Blood Lust - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,100
heart refusing to beat as she desperately attempted to telepathically connect with her daughter. The little girl was alive. She was certain of that much.
But a barrier remained between them.
“Molly,” she breathed, her voice coming out as a croak. “Where is she?”
Lana turned to send her a glance filled with unspoken sympathy. “She was with Stella.”
“Release me,” Bas snarled even as Myst pressed an unsteady hand to her lips.
The enemy had her baby girl.
After all her efforts to keep her protected, her worst nightmares had come true.
“Why haven’t you sent your Sentinels to get her?” she breathed.
Without warning, the Mave was moving to grasp Myst’s hands, releasing a soothing burst of magic.
“Before I explain, there’s something you need to know,” she said in low tones.
Myst instinctively glanced toward Bas. She didn’t know what she was seeking from him. Perhaps reassurance that she could trust the Mave. Or just the knowledge that she wasn’t alone to face whatever the woman was about to tell her.
Easily sensing her need, Bas shoved aside Wolfe, who finally released his hold on the assassin. Moving to stand at her side, Bas wrapped a protective arm around her waist.
“What is it?” Myst at last asked, returning her attention to the woman standing directly in front of her.
“While you were gone we discovered that Molly possesses an”—the Mave halted, clearly considering her words—“interesting talent.”
Bas stiffened at her side, his breath hissing between his clenched teeth.
“A high-blood talent?” he asked.
“Yes.” Lana kept her gaze locked on Myst’s pale face. “Calder believes she has the ability to ignite latent gifts.”
Igniting gifts? Myst gave a baffled shake of her head. “What does that mean?”
“She can create what we used to assume was spontaneous manifestation,” Lana clarified.
Myst parted her lips to deny the outrageous claim. Molly might be receptive to telepathy, but otherwise she was a normal little girl. Certainly she’d never been capable of affecting other high-bloods....
Except, she had, Myst abruptly realized.
“Oh,” she breathed, trying to wrap her head around the possibility.
“You’ve noticed her ability?” Lana pressed.
Myst gave a slow nod. “I gained telepathic abilities after I had her.”
Bas tightened his arm around her waist, pressing her hard against his side.
“What the fuck does this have to do with getting my daughter back?” he snapped.
Wolfe took a step forward, but Lana halted any potential violence with a lift of her hand.
“We suspect she caused a change in Stella,” she told Bas.
Bas made a sound of impatience. “What sort of change?”
“She had latent powers that we believe Molly managed to ignite.”
Myst felt oddly numb as she studied the older woman’s perfect face. Maybe it was too many shocks. There did, after all, have to be a threshold a person could endure, right?
“The leader of the Brotherhood is a high-blood?” she demanded, trying to wrap her mind around the thought that Molly had managed to turn their enemy into one of them.
It might have been ironic if the situation wasn’t so horrifying.
“We believe it’s possible,” Lana said, her words oddly hesitant.
Bas made a sound of impatience. “What aren’t you telling us, Lana?”
The Mave grimaced. “She’s a carrier.”
Chapter Twenty
Bas felt as if the air had been jerked from his lungs.
Not at the knowledge that his daughter seemed to have a rare, unknown ability. That was something he’d have to deal with later.
Instead, he concentrated on Lana’s suspicion that Stella had become a plague carrier.
It’d been decades since he’d last heard of a carrier. Not since the former Mave had destroyed them during her crazed purge. Now he swiftly tried to recall what he knew.
At the time he hadn’t paid much attention to them. The carriers were capable of controlling their powers, and the two he’d met were too ethical to use their magic to hurt others. But he seemed to recall that when their magic first manifested itself they could infect entire communities.
Hell, he’d heard rumors they’d wiped out half the human population in the olden days.
“Is she quarantined?” he demanded.
Lana gave a slow nod. “Yes.”
Something in her tone sent a shaft of fear through his heart.
“How many were infected?”
Lana’s pale face was hard with fury. Clearly the woman blamed herself for not being able to protect her people.
“Two that we know of.”
Two? Shit.
Bas’s lips parted, but before he could ask the question that was twisting his gut with dread, Myst stepped out of the protective circle of his arms to directly face the Mave.
“Molly?”
“No,” Lana was swift to assure them. “The healers are able to track the diseases with their monitors and