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“And you led him right to me. But just to be clear, I won’t be keeping you around much longer, just enough to give your man a little heartache. And though your power, for a Second ascender, is impressive, on Third, sweetheart, you’re pretty mediocre. ” Something inside Vela grew very still. He’d tortured both Duncan and Samuel, transformed Samuel into a Third Earth warrior against his will, and now intended her death. Well, she wasn’t dead yet, so for now, she stayed focused and relaxed. If there was a way to take this motherfucker out, she meant to do it.
“Yes, you have some spirit. I’ll give you that. ” Vela thought about his earlier remark, that Sharav had gone through some hoops to get Samuel back. “So, let me understand, you designed this whole situation, to get Samuel under your control again?”
“Everything having to do with Duncan, yes. ”
“Why? What can Samuel possibly mean to you?”
“You’ve felt his power, so you know that he possesses enormous potential. I just wasn’t able to bring it to fullness before he escaped. ”
“Was I part of the plan?” Sharav turned toward her more fully.
“No, which makes you extremely problematic for me on many levels. ”
“Oh, I see. Even though you were in the future streams, at the Illinois Seers Palace, you never saw me coming?”
“It won’t hurt now to tell you the truth, but no, I didn’t. You are one big annoying surprise. ”
“Well, at least I have that,” she said, holding his gaze steady. “That I’ve annoyed you. ” He moved closer and before she could even prepare, he slapped her hard across the face. The sting hurt, the surprise of it frightened her, but it was the ensuing pain that made her head hang. Her jaw felt like he’d just crushed it with that blow and a couple of her teeth were loose.
She felt her vampire healing kick in and did nothing else except let it flow.
Just in case, she could figure some way out of this mess, she at least needed her jaw and head intact.
Sharav moved toward Samuel. Vela could see him through a blur of watery eyes, another unwelcome effect of the blow. She blinked until the tears disappeared.
The goateed asshole approached Samuel from the front, folded off Samuel’s weapons harness, and planted one hand on the center of his chest and one hand on his forehead.
Samuel’s body jerked hard but he lifted his head, his eyes rolling. “Fuck,” he murmured. Then, “Vela?” I’m here. To your right. I’m alive.
He tried to turn his head toward her but Sharav caught his face in his hands. “I have you back now, my boy. This time, nothing will take you from me and this time, we’re going to tap that power deep and bring it forward for all to see. In fact, we’re going to do it right now. ”
“Fuck you, Sharav. ”
“You’re slurring because one of my wreckers hit you across the back of your head and you’re still not quite in control. ” He lifted Samuel’s arm and gave it a tug, which set the ceiling hook pivoting a quarter turn.
Vela could see his face now. He had to work at focusing.
“There’s your woman. Don’t worry.
She’s all right. I just had to shut her up. ” What did he do to you?
Doesn’t matter.
She looked into Samuel’s gray eyes, and saw his determination grow. She could feel it, that he was trying to access the killing part of his power.
So could Sharav, because he stepped away from him. At the same time, Samuel’s dark, grayle mist flowed from his body, that part of his mist-power that he could control.
“Good,” Sharav said. “Let it build, that angry stream of rage that has lived in you since our time together in Honduras Two. Every lash, every cut, every bruise brought this power to the surface.
“Release it, Samuel. Let me see the power that got you out of that prison- fortress, the one that Endelle’s grid could never find. ” Vela sensed Samuel’s power rising, the same power that he feared to release more than anything else in his life.
She began to hope. She knew Samuel’s mind and the rage he carried toward Sharav, his desire to kill him. If Samuel could use all that power, aim it at Sharav. . .
But even as the thought flowed through her head, she knew exactly what was going to happen.
Samuel, she began, Don’t! This is what he wants!
But Samuel had blocked her, his mist flowing in streams, though not like before, much heavier this time and whipping from side-to-side.
