Page 118 of Darkness Bound (Night Prowler 5)
Everyone was on edge. LeBlanc and Bhojak were glowering at each other from opposite sides of the room. The Assembly members were agitated, fidgeting in their chairs, the tension palpable because no one knew when the Expurgari and Section Thirty might strike. It could be one hour, one day, one week. And no one knew how best to prepare.
Even the twins seemed restless. Tucked into an open drawer in a sideboard that acted as a makeshift bassinette, they fretted beneath a white blanket knitted by their mother, squirming like a pair of hatchlings.
Leander hadn’t wanted to leave them alone to come to this meeting. As things stood, he didn’t want to leave them alone for a second.
Xander said, “We can’t defend ourselves if they come by air. Our only chance is if we can somehow draw them to the ground, engage them in hand-to-hand combat.”
Leander said, “Or figure out a way to crash the planes.” He stared at Xander, the kernel of an idea forming. He was just about to open his mouth again, when a zephyr blasted through the sheer curtains on the far side of the platform, lifting them to a billowing bell before they settled back against the polished floor.
The zephyr was Jenna. She took shape as woman, and her first words were, “He’s here!”
“What? Who?” In a moment of blind panic, Leander thought she meant Jahad, the leader of the Expurgari. Had they arrived already? But the name she growled with hatred belonged to someone else.
“Caesar!”
Instant pandemonium. Everyone leapt to their feet and started shouting.
“That’s not possible!”
“Where? How?”
“What do we do?”
“Did you see him?”
“Is he alone?”
Jenna glimpsed the twins in the sideboard and all the blood drained from her face, leaving it the color of chalk. “Leander, get the children out of here! Get them into the caves—get everyone to the caves—I’m the only one who has a chance against him—”
“I’m not leaving you here! He can’t overpower all of us!”
A voice, slick and full of malice, rang out from the other side of the room.
“Oh dear. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
Everyone turned and there was Caesar, flanked by three men, standing by the curtains to the suspended bridge. Caesar was smiling, grimly, without an ounce of warmth. The other three—a hulking, black-eyed male with a cool, menacing beauty; a skinny male with darting eyes and twitchy hands; and a human with a bushy, filthy beard—stood still and silent.
“Son of a bitch,” Leander breathed, pushing Jenna behind him.
Fools, all of them. They’d been so intent on making plans for war they hadn’t noticed the wolves circling the henhouse. A snapping sensation started in his spine, shooting outward, ratcheting higher when he saw Caesar’s grim smile grow wider.
“Son of an Alpha, actually.” Caesar’s gaze cut to Jenna. “And you’re wrong about what you said before. I can overpower all of you. Quite easily, as it turns out. Allow me to demonstrate.”
He snapped his fingers, and the male with the twitchy hands lifted them, palms out, and pointed them right at Leander and Jenna.
Caesar said, “Nighty-night, kitty cats.”
And that’s when the air became fire.
In the infinitesimal moment before the wall of flame consumed them, Jenna put her hand on Leander’s shoulder and Shifted to a form she’d never taken before.
Ice.
It was instant and unthinking, a visceral reaction that required no thought or exertion save a small focus of will, and then she was transformed. Leander was encased in a block of solid ice, entirely surrounded.
The wall of fire passed right over them, leaving them unharmed.
As soon as it passed, Jenna Shifted to Vapor, then back to woman, a flash of mist that coalesced in an instant to flesh and bone. Now she stood in front of Leander, facing Caesar, watching an expression of pure fury twist his face, watching his minions go rigid with shock.
