The Healer (The Order of Intergalactic Peace #1) - Kelly Lucille Page 0,60
fog and fractured, for want of a better word and swirled back to Serenity and disappeared. He knew she was shielding it away because that was what she had done when he first met her. Immediately she tasted powerless and full human to everyone in the room that could sense such things.
If the councilman had been a reader like himself, or a hunter like most of his men it would have announced her power level to him as clearly as seeing her at full power. Instead he was a death mage. A power nearly as unique as his own. And while Gren could not read her power, as Mal could, when she was not shielded as she was now, the councilman could taste her light. Even with her power hidden away she fairly sparkled with warm life.
To a death eater designation a soul as warm and bright as Serenity’s would be as alluring as her power set free.
And if he saw her power in full he would know what Mal knew. She was a shining light that surpassed the dark power shrouding the councilman, and every other power Mal had ever seen. But even with her power locked away Serenity would be a temptation to a death eater just by being who and what she is. A bright spot of life in the darkness.
That life shined from her eyes and glowed on her skin, and the Councilman of Death, finally saw what he had somehow overlooked when he first walked into the room.
From the hungry look in his eyes, he was seeing her now. And from the way his dark tendrils of power were reaching across the space towards her, he liked what he was seeing a whole lot. Or he had liked the small taste he had gotten when she reached for him and wanted more.
You did not need to be a reader to see the dark tendrils of black fog Gren emitted when he used his power so everyone in that room knew when he reacted.
Serenity, a woman who had stood toe to toe with him and his most powerful elite, looked suddenly ill, then flinched when the dark power suddenly sprang at her across the space separating them. Only to bounce off the shield surrounding them both. The councilman snarled like a beast denied its prey and took a step forward, only to run into the same shield. He looked up at Mal, fury clear in his gaze. Mal smiled, showing his teeth.
Serenity took a step to the side and hid herself again, burying her face in his back. Something he never thought he would see her do. Then he felt her shivering, as she wrapped her hands in his uniform to hold him there. A rage like he had rarely known surged inside him as every particle of his power, and the force of his will came to bear.
“Try to use your power against me and mine again, Councilman, and it will not matter who you are. I will respond to your attack accordingly.”
The power receded as the councilman seemed to come to his senses and reel it in. He pressed his hand down his robes and stood straighter, the dark light in his eyes banked along with his power.
“My apologies Lord Ryn. I assure you no attack was intended. Your healer,” he breathed in as if attempting to catch an elusive scent. “Well, let us say the life practically radiates off her. It sparked a reaction from my power I was not prepared for.”
“And have you found your control?” he asked mildly enough, knowing it was an insult and not caring.
Gren ground his teeth but answered mildly enough. “Of course, I needed but a moment.” His eyes searched for Serenity, but she was completely hidden at Mal’s back. “Come now Healer, there is no need to hide, you may come out from behind the High Commander now.”
Mal felt Serenity take a breath and then step back to his side, releasing her hold on him and standing with her chin up and no sign of fright showing on her face. She met the councilman’s eyes. And again Mal saw the surge of dark the councilman barely managed to tamp down.
“Do you speak girl?”
“When it’s called for,” she said. Mal nearly smiled at the strength behind her words. He knew she feared the councilman, but she was not showing it now.
“I have questions,” Gren said, his eyes never leaving Serenity.