Still coughing, feeling as though she couldn’t take a proper breath, Lilith blinked several times until the spinning world no longer seemed quite so unbalanced.
“Damn right it was necessary. You know what this one can do,” Karis muttered before pinning Lilith with her rich, brown eyes. Curvy and hippy, with a full bust and an enviably slim waist, she looked more like the type of woman you’d see dressed up for a princely ball. Of course it didn’t help that she was wearing a buttery yellow ballgown-looking dress, but this was no regular princess dress. It’d been raggedly chopped off at the knees—as though she’d taken scissors to it and gone crazy—revealing the black laced-up combat boots. Almost like she was thumbing her nose at herself and doing it with an anarchist’s flair.
She had a rich cascade of mahogany-colored wavy hair that spilled down to her waist and large doe eyes. First impressions would make one think she was a gentle-bred woman made to dance at balls and bow to kings. Until one glanced down to the basket hilted sword she usually kept strapped to her waist, but which was now being held tip-first mere inches from Lilith’s windpipe.
“Wolf, we’re not here to kill, but if you don’t answer us we’ll make an exception,” the voice that’d chastised Karis spoke up again.
She still couldn’t figure out why she was bound, who these women were, or why they’d want her. The memory was so hazy it barely made sense.
Lilith tried to make out the creature standing mostly in shadow. In her wolf form she’d have been able to tell immediately, but her human sight wasn’t nearly as good. Not to mention that the constant horrible ringing in her ears was throwing her entire system out of whack.
“Recognize me yet, wolf?” She chuckled beneath her breath. “No?” the female whispered throatily after a lengthy pause. “Then let me refresh your memory.”
There was a scent of smoke, like charred wood, and then the woman talking stepped fully into a circle of light.
She had thick strands of bubblegum-pink hair caught up in a bun that had several golden hairpins sticking out of it. Exceedingly short, she was maybe five feet tall and had delicate but striking Asian features—high cheekbones, full lips, and thick eyelashes that framed greenish-blue eyes peppered with golden flecks that glinted like flame as she smiled.
Garbed in an imperial jacket the exact same shade as her hair and wearing silky black pants that fell to just below her knees, there could be no doubt as to the woman’s heritage.
She was a xiather, also known as a dragonborn. They were born only of royal dragon and human blood, the mating was brutal, and the delivering of a healthy child was exceedingly rare.
Strapped to her back was a golden bow, legendary in that only a xiather could hold it. Infused with dragon’s blood, should anyone outside the genus even try they’d turn to ash in seconds.
In an instant Lilith knew who stood before her. There were only three xiathers known to exist. Two of them males and one female.
“Ying Lor,” she said, and then moaned when a bolt of pain flashed across her temple. She’d taken a direct hit earlier.
Ying’s lips stretched into a sultry smile. “In the flesh, shifter wolf.”
How long had she been out of it? Where was Giles? He must be worrying. His caution of earlier suddenly echoed in her mind. Gods, she’d been foolish. It galled her to admit that he and mother were right about her.
Young and brash and stupid.
Lilith whined from the pervasive sound buzzing painfully in her ear. She needed to get away.
“Why have you brought me here?” she grunted with a voice gone hoarse.
Moving her head left and right, she tried in vain to make out what was holding her strapped to the tree trunk.
“We knew the moment we spotted you entering the pub that there was something slightly off about you, didn’t we, Karis?”
Karis shrugged as a whisper of a smile played about her lips. The sword she held was still steady on Lilith’s neck.
Lilith flexed her fingers, discerning no cuffs, no rope. There was nothing holding her to the tree, and yet she couldn’t move away from it.
Neither a xiather nor Karis had the power to hold her this way.
“Where is the third?” she snarled, realizing there was still one missing.
Brown eyes twinkled. “Only just figuring that out. You’re not very bright, are you, dear?” Karis laughed.
Growling deep in her throat, Lilith attempted to kick her way out of whatever held her bound. Writhing, snarling, and scraping up her back on the rough bark of the tree as she fought furiously to free herself.
A white mouse scampered across her toes, then another, and another. Not attacking, but just staring at her—a whole horde of them coming to join their brothers and sisters. Surrounding not just Lilith, but also the two women who now smiled triumphantly.
Suddenly the ear bleeding buzzing stopped, and the invisible bands holding Lilith in place vanished. Dropping to her hands and knees, she panted, choking down the sweet air.