As soon as Kiandra stepped a foot inside the abused manor of Val Hall, she wished she hadn't. At her entrance, a single pair of Valkyrie eyes and four pairs of Lykae eyes lifted from the elaborate map spread across the giant dining table and settled on her with a mix of wary astonishment. Closest to her amongst the Lykae pack was the same nuisance she had confronted at the concert, and he was just as handsome as she remembered (not a good thing for her already nagging psyche). Only now he had a manic glint in his eye that boded ill for Kiandra.
"I have to say, you were the last person I expected to see walk through that door. What brings you here? Come to stop my heart again?" The Lykae loomed forward, taking up way more than his fair share of space.
"I came to see an old friend," Kiandra replied.
"I wasn't aware Valkyrie made friends with monsters," the Lykae taunted with a grimace.
"They made an exception for you I see."
"I don't kill people at will."
"Whatever makes you sleep at night. But now I tire of this conversation. Where has Nix gone?" Kiandra asked, startled to realize that the woman was no longer by her side.
"Nix? How should I know? No one's seen her for the past two weeks."
"We walked in holding…" She trialed off, realizing that Nix must have slipped away sometime before that, perhaps when she was taking with Lucia.
"Perhaps Nix is not the only one touched in the head," goaded the Lykae goaded, now towering a mere foot or so in front of her. Unfortunately, Kiandra could come up with no good response to his taunts. She fully acknowledged that being locked in a tomb for a millennia had done a number on her psyche. Tipping her head back she looked up at the towering man and found her eyes connecting with his warm amber ones. A jolt of awareness surged down her spine and the room seemed to simultaneously shrink and heat up. The impulse to jump on the man suddenly assaulted her, a dangerous impulse for one on her mission. Kiandra needed to leave, the sooner the better.
"Well, let me know if you can find Nix," she said, eager to be out of the manor. With a mock salute to all of the assembled Loreans, who were still watching her with shell-shocked expressions, Kiandra turned and made her way to the door.
"Wait, you are Kiandra, the Goddess of Water?" Another one of the assembled Lykae called out to her. With a sigh she turned back to the room, slightly worried to notice that the hulking, pain-in-her-ass Lykae had moved to follow her but had stopped when she did also. Doing her best to ignore him, she turned her attention to the Lykae that had addressed her.
"I am. What of it?" she replied, honestly curious. While she had never managed true friendship with the Lykae before her imprisonment, they had always kept and easy truce. It would be a major advantage if any alliances had survived.
"I am Lachlain, king of the Lykae. I believe you saved my life during the fall of Atlantis."
"Lachlain! Heavens how you have grown up!" Kiandra couldn't help but smile a little at that. Her last memory of the man was when he was no taller than her hip. "But then I suppose that was well over a millennia ago. How have the years treated you?"
"Well enough, of late. I have been blessed with a mate" he said as he pulled a petite, lovely blonde Valkyrie to his side. "Allow me to introduce Emmaline."
Kiandra briefly dipped her head in acknowledgement. They suited each other well and seemed happy, if their body language was anything to go by.
"You never met by brother, Garreth." Lachlain gestured to another Lykae across the table. "He was born some years after your…disappearance."
"You are Lucia's husband?" Kiandra interjected, remembering the name from her brief conversation with Lucia outside.
"I am," Garreth rumbled in confirmation.
By the time that Lachlain finished his introductions with the last Lykae, Bowen, Kiandra was only half listening. There was something wrong in the room. She couldn't pinpoint it yet, but whatever it was, it was growing stronger. Then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She swung her head around to stare at a six-foot-tall mirror that had been previously hidden by the oversized Lykaes in the room. The disturbance was originating from there. As she watched, the surface started to bulge, and then become a goopy liquid, eventually parting to allow a striking redhead to enter the room. Bowen immediately scoped her into a hug. She must be his mate then.
"And allow me to introduce Mariketa, Queen of Reflections," Lachlain's voice cut in.
"Charmed," Kiandra said. "But now I have to ask. I know Lykae are a social bunch, but do you usually all congregate around a war map or did I walk in on some plotting?"
"We were going to search for you," Lachlain said, seeming slightly embarrassed. "Well, not you exactly. Dubric would not tell us exactly who he was searching for."
"Ah, then it seems I saved you some trouble. Now, Dubric is it? What did you want with me?" She turned to face him. Better to get the confrontation over quickly than try to postpone it.
"Now ye talk to me? What happened to all the 'move out of my way or I'll kill you'?"
"You are right. I have little enough time to spare and you are wasting it. So I suggest that you speak your peace, or I shall take my leave and you shall not be able to find me again," Kiandra vented in clipped tones.
A low growl issued from Dubric as he ran his fingers through his hair. The man seemed to be to fighting a minor battle within himself. With another growl, he finally uttered, "Outside, I will speak to you in private." Then without waiting for her response, he grabbed her elbow and marched to the door.
