Page 10 of Rising Darkness

“Master,” the shadowy being in the other cell hissed, drawing out the S like a snake, and I instantly recognized the creepy tone. And the name.

I glanced down at the simple ring Dason had bought me. It sat on my right hand and I watched the blue stone bleed to red.Dammit.

A shade. The vampire was possessed.

With a flick of his hand, Elan’s magick unlocked the cells. I stared at the swaying door, wondering what the hell he was up to. The vampire rushed from his cage and headed straight for mine. Prepared to defend myself, I pulled from the well of my magick, but instead of swelling and filling my hands like it usually did, it faltered. My pulse skipped with fear, and my wolf, who’d been with me earlier, was nothing but a rumble in the back of my mind.

What. The. Fuck.

Luckily, the vampire never reached me. Elan stopped him with a single command.

Eyes flashing orange, the vampire went as still as a statue. Elan’s dark gaze matched the fiery color, and my own widened at seeing the possession first hand.

“Her blood is too precious to waste on the likes of you,” Elan growled at the vamp. “There’s a blood bag for you once you’ve done as I ask.” Giving me his full attention, he stepped to the side and motioned for me to walk ahead of him.

I was running out of time. If I had any chance of escaping, my best chance lay outside of this room. Grinding my teeth, I acquiesced and stalked out of the cell despite how hard it was for me to do what he desired. He trailed me to the door, but when I tried to step through it, the ward activated. My body slammed into it, only to bounce backward. Directly into Elan’s chest.

His sadistic chuckle set me on edge, and I jerked out of the hands that landed on my shoulders.

Deactivating it, he grabbed my wrist and yanked me through.

“Let go of me,” I growled, bereft that the animalistic edge of my wolf was missing. She was muted in the background. I could feel her thrashing like a bug trapped in a jar. The small pings were all I felt.

“The sooner you realize you have no power over me, the better this will go for you,” Elan spat.

The skin on my wrist crawled, but I let Elan guide me up a stone staircase. The sun streaming through the windows was blinding, and I couldn’t contain the scream that squeezed out of my throat as my skin smoked and burned like a leaf below a magnifying glass in full sunlight.

Using my body weight, I wrenched backward, freeing myself from his hold only to bump into the vampire. I scrambled for the shadows, for reprieve. Elan’s anger was swift and hot, and he erupted with that same dark magick, lashing the tendrils of it around me. The scent of sulfur was so thick I could taste it. It overwhelmed my nose while I thrashed and flexed my arms, trying to use my strength to break the bindings. But it was no use. Elan had me bound and at his mercy, and he knew it.

Without another word, he hauled me down the hallway. Shackled, I stumbled after him, trying to memorize where we were going through slitted eyes. The pain overwhelmed my brain and made it hard to focus. If I somehow found a way out of this, the best plan I could come up with was ‘run.’ But the sunlight presented an enormous problem and my confidence shriveled.

Sometimes, bad guys won, but if I was going down, I wanted my mates to know I fought for them. For us. For our future. Every step of the way.

Blessedly, the next room we entered had the shades drawn. My skin was red and angry, and my eyes were slow to adjust. The sharp tug on my bindings sent me sprawling to my knees. The hard contact jarred through me, but it wasn’t as jarring as the sight before me when my vision cleared.

Low lamplight illuminated the room in a wash of warm light. Images of me covered the walls in a sickening display. Unintelligible scribbles of magick symbols intermingled the mess along with pictures of another woman—one who looked suspiciously like me.

“Your mother,” Elan said, his voice as cold and harsh as jagged ice.

I could barely pry my attention from the multitude of pictures and drawings, especially when I sensed the magick pouring off various sketches. But it was my mother’s image I locked onto. We had the same hair. The same nose.

“What is all of this?” I dared to ask. As curious as I was, I also wanted to distract him while I twisted my wrists and fought against my bindings. I didn’t expect him to answer me.

“The grimoire.” He ran his hand gently over the makeshift wallpaper, basking in the magick. “What I remember of it anyway, before your bitch mother ran off with it and fucked you into existence,” he spat, venom seeping into his words. “Enough. I’ve waited far too long for this day. Sinclair,” he barked at the vampire. “My son, please.” That same flash of orange lit his brown gaze, and Sinclair’s sparked to life. I saw the mark of the master glow on Elan’s hand and gasped at the symbol I’d seen before.

Those arching lines. The sharp points. If I needed any further proof that Elan was the one summoning the shades, his sigil was incriminating. The same sigil that marred the ground whenever we killed a shade in the mortal realm. It was his calling card; his signature.

Tye stumbled into the room, and the first thing I noticed was the red glow of his eyes. Dressed in only a pair of low-slung jeans, his tattooed torso was bare. And his back…

I gasped.

Long slashes and welts covered his scarred flesh as though he’d been lashed. Blood wept from his wounds.

“Goddess,” I whispered hoarsely. “Tye.” I hoped his name on my lips would stir something in him, but he stood a shell of a man. I struggled harder to get free, fighting my way to my feet.

“Excellent. We’re ready.” Elan let his power crawl through the room, slamming the door, enforcing it with a ward, and conjuring a strange table in the shape of a cross. Curved metal troughs ran along its outline, all leading into a glass vessel that sat beneath the contraption. “Sinclair,” he turned to the vamp and issued the rest of his order telepathically.

And then Sinclair turned that dangerous red gaze on Tye.

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