Defiance (Rise of the Iliri Book 3) (33 page)

I did it! 
She exclaimed.

The human heads turned to her in shock and surprise, Vanja rising to his feet.  Sal wasn't the only one that laughed.

Welcome to the link,
Arctic told the men.
This is the secret to the Black Blades' combat ability.  We can hear your thoughts – hang on before you try that – and you can hear ours.  The more Iliran ancestry you have, the easier the link is to use.  We don't warn you before inviting you in because anticipation makes the initial linking harder, or so it's always been.  That pressure in your minds you felt?  That was me,
and Arctic pointed to his chest,
looking for a specific spot in your mind.  It is unique for each of you, and it works like a switch.  By grabbing the thing you feel, you are choosing to flip the switch and allow me to pull you into our link.  The irritation you have been feeling?  That's the mental signature of each of your squad mates, from Caein's smooth to Tebio's sandy.  Each of our minds feels different.

"And we can all talk like that?" Caein asked, impressed.

Eventually,
Blaec assured them. 
There are two types of mental communication.  The first is broadcast, like we are now.  It reaches anyone within the link.  The second is personal, and you can include one or more people in it. 

The link went still, and Sal could only assume that Blaec was showing the men how different a direct thought felt.  One by one, he looked at each of the Shields, and Sal saw the men nodding in understanding.

"Ok," Jase said, and all eyes turned to him.  "Next thing ya need ta know about iliri is that we do na have relationships like humans."  He grinned at Blaec.  "Might as well get this out there now, right?"

"Sure, but you tell them," Blaec agreed.

Jase grinned.  "Ok.  Here's how things work with us.  Sal is Kaisae.  That means she's a leader ta us.  The Blades are strange, and Sal submits ta LT, but in most packs, she'd be the leader."

The humans nodded, accepting this, so Jase kept going.  "Most a ya know, Sal is my mate.  Ahnor means first mate a the Kaisae.  It's a rank title as well as a social one since the Kaisae only chooses those she finds ta be successful in combat.  Fighting is a natural part a our society, ya know."

Ilija chuckled. "Yeah, I've seen more of that than I want on you two." 

"Ok, so here's where things get strange ta humans," Jase said.  "Blaec is Sal's lover, and that's ok with me.  He's Dernor, which means second mate a the Kaisae.  Iliri do na marry like humans.  The dominant female – in our case we only have one – simply chooses where ta show her attention when she wants ta."

"He's not even jealous about it," Ilija said to the Shields.

"Why would he be?" Zep asked from the far side of the camp.  "Not his place."

Chapter 36

The humans turned to look at him.  Zep leaned casually against his tent, a small bundle in his lap.  His smile showed human teeth and his dark skin was nearly the same shade as their own.

"So is this in the pack only?" Dag asked.

"Man, don't get your hopes up," Zep told him.  "That's the Kaisae thing screwing with your head.  But no, it's not.  Sal could easily pick a new man and bring him into the pack, but she won't.  You also don't want to see what happens when she's with a human."

"What do you mean?" Dag persisted.

Sal groaned, getting sick of explaining this.  "The only humans I've ever slept with are all dead, Dag.  Or got lucky."

"Dead?"

She nodded.  "Iliri passions are a bit more violent than humans are used to.  Your skin is thinner and the smell of you is almost overpowering."  She smiled ferally.  "If I happen to actually get passionate, there is a good chance I'll do damage to the man I'm with."

Zep passed the pup to Geo then stood.  "Ok, let me see if this makes things a bit more clear to you."   He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it back, revealing a nearly circular scar on his chest.  The streaks from teeth made swollen lines over the muscle.  "I ended up in the wrong place at the right time once.  You might say she kissed me, and I've had the mark since.  It gives a whole new meaning to love bite, ya know?"

"I'm still sorry, Zep," Sal told him.

"We're good, demon.  Kinda hard to explain to my girls, but, it is what it is.  I just say it's an old war wound.  I mean, we were in a war, right?"

The foolishness of his logic made her laugh.  "Sure, big brother."

Another Verdant Shield, Vanja, spoke up.  "So the Kaisae gets to fuck whoever she wants, and all of you are ok with that?"

"Yeh," Jase said, meeting the dark man's eyes.  "That's exactly what I'm telling ya.  Ya would na expect yer whores ta bitch at ya if ya slept with another would ya?"

"No, but that's different," Vanja said.

"How?" Jase asked, holding his eyes.

"Well, that's their job."

"Well, this is my job," Jase pointed out.

"Does it go both ways?"

Sal nodded.  "To a point.  If Jase decided he wanted to spend a night with some woman, I can't stop him.  Unlike the men, I do feel jealousy about it.  Jase and Blaec are my mates.  I care about them, and I don't like sharing them.  I suppose it's how a human man would feel if his wife was with another?"

"No," Zep said.  "Humans don't share their women, Sal.  It's hard to explain, but they don't accept physical needs as being different than emotional needs for their women."  Sal just shook her head in confusion.

"Yeh, and it is na like there's a whole lotta women out there for us, either," Jase said.

"What do you mean, Ahnor?" Tebio asked.

Arctic answered instead.  "He means that for most of us, human women are about as appealing as Roo is to you.  Crossbreeds we can tolerate, but only if they don't reek of human sugar.  Typically, iliri males breed up.  The more pure our breeding, the fewer options we have now that Terric is killing us off."

An olive-skinned man spoke up next.  "And both iliri and grauori are this way, right?  I'm Zain."

"Yeah," Sal said.  "Iliri just have less hair.  If you look closely, though, you can see which of us have more iliri blood than the others.  I'm a purebred, Jase is nearly one, Audgan, Risk, and Arctic are all well over half.  Razor is nearly human, and Zep, well... he's an honorary iliri." 

"Thanks, demon," Zep told her.  "Close enough for me."

"You're still lighter than some of the humans, big guy," she pointed out.  "Might be some scrubber in your pedigree."

"Explain Tebio, Zain, and that other pale one then?" Zep teased.

"I'm Caein," the other pale one said.  "And like Ricown, I have ancestors from Viraenova."

"How far back?" Sal asked.

"A few generations.  My great-grandparents, or their parents, I'm not sure."

"Yeah, um..." Danku brought the attention to him.  "How do you get part iliri, if iliri don't like breeding with humans?"

LT answered.  "That's mostly the men who won't breed down, but it started with slavery.  Iliri were always slaves until a few hundred years ago, and they didn't always get to choose their mates.  Trigger their bloodlust and they'll breed with anything.  Made domestication possible.  Some were the children of rape.  Sal, well, she's different."

She nodded.  "My parents were specimens.  They were confined until my mother became pregnant, supposedly, as an experiment.  I was sold young.  My owner always said he bought me when I was six months old."  Around her, the men looked shocked.  "He'd show me off to his guests as if I was some kind of prized trophy.  Evidently, we're pretty rare now.  So, it's not like there's a lot of pure iliri running around.  The biggest problem is the smell."

"Iliri," Arctic clarified, "smell different to us.  Sal smells like cut grass and damp moss..."

"A farm after the rain," Risk added.

"Snow on a clear morning," Jase said, kissing her gently.

Sal smiled at them.  "And what do humans smell like?"

They all laughed.  "Sweet, like roasting fruit," Blaec offered.

"Yeah, that's close to it," Arctic agreed.

"Mine tends to smell like leather and horses, but sweet under that, yet salty," Risk said, shrugging.

"That's because yours is the stablemaster," Zep teased.

"Technicalities," Risk said.

Jase looked at Sal for a moment, then reached for her blade.  He slowly drew it from the sheath and held it to his face.  "Like steel," he said, passing the knife to LT.

Blaec inhaled the scent of the metal and nodded.  "Close.  It's not perfect, but it's really close." 

He passed her knife across to Arctic, who ran his tongue across it and nodded before handing it to the next iliri.  They all agreed that the smell of steel was the closest thing they could think of to the scent of a human, until it reached Zep.

"Fuck, I can't smell shit from this.  What are you all talking about?" Zep asked, sniffing at the blade.

Sal stood and took the blade from his hand.  "Arctic, open him to me?"

"Wait, Sal.  Let's show the humans," Blaec suggested.  "There's another aspect to this mental link.  We call it a battle meld.  You can share all of your brother's emotions, thoughts, and senses through it.  Roo, can you open the humans and Zep, up to Sal?"

Yes, Kaisor.  You want me to keep the iliri and grauori out?

"If you don't mind,  A few of us will have headaches already, no need to make it worse."

Roo opened the Verdant Shields, Zep, and Sal to each other.  Zep relaxed into the mental link with her, their minds merging easily.  Sal felt the Shields stiffen at the intensity of her thoughts and emotions. 

"Ok, close your eyes, Zep," she said, and he complied.  Then she looked at the blade, her eyes picking out the flaws in the edge and the reflections on the surface.  One of the men gasped in surprise.  Slowly, she brought it to her face and inhaled the scent, nearly tasting the smell of the steel in her hands.  Languidly, she traced the sharp edge of the blade against her tongue, allowing the edge to just slice the tip, and sucked at the bitter blood in her mouth.  Again she licked the blade, this time with the flat of her tongue, placing the metal in full contact with all of her taste buds.

"Yeah, that's potent," Zep said, leaning his head back.

"Wait," Sal told him. 

She knelt beside him, and Zep smiled, so she licked the blade again, leaning closer.  As her tongue slid from the tip, she inhaled deeply, Zep's body close enough that she could almost taste the scent of him.

"Shit!" Zep said, opening his eyes and sitting up.  He looked at her, stunned.  "That's me?" 

Sal nodded, and Zep fell back chuckling.  "Close me off, Roo.  I don't think I can take too much of the smell of myself.  Damn, Sal, you're right.  I'd eat that.  I'm glad I didn't know how we smelled.  I mean, I know what human blood tastes like to them, but that's different."

"Sal?" Blaec asked, thinking.

"Yeah, love?"

"You willing to let them experience the maast?"

"Shit," she grumbled.  "I guess.  If we're going to link with them, they need to know."

"LT," Jase said, "that means yer in charge for a bit, ya know.  I'll play her bait, but -"

Blaec shook his head.  "Not you Cyno.  You'll have to deal with her, but we want to show them about iliri, right?"  Blaec looked at Zep.  "We won't be fighting iliri."

The big guy chuckled.  "Now I see why you keep me around.  Do you really need to put me in the meld for that?"

Blaec chuckled. "I'm not that cruel, Zep.  I'll let you keep your secrets.  Ok, men.  You've already seen that you can experience Sal's senses, but she's so controlled half the time that I'm willing to bet none of you noticed her emotions."

The men shook their heads, including Ilija.

"Zep?" Sal asked, "You ok with this?  You know what happened last time, babe."

Zep shrugged.  "Blaec, you want me to take this, or fight back?"

"Nah man," Jase said, "fight back.  Ya wanna show the Shields the maast, then ya need ta set her off as much as ya can.  Lock off from her, though.  She'll pull ya in."

"And we're good, little brother?" Zep asked, giving Jase a pointed look.

The little assassin just laughed.  "We're good, big brother.  I'm na in it this time."

"Ok," Zep said.  "Let me at least explain to the humans what they're about to feel?"  When Blaec nodded, he continued.  "Guys, I'm sure you've all heard about berserkers?"

"Yeah," Vanja said.  "Myths and legends all have them."

"Well, we have two: Cyno and Sal.  You'll be fighting with us, and most likely you'll end up linked with us, so you'll feel it.  I'm about to get the shit kicked out of me to set Sal off."

"It's not a truly conscious thing," Sal explained.  "We have triggers.  For me, it's severe pain – something that's life threatening or unexpected, usually.  The taste of blood.  Human sets me off more than iliri, and grauori has no effect.  Or the feel of cutting, tearing, or ripping flesh.  But each of us has a slightly different trigger."

"Screams get me," Jase admitted.  "Stabbing, and the feel of blood."

"Stalking," Sal added, smiling up at her lover.

"Yeah, stalking my prey does it," he admitted. 

"So Cyno's easier to set off than Sal?" Ricown asked.

They both nodded.  "Yeh," Jase said, "but hers is stronger."

Ready for the demonstration, Sal stood, turned to Jase, and grabbed his hand, letting him feel her intentions.  Jase closed his eyes for a second and then stood to follow her.

"Lose the shirt, Zep," Sal said.  "I'll destroy it."

"You're really going to kick the shit out of him, with him trying?" Vanja asked, not believing it.  "I mean, he's famous."

Zep chuckled, "Yeah, she is, and we both know that there's not a hell of a lot I can do to stop her.  Arctic, if she gets away from them, open her up to me?"

"Nervous?" Arctic joked.  "Nah, man, I gotcha."

"Ok, Sal.  Let's see what steel feels like against my skin."  Zep held out his hand to her.

Sal nodded to show she was ready, and Roo opened the humans to her.  Arctic added himself, Jase and Blaec, smiling at the little grauori to show his approval.  Sal relaxed into the meld, feeling the minds of the human men, and allowed them to have access to her thoughts, senses, and complete emotions.  When everything was in place, she took Zep's hand in hers.  With the other, she pulled her steel dagger from the sheath at her back.

Zep smiled at her before lowering his gaze respectfully.  She focused on how his submission pleased her, sending it to the humans.  Next, she inhaled his scent, taking in the sweetness, and thought about how it would taste.  Then she laid the edge of her blade against his arm.  Looking back to his face, she pulled the knife across his skin.  The edge sank through layers of flesh as if they weren't there, yet Sal felt the small tugs as the skin tried in vain to resist the sharp edge, and her heart beat faster.  Zep jerked back at the pain, yanking his arm from her grip, and her pupils contracted to mere slits.  The rush flowed across her skin as the maast took hold.