Damonq held council in the much larger chamber while Gary worked on healing the young female mage. Tensel had joined them, and all agreed the city inside the pipeline had to be destroyed. The humans Darkness had taken there for sustenance were mostly vegetables, incapable of recovery. He left them just enough sanity to feel fear. The undead needed the rush of their victims' fear. It was the drug they craved.The task was distasteful, but they had no choice. They spent some time working out the details and then Damonq returned to the smaller chamber where Gary had worked on the mage and the ancients had supplied him with blood."I was able to repair the damage, but she shouldn't speak for a couple of weeks. If she does, she will cause permanent damage to her vocal cords." Gary directed his attention to Juliet. "I cannot emphasize that enough. You can write down what you need to say, or better yet, someone should take your blood and exchange with yours so you can speak telepathically."
Juliet walked around the cage, studying it, the wall behind it and the floor under it from every angle. Damonq saw her stumble, almost go down, and then she straightened her shoulders and put her hands in the air.Can you do this sitting?She frowned at him. I have to concentrate. I only saw this spell the one time. After that he waved his hand and she disappeared into the rock.It won't help if you fall on your butt, Damonq chided. Answer me. He poured steel into his voice.She gave him another frown, but this time she shook her head. I am shaky, she conceded, but I have to mimic his movements exactly in reverse. He was standing, and he moved around the cage as he cast.Just know, if you start to go down, I'll be holding you up. If I have to reach for you, I don't want you to think I'm going to harm you.Her gaze moved over Damonq’s face. When you came into my mind, I looked into yours. There is only room for one woman. She consumes you. You will fight and die for her. You would neve
Damonq narrowed his gaze, studying her face, the lines of strain there, the signs of torture. "You could have gotten free at any time, couldn't you?"She shrugged. She told me to leave, to get myself free, but I couldn't leave her. Everyone she ever cared about is dead . . ."That isn't true," Damonq denied. He turned toward the woman in the cage. "Look at me," he commanded her, using his firmest tone. He waited until Elizabeth raised her gaze to his. Again, she didn't look him in the eye directly, instead fixing her gaze just below his eyes."It isn't true that everyone you love is dead. Your brother, Terry, still lives and he has found his lifemate. He searched for you, but there has been no trace. Others have searched. Your gifts are needed now more than ever, Elizabeth. Many warriors have waited centuries for their lifemates and cannot find them. We have no women. It is difficult to continue hanging on. With your gifts, you can bring comfort to those waiting, extend their ability
Juliet unraveled the majority of the spell before she faltered, glancing toward Gary. At once, the vision of Xav, the high mage, was in their minds, the movements and words fed by some unseen ancestor's memories that were now a part of Gary's remembrances. Juliet slowed, but she kept moving, her eyes closed now as she turned inward to feel, see, hear and mimic the dark magic spell in reverse in order to free Elizabeth.Each placement of hand and foot was deliberate and slow so as not to make a mistake. The weight of the spell pressed down on her. It didn't matter that she erased it line by line, that she was undoing something dark and sinister, that slime coated her mind, their minds. Damonq felt it, so how could she not? His respect for the mage grew. She didn't falter. Not once. No matter how bad it got, and all of them knew the exact moment the spell had been sealed in innocent blood.Elizabeth cried out and pressed her hand to her mouth, the first sign of real spontaneous moveme
Damonq shifted his arms, putting one over her head to cage her in. Is that better? Feel the night breeze. Think of the things you saw as a child that you loved so much.It's too much for her, Elina said. She's going to have to start small. I'm with you, Elizabeth. I'm Elina. Darkness took me prisoner for a short time.Elizabeth stilled. I know you. You saved the children. I saw you. I couldn't warn you that Darkness had planned a trap for you. Levon took my voice.Damonq was grateful to Elina as she kept Elizabeth mind off the flight and on her story. Elina told her all about the children and what they were doing. He made it to the compound while Elina was telling her about how the children had tried to fly their dragons when they shouldn't have. Somehow, in the retelling, Damonq found a little humor in the story.Tensel had the soil open, and Damonq took Elizabeth deep in the earth, where the dirt richest in minerals and healing properties had been selected for her.Gary placed Ju
Damonq streaked across the lake, coming at Darkness from behind. He caught him, once again, by the play yard. He struck Darkness from behind, slamming his fist right through his back, utilizing his strength and power, breaking bones and tunneling through tissue to get his fingers around the heart. As if recognizing him as the one who had had the other piece of it, the organ leapt toward him.Darkness shrieked in fear and fury. He whirled, shouting orders, caught off guard. His shrieks drowned out the sound of gunfire. The two demons guarding him swung around just as Damonq extracted the heart and flung it to one side. Lightning forked across the sky, lighting up Darkness’s shocked features. The attack had happened too fast, a blitz he hadn't expected.One of the demons tackled Damonq, knocking him back from Darkness. Lightning hit the ground just to one side of the heart. The second demon dropped protectively to the ground beside the fallen master. Damonq recognized Levon.Levon
"We knew it would happen." Gary glanced toward the house and the healing grounds that lay underneath. "I reinforced the safeguards, above, below and all around her. Levon can't get to Elizabeth.""He's trying.""He'll keep trying. He's addicted to her." Gary sighed and shook his head. "You realize that Darknesss had a splinter of Xav in him. No way would the high mage allow himself to die by lightning. It's in Levon now. Two of them. He'll have more memories and skills to draw on. He's going to make an even more relentless and powerful enemy than he did when he had Darkness with him."Damonq nodded. "We'll just have to make it too difficult for him to continue to snoop around looking for Elizabeth. The woman deserves peace. You don't think he can wake her and call her to him, do you?"Gary shook his head, a slight smile curving his hard mouth. "I thought of that when I put her in the ground and commanded her to sleep. He can't break that spell, not even if the high mage was working ful
That was all the warning Elina got, and then she was cradled in his arms and they were moving through the air. She laughed and buried her face against his chest. She loved his surprises, although, truthfully, he was spoiling her far too much. She couldn't keep up with him. He was good at picking her wish list right out of her head and giving her item after item. She tried to do the same, but most of his wants were about making her happy or keeping her safe, or were very intensely sexual.Every evening he talked to the baby, his hands around the little bump, his mouth pressed to her bare skin. He whispered that she was loved and that they couldn't wait to see her. To hold her in their arms. Elina loved him all the more for that. She never once found a single doubt in his mind. He wanted the baby and thought of her as his. With all the blood exchanges between them, she knew his blood ran in Carisma's veins.I still have trouble thinking he's really gone. She knew Damonq would know wh
Storm could feel her heart pounding hard, but it was more out of excitement than fear. She should be afraid, the bird was a true raptor, but it was magnificent. It had black eyes! Round, shiny, very intelligent black eyes. She stared at it for two full minutes. That wasn't normal, she was certain. Very slowly, so she wouldn't startle the creature, she backed across the room to the desk where she kept her phone. Still looking at the bird, she googled the images of the bird, biting her lips intermittently as she waited.Strangely, the bird was observing her just as intently, an intelligence in its gaze as it watched the phone beep occasionally. When the page opened, Storm glanced at the image of the harpy eagle. The eyes were round and shining with intelligence, but they were not black. The eyes in the picture were a bright amber with a black pupil. She let out her breath slowly. Something was wrong with her bird.‘You aren't blind, though, are you?’ She sent the words, not even kno
After Storm was done eating, she thanked Kaden, and let him have the plates when he stretched his hands to collect them. To hold herself from jumping on him, and demanding that he put her out of her sexual misery, she stood up from the bed and sauntered to the window to look at the forest, and clear her immoral thoughts. He had joined her to eat, and for each time his mouth had closed over a morsel of food, she had jerked subtly, as if the mouth was closing over her twin orbs. In a large oak tree, plenty feet away from her, a bird flapped its mighty wings, drawing her attention. A smile swept past her lips when she became aware that she could sight its distinctive features. She was not the same Storm of a month ago. She was different now, considering the amount of trainings she had submitted too.The bird had a round facial disk with a very pronounced ruff. It wasn't an owl but it was large. Very large. The unusual bird could easily weigh at least twenty pounds. She stared at it
Storm walked into Kaden's treehouse and was immediately struck by how it seemed larger than usual. The wooden walls, which should be plain and simple, were adorned with colorful murals and hand-painted designs. One wall even showcased a sprawling mural of a sunset over a peaceful lake, with vivid oranges and pinks blending into each other. And another wall had a charming depiction of a forest, complete with playful animals like squirrels and birds, all brought to life with bright, cheerful colors.The room was filled with natural light that filtered through the large windows, which had been decorated with flowing curtains in soft, earthy tones. The curtains swayed gently in the breeze, adding a sense of movement to the scene. The wooden floor was covered with cozy rugs that added warmth and comfort to the space.A large, comfy bean bag was positioned in one corner, surrounded by soft pillows. Next to it was a small bookshelf brimming with colorful books, their spines lined up neatly
Storm’s mind kept conjuring up provocative images, as she and Kaden walked hand in hand around the clan. The kiss they had shared in her room still tingled on her lips, still kept heat in her blood, still made her hunger for more. She inhaled sharply when Kaden turned and stared at her, his eyes brimming with the emotions that she was sure was playing out in her own mind. For a second, she feared that he might have peeked into her dirty mind, but then she remembered that they were not bonded yet, not in that sense. It brought her swift relief which came with a coating of abashed-ness seen in the coloring of her cheeks and necks, something that wasn’t lost on Kaden who was battling to hold on to his honor. He cussed at himself for closing her lips with his earlier, knowing what could happen from there. But she had been speaking, and her luscious mouth had been like water in a desert land; he had been parched so much that he couldn’t have been able to help himself. And now, the stirr
All through the week, Storm only concentrated on the books Kaden had given her, or rather on the first book she had collected from the pile. Jutul had done the same, concentrating on the second book he had picked. Both had only taken breaks when they wanted to eat or when they wanted to train with Casper for an hour. To assuage Kaden’s caveman jealousy, all the reading had been in the dining downstairs, and yet they weren’t close enough to whatever the books were on about. They weren’t close to the end either, and the transcribers were doing a poor job, despite Jiraq’s input sometimes. It was then that Storm had learnt that Jiraq wasn’t done with the book either. ‘What are you doing with one of the hardest books in the pile?” had been his first question when she had solicited for his help. He had gone ahead to pick up a smaller book, written in English, for her and Jutul to start with, but she had declined—she had grown attached to the old book. And she had vowed to bring it to a fi
Storm groaned tiredly; under the full weight of the knowledge she had been absorbing for the past four hours. Kaden had been true to his word, and with the help of Jiraq, had bundled more than thirty books which smelt of oldness into her room this morning, just before she dressed for school. “For those written in old language, Jiraq was kind enough to let you have his transcriber, so that you can better understand it. You can check them out after classes today.” Kaden had said, when he had stepped into her room with a fellow whom she knew went by the name, Micheal, Liam’s younger brother. She had found out right after Liam’s recuperation weeks ago, about the wicked action on the young fellow who didn’t look a year older than her. The first book on the pile had gotten her attention after the duo had left the room, and picking it up, she had decided to peek at a page, then return to her preparation for school. But a page had turned to two pages, and then five pages, until school was
Storm was chatting with Lucy and Justin, in their phone group , around a time when she should be sleeping, when she heard her name being droned in her ears. “S-t-o-r-m” She furrowed her eyebrows, and looked around the room she shared with Kaden sometimes. There was no one. The voice sounded familiar, and until she felt the eeriness in the room, she didn’t know who it was. The vampire.She got up from the empty bed, and sauntered toward the door, needing to get to Kaden as soon as possible, but the door wouldn’t budge. She stamped her foot on the floor out of frustration, as fear suddenly took root in her mind and body. Where was he when she needed him? Why hadn’t he spent the night with her? She wondered, never minding that she had been one to ask they sleep on separate beds tonight, after he had returned from his meeting with his people, after she had returned from seeing her friends off with Lent. The voice called for her name again, and she shuddered before she could help it, h
There was a stark naked silence in the room after Jutul’s declaration. So stark was it, that Storm felt her ears ringing with deep silence, deep silence and an unclothed unbelief. They were lying? If she didn’t know of Jutul’s gifts, she would have berated him for speaking against her friends. But she knew. She knew he was telling the truth—there wasn’t a need to lie. And she still was finding it hard to believe. Lucy and Justin had planned a lie, and had come to convince them of it? All for what? To gain information on what was going on in the clan? Was their school even on break? Then, the silence was broken by Kaden’s voice which had descended to a certain chillness that informed Storm that her mate was angry, very angry, at being made a fool of. “Lent, place a call to the school’s authorities, and find out if the school is really on break…” Lucy’s dark laughter interrupted his statement, and brought Storm’s attention to her. “So y’all would rather believe Storm’s newest friend
Of course they wouldn’t. Storm thought, looking at Lucy squarely for the first time since she had entered the room. Her friend was still bubbling in age-old anger, and was still carrying a grudge against her.And since, Storm knew she couldn’t do much about it—because what Lucy was demanding was unattainable—she let the latter think that she wasn’t bothered by it. It would help with them leaving earlier. Having seen what exactly was at play here, what evil forces were at play here, she wasn’t about to risk the lives of her friends. She wasn’t about to have their blood on her head, because she wanted them to be included in every facet of her life. It was better they thought she was against them; it was better they believed that she didn’t value their friendship.“So, why are you here, Lucy?” She schooled her face to a cold aloofness, unfazed when Justin let out a cuss word, whilst darting a glance between Lucy and her. There was a minute silence, where Lucy scanned Storm’s features;