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  She’d slept, but fitfully. Now she’d awoken to a world still in darkness because of the actions of evil men. She feared the world would never be set right again. Yet Orion assured her it would be. Felix rubbed her ankle, and she bent down to pet his soft fur.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Felix,” she murmured.

  After she washed and dressed, there was a knock at the door. She answered it and found Orion on the other side, dressed in dark jeans and a black shirt.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “Is it?”

  “It is both good and morning.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “There is much I want to share with you, Lucia. It is imperative that you understand what is happening. You play a critical role in this.”

  “I want to understand,” she said.

  “Come. All will be revealed now that you’ve rested.”

  Lucia followed Orion out of her room and down the hall to the elevator. They stepped inside and she felt the electric energy that pulsed between them. His presence did something to her that she couldn’t quite explain. Sure, he was gorgeous and masculine and would make any woman swoon. But there was something more than that. Under all her fear and disbelief, she felt a subtle sense of connection to him. Not to mention the visions that would not leave her alone.

  The elevator door opened, and Orion led her into an enormous computer workroom. The equipment was more advanced than anything she’d ever seen. There were half-assembled robots, three dimensional holograms, and a 3D printer creating a mini drone aircraft in the corner.

  Orion strode to a glass computer terminal and waved his hand over the desk. A holographic desktop woke over the terminal. Orion flicked through the tabs and came to a navigation screen.

  “You can access ancient Earth histories here. There are even images from that time. Here. I’ll show you. This is our binding day.”

  Orion flicked over the screen and brought up a file that quickly spilled images across the desktop. She leaned in closer, not quite believing what she saw.

  There she was in a flowing blue robe, standing beside Orion before the statue of a goddess. Their hands were bound together with a golden thread; their eyes were fixed on each other.

  “This was the day I claimed you,” he said, leaning closer.

  He was so close she could feel the heat of his body.

  The images showed them at a party with a lot of strange-looking people in ancient attire. It was all too much to comprehend and she had to sit down.

  “How do you have images from two thousand years ago?”

  “Three thousand,” he corrected as she collapsed in his computer chair.

  “Three thousand?”

  “We had much greater technology than what humans have today. It was hidden at the time of the veiling as well, but mostly by conscious design. The immortals stopped sharing their technology with humanity once they were forced into the darkness. Even those who disagreed with Xander and his tactics.”

  “Why were we never taught the true history?”

  “The immortals went underground and hid themselves from humanity. It was self-preservation. Like the Goudy, most immortals feared Gama’s spell.”

  “Please explain to me what happened.”

  “Your great-great-grandmother, Gama, was the mother goddess of Earth. Many modern people might call her a Fae, which is probably the most accurate description of her race. They come from the center of the Earth. Gama was a queen of great power who presided over the surface of the planet. She created the human race through magic and genetic manipulation. One hundred thousand years ago, two gods came to Earth. Their names were Dahaki and Tartarus. When they arrived, they both fell in love with Gama.”

  Orion opened a file and showed Lucia the text of an account about the Gods Dahaki the dragon and Tartarus the vampire first meeting with Gama.

  “Gama loved them both and gave birth to two sons. After Gama had her first two immortal sons, she took another lover. A human lover. With this man, she had a daughter. A daughter she blessed with her own magic. Unlike the sons of her vampire and dragon lovers, the daughter of the human man was like her, a magic wielder; a creator. The women of this line became known as witches. Gama’s daughter grew and had many more daughters with the sons of man and the sons of the gods. The mating of the witches with the sons of Dahaki and Tartarus created the immortal races. All was peaceful between the immortals and humanity until Xander Valdis rose to power eight thousand years ago.

  “He kidnapped and raped as many witches as he could. His line grew strong and fast. His lust for dominance of the immortal world grew at pace with his destruction of the human world. That’s when Gama asked the witches to give their magic, their lives, and their immortality to veil magic from the world. All this was done to save the humans from Xander.”

  As he spoke, he showed her evidence. Stories, quotes, photographic images, paintings, even some videos. By the time he was done, she was fairly convinced it was true.

  “I gave my life to save humanity?” she asked, the weight of it sinking in. “This goddess, Gama, she is the mother of all immortals?”

  “All immortals on the surface of the Earth, yes.”

  “And the other gods came from…space? Like ETs?”

  “Precisely.”

  “So Dahaki and Tartarus aren’t really ‘Gods’,” she said, using air quotes. “So much as they are extra-terrestrials.”

  “That would be accurate.”

  “It must have been hard on you to have your wife…just die in front of you like that. I can’t imagine.”

  “You carried my son in your womb when you left me,” he said as he stood above her, staring into the hologram of an ancient text.

  Her heart ached. Lucia didn’t fully remember the woman she once was, or the love she had shared with Orion. Even as confused as she felt, she wanted to reach out to him.

  “I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said.

  The heat of his body radiated through her. Some long forgotten strength she’d once depended on filled her soul, and a vision of the past opened up on the screen of her mind.

  A memory flicked on inside her as clear as day. She was in the temple before the statue of the goddess, holding hands with the dragon who loved her. She would give him many strong sons. How she’d adored him, depended on his strength to cover and guide her. In those times, a strong man was what a woman needed to blossom fully into her own power. Orion had given her all of that and much more.

  They’d protected the temple of Gama together. He’d been beside her in every way. His belief in his priestess had been unwavering. Lucia opened her eyes and looked up at Orion. His silver blue eyes gazed down on her, ablaze with his supernatural power and his undying love for his bride.

  “I remember you protected me and the women of the temple. You stood beside me until the end.”

  “I could have done more,” he said. “I vowed to protect you all with my life and I failed.”

  “We chose it, Orion. We chose to make the final sacrifice. Gama needed our power to bring balance back to the world.”

  “Do you think she succeeded?”

  “Succeeded? In balance?”

  “You know this world, Lucia. You know the corruption. The lies. The desperation of humanity.”

  She frowned. Just one day ago this had not been her fight. She was a recent grad student working in the public library. She spent her life cataloging books and talking to her cat. Now she was embroiled in multi-millennia immortal politics she couldn’t comprehend.

  “Are you still angry?” she asked, choosing to respond instead to the tone in his voice.

  “In a word, yes. I wish I’d stopped you. Your sacrifice has done little for the fate of the human race.”

  “I have to believe that it served a higher purpose. Or how can I go on?”

  “I don’t wish to make you doubt your Goddess,” he said, turning to her and gripping her arms as he looked down at
her with those burning silver-blue eyes.

  “I don’t even know who the Goddess is,” she said. “These things are so far removed from my life. I have no context. Nothing I’ve learned from history books was true.”

  “You can’t depend on human histories. Their short lives and limited perception lead to confusion and disinformation.”

  “You’re talking about my own kind.”

  “You were born of the Goddess, Lucia. You are not human. Gama herself imbued your ancestor with the power of the Fae. Even in this new body, your magic remains.”

  “I blew up a gang of vampires in the street in San Francisco. The ability was ingrained in me somehow. Isn’t that strange?”

  “You were fifteen hundred years old when you died. You had ages of experience with your magic.”

  “Fifteen hundred years?”

  “You and I were married for a thousand of those years. And we had many sons. One still lives today.”

  “I have a son?” she asked.

  “Yes. His name is Ajax Silverdrake. He is one of the youngest immortals on Earth. One of the last generation before the veil. Our other sons died in the battles before the veil. But Ajax and I remain. The Silverdrake clan has worked tirelessly to maintain the spell. For two thousand years, we prevented Xander from reversing the veil, even to our own detriment. Until he finally outplayed us. All that matters now is that you have come back to me,” he said, his gaze burning into her soul.

  Chapter 10

  Lucia stood on a balcony overlooking Orion's vast courtyard. The memories of a life she'd once lived filtered through her mind. She had been a priestess of a temple built of stone and marble. Magic wards had surrounded the premises, both as a call to the women of her kind and as protection from the immortals who would molest them.

  The full truth of her own race was only now beginning to sink in. She'd learned some things about the desire of the vampires and the dragons for women like her. Now the memories were starting to become clear after Orion opened his computer databases to her curious eyes.

  The evidence was too strong to ignore. She had lived thousands of years ago in a completely different world. It was a world where magic and technology worked hand-in-hand. It was a world where immortals walked the Earth and she was married to a dragon named Orion.

  Orion had protected her temple then. She wondered what would become of the other witches of her coven now. Surely, the women of her kind would be awakening to their nature just as she had. The part of her who had been the arch-priestess of a coven two thousand years ago called out to the women she had once protected and taught.

  The temple of the witches was necessary for their work as protectors of magic and humanity. The temple was also necessary to ensure that the vampires and dragons with less than stellar character did not kidnap and rape them.

  Lucia was beginning to understand the reality of life as a witch in the ancient world. All the male immortals wanted to fill the witches with their offspring. For some men, love did not matter. They saw the witches as breeding stock.

  The behavior of The Surge sickened her. In the old world and in the new. She had no doubt they would do the same thing yet again even if the sun was restored in the sky. Orion had warned her of as much. A desire to protect the other witches in the world gathered in her belly and blossomed through her heart.

  She felt a call radiate out from her chest. It vibrated through the air, echoing out in all directions. She was sending a signal to any other witches who could hear it. She wanted them to join her here at Orion's fortress in the coastal mountains of northern California. Here they would work to regain the power they once held, and she would offer them protection.

  Even if she was still unsure about her feelings for Orion, she knew she had a duty to the other women of her kind. If Orion was the man he claimed himself to be, he would help her as he once had. Perhaps if she could gain the assurance that he was truly on her side, and on the side of other women like her, she could finally believe in him. She wanted more than anything to believe in his love and to truly give herself to him.

  Orion was the most beautiful man she'd ever laid eyes on. His six foot three broad-shouldered frame; his masculine face and smoldering eyes were enough to make any woman weak at the knees. When he touched her, she felt the fire brewing deep within, brighter and hotter than she could withstand.

  He'd broken into her house and swept her up into a mythological world she didn't understand. She was trying to step into the truth of who she was and her own place in the world, but accepting an ancient husband was a whole other story.

  She knew he wanted something from her. Something deep and permanent. She wasn't sure if she could give it to him yet. For all she knew, she was losing her mind or was under a black magic spell.

  Before the sun went dark, she would have been thrilled to be approached by a dashing, handsome, rich man like Orion Silverdrake.

  But Lucia knew now that immortal men could be cruel. How could she trust him? How could she trust anything?

  Perhaps if she were joined by other witches here at the fortress, she would be able to get a better handle on her own feelings. She would have something to judge her own experience by. So far, the only explanations had come from Orion. She needed to hear it from someone like her. She needed to know that what she was experiencing was real.

  As she stood on the third story balcony outside of her bedroom, she heard an alarm sound throughout the fortress. She gasped, turned back into her room, and then strode out the door.

  She started down the hall and found Orion as he turned a corner and almost knocked right into her.

  "What's happening?" she asked.

  "There seems to be a woman outside the gates," he said.

  "What is she doing?"

  "It doesn't seem clear. In the video camera feed she is simply standing there, looking around curiously."

  "Who is she?"

  "From everything we can perceive, I would assume she is a witch, like you."

  "Can we let her in?" Lucia asked.

  "She could be dangerous."

  "If she is another woman like me, awakening to her magic, we cannot turn her away.”

  Lucia walked confidently down the hall. If Orion wanted to impress her, then he could believe in her and other women like her. He had fought for them long ago. It was time for him to do it again.

  She took the grand staircase down to the main floor and found Benny standing beside the front door. She stopped short and Orion stepped beside her, holding his glass pad. He clicked on the tablet a few times and brought up the video feed to show Lucia.

  "Does this woman look familiar to you?" he asked.

  "No, but that doesn't mean anything. I was just standing on the balcony sending out a signal to other women like me to come here and receive shelter. Just like we sheltered them two thousand years ago. If I mean anything to you, you will help me do the same now," she said.

  She was more sure of this than she had been about anything since the end of the world. Protecting other witches was all that mattered to her now.

  “Open the gate, Benny,” Orion said.

  Lucia and Orion walked out the front door and down the tall staircase to the courtyard. The iridescent blue lights cast a strange glow over the driveway and the fountain at the center. The tall walls around the grounds stood against the creatures of night and darkness. But there was an innocent woman standing at the gate, waiting to be brought in.

  Lucia could feel the woman’s confusion. She needed to go to her and bring her into the protection of the fortress.

  Orion showed Lucia a golf cart near the front of the mansion and they climbed inside. They zoomed down the driveway to the front gate and found the woman standing there, wide-eyed and holding a suitcase. When she saw Orion and Lucia, driving toward her in the golf cart, she didn't even seem surprised. Orion stopped the cart. Lucia got out and started toward the woman.

  Lucia could feel all kinds of strange thoughts and feelings s
wirling around the stranger. She could feel a burning power inside the woman that was just like her own.

  “Hello?" the woman said.

  She had a mass of wild red hair in tangles around her pretty round face. Big green eyes looked up at Lucia questioningly. Lucia walked to her and stopped, sending the woman soothing feelings across the void.

  "I'm Lucia Amador. Welcome to our fortress.”

  "I’m Bridget O’Brian," the woman said. "I don’t even know how I got here. I narrowly escaped the chaos in my town, and I've been walking ever since. It was like I was pulled here by some strange force.”

  “I sent out a call to gather women like us here. But that was only moments ago.”

  “I’ve been walking since the sun went dark. But just now, I was wandering through the woods, and I suddenly knew exactly where to go. That’s how I ended up here.”

  "Come, Bridget," Lucia said. “You and I have much to discuss.”

  Orion waited for them in the golf cart, but Lucia could feel his cool eyes watching them. She felt his protectiveness wash over her as she helped Bridget into the backseat of the golf cart. When the women were settled, Orion started the golf cart and drove across the courtyard to the front steps of the mansion.

  “How do you have electricity?”

  “The Surge’s Dark Sun Machine doesn’t affect immortal technology,” Orion said.

  Bridget looked at Lucia with wide eyes.

  “That’s not the half of it. You are experiencing an awakening to your true nature.”

  “I feel like I’m going to have a stroke at any moment. I’m only twenty-three. I can read people’s minds. Whenever I’m in danger or angry a ball of light gathers in my palm.”

  “Exactly,” Lucia said.

  They made their way into the comfortable sitting room Orion had taken Lucia to when she’d first arrived, and sat around the fireplace. Benny had lit the fire and prepared tea and cookies for the guest, but had remained out of sight so far. Bridget went to the fire and held her hands over the flames, drawing in the heat. Her jeans were muddy and torn.