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“I didn’t take you there to humiliate him, you were supposed to trainwithhim,” Kai muttered as he walked beside her.
“I would have made a mockery of him had I sparred with him.” Tegan snorted. “Taking away perceived power from a bully and an idiot is not humiliation. It is the right thing to do.”
“Is that why you and Sloane are here, are you going todo the right thingto Cornelius?”
Tegan stopped and stared at Kai. “Sloane is here because he is Heir, I am here because this is my mother’s home.” She hesitated. “And at no time did I call my uncle a bully or an idiot.”
“Right, you’re his number one fan. If you don’t know, he is very close to Goddard;you’regoing to look like the idiot.” Kai sighed heavily as he shook his head. “I’ll take you to Commander Simmons, but I’ll warn you now, he’s also a good friend of Goddard.”
“And?”
“And he won’t like you one bit.”
“Liking me is not relevant, we have a war to prepare for, and those Sentinels are not ready,” Tegan told him as they walked the hall to the Commander’s quarters. “Maybe this House has more idiots than I thought.”
“You sound like the Castor,” Kai grumbled.
Tegan felt the smile tug at her lips. “Good.”
With a grunt, he closed his eyes briefly before opening them again in the dark of the room. His vision was excellent in the night; he could see the female’s face clearly, could see the tears of despair trail silently down her cheeks. Even though she told him she wanted to be here, none of them actuallywantedto behere.
A talon trailed down her side, slicing her soft skin open as he stepped back, withdrawing from her body. A soft moan escaped her as his talon scored down her body. Bending low, he licked the spilled blood, slowly, relishing the salty taste before he straightened.
“You did well,” he told her. The female whimpered, whether from the pain he caused her or the fact she lay with him in the first place, he did not know. He suspected the latter. These females were fickle things, saying one thing with their bodies, but their eyes were where the truth lay. The female’s eyes were currently squeezed tightly shut. He no longer cared, she had kept them open when he told her to. When it mattered. “Get out.”
With more energy than she had portrayed with him, she jumped from the bed, hissing in pain, clutching at her naked body as she ran for the door. No thought for covering herself with her discarded clothes that lay on the floor. He could have stopped her, warned her what would happen if his brothers caught her naked and bleeding, but he had already dismissed her from his mind. She was no concern of his.
Walking to the window, he pulled the shade to the side, looking out at the brightly lit night. The moon hung fat and heavy overhead, trying desperately to bring light to the darkness. He sneered as he looked directly into its brilliance. Light no longer affected him like his brothers. He had been given the power to see, really see, in the light of day. That which had once hurt him, what had onceweakenedhim, now made him strong.
Turning back to the bed, he looked over the shredded bedding before he looked at his talons. They were long, longer than most, not a hindrance as his brethren had thought, but deadlier weapons. The best andonlyweapons he should need, but he knew they weren’t enough. He needed more. As he concentrated on his hands, slowly, painfully slowly, he willed the talons back into his body. As the excruciating pain washed over him, his head dropped back and he groaned as he drew the long talons into his skin.
Gasping, he rested for a moment. Then with determination, he did his right hand, until his talons were merely long fingernails. Wiping his brow with the ruined sheet, he cleaned his face of sweat.
When do I get her? I grow tired of waiting.
Turning slowly, he searched the dark interior in the room for the tell-tale sign of the Darkness. He knew it would not be far, knew it would not stay away, not the way he had been tonight, using their bodies. He was right. There, in the corner, it waited.
“You said she would be mine,” he addressed it, and he saw it waver.
Slowly, the Darkness morphed from mist and shadow into a more corporeal being. Long dark hair hung on either side of a thin narrow face. Deep set eyes, black as night, regarded him. Unhurriedly it rose, its shoulders uncurling, rolling back as it straightened, and stood tall. Taller than him.Strongerthan him? Definitely.
“You had three this evening, do they notsatisfyyour lust?”
He looked at themalein the corner of the room. Dark robes flowed around it as the male regarded him coldly, its words crisp, its accent light, but present in the lilt of its words.
“They sate my needs, butshewill feed my desires,” he told it. “You told me she would be mine, you give me this power.” He held his hand up to it as his talons lengthened slightly, a small orb of light glowing between his talons. “I can Cast, I can shift, and I have always been able tokill. I do everything you ask of me, but yet, still you keep her from me.”
“You are not ready.”
“I am.” Pain laced his skull as he stumbled at the attack, his hands flying to his head as he squeezed at his skull, the pressure in his brain bringing him to his knees.
“You are weak,” it rasped at him. “The Mark will hold you frozen, and the Blade will cut you down, and you will bleed, and all thatIhave done will be wasted. I will need to start with another.Again.” He wasn’t aware that the male moved across the floor until he felt it near him. “I will not start again.Bearit. The pain is yours to master.”
As if to prove its point, the pain intensified, and he knew he screamed, despising himself for showing weakness. As suddenly as it started, the pain stopped.
He wiped at his nose and his eyes, his hands coming away from his face sticky with blood.Hisblood. Staggering, he got to his feet. “You do not need to start again,” he told it. “I can master the pain.”
“Good.”
