Casey, page 11
part #8 of Safe Haven Wolves Series
“I am probably the last one you should ever ask that question. You saw my back. You saw the mark that ties me to the she-devil. I wouldn’t wish anyone to be tied to another through a bond like that. But then again, I have never seen a true heart bonded pair. All I know is the hell I have lived and the hell that I brought my best friends into. Tell me, have you ever met a heart bonded pair?”
“I have. They once were many. Now, so few exist, I don’t personally know any.”
“What happened?”
“Your shifter friends weren’t the only ones cursed. Our people don’t bond anymore because they broke the pathways. Most don’t mind, the ones who never knew I mean. Your grandparents were a bonded pair.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“No, it took hundreds of years for the Calians to move through our people breaking the bonds. We didn’t know, we thought the magic that tied our couples together was slowly dying or changing in some way. For a thousand years, they worked among the races slowly destroying from within. We thought them allies, we called them friends. But they weren’t allies, and they certainly weren’t friends. Do you know why our people cover their backs, always? Why the only taboo clothing is the clothing that bares your back for any to see? Because the mark of bonding is forever branded upon your skin unless a Calian comes to call, and even then the mark stays, just not as you would want it.”
“Or your mate is killed.”
“That is not precisely true. Killing your mate by your own hands merely fades the mark to black and breaks the bond, and our people would name you a destroyer. If your mate is killed by another, the mark changes to a pale mourning blue and the bond is broken. In either case, the mark is changed, it doesn’t disappear. But if a Calian takes your mark, you lose the connection to your mate’s heart, and the mark turns black signifying you killed your mate. Your mate becomes like a stranger, and you forever have the stigma of having killed the one you should hold most precious to you. You can’t get the connection back. You can’t feel their emotions or taste the flavors of their skin from a distance. Most of the people you find my age or older will have the black mark of the destroyer on their back. Your grandparents didn’t leave the planet to give the young ones more room to grow. They didn’t leave the planet because they wanted to retire elsewhere. They left for the same reason, so many of the older ones have left in our lifetime. To escape the past no one can run from, and no one can fight. Most of our people didn’t leave their heart bonded when the marks turned black, and they couldn’t feel their mates anymore. They had a lifetime of memories to draw from and a love that surpassed the magic of the bond. But for some, losing that connection was more than they could handle. They chose death over losing that bond. It was a mess.”
So if the Calian can break the bond, all we have to do is get one of them to break the heart bond on me and the calling bond on you and then we can figure out what to do next.”
Dacron gave a bitter laugh, “Well, we can get your bond broken, but they can’t touch mine.”
“Why not? If the Calians can break anyone’s bond, then they can break their own.”
“No, they can’t.”
“How do you know they can’t break yours? You haven’t even tried.”
“I told you, Dracula, our people can bond with them. Do you think in a thousand years no one ever did? When we found what had happened, and saw the devastation of our people, of the bond, everyone went a bit crazy. They called for the death of all the Calians, even the ones bonded to our own. The infighting was bitter, and riots were a daily occurrence. Finally, a compromise was reached, of sorts. The Calians would agree to have their bond broken and leave the planet, or their mate would be put to death in front of them, and they would be banished from the planet. Oh, and any children would be killed in front of them also.”
“I’m guessing something went wrong?”
“We put a lot of our people to death before we knew the Calians did not lie. They could not break the bond of another Calian with our race.”
“Couldn’t you smell the lie or the truth? Didn’t they say they couldn’t do it?”
“No, how could they. They were heart bonded, and no one would willingly give that up. We thought they lied but believed the lie so strongly it smelled true. Many offered to break the bonds of their friends and family and face banishment from the planet rather than watch their mates and children die in front of them. We thought they played at breaking the bond. We are a noble race, why would we destroy our own for something they couldn’t fix? But they couldn’t break the bond, and we killed the mates and any child they shared before we banished the Calian mate from the planet. We being the race as a whole, not everyone agreed with the decision.
“Insane.” Dracula muttered as Dacron settled the craft down in the back yard, “I will be back with the link in a moment. You need anything from inside?”
“No.”
***
“Got it. So one more question. If the mark turns black and the bond breaks, why did it take so long to figure out what was going on? I mean, if you feel the bond break and a Calian is there, wouldn’t that have raised questions earlier?”
“No, because the bond didn’t break immediately. The Calians can break the bond with a word and a touch, but they can touch you today and break the bond tomorrow.”
“And you know how they can do it? I mean, they aren’t going to know so who will teach one of them what to do? And how do you know they won’t then use the knowledge to start breaking shifter bonds?”
“I know how they do it.” Dacron’s lip twitched up in a bitter twist. “Now you see why our people turned on them so strongly we were willing to sacrifice our own people to rid ourselves of the race. You are suddenly no longer sure they won’t turn on the shifters. These people you call friends are now someone to watch with wary eyes.”
“Ah, well, about that.” Dracula drew a deep breath, “Nathanial is the one who cursed the shifters to begin with and although he did it for what he thought was a good reason and now seeks to undo the curse I don’t trust the man.”
“The princess could undo the curse if she knew how. But she won’t know how, not without getting some of the files we have on the race so she can learn. We raided their places of knowledge, so although we don’t have the ability to use their abilities, we do have all the information used to train one of them. Dracula?”
“Yeah?”
“I need a moment to think. Let me be for a moment.”
Dacron guided the Yili to the landing field and shadowed it from sight. He sat inside while Dracula got out and got in the jeep. Finally, he climbed out and closed the door behind him, sealing off the ship. He had no idea what he would do about the little princess, but he wouldn’t mate her. He couldn’t do that. Not again, never again.
Chapter Nineteen
When Dacron walked back in Trey’s house, he knew his brother had been talking. Well, that was the reason he left him behind, to save him explaining so much. He wished they could speak telepathically like he had been told the shifters could. He cast a wary glance around the room at everyone gathered and tossed the link to Rimi to start everything. He expected Casey to begin demanding the calling mark be taken off her chest again, but what she asked took him by surprise.
“Is it true what Trey said? Did you tell him only a member of the royal family can break the curse?”
“The one on the shifters? Yes.”
“And according to Rimi, you believe I am the princess of the race?”
“Well, I don’t know that I would say the Princess. You could have sisters for all I know. Your people have bonded their warriors to wolves, and the warriors only protect the royal family so if your ancestors still live, then yes you would be a princess, not necessarily the Princess. But if you are the last of your line, you would be their Queen.”
“My mother lives, my grandmother was killed a few centuries ago.”
“No other?”
“No. Just the two of us. Are you going to tell me my mother is the Queen of the witches?”
“No, I am going to tell you she is the Queen of the Calian race, not that it will do her any good.”
“My mother is weak in power. She has no golden wolf or warrior to guard her. If the warriors guard the royal family, shouldn’t they be guarding her?”
“I don’t know what changes your people could have introduced into your race once you fled your home.” He stopped talking and pointed to the wall where the screen hung. Rimi had the link in and was searching files in a haphazard method looking for the videos. “Let me go help him find the right files.”
Half an hour later, the only ones left in the room were him and Casey. The others had fled one by one after seeing the images on the screen. Gabby had been the first to escape, he could hear her puking as she ran.
“So many babies. How could they kill the babies?”
“Honey, your people started the war. That picture right there, that was your people’s work. Your race killed billions over the centuries. They didn’t miss a single race. They wanted to rule everyone, and if they couldn’t rule them, they wanted to destroy them.” Dacron switched to another image. What was on the screen sent a shock wave through him. He flipped to another image as quickly as possible, but he wasn’t fast enough.
“Wait. Go back.”
“No.”
“But, that was you. I mean, your hair was shorter, but it was you.”
Dacron got up and headed for the door, but she caught him before he reached it. She tried to jerk him around to face her, but he stood firm, so she moved in front of him. “That was you on the screen.”
“Leave it alone, Casey. I didn’t know that image existed. I certainly didn’t know it was in the files.”
“No. I want to know who you were holding. Who was in the picture, and why are you in the files?”
“Damn you! Leave it alone.”
“I won’t. You hate our race, but I never did anything to you. I helped keep your brother alive. But you want me dead, and I don’t deserve your hatred. I was born on this planet, not whatever planet you say we came from. This is my home, these are my friends and family.”
“And that was my son damn you. That little boy was my entire world. And your people killed him and laughed. Even then, we tried to find a compromise, a way to stop the killing. As the ambassador of our people, I had to stand in front of your Queen and ask for a compromise. Knowing your people killed my son, had she been willing I would have had to work with her to stop the war. But she laughed in my face, and I killed her. My soldiers and I ripped through that palace like it was made of paper. We didn’t leave a single person alive that day. Man, woman, and child, we killed them all. Even the babes in their cradles. You threaten me with your Golden Wolf, little girl I killed your Golden Warriors and spit on their bodies.”
“Oh my god. They killed your baby, so you killed theirs?”
“Yeah Princess, cause babies grow up. And we couldn’t afford to let your race live.”
“But we aren’t them.”
“How do you know you won’t become them?”
Casey shook her head, “Whatever our people might have been we aren’t now.”
“Explain that to your friends who are living under a Calian curse, why don’t you. Tell them your people are different now and you don’t destroy the innocent. Go ahead, Casey, tell them your people have changed.”
Casey staggered back from him in shock. “Every race has good and bad people. You can’t condemn an entire race for the actions of a few.”
“That wasn’t a few, a few did not scatter out among the stars and systematically destroy entire cultures and lives. That was a planned attack centuries in the making.”
“I am not like that. I would never hurt my friends. You don’t know me.”
“No? I may not know you, but I know your kind. You shelter one right now you should have killed already. You let him live though he cursed an entire race to die. Did you not see any of those images on the screen? If you let him live, you are no better than the Queen who once ruled. You would let a criminal live and enjoy his life while the ones he cursed face extinction and you claim you are different? From where I stand Princess, your kind hasn’t changed at all.”
Dacron stormed from the room, and Casey heard the front door slam. She made her way to one of the couches on legs made of rubber and sat staring blindly into nothing. She didn’t notice when Nathanial came back in the room and sat beside her.
He cleared his throat, “He’s right, you know. I knew my power, and I still turned it against people who had never hurt me. I still tried to destroy people who had never done me any wrong. My only punishment was to live without my little Merry for three centuries. Because of my anger, I cursed an entire race to extinction. I caused countless females to be kidnapped and sold into a bondage they can’t escape from. Even away from our homeworld, I became the very thing they eradicated our race to prevent. Maybe he is right, and our race has more power than we can handle, and maybe he is wrong. But the one thing he got right, if you are the future leader of our race, if you are the one, and you let me live knowing my crime, you are no better than the Queen he once faced. Casey, I don’t want to live without my Thomas. But I do want my nieces to live long and happy lives. If killing me will win him over and make him believe our race has a chance of redemption, my life is a small price to pay. I get the feeling after seeing some of those images that his people and this Coalition he speaks of would not hesitate to destroy this world if it meant ridding it of us.”
Casey looked over to see a sad smile on his face. She cupped his cheek, “But Nathanial, I’m not a killer. I talk big, but the only time I have killed is to protect myself, and even then it was the protections I surrounded myself with that killed, not me.”
“I don’t think it matters. He sees you as the Princess, and that makes you royalty. Royalty owns its people. Well, I mean not in this day and age but I can remember a time when they did in the not too distant past. So, order my death and make him my executioner. I want it this way. Life without my Thomas, even if I have my nieces in my life, well it isn’t the same. To satisfy him, to save our people, condemn me to die and let me go to my Thomas. Only you have to know that I choose this route; that I am asking for the easy way out. Far easier to leave this world behind than to live with what I have done. Then to watch Kate and Craig have children knowing the child will have none of the Golden Wolf protections. Knowing if the child is female danger will dodge her heels for her entire life. What I did in anger was wrong. But our race, our people shouldn’t have to suffer for it. Rimi said the book trains the warriors down in power. Use it to train your warriors and use your warriors to police our people. Fix what I destroyed and send me home to Thomas.”
“Wow, nothing like being asked to judge someone and find them guilty and condemn them to death all before noon. Sibeal will never go for it. Not after losing you for so many years. No one will listen to me or obey my authority because I don’t have any.”
“In his eyes, you apparently do. And for what we are trying to do the only one we need to worry about is the man who can call down death upon all of us.”
“You think he will?”
Nathanial shook his head, “I don’t know.”
“Well, only one way to find out. I think it is time we went looking for our favorite ass hat.”
“He isn’t my ass hat. I don’t wear his brand on my chest. Have you seen his ass? You could bounce a quarter off that ass. I would love to run my tongue up his back.”
“Eww T.M.I. Seriously? The man wants you dead, and you want to lick him?”
“Have you seen his ass? Of course, I want to lick him. I may be getting ready to die, but I ain’t dead yet.”
“You can stop talking now.”
Chapter Twenty
"You didn't tell us the pictures would be so graphic."
Dacron looked at the three men gathered under the garage. "I didn't think I would have to. Do you think we would place an extinction order on a race because they served us the wrong food?"
"I thought you had pictures of their culture and their way of life, not the atrocities and the deaths."
"See Rimi, this is why you missed so much in school. I said I had images of the carnage. Clearly, that meant the carnage."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know. A lot of my decision will be determined by what the Princess does next."
"Why do you call her the Princess and not Casey?"
"Because, you aren't always one or the other, sometimes you are both, but sometimes you can only be one. For the decision I just put in her lap, she can only be the Princess. She can't make the call as Casey. Now whether she will understand what she has to do and make the right decision, I can't know. I don't think she will, but she could surprise me."
"What decision did you give her?"
"Now that brother is none of your concern."
