Eugene was aware of Damonq extracting his heart, but Andor bunched Eugen's hair in his fist and yanked his head back so hard it cracked bones in his neck. That didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting to the blood. He could see it, just out of his reach. Dark rubies. Gems of the purest blood he'd ever tasted. He had to have more.Lightning arced around the room, jumped to the heart on the floor, incinerating it, turning it to ashes. The white-hot energy bathed away the blood on both hunters and then the floor. Sandu had kept his arms and body over the mage but now he slowly released her."I stopped the bleeding, but she can't talk yet," he announced, lifting her easily to carry her to the stone table out of the way.Andor finished the job by incinerating the bodies of the two beasts."Gary is on his way," Damonq said. "Her name is Juliet and she's mage, a direct descendant of Xavi or one of his brothers. Levon is also holding an ancient woman named Elizabeth."Andor's
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