Page 1 of Blood Singer

Prologue

Cullen Blackwood

The quiet that filled our quarters at the end of the day had settled around us like a comfortable blanket, bringing the kind of easy domesticity I'd never imagined finding when I first traveled out into the stars. Serna moved through the room with that innate, unhurried grace she possessed, the sort that made even the simple act of unclasping her heavy ceremonial sash feel like a private dance meant only for my eyes. I watched her from where I'd sprawled in the deep leather recliner she'd hunted down across three sectors just to bring me a familiar piece of Earth, admiring how the soft amber lighting reflected in the liquid gold of her eyes. That striking Vaktaire coloring still made my breath catch after all this time.

She'd just unbound her hair from its crown of braids when the comm unit on her wrist pulsed with an urgent crimson glow. It was a priority message. The shift in her posture was immediate and subtle, the way a blade might tense before striking. I'd spent our entire life together learning the quiet language of those micro-expressions in my mate, recognizing the tiny tells that revealed what she kept carefully hidden from the rest of the Alliance.

"Sahikas," she said her attaché's name, her voice taking on that particular tone she used when bracing for bad news. She listened for perhaps thirty seconds, her face growing still in the way that meant she was processing something significant. "Understood. Keep me informed of any developments."

When she disconnected, she didn't move. She stood there with her back to me, one hand still raised, the other clenched at her side.

"What's happened?" I asked, sitting up. The warmth had drained from the room, replaced by something that tasted like metal on my tongue.

She turned, and I saw the worry etched in the fine lines around her eyes. "The awakening has commenced."

Words that should have meant nothing to me, but the weight she gave them made my pulse quicken. "The awakening of what?"

Serna moved to the window overlooking the sprawling lights of Calpa, seat of the Alliance Council, her reflection ghosting against the glass. When she spoke, her voice carried the cadence of someone reciting history that still had teeth. "The Drakhoni. Planet Drakhone has begun its emergence from forced hibernation."

I rose and crossed to her, close enough to smell the faint scent of the oils she used in her hair, something floral and sharp that I'd come to associate with home. "I don't know that species."

"No," she said quietly. "You wouldn't. They've been asleep since before your great-great-great-grandparents were born." She pressed her palm against the cool glass, fingers spreading wide as if she could push back the weight of what was coming. "The Drakhoni are dragon shifters, Cullen. The fiercest warrior species in the known universe. When they fight, they don't just win battles. They reshape the landscape itself."

The word "dragon" should have sounded absurd, but it didn't. Not after everything I'd seen since leaving Earth. Not after learning the universe was far stranger and more wondrous than any human mythology had dared imagine.

"Tell me," I said, moving beside her.

She went quiet, gathering her thoughts or perhaps deciding how much to reveal. Finally, she began. "Centuries ago, the Drakhoni were granted a unique privilege by the Alliance. They were allowed to visit Earth, the only species given such permission, because they were dying out. For every hundred youngling births, only one female is born. Without mates from other species, they would have gone extinct within a few generations."

I thought about that. About the desperation such a ratio would create. "And Earth was chosen because?"

"Because Drakhoni appear human when they're not in their dragon forms, and humans were found to be compatible mates. The Alliance Council decided that if the females went willingly, if there were no abductions and no coercion, then it was an acceptable arrangement." She turned to look at me, and I saw the complexity of emotions playing across her face. "It worked beautifully for centuries. Drakhoni warriors would travel to Earth, court human women, and those who agreed would leave to start new lives among the stars. The dragons were scrupulous about consent. They had to be. The penalty for breaking that trust was severe."

I nodded slowly, understanding the delicate balance such an arrangement required. "But that's changed now."

"Completely." Serna's jaw tightened. "After the human trafficking epidemic began, after we realized how many species would exploit off-world contact for profit, Earth was granted protectorate status. No aliens may set foot on the planet. No humans may be recruited or taken from there without explicit Alliance authorization. Off-world contact is strictly prohibited."

The human trafficking epidemic. That's what had brought me out here in the first place, pulled me away from Earth and thrust me into the wider galaxy. I'd been sent to help track down Declan Hewes, a human billionaire who'd decided his own species made excellent merchandise. The bastard had orchestrated the abduction and subjugation of thousands of humans, selling them to the highest bidders across Alliance space. Declan was dead now, but the networks he'd built hadn't died with him. Human trafficking was far from over, and every day the Alliance uncovered new operations, new monsters willing to profit from human suffering.

"So the Drakhoni can't go back," I said, understanding the implications immediately.

"No, they can't." She paused, her gaze distant.

I absorbed this, the political complexity settling into place. "Which means the Drakhoni have a problem."

"A significant one," Serna agreed. "They've been asleep for seven hundred and fifty years. When they wake, they'll discover that the old arrangement is gone. No more visits to Earth. No more courtship on human soil. And their population crisis will be exactly as dire as it was when they were forced into hibernation."

"What went wrong?" I asked, because I could hear it in her voice, the way the story was building toward catastrophe. "What caused the hibernation?"

"King Kavan." She said the name like a sigh. "He was young then, barely three hundred years old. He came to Earth and caught the scent of a female whose blood sang to him."

The way she said it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "Sang to him?"

"A blood singer." Serna's voice had gone soft, almost reverent. "It's the rarest form of mate bond among the Drakhoni. Most dragons find compatible mates, females whose scent appeals to them, whose presence soothes their more violent instincts. But a blood singer? Her scent doesn't just appeal. The blood in her veins calls to them like music. They say a dragon who finds his blood singer would burn the universe to ash before letting her go."

I let that settle, thinking of what it must feel like to hear music in another person's pulse. "And Kavan heard that."

"From the moment he caught her scent," Serna said. "That was what made what followed so devastating."