“What about you, Imani? Are you interested in a vision?”
I double-blinked at Sam. “Um…”
Her aquamarine gaze rested on Butch’s hold on my wrist. “All right, boys, time to go.” She waved a hand toward the door. Being nosy bastards, they didn’t leave happily. Evan, Salem, and Chico were rather put-out when their mates insisted they leave.
Butch lingered long enough to speak into my ear. “Say no.” Then he was gone.
As the door closed behind him, Luther gave me a pointed look. “Do not let anyone influence your decision. Many visions prove to be helpful. I think of them as warnings. They show us what will happen if we remain on our present course. Others are simply to prepare us for what’s ahead.”
Sebastian nodded. “He’s right, Imani. Butch probably means well, but this has to be your decision.”
Sam rubbed her hands together. “Right, who’s first?”
Ava raised a hand high. “Me!”
“All right, come on. All of you remember that your vision is for you and you alone. No one will ask you to share it.”
Intrigued, I watched as Ava took Luther’s hand. Her eyes closed, and then nothing. Her expression didn’t change, she didn’t tense or anything. Just stood there, very still.
Maybe twenty seconds later, Ava’s eyes flipped open and she took a long breath. “Whoa, that was freaking weird.” She smiled. “Salem is going to love this.”
Paige went next. Then Cassie, Maya, Jude, and—after a little hesitation—Alora. Paige and Maya were confused by their visions while the others seemed…not happy, but not worried. None shared exactly what they had seen.
Luther then turned to me, hand held out. Butch was gonna be disappointed, but I couldn’t miss out on this. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. No sooner had I took the offered hand than I was hit by the feeling of being sucked into something.
It was pure black for a few seconds. Then it was light, and I was surrounded by smoke. My eyes itched like hell and, fuck, I was hurting. My chest burned like a son of a bitch; something warm and wet was covering my top. I didn’t need to look to know that it was my blood. I could smell it. Just as I could scent fire, burning flesh, and the familiar scents of the rainforest that surrounded The Hollow.
Hearing a guttural growl among the shouting, roaring, and screaming, I squinted at the thing coming at me through the smoke. Then my eyes widened. Shit, that—
I was back in the conference room.
Feeling like I’d been shot out of a cannon or something, I blinked repeatedly as I took in large gulps of air. My eyes no longer stung, and I could see that I was surrounded by a group of very concerned faces.
Paige pulled me into her side. “Sweetie, you okay? You don’t look so good.”
I fought back panic, swallowing hard. “I’m okay.”
“No, you are not,” said Sebastian, frowning. “Sit down for a moment.”
I flopped into one of the seats and gratefully accepted the vanilla-flavoured NST that Paige pulled out of her purse.
Alora brushed my hair away from my face. “Wanna tell us what you saw, honey?”
Finishing the NST, I looked up at Sam. “Dragons. I saw dragons.”
CHAPTER FOUR
(Imani)
“Dragons?” repeated Jared, incredulous.
After my announcement, Sam, Luther, my squad, and I had walked out of the rear of the mansion, passed the beautiful gardens, the pool, the private beach, and to the enclosed training arena. The interior was much like a large horse paddock. Each wall was marked from A – D, which represented north, east, south, and west. It was surrounded by a large seating area which featured a VIP box on the middle tier.
Inside, Jared and the males had already begun the session. Now they were all circling me, their faces in different stages of confusion.
“That’s what I saw,” I told him.
“Tell him the rest,” urged Sam.
“We were in the rainforest. There was smoke all around us. I could hear growling, roaring, snarling, and the crackling of fire. People…people were screaming. I could smell blood and flesh burning. A dragon was coming toward me just as the vision ended.”
David, the youngest but most powerful of his squad, said, “You’re saying dragon shifters are coming to The Hollow to battle with us?”
“It would seem so,” said Luther, who was put-out that he hadn’t seen the event in a vision of his own. “I do not suppose you have any idea of when this will happen?”
I worried my lower lip. “Sort of. I can’t give you a timeline, but I can tell you that I had something with me that I don’t own yet.” I’d been wearing a Harley Davidson vest. It was pretty cool, despite being drenched in blood.
“So this isn’t going to happen until you actually have it,” said Sam. “Well that’s better than nothing, because it tells us that the dragons aren’t on their way here. As soon as you come into possession of whatever that item is, you call me.”
“Why would they come here?” Paige asked.
“Dragon shifters do not like our species very much,” said Luther. “It was once believed that dragon blood could cure vampirism. It is not true. Nothing can cure it. But for a long time, vampires captured dragons and drained them of blood in their attempts to create a cure.”
Max skimmed a hand over his military haircut. “No wonder they hate us.”
“Still, I do not believe they would senselessly attack. If they are planning to come here to fight us, they must have some motivation.” Luther sighed. “But, since each preternatural species is insular and private, I do not know enough about dragon shifters to be certain.”
I cleared my throat. “I know someone who does.”
Jared immediately asked, “Who?”
“The Master Vampire of my nest.”
Eyes narrowing, Sam stilled. “I think we should have this conversation in private.” Probably because she knew I’d never been open about my past, and she figured there was a very good reason why.
Jared nodded. “We’ll discuss this in my office.”
“Wait!” said Paige, but Jared teleported Sam and I out of the arena and to their office. The space was seriously cool. White walls, white floor tiles, a stylish oak desk, leather chairs, an ultramodern computer, and huge glass windows. Sam sat at her desk while Jared leaned against the filing cabinets that were built into the wall.
She gestured for me to take the seat across from her. “Tell us about your nest.”
“I’m guessing you did a background check before hiring me. How much do you know?”
Sam nodded. “Mona and Cedric tracked you to Lazarus Cray’s line.” He was a very old, powerful, and widely feared Master Vampire. “Your Sire is Marco, his best assassin. And you’re the first vampire Marco ever created.”
Just hearing Marco’s name made me grind my teeth. “Yes.”
“You fled from your Sire and severed your blood-bond using your gift,” added Jared. Sam was a seriously lucky girl, because he was honestly the personification of sex. Oddly enough, though, he didn’t hold the same appeal for me as Butch did. “What we don’t know is why you did that. Did he hurt you?” There was a promise of retribution in those words.
“I met Marco when I was human. We dated for a while. Many Kejas can put humans in a trance before feeding from them, so that the humans have no memories of the event. He put me in that same trance, and then he Turned me. One minute I was human, the next I was in agony and going through the transition with absolutely no idea what was happening to me.”
That made the mercury glint to Sam’s irises flare—it was the marker of a hybrid. “Unfortunately, that happened far too much until we gave it a death sentence.” She flicked her dark hair over her shoulder. “What happened after that?”
“Like all newborn vampires, I was struggling with bloodlust and fighting for control. And he just dumped me on Lazarus.”
Jared’s face hardened. “He abandoned you?”
“Yep.” As if it wasn’t bad enough that he’d effectively stolen my life from me, he’d then carelessly put me aside. Sires typically monitored their vampires while the person went through the transition, overcame the bloodlust, and their gift surfaced. “I was in shock, I was scared, I was confused, and I was surrounded by people I didn’t know. All I wanted was to go home. That was all I kept saying—that I wanted to go home. Lazarus said I couldn’t, but that he’d teach me control so that I could exist in the human world if that was what I wanted.”
Jared’s forehead creased. “If Lazarus was watching over you, he must have seen your gift manifest itself.”
“He did.”
“But he didn’t make you stay?”
“I thought he’d go back on his word when he realised what a good weapon I’d make.” After all, I could be used to separate mates against their will. In fact, a vampire had tried forcing me to separate Sam and Jared by using Paige as leverage. “He didn’t. Like me, he and his sister were Turned against their will. So maybe he took pity on me. I left, and I severed my bond with Marco. He didn’t try to track me.”
“Are you sure?” asked Sam. “You’re not just one of his vampires. You’re his first-born. That’s pretty significant.”