Page 110 of Wolf Caged
I stilled.
And then there was silence.
And only the sound of my rough breaths as I loomed over the dead fae female, panting as my muscles burned from the exertion and the blood on my hands grew cold.
Someone whistled low.
I turned on the intruder on a savage snarl.
Riordan.
The blond vampire stood a short distance away, at the edge of the carnage, still dressed in his uniform, as if he had heard the commotion and come running from his office in the barracks.
And he wasn’t alone.
Oberon stood beside him, wearing only hastily fastened black pants that had the button undone, his bare feet close to the ring of blood splatters that surrounded me and the dead female.
His silver gaze was grave as he stared at the corpse at my feet and then at me, silently demanding an explanation.
I had none to give as I struggled to claw back control and calm myself, my breathing rough and uneven, my fingertips stained black beneath the blood on them and my teeth as sharp as daggers.
“You were right to summon me,” Oberon said quietly as he glanced at Riordan. “I suggest you leave now.”
The vampire nodded and made a fast exit.
“What is this all about, Kael?” Oberon eyed the broken body again. “The wolf? Is she something to you?”
When his searching gaze landed on me, I snarled, “She is my revenge.”
My old friend didn’t look convinced by that declaration. “What happened to warrant such a merciless response from you?”
That moment I had burst into her room and had seen her bleeding, her fear swirling around me, and that pain and rage glazing her eyes, rolled over me like a surging wave, but whenit swept back again, it was another female before me, bleeding and afraid, fighting for her life. An older female who haunted my sleep. Lost many centuries ago.
“She attacked Saphira,” I growled.
Darkness closed in, the air vibrating withmypain and rage as my shadows grew restless, snaking towards the dead female at my feet as if she was responsible for the death of that older female, when she wasn’t even the same species as the ones who had taken my mother, father and brother from me.
Those shadows rose, stealing the light from the world as grief rolled up on me, threatening to break me all over again.
Oberon casually swept his hand through my shadows, gathering them all from the air, and stared at them as they writhed and tightened, clamping down on his pale flesh.
“The wolf female is not them,” he murmured thoughtfully, softly, as if he feared pushing me too hard and knew I was liable to break, and then the Great Mother help this world. “She lives still. You need to remember that. You need to breathe… Perhaps some tea might do you good?”
I shot him a dark look. “Tea. You always talk of tea at times like this.”
Oberon shrugged. “Tea seems to be the one weapon I have in my arsenal when you are in a black mood.”
I stared at the shadows he had tamed so easily with a simple wave of his hand as they snaked around his arm in a loving caress, as if he commanded them now rather than me. There was something about Oberon, something I had felt for a long time now. Something he was hiding.
Just as I had a nagging feeling in my gut that Saphira was hiding something.
I had always been attuned to others in a way that allowed me to see more than they showed to others, but I had never been blessed with the gift to penetrate the hazy veil and discoverthe truth beyond as my mother could. Perhaps if she had lived longer, I might have learned to control the power in the way she had been able. Instinct served me well though, and I listened to it. Trusted it.
Oberon was hiding something. So was Saphira.
And in time, I would discover their secrets.
The shadows dissipated as my shoulders loosened and I half grimaced and shook my head as I looked at the broken body resting at my feet. “I do not think tea will fix this.”
