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“I’d know if one of our own was the traitor,” he hissed. “They are mine.”
I didn’t have to say the words,“unless you’re the one behind the attack,”but by his darkening expression he was able to read the declaration quite clearly on my face. Alasdair and Calista were the only two Drakán I’d met who had that much power, but surely I would’ve recognized their scent at the kill sites.
“I’ve been tracking these Drakán the last two months,” I said. “But their hunger hasn’t dissipated. The kills are more violent. These predators play with their prey, using torture to prolong the death instead of showing mercy. They were close last night, only miles from here, but none of us sensed them. Not even you, Alasdair. I don’t know how that’s possible. The Master’s power must be great to hide from us all.”
The condescension dripped like syrup from my lips, and he absorbed the verbal accusation without flinching. Alasdair stared at me with hatred flashing in his eyes as he walked toward me. I prepared myself for another attack. I’d been goading him on purpose. I always did, looking for the slightest hesitation in the invisible protection around his mind. It would only take once for me to get inside and destroy him completely.
“I will call the Council together and share this news. Whoever is behind this must be stopped. And you must be the one to stop them, Rena.”
I could tell by the gleam in Alasdair’s eyes that he hoped the Master behind these Drakán murders would kill me as well. It would be a lot easier to have someone else to the dirty work for him.
“How is Rena to stop what she isn’t allowed to see?” Erik asked boldly. “You are sending her to her death without the proper preparation. She needs to meet with the Council herself.”
Before I could blink, Erik was on the floor of the study, his throat slashed to ribbons as his blood poured like thick wine onto the Persian rug. His eyes were wild with panic as the instinct to breathe like a human took over all logic and reason. But Erik calmed as he remembered he wasn’t human, and therefore didn’t need to breathe like one.
I knew better than to try to help him, or I’d end up back on the floor. The flesh at his throat was already knitting itself back together.
“You will get your wish, Alasdair,” I said calmly. “I’ll hunt for the Master until I find him. But I won’t be tied down by Council laws once I have him in my grasp. The warrant of execution doesn’t need a name attached to it. Only that I be able to kill any and all responsible for the death of the Drakán I found, and any other deaths that occur during my search. You and the other Archos can’t hoard all of the power all the time. I have the right to kill just as you do. More of a right, actually. And you never know, Alasdair. Whoever this Master is could be after you next.”
Alasdair gave me a hard look. “I’ll get your warrant on your terms this once, Rena. But you’d better be sure you have all the guilty parties responsible. I will not have any more shame brought to our clan. If there is, I will punish you until you’re begging for death. Enforcer or no.”
Alasdair’s skin flowed like liquid and his muscles elongated as his dragon form fought to escape his human body. His blood-red scales rippled like rubies and his teeth gnashed together with enough force to bite a human in two. He launched himself in the air with his powerful haunches and flew through the front window into the rain. The house trembled with his rage and his roar rumbled across the sky like thunder.
ChapterSix
“Leave the boy alone, Rena,” Calista said. “He’ll be fine in a while. There’s no need to waste the dragon tears. I never understood this need you have for compassion. No doubt the influence of your mother’s blood.”
I’d limped my way down to Erik’s lab after Alasdair’s dramatic departure. It had taken two vials of dragon tears to heal my body, and I’d grabbed a smaller vial for Erik’s wounds.
“He’s my brother. I’d do the same for you. Family should mean something.”
I lifted Erik’s head and poured the vial down his throat. The skin at his neck knitted itself together seamlessly.
“I’ve always told you that your need to have a connection to someone, to belong somewhere, is what is hindering your Drakán powers. You’ll never be great unless you rid yourself of these useless feelings.”
“I get by well enough the way I am.”
Calista rose from the chair in an angry cloud of swirling silk and paced the length of the room. “Getting by is not going to be good enough,” she finally said. “You’re going to get yourself killed. You need to explore your other Drakán powers, see if you can waken them from dormancy. Otherwise, it’s like going into a fight with only one good arm and leg. You have to be better. Your people need you to be better. Or we will all die.”
“What are you not telling me?”
Calista hesitated and gave me a long look. I could feel her probes, though they were subtle, but she was unable to breach my shields.
I grasped Erik’s arm to help him up, and I could see him fighting with his Drakán instincts to keep from attacking me. Erik might not have had any powers, but the thirst for violence was still there. It’s what had made him such an impressive soldier.
We sat on the couch across from Calista. “Is this about the disappearances?” I prompted.
“Just listen,” Calista commanded. Her body was rigid, her pale blue eyes intense. “These killings of our people are problematic, but it is something that happens from time to time. Usually when a Drakán grows tired of life and is looking for a way to die. What has me worried, and now has your father worried, are the disappearances. Drakán can’t be kidnapped without some sign of a struggle. It’s just not possible. But these Drakán were. Which leads me to believe that a member from one of the other clans has learned how to bend time and space to their will. There is a newViatoramong us.”
AViatorwas a Drakán who could time travel. The only living Drakán I knew who could do such a thing was Alasdair. The evidence of who was behind these attacks was stacking itself against Alasdair very neatly.
“When the Atlanteans destroyed our homeland eleven thousand years ago, your grandfather Niklos was one of the five warriors who survived. Their strength was the only thing that kept them from being swept into the black hole the Drakán Realm became. The ability to travel through time was the only way to move from Realm to Realm. It’s how we traveled to Earth to hunt. You know the history of the Banishment. Why the five warriors hated each other so much?”
I nodded in the affirmative as Calista went to the bar and poured herself another whiskey. She sipped it slowly as she walked back to the fireplace and stood there, staring into the flames.
“When the warriors couldn’t decide who should be king, the gods cast them out of the lands forever and into the human world. The warriors, who’d once been friends, separated from each other and became enemies, forming the five clans. As my father and the others mated with humans and procreated, our powers began to diminish little by little, so that very few hold the abilities of long ago.”
“I’m sorry, Calista, but what does our history have to do with what’s happening now?” I finally asked. “I know all of this already. You speak to me of urgency, but I am spending my time here listening to stories instead of hunting.”
