Plus, what if they looked and never found her? He couldn’t trap them both in a promise like that—he couldn’t have Nika roaming the world looking for a sister she might never find, unable to stop even if she wanted to.
“No,” he told her in a low voice. “I can’t do that.”
“See. I knew it. The luceria was right. You do want to cage me.”
“It’s not that. We don’t even know if Tori is alive.”
“I do. I know it.”
Nika had known a lot of things that seemed impossible for her to know before, and generally, Madoc was willing to take a risk on his own behalf, believing her. But not if Nika was at stake, too. He refused to risk her in any way.
“I believe that you believe she’s alive,” he said carefully, not wanting to insult her by calling her a liar. “But I also know that your mind is not your own. What if that thought was planted in you somehow by the Synestryn that took your blood? What if it’s a trick to get you to come to them the way they tried to do with Andra?”
“She’s alive,” stated Nika, confidence ringing in her tone. “And I’m going to prove it to you.”
With that, she stepped forward, grabbed Madoc’s hand, and lifted it to her throat until the magnetic pull of both halves of the luceria locked them together.
That contact strengthened the flow of power from him into her, allowing her to use more than he’d thought possible.
As energy sparked through their link, Madoc felt the pressure he’d been living with for centuries begin to ease.
A long, slow breath hissed out from between his clenched teeth and his vision began to fail. Bright spots of glowing white formed in his eyes until he was completely blinded by them.
His body hummed, vibrating with the rush of energy Nika took from him.
“Look,” she ordered him. “See what I see.”
With that, Madoc felt his body fall away and his mind raced through space at a dizzying speed.
Joseph stood on the hilltop as the sun rose. Beside him, bound, gagged, and seething with anger, stood Chris.
A deep sense of grief threatened to swallow Joseph whole, but he knew he couldn’t let it sway him from this path.
Chris had to die before he could kill the people Joseph and the others were sworn to protect. The vow Chris had made to protect humans and guard the gateway had bound him for as long as his soul lived, but now that it was dead, no promise could hold him.
Chris had to die.
Joseph waited, knowing the Slayers would come. They always did, despite the stagnant war that separated their races. Duty came first. Always.
A man Joseph had never met before strode up the hill. In his jeans and T-shirt, he looked like any other man in America. Except for his slightly pointed ears, which one had to be looking for to even notice. The brown leather jacket he wore hung open, as if the chill didn’t bother him.
Usually, the Slayers came in a pack, but this man’s confident stride said he didn’t seem to need strength in numbers.
“I’m Andreas Phelan,” he announced, thrusting his hand out to Joseph.
Shocked by the man’s greeting, Joseph shook his hand, feeling the unnatural warmth of his skin. “Joseph Rayd.”
“I’ve heard about you. My grandfather says you’re a man of honor.”
“Is that so?”
Andreas nodded, his tawny eyes going to Chris’s lifemark, barren of leaves. “I’m in charge of the Slayers now.”
“What happened to the previous leader?” asked Joseph.
His eyes went to Joseph’s, and the impact of that steady gaze hit Joseph hard. “I ripped his throat out with my teeth.”
Clearly, this was not a man to fuck with.
“Things are changing, Joseph Rayd,” said the Slayer. “Many of my kind can smell it coming. Things are getting worse.”
Joseph looked at the man who had once been his friend. Chris’s face was bright red with rage, and if it hadn’t been for the magically enhanced bonds that held him, Joseph knew the man would have tried to kill him by now.
“At least we can agree on that much,” said Joseph.
“I’ve heard rumors that you’ve found blooded women roaming the country.”
Joseph wasn’t sure how much to share with a man who, despite how he appeared, was his enemy. “I’m sure they were exaggerated. You know how rumors are.”
Andreas smiled slowly. “I can smell a lie, you know. But I understand. You and I aren’t friends. Yet.”
With that enigmatic remark, he grabbed Chris’s arm and hauled him down the hill. Over his shoulder, he said, “I’ll deliver his body to you when it’s done.”
Joseph stood there for a long time, watching the two men for as long as he could. The next time he saw Chris, he’d be dead. He wanted to remember the man for who he had been rather than what he’d become.
But even more than that, he wanted this to be the very last time he ever had to stand at the top of this hill and sentence another one of his men to death.
They had to find more women. Fast. And it was his responsibility to see that it happened.
Joseph walked back down the hill, feeling a century older than he had on the way up.
Nika was desperate to find Tori and prove to Madoc she was still alive. The man was so stubborn, she knew that unless he saw her with his own eyes, he’d never believe.
Not that he actually had eyes in this state. Neither of them did, but they’d be able to use Tori’s.
If Nika could reach her.