Davina (Davy Harwood #3)(4)

“Lucas, I cannot. All my supplies, all my books, everything is at my home.”

“You packed a bag. You knew I wouldn’t allow it. She will remain here and she will be under watch.” Roane stepped close, so close his nose nearly touched the sorcerer’s. “If you harm her or my men in any way, I will hunt you down.” His eyes turned lethal. “And I am the best there is.” He stepped back and cast a sweeping gaze over both of them. “Start her training now. I want it done as soon as possible.”

And with those parting words, he swept out the door. Two vampires entered behind him. They both took their guarding position, just inside the room.

Mavic lifted closed fists in the air and cursed under his tongue.

Brown frowned, it was in a language she had never heard, but she wanted to learn it. She wanted desperately to know everything this sorcerer knew, even if Roane didn’t trust him. If she was going to get her magic back to help Davy, this witch was her best shot. She gave him a bright smile. “So . . . where do we start?”





DAVY



Everything was a blur when I opened my eyes. Then the light blasted me and I screamed, lurching backwards in retreat. Anything would do to hide from it. I had to get away. My skin started to boil from the inside out. I felt it starting to peel away, layer by layer. That light, it was all because of the light.

A deep baritone laughed. He was enjoying my pain.

Lucan.

I gritted my teeth and tried to think of a retort, anything to shut him up. But then, I realized it wasn’t him. He annoyed me, but this voice hurt me. When he laughed again, pain flared through my body. Millions of tiny knives were slicing through my skin. Each one took its time. I screamed again and tried to writhe away, from him, from the light, from everything.

It hurt to breathe. The knives pierced my throat. I drew in a breath, and they slid deeper.

Then, nothing. Everything stopped.

I gasped and shot upright. There was no one in the room with me. My cage was still in the center, encased in darkness. There was no light anywhere.

The door opened and Lucan strolled inside, a satisfied smirk on his face. Blood was on his hands, but he made no move to wipe them clean.

“What new game was that?” I rasped out.

“What game?” He lifted his head and inhaled deeply.

I caught a whiff of the blood, and my stomach knotted. That was Kates’s blood. I didn’t want to know how that had happened, what sick game they played with each other, or even how I knew it was hers.

“What game?” he repeated and came closer to my cage.

I glanced at the door. “Do you have a new witch on your staff? One that can do that?”

I expected them to come in. They usually traipsed behind him, ready with chanting spells. The door stayed closed today.

Lucan frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Though my Immortal powers had been stripped away, my empathic abilities were still a part of me. I felt into him and read his confusion. A dark suspicion was starting to form in him and an ugly smirk appeared again. I wanted to jerk out, but I didn’t. I needed to know whatever he thought, though painful and disgusting it would be.

“It’s working. The thread is starting to unravel. She’s starting to inflict her own pain, delusions, too. Sarach never told me this would be the first step. It has to be the beginning.”

“You will never get the thread. The sooner you realize that, maybe you can figure out a way to kill me.”

His smirk vanished. “You are a mere thread-holder. It will work. I’ve forced the thread out of others, I can do it again.”

“They were thread-holders. I am not. I am The Immortal.”

His hands curled around my cage bars and he leaned forward. His face pressed between two bars and his smile was blinding. He looked so much like Lucas at that moment, handsome with sparkling eyes alive with life. My heart skipped a beat, and pain of a different sort speared through me. It hurt to breathe again.

Lucan reveled, “If you were The Immortal, my witches couldn’t touch you. You are not The Immortal. You cannot be because there is no Immortal. No human can handle that amount of power. Your body cannot endure it. You are more powerful than the others. I will give you that, but don’t think that it’s not because Lucas’s blood is in you. You drank from him. It’s the only reason you have more power than the others do. That is all.”

How did he know that?

He laughed. “It was written all over your face.” His voice became husky, intimate. “I know my own brother. He’s always shared blood with his lovers. It gives him a connection that humans could never experience, not without vampire blood.”

I swallowed back the pain. I wasn’t just some lover to Roane. I knew I wasn’t. “The Immortal thread has only been in humans, it has only ever been in humans. No vampire-wannabe is going to get it. And that won’t be you. You’re not good enough. The thread picks the person it goes to. If, by some miracle, you do get the thread out of me, it won’t go to you.”