His only hope now was that the same was true for her.
Corbin settled himself on a moth-eaten velvet sofa, crossing one foot over his knee. The warlock tilted his head to one side, regarding him with an inscrutable expression.
“A break, I think,” Corbin said. “To refuel the fire.”
The agony faded as the warlock closed the connection between them once more. Ash sucked in a gasping breath, sweating despite the cold still deep in his bones. He fell to one knee, bracing himself on the dusty floorboards with a splayed hand.
Corbin’s newly agile fingers tapped thoughtfully against the arm of the sofa. “You did not use to fight me this hard, Blaze.”
“Release my men,” Ash said hoarsely, “and I’ll stop.”
“A noble offer.” Ash bit back a grunt as Corbin flexed his will, the binding digging deeper for a second. “But I think not. No matter how you resist, I can still take what I need, albeit a little more slowly than I might like. And as for your men…I have use for them.”
Ash knew exactly what that use was. Corbin needed the power of Alpha Team to capture more shifters. Ash could see the shape of the warlock’s plan as clearly as if he’d could read Corbin’s mind.
Chase’s powers to locate and identify all the potential familiars. Griff’s to spot and close off any avenue of escape. John’s to summon a monsoon, providing cover for the attack. Dai’s fire to panic shifters out of the resort. Hugh’s power, inverted, used to paralyze rather than heal.
And his own fire, the unstoppable force of the Phoenix, to eliminate any shifters still able to resist.
Then Corbin would have even more warlocks serving him. Warlocks bound to powerful familiars, mythic shifters, alpha predators. Nothing would stop him from sweeping on to another hidden shifter community. And another, and another, and another…
All Ash could do was try to delay him. Rose was clever and fierce and she’d escaped. No doubt she was already in the company of the other women. Virginia, Connie, Hayley, Neridia, Ivy—none of them would rest for a second while their mates were in danger.
The women would find them. Ash didn’t know how, but he knew, bone-deep, that they would.
He had to give them time.
“The more you tighten your grasp, the sooner I’ll escape you.” With an effort, Ash lifted his head, meeting Corbin’s narrowed eyes. “You can’t afford to drive me too hard, Corbin. You know what will happen.”
He’d seen it himself, time after time, during those long years in the base. It went against everything in a shifter’s wild, primal nature to be leashed to a warlock. The older and more powerful the shifter, the sooner the binding drove them insane. And then, it was a quick, short spiral into death.
He’d been the only one to ever last more than a few short years. He’d been brainwashed, his own will bent and warped to support Corbin’s instead of fighting it. That has been the only thing that had allowed him to endure.
Now, though…now, he knew better.
“I can already feel the madness rising,” he said, which wasn’t actually a lie. The Phoenix was mad, mad with rage, its seething flames gnawing at his control. “Drain me too far, and my beast will consume my human mind, and my body shortly after that. You had to wait twenty years to claim your prize. At this rate, you risk losing it again in a matter of days.”
“Yes,” Corbin said slowly, drawing out the word. “That is a pity. I had hoped that you would settle tamely back into harness. It will be aggravating to have to track down and capture the next Phoenix.”
He stared at the warlock.
Corbin raised his eyebrows. “Did you think that you were my first, Blaze? I have been doing this for a very, very long time. You are correct, most of you don’t last long. But you…oh, you were perfect. Orphaned and abandoned, so pathetically eager to be wanted. So starved of love that you took my hand without question.”
A very, very distant memory flickered in his mind. Not so much a recollection as an impression—bars across an uncurtained window, moonlight, a hard, lonely cot. A shadow, a hand, a voice: Come. You belong to me now.
“Rare, very rare, for the Phoenix to choose so young and malleable a host,” Corbin mused, as Ash crouched in frozen shock. “Small chance of it ever happening again. That was all that stopped me from simply having you killed, these past few years. I was on the verge of doing so anyway, and accepting the risk that the next Phoenix might prove even more difficult to capture, when you very kindly revealed your weakness to me.”
The warlock leaned forward, gray eyes glittering. “Since you are so keen on self-sacrifice, Blaze, you might care to consider that you are all that is standing between me and the next unfortunate soul to host the Phoenix. I would not be so eager to go mad, if I were you.”
Corbin sat back again. “I know what you are doing,” he said conversationally. “You are trying to delay me. You pin your hope on the thought of rescue. Who is it that you think will come? How do you think they will find you?”
“You took the mate of the Pearl Empress. You cannot begin to imagine the powers she has at her command.”
“Oh, but I can,” Corbin breathed, an avaricious light gleaming in his pale eyes. “Beasts of the deep, legends from out of time, power to delight any warlock. Let her send her armies. My acolytes shall bind her warriors, and her forces will become my own. Abandon your futile thoughts of rescue, Blaze. I have won. I was always going to win. Accept that, and submit to my will.”
“So confident.” Ash met the warlock’s eyes. “Just as you were twenty years ago.”
The barb hit home. Corbin’s nostrils flared in anger, his mouth pinching.