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A yell filled the room as I took my anger out on his shield. A shield I didn’t seem to affect, whatsoever. Aetas. His blood had turned my Marko more into him than anything. I hated him. So then why did I long to go back to The City of the Dead?
“Again.”
I spun on Marko, trying to catch my breath. “I am finished.”
“You are not. You must get stronger.” He paused. “Do you want to bond with me, again? If so, you must heal the damage that has been done. The only way is to exercise your gifts. This is therapy, ma minette. Now continue.”
My lips pressed shut as I reached inside of me and put everything I had toward the invisible force. The slightest glimmer surfaced along the wall and I cast him a quick glance. His eyes narrowed and he nodded.
“You peaked. That’s as strong as you’re going to get with that skill. Try something different. When you begin, only focus on the warmth in your core. Try to force as much of your powers through as you can.”
I turned my back to him, facing the shield, again. I hated how much like Aetas he was. When Marko and I tested our skills, we never singled each other out. We did everything together—merged our gifts. Apparently we didn’t anymore.
A bead of sweat ran down my temple and I wiped it away. My eyes closed and darkness engulfed me for only a moment before Marko’s face flashed before my eyes. It wasn’t of him now, but of when I rushed to his cell. At the time I had just turned into a vampire and I didn’t remember him, but the expression he held. The fascination merged with pain. It had my heart becoming heavy. It was almost as if he were a different person than the one who held onto those bars so long ago.
When he reached for me …
On instinct, I felt my hand lift. I hadn’t went to him then, but now, I wanted to.
To turn back time. Yes. I would suffer through Sayer’s rapes all over again to go back and change things. I would have been more careful around Hunter. Protected his human emotions better so he wouldn’t have ever tried to kill me. I would have never of met Aetas. Marko would be the same. We could have been happy, and Hunter, perhaps the three of us could have come together somehow.
I opened my lids knowing I was deluding myself. It wouldn’t have turned out that way. Not with Hunter anyway. I was who I was. A killer, and I liked shedding blood. Vampire lives weren’t meant to merge with humans. Not as friends, only as food and foe. Fuck, we needed to get our people back.
Black fog swirled around my palm, waiting. For what I wasn’t sure. I was open, but I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to do. Everything I had learned to this point I already had perfected. And I couldn’t do what Marko had done. Although his blood was still thickly in me, our bond was broken … and wasn’t returning anytime soon.
Tears resurfaced. Aetas. His blood was so strong in Marko that I knew it could be years, decades even, before it faded enough for me to rebond to my mate. What if we didn’t make it that long?
I turned, taking in my mate’s questioning expression. The fog swirled between us in my hand and once again I was in limbo. Nothing new came. I was missing something, but what was it?
My lips parted as Hunter entered my mind. I’d been so focused on Marko’s gifts that I didn’t even take into account what I’d inherited from bonding to Hunter. He had Aetas’ blood. I now had Aetas’ blood in me as well.
I looked back at the fog, smiling as I began to make it thicken and grow like a curtain around me. Outside of my space, I could feel Marko’s curiosity. His energy was surging and I let my own work its way toward him. When I didn’t get stopped, I continued, trying my best to stay undetected as I pushed into his unprepared mind. I didn’t make it far before I hit a subconscious wall.
Persuasion. It was Aetas’ gift. Could I use it differently that what was expected?
Harder, I pushed, until I hit the surface of something. I wanted to find the moment where Marko thought me most beautiful so I could use it to my advantage. Instead, I came across a barrage of images of myself that didn’t exist. Fantasies? Dreams?
Baffled, I grasped one, clinging to it in confusion. As much as I wanted to think over it, I didn’t have time if I wanted to attempt my plan. I studied the detail, willing it to become me. Aetas had talked of object materialization before. I could do this. I knew I could. It was no different than disappearing and reappearing somewhere else. Instead of it being me, I would materialize objects to fit what I wanted.
A deep breath left me as tingling raced over my skin. For minutes I stayed in deep concentration, envisioning nothing but the black see-through gown. It was different than any I’d ever worn before. Lace covered and concealed my most intimate areas, but the rest was sheer, leaving my skin visible under the dark, thin material. The deep slits up each thigh left it floating out around me when I walked. It went beyond sexy and had a low cut top that left my shoulders exposed. My hair was piled high on my head, fitting within my crown. What was so different than my usual self was the dark make-up I wore. The eyeliner and shadows around the green color of my eyes left them glowing as I walked toward him. The memory was looping. I was just walking, showing how much I wanted him as I neared.
“Ma minette?”
My eyes opened, leaving me with view of the dark smoke hiding me. The coolness from the swirling raced over my exposed neck and I couldn’t stop the smile from coming as I glanced down at the black dress.
“What are you doing? I know you’re there, but I can’t see you.”
The fog sunk into my skin, fading from the surroundings as I began to walk through the curtain, just as I saw in the clip. Marko’s eyes flashed with lust, but he shook his head. There was shock there, and something else. Something so much deeper that he wasn’t meaning to reveal.
“How did you see that? How?” He swallowed hard, beginning to circle around me. “Answer me! Were you in my mind?”
My eyes cut over to the side to look at him and my suspicion heightened as his fear turned to anger.
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be? You’ve never cared before.”
“You wanted in mind, so you just, what, took this image of yourself and materialized it?” Marko stepped in, spinning me to face him. “Talk to me.” He gave me a shake, gripping to my shoulders tightly as he glared at me.
“That’s exactly what happened. I saw the image and I chose to become it.”
