His gaze briefly skimmed over Styx who was currently leaning against the desk, a thunderous scowl on his face, before shifting toward the female creature who stood in the center of the room.
Astonishment raced through him. Christ. She was as tiny as a human child with delicate features. At the moment she was simply attired in a white robe with her silvery-gray hair pulled in a long braid that hung down her back.
It would be easy to dismiss her as harmless if one didn’t notice the ancient knowledge that smoldered in the black, oblong eyes. And, oh yeah, the razor sharp teeth that were obviously made for tearing flesh.
And of course, there was the power.
It beat against him with all the subtly of a sledgehammer.
The woman gestured for Tane to approach with a gnarled hand. “This is the Charon.”
Her voice was low, hypnotic.
“Yes, mistress,” Styx answered, although the words hadn’t been a question.
She watched Tane halt directly before her with an unblinking gaze.
“I am Siljar.”
Tane managed a stiff bow. “Tane.” Amusement flared through the dark eyes. “Yes, I know.” Tane swallowed a curse. The Oracle could read his mind. She gave another lift of her hand. This one in dismissal. “We will speak alone.”
“As you wish.” Styx readily headed toward the door, although he paused long enough to send Tane a warning frown.
Right. Like he needed a reminder not to poke the lethal rattlesnake with a stick.
Waiting until Styx had shut the door behind him, Siljar folded her arms over her chest.
“You have been a very naughty vampire.”
“I can’t deny I’ve broken the law.”
“Hmmm. I can guess why.”
Tane sent her a puzzled frown. “Mistress?”
She smiled. Not a particularly comforting sight with a set of pearly whites that a shark would envy.
“I have evolved beyond the weaknesses of the flesh, but that does not mean I have forgotten the temptation.” The smile disappeared as fast as it had arrived. “Still, you have interfered in Commission business and that cannot be tolerated. Are you acquainted with Cezar?”
Tane grimaced. The vampire had been condemned to becoming a slave to the Commission for two centuries for bedding a potential Oracle.
“Not personally.”
“You should make a point to meet him,” the demon informed him. “He can tell you what happens to vampires who taste of forbidden fruit.”
Tane bent his head. “I will accept whatever punishment you feel appropriate, but Laylah is innocent.”
“She is an abomination.”
His fury flared through the room, knocking out the electricity and shattering a lamp on the mantel.
“Through no fault of her own,” he gritted.
She faced him without flinching despite the fact she was half his height and outweighed by two hundred pounds.
Of course, she could probably toss his ass against the wall with a flick of her finger.
“It is not the fault of an Urlenal demon that he drains the life of humans by simply being near them, but we keep them isolated.”
“Laylah is not dangerous.”
“She is unstable, like all Jinn mongrels.”
His lips parted to argue only to snap shut as he remembered the Oracle could see into his mind. She would already know that Laylah had accidentally killed the cur in Hannibal. It might have been self-defense, but it still proved she couldn’t control her powers.
Without thought he sank to his knees.
Screw pride.
He had to do something to keep Laylah from being exterminated. “Please,” he whispered.
There was the rustle of the satin robe as Siljar stepped forward. “You would plead for the female?”
“Yes.”
“You are not mated.” She peered into Tane’s eyes that were nearly level with hers. “Not yet.”
Not yet?
Okay. Tane quickly filed away that potential time bomb with things not to think about.
He bent his head, doing his best to look humble. Not one of his finer talents.
“I only ask that she not be destroyed without being offered an opportunity to prove she means no harm.”
The dark eyes narrowed. “She makes you vulnerable and yet you would protect her. Fascinating.”
More like suicidal, but he couldn’t seem to stop the insanity.
“May I ask what you intend to do with her?” he demanded, proving his point. “What we intended to do from the beginning.” “But…” “Silence.”
His forehead hit the carpet as pain drilled into his brain. Holy … shit. It felt like someone had lit a blowtorch inside his skull.
“Yes, mistress,” he managed to rasp.
The pain abruptly disappeared and Tane groaned in bone deep gratitude. He might have suffered worse, but he couldn’t remember when. Not that he was given an opportunity to appreciate the shocking relief.
Siljar’s small hand grabbed his mohawk and yanked his head up to meet her creepily pleasant smile.
“Do you truly believe the Commission was not aware of the Jinn mongrel from the moment she was conceived?”
He faltered. What the hell? Was she toying with him?
Or was this a more dangerous game? “The law states they are to be destroyed.” Her gray brows lifted. “You seek to lecture me on the laws I proclaimed?”
Careful, Tane.
He wouldn’t be any use to Laylah dead. “No, only to understand.”
She hesitated, as if debating whether to continue with the mind-splitting pain or simply rip open his throat. At last she released her grip on his hair and stepped back, neatly folding her hands in front of her.
“It was determined that she is a principium.”
He frowned as he met her fathomless gaze. “A what?”
“A rare soul who is destined to play a pivotal role in the future of the world.”
The floor seemed to shift beneath his knees.
Damn.
His strange sense of… premonition when he was with Laylah hadn’t been a delusion that he’d invented for an excuse to keep her near.
He should be leaping for freaking joy.
The Oracles had decided that Laylah was fated to be of use to them. Which meant that they had no intention of killing her. At least not until she’d fulfilled her mysterious destiny.
Instead a cold ball of dread was lodged in the pit of his stomach.
In his long life he’d learned that being important to the future of the world was never, ever a good thing.
Martyrdom sucked for the actual martyr.
“What does this pivotal role entail?” he rasped.