Page 27 of The Edge of Dawn

And now, there was the possibility that some of his memories could have transferred to her.

Fuck.

Indeed. For a moment, Ashrael ignored his request not to use mindspeech. And that is why we need to physically find her as soon as possible. Tell me where she is, and I’ll get Tarak to send a retrieval team.

“Out,” Dragek snapped, pushing back at Ashrael with his ka’qui. “No mindspeech.”

“Very well. I was merely responding to your projected expletive.”

“A momentary lapse. I’d prefer to exercise my voice. After being rendered mute for so long, I don’t want you in my head.”

“Understood. So, where is she?”

“I don’t know the name of the location. Somewhere on Earth. A dry, hot place. She was underground—in a cave of sorts.”

“That could be anywhere on this planet.”

“Why don’t I just ask her, then?”

“You could do that? Converse with her from here?”

“No. I can’t locate her like that. As you said, she’s untrained—too disorderly and chaotic. Make me unconscious.”

“What?” Ashrael blinked.

Dragek couldn’t help but feel a twinge of smugness at his reaction. It was the first time he’d ever seen the assassin caught off-guard.

“You may momentarily incapacitate me. You’re beyond skilled—I’m sure you can control how deep I go and how long I’m unconscious for. And you’ll do it without malice because I’m not your enemy anym—”

Before he could finish, Ashrael answered with a short, sharp nod and delivered a swift, precise blow to the side of his neck, right at the point where a certain nerve crossed close to the surface of his skin.

Even though Ashrael was blindingly fast, Dragek probably could have blocked him.

But he didn’t because he’d asked for it—and because something unfathomable was happening to him.

This strange little human… he actually regretted leaving her. It was quite possible that some small part of him was even worried about what happened to her.

Had the Mistress put a lock on his emotions, too? Because he wasn’t like this before…

Shadows coalesced in his mind as he fell backward, and Ashrael was there, mercifully breaking his fall—so different from just moments ago—and he didn’t even have to seek her out.

He was already being pulled toward her.

The more he did this, the stronger the pull became.

Strange.

The very last thought he had before he succumbed to the darkness was that in order for him to connect with her, she would have to be unconscious as well.

TEN

She was still stuck in the underground mine, only everything felt different.

Her would-be abductors were gone, left behind in the tunnels under a cloud of sedating gas. Possibly badly injured, too, considering that guy had taken over her body and used it to brutally beat them up.

God, he’d completely wrecked her.

So why wasn’t she in pain anymore? She knew for a fact that she had a broken foot, and as she’d made her way toward the exit shaft, her body had ached in a hundred different places. Tomorrow morning, she’d probably be covered in all kinds of ugly bruises.

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