Finn’s mouth twisted. “The males can also manipulate power?”
Demeti’s excitement was obvious. “If my references are correct, they are tied directly into the life essences of their surroundings. A Bellati would be a major find. He’d be a conduit to those energies and a perfect addition for my zoo.” His eyes narrowed. “But what is this one doing in the human realm?”
Lucas felt a faint stirring of hope. Maybe if Demeti got a new pet, he’d leave Lucas alone. And then he chided himself, for wishing this on anyone else.
John swallowed. “I don’t know. But he is.”
Demeti leaned forward. “You’ve seen him? Do you know when and where he will be?”
The portly man nodded. “Yes. I’ve managed to pinpoint the location.”
Finn jumped in eagerly. “John said the timing is tricky to pin down, but he thinks it’s happening in the next hour or so. That is why we dared to interrupt.”
Demeti’s eyes glowed. “Are you certain you have pinpointed the event? When I went to the human realm and tried to find the source of that power, he was long gone. Even when I tortured the human I found, he had no idea what had happened or who was responsible.”
“I know when and where.” John looked anywhere except directly at Demeti. Lucas knew terror when he saw it; this guy wasn’t serving Demeti willingly. His gaze slid to Finn, the brother. Were all Torshins created alike?
Demeti strode past the Seer and his brother to the door. “You made the right decision. Let us prepare.”
The Torshin was leaving. Lucas sagged against the chains in relief.
But Finn hesitated, his gaze trailing over his bleeding body. “Are you just leaving him here? He’s making a mess of the floor.”
Demeti paused at the door to sneer at Lucas and the crimson eyes promised that there would be more to come. “Perhaps some time hanging in chains will convince him to be more cooperative.” He met Lucas’s glare and ran his black tongue over his lips. “I promise to return and finish what we started.”
“Do I get a turn?” Finn asked, his eyes gleaming.
Lucas supposed that answered his question. He forced his chin up, and glared at both Torshins, but they’d already turned away.
“Come,” the Torshin said to his brother and cohort. “If our little zoo is to acquire a Bellati, we have some things to prepare.”
12
Nikolai pushed hard as he flew over the desert’s sandy soil.
His feet found their path by instinct alone, because his mind was immersed in the jagged song that thrummed up through the earth beneath him. Piercing pain throbbed from the bull elephant—in his side, and his hindquarter—as he attempted to drag himself away.
It wasn’t Nikolai’s pain, but it permeated his every fibre. As his body struggled to get him there in time, his mind reached out to the surrounding life essences, pulling them to him.
Above, thunder rolled. He pushed himself to run like a wildebeest, fast and forever. The rhythm of galloping feet flashed through him, hoofbeats echoing as his own feet flew over the ground.
The elephant song rose to swirl around him, calling to him to do something, tohelp. He gathered more energy, and his legs became a blur.
The clouds above him roiled, and lightning flashed.
Another pain pierced him through the song—this time, it dropped the bull to the ground, and the darkness closed in. Nikolai’s heart twisted . Hiding in his heavy gray hair, Mai trembled in fear, but she continued to cling to him.
The song shivered. The bull was dying, and Nikolai caught traces of other essences surrounding it.
They were human.
They must die for what they have done.
For once, Nikolai didn’t question the voice. His lips peeled back from his teeth. Darkness fluttered at the edges of his vision. A bolt of red lightning struck a tree as he ran by, setting it aflame.
He burst through a patch of thorn bushes and into a death scene.
A huge old bull elephant lay in a small clearing, its song fading as its lifeblood soaked into the dry earth. Around it stood five humans, armed with automatic weapons. One brandished a wicked knife as it leaned over the bull’s long tusks.
