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He seemed far less concerned about Nick’s safety, and I wondered if there was a rivalry between them. It was so different from my mates’ comfortable camaraderie, and they would never experience this type of jealousy.
Hurrying off the porch, Lexi cupped her hands around her mouth, her echoing call bouncing off the surrounding stones. She stood on tiptoe, searching down the path, trying in vain to catch sight of him.
“Maybe he’s down by the water?” Lexi suggested, her anxiety seeping through.
My heart skipped a beat. If they came together, I would have to choose which of them to attack. I could not take both at the same time.
I tried to mentally will them to search in different directions. To my delight, I did not have to make a choice between them.
Raq put his hand on her shoulder. “No, no. Go on in the house and get yourself something to eat. I’ll go look for the idiot. I bet he wandered off and got lost.” Grabbing Lexi’s chin, he leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on her swollen lips.
“Yes. Okay,” she stammered breathlessly as he pulled away. “I’ll do that.”
Smiling, she made her way back into the house. The man watched her go, and once the door shut behind her, his shoulders squared. A scowl of irritation flickered across his face. He stalked toward the water and released a string of vicious curses.
Malice and evil rolled off him in waves to drift into the air.
How interesting. The call and my instincts had told me he was tainted and had given into the temptation of the Lure. But watching him playfully interact with Lexi, and being unable to read his thoughts, I’d thought perhaps he was newly infected. Now that he’d dropped his guard, I could see into his soul. I shivered.
Raq wasn’t newly infected. The Lure had been festering inside him for a long time, and it had eaten away at all the good inside him. Ancients were just able to hide it better, far more effectively than a human. It made sense why the other Ancients couldn’t sense anything at all from the tainted of their species.
“It’s just like that idiot to wander off. The sooner he dies, the better it will be for all of us.” Raq’s scowl grew more vicious as he made his way down the sandy path to the water.
Yep. There definitely wasn’t any love lost between these two. Deciding it was time to get into position, I slipped beneath the water. Swimming toward the trampled edge of the shoreline, I made sure to stay deep enough that I was out of sight to anyone looking down into the water.
The hard thuds of his heavy footsteps vibrated through the water, and moments later, his shadow cast across the water’s surface. I longed to spring into action, but I forced myself to be patient. If I was lucky, he might squat down to inspect the water.
Using myself as bait, I floated up a couple of feet in the water. Not enough to where he could see me clearly, but just enough that he’d be able to make out the shape of something in the water.
The sound of the man carried through the water as he called for the missing Ancient while pacing the shoreline. I knew the instant he caught sight of me. The shadow stilled.
“Nick?” Raq’s voice rose in uncertainty.
Slightly leaning over the water, his eyes narrowed as he tried to get a better look at what was just out of sight in the murky water.
With the call pounding inside me like a war drum, I gave a sharp thrust of my tail. I torpedoed myself out of the water, hooking my arms around his neck and simultaneously sinking my fangs deep into his throat. Clinging to him, I allowed my weight to yank him off balance and into the water with me.
I could feel the electrical buzz of Raq’s magik as he tried to teleport away. But it was too late. My venom was already surging through his body, disrupting his magik.
His eyes widened, and a stream of bubbles exploded from his mouth. I wasn’t sure which was causing him more pain—the scorching water he must feel on his skin or the fiery pain my venom was inflicting internally.
Wrapping my hand around his ankle, I pulled him deeper down into the water. Raq thrashed wildly for several heartbeats and then turned to weak spasms as his muscles stopped obeying his commands.
His heart slowed to an erratic flutter. When the life drained from his wide, horrified eyes, I released his body and watched as he sank into the nightmarishly dark waters.
Two down, one to go.
We stared in shock at the empty spot where Zosime had stood moments before.
She’d left us.
And worse, she’d blocked me from her mind. That shouldn’t be possible. So how had she been able to do it?
Closing my eyes, I focused all my energy on finding the shining beacon that drew me to her like a moth to a flame. There was nothing. My mind was dark.
“I can’t feel the mate bond,” I choked out, too devastated to worry about Bion witnessing my weakness.
Bion didn’t say a word, but his hand gripped my shoulder in a silent show of support.
