at the stake where she had been left. There wasn't even any fight left in the first wolf. Tears left tracks on her soot-stained face. Big brown eyes of the woman he once called a friend were wide in the revelation that everything she built was gone.

Family.

Village.

Packs.

She had nothing left.

Eve fell to her knees and hung her head. "Do it," she whispered, her voice empty of emotion. "Please, just... just do it."

As if he needed her permission. The vampire raised the blades, still dripping with the blood of her son. It was time to put this wretched dog out of her misery.

"Stop!" The form of another male suddenly appeared in front of the vampire. The newcomer grabbed his shoulders and shook hard. "Stop this! It's over!"

Three other forms came from the darkness to surround and bind Eve. She didn't resist. She didn't do anything. She just sat there.

"This ends now," he snarled, pushing the second vampire out of his way. "She dies here!"

An elf stepped forward to stop him, and he backhanded the young female out of his path. He didn't care that she was the middle child of a Counsel representative. He only had eyes for the werewolf. She had accepted her fate. They both knew it was a long time coming.

"Nolan, enough!" Constantine rushed in front of him again, planting his feet and spreading his arms. "We won! We won! Stop this now, and let the Counsel take over!"

"No."

Constantine's eyes flared with a mix of anger and desperation, and he shoved Nolan back a few steps. "As your king I-"

"You wanted this, Constantine!" Nolan roared over him. "You wanted me to end this war between our families. You said there would never be peace until we did! I did what had to be done!"

"I didn't... I didn't want..." Constantine stammered and looked around at the chaos and death surrounding them. "I didn't want any of this..."

Nolan lashed out, gripping the collar of Constantine's tunic, and dragged him within an inch of his face. "I did what you could never do," he snarled. "This is why you turned me. This is why you need me. You are not a king without me. You are nothing without me!"

"I turned you to save you," Constantine's voice cracked. "You were dying. I just wanted to save-"

"Save me?!" Nolan barked out a ruthless laugh void of any real humor. "Constantine, you didn't save me. You ruined me!"

Nolan shot up from his chair and stumbled away from his desk. His back touched the window, and he whirled around, slashing at it. Claws he should not have had tore deep gouges into the ballistic-resistant glass. He stared at the marks, sucking in desperate gasps of air.

Slowly, the song of the twenty-first century came into focus. Traffic and horns blaring just beyond the compound. The television on the wall playing the news on low volume. The usual hum of electricity in the walls was louder than usual, practically screaming in his ears. He looked down at his hand. Sharp, black talons were shrinking back into his nailbeds.

The phone rang, making him jump again. He swallowed to moisten and clear his throat before picking the receiver. "Nolan Wes,"

"Hey, it's me. Are you okay?" Rhia's bright voice filled with concern came through, and he damn near collapsed.

"Hey, sweetheart," he answered shakily, unable to stop the genuine yet weary smile from forming.

"Are you okay?" she asked again.

"I'm fine," he pushed his free hand through his hair, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "Why? What's going on?"

"I- I don't know," she hesitated, sounding less sure of herself now. "I just had this feeling... I needed to hear your voice. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. Call me later, okay?"

"No, Rhia," he tried and failed to not sound desperate. "We're already talking. There's no point in hanging up now. I kind of need to hear your voice too."

She was quiet on her end for a minute, but he could hear her footsteps on the rocky ground of the island and the ocean even further in the background. Oh, what he wouldn't do to be there with her. Miles off the shore of the mainland of Greece. Nothing but the ocean surrounding them.

"Sorry about that," she finally spoke again. "Just had to step away. Nekros is having one of his... episodes."

"Episodes? Is everything okay?"

"Well," she hesitated again, and he could almost imagine her standing in front of him. His eyes wandered to the framed picture of them on the bookshelf, and his smile brightened. "I mean, he's traumatized. He spent the last twenty-six years locked up underground, being poked, prodded, and experimented on. That whole time he didn't know if I was alive. He didn't even know if the other dragons were looking for him. He's working through it, but it's going to be a while.

"He has his good days and bad. On the good days, I get to see the kind of person he is. I get to tell him about my life, and we work on building our relationship. But then there are the bad days, and it feels like he can't see me as anything but the baby lizard thing that hatched out of an egg and was taken away from him. He forgets that I'm an adult with my own memories and experiences that are almost entirely human. He gets angry. He gets... scary. But... not as scary as the really bad days... when he starts mistaking me for Phoenix."

"Jesus,"

"Yeah... apparently, I have Harry Potter levels of looking like my parents. Just like my mom, but with my father's eyes. Except when I'm in dragon form. Then I'm all Nekros. But... he has those memories to go on. I don't. There aren't even any photos of her. Apparently, dragons have no need for such trivial things. He's offered to share his memories of her, but I can't help feeling like that will only do more damage than good. To both of us."

"What do you mean?"

"Phoenix is undeniably my biological mother," she let out a frustrated sigh. "But she's not my mom if you know what I mean. Nekros and Luna both say they do, but I don't think they're capable of really understanding. Any time I ask about Phoenix, they jump on calling her my mother, and sometimes the way they talk about Madeline is like she's a pet or something. I'm curious about Phoenix, but I don't want to see Nekros's memories at her best, and I don't want Luna to embellish stories about her. I want to know what kind of person she was. I just want someone to tell me what she was like. Preferably without the rose-tinted glasses that comes with her being dead."

"Your best bet for that is Ares. He plays things pretty straight and honest. More of a checkers kind of guy instead of chess, if you catch my drift."

"I... don't think he likes me very much."

"Ares doesn't really like anyone."

"Yeah, maybe... but if it weren't for me, his mate wouldn't be in a coma..."

"Rhia," Nolan sighed heavily and brushed his hand through his hair again. "We've been through this. Keoni's injuries are not your fault. No one blames you."

"We both know that's bullshit!" her voice cracked, and static flooded the call from a burst of uncontrolled power. "If I hadn't been so fucking stubborn... if I had just listened to him..."

"Sweetheart, you can't do this to yourself. No one knows what the Organization would have done if you were on the compound instead of the gala."

"But-"

"No, Rhia, no 'buts'. You are not responsible for what happened to Keoni. They are. That's it. End of story. They are responsible for all of this. They took you from Nekros and Phoenix. They killed dozens of kin and who knows how many other ancients. They did that to Keoni. None of this would have happened if it weren't for them. Understand?"

There was a minute of silence before she answered. "Yeah,"

"I'm sorry," he sighed again, instantly regretting his outburst. "I didn't mean to... I just don't want you going down that road. It gets really dark, sweetheart, and things are hard enough for you right now."

"Yeah... Sorry. I don't mean to be this way. I know things are hard for you too."

"Don't you worry about me," Nolan sunk back into his chair, the effects of the adrenaline finally draining out of him. "You didn't sign up for this crap, and by now, I should know how to handle it."

There was another pause. "Don't do that," she begged quietly. "Please, stop pushing me off like that. I'm not an idiot, Nolan. I know when you're struggling."

"There's nothing you can do... you don't want to know..." Nolan's voice cracked, and he squeezed his eyes shut. His heart thundered in his chest with the memories of the pain he'd caused. She didn't know the half of it, yet she so casually followed him. Damnit... "I want so badly to be the man you want me to be. I want to be the man you deserve, Rhia. But... the things I've done..."

Like killing an entire bloodline of a species.

"The things I'll have to do to end this war..."

Like marching an army down the streets of Paris.

"You would never forgive me. You would never look at me the same way. Please... let me protect you from this."

"You sweet, stupid man," she actually laughed a little. "At what point, in the time that you've known me, have I ever let anyone protect me? I wasn't going to let that happen when I was human; do you really think I would let you do that now that I'm a dragon? If we have to spend the next century on a therapists' couch, we are getting through this together."

The determination in her voice soothed the trembling in his hands. "When this is over, I don't care what Constantine says or threatens... I'm done. I'm going to meet you in Greece, and I'm going to take you anywhere and everywhere you want. All over the world. Just you and me. I promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that. You know I'll kill you if you die."

He laughed this time too, and, gods, the feeling felt so alien to him. A soft knock on his office door caught his attention, and he glanced up at the clock. It was only two in the afternoon. Long before the sun went down and long before his assistant should be at her desk. Then again, they worked so well together because of her own work ethic and utter lack of social life. "Hold on, Rhia- come in," he lowered the phone to his shoulder as Krista cracked the door open. "What is it, Kris?"

"Sorry, sir," she bit her lip nervously. "His Majesty is asking for you. He said it was urgent."

"It always is. Thank you, I'll be there in a moment." When she was gone, he let out another world-weary sigh. "I have to go, sweetheart. I'll call you when I can, okay?"

"You're wrong, you know."

Her response was not what he expected, and he frowned. "Wrong about what?"

"You keep saying I didn't sign up for any of this. You're wrong. I knew what I was getting myself into. A lot better than you did with me, anyway. As soon as you told me you were on the Counsel and worked directly for Constantine, I knew you would have to come back to this eventually, and I knew you would have to change to do it."

"Gods, I miss you so fucking much," he whispered.

"I miss you too. Hang in there, okay? And give Constantine a good kick in the ass for me."

"I will. I love you."

"I love you too."

He ended the call and inhaled deeply. He stared at Rhia's picture for a solid minute before pushing himself out of the chair and straightening his shirt. "Survive," he muttered to himself. "That's all I need to do. One more werewolf. One more vampire. Kill them, and you're done. Just... finish this."

Delaying the meeting with Constantine any longer would only make things harder than they needed to be, so Nolan walked to his king's office and walked in without bothering to knock. He wasn't alone. General Corvus was in the office as well as two other members of the Counsel, one of whom was the last person he expected. "Lord Khalid?"

The djinn stepped forward and reached out to take Nolan's extended hand. "Good afternoon, Lord Wes," Khalid sounded as tired as Nolan felt. "I apologize for the early hour. But, when Lord Moureaux said today is a good time, I figured I should take the chance before the... uh... political situation progresses."

"Of course. What can we help you with?"

"Khalid has requested to speak to one of our special forces soldiers," Constantine answered for the djinn, his voice ice cold and hostile. "By her record, she should be assigned to General Corvus. He explains that she has been working for you for the last several months on your... Grayson, how exactly did you put it?"

Grayson Corvus shrank under the furious glares of both Constantine and Nolan like a child getting caught in the middle of their parents' fight. "I... I don't quite remember, your majesty. I do know, however, that Sargent Schell has been-"

"Don't be shy, Grayson," Nolan snapped, and the general flinched. "I've never known you to be so forgetful."

"I... I may have said... something along the lines of... that she was helping you chase your tail around your, uh..." Corvus gave Khalid a pleading look as if the demon would be able to get him out of the situation. Khalid, however, had stepped well back to stand beside the shifter counselor, essentially removing himself from the conversation. "Your... werewolf obsession."

His words hung heavily in the air as Constantine glared at Nolan, Nolan glared at Corvus, and Corvus just stared at his hands clenched together in his lap. "Nolan," Constantine snarled low, and the lights above him flickered. "I have always counted on the fact that you are there to uphold the standards we have built together when I turn my back. So why is it, when the greatest threat to us is out there plotting against our demise, your only focus is on the werewolves?"

"The werewolves plot against us just as Raphaël does. Guerrero is working with Raphaël, and-"

"Information that you only recently came to me with. Grayson!" Once again, the general flinched. "Remind me, how did Nolan come across this information?!"

"Did you expect me to sit back and allow another uprising?!" Nolan barked before Corvus could respond. "Everyone is already looking for Laurent. I didn't need to waste my time looking for him as well! Guerrero poses a true threat to-"

"To your own damned pride!" Constantine roared. "Time and time again, century after century, why are we always discussing this?! Leave them to their own politics! Leave them to their own business! Leave the fucking werewolves alone!"

"Guerrero is Eve's descendant, he-"

"Even more reason to leave them be! How many times have I told you to stop?!"

"You are not the one being hunted by them!" he didn't realize he was moving until he was standing directly across the desk from Constantine. "It is not your scent that the dogs have been trailing for five millennia! It was not your head that Eve demanded! I have eliminated every threat to your life and name. This is a threat to my life, and you expect me to stand down?!"

"I demanded you stand down! Every time the lycans appear on your goddamn radar, I insist you leave them alone! Every fucking time, Nolan, you defy my orders and throw a goddamn rock into a hornets' nest! And this time you have dragged others into a rebellion of your own creation, and you were careless with the lives of my military! We have an entire covert operations department, and yet you chose a child in the VSF to spy for your obsession!"

"She had an established relationship with Guerrero, she was the only one who-"

"By the laws you wrote, Nolan, what our soldiers do on their own time is not for us to judge or exploit! I don't care if Schell was mounted by the entire fucking pack, you had no right to manipulate her for your personal gain!"

Nolan couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was getting a lecture on ethics from Constantine. Constantine?! The very vampire who lived, breathed, and shit controversy!

"Recall her!" Constantine aimed the order at Corvus. "Immediately!"

"We... can't," Corvus said hesitantly. "When we set up her back up in the hotel, she left as soon as the sun went down. We tailed her to a bar and lost her. She hasn't been back yet, and the implant at the hotel said she found her phone, gun, and all other equipment was left behind. We can't get far enough into wolf territory to look for her if she went back, and... We have no idea where she is."

"Great!" Constantine threw up his hands. "So, at best, she's gone AWOL. At worst, she's been captured by the very enemy you were supposed to fight, and he now has access to top-secret information! She was not trained for that, Nolan!"

"That changes nothing!" Nolan barked. "Schell doesn't know what we planned after she left. That will not change our plan of attack!"

"There is no plan of attack! Not on the werewolves! Not anymore! The werewolves were never our problem! You wanted them to be your problem! I've told you repeatedly to stop treating them like they're your problem, and you've continued to ignore me, so now I'm making you the Counsel's problem!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Lord Wes," the shifter representative spoke up now. "The Counsel has come to a collective agreement that the werewolves do not need the representation of the shapeshifters. They have a higher population than many of the minor breeds we represent. They have financial capabilities nearly on par with the vampires, something even independent breeds can't always claim. I have spent the last three decades working with the lycanthrope, and Aarón Guerrero is the first and likely the only one to treat any shifter with any level of respect. He could lay the foundation for a new generation of lycanthrope politics, and Shifter Representative Delana has proposed reassigning her seat to the werewolves following her retirement."

"No. Absolutely fucking not!" Nolan roared, looking between the counselor and Constantine. "After all they've done, you're going to put them on the Counsel?"

"Yes! And after all you have done, you should be lucky that it's not your seat being given up!"

"If you think I'm just going to stand quietly and let you-"

"It is already done, Nolan," Constantine shouted over him. "The motion has been passed. They have been given approval and will be approaching the Alpha King in a matter of days. Lord Jorelle is here as a courtesy. One that they are not obligated to give. Under normal circumstances, you would not have been notified of this. If it weren't for your request to put the city on lockdown, they wouldn't even be here!"

"How could a motion like this be passed when the entire Counsel wasn't even present? This is-"

"This was a shifter decision, Lord Wes," Jorelle spoke again, drawing papers from his jacket. "Relinquishing a seat is up to the specific breed, and it was made unanimously. If Aarón Guerrero accepts the offer, then it will be taken to the rest of the Counsel. On behalf of the shifter collective, the Speaker has granted this order. You are to stay out of matters involving the Lycanthrope and Aarón Guerrero. If you refuse, there will be consequences."

Nolan's jaw was clenched so hard he was sure his teeth were going to crack. This couldn't be happening. He hadn't just spent the last four months... the last five thousand years... He stared down at the papers, his hands shaking slightly. Right there was Atticus's signature. How many phone calls did he have with the young polar bear, and not once did he ever mention this was happening.

"Now," Constantine snapped, still angry but calming down. "Khalid came here to speak to Schell regarding his own case. A case that you are now assigned to as well. Khalid, we have spare sleeping quarters. I understand that this is a rushed case. There is no point risking the sun again."

"Thank you, Lord Moureaux," Khalid bowed his head politely. "It is appreciated."

"Rachelle!"

A harried young woman darted into the office. "Yes, your majesty?"

"Show Lord Khalid to a guest apartment. Get him everything he needs. Make sure he knows where Lord Wes's office is."

"Yes, sir. If you would come with me, my lord."

"Lord Jorelle," Constantine addressed the shifter. "Thank you for taking the time to explain the situation."

"You're welcome, Lord Moureaux. We certainly appreciate the heads up on the situation. We wouldn't want negotiations with future Lord Guerrero to be disrupted by a military raid."

Jorelle shot Nolan a poorly masked disgusted look before walking out of the office and leaving the three vampires alone. Nolan's whole body was trembling with rage now. "Grayson," he hissed. "I swear to-"

"You are excused, General Corvus," Constantine cut over him. "I will leave it to you to pull back on any of Nolan's recent orders. Nothing happens without my direct approval. If a single vampiric soldier steps foot in lycanthrope territory, they are in immediate insubordination and are to be court marshaled."

Corvus all but ran out of the room. "You called me back," Nolan started in a slow, deadly tone. "You dragged me back here. What the hell do you want from me, Constantine?!"

"I want you to do your job!" Constantine shouted back. "Killing Raphaël is the job I assigned you. Hunting the Organization is the job the Counsel assigned you. The werewolves—Aarón Guerrero—is not your job! It has not been your job in five thousand years!"

"Guerrero is never going to accept that deal. All you're doing is giving him and Raphaël more time to plan their attack!"

"This is a Counsel decision, Nolan! There is nothing I can do! There is nothing you can do!" Constantine leaned heavily against the desk and hissed in frustration. "I do not like this, Nolan. This obsession of yours-"

"You're going to talk to me about obsession?" Nolan snarled. "You? When have you ever let the Counsel get in the way of what you want?!"

Another low hiss before Constantine slowly stood straight and reset his typical air of arrogant calm. "You're done," he said coldly. "You will help Khalid with his Counsel case. Do not interfere with the offer to the werewolves. Stay out of lycan territory."

"Or what? You'll remove me from my post? Fire me? Please, Constantine, I beg you. Set me fucking free! Let me go back to Rhia, and let me live my life!"

Constantine's lip curled up in a sneer. "Tell me, Nolan," he hissed. "Does your dragon know the true depths of your obsession? What it has turned you into? She is a mere phone call away, and if she does not answer my call, she will answer Luna's."

"You stay the fuck away from Rhia!"

"Then do not give me a reason, Nolan. I have done it before. I will do it again. Now get out."

~