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“Then what are you waiting for?” Isao called. “Or are you so afraid of getting your hands dirty that you would have us slaughter these helpless panderers first?”
Adilla’s nostrils flared. Isao knew how to push his sire’s buttons. But his sire also had access to his mind, something Dominique sensed Isao was not only not fighting, but inviting. Isao showed Adilla his memories of the battle. He showed him the ease with which they had subdued the elite guard.
And he showed him Esteban’s death in vivid detail.
Adilla’s gaze flew to Jackson. “Ahuman,” he sneered. “My most loyal aide, a true warrior of the ages…slain by ahuman?”
Every eye turned to the sole mortal in the room. The hissing shifted back into growling. Instead of wisely remaining quiet, Jackson brandished his bloodied sword in challenge. “Want to be next?”
Dominique stifled a wince. That compulsion might have worked a little too well. Before the anger simmering in the hall could morph into a bloodbath, Dominique moved to the center of the chamber and raised his voice. “Esteban did not have to die. He had a choice. As do you, Adilla Khan, and all of you.” He swept his arms wide toward the mob. “Submit to me and find peace. Or refuse…and meet Esteban’s fate.”
In their agitated state, the threat was apparently stronger than the offer, for the outrage that erupted was instantaneous. They brandished their fangs, flashed their black eyes, released their beasts. An army of monsters tethered by the thinnest of leashes.
Their master considered for a long while before quieting them with a gesture of his bejeweled hand. His beast retreated, replaced by an expression of cool amusement as he descended from the dais. “This is where you fail, young pretender. Perhaps you could surprise Esteban with your cleverness, but me? Me, you will have to defeat on your own merit, because I will not submit to you or anyone. And Isao—” His smile widened into smug malevolence. “Isao and his babes are not foolish enough to let you try.”
“On the contrary. We intend to help,” Isao said, bloodlust in his voice.
Dominique pulled his lips into a semblance of a smile as his vision expanded and eyes darkened to reveal their unearthly golden fire. “Do you recognize the boy with us?” he asked without turning away from Adilla. “Lyle is one of Esteban’s young ones. But now he is also mine. Unlike my sister, he survives. And he will continue to do so as long as I live. The same is true for Isao and his younglings. Your demise will not matter to them.”
The low warning growls faltered, became a hum of uncertain murmurs. As a former member of the colony, they would know Lyle and his parentage. Now that facts had been laid before them, they drew new and more accurate conclusions about Dominique and his claim.
Adilla stared at Lyle as though wanting to grind his bones into the ground.
“So what will it be, Adilla? Will you submit and join me? Or shall I end you? Are there any of your spawn here who would like to pledge themselves to me first? I will welcome them into my heart.” Dominique held out his arms wide in invitation.
Back by the throne, Bhavanur and Markandeya exchanged a worried look that spoke volumes. They would know their lord well enough to understand how this would end.
“Enough!” Adilla roared. “Enough of these games and deceptions. Remove them from my sight!” No one moved. “Now!”
The colony cowered.
Adilla Khan lost his last measure of self-control.
In a blur, he charged at Dominique, who needed only a thought to vanish. To the eyes of the stunned onlookers, he dematerialized into a cloud of black smoke that slithered away in a dozen writhing snakes, while he himself stepped aside, unseen, from the spot Isao rushed to fill. Adilla stopped a microsecond before the tip of Isao’skatanafound his throat.
“Give me an excuse, you insufferable waste of blood,” the samurai snarled. “Any excuse will do.”
Douglas and Lyle moved in to flank their human charge, while Makoto took up position behind Isao and surveyed the crowd for threats.
Invisible, Dominique settled onto the throne. He leaned back, propping one ankle over the opposite knee, and conjured the snakes of smoke again. They rushed from every corner of the chamber, arced toward the throne and re-formed there as his solid, once-more-visible self. Part of him wished Cassidy was here to see this. It was her innocent question to him early in their relationship that had given him this idea.Can you turn into smoke?Yes. Now he could. Because of her. The memory made him smile over his steepled fingers.
A smothering silence descended. One and all, the blood-drinkers gaped at Dominique. Markandeya and Bhavanur realized just how close he was and darted away like startled fish.
Adilla turned away from Isao and his blade. The wrath in his jade eyes was only slightly tempered by shock. He was the only one here who would have ever witnessed such power in Kambyses—a power that was now Dominique’s.
The Lord of Night spoke into the hush. “You will find me a most generous lord, Adilla. You may keep your…kingdom.” A dismissive wave at the glittering opulence. “All those who wish to continue their servitude to you are free to do so. But those who wish otherwise will also be free to pursue their own existence in whatever way they see fit.”
Adilla was beyond words. With a primal scream, he released his beast.
Isao swung his sword, but it slashed through empty air as Adilla was already gone, catapulting toward the throne in a single mighty leap.
Dominique didn’t wait for him to land. He shot up and forward to meet him in mid-flight. Even before they crashed to the polished stone floor, he ripped open Adilla’s jugular. Ancient blood spurted into his face and mouth, thick with time and power. Claw-like hands tore at his jacket and shoulders, but to no avail. He took the blood as fast as it would come, all but inhaling it along with a thousand years of memories. All that time, and still Adilla hungered with the same voracity as the mortal he had been: privileged but with no hope of greatness until a mysterious traveler showed him what could be. Adilla had begged Kambyses for the power to rule without question, answerable to none.
You answer now, Adilla. You answer to me. Come.Dominique opened himself to the beast that fought him, showed him the peace he would know if he surrendered, tried to soothe the blazing, all-consuming fury in this magnificent, timeless being.
It did not cease.
It did not falter.
