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The siren wanted to hunt.
The warrior wanted to win.
I wanted coffee… and a vacation with my sexy mates.
And nothing was going to stop me from getting everything I wanted.
* * *
I staredat Lexi through the thick glass doors of the opulent board room. What was it with modern humans and glass? Didn’t they realize how fragile it was?
This entire floor was encased in glass, giving the occupants the illusion that they were floating in mid-air a hundred stories above the bustling seaside city below.
Lexi’s shock at seeing me registered on her face, and I smiled as a new realization dawned on me.
She hadn’t known I was coming. The Ancients in the encampment hadn’t sensed my presence. Lokene and Bion hadn’t known about my plans to visit the destroyed mining operation and absorb the energy from the Orpati. The Ancients had been shocked when I showed up in the middle of their meeting. And now, Lexi hadn’t expected my arrival.
What a change. When Lokene had first come into my life, he’d usually known what was coming and had to stand by and let it happen rather than risk the wrath of the other Ancients by interfering with the outcome.
Things had changed. None of the Ancients knew what to expect from me or what my next move would be.
I’d adapted and evolved again. How could I thrive as a predator if my prey knew my next move and always knew my location? It was a threat to my survival, and my magik had changed the rules of the game yet again. Somehow, I was being hidden from the Ancients’ all-knowing abilities, and it was giving me an incredible advantage.
I stepped forward, and the glass doors swung with nothing more than a thought from me. Lexi turned with a glare on her face. Around the table sat the head of every country in the world, and let’s just say they weren’t exactly thrilled to see me.
My vision shifted as my pupils thinned to catlike slits, and my stomach sank at the sight of the Lure spreading like spilled ink across the polished wood table. It seemed to be breathing as it reached out toward every person in the room, and I was horrified to see that it had already wrapped sticky tentacles around several of the leaders’ hands. Could they not see it, or were they allowing it to happen?
“So this was your grand plan? Taint the world leaders so you could use them as your pawns?” I strategically chose not to act yet and took a seat at the far side of the table facing Lexi.
Lexi regained some of her composure and leaned back in the chair as though she’d already won. So imprudent. Putting her hands in the air, she laughed. “Guilty as charged. You caught me.”
“To what end, Lexi? You’re an Ancient—a god. You have the ability to go wherever you want. Why do you want Earth so badly?” I truly couldn’t understand what she hoped to gain from alienating herself from the Ancients.
She laughed, the sound high-pitched and shrill. “What do I want from this? I’ll tell you, brat.”
Had she really just called me a brat?
“Among the Ancients, I was a shining star. I was the one who constantly created new things to delight the other Ancients. We were happy keeping to ourselves. And why shouldn’t we have been? We were vastly superior to the pathetic life forms we’d found on other worlds.” Lexi’s nails clicked on the mahogany tabletop, and I bit back a smile.
For all her arrogance, she was agitated and venting. It was a terrible combination for her, but a definite advantage for me. I waited in silence for her to continue, knowing that my perceived lack of interest would add to her annoyance.
Curling her lip, Lexi continued. “Then your mother stumbled across this planet. The first planet we’d found that held a magik as powerful as ours while also being vastly different from our own. Even though the humans living on Earth at that time were unable to fully harness the strange magik, the Elders acted as though your mother had brought home their first grandchild.
“It was disgusting the way so many Ancients began to visit this world. Wasting their time trying to educate humans who could never comprehend half the things they were told.” Lexi paused, taking a sip of wine to regain her composure.
“So, you were jealous?” I cut to the chase. Sure, I was curious about the past, but I wanted to go to bed early tonight. Besides, within the hour, the Lure would no longer exist. It would be relegated to the footnote in some dusty old book about ancient myths and legends.
She slammed her glass down on the table hard enough that wine sloshed over the edge.
Without thinking about it, I lifted my finger, suspending the wine mid-air before dropping every molecule back into the glass.
Several quiet gasps came from our human audience. It was the first sound they’d made since I’d walked into the room. They might not understand everything that was going on, but they at least had the intelligence to stay out of our fight.
Angry at the reactions my magik had garnered, Lexi threw the glass, where it shattered into thousands of sparkling shards as wine spread across the white marble floors like blood.
The alcohol loosened Lily’s tongue. “I was not jealous, you stupid half-breed! I was disgusted that I was the only one of the few Ancients who realized how much time was being wasted on your mother’s pets. She didn’t deserve praise for her work in Atlantis. No more than a child deserves praise for building a crumbling castle in the sand.”
Lexi’s anger excited the Lure, and it was too late when I realized it had been inching closer to me this entire time. Hungrily, it threw itself at me.
