Talon didn't wait for the Queen to give him the answers he sought. He searched her body and pulled out what he wanted. The white Orb glowed in his hand and he cut his wrist and dripped his blood onto it. It glowed red, bright and fast, and then settled back into white. Talon flung his head back and let out a shriek more animal than human. "Emzara, you follow me now. Come! Join me! I am your new King. Your new Master."
It didn't take long for Emzara to fly in and land like silent, obedient robots in front of Talon. Even Ryder, who had just fought the Druid, bowed his head as Talon released the tree holding him. They were all subservient to him. Through magic. They had no free will.
How did Ryder end up here? How did a Lycan of the Church end up a Nephilim Emzara in slave to the Queen?
"Emzara, take all here to the Stone Prison!"
As one of them was about to grab me, Talon stopped them. "Not her. She is mine."
I growled and could feel my wolf close to the surface. "I'll never be yours. Kill me if you must but you will not have me."
He walked closer to me. "Don't you know I've been hunting for you for as long as I've been alive? When I found you I knew the time was nigh. That we were ready to rule. You are my Queen."
"Let them go. Let them all go and I'll stay with you," I said.
He laughed. "You're in no position to barter, my dear." He turned. "Bring Derek to me."
My body froze. "Leave him alone, Talon. This has nothing to do with him."
"Oh, but it does. Because he is your weakness."
It took three Emzara to restrain Derek after the tree released him. They tied him to another tree that sprouted up at Talon's command.
"Whip him," Talon said.
"No!" I screamed, but it didn't matter. One of the Emzara came forward, cat o’ nine tails in hand, and the first lash nearly killed me. Bile rose in my throat and my body trembled as Derek's perfect back split open in lines of red, the sound of his flesh flaying filling the air as he cried out in reflexive agony.
"Stop!" I cried, falling to my knees.
Another lash, this time wet with his blood and bits of skin. He screamed again, this time more of a growl.
"I will do what you want! Just leave him alone."
Another lash, and Derek slumped over, no sound leaving his white lips. I moaned, sick inside. "I said I will do what you want. Whatever you want." My heart felt split open and lying in the bloody pool of flesh that had become my husband's back.
Talon raised his hand. "Three lashes, as warning. If you disobey me or go against me again, I will not stop until there is nothing left of him but a pile of meat and bones for the dogs to feed on."
Tears dripped off my chin and I nodded as the Emzara dragged a nearly unconscious Derek away with everyone else.
When the Emzara returned, Talon erected a massive throne for himself, with a side throne for me. He forced me into my seat and surrounded us with Emzara guards. The Queen he kept imprisoned in his vines.
"I keep you alive for only one reason," he told Seraphina. You have the power to help me find all Nephilim and destroy them. And you will help me, or I will rip off your wings and lock you in the Stone Prison until the thirst drives you mad, and then you will help me because you will not even know what you are doing."
She slumped in her prison, the fight gone from her and I slumped against my 'throne', feigning acquiescence as I dug deep into myself to find that hidden room of my power.
Talon raised his glowing Orb and spoke. "Emzara, go to the Forbidden City. Go and find all the Nephilim. Find them. And kill them."
THIRTY TWO
Patience A Mockery Makes
DEREK
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.
— William Shakespeare, Othello
I CAME TO in darkness tinged by the blue glowing orbs that lined the prison walls. I felt the burn of lacerations down my back as they very slowly mended themselves. I felt the tear of muscle under skin, cut through with whips of leather. But none of that mattered because my first thought, my only thought, was of Rose. She was in the hands of a madman and he was using me to control her.
I had to get out of here.
Hoisting myself up through pain and dizziness, I studied my surroundings. Rock and dirt and despair.
And Ryder.
He sat in my cell at the corner farthest away from me, staring out through the bars at nothing, his knees tucked under his chin. He looked lost.
Rage filled me. "You did this!" I screamed, pulling him out of his thoughts and onto his feet.
We faced each other across the cell, me with fists balled and eyes seeing red, him with palms down, shoulders slumped, no fight left in him.
I didn't care.
I swung and connected with his face. "You're the reason we're here. Your kind took Sam and Drake. You led us all into a trap. You're a monster."
I hit him again. Again and again. Until my fists split and our blood mingled.
He didn't fight back. "Kill me," he said. "I'd rather die than be a slave to this life."