He raised his arm, his fingers curled into a fist.
If he hit her again, he’d knock her unconscious. She couldn’t afford that.
She forced herself to keep her eyes open. She wasn’t going to show how afraid she was. She had to resist him.
His forearm filled her vision.
“I don’t think Igor will take very kindly to you hurting me,” she gasped out.
His arm wavered. He pulled back.
Her shoulders went limp.
“You have no idea about the plans Igor has in store for you.” His dark eyes glinted with something close to madness. “He has taken hostages from your clan. They are in the cells below this building. If you don’t come willingly, he’ll kill them.”
Her limbs shook. She had to rescue her clanmates. She had to keep him talking while she tried to find a way out.
“Why are you doing this?” She raised her chin, pretending a confidence she didn’t feel.
His gaze raked down her throat, down her chest to her waist.
Everything in her shrank under the perusal of his scrutiny.
“The dragons killed my mate.” He slid forward. He bent his head so close to hers that his breath ghosted over her cheek.
She fought the urge to shrink back. Forced herself to meet his gaze.
“Igor wants you, and I want the end of the dragons.” His fingers rose in the air. Such an elegant gesture.
She blinked.
That little movement hinted that at some point in the past he’d been a cultured man. He’d liked the finer things in life. Then his lips pulled back in a grimace, dispelling that trace of what he’d been.
“You must die so I can have my peace at last.” He blinked rapidly. Sweat shined on his forehead.
He was much closer to the edge of madness than she’d guessed. She was running out of time.
Her muscles twitched. She balanced her weight on both her feet to steady herself. “So you agreed to track me down and bring me to him. In return, he promised to help you against the dragons if you delivered?” She raised her chin.
His features tightened. The dark, greasy black of his presence deepened; it swirled around her psychic self.
Her skin crawled. She forced herself to speak. “How do you know you can trust Igor to keep his word?”
He slapped her again, on the same side of the face. Sparks of red flashed behind her eyes, and tears sprang up and flowed down her cheeks.
His touch made everything in her cringe. Even then, though, the healer in her ached for the loneliness that was eating away at him.
She should have been able to balance out Tibor’s darkness, but his psychic presence was so far gone in the murkiness, if she attempted to help him it would only subsume her light. Besides, if she tried to reach him on the psychic plane, chances were he’d sense her fledgling bond with Neo. She couldn’t let that happen. If he told Igor, the Fae Lord would kill Neo right then.
“So, that’s your answer? It’s so easy to just raise a hand on someone who is tied?” She lifted her chin higher. “Open my bonds. At least then it’s more of an even fight.”
He hesitated. His eyes flicked to the side.
“Or are you afraid of what Igor will say? Does he own you? Did he make you agree to do everything he said? Is that it?”
She sensed the only way out was to push him until he lost the last shreds of control he was holding on to. It might give her the opportunity she was looking for to escape.
“Shut up.” This time he grabbed her throat.
She tried to take in a breath and found she couldn’t. Her lungs burned.
She also realized he was marking her skin. She hated that. Anger tightened her stomach. No one except Neo had the right to touch her. The rage pushed aside all other thought. She had to focus. Focus on Neo. She reached for him on the psychic plane and felt the energy of his dragon right there at the edge of her conscious mind.
He was not far, likely in the same building, perhaps on the same floor? Hope bloomed. A pulse of confidence flowed through her. She straightened her shoulders. “You loved your mate very much.”
His shoulders shook.
That was his weakness. She didn’t hesitate to use it against him. If that was the only way to save Neo, she’d take it.
“We only wanted to find a way to feel each other’s emotions through the Sian Web. To feel the way humans do when they love each other. The dragons burned her, so I couldn’t even see what was left of her.”
She felt his hurt. She was still a healer, after all; it was instinctive to try to help him. And his emotions were so powerful they burned through her psychic shields. The pressure on her brain increased. Her eyeballs throbbed.
His fingers around her throat tensed, cutting off her air supply.
Specks of black danced in front of her eyes, and a roaring filled her ears. She was going to collapse. Had she come this far only to die at the hands of a mad man?
“You loved her.” She gasped. “What was her name?”
Silence.
Tibor went still. That keen edge of his pain sharpened, until it shined with a diamond-hard edge. He was going slash through her psychic barriers. He’d rip her brain to shreds. She’d crossed the line, and he would kill her right then.
“Vesta.” His voice was utterly devoid of emotion. He’d retreated to a place in his head where nothing could hurt him again.
The healer in her trembled at her own callousness. The warrior she was knew she had to use the knowledge he had given her against him. “In Vesta’s memory, untie me, let me defend myself. After all, I am but a poor, helpless female.”
His fingers around her throat went still.
“Or are you scared I’ll defeat you in hand-to-hand combat?”
A low growl rose from him. Tibor shook his head as if to clear it. His fingers shook.
She’d got through to him. All she had to do was wait. She forced her muscles to relax, even as the primal part of her honed to survive, screamed at her to make a run for it.
Tibor let her go. He pulled out a sword from a sheath strapped across his back and raised his arm.
She bit down a scream.
He lowered the sword and sliced through the ropes that bound her.
She stepped away, her arms rigid at her sides, pain throbbing through her wrists and ankles as their circulation returned. The dull silver of his sword glinted.
Her mouth went dry.
Tibor raised his sword. With his other arm, he beckoned to her to come closer. “You wanted a fight? This is your chance.”
Panic clawed under her skin. Sweat beaded over her upper lip, her forehead.
She gritted her teeth and slid back a step, then another. Forced herself to take a breath, to calm her pulse that was racing so fast she felt dizzy.
She had to survive. She had to make her parents proud and not let their deaths be in vain.
Tibor lunged; the sword slashed.
The blade cut open the skin of her upper arm. Blood flowed down her elbow, pain exploding in her brain. A scream boiled up, and she bit it back. Careless of her.
She huffed out a breath, swiped away the pain. Neo! All that mattered was that she get to him.
She dropped into the part of her that was the light, drew in the silver strands, and let it shine through her.
She felt like she was one large mass of silver fire, glowing, shining, and so pure that nothing could come in its way. Not the darkness, not that Elysian, not anyone or anything.
The silver flame filled her, overflowed her cells and out to her fingertips.
The energy thrummed and calmed her. It was best to let the light guide her.
She closed her eyes and sensed the moment Tibor moved in on her.
She dropped low, folding up at the waist.
The sword passed over her, so close that it took off a sheaf of her hair, but she slid across to the other side. Sweat flowed down her back, and her pulse beat in a steady, constant thrum, like that of a drumbeat counting down the second
s until she would be free of this body.
No, not again, she wouldn’t be seduced by the light. She had to let it guide her, flow with her, not consume her.
She focused on the thrum of her heart that beat in tandem with Neo’s. She wanted to live. To see Neo again, to feel his skin, touch his cheek, lick his lips.
Tibor flipped around, his movements almost a blur. He barreled toward her.
She tried to dart to the side, but her movements felt sluggish. Her head spun, her knees shook. The blood loss was weakening her.
She was powerless. She felt the slight breeze against her skin, then the sword descended on her. Everything in her told her her time was up.
The unicorn spirit inside her flowed out past the last barriers she hadn’t even been aware she had placed on it.
It reached for the fledgling bond and drew on the energy of the dragon. Just like that, something inside her shifted.
She swung her body back, and his sword screamed not a few millimeters above her face; then he lost his footing, and the momentum of his hit pulled Tibor to the floor. He lost the sword that clattered down.
This time she didn’t hesitate.
She picked up the sword and raised it.
That’s when Tibor flung his arm out and yanked it as if tugging an imaginary leash. The air in the space thinned, and the hair on the back of her neck hardened. Her lungs screamed to draw in the remaining oxygen in the space.
A portal shined in that dank space.
When it faded away, a man stood in its place. He was tall, his eyes a piercing blue. There was a thin wire that cut into the skin around his neck. The other end of the wire was looped around Tibor’s wrist.
Tibor yanked at it. “Kill her, Arjun, and you go free.”
The newly arrived male bared his teeth, his eyes narrowed. He raised his hand, just a gesture. She felt the sword fly from her hand and toward the stranger.
It twirled midair then landed hilt first in his palm. He closed his fingers around the pommel and raised the blade.
25
Neo
Agony ripped through him on the psychic plane. The pain was harsh and fast, so keening it seemed to cut through every cell in his body.
Darkness buzzed through his head. Sparks of silver tugged at his consciousness, then faded away.
A profound emptiness sank into his blood. The breath stuttered in his chest.
She was scared; her life was in danger.
His dragon trembled. He had to get to her.
Another ripple of sadness gripped him. His hands went cold. Time was running out. She was losing hope. He had to reassure her. Neo dropped into the energy of his dragon. No longer just a shadow, it was a deeper, vital version of the beast that had grown up with him. Thanks to her. She’d broken the restraints that Igor had placed upon the dragonling he’d been. He’d found his alter ego.
He flowed through the indigo fire toward the silver that twined with it. Her energy. It eddied and curved in on itself. She was in so much pain. She felt so vulnerable. He could scent her fear. His heart twisted. Stay with me. He pulsed reassurance through the fledgling bond. Bond? When had that even happened? He’d have to back away once he’d rescued her. Until the bond snapped into place, there was still time to turn away from it. For now, it connected them. He could use the fledgling bond to find her.
But first he had to get through Igor.
He’d met feral shifters and powerful psychics. But this Dark Fae was far more dangerous. He had to play this carefully. He had to use Igor’s weakness against him.
He had to use himself to catch Igor off guard.
Neo raised his chin and flung out his chest.
Igor’s gaze dropped to his pecs, then slid down to his waist.
Neo widened his stance and firmed his thigh muscles.
Igor looked down at his crotch. Color flushed the Fae Lord’s cheeks.
A spurt of disgust slithered over Neo’s skin. The blood pounded in his ears. He was doing this for her, just for her. There was no way he was going to let anyone hurt her.
Igor took a step forward, and another.
He was close enough for Neo to see the muddy gray flecks in those dark irises. The scream of a thousand mortals echoed in those hollow eyes.
“You don’t fool me, dragon.” Igor’s fetid breath seared his cheek.
Neo so very wanted to turn his face away, away from the scent of helplessness that threatened to overwhelm him. Just then he felt like the boy he’d been, when he’d been caught up in that tsunami that had swept through Mauritania and had torn Neo away from his siblings.
He’d struggled so much, tried to swim, until he’d almost drowned. Then he’d let himself flow along; he’d stopped resisting. That’s when he’d found his balance. He’d allowed the storm to sweep him away. This was the same, he had to believe it.
“Oh?” He forced himself to tilt his head. Told himself to think of her when he swept his gaze over Igor’s chest, down to where the Dark Fae’s desire tented the cloth of his pants.
Disgust slammed into his chest, so hard he couldn’t breathe. His dragon growled and strained against his skin. He felt like he was giving up, giving in to his worst nightmares. Like he was letting her down.
But he wasn’t. This was the only way to save her.
He wrenched the emotions into a corner of his heart. He pushed the dragon into the far recesses of his psychic self. He slammed a psychic shield over the beast so tight that no one, not even she, could sense what he was feeling just then.
“Maybe, not.” Igor’s eyes widened, and the darkness pooled out of his irises into the whites, bleeding through the veins of his cheeks, his throat.
Neo didn’t need to follow the trail of his gaze to know it was heading south to the source of Igor’s desire.
Igor flicked out a finger. The nail at the end lengthened into a shiny silver tip that he trailed down the skin of Neo’s chest.
Blood ran from the open wound and dripped toward his waistband.
Igor licked his lips. His gaze followed the drop as it crept down toward Neo’s pants.
The scent of dry frost and rancid oil strengthened in the air. Neo’s guts twisted, and bile rushed up to his throat. He swallowed the acidic taste.
He had to see this through.
It was the only way to make sure he could get out of there alive. The only way he could rescue her.
“Do it.” Neo’s muscles tensed. He forced his breathing to stay calm.
Igor froze, then with a move so fast he seemed to blur, he dipped his head. He licked up the drop of blood before it hit the cloth of Neo’s waistband.
Neo clenched his fingers into fists.
He hated himself then, hated that he had to allow Igor to touch him, hated he felt like there was no other way out.
Igor straightened and met Neo’s gaze.
The cold hand of fear clutched Neo’s chest.
The darkness had bled through Igor’s veins, across his skin on his forearms and his chest. The blood vessels crisscrossed every visible part of his body. “You taste so sweet, dragon. Like the earth’s last nectar.”
The sweat trickled down Neo’s spine.
“I know you loathe me.” Igor smirked, his lips drawing back in the semblance of a snarl.
“I wonder what gave you that impression.” Neo tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He thought he’d almost succeeded, too, until Igor reached out and cupped Neo’s chin.
“The only thing you want is Trinity. Isn’t that right, shifter?” Raising his head, Igor flicked out his tongue and licked the sweat that ran down Neo’s temple.
He ground his teeth. Anger roared through his blood. “Don’t you dare talk about her.” His dragon pulsed and shuddered. He wished he could find a way to shift. Was that even possible when all this time his beast had refused to show itself?
“Temper. Temper” Igor moved closer. "It suits you, makes you even more alluring, you know that?"
Neo's skin tightened;
his leg muscles tensed.
Igor trailed his fingers down the planes of Neo’s stomach.
Neo yanked at the restraints. The chains rattled, and the straps that bound his feet to the floor shook. But it didn’t give. He gritted his teeth. He couldn’t allow himself to become weak.
Tendrils of heat bled out from Igor’s fingertips. They crawled over Neo’s skin and headed toward his groin.
Sweat broke out on Neo’s brow. His throat closed. His mind fought to push through the emotions that crowded his head. Fear, and an aching, clawing need inside for her. He held on to that. Every part of him wanted to trace that silver cord which bound him to her. He clung to it even as Igor trailed his fingers down and over the waistband of Neo’s pants.
“Think of her, dragon. Think of your unicorn shifter.”
“No,” Neo shook his head. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t think of her, not then. To do so would mean to sully the one pure thing in his life. The light that was everything he wanted, that could wash away all the hate of the past.
“Ah! But you will.” Igor swarmed his other arm around Neo’s shoulder, pulling him close enough that Neo had no choice but to look down into the other man’s eyes.
Neo knew he had to distract Igor, until he stopped thinking of Trinity. He had to focus Igor’s attention completely on himself.
He allowed himself to be drawn into the Fae Lord’s hypnotic gaze. To allow the screams of those Igor had taken and murdered wash through him. He let himself feel the full force of the Fae Lord’s evil presence.
“That’s it, go with your instinct."Igor’s gaze dropped to Neo’s lips. "Flow with your beast, the way it yearns for her.” His voice sank into Neo’s skin and fluttered over his nerve endings. Neo allowed it. Allowed the darkness to sully him. For without that, there would be no light, would there? He had to give in to fight through the pain.
“Beautiful.” Igor’s blackness surrounded Neo and threatened to overcome him.
He had to let it in. He had to seduce Igor into thinking that Neo was in his power. It was the only way to save her.
He dropped the shields around his dragon on the psychic plane. The darkness rushed through his blood, over his beast, surrounding him, until he felt bits of himself dissolving into it.
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