Hunted

She’s actually manipulating him. I wondered if Kalona knew it. Surely an immortal being would be wise to a vampyre High Priestess’s mind games (well, and body games, too—eesh). Then I remembered the spectral image of Neferet I’d glimpsed at the depot. How had she done that? Maybe turning to the Dark Side has given her different powers; maybe she’s not just a fallen vampyre High Priestess. Who knows what being Queen of the Tsi Sgili really means? This new thought terrified me.

A rustling around my bed interrupted my awful i

I felt the familiar chill coming from his body. Kalona must be close to me. He was probably standing right there, right beside my bed. I heard the ominous rustle of feathers and could imagine him spreading those beautiful black wings. He could be getting ready to pull me into his arms again and wrap them around me, like he had in my dream.

And that was it. No matter what my instincts were screaming at me, I couldn’t keep my eyes closed any longer. Sure that I was going to be looking up at his indescribably perfect face, I opened my eyes to find myself staring up at the mutated features of Rephaim. The Raven Mocker was bent over me, his terrible bird face just inches from mine. His beak was open and his tongue was flicking in my direction.

My reaction was immediate and automatic, and several things happened all at once. Shrieking my most piercing girl scream, I clutched the sheet to my chest and scrambled back so fast I smacked myself against the headboard of the bed. As I did that, the disgusting Raven Mocker hissed and spread his wings, looking like he was going to pounce on me, and the door burst open. Darius rushed into the room, took one look at the malevolent creature hovering over me, and with a move that was as graceful as it was lethal, reached inside his leather jacket to the knife he holstered there, pulled it free, and threw. The blade struck Rephaim high in his chest. The creature shrieked and staggered back, clutching at the pearl-inlaid hilt of the knife.

“You dare attack my son!” It took Kalona only two strides to reach Darius. With the strength of a god, he grabbed the warrior by the throat and lifted him off his feet. Kalona was so tall, his arms so long and muscular, that he was able to slam Darius against the ceiling of the room. He held Darius there as the warrior’s legs kicked spasmodically and his fists beat ineffectually against Kalona’s massive arms.

“Stop it! Don’t hurt him!” Pulling the sheet with me off the bed I staggered over to the two of them, not realizing until I’d gotten to my feet how weak I still was. Kalona’s black wings were unfurled, and I had to duck under one of them to get to Darius. I didn’t know what I thought I was going to do when I leaped off the bed. Even if I had been myself and not hurt and drained I would have been no match for this immortal being—and right now, though I was screaming at him and pounding on his side, I could tell I was less troubling to him than an a

At that moment Kalona’s true self was revealed to me. He was not a misunderstood hero who was waiting for love to bring out his good side. Kalona didn’t have a good side. Whether he had always been like this or not wasn’t important. What he’d become—what he was now—was evil. The spell he had worked over me shattered like a dream made of glass. I hoped desperately that it was too broken to ever be pieced back together again.

Drawing a deep breath, I raised my hands, palms out, not caring that the sheet fell away from my body, leaving me standing there naked. Then I used the last of my strength to evoke, “Wind and fire, come to me. I need you.” Instantly I felt the presence of the two elements, and beyond their presence I could sense Damien and Shaunee and had a brief flash of the two of them concentrating with their eyes closed as they added their combined wills to strengthen their elements. That little burst of power was all I needed. I narrowed my eyes and put everything I had into my command. “Make the winged guy get off Darius!” I threw my hands at Kalona, focusing the elements on the movement, and at the same time thinking how fire and wind had gotten me out of some pretty tight spots with those stupid Raven Mockers, so using them against their daddy should work, too.

The effect of the blast of hot air was immediate. It caught Kalona’s outstretched wings and tossed him up and back, and there was a weird sizzling sound as the heated air touched his naked skin, actually causing mist to form in the air around him.

Darius had fallen heavily to the floor, but he was gasping for air while he tried to stand, putting his body between Kalona, Rephaim, and me. I couldn’t do much more than try to control my breathing and blink hard to clear the weird little bright spots from my vision. Fire and wind had gone, leaving me barely able to stay on my feet.

A movement at the edge of my vision had me glancing at the open door and I gasped in surprise as Stark ran into the room, his bowstring already notched with a deadly-looking arrow. He lifted it to take aim at Darius, and then hesitated, shook his head like he was trying to clear it, and stared at me.

At the first sight of him I felt a wonderful rush of happiness. He looked like himself again! His eyes weren’t glowing red. He didn’t seem crazed and wasn’t hollow-cheeked and skeletal. Then I realized I was standing there completely naked as he and I stared at each other. I grabbed the sheet pooling at my feet and hurriedly wrapped it around me, bath towel–style. Even in the middle of the big mess and stress that was going on around me, I could tell that my face was blazing red with embarrassment. I should have said something, anything to him, and instead my mind was frozen by the fact that he had just seen me completely naked.

Recovering his composure sooner than me, Stark lifted his bow again, renotching the arrow and sighting it at Darius.

“Stark! Don’t shoot him!” I cried. I didn’t bother to try to block his view of Darius. If Stark shot, he wouldn’t miss no matter what I did. He couldn’t miss. Unlike Kalona, my Goddess didn’t take back a gift once she’d given it.

“If you are meaning to kill the person who threw me across the room, then that arrow will strike the priestess and not the warrior,” Kalona said. He had gotten to his feet and he sounded perfectly normal. His expression was calm, but the skin of his naked chest looked flushed and kinda odd, like he’d suddenly gotten a sunburn. Small wisps of vapor were still lifting lazily from his exposed skin, even though both elements had left the room. “And it is not the priestess I want killed. It is the warrior.”

Before Stark could fire his deadly arrow, I turned to Kalona, beseeching him, “Darius was just protecting me. It was a Raven Mocker who did this.” I pointed to the long wound across my chest that was no longer gaping nastily open, but was instead an angry, jagged red line. “When Darius heard me scream and he saw Rephaim bending over me, it was only logical for him to assume I was being attacked again.” Kalona had held up a hand to Stark, halting the shot. With the fallen angel’s attention fully on me, I continued, “Darius has sworn to protect me. He was just doing his job. Please don’t kill him for that.”

I held my breath during a long pause. Kalona stared at me, and I stared right back at him. The weird, hypnotic allure I’d felt for him hadn’t returned. Not that he wasn’t totally the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. He definitely was. Then I felt a little start of surprise as I realized exactly what I was seeing as I gawked at him.