Forsaken Hunger Read online

  Originally, the Djinn were created by the god Ekros to be compatible only with Vampyres, the creation of his twin brother, Tallos. A Djinn could live forever in the body of a single Vampyre, sharing control over the body as well as the power supplied by the Vampyre’s aethra. The Vampyre in turn fed off the life force of the Djinn’s soul, using it to regenerate its aethra.

  The ever regenerating healing properties of the Djinn’s essence also allowed Vampyres to live eternally and walk in daylight. Due to the toxic reaction of the sun’s UV rays to the chemicals the aethra produced beneath the skin, the Vampyre’s flesh would otherwise burn like acid under direct sunlight.

  Nearly a thousand years ago, a great portion of the Djinn began demanding more and more control over their hosts, eventually locking the Vampyres into their own bodies. No one knew how they’d managed to accomplish that. The natural laws set by Ekros and Tallos that governed their creations should have made it impossible. Those of the Vampyre race still in control quickly rebelled. They refused to allow the Djinn to continue using their bodies as hosts.

  The twin gods were forced to amend their laws, giving Djinn the ability to enter any willing host and Vampyres to feed from the energy of other life forms. Though the Djinn remained immortal, the Vampyres lifespans were reduced to approximately six hundred years.

  The two races had been battling ever since.

  Despite Sasha’s almost total reclusion within Phoenix’s body, her spirit still made him immortal. He could die if he wanted to. Accept the gift of death that each Drakon was promised at the end of their sentence. But that would mean evicting Sasha from his body, something he would never do. She’d been his salvation once, and now he was hers. If she chose to remain hidden inside him forever, he would go through countless more centuries of torment as a Drakon just to keep her safe.

  Phoenix smiled when Sasha began singing along to her favorite song in the musical. Her voice was like whispered silk and bells chiming in his mind. He was about to lean back on the ceiling beam behind him when a burning sensation slammed into his gut. It rippled over his flesh, scorching every nerve before fading to a barely perceptible irritation.

  Serrakus was calling.

  With a sigh, he got up and climbed over to the suspended walkway hovering behind the stage. Sasha was already retreating into her shell, leaving him with the distinct impression of a pout.

  “Don’t worry, sweet,” he told her mentally. “I promise you another performance before I start on this next job.”

  She responded with a happy trilling noise.

  Outside on the rooftop of the building, a gust of night wind blew his long, dark blond hair. He stripped it from his eyes then took flight in his dragon form. Ten minutes later, he came to the area he usually used to create a temporal rift in this part of the city. It led to a sort of back door to Serrakus’ part of the Drakonem realm. Another blaze of pain bowled through him just as he took back his corporeal form in the alley behind a biker bar. He staggered and cursed, reaching out to a dumpster for support.

  Impatient bastard.

  A single burst of Drakonem power from him created an undulating fissure that closed as soon as he was through. The darkness of the corridor he entered was broken by occasional torches mounted to the walls.

  He was in the western branch of the dormitory area. It housed those Drakons under Serrakus’ control who hadn’t yet learned how to scavenge their kills and create a false identity to blend into the human realm. Sometimes it could take years, regardless of whether they knew what they were doing or not.

  Here, it was too easy to get in trouble. Warders watched your every move, just waiting for you to fuck up so they could report it to Serrakus. And if you chose to annoy them by being a model Drakon, they’d help you out by setting you up for failure. Serrakus didn’t care about truth. He pampered his sadistic warders. If they wanted to entertain themselves with a little extra torture, he was more than glad to oblige.

  As a result, most of the residents here spent more time in punishment than out in the field.

  Phoenix turned down two more dank corridors, ignoring the few Drakons he passed on the way. If there was one thing he’d learned in his three and a half centuries as a Drakon, it was that friends and criminals didn’t mix. He’d seen too many betrayed by their so-called friends for the fleeting favor of Serrakus.

  It was better to remain alone. Detached. Easy for him, being the host of a Djinn. It was no secret, and had earned him the hatred of everyone he knew, even fear from many. But they didn’t know Sasha, didn’t care about her peaceful nature, and he preferred it that way. She was far too fragile to deal with the shit he put up with on a daily basis.

  At the end of the hall leading to Serrakus’ office, Laurs stood with his arms folded across his massive chest. The warder sneered as Phoenix approached. “How’s your little companion doing? Is she going to come out to play the next time I get you alone?”

  Phoenix stared at the man’s dead eyes, refusing to give in to his taunts. Laurs was one of the few aware of the fact that Sasha would occasionally take control of Phoenix’s body when the agony and desolation of his punishments became too much to bear. At those times, he was merely the observer and she the one to experience everything through him.

  With Laurs, she had done so only once during a particularly brutal session. Phoenix had been weak from weeks of nonstop torture, the flesh stripped from numerous parts of his body. His mind had been teetering on the brink of insanity. His will so defeated from degradation that he would have given up if not for Sasha’s intervention.

  He hadn’t wanted her to come out around Laurs but she had forced her dominance to protect him. Unfortunately, Laurs had noticed. Phoenix had come to the next day when Serrakus came to heal him. Whatever Laurs had done to him while Sasha had been in control had sent her deep within her shell for months. She’d closed off all communication with him and to this day, wouldn’t tell him what had happened.

  Laurs chuckled at his silence and opened the door to Serrakus’ office. When Phoenix strode past, he leaned in and whispered, “Tell her I miss hearing her screams.”

  Phoenix stilled, muscles straining with the effort to keep from flooring the guy. It wasn’t worth it. Serrakus would have him in chains for the next month. But damn it would feel good!

  He crossed to the other side of the room where Serrakus sat at his desk. Another Drakonem lounged in the reclining chair of a three piece sectional to the side. Lucius was somewhat of a drifter among his kind. He bored easily and often paid visits to his brethren to break the monotony of his master routine, leaving the charge of his Drakons to his trusted warders. His long, silver hair contrasted sharply with his youthful features. In human years, one might guess his age to be no more than twenty-five.

  His new flavor of the year knelt at his feet dressed in a skimpy red and gold belly dancing outfit. Beads and feathers adorned her braided hair and her coffee colored skin glistened with a coating of scented oil. Her back was straight, head held high with the pride of her position as his concubine. She was a newly made Drakon then. Not yet trained in the grueling demands of her role.

  Phoenix couldn’t blame Lucius, really. It was hardly frowned upon in this reality to take advantage of the willing before their hearts were spoiled by bitterness. Serrakus, on the other hand…

  Lucius watched Phoenix through pale, silver eyes, his long legs stretched out and a snifter of liquor resting in one hand. Serrakus was prattling on about the feats of his Drakons, oblivious to the fact that his guest was no longer paying attention. Lucius’ gaze was avidly focused on Phoenix.

  At the beginning of Phoenix’s term, the Drakonem had tried to buy him from Serrakus for the price of three of his own Drakons. Back then, his interests had lain in making Phoenix his sexual slave. When Phoenix had made it clear he’d wanted nothing to do with Lucius’ advances, Lucius had respectfully rescinded his offer. It hadn’t taken long, however, for either Drakonem to see the real value in him.
r />   The endless skills of a ruthless killer.

  Like Phoenix, Sasha was also wanted for crimes against her own kind. Since she was a Djinn and therefore couldn’t be trusted to abide by the rules of a Drakon, her sentence was death without the requirement of paying the dues for her crimes first. However, the only way to kill her was to destroy her essence while she was outside of her host, and Phoenix was not about to ask her to leave. Serrakus could kill him, which would force her out, but that would mean losing an experienced Drakon that he could, essentially, use for the rest of eternity.

  So long as Sasha was inside him, Phoenix was under Serrakus’ control.

  Lucius now wanted him for that same reason. Last Phoenix had heard, the Drakonem’s trade offer had gone up to eight Drakons.

  “I’ll give you ten for him,” Lucius said, interrupting Serrakus.

  It took a moment for Serrakus to catch on to his proposal. When he did, he scowled and shook his head. “Give it up, my friend. This one has earned me far too much favor with the gods to give up. He does five times the amount of work as most of my other Drakons.”

  Phoenix breathed an inward sigh of relief. While there was no doubt he would fare better under Lucius’ control, Lucius would probably make him a warder in charge of other Drakons. Phoenix had no desire to be a leader of any kind, no matter the benefits.

  “There was even mention of extending my vacation this year because of him,” Serrakus continued. “With Saden’s future contribution, I might be looking at two weeks this round instead of one.”

  Lucius looked sharply at Serrakus. “I thought you told me Saden’s term will be up after he completes his current assignment.”

  “Ahh, but I haven’t told you what his assignment is.” Serrakus sat forward in his chair, silver eyes gleaming with mischief. “I sent him after the Vampyre responsible for him becoming a Drakon with the stipulation that he bring his target in alive. Saden never could let go of his grudge against the man. When he gives in to his resentment and kills his target, I’ll be able to renew his sentence for another ten or fifteen years, not including time for punishment. The gods will congratulate me for enforcing the laws and Saden will be mine to use for a while longer.”

  “He doesn’t know this is his last assignment?”

  “Of course not,” Serrakus scoffed. “I can’t risk him doing this one by the book. He’s one of my best Drakons. I need him to fail.”

  “How can you be so sure he’ll kill his target? I’ve met Saden and he doesn’t seem the type to give in to his emotions so easily.”

  Serrakus shrugged a shoulder with an utterly guiltless grin on his face. “I may have contacted the target’s Rei’jin and informed her of the matter. By now, her council has already told the Vampyre that I’m likely having him investigated. With the Vampyre aware, Saden will most certainly expose himself. That alone would allow me to extend his sentence for another ten years at least.”

  “That’s quite the underhanded scheme you have going there,” Lucius said in a tone filled with disdain.

  Serrakus either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He laughed gleefully and downed the rest of the scotch in his glass. “Thank you.”

  Phoenix kept his expression neutral, though inside he was seething with rage. To intentionally keep a Drakon alive past his or her time to die was beyond cruel. Death was a privilege for them. A right earned through years of abject service. Phoenix freely gave up his right by protecting Sasha. He accepted the consequences. Saden, however, wasn’t being given a choice. It went against everything they were promised at the start of their term.

  Although he didn’t know Saden personally, he knew some of what the Drakon had endured over the course of his sentence. Saden, more than most, deserved an end to his suffering. Unfortunately, the only ones with the power to intervene were the gods, and all they cared about was the order of peace among the demon races enforced by their precious Drakonem.

  Serrakus shuffled through a stack of papers on his desk then pushed his chair back. He kicked something on the floor out of his way and stood up. A young-looking Dresidien toppled out from behind the desk before scrambling to get his knees under him. He pushed his legs together in an attempt to hide his nakedness, though it did little good with his ankles in fetters and wrists bound to them behind his back.

  Hatred blazed in the depths of his black eyes, an emotion that would see him through the worst of his trials if he could manage to hold onto it.

  “Your target is a Vampyre who’s been found guilty of murdering two humans for financial gain,” Serrakus said to Phoenix as he rounded the desk. “Kill him and return to me when you’re done.” He placed his hand on Phoenix’s chest and transferred the power to track the target.

  Phoenix left the room quickly. He didn’t stop until he was back in the human realm surrounded by fresh, night air. He inhaled it deeply to clear his thoughts. Saden’s predicament still weighed heavily on his mind, yet he could do nothing about it. Shouldn’t do anything. No good had ever come from helping others.

  “You want to,” Sasha whispered softly.

  He smiled grimly and gazed up at the dark sky. Sasha rarely spoke, and only to get a point across. “You were listening. It means nothing. Even if I offered my help, he would reject it.” After a minute of silence, he raked his hands through his hair. “You think I should do it anyway.”

  She answered with a rush of approval in her usual wordless manner.

  With a quiet chuckle, he took his dragon form and swiftly left the city behind, already regretting his decision to aid the other Drakon.

  * * * *

  Lucius stared after Phoenix’s rushed departure. He pondered absently over the Drakon’s ability to intrigue him even after all these years. Phoenix had proven himself a walking contradiction more times than Lucius could remember.

  There was the fact that he housed a Djinn despite his horrific past with them. That he seemed to care for her above all else. His will to survive, even though Lucius knew he longed for death. Not to mention his respect for a world that had turned its back on him numerous times.

  And now, Lucius got the feeling that Phoenix was about to contradict himself again. The subject of Serrakus’ betrayal of this other individual, Saden, had certainly seemed to rile him. Lucius had marked the subtle tension in his frame and narrowing of his eyes while the topic had been discussed.

  This from a man who was known for being utterly withdrawn from emotion.

  It aroused Lucius’ curiosity more than anything had in too long. The stirrings of an idea came to him as he glanced down at his lovely phantom. She just might be of more use to him than he’d first given her credit for.

  “Lucius?”

  “Hmm?” Lucius looked up, still half lost in thought.

  “Don’t tell me you’re too far gone in your cups already,” Serrakus teased. “I asked if you wanted to join me in a little entertainment tonight.”

  Lucius hid his revulsion with a wide smile, trying not to dwell on what Serrakus’ idea of entertainment was. While he detested everything about Serrakus, the man was good for an occasional bit of information. He finished his liquor then stood, pulling his slave up with him. “Sorry, my brother, but I must be going. Thank you for the…interesting company. I hope the gods look kindly on you for your upcoming vacation.”

  He hurried to the door before Serrakus could form a protest. The warder in the outer corridor pulled a lever that opened a nearby wall panel. Lucius took the hidden stairwell beyond to the rooftop one floor up, his slave following close behind. When they were alone, he turned to Allorha and clasped the flare of her hip. The maroon sky softened her dark Dresidien skin, painting her a deep copper.

  Originally, he’d spared her the initiation process of becoming a Drakon one month ago with the intent of using her to spy on his fellow Drakonem. Without a fragment of his soul inside her, she still retained her powers to travel into the minds of others to gauge their thoughts and feelings. It had also saved him the period of a
djustment it would’ve taken for her body to acclimate itself to the rigors of what it meant to be a Drakon. The intense withdrawals of power and spirit that Serrakus’ current slave had obviously been struggling with.

  Among other things.

  It seemed his little plan had finally snagged something worth pursuing. “Tell me, my lush, what you gathered from the Drakon in there.”

  Allorha leaned into his touch seductively. “The one who calls himself Phoenix, master?” When Lucius nodded, she trailed a finger down the middle of his beige, silk shirt. “He grew upset when Serrakus mentioned his business with the other Drakon, Saden. It was as if he were being betrayed as well. This Phoenix feels strongly for the treatment of Saden, though I cannot understand why. He has no love for anyone except the creature living inside him.”

  “The Djinn,” Lucius supplied.

  Her eyes widened and she reared back until he caught her. A normal reaction given the history of the Djinn. They were not known for their synergy with any of the demon races.

  “Easy. He is harmless enough unless provoked. Did you learn anything else from him?”

  She dipped her lashes in thought. “I think he intends to do something about Saden’s situation. I can’t be sure. His emotions were conflicted when he left.”

  Lucius’ idea quickly formulated in his mind as excitement spread through him. He was anxious to see what Phoenix planned to do about a situation that was, quite literally, out of his control. While leaving the realm was not an option at the moment, that didn’t mean he couldn’t send another in his place. By giving Allorha only the power to take dragon form, she could spy for him while still retaining access to her natural gifts as a phantom.

  She could be his eyes and ears in the human realm and report her findings to him. Which shouldn’t be too difficult a task for her. After all, espionage for material gain was what had landed her in her current predicament. That and the extreme exposure of her kind that had resulted in the death of a human senator.

  It would be a risk trusting her to do his bidding unsupervised, but she was a quintessential gold digger at heart, and he the only one to reward her.