His terrible eyes dawn-bright and empty.
“Destroy them.” He spoke quietly as he nodded to the diamond pillars that guarded the hall. As two massive Crystal Dragon Binds went to the pillars, one citrine-bright and the other a deep jade, beginning to send rumbling shockwaves through them and produce crunching sounds deep within each pillar, Hunter looked back to Layla. His gaze roved the Bind then, and their remaining allies. And then they fixed upon something in the center of the hall.
And Hunter inhaled – his eyes becoming fiercely Dragon-slitted before returning to human.
“What is that?” He spoke softly, as Layla turned to follow his gaze. In all the carnage, she had forgotten Nimir’s crystal sarcophagus, still in the center of the hall where Dusk had placed it. With a sudden shock, she remembered it now, chastising herself that she’d not made any plan yet to use Nimir against Hunter, as a bargaining chip or otherwise.
But as a multitude of emotions suddenly careened through her – emotions that weren’t hers – Layla startled. Glancing to her Bind-mates, she saw them all frowning, and realized those emotions weren’t coming from them. They were coming from Hunter; and as Layla realized that, a glimmer of a plan began to form inside her. Glancing back to Hunter, she knew he was feeling true emotions as he looked upon that sarcophagus of sapphire-diamond.
And knew what lay within.
“Your ancient lover Nimir sleeps, Hunter.” Layla spoke steadily now as she watched him, hearing pops and crunches as the Royal Crystal Dragon Binds continued their work on the diamond pillars. The first part of her idea included honesty, and so Layla rolled with it now, to make Hunter take her bait. “We found him in the Thin Ways. The Vampire Revenants gave him to us.”
“Nimir is dead.” Hunter spoke now with a dark emptiness, though his eyes remained ferociously slitted as he stared at the sarcophagus. “I killed him myself, long ago.”
“Yes, but you stored his body in a cavern made by the Old Dragons of Vittria, didn’t you?” Layla spoke as she stepped forward, her Bind and allies standing strong behind her now. “You stashed his body away in the safest vault you knew of, hoping that one day you’d find someone who could resurrect him, or do it yourself. Well, news flash, bucko. That vault you stashed him in? Oh yeah – it resurrected him all on its own. He’s alive inside that sarcophagus, recovering. And guess what? He’s my prisoner.”
Hunter said nothing as his dawn-deadly gaze returned to Layla, boring into her now as his eyes maintained their Dragon-shape. As she watched, his face flickered through dozens more personae before halting on one that looked surprisingly like Nimir himself – then finally settling back into Hunter. Though he telegraphed no emotions, it was like seeing them written all over him anyhow as he lost control of his shifting and finally resumed his own visage. He was becoming unstable again, and something about Nimir potentially being alive caused it.
And suddenly, Layla knew Nimir was Hunter’s Achilles’ heel.
A real plan started blossoming in her then; but even as it rose, Layla shut her Bind tight against any of the others knowing – especially Hunter. Her Bound mates would know her needs when the moment came, but if Layla leaked anything of her sudden idea through the ether, or the Bind, they had no chance at using it. As she stared Hunter down, Layla controlled her face and body the way Reginald had taught her all those months ago, telegraphing nothing to her enemy.
And as he stared at her back, he gave a soft laugh.
“You lie.” He spoke with deadly precision now. “You have not been able to resurrect Nimir – and now I know you never could. Nadia’s god and its prophecy led me astray all those years ago, promising miracles it could not keep. And now I know that the Golden Dragon Bind is nothing. Only a last relic of my enemy to destroy before I wipe her out as well – for good this time.”
Something inside Layla breathed in relief to know Nadia was still alive, somewhere. But she was probably Hunter’s prisoner, and he probably wanted to make her watch everything she loved get torn down before he killed her, as was his agenda with Layla now also. As Hunter watched Layla, something like personality shone in his eyes at last. A hint of the almost-human who had met her at his hidden realm showed through, as he cocked his head.
“What are you hiding from me, Layla?” He spoke softly now, his danger exquisite as he stared her down with a mix of patience, dominance, and confusion. “I cannot feel your thoughts, emotions, or energy through our Bind.”
“It’s my Bind, asshole.” Layla quipped back, forming a massive image ofnullax-mist in her mind now as she stared him down, reinforcing him from getting in her thoughts. “You’re just a dick who tricked his way in.”
“And yet, I will end everything you love once this barrier falls.” Hunter spoke casually as he made an effete gesture to the diamond pillars, and more crunching sounds of their destruction. “I will capture you and make you watch as I kill each of your men one by one, and all your precious fighters here with you now. And then I will take you around the world as I hunt down every last person who opposed me today and kill them also, then hunt all their kin and their loved ones as well. Seven generations of your Dragons and allies will be decimated before I am satisfied. And I will keep you alive the entire time – to watch as the world falls to my dominance at last.”
“I thought you wanted me at your side.” Layla snorted now as her men stepped up to her, snarling fiercely. “To rule as your Queen and help subjugate your peons.”
“Not anymore.” Hunter spoke softly as his full lips curled in a terrible smile. “After this show tonight, I do believe we shall never see eye-to-eye, Layla Price.”
“You’re afraid of me.” Layla suddenly understood as she picked up on the subtext of Hunter’s words, even though he tried to hide it. With a vicious chuckle, she felt her drakaina rise in a wash of white-gold heat all through her now as she stared him down, rejuvenated by her recent rest. “You’re afraid I’m going to take you down, aren’t you?”
Hunter didn’t flicker a golden eyelash as he watched her, but something in his face steeled as it flashed through a dozen more people. “Where are your allies, Layla Price? Where are the thousands who stood strong with you up above when I sundered the night? For I see none of them here now but a handful. Oh yes – they’re all dead or scattered, aren’t they? And Iwillfind the rest when I am done with you and your precious Bind. And make them suffer, deeply.”
“I’d like to see you try, asshole.” Dusk growled then, a hot diamond-light flashing all through his naked skin and midnight-gold scales. But Layla merely held her hand out to Dusk, her mind racing with a thousand possibilities of how this might go down. Taking a deep breath, she held Hunter’s gaze one last moment.
And then turned her back on him – walking to Nimir’s sarcophagus in the center of the hall.
“What are you doing? Where are you going?” Hunter’s sudden snarl behind her confirmed what Layla had already guessed; that she had found his weakness. Even a beast as far gone as him still held love for someone – and Layla pulled his heartstrings now with every step she took towards the sarcophagus, glimmering quietly in the center of the French Baroque hall. As she came to the bier, running her hands over its smooth surface and gazing at the man within, she felt Hunter slam against her mind-barriers, trying to see what she saw. But as her idea came to fullness, Layla created a universe ofnullaxnow inside her mind, white and empty as the mist in the Dragon bone-yard.
Preventing Hunter from knowing her plans.
Turning, she addressed her Bound lovers out loud. “Adrian, Dusk, Rhennic, Reginald, Fury – I need you all over here, please. And the rest of you,” she added as she looked to Quinn, the Madame, and the others, “I’ll need you over here also.”
Frowning with confusion as they glanced warily back at Hunter and his stalled forces, Layla’s men and their remaining allies came to her now. As Layla nodded, they each took up positions around the sarcophagus, the Madame shifting back down to human as Layla indicated for their allies to touch the crystal bier. Nodding for her Bind-mates to spread out, the Bind stood around all their allies and the sarcophagus in a ring now. As Layla held her hands palm-out at her sides and nodded for the others to do the same, Dusk whispered softly from her left.
“What are we doing, Layla?”
“We’re sending Nimir’s sarcophagus through the ether.” Layla spoke loudly then, glancing back at Hunter to make sure he heard her. “If he wants it – he can come and get it.”
