Read Online Betrayal's Shadow by K H Lemoyne - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: K H Lemoyne
Ads: Link
Maitea’s bond, their silent communication and love, had been painful. Joy for his brethren struggled against a thread of envy stretched beneath his skin.
Instead of betraying his jealousy, he left the Sanctum’s safety and searched. He walked through endless cities of humans and waited for a lost mate of his people to call to him, finding only emptiness. Too immersed in his own struggle to find personal joy, he’d failed Xavier and Maitea instead of being nearby when they had needed him.
He owed Xavier his allegiance. He owed him a chance to present his claim of a plot against Maitea’s life. Despite Xavier’s current mad choices and recent past, Turen refused to discount Xavier’s claim without visible proof and his own scrutiny. More important, certainly more selfish, he wanted his comrade back to stem the hopeless lethargy and stagnation infecting his people under Salvatore’s rule.
Turen turned off the water and moved to the slab, still not able to shake that his own actions had brought him so low. This maelstrom of his creation even snared Isa. She hadn’t died by his hands, but with certainty, without his choices she would still be alive now.
And Mia?
Was her presence here a sign of help, another penance for his acts, or perhaps a test of his dedication to his people and their secrets?
How in the hell was he going to keep a human female safe in this prison? If he could get back to the Sanctum, she wouldn’t be able to follow, given the Guardian security there. However, escape from this prison wasn’t an option for him.
In the pit of his stomach, he knew she would show up again. He prayed it would at least be in the cell and not out in the compound, where she risked Rasheer’s attentions.
Or perhaps his relocation would sever the link between them. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his face. Heaven knew he could do without the burden of her welfare and soul on his shoulders. The weight was heavy enough with the souls already entrusted to his care, ones who would perish without the blessing his children would bring.
The lights overhead dimmed in a pattern of pulses and then shut off. The only light that remained was a narrow green line that followed the trough of water on the floor to a pinhole drain at the corner of the room. Neon green illuminated the one wall of the cell with a low intense glow, leaving the other walls and the rock slab bed in lower shadows.
Something new .
***
Ansgar unfolded into the deep grasses at the top of the ridgeline along the cliff’s highest edge. An ocean-borne breeze blew across his face while he watched gray foam crest on the dark, chopped waves.
He lifted his hand and a peak of water danced in a column, rising from the wave caps, ten, twenty, then thirty feet into the air. It swirled and glistened with the sun’s last rays. The water sparkled, answering his call, until, with a sigh, he waved it back to the bowl of the sea.
The sunset kissed the earth behind him, elongating his shadow. He turned in time to witness the midnight blue blanket of night sky overlay purple, indigo, and pink in a final whisper.
I can’t keep doing this.
With a shake of his head, he clenched his fists and stalked toward the whitewashed lighthouse set back from the cliff’s edge. For one hundred and fifty years the building had served the coastline and its inhabitants. It had provided discreet cover for his bloodline for all those years.
Hand braced against the doorframe, he waited in the deepening dusk. He closed his eyes and focused around him for signs of others, his senses attuned for sounds and smells beyond the roar of breakers and salt-laden air. Two hours of setting false trails and crisscrossing deep tracks within the throng of the dense populations of the neighboring cities didn’t diminish his diligence. Fortunately, his efforts would disrupt the pursuit of even the most relentless of his brethren.
Xavier had taught them the skills to erase their imprint as
Instead of betraying his jealousy, he left the Sanctum’s safety and searched. He walked through endless cities of humans and waited for a lost mate of his people to call to him, finding only emptiness. Too immersed in his own struggle to find personal joy, he’d failed Xavier and Maitea instead of being nearby when they had needed him.
He owed Xavier his allegiance. He owed him a chance to present his claim of a plot against Maitea’s life. Despite Xavier’s current mad choices and recent past, Turen refused to discount Xavier’s claim without visible proof and his own scrutiny. More important, certainly more selfish, he wanted his comrade back to stem the hopeless lethargy and stagnation infecting his people under Salvatore’s rule.
Turen turned off the water and moved to the slab, still not able to shake that his own actions had brought him so low. This maelstrom of his creation even snared Isa. She hadn’t died by his hands, but with certainty, without his choices she would still be alive now.
And Mia?
Was her presence here a sign of help, another penance for his acts, or perhaps a test of his dedication to his people and their secrets?
How in the hell was he going to keep a human female safe in this prison? If he could get back to the Sanctum, she wouldn’t be able to follow, given the Guardian security there. However, escape from this prison wasn’t an option for him.
In the pit of his stomach, he knew she would show up again. He prayed it would at least be in the cell and not out in the compound, where she risked Rasheer’s attentions.
Or perhaps his relocation would sever the link between them. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his face. Heaven knew he could do without the burden of her welfare and soul on his shoulders. The weight was heavy enough with the souls already entrusted to his care, ones who would perish without the blessing his children would bring.
The lights overhead dimmed in a pattern of pulses and then shut off. The only light that remained was a narrow green line that followed the trough of water on the floor to a pinhole drain at the corner of the room. Neon green illuminated the one wall of the cell with a low intense glow, leaving the other walls and the rock slab bed in lower shadows.
Something new .
***
Ansgar unfolded into the deep grasses at the top of the ridgeline along the cliff’s highest edge. An ocean-borne breeze blew across his face while he watched gray foam crest on the dark, chopped waves.
He lifted his hand and a peak of water danced in a column, rising from the wave caps, ten, twenty, then thirty feet into the air. It swirled and glistened with the sun’s last rays. The water sparkled, answering his call, until, with a sigh, he waved it back to the bowl of the sea.
The sunset kissed the earth behind him, elongating his shadow. He turned in time to witness the midnight blue blanket of night sky overlay purple, indigo, and pink in a final whisper.
I can’t keep doing this.
With a shake of his head, he clenched his fists and stalked toward the whitewashed lighthouse set back from the cliff’s edge. For one hundred and fifty years the building had served the coastline and its inhabitants. It had provided discreet cover for his bloodline for all those years.
Hand braced against the doorframe, he waited in the deepening dusk. He closed his eyes and focused around him for signs of others, his senses attuned for sounds and smells beyond the roar of breakers and salt-laden air. Two hours of setting false trails and crisscrossing deep tracks within the throng of the dense populations of the neighboring cities didn’t diminish his diligence. Fortunately, his efforts would disrupt the pursuit of even the most relentless of his brethren.
Xavier had taught them the skills to erase their imprint as
Similar Books
