“We need another witness, and so we shall have one,” Christophe said.
That got Kloe’s immediate attention. “There was no other witness. No one else was there.”
Christophe looked at her, a small smile climbing over his lips. “How quickly you forget, Ampliphi Kloe,” he said. Then he cleared his throat and reached to ring the bell by his hand. The very specific tone called forth a very specific being. As soon as the dark figure appeared in the hall, Julian could see Kloe going suddenly pale. A powerful sensation of fear emanated from her, the reaction all too telling.
“When your kindra first came and you claimed her for yourself, I confess I was uncertain. She had not come willingly and we had to clean up quite a mess behind you, Julian. I was not willing to simply let you run free and wild among us without keeping an eye on you. So I ordered Daedalus to keep close tabs on you.” Christophe indicated the Gatherer who now stood before him. “As you know, Julian, Daedalus can become completely invisible. This allowed him to follow you both wherever you went. He has reported back to me on several occasions and helped me to make choices as far as you were concerned. It was how I learned that you had told the truth about the prison guard, Asia. Someone from this panel ordered you moved into the general population for the express purpose of sabotaging your safety and your relationship with Julian. There were other things as well. Unfortunately, Daedalus was following Julian at the time and did not see the altercation between Asia and Ariel. I regret that was the case. It could have saved us all a great deal of trouble.
“But that matter has been solved. The issue at hand is the incident between Kloe and Asia. Daedalus, you were there, I take it?”
“I was,” the new man emanated darkly, the coarseness of his presence riding roughly over everyone there.
Asia could see simply a man, no different in height than Julian, though a bit darker in eyes and hair and badly scarred along one side of his face, as if he had been on the losing end of a bad knife fight. He wore nothing but black shirt, pants, and cloak, the latter pulled forward in an attempt, it seemed, to minimize the exposure of that terrible scar. But his dark appearance was nothing to the deep perception of him. There was something about him that rang like guilt and accusation, though for the life of her she could not figure out what it was.
Still, that couldn’t be her worry of the moment. Right now she was curious to see what he would say. He was a Gatherer. One of the Ampliphi’s pets. Would he sit in support of his masters, or would he corroborate what Kenya said, what Asia believed to be the truth because it rang true and she knew her sister did not tell lies?
“Tell us what you witnessed, Daedalus. And remember you are bound by your oath as a Gatherer to tell the truth,” Christophe said. “What is more, your debt to this society compels you to do what is best for it.”
Daedalus nodded, the weight of the statement clearly heavy on him. Asia looked at Julian with curiosity, but Julian shook it off. Not now, the gesture said to her. But he would tell her later.
“This is what I witnessed,” Daedalus said in rough English. “Julian’s kindra was in private with her sister when Kloe came in upon her with rage and accusation. Then Ampliphi Kloe used her power to abuse the kindra’s defenseless sister. She threw her so violently into the wall I thought sure her neck would break. In defense of her helpless sister, the kindra did attack Kloe. As I saw it, it was the only way she could get the Ampliphi’s attention off her sister. She was protecting her. It was the Ampliphi who was in the wrong.”
Asia leaned toward Julian with a small smile. “That’s gotta hurt,” she said with smug satisfaction.
“Indeed it does.” Christophe spoke up, turning a cold eye onto Kloe. “So now we have the truth of it. Kloe, you have done nothing but persecute this woman since she arrived, forcing her to defend herself at every turn. And then you are surprised when she turns on you in order to protect her sister? Your crimes listed here are many and varied. I see no choice left to us but to punish one of our own.”
“Punish?” Kloe laughed incredulously. “You cannot punish me! I am as powerful as any of you!”
“Power can be taken away. Energy can be leeched away. The body will do to you what you have done to others. We will see you so starved of energy that there is nothing left of you but a faded shell. You will never know power again, since you cannot seem to wield it properly. You will be taken to a holding cell where you will live out the remainder of your years in isolation.”
“You cannot do that!” Kloe cried. “You need six Ampliphi! Without me there will be no one to feed his rotten little colony! The lot of them will starve to death!”
“I think Julian and Asia have proven that they can keep their people fed far more easily without you than with you. And there will be six Ampliphi,” Gisella said. “Isn’t that right, Ampliphi Julian?”
Asia gasped and she felt Julian go tense beside her. He was holding her hand, so when he squeezed it in his shock it was a wonder he didn’t crack a bone.
“I warned you,” Christophe said. “I said one day he would be the most powerful among us. That day came sooner than expected and yet right in time. Julian, we hope you will accept and join us. Shade, Daedalus, and Kine, please escort Kloe to her rooms and keep an eye on her until we can contact the holding colony and see that arrangements are made for her imminent stay.”
“With pleasure,” Shade said as he stepped out to confront the defrocked Ampliphi.
“Christophe, please,” Kloe begged suddenly. “You can’t do this! Think of the example you are setting! People will believe they can tear down the Ampliphi with mere accusations—”
“I am thinking of the example it sets,” Christophe countered. “It tells our people that no one is above the law. Not even the Ampliphi. Everyone will do well to remember that. Especially you. Gentlemen, remove her. She fouls this fine chamber.”
And they did exactly that.
Epilogue
“So does this mean you’re going to walk around looking like a ghost?” Asia teased him for the hundredth time about his new elevated position in his society.
“No. Clearly I have an excellent source of energy always on tap,” he said, reaching to smack her on her bottom. She gasped in outrage, then laughed as she tried to smack him back. He dodged her, snaring her for a kiss as a way to distract her from her purpose.
“Can you tell me something?” she asked after a long minute of enjoying his mouth.
“I will try. Always.”
She smiled. “Can you tell me about Daedalus? He seemed so…dark. And Christophe said something about him owing a debt. Is he a prisoner of some kind?”
“After a fashion,” Julian said grimly. “Daedalus is a tortured man. He holds a very heavy weight on his conscience.”
“What happened? What did he do?”
“Do you remember the story I told you? The one about the girl who came here by accident and then brought back a scientist?”
“Patient zero of your plague. Yes, I remember.”
“Daedalus was that scientist.”
Asia gasped. “Oh my God! But that would make him generations old! How can he be that old and look so young?”
“You forget, he is not from our planes. In his world people remain younger for much longer. Knowing what he had done, Daed wanted to make amends in whatever way he could. He chose to become a Gatherer. He’s Greison’s Gatherer, actually. And where I was assigned to bring back the energy of passion to this world, Daed is assigned to something much more painful. His is the power to create disasters. Then, he uses his invisibility to walk disaster areas and harvest the energy of grief, pain, and devastation. It is not the most coveted form of energy, but it is better than nothing at all and it is among the most powerful.”
“Oh, how awful! He creates disasters? You mean like hurricanes and tornadoes and stuff? All those people? All that death and destruction?”
“It’s no different than what your own world creates for itself,” Julian reminde
d her. “There is a great lot of things this society does that we are not proud of, but it keeps our heads above water. Perhaps, one day, if we are very lucky, every colony will be blessed with a pair of kind as powerful as you and I. Until that day, this is the way things will be. Zini, you cannot change all of this world in an instant. Take your victory over Kloe. It is an enormous step toward righting the wrongs you see around you here. Love me. Keep our colony flush with life and positive energy, and there will be less demand for the type of work Gatherers like Daedalus and Adrian do.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said with a frown. “But I’m not going to stop questioning and trying to fix things I see wrong here. You know that, right?”
“Zini, I am practically counting on it.”
Did you miss Jacquelyn’s
SHADOWDWELLERS series?
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ECSTASY
At one with the darkness, the mysterious Shadowdwellers must live as far from light-loving humans as possible in order to survive. Yet one damaged human woman will tempt the man behind the Shadowdweller throne into a dangerous desire….
Worlds Couldn’t Keep Them Apart
Among the Shadowdwellers, Trace holds power that some are willing to kill for. Without a stranger’s aid, one rival would surely have succeeded, but Trace’s brush with death is less surprising to him than his reaction to the beautiful, fragile human who heals him. By rights, Trace should hardly even register Ashla’s existence within the realm of Shadowscape, but instead he is drawn to everything about her—her innocence, her courage, and her lush, sensual heat….
After a terrifying car crash, Ashla Townsend wakes up to find that the bustling New York she knew is now eerie and desolate. Just when she’s convinced she’s alone, Ashla is confronted by a dark warrior who draws her deeper into a world she never knew existed. The bond between Ashla and Trace is a mystery to both, but searching for answers will mean confronting long-hidden secrets, and uncovering a threat that could destroy everything Trace holds precious….
RAPTURE
The Shadowdwellers live in a realm of darkness and sensuality, where order is prized and sin must be punished. Yet for Magnus, the head priest of Sanctuary, salvation rests with the one woman who can entice him to break every rule….
She Was the Ultimate Temptation
Magnus is a man of contradictions—a spiritual leader in a warrior’s body. To him, laws are for enforcing and visions must be followed—even if that means freeing a beautiful slave and making her his reluctant handmaiden. Betrayed once before, Magnus can barely bring himself to trust another woman. Yet Daenaira’s fiery innocence is drawing them both into a reckless inferno of desire….
Daenaira grew up hearing tales of a fearsome priest who seemed more myth than reality. But Magnus is very real—every inch of him—and so is the treachery surrounding them. Beneath Sanctuary’s calm surface, an enemy is scheming to unleash havoc on the Shadowdwellers, unless Magnus trusts in a union ordained by fate, and sealed by unending bliss….
PLEASURE
Beyond our world lies a land where darkness reigns—the land of the virile, sensual Shadowdwellers. Yet their mysterious abilities are no match for the power of desire….
Double Your Pleasure
Discipline. Penance. Order. A Sanctuary priest’s life revolves around such things. But when Sagan is taken captive and thrust into the Alaskan wilderness, he encounters a woman who challenges his faith and his self-control. Valera is a natural born witch who almost lost herself to the lure of dark magic. By rights, Sagan should shun her, but convention will count for nothing in the face of a passion that could change the world of the Shadowdwellers forever….
As Chancellor of the Shadowdwellers, Malaya’s first duty is to her people. Her bodyguard, Guin, knows this only too well. For tradition’s sake, Malaya must marry, and the thought of this lush, vibrant woman in a loveless union is impossible for him to bear. Guin loves Malaya—not as a subject loves his queen but as a man craves a woman. And even if he cannot keep her, he’ll show her everything she stands to lose….
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New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Frank invites you to explore a strange and sensuous world of darkest desire ruled by an extraordinary being who is about to meet his earthly match….
Sandman. Angus. Morpheus. He is known by many names, except his true one, Adrian. When he departs his world, it is to enter the sacred space of sleep, and he is not there to sow sweet dreams. Adrian’s mission is to reap the dark energy of nightmares, work that has twisted his soul as well as his once-handsome face. Now, he lives only to await the day darkness finally overcomes him…and to collect exquisite reminders of what he’s lost….
But there is one treasure that stands apart. Having risked everything to obtain her, Adrian soon realizes his mistake. For Kathryn has a wholly unexpected power over him, not only for what she represents, but for what for she is: a soul with desires as strong as his own, tempered by compassion that could save Adrian from his self-made hell—or condemn them both….
Something was pulling Kathryn, drawing her.
She had been floating in a benign gray void of nothingness. Somehow she knew that she had been there for quite some time.
But something was now beckoning her away from it.
Slowly, with a soft sigh, she came around. She opened her eyes with a hesitant flutter of her lashes.
Then she heard again what it had been that had called her back to consciousness.
A moan.
It was a low, tortured sound. The sound of someone in unbearable pain.
And whoever that someone was, he was very close by.
She sat up slowly, blinking once. She was aware of feeling stronger. Of feeling more well-rested than she had been in a very long time. She did not even feel afraid this time as she quickly looked around the strange room she was in. Of course, she wasn’t quite brave enough to look at any one thing for any length of time, either.
Then the moan came again, drawing her full attention quickly to the floor beside herself.
She gasped softly.
Whoever he was, he had to be the most massive man she had ever laid eyes on. Well, maybe with the exception of the color plates of giants in her childhood fairy-tale books. Still, the difference between seeing a drawing of a mythical giant and finding yourself sitting and staring at a real one, was quite vast. Why, the width of his shoulders might be nearly twice the length of one of her arms from fingertips to shoulder! Of course, she was a little small according to some people.
She bit her lip and leaned closer with irresistible curiosity so she could get a better look at him.
He was on his forearms and knees, his face burrowed into his hands. He was dressed entirely in black. The clothing, what she could see of it, was alien to her in its fashion. Even the fabrics looked strangely coarse. It was nothing she had ever worked her needle through, and she prided herself on being a remarkably fair seamstress.
She could see the back of his large head. His features were further hidden by an outrageously thick and long tumble of silken black hair that sprouted from his scalp, tumbling forward over his neck and face. She followed the line of that neck, picking out the distinction of his bold spine through his shirt fabric and the spreading of the back of an immense ribcage. In relativity, his waist was narrower, though probably still as wide as her thigh from hip to knee. His hips were less so wide, but also in a similar fashion to the rest of his physique. The legs, tucked in a rather fetal manner beneath himself, were the size of good-sized and very sturdy tree trunks.
Sweet Father, he was twice the size of any man anywhere! She suspected he would dwarf her own husky father!
Another tormented groan rose from the object of her fascination, snapping Kathryn’s attention back to the huge man’s obvious distress, as well as her present situation. She warned herself to exercise caution
. She might be a scrapper, but there was nothing she could expect to do against someone so much bigger than she was. It was likely, she told herself, that this was the person who had all the answers to what was going on.
Well that meant she needed him to talk. And he wasn’t likely to do much of that if he was hurting. And besides, he sounded almost sad as he made those painful little sounds.
She scuttled off the bed, approaching him slowly and carefully lowering herself to her knees beside him, she leaned over him and laid her hands on his shoulders as comfortingly as she could.
“Can I help you?” When she received no immediate response, she moved forward a little further and sought to gain his attention by placing her hand in his hair at the back of his head. “Here now, let me help you. Please.”
Kathryn gave a yelp of shocked surprise when he suddenly lurched away from her touch, stumbling and crashing heavily to the floor again, trying to crawl away from her. He barely progressed another foot away before collapsing face first into the carpeting. He whined piercingly, like an animal in raw, anguished agony, making the hair on the back of her neck raise up as if someone had just trod across her grave.
Kathryn’s heart stuttered and her eyes widened. She had never heard such a horribly inhuman sound before. It was terrifying. But as he whimpered softly again, she knew it was the most pitiful thing she’d ever heard and there was no way she could even pretend to ignore him. Bolstering her courage, hesitating with each movement, she slid herself cautiously back to his side.
“Please,” she begged softly, “let me help you.”
Hunting Julian Page 29
