Chapter Luring a Deva Out

Modern Times, Las Vegas...

At fifteen before nine in the evening, Beta Lex Smith opened the balcony doors as Concierge Dario had instructed. The shewolf gasped in surprise as a giant gargoyle-looking demon landed on the balcony. It stalked into the room, looking like an ebony statue come to life followed by a beautiful, winged female as pale as marble.

"Alpha Helios, your guests have arrived," Lex shuddered, but her voice was steady. They could smell her fear.

Ouroboros melted into the form of a handsome human as his wings wrapped him like a skirt or toga. His thick braids reached halfway down his back. Anjael's wings wrapped her like a sarong. She knew her intricately twisted white hair looked almost like horns were woven on the sides of her head. She hoped their appearance was terrifying enough.

"Forgive us for being early, Alpha, Beta, but my uncle was excited to see his acquisition," Anjael purred in a sultry voice.

Helios stared at them both then jerked his head to Lex to go. She scurried out of the room. When she returned to the main room, their meal was delivered. Helios looked at the two meals in confusion.

"Oh we... don't eat in the traditional sense, but please, enjoy," Anjael insisted, then she reclined on the chase like a fashion model. "I am Queen Anjael Anutari Wasi, of the Western clan of Bibre Cruor. This is my uncle, Lord Ouroboros."

"Alpha Helios Des Rues, and my Beta Lex Lettessera Smith," Helios introduced them.

Inhaling deeply, Lord Ouroboros eyed Lex with interest. "Lettessera... Lette from the old English for joy and Sera from the Hebrew for princess or burning one... How interesting."

"She is not available to become your thrall, demon," Helios declared quickly, "You have your treasure."

"Oh, Ouro, I told you I'm not the only one who thinks you're turning into a dragon in your midlife crisis," Anjael giggled like a young girl as he growled in his chest unhappily.

Ouroboros trilled, "This Lycani smells familiar to me."

"Familiar how?"

"Like Ridge."

Hiding her surprise with a fond look, Anjael watched him sorting through the metals for a moment then smiled at Helios. "Like all ancient ones, he does like his treasure in bits of cold metal as you, Alpha, like your cash in midsized nonsequential bills." Her tail lifted the cloth covering of the serving cart. There were two large rectangular cases. "One million as Dario agreed to."

Eating as she worked, Beta Lex counted the money while Ouroboros examined the gold and platinum bars.

"Now, Alpha of Solrues, why did you demand a meeting with me?" Anjael tried to have a dismissive and amused tone.

"Why did you steal the properties of the Water Moon and High Mesa packs? By werewolf law, I conquered them. That means their territory and all the property within belong to me," Helios started without preamble. He seemed to know his normal charm and rhetoric would not work.

"Stealing is such an ugly word and completely inappropriate in this case. High Mesa leased their pack property from me after leaving Arizona, so I was their landlord and your takeover cost me my tenants. You can pick up the leases if you want."

"I didn't know but Water Moon Pack owned..."

"All of the Ky'awe Yachunne property is in my territory and therefore mine... Ah ah ah." She shook her tail tip at him like wagging a finger. "Before you get upset, know that I bankrolled their pack improvements several times, and got their land declared a tribal site most recently." She pulled a zip drive from her wide wrist cuff. "All the documentation is here, proving that I held the ownership in trust and have for... well, longer than you've lived. Your little wolf war means nothing to me."

Taking the zipdrive, Lex put it in her laptop and opened the documents so Helios could look them over. He scanned the legal documents. The map of her real estate holdings extended beyond the border of the state, different levels of ownership dotted it like a Jackson Pollock and was worth far more than a hundred million.

"If wolves mean nothing to you, why do you dwell with the Lost Mine pack?" Helios demanded in frustration.

Anjael stretched languidly, "Their pack owes us a life debt and their Alpha's beast intrigues my inner demoness, I indulge her until we are paid."

"And what do they owe you?" Helios asked warily.

"Only their first born," she said it casually like she was talking about a trinket then her tone dropped, "As you can see the properties of both pack was mine before you hunted in my territory and it will remain mine for centuries after you are dead, halfling."

Helios growled at her before he could stop himself.

"Don't raise your lip to me, Lycani! I already told you; your little wolf war means nothing to me." She let her demoness peek out. Her pupils slit like a cat's but sideways. "You and your brother destroyed my most popular club and cut tens of thousands out of my revenue stream for weeks. You publicly brawled with another fighting form in the middle of the main dance floor, were seen by hundreds of humans, and recorded by dozens. If I had not the foresight to have cell phone scramblers and a hacker to remove all the images of Ouro breaking up your little tussle, both our species would be exposed again. My media manipulator managed to play it off as a stunt to bring attention to a Horror-themed Rave."

"You will have to do better to provoke him." Ouroboros clicked and hissed at her, and she trembled before calming down.

Turning her mesmerizing eyes back to Helios, Anjael announced coolly, "I understand you feel cheated out of your gains because you did not know they were never yours. Alpha wolves are inherently greedy and driven to conquer, but if you or yours hunt in my territory again, you will make an enemy that will hunt you and yours until none are left, no matter how much time it takes."

Putting the ingots back and clicking the cases closed, Ouroboros looked at him with polished onyx orbs where his eyes should be. His accent was slight but exotic. "Your witch mother's magic won't save you, halfling whelp."

"I think you mean runt, Uncle. These modern Alphas are nothing like their predecessors." Taunting, Anjael looked at her iridescent claws like she was bored.

Helios' rage ignited, fire began to glow, and his shirt began to smoke as it combusted. He raised his hand to strike her. "How. Dare. You, female!"

Suddenly, the table flew across the room, and Ouroboros' gargoyle forced the Alpha to his knees in front of Anjael. The more Helios struggled, the hotter became, hot enough his silk shirt flash-burned. Anjael leaned forward and cupped his face in her hands. Her tail lazily caressed his naked, ash-covered chest.

"Now, now, little, mad fire-wolf. Your flames won't hurt us. We are the kind of creatures who walked through the Hiroshima and the Bikini Island bombings unscathed."

"Release him so I may provoke the Deva within." She clicked, whistled, and hissed so Ouroboros let go of him, but Helios could not get up because her claws were sunk into his head. Her tail snaked around his neck as his body refused to move, then to his shock, she licked him.

"I haven't had an unwilling thrall in... well?" She looked up as if trying to remember before pinning him with her crystalline gaze, her eyes reminded Helios of the hottest purest flame. "In forever... You don't want to be the next. I would consume you."

The fire within him spoke in the ancient language of his soul, "You are not the creature you pretend, guardian."

Anjael grinned broadly showing all her pearly pointed teeth. She answered in his language, but her voice was deeper as the slits in her eyes became more pronounced. "The Deva speaks. I told you I could draw it out, Uncle."

"And you were correct, my queen." Ouroboros looked at the abomination of three species in his niece's thrall. "Listen to me carefully, tell Deva Huitzilopochtli, we know who and what you are. We know what you need to survive in this realm. Do not make us hunt your witches as we did before."

Helios made a sound like a giant raptor's shriek. Beta Lex screamed as the room exploded in flames.

Anjael's wings wrapped him as she clicked at her uncle, "Get her out of here."

"Subdue him quickly, get his blood." Ouroboros responded, "The Beta and wealth are secure."

"I will." She was thrown back by the blast of heat and used her wings as a heat shield as the sprinklers sprayed a gelatinous goo. "Monitor Woods and Jake."

Anjael seized the burning werewolf beast and flung him into a wall. Helios crashed through the burning furniture. Her demoness leapt on him and restrained him as a weird red fire burned everything around them.

"Submit." She hissed in her enthrallment tone.

"I will not," the burning beast growled.

Helios' burning beast tried to claw and bite her, but her demoness reveled in the aggression. She beat him for the harm he had caused the sister of her friend Delilah. She punished him for the harm he caused his mate, his Moon's gift, but Helios Des Rues was not the soul born to be Esther Ayala's half. The heat hurt as did the punches, but she endured. Enthralling him, her demoness took advantage to subdue and seduce him. Once, twice, then a third time between the battles of the monsters. Since the war of the Black Death, she had never fought such a strong singular creature. When he finally collapsed in exhaustion, she drew in his blood from his shoulder and his thigh. Moving away from the halfling now unconscious in his mortal form, she staggered to stand in front of the window. Panting, she began to look at the memories before he woke and attacked her again.

Anjeal watched the jumbled memories of the previous vessels of the fire Deva. She saw glimpses of his origin. The Nauhatl king Montezuma had been correct, the skin-wearing, power-stealing Deva trying to indwell Helios was the one who killed their Deva. More concerning was that Helios was going insane at a much younger age than the previous Sunwolf incarnations. As she waited for dawn or for him to wake, she rubbed the sticky fire retardant gel between her fingers.

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1517...

Anjael and Dartanian looked down at the cinder cone volcano they were circling and at the snake-shaped temple of the Snake Goddess. They arced through the air and flew over the city. There were only a thousand or so still alive. The few who weren't having sex in the square beneath a burning cloud were dragging prisoners to slaughter. The stench of smoky inscense, death and decay was horrific. Landing on the roof of a building, they looked at a flat area with a raised center dais.

Anjael clicked and whistled, "Thank the Mother Mary, there are no children here."

Dartanian didn't answer as they watched the last person being assaulted on the altar by the priests and priestesses before having their heart cut out while they were still alive. The screams made the young male Cruor turn his head away. "Do not watch, my queen."

"I must bear witness so all in my lineage will know what happened here." Anjael trembled violently. This place was her worst nightmare. She turned and looked at the volcano above her. Rocks and ash settled on its steep slopes as burning debris. She wondered why it had not collapsed because the slopes seemed too steep.

"My queen, there are a large number of lions to the south."

Anjeal turned to look. They weren't lions but something else feline. She had never seen spotted coats before but something in her memories said they existed. She didn't have time to search the lineage memories, so she leapt skyward, beating her wings, and flew toward the newcomers. They skimmed over the dense brush to a low spot hidden in the hills from the city. Landing, they folded their wings and waited in the dense shade of a tree.

One of the lions jumped down from a tree and turned into a woman as it walked toward the two gargoyles. She spoke in broken Nauhatl, "I am Tishcauqui, priestess of She Who Wears Bells. My goddess says you are not our enemy, Pale as Clouds."

"I am Anutari. We have come to stop those in the city by the burning mountain." Anjael bowed and Dartanian bowed deeper. Straightening, Anjael asked, "May I take a small amount of blood from you to see your memories?"

Several of the giant cats growled or yowled but Tishcauqui said something sharp to them before bravely walking forward and holding out her arm. Anjael licked her then drew the least amount she needed to read her memories. Standing very still, she sorted the images quickly. The Fire and Blood worshipers had stolen and sacrificed so many of the Jaguar shifters than only a few hundred remained far to the south. Those had fled after their Moon Deva was torn into pieces. Their Earth, Starry Night, and Forest Devas had rescued their sister, and with the help of the four River Devas restored her, but the eight were not strong enough to fight this new Deva who killed and absorbed the essence of hundreds of their lesser Deva brothers and thousands of other living beings. The Deva who now claimed to be Huitzilopochtli had killed him first when he visited their mother for his youngest brother's birth, then he had begun a campaign of conquest, maddness, and sacrifice which had emptied the plains, forests, and deserts to the north, west, and south. The fierceness of the northern and eastern kingdoms had stopped the expansion through war, while the rough terrain and dense jungles to the south had created a natural barrier.

Glancing up, she saw the sun had moved. A beam of sunlight fell directly on her foot. It hurt but the pain kept her from weeping over the Moon Priestess' lost mate and brother. Dartanian had extended his wings over her to create a denser shade. She nodded in thanks to him then turned to Tishcauqui, speaking in the language of the south.

"Priestess of She Who Wears Bells, will you come with me to meet our allies from across the sea and beyond the kingdom of the rising sun?" Anjael asked.

Tishcauqui looked sad as she agreed, "I will go but know this. Those from across the sea will betray us and you in the years to come. After this war is won, do not return to the land of your birth to dwell. You cannot help us."

"We will..." Anjael started to argue but Tishcauqui held up her hand, slicing the air with the side of it in a gesture indicating to be quiet.

"Pale as Clouds, we are trading the quick death of war for the slow death of living as conquered people. The only chance for the illusion of freedom for both of our peoples is to retreat into the wildernesses left empty by the plagues." Tishcauqui revealed with a haunting sadness in her eyes.