“I’m a vampire of many talents.”
Kostas glanced over his shoulder, a sudden cunning in his dark eyes. “I’ve heard the Immortal Ones have weird powers.”
“Weird?”
“Shape-shifting, mist-walking,” he named them off. “Enthralling other vampires.”
Gaius would never have answered if Kostas was still the leader of the Hunters. Whatever Styx’s accusation, he wasn’t indifferent to the debt he owed Nefri and her clan for taking him in.
But Kostas had been tossed out of the Addonexus. And more importantly, it was highly unlikely the brash idiot would survive his current tenure with the Dark Lord. Why not give him the answers he wanted?
“Shape-shifting is a talent that only a rare few vampires possess,” he admitted. “Although it’s impossible to fully develop the skill without traveling beyond the Veil.”
“And the others?” the man pressed.
“Nefri, the clan chief, has a medallion like mine that allows her to mist-walk and also to part the Veil so vampires can travel back and forth. And as far as enthralling other vampires . . .” Gaius shrugged. “There are those who can seize control of lesser minds.”
The dark eyes narrowed. “Are you one of them?”
“If I were, we wouldn’t be having this ridiculous conversation.”
Kostas stiffly moved to stand beside the narrow bed where the baby continued to cry, its tiny body wrapped in a blanket and his face scrunched and red with distress. “I don’t like this,” Kostas growled, scooping the baby off the mattress.
“You don’t have to like it, you just have to obey.”
With a warning glare, Kostas shoved the squalling baby into Gaius’s arms. Astonishingly, the child abruptly halted its crying, regarding Gaius with a pair of wide blue eyes that held an innocence that pierced him straight in his dead heart.
“You stiff me and there’s nowhere you can hide that I won’t track you down,” Kostas muttered.
Wrenching his gaze away from the sweet purity that was bundled in his arms, Gaius instead glared at his companion as he grasped the medallion.
“Stand back, you buffoon.”
The Dark Lord’s prison
Cassie was lost in a choking darkness. There were no sounds, no smells, no sense of touch. Just a vast emptiness that defied even the passage of time.
It was almost a relief when she distantly felt a sharp slap on her cheek.
“Wakey, wakey,” a female said in her ear.
Cassie struggled to wade out of the clinging fog, flinching as the slaps became more painful.
“Caine,” she breathed, slowly opening her eyes to discover a pretty young face hovering directly over her. “You.”
A pair of dimples flashed. “Yes, me.”
With a hiss of fear, Cassie scooted away from the evil deity.
And the bitch was evil.
Only a truly black heart would have taken such pleasure in torturing a helpless Caine while Cassie pleaded on her knees for mercy.
She had tried, over and over, to conjure the visions the Dark Lord wanted, but she wasn’t a sideshow freak. She couldn’t force the visions to appear.
At last she’d been sucked into the black hole of unconsciousness, her mind forced to relive every agonizing moment of Caine’s torture for what had seemed to be an eternity.
Now she could only imagine what new hell was awaiting her.
“Where’s Caine?” she managed to demand, her voice a mere croak.
The female straightened, smoothing her hands down the pretty white sundress she’d somehow managed to create to cover her naked body. “Don’t worry. Your devoted dog is nearby.”
The Dark Lord gave a wave of her hand and the swirling fog parted to reveal Caine, who was still trapped between wolf and human, lying motionless.
Cassie warily rose to her feet, her hands pressed to her aching heart. “What have you done to him?”
“He’s in stasis.” The blue eyes flickered with a sinister crimson. “At least for now.”
Cassie understood the warning. The temporary reprieve was over. “What do you want?”
The female reached to grasp Cassie by the hair, pulling hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. “You know what I want.”
Cassie didn’t try to fight. What was the point? The creature would simply break her neck. Or worse, she’d continue her torture of Caine.
Instead, she sent her captor a pleading gaze. “Please, I can’t give it to you.”
The Dark Lord gave her an infuriated shake, rattling Cassie’s teeth. “You’re just not trying hard enough.”
“I am,” Cassie cried out. “I swear.”
The female pointed her finger toward the unconscious Caine. “Do you need a reminder of the cost of failure?”
“No, I beg you . . .”
No big shocker—the evil bitch ignored Cassie’s pleas. With a small gesture the Dark Lord sent her invisible power slamming into Caine with enough force to wrench him from the spell and make him howl in brutal agony.
“I need to know the future, seer.” She glared at Cassie, frustration making crimson fire nearly consume the blue of her eyes. “You will give it to me.”
Cassie cried out, feeling Caine’s pain as if it was her own. “You’re killing him.”
The female gave Cassie another violent shake. “It’s up to you to save him.”
“Stop . . .”
Cassie’s words were lost as a familiar sensation seized her mind, driving out all thoughts of the Dark Lord and even Caine.
This power was bigger than all of them.
With violent force, the prophecy raced through her, searing a path from the great unknown to leave her shaken and disoriented. Like she’d been run over by a cement truck.
Slowly opening her eyes, she found herself befuddled and unable to remember why she was surrounded by white fog. Or why her head was throbbing. Visions weren’t usually painful.
Then, her gaze landed on a female who was bent over to study the shimmering glyph that hung in midair. What the hell?
“At last,” the stranger straightened, turning to grab Cassie by the throat. “What does it say?” Her fingers tightened as Cassie struggled to clear her mind of the lingering confusion. “Are you listening to me?”
“Leave me alone,” Cassie rasped.
“Tell me what it says,” the female roared.
“What?”
“The prophecy.” The fingers dug into Cassie’s flesh, branding her skin with a scorching heat. “What does it say?”