“I mean have you bedded her?”
Drac grunted. “I know what you meant by claim.”
“Did you harm her in any way? Was she afraid?”
“No,” he said as the memory of her heat shivered through him.
The elder frowned. “Even without a beast, she was able to withstand how you took her? Did you have to restrain yourself?”
Drac hardened painfully at the memory of how she’d taken. In less than a day he had taken her several times. He had ridden her until she wilted, but she had always matched him. “I do not hold back with her.”
Drac glided around the room while the elder reached for another great tome. He wanted to settle her fears. He really did not know if she was turning into a Darkan and if it was even possible. He wanted to give her answers. He did not know to what extent she would change. He knew her vision and hearing had enhanced, but they would have to watch closely to see what else was to be revealed.
He inhaled deeply as his beast uncoiled on edge. He felt power stir in the air as it moved toward him with speed and rage. He could smell Tehdra’s scent attached to the chakra, and the pain underlying her scent.
Eldrud slammed the tome shut as he felt the disturbance in the air as well. Drac strode forward and shiktred into the great hall to meet her arrival. He automatically reached along the pathway to find Saieke. Drac paused when he encountered a void. His beast lunged, and he reached out with his mind to hers and came upon blankness once again. Unease roiled though Drac and he ruthlessly suppressed the flare of fear he felt. He traced the pattern of their connection and thrust deep into the recesses of her mind, past barriers that she had erected, to be met with pain and despair.
“Drac?” he heard elder Eldrud question him sharply the same time Tehdra arrived in a whirlwind of churning chakra and rage.
Drac… Saieke moaned was filled with pain and impending death. He lowered the psychic leash fully and bathed himself in the pure unadulterated need for destruction that bled into his mind.
Wait for me…please I beg you…do not die.
***
Tehdra stumbled to a stop into the hall and inhaled harshly at the feelings that came from Drac. She did not even get a chance to alert him to the attack, yet he was leaking unrelenting anger from his chakra. She stepped back as black scales rippled over his body and coated him completely like a second skin. Dark and massive wings spouted from his back and ripped his shirts to pieces. Malevolence swirled in deep yellow serpentine eyes. He disappeared and Tehdra moved with all the speed and strength that she could muster from her beast and tried to follow.
Great wings flapped, and he shot through the sky with a speed she could not hope to follow. She took comfort and deep satisfaction from the knowledge that he was heading in the direction of Chedra and the princess.
Please Chedra…Cullen hold on.
Chapter Eighteen
Pain clawed and dominated Saieke’s body. She did not know if Cullen and Chedra were alive. The claws embedded deep inside of Saieke ripped and sliced at her insides. She felt as she was looking through a prism at the Darkan that had her pinned on his claws.
“He has arrived,” a voice hissed close by.
She was flung away, and her body bounced and rolled as she landed a few feet from Cullen. Hot blood poured from her stomach and wetted her caftan. She pressed her hand to her stomach and tried to sit up. Agony was alive inside her. A vicious snarl of rage echoed in the forest. She lolled her head weakly to the side. Tzar. She let out a ragged sob when she saw him. He was too late. She was dying, and she could not feel any energy from Cullen or Chedra.
Less than five minutes had passed since they discovered the Mevians in the cave, yet utter destruction had been left in their wake. Saieke flinched from the tortured sound that ripped from Tzar’s throat when he saw his mate and son. He threw back his head and his roar echoed for miles. He lunged as he and the Darkan came together with ferocity.
The Darkan referred to as elder Macklin stood with a cruel curve to his lips and lazily observed the battle. The three Mevians were casually observing it as well. She heard snarls and roars and saw trees being felled, but could not make them out at all. Yet, they were killing each other less than fifty feet from her.
She whimpered and tried to crawl towards Cullen. She still had her vial around her neck and if she could save even one of them she would do it. She dragged herself while keeping the enemies in her vision. With every breath she took, pain lanced through her and pinpricks of light dance behind her eyes.
Saieke paused when the elder’s lazy look disappeared and rage flared in his face. A Darkan head rolled and stopped at his feet. Her stomach heaved. Tzar was bleeding from several deep gouges but he looked feral. He roared and lunged towards the elder. Saieke blinked in disbelief as the elder stood where he was and calmly waited for his arrival to backhand him. The elder’s strength was of such that Tzar flew more than three hundred feet before he twisted in the air and landed on his feet like a cat. The elder made a step forward and paused.
Saieke stilled when she felt the all-consuming rage that suddenly appeared.
Drac
Viciousness and bloodlust bled from him. At the center of it, she felt a coldness that leapt out and slid against her mind. She grasped eagerly at the connection and recoiled. Unadulterated cruelty and evil pervaded her mind. She pulled her mind from his quickly and heaved in the aftermath of such feelings.
Saieke whimpered as the elder’s chakra pulsed out and his skin bulged and stretched. Hideous rage and wickedness spilled from him as his chakra swirled. His skin contracted and Saieke screamed weakly as something leapt from his skin and manifested beside him. She had never seen such a creature outside of their great book. A hydra: It was over ten feet tall with a serpentine body and seven heads. It stood on four feet while its heads undulated, snapping in pure power and rage. The seven heads’ eyes were pitiless. The elder’s claws had extended and his face had the shape and cast of a hydra. He also seemed much bigger and more vicious. His tongue forked out and fangs dropped down.
Saieke, his voice was a deep distortion that she had never heard before.
She swiveled her head to look at Drac. Black scales covered his entire body. His face was fully covered in scales and slicked over his head. His serpentine eyes had no heat in them, there was only an unfathomable void that glowed yellow with flecks of red.