Drekkan

DREKKAN

I t’s remarkably quiet. I’m not sure I ever remember silence like this. Silence of the dead.

“Not dead yet, brother.” The voice which makes me turn my head to look is that of my brother.

“Dalox?” I croak out his name. “The black hole?”

“You did everything you could,” he says with a wry smile. “Because you are my brother, and I know you would do everything to save me.”

“It wasn’t enough.” I cough. “I should have done more. And you died.”

“Who says I’m dead?” Dalox laughs, the sound hollow.

“If you’re not, then I am and it’s not any better,” I reply.

“You have a mate, a szikra, and your sarkarnling to attend to, .” Dalox smiles. “Who’d have ever thought it of my brother, a mated male?”

“My heartsfire…” I groan.

“She is with you now. She needs you, brother, look…” He raises his arm, framed by his wings, and points over my shoulder.

I turn my head, even if it hurts like hell, to see an image of my sweet mate, my Jade, who is holding something, and her head is bowed.

“It is not your time, warrior.” Dalox laughs again. “You still have to dance for your mate.”

“Don’t leave me, brother,” I say as he begins to fade.

“Look to your mate, . We will meet again,” he says, and I turn my head to see Jade coming into sharp relief.

By the time I look back, he is gone, and everything rushes in to my senses. Light, scent, heat, and sound…

“?” Jade says.

She’s propped up in bed, a bed next to mine. In her arms is a bundle which moves slightly. I shake my head, unable to see straight.

“What happened?” I force past my vocal cords.

“You passed out. Why didn’t you tell anyone about your leg? Blynda said it was bad because you couldn’t change your form to heal it while you had the collar on.”

“It didn’t matter. You did,” I reply, realizing my leg no longer burns at me.

I lift the sheet covering my lower half and see the pulsar injury is substantially healed, only I don’t remember shifting any more than my tail.

“Well, they were able to get your infection under control.”

“But you…the birth?” I look around wildly.

“Would you like to meet him?” Jade says shyly, looking down at the bundle and then back at me.

“Our son?” I’m off the bed and onto hers in a flash. “You’ve had our son?”

“Here he is,” Jade says, holding out the bundle to me.

I take it gingerly, a set of the tiniest claws I’ve ever seen in my life curls over the edge of the wrappings, and a pair of dark eyes, bright as stars, peer up at me.

I am caught.

Mesmerized by the life in my arms. The tiny fierce little thing who stares at me as if he owns me.

He owns me.

“Breathe, ,” Jade says softly in my ear.

“He is perfect.” I tear my eyes away from our son. “Look what you made.” I rasp through a sob. “Our son.”

Water runs down Jade’s face. “You really mean that?”

“That he’s perfect? Yes.”

“I mean that he’s your son,” she says.

“How could he be anyone else’s? You are my mate, Jade. My heartsfire. My reason for being.” I pull her into me. “Did I tell you I loved you, that you are my breath, my fire, my shift?”

“You said something like that just before you passed out and I gave birth.” Jade laughs, snuggling into my side as she checks on our sarkarnling. “And I told you I loved you too.”

“Then I am complete,” I say as our bundle wriggles and out pops a wing.

Not a Sarkarnii wing. This one has feathers.

“Turns out, he’s part Gryn,” Jade says quietly. “They’re a winged species who’ve had to battle hard in the galaxy for recognition.”

A warmth spreads through me. “My son is a warrior, then.” I kiss her and tuck the wing away. “You’ve made me the happiest, proudest Sarkarnii in the entire galaxy, the entire universe, heartsfire.”