“This is no random girl,” Donovan insists. “She is exactly what you need. No more Aurora Gems. No more effort. Why try to artificially create what you need with limited, multiple power gems when you can just get all that you need straight from the source? Instead of diluted power?”
Roanac still doesn’t look impressed with me. He eyes me up and down like he’s wondering if I can scrub his floors. “I fail to see what’s special about her.”
Donovan lowers his voice, even though there’s no need. Everything he’s saying, the guards already know, and the guys and I are about to find out one way or another. I think he just has a flair for the dramatic. “She’s a pureblood fae. I mean,pure. She has the blood of the ancient ones. I knew it as soon as I tasted her.”
“You tasted her?” Roanac sounds concerned.
Donovan puts his free hand up in a gesture of surrender. “I didn’t damage her, not at all, I promise you. She cut herself, so I sampled a small lick. I knew then that I had to bring her to you.”
For fuck’s sake. If I hadn’t cut my finger, then we’d all be fine. Is that what I’m hearing? Damn it all.
I have to clench my jaw to keep myself from screaming in frustration. I just wanted to get out from under Donovan’s thumb and go home. I just want to be free. Rage fills me, and I want to tear someone limb from limb. Preferably the slimy vampire that’s currently holding me and talking about me like I’m not fucking here.
I take several deep, slow breaths. Losing my temper isn’t going to help me. Tempting as the idea of going berserk is.
Roanac steps up to me. His demeanor is still cold, composed, but I can see something flaring in his eyes. Shit. He’s interested in what Donovan’s saying.
He reaches up with his hand, and I see that the nails are sharpened. I hold still and just manage not to flinch as he draws one of his nails down my cheek, cutting it.
My eyes must be burning with hatred, but I keep myself still and look him right in the eye. I’m not showing this psycho an inch of fear. I can be just as controlled and composed as he is. Two can play this game.
“Taste her,” Donovan urges.
Roanac wipes a bit of my blood onto his finger and sticks it into his mouth, tasting it. His eyes widen and go dark. He draws his finger out of his mouth. “You’re right, O’Shae. She is in fact from the ancient ones. I hadn’t thought it worth seeking one out, with their rarity, but… fortune smiles upon us today.”
He taps my cheek with the pad of his finger, and I feel a strange buzzing, tingling sensation. The cut is closing up. My eyes begin to widen, and I have to struggle to keep my face under control. This Roanac is a mage.
Great. That means he’s got powerful magic at his disposal. I don’t want to have anything to do with this guy, or a mage like him. But it’s not like I really have a choice in the matter right now.
“Thank you, Donovan, you may go.” Roanac’s tone is dismissive and casual. I shiver.
In my opinion, it’s a sign that someone’s got actual power when they can be casual. The people who are always yelling and demanding, it’s because they’re scared that power will be taken away and they don’t really feel strong or secure in it.
This guy’s giving me the major creeps. Shit. Fuck. And several other swear words, I’m just kind of keeping up a litany of them in my head. We are so fucked.
Donovan bows. He actually bows, wow. Okay. He and his guards then leave, so that only Roanac and his two shades remain with us.
The temptation to leap at Roanac and try to just beat him and escape is strong. Normally that’s what I would do. There’s only him and two bodyguards, and I’ve got three powerful men with me, I’d say our odds are pretty good.
Except these are shades. They’re fast and stronger than most people realize. And Roanac’s obviously hugely powerful with magic if Donovan O’Shae isbowingto him.
I can’t risk it. I have to wait for a good opportunity, one that won’t get us killed.
“If you’ll follow me,” Roanac says, turning and exiting the room.
The two shades look at us, and I fall into step behind Roanac, the men flanking me. The shades walk behind us, their message clear: don’t try any funny business.
Now that there aren’t any bodyguards holding us apart, the men press close to me. North openly glares at Roanac’s back, and I’m sure that if he could shift into a wolf, he’d have done it by now. The rage in his eyes is definitely wolflike.
“I wanted, originally, to use a pure blood fae, one from the lineage of the ancient ones. But alas, it was going to be far too much work. Finding fae at all is difficult, especially a pureblood. Trying to trace the bloodlines from the ancient ones when all the records are lost? Forget it.”
Roanac leads us down some stairs and into another room, this one darker than all the others. The only light in this chamber comes from something glowing on the floor in the center.
Not one thing, I realize, squinting. It’s many things, Aurora Gems laid out on the floor into a pattern.
“I figured out that using many Aurora Gems would replace the need for the fae blood. It’s diluted, the power, but I can still make it work with the right methods. Magic is a lot like science, you know. It takes patience and persistence, and there are many ways to get to the solution you want.”
“Tell me, do you all go to monologuing school?” Cain asks. “Do you have to practice public speaking and stuff to become a megalomaniac? Or do you decide to take over the world just so you have an excuse to make grand speeches all the time? Is this a chicken and egg scenario?”