Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,37
question, he said, tipping his head slightly to indicate Ishtar on his left, “She goes down. You come up.”
Ishtar growled low and menacingly in her throat. The edges of her form shimmered with the urge to transform from vampire into the Great White Beast. With her ability to turn into a giant snow leopard, she had the greatest chance of reaching and thwarting Dalair. The only thing that held her back was his grip on Benji. They all knew that Dalair could easily break the boy’s neck before any of them reached him.
“Ishtar,” Sophia said her friend’s name in the tone of an order.
For a moment, she feared Tal’s Mate wouldn’t obey her. Ishtar looked as if she was about to lunge at Dalair in the next breath.
But something must have been communicated between Tal and Ishtar, for she looked past Dalair and Benji at her Mate, the ferocious expression on her face crumbling for a split second before fixing again in a mask of resolve.
She leapt down from the wall, transforming in a flash as she did so, landing on all fours in her giant leopard form, while Sophia clambered up in her place.
“Back up,” Dalair commanded, his eyes narrowing on the Great Beast.
Even when Ishtar was standing in the garden, not on the wall, she could reach him in this form in one long leap.
When she didn’t do as he ordered, Dalair shifted an inch backwards. Now, most of one foot dangled off the edge.
With a menacing growl and a baring of sharp teeth, Ishtar retreated a few feet, though she remained poised for action, all four limbs and long, thick-furred tail tensed and ready.
While Dalair focused on Ishtar, Sophia edged a little closer on the wall. She was closer to him than Tal was, almost at arm’s length.
He didn’t turn his head toward her at the approach, keeping his eyes focused on the three Elite warriors and one royally pissed off animal spirit, but she knew that he missed none of her movements.
She could feel his awareness of her.
It was beyond the powers of his hyper-sensing. It was a connection between just the two of them, as if their bodies were magnetized. As if they were one and the same.
Suddenly, Sophia had an idea. She didn’t bother to test the logic of it.
She simply said, “Where are we going, Dalair?”
She heard one of the others gasp at her use of “we.” She ignored the soft exhalation, her attention focused solely on Dalair.
His eyes flicked in her direction before narrowing back on the others.
“To the Master’s hideout,” he answered when Sophia thought he wouldn’t.
She inched another step closer.
“Are we supposed to bring Benji with us? Unharmed?”
This question she asked for their audience and for her own peace of mind.
“Yes. Unharmed.”
She could feel the collective tension ease a notch, though not by much.
“Then wouldn’t it be easier to come down from the wall and leave through the front door?”
“They won’t let us.”
“I can order them to stand down,” Sophia negotiated.
“They will not let us.”
Sophia followed Dalair’s emphasis to look at Inanna, Gabriel and Ishtar. It was true. Her authority as their queen meant nothing in the face of someone threatening Benjamin. They would never allow anyone to leave the premises with him. Their instincts would overrule every rational thought.
Even Tal, who seemed the calmest of the four of them, was a hair’s breadth away from lunging into battle. Sophia had never seen the warrior filled with such determination and barely contained violence.
“Then we are at an impasse,” Sophia said reasonably, and repeated, narrowing her eyes, “There’s nowhere to go.”
Dalair’s unreadable gaze slid to hers, meeting her eyes for a brief moment.
“You’re wrong.”
A split second later, he hurled himself backwards off the wall with a mighty push from his legs, taking Benji with him.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion, the next two seconds.
Inanna, Gabriel, Ishtar and Tal all lunged toward them as Dalair flicked his wrist and let fly the long dagger he held.
It was aimed at Ishtar’s throat, and it was clear that with her momentum, she wasn’t going to avoid it in time.
Tal, who was mere inches away from reaching Dalair, turned at the last moment, contorting his body in mid-air to reach out to the handle of the dagger as it zinged past him toward his Mate.
His fingertip brushed it just barely, enough to change the course of its trajectory by a couple degrees, so that it lodged in Ishtar’s shoulder instead of her throat.