Part 7 (1/2)
A sick feeling crept over Sevan. ”Wait, are you thinking that this Stegian guy got his hands on her?”
Nina shook her head. ”Not him personally, unless he's found a way to travel about during suns up. He's a vampire and a sorcerer. Your people feared him so much so that legend tells he arrived in chains and that it was the other supernaturals aboard the vessel that imprisoned him.”
Jacquelyn closed her eyes and put her hand out, appearing to scan thin air. She squinted and then gasped. ”No.”
”No, what?” Nina asked. ”I'm picking up residual blood spots near the fourth gate to the outer limits. My sensors indicate it is Lorelei's blood. If that's true then she is badly injured.”
Sevan charged toward the door only to find Christian grabbing hold of him. ”Let go of me. I'm going to get my wife.”
”We are all going to get her. Trust me when I say it will take the entire group to ensure we get to her.”
”What if that guy f.u.c.ks with your head again? Huh?” Sevan needed to lash out at someone. Christian was the closest target. He shoved hard, breaking the man's hold on him. The beast within roared dangerously close to the surface. It felt as though it might actually break free. Unsure if he could really control it, Sevan looked to his brother with wide eyes. ”If something goes wrong and I s.h.i.+ft, don't let me hurt anyone.”
”If you s.h.i.+ft?” Nina asked. ”You mean you are not straight humans?”
”No,” Jacquelyn answered for him. ”They both carry the gene of a lion within them. It was a recessive trait, one that had been thinned to the point of barely registering. That's why my sensors didn't pick it up when their s.h.i.+p entered our atmosphere.”
”Then how are you sensing it now?” Nina asked.
Christian touched Sevan's shoulder and squeezed it gently. ”Because the prophecy is true. The warriors that will help in the fight have been summoned to what was meant to be their home-they've come to grow into their full power and potential.”
”Will we s.h.i.+ft fully?”
”I would a.s.sume that in time you will. And I share your concern about not knowing if you will be able to control yourself the first time out.” Christian narrowed his gaze on Nina. ”Gather your men. Have them each cover an area and report to one another on their progress. Also be sure that each team is equipped with tranquilizers, should Lorelei's husband and the father of your future niece or nephew lose control and s.h.i.+ft, they are to shoot him with them and get him back to the compound. He can be put in a holding chamber until morning.”
Nina shook her head. ”He'll never stand for that.”
Sevan's nostrils flared. ”Listen, lady. I don't know or care what your problem with me is but I can tell you this. I am not now, nor am I ever leaving Lorelei or our child. She is my wife and I love her more than life itself. If I become a threat to her you have my permission to shoot me in the forehead with a silver bullet.”
”He means it,” Jordan said, backing him up.
Nina smiled. ”Good to know.”
Chapter Eight
Lorelei lifted her head slightly and tried to make sense of where she was. The minute her gaze fell upon the bladed torture chair she knew right away-she was within Stegian's compound, or castle as he so often referred to it. In its hundred and fifty years it had played home to countless murders and torturous acts. In fact, only six months prior Lorelei had found herself in a similar room, only Christian had been strapped to the torture chair while Stegian fought for control of his mind.
”There is my Lorelei,” a deep, familiar voice said. ”I didn't think you'd wake yet today.”
Lorelei did her best to sit up but her entire body ached and lying on the cold stone floor hadn't helped that any.
”Samson?”
”Yes,” he said, stepping over her body.
She stared at his s.h.i.+ny black boots and did her best to focus on them, not him. The pain in her chest wasn't from a wound but from the knowledge that the man before her had owned her heart at one point in her life but was now a puppet for evil.
”Why do you not look at me, Lorelei? Have you not missed your chosen mate?”
”You gave that right up when you...” There was no way she could bring herself to say it.
Samson laughed, sounding so very much like his brother, Christian, that Lorelei forced her guard up, afraid she'd trust or believe him. ”Are you still upset about our last meeting, Lorelei?”
He bent down and for the first time in six months, Lorelei looked into the face of the man she had mistakenly trusted with her life. While Samson had Christian's same long blond hair and muscle bound body, he had a face that had often left him being razed for being as smooth as a baby's bottom. It had also been one of the many things she'd loved about him. Sadly enough, his innocent good boy looks were the reason she'd fallen into Stegian's trap six months earlier.
Samson ran his cool hand over her arm and tipped his head. ”Your markings are gone. Why?”
He doesn't know?
He jerked his hand away as if she'd burned him. ”He has done it, hasn't he? My brother has claimed you and planted his seed deep within you.” Samson stood quickly. Sharp, dagger-like finger nails shot out as his incisors lengthened before her eyes, leaving fangs in place of his normal teeth. ”Tell me, does he f.u.c.k you better than I did?”
Lorelei knew better than to answer. The thing that stood before her was no longer a Shamenian royal, it was a monster-a vessel for pure evil. Somehow Stegian had not only managed to break Samson mentally, he'd converted him physically as well. Samson now possessed his powers as a Shamenian and those of a vampire. If that wasn't bad enough, his sire had been none other than Stegian himself.
Where once there had been emerald green eyes, there now lay black pools of hate focused solely on Lorelei. She s.h.i.+fted a bit and cried out as the open gash on her upper right thigh pulled slightly.
Samson smiled, looking every bit as evil as she knew he could be. ”So sorry about that leg, Lorelei. My men tell me it was necessary, that you tried to fight them all single-handedly. Is this true?”
Narrowing her gaze, Lorelei let it go hard. ”I won't let you hurt Christian again.”
”Ah,” Samson tipped his head back and laughed, ”It is so like you to be more concerned about others than yourself. What if I told you that my master has a new set of targets in mind?”
Sevan.
Lorelei?
The sound of Sevan's voice in her head sent a surge of hope through her. Doing her best to hide her joy, Lorelei continued to stare at Samson with a hard look. Lorelei, baby, where are you? We're all looking for you. Jacquelyn says you're injured and it's bad.
It's just my leg. I'll be fine.
Sevan's worry was so great that Lorelei actually felt it through the mental link they'd managed to forge. True mates did that. Powerful true mates could do that and so much more.
The air around her grew heavy with the smell of stagnant water. For a moment, the scent of death seemed to coat her tongue, bringing her dangerously close to vomiting. She closed her eyes and did her best to control herself.
”Hag, what business have you here?” Samson asked.
Hag? Stegian was rumored to have a set of hags at his disposal. It was rumored that they were just as evil as he was. No Shamenian had ever lived to tell if the rumor was true or not. Now, Lorelei knew it was.
Think. How can I defeat a hag?
”The master has sent me to drain the child's life force. His power can be harnessed and used to fight the rest of the group,” a shaky, old voice said.
Lorelei didn't open her eyes. Instead, she did her best to clear her mind of worry, of fear and most of all of hate. A pure mind was the only answer. If the hag fed off power, energy and emotion, Lorelei needed to be a blank slate.