Dhampirs of Sgiach

36. Altina

“I’m getting reports of werecheetahs inside your bunker.”

Altina looked at her father, Erik, as the tall necromancer addressed the tan-skinned wererat Alpha. His golden blonde hair was cut short but still showed some of its natural silvery-white highlights. Eyes like lapis lazuli were as cold as the death magic he had taught and trained Altina to wield. Altina’s eyes and hair were the same, though her hair was almost to her waist and braided. His skin was fair, but hers was the same mocha color as her mother’s.

Erik gave Martin a stern glare. “You promised us a Luris of the Obsidian bloodline, and all we have done is sit here for months. And now we are besieged by werebears with unchained among their ranks.”

“You will have your Luris when I get my Lurah. The child will not have been born yet,” Martin snapped back. “And I warned you of the Exagora Blood Oak Sleuth.”

“You warned us that they kept your Lurah and its mother from you. Not that they would attack,” Erik snapped. He stamped his staff irritably as he looked back at the security monitors. Outside the bunker, the Mallum Sanguinem dhampirs were fighting heavily armed werebears and unchained ones.

Erik’s Sanguinai, S-1107, was among them with the wererats that Alpha Martin had managed to acquire after his defeat in Exagora. He had initially been promised them a Luris of the Frostfang bloodline, an incubus Nephilim. But now he just wanted the child and offered them the Shadow Walker. Maximus Xanthus won't be able to keep his seat if we also have a Furian Sanguinai in our ranks, Altina thought to herself as she watched her father.

Duke Maximus Xanthus, advisor to Emperor Tyr Drakenberg of Mallum Sanguinem, had been at odds with Altina’s father since before she was even born.

One of the security screens caught Altina’s eye, and she looked at it as three cheetahs, twice the size of normal cheetahs, slaughtered all but one of the Telum, the Mallum Sanguinem dhampirs, in the hall. The red cheetah that pinned the weapon had five large stripes down his back. He was beautiful in the way all large and dangerous predators were as he watched the dhampir shift into the form of another cheetah.

“Father,” Altina said as she pointed to the screen.

Erik looked at the screen as shadows enveloped the four cheetahs, but he saw what she had seen. “It seems the Obsidian Luris has already become a Lurah.”

“They’re coming this way,” Altina said as she looked at Martin. “It seems he chose the form of a cat to hunt the rat.” She let her disgust for the wererat fill her voice.

Mateo hissed from where he stood next to his older brother. He looked like his brother with the same tanned skin and solid masculine features. But his fangs showed his impure blood—a hybrid between dhampir and wererat. “Rats still have claws. And this room is surrounded by hallways flooded with light.”

“The Obsidian Lurah has some control over his shadow magic. If the black Cheetah is the Frostfang Luris turned Lurah, he may have his ice magic,” Altina pointed out as she watched the cheetahs make their way through the halls. “The Sleuth and their unchained ones destroyed your lights outside. I would wager money that it was so they could enter.”

Altina sifted through all the security cameras until she found what she sought and brought it up on the main screen. A side door had been broken open in an area away from the main fighting.

“S-1108, take a squad of your Telum and hunt down these cheetahs,” Erik commanded one of the two sanguinai in the room. The sanguinai bowed before he left to obey. “S-1106, go and sound the retreat. Come Altina, there is nothing for us here.”

“You’re leaving?” Martin exclaimed.

“Yes,” Erik said as he turned from the brothers and walked out the door with S-1106 and Altina following him.

Erik walked through halls like there were no sirens and alarms going off around them. The Telum, Dhampirs chained by Mallum Sanguinai, formed a shield around them as they walked. Altina was disappointed. She recently turned eighteen and obtained the right to bind her Sanguinai to herself. Her father had promised her the Shadow Walker, which was now beyond their reach.

They heard it in the large storage room that held the entrance to the escape tunnels—the snarling hisses of angry cheetahs. The Telum raised their rifles as they looked out from the group. The shadows around them seemed to move with their own life as the cheetahs stepped forward.

The red cheetah hissed, and Altina shivered in fear as she reached for the Orin. The magic came to her quickly. The red one had killed many rats and Telum but also turned others. Four had become nine, and they circled the two necromancers with their one Sanguinai and four Telum.

“Shoot them,” Erik ordered. His voice sounded calm and bland, like they were on a stroll in one of the parks of Ascalon.

S-1106 shot at the red cheetah, but he was a blur as he dodged the bullets. All of them were. Magic rode his hiss, and the Telum shuddered as they dropped their rifles and grabbed their heads. Terror flooded through Altina as they were all plunged into darkness.

Altina tried to summon a spirit to attack the cheetahs, but something heavy with claws slammed her into the floor. Stars burst across her eyes when her head cracked against the stone. She barely felt the claws slip through her clothing and into her skin as amber eyes like twin flames filled her vision.

Mine…

The voice whispered through her mind and brought the scent of spiced honey. Altina fell into those amber eyes. Shadow magic plunged into her and danced with her own. Anger and fear mingled with that magic, along with something wrong. Something that ate at the magic and the man within.

Shift with me… Hunt with me… Mine…

Pain tore through Altina’s body as her body felt like it was trying to tear itself apart, and magic marched along her in painful tingles.

No!

Altina fought against what the man wanted, fought to keep herself. But the magic was so sweet, and his scent filled her. Intoxicating and inviting.

Hunt with me…

Pain and magic throbbed through Altina, her heart beating as the man’s force of will beat at her. He willed her to shift and hunt with him.

“Why?” Altina managed to find her voice, and she barely recognized it.

The man’s magic seemed to startle in confusion at her question, and Altina could suddenly breathe through the pain.

Protect cub and mates…

There was fear in those words—fear for his cub and mates.

“Mates?”

Images flooded Altina’s mind of a beautiful man who smelled of cotton candy. With smooth copper skin and onyx-black hair touching his shoulders, his crimson-flecked silver eyes held wonder at the simplest things. The images slowed to a single image of an ultrasound picture followed by a vision of Altina.

Altina was startled at that last image and momentarily managed to break free of the man’s mind before those amber eyes pulled her back in.

Hunt with me… His rough tongue slid along her neck.

The feel of that tongue along her skin arched her back as it replaced the painful tingles with pleasure. Why not hunt with him? She thought to herself.

He’s Luris turned Lurah. He will always be a monster…

The thought floated along the edges of her mind as it fell to the desire to hunt with him.