or question, and my heart drops even more.
“What did you do to him?” I ask, my voice broken, my heart hurting. My dad is standing right here, but Lachlan is right, it’s like there’s nothing inside of him anymore.
“Do you know how lamia are made, pet?” Adriel asks me, his eyes drinking up my pain like it’s water in the desert.
I think back to what Siah told me in the car. “When they make another lamia, they need to pull all the magic from the being they’re draining, but not overload themselves so that it will kill them. They then need to force their magic into the drained, but not deplete their stores so much that it results in death too.” I look from Adriel to Vaughn and try to put together what the question has to do with anything. Then, suddenly it hits me. I turn to Adriel, horrified, and he laughs.
“The draining part went accordingly. I’ve never felt so full of power and ability, but when it came to forcing my power into him…” He shrugs nonchalantly.
I picture the source of my magic and how it feels to me. I’ve always pictured it to be this endless cavern I could always pull from. I don’t know if other Sentinels experience the same thing, but as I look at Vaughn and the empty look in his eyes, I can see where Adriel went wrong.
“You weren’t powerful enough,” I blurt, my voice hollow. Adriel glares at me, but fuck him, he tried to turn my father. He didn’t have enough fucking magic, and this is the result.
“Or maybe Sentinels just can’t be turned.” Adriel shrugs. “Now, where were we?” he asks absentmindedly. “That’s right, your beautiful daughter was needing proof that she belonged to me,” he declares with a chuckle and pats Vaughn’s cheek.
And I completely fucking lose it.
Maybe it’s the fact that my comatose father was just paraded out in front of me like it’s no big deal, or the betrayal of Lachlan by not telling me the truth. Maybe it’s Adriel’s arm around Vaughn’s shoulders and knowing how many years he’s been tortured by this sick piece of shit, but I go right past pissed and straight into feral, psychotic bitch mode.
I scream through the pain as I call on my Sentinel speed and flash as fast as any lamia. I spin at Vaughn’s back and bring a short sword down on Adriel’s shoulder. My blade sinks about half way through before Adriel flashes away from me with a pained bellow. I scream again as he escapes and fall to my knees, where I breathe through the searing pain and demand that my body stays alert and doesn’t give into everything that’s hurting inside of me right now.
Chaos breaks out across the room. Sets of the huge black doors that surround the room break open, and lamia, mid-battle with a shit ton of wolf shifters, all pour in. In a matter of seconds, the massive, shiny black room is teaming with bodies. I force myself to my feet, and pain-filled screams and battle cries assault my senses. The smell of blood and ash fills my nose, and I’m bumped and jostled around. I search frantically for Adriel, panic rising inside of me at the thought that he might escape.
A screech filled with promises of pain sounds to my right, and I turn just in time to see a female lamia charging at me. Her eyes glow red, and her claws are fully extended, poised and ready to do as much damage as she can. I gauge her speed and our differences in size in a split second, and I ready myself to take her on. She’s three strides away from me when she leaps at me, and then mid-air, a giant gray wolf slams into her, his jaws closing soundly around her neck and shoulders. The female lamia is in pieces before Torrez’s wolf paws so much as touch the ground. He lands gracefully and pivots around to face me.
I tackle-hug him, throwing my arms around his big wolf neck and bury my face in his fur. I’ve never experienced the kind of relief I’m feeling right now, having him here in my arms, and I’m suddenly desperate to wrap myself around each and every one of my Chosen. I’m tempted to look around the chaos in hopes I can spot them, but I can’t lose the focus of why I’m here. I won’t let what happened to