Page 7 of My Guardian Gryphon
She’d never mentioned it when we read together. Though why would she? It was part of being a Sister. Procreating to continue the visions that would one day fulfill the prophecy. A prophecy Rose and the Sisters kept closely guarded, except to say that failure would mean the end of our dream of returning to Veil—something I very much wanted.
I swallowed down the bile in the back of my throat. Gretchen fulfilling her destiny shouldn’t make my stomach turn. I had no claim on her. She was a Sister.
I could never have a claim on her.
But I didn’t want anyone else to have a claim on her either, and that revelation threatened to put me on my ass right there in the middle of the Blackmoor’s foyer. I wiped sweaty palms on my jeans and struggled to pull in a breath.
“Alek, are you alright?” Kylie called from the top of the staircase. She took a step down, and I waved a hand signaling her to stop.
“I’m fine,” I growled, yanking open the front door and slipping out into the warm Texas air. The last thing I needed was an interrogation about why the personal business of a particular Sister’s sex life—or lack of one—had put my entire body and mind and into a tailspin.
Chapter 3
XERXES
“Report,” I said, not bothering to glance up from the files on the ornate Resolute desk I’d made my own since overtaking the Washington Republic. Stacks and stacks of reports on towns who had pledged allegiance to me, and reports on the executions of those who hadn’t. A few supernaturals had been rooted out of the woods here and there, wolves, mostly, and a few vampires who quickly fled the area—according to my Lycan captains.
Most other supernaturals were difficult to find. Pixies could literally disappear into trees, ponds, rivers, any type of nature—not that I expected to bring any of the pixie-dust-sprinkling-nature-loving-kumbaya-hippies into my camp, but their magick was helpful to have around. My men knew where to look for them.
It was a pipe dream to think I’d stumble across any overtly powerful supernaturals. Most had left the US after the Riots made living here a pain in the ass and somewhat deadly.
Then there was Rose.
My throat burned, bile filling the back. Rose had collected supernaturals for millennia. The most powerful beings still on this continent likely all lived in her fucking little town in Texas. A snort escaped from between my lips. It wouldn’t be a sanctuary for much longer.
The Djinn were mine, though, and that’s why I’d win in the end. They were the piece that stacked the deck in my favor. Always had. Rose hadn’t managed to turn any of them against me, not in four thousand years. In fact, most of them hated her more than they hated me. Quppa prison boxes weren’t something they took kindly to and she had hundreds, if not thousands of their people locked away in her fucking vault.
“Master.” Cal, one of my Djinn bodyguards, stepped through the open Oval Office door. “Commander Martin and Commander Max have nearly completed the military executions in New York and Washington DC.”
I raised my gaze to meet the lavender-eyed assassin. “You supervised both sites?” Cal was a slave, but his penchant for torture and death had lifted him high in my military ranks. Even though the newly-promoted Commander Martin and his pack had proven themselves in Ada weeks ago—burning down the Mason pack lodge and killing most of the pain-in-my-side Lycans who constantly interfered with my plans—I still preferred to have another set of eyes as witness to the obedience I expected.
Cal’s eyes made sure everyone who was supposed to die did, and painfully. Death rarely needed to be swift.
Martin’s brother, Max, had also proven worthy of a promotion. They and their two packs had risen to command my mixed human and Lycan forces, answering to no one except me and Cal.
“Yes, General Xerxes.” The corners of his lips curved just slightly, but I didn’t miss the mark of pleasure. He loved killing. Loved pain as much as I did. “Eighty percent of the human army in New York has been executed. Commander Martin did the same for the stationed armies here in Washington DC. Deaths for Washington and New York total in at sixteen thousand. The remaining four thousand are still being put through paces to see who is left standing.” His tone rippled with excitement.
“Clean up?” I closed the file in front of me and set it on the stack to my right.
“Bodies are being staked at all cross-roads and in front of all military stations per your orders. Excess bodies are being burned systematically throughout the cities’ waste management and cremation facilities.”
“Excellent. I want our forces and the newly-acquired humans assault-ready by the end of the week. Be sure they are fed and clothed and in new uniforms. We will take down the SECR before they have a chance to formulate any type of plan and before the armies get hungry.” I purposefully kept my voice even and calm. No one needed to know how pleased I was that my years of preparation would finally be coming to fruition, that I would finally be taking my rightful place in the public eye as a world leader to be feared. My rule would be all-encompassing, and the rest of the world would never see it coming.
“Should I fetch an up-to-date report on the movements of the SECR from Ms. Farrok?”
I scribbled a note on a small piece of stationary and held it up. “Deliver this to her. She needs to convince the SECR leaders to meet to develop a strategic defense. We will cripple them there, and the South will fall with no more of a scream than the Washington Republic.”
Cal bowed his head, taking the note from my hand. Then backed away several steps, waiting like the loyal Djinn he’d proven himself to be.
“Dismissed.”
“Thank you, General.” He bowed again and turned on his booted heel. His steps echoed for only a few seconds before they vanished, and silence once again enveloped the Oval Office.
One piece at a time was falling into place. The Kitsune serum had worked. My soldiers were undetectable by human scanning technology. The Washington Republic had fallen to my hand weeks ago, and the South East Coast Republic— SECR—would be under my control in a matter of days. To top it off, the base I’d secretly built twenty miles outside Sanctuary was coming along nicely. The witches had kept it cloaked from detection by human or Others. Not even Rose herself knew I was about to come knocking on her door.
An hour later, I finished going over the field reports from my two Lycan commanders. They’d located several hidden Lycan packs and had imprisoned them for death or draft. I needed more warriors, but I was quite particular about how they joined my forces.
“Cal.”