United. (Book 5 of the Lupus Antiqua Series)

She barely registered the way that the caves looked. Had she been in her normal state she might have been impressed by how the alcoves and caverns served as rooms or common spaces.

She might have marveled at the lovely decorations, and woven rugs and tapestries that prettied up the place. She might have noticed the natural beauty of the stalagmites and stalactites and shimmering varied rock.

But in this state she was entirely single minded. All she wanted was to save her mate, and to punish the people who had endangered him to begin with. For trying to kill her mate, the Anguis would die today. She would allow herself no other options.

If she let them live, they might threaten Endymion again and that was not an acceptable outcome. There was no mercy in her.

On some level she knew that this wasn't like her. She knew that this merciless killing rage was the opposite of her usual personality. The actions of the Anguis and the Matron had snapped something internally.

She would examine that later, when there were no more Anguis drawing breath. The first of them crossed her path, clearly hunting for the intruder who had decimated their weak little wards.

She was lovely and slinky and looked just like Natalie. One of her sisters, then. They were all related, of course. Their father was a Naga, and snakes often produced numerous offspring. She couldn't recall how many sisters Natalie actually had. But it didn't matter. Not really.

Abby didn't even pause walking as she swiped diamond tipped claws through the Anguis's brain, dropping her like a sack of heavy cloth. It had taken no more effort than it would have taken to flex her fingers. Pathetic.

On she went. Each Anguis she faced went down just as easily as the first had. Then she descended to the lower section. The power here was more concentrated; the scent of poison seeping into stone, dirt, and air was more potent.

She paused when thirteen Anguis rushed into the alcove she was currently in, cornering her in a semi-circle.

"It's the Imperium! She came for the wolf." One of them muttered.

"I know she's an Imperium but how the hell is she this powerful?"

"Fool! Imperiums are war witches."

"The matron ensured she was kept contained. She doesn't know how to tap into that."

They were talking about her as though she didn't stand before them.

"Where is he?" She asked. One of the Anguis scoffed.

"As though we would tell you." She sneered. Abby cocked her head. She could hear the fear in the woman's voice and shot her a threatening grin.

"I could simply rip it from your head, snake." She blanched.

"We will stop you from reaching our father and sister." She said with determination. Abby grinned. That told her what she needed to know. The ancient Naga that had sired these women resided in the lowest cavern beneath the cave system.

They'd all but told her that their other sister and her mate were there.

"Thank you for telling me. I have things to discuss with Natalie. But first, there's still this bothersome snake infestation to deal with, isn't there?" She asked.

She swiped out with her power, to sever their minds as she'd done with their less powerful sisters above. All thirteen braces and began to murmur a chant she'd never heard before.

Her power bounced harmlessly off the shield they had hastily erected. The magic was strong as adamant and blocked her off from them and the entrance to the lowest levels they stood in front of.

A shield like that was impenetrable. There was no getting through it no matter how powerful one was.

She sent her power tunneling into the poison infused stone and sent it seeking through cracks, crevices, and dirt to where the shield would be if they had thought to surround themselves in it fully. And she met no resistance.

She grinned again. Fools. They hadn't made the shield a full circle around themselves. They only put it in front. She shoved more of her power through the ground and slammed it into the thirteen women who were trying to hide from her.

She ripped them apart for daring to try and stop her. Them, she took more time with. For daring to actually defy her in her quest to get to Endymion they needed to feel pain.

All thirteen women screamed as she set their nerves on fire. She allowed the dark symphony to go one for a couple minutes before she ended them. She hated to provide them with mercy, but she couldn't have them following her down and sneaking up on her.

She stepped past their fallen forms and entered the tunnel that led down and down and down.

**

Natalie gasped when her sisters stopped screaming, clutching her chest. She was alone. Her nest mates were gone. Cut off. The only connection she could still feel was to her father, who hadn't bothered to emerge from the icy cold lake this cavern led to.

How could he not have bothered to show? He'd always been an absent father, leaving the running of the Anguis to her, and to her mother before her and on and on. He rarely emerged from his watery domain.

She sighed, shaking in fear as she stared at the glassy black surface of the water, praying for him to emerge. Did he not feel the deaths of his daughters and granddaughters and great granddaughters? How could he ignore it so completely? Endymion was shuddering and shaking from the effects of her poison and from the cold in this cavern.

He was laid back against a small rock formation, barely conscious. She moved her gaze back to the entrance when she felt a shudder in the rock. Abby.

She looked like she always had, but she was also...different. Power pulsed from her like an electric current from a generator. Natalie had never felt such power from Abby before. What had changed? Where had she obtained it?

Natalie knew that Imperiums were always powerful and that they had the ability to be war witches, but Abby had been kept away from the war college. She'd never been trained in it and did not have the support of one of those covens. She'd been alone all her life, her education strictly controlled by the matron. She shouldn't be able to do this.

She backed up a few steps towards the water. Perhaps if she jumped in she would get her progenitor's interest and he would be able to save her.

"Abby, what have you done. You have murdered my sisters. You will die for this once the high council finds out. Think." She normally wouldn't have any problem attacking, but she could feel the power roiling from Abby and knew she wouldn't survive a fight. Her only option was to try to talk her way out of this.

Abby glared at her, with red tinged eyes.

"The high council will excuse me." She sounded certain.

"Why? You slaughtered my entire coven." Natalie's voice trembled.

"Endymion is my mate. You took him. You have been torturing him. And had I not arrived, you would have killed him. I am permitted to protect my mate with all power at my disposal.

And if that is untrue, then the Matron should not have limited my education. However it goes, there are reasons my actions will be permitted. And aside from that, they will not kill the only existing Imperium.

You on the other hand will pay. But before you die, you will suffer as you have made my mate suffer."

One instant Natalie was afraid but fine, and the next her entire world was pain.

**

Abby ran to Endymion as soon as Natalie was down. He was suffering badly. She pulled him into her arms and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"Endymion. You're safe, I'll make sure you stay that way. I'm so sorry. If I'd known they would come for you I would have put up wards to keep them out. It isn't a mistake I'll make again." He turned he face into her shoulder, his entire body shuddering. She was so focused on him that she didn't hear at first the rippling of the water. It wasn't until the surface broke that she realized.

A man rose very slowly from the depths of the black water. His eyes were yellow and depthless with slitted pupils in the center. His features were narrow and angular and despite the alarming beauty of them, there was nothing that didn't scream 'threat'.

His body was normal from the lower waist up, comely, slender and muscular and so pale he might have been cut from alabaster. Then his skin gave way to iridescent black and green scales that shimmered in the dim light.

As he rose up so his entire torso met air, a massive scaled tail coiled through the water around him. The Naga. A little awe broke through her rage as she beheld him. She could see why the True Witch who had fallen for him before had fallen. He was beautiful. But he had nothing on Endymion. Not in her mind.

The Naga took in Natalie, writing on the cavern floor, and his gaze shifted back to her.

"You have murdered my daughters." His voice was as dark as the water he resided in and as gentle and disarming as a melody. Still, she didn't mistake the amount of threat in it.

"Look at what your daughters did to my mate." Her voice was ice cold, red beginning to tinge her vision again. His gaze flickered to Endymion.

"Your mate is a wolf?" His gaze searched her face. "I did not realize your people had become so accepting of two natured mates. They have not always been so." She realized he was referencing himself. "Is he your fated mate?"

"Yes." She growled.

"I see. Then an unforgivable slight has been done not only to you, but to the wolves. I have no wish to go to war. There are few enough of my kind as it is.

Will Natalie's death appease your wrath, War Witch?" He asked.

"It will." She stated. He studied her for a time and then he reached his clawed hand down and snapped Natalie's neck.

Then, he held out his other hand and Endymion's body bowed, floating slightly and she watched as the greenish poison that had been pumped into him since his capture began to float out of his body to hover in the air before it finally splattered harmlessly to the cave floor.

"The Naga are not your enemy, war witch. You have my apologies for the insult done you and your mate."

With that, he slid back into the water, leaving her alone with a rapidly healing Endymion.