“Tibor,” Vesta’s voice cut through the air.
Tibor’s jaw clenched.
“You know how emotional shifters are. Don’t let him get to you.” Vesta pursed her lips.
Tibor may be the face of the Elysian rebellion, but it was clear Vesta was the true brains behind the move to kidnap shifters and break them down.
They reached a building that looked like a warehouse, which was set a little back from the promenade. Tibor grabbed Cain and dragged him through the double doors.
The ceilings were high, and the place was empty but for a glass enclosure in the center.
Tibor prodded him toward it. They passed a monitoring station with two chairs placed in front of it.
Cain had a fleeting impression of monitors and panels with touch buttons, then Tibor thrust him into the cell.
The glass door shut with a soft snick.
His handcuffs unshackled and dropped to the floor at the same time.
A dark presence brushed up against him on the psychic plane. Vesta’s psychic presence was heavy like black carbon, greasy like an oil stain, yet with a sharp edge.
It seeped through his psychic barrier, hunting out any cracks, any weak points it could find.
Cain gritted his teeth. He tried to hold back the energy from infiltrating his shield.
He shut his eyes and fell into that part of him which was fearless, his core of amber shining energy.
Drawing on his essence, he channeled it to shore up his psychic shield. The gold reinforced his shield, and it glistened. It pushed back the dark presence that now coated all of the outside.
He sensed the surprise of the psychic force as it stalled and retreated.
Sweat plastered his shirt to his back. His stomach rolled with the strain of holding up the shield.
This was far from over.
The thought had just crossed his mind when Vesta’s psychic force changed form.
It morphed to become lighter, paler in color, taking on the hues of violet, golden flecks sparkling in it. The psychic scent grew more poignant, spicy with a hint of wild fire.
Eve. The aroma was so similar to hers.
He wanted to believe it, wanted it to be Eve that filled his head and crept into his blood.
The tightness in his chest increased. His skin flushed. Blood rushed to his head. His lips tingled with the need to kiss her again.
He couldn’t stop himself from reacting to the presence. The pale shadow deepened, seeming to absorb light until it grew more vibrant. It called to him, beckoned his lion to break through the shield.
His heart raced, pulse thrumming as the need to reach for Eve, to let her see him in his full glory, took hold of him.
He was a proud dominant male, used to walking alone. She was the only female who’d stood up to him. He knew it was the same for her. He was the only one who could match her force of personality. Who could match her body and soul, take her to heights of pleasure she’d never experienced before.
The thoughts sent liquid heat racing toward his groin, and he realized he was becoming aroused.
The psychic presence sensed his desire. It throbbed with energy, deepening in color, as if it were blushing and calling to his lion.
It puzzled him. His lion halted midstep and shook its mane. No, this wasn’t his mate. His mate was not coy or afraid. His mate didn’t play games. She knew his desire and could match him step for step. This wasn’t Eve.
Cain’s lion retreated on the psychic plane. It broke the connection with the presence that had tried to break into his mind.
His eyes snapped open. He was alone in the glass enclosure. Sweat dripped down his back. His legs felt heavy.
Vesta had infiltrated his psychic self and tried to mirror his desire for Eve. She’d taken the one thing he’d held most precious in his life over anything else and tainted it.
His throat closed. Disgust left an acrid taste in his mouth. The need for revenge laced his blood.
Cain leaped toward the glass screen that separated him from the control desk where Vesta and Tibor were seated.
30
Cain
He pounded his body against the glass barrier, only to be thrown off by the force field that surrounded it.
White pain lashed at his side. One of his ribs cracked.
Knowing his shifter healing would fix it fast enough, he pushed the pain aside. Springing to his feet, he walked to the glass wall again. Legs planted apart, he banged on the glass wall with his fist. “Why?” He snarled.
“Dragons are the most powerful shifters, the only ones who can resist the telekinetic power of the Elysians.” Vesta placed her hand against Tibor’s cheek, her gaze locking with his. “These experiments help us understand how the shields of dragon shifters function and how to break them, so we can hook them up to the Web.”
“So you’d manipulate the emotions of shifters to hurt us?” Cain gritted his teeth, forcing himself to control his anger.
“We need to restore the emotional balance in the Sian Web, the psychic network that all Elysians are linked into.” Vesta flattened her lips.
“Zach was willing to wait until the council came around to sending shifter volunteers to link into the Web.” Tibor slammed his fist on the table of the control panel. “He was wrong. Time is running out for us.”
“The connection between you and the dragon shifter is fascinating.” Vesta glanced at Tibor. “Do you know how frustrating it is to feel a love so deep, so profound, and not be able to express it?” She reached out to touch Tibor.
Tibor caught her hand and held it in place against his cheek. “We need access to the dragon shifter’s emotions, so we can express ourselves. So those like us trapped in the Web can share how they feel.”
Even across the distance the chemistry rippled between them.
They felt for each other.
They were justifying the harm they were causing Cain and Eve as a way to express their feelings for each other.
“The only solution is to hook the most powerful shifter we can find into the Sian Web.” Tibor turned to Cain, his eyes calm, features blank. “In one sweep we’d have powered the Web with enough emotions to keep us going until the next generation of empaths is strong enough to feed the Web.”
A chill ran down Cain’s spine. “You’re talking about Eve.”
“She needs to open her shields voluntarily.” Vesta cut the air with her hand. “It’s the only way the Sian Web will accept the emotions.”
Tibor touched Vesta’s shoulder. Just a gesture, but there was no mistaking it for what it was—pride, affection.
They may be bleeding emotions, but Cain wondered if they knew how much they revealed about themselves through their body language. Perhaps more emotion lurked in the Sian Web than what they were aware of?
“Your feelings for the dragon shifter are also your weakness. It’s shown me that the route to breaking shifters on the psychic plane is through the connections with those they care for.” Vesta rocked back on her heels.
Cain bared his teeth, hands balled into fists at his sides. “You are going to use me to get to her?” He gripped the floor with his feet. He had to use all his willpower to not throw himself again at the glass wall.
“Smart and charismatic.” She tilted her head.
Tibor gripped her shoulder and turned her around. His movements were jerky.
Her body went still.
Tibor’s eyebrows furrowed, and a muscle worked at his jaw.
Vesta patted his cheek. “Not long now.” Pulling away, she walked around the control panel and toward the glass wall that separated them. “I will hurt you, until you call out to her.”
Cain opened and closed his fists. He’d never compromise his dragon shifter. Never put her at risk. “I’ll die before I let you break her.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Plead with her to come, show her your pain.”
He felt her presence tear at his psychic senses. “Never.” Cain gritted his teeth, forcing himself
to stay calm. On the psychic plane, his energy stilled and deepened, readying itself for the onslaught.
“Oh, you will.” Vesta put her palm against the glass, her fingers splayed on the surface. “Make her open herself up so we can use the break in her shield to plug her into the Sian Web.”
He clamped a psychic leash around the energy of his lion, then wound the chain around himself.
He wasn’t going to let go of the lion. Never let himself be used to destroy everything Eve had worked for. Her life, her clan. She was everything to him. Without her, he was nothing.
Vesta’s metallic presence hovered in the distance for a second, a sentient presence that took stock of his weaknesses, marking them out.
He sensed a pulse of energy run through it. It elongated into a sleek dark shape, as dense as obsidian, its edge sharp and so fine it was almost nonexistent.
It plunged and went right through his shield. It was as if a burning hot knife had been plunged into his brain.
Cain had never experienced such agonizing pain in his life. His mind was combusting. His eardrums burst, and blood flowed out of his ears, his eyes.
Once inside his head, the presence grew and expanded. The darkness was an oozing slick presence that coated everything in sight.
“Scream for her. Call her, ask her to come to help you.” Vesta’s voice echoed around his head.
Her energy pushed at his amber and gold essence, butting heads with his lion. Pushing his lion to shift into its animal form.
Emotions fled through him—sorrow, hate, fear, all the nightmares stored up from his time when his pride was killed, when he’d had to cross the seas to his adopted home and his boat had almost capsized.
When he’d first realized that Eve would not mate with him, and that he was going to lose her.
Eve.
His lion thrashed and strained against the psychic restraint he’d placed around it.
It wanted to grasp the pale violet thread that connected him to Eve.
The fledgling bond that had formed when he’d first reached out to her when she was in a coma.
The one she’d reciprocated when she’d brought him back to life by breaking the fever.
“You are in pain, so much pain. Only she can help you.”
He’d managed to ignore the bond so far. To acknowledge it would be to trigger the mating process. The bond was still in the early stages. If he didn’t accept it, it would fade away.
Eve’s life was at risk. He couldn’t reach out to her. She was alive and nearby, of that he was sure.
To bond with her would only draw attention to her, putting her life at risk.
The pain was urging his lion to meld with the mating bond on the psychic plane. Once he did that, he had no doubt Eve would open herself to him and accept him.
The only way out was to channel the pain, use it to shatter the block placed on him and shift to his animal form on the physical plane.
Once his shield shattered, no longer could he use it to rein in his beast. If he shifted, he wouldn’t be able to change back to his human form. He’d never be able to see her again, hold her, make love to her.
But he’d be able to protect her.
Dropping to his knees, he let the power of the transformation take over. His cells contracted and changed shape.
The amber energy of his lion poured through his blood.
His nails elongated, his canines pushed out, and his hair exploded into the mane of his animal form.
Pushing aside the human part, breaking through his psychic shield, Cain’s lion broke out.
31
Eve
Serena turned those big brown eyes on Eve. “So how do we rescue my brother?” Her teeth bared in a feral grin.
The thought of revenge had obviously energized her.
There was something so bright about her spirit. She made Eve feel good about herself. She was so like Cain.
Eve knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Elysians were not going to stop until they broke down this woman and destroyed her. She also knew she was going to do everything possible to prevent that from happening.
“I assume you tried to break out of here?” Eve jerked her head to the door on the far side that had a dent in the center.
Serena’s lips turned down at the sides.
Eve experienced a twinge of regret that she’d been the one to wipe the anticipation off the lion shifter’s face.
“I can’t shift.” Serena sank to the floor with a bump. “I tried, but it’s something they did while experimenting on me. They messed with my psychic shields.” She touched her temple. “Now my lion is trapped inside.”
“Did they hurt you?” Eve sat on her haunches so she was at eye level with Serena.
“Not physically.” Serena wouldn’t look at her. “But they did things in my head. They wormed their way inside and pushed triggers to make me shift at will. They put in some kind of secondary barrier, so even if I drop my shield I can’t shift.” She shivered and hugged her arms around her waist.
A shudder of helplessness tied Eve’s stomach into knots. If Serena couldn’t shift they were trapped.
Eve moved back to put a little distance between her and Serena. Crossing her legs, she dropped her hands in the center of her lap, placing the fingertips together. She dropped into herself, into the violet essence of her dragon. She drew on it, let it fill her, let the wildfire energy of her dragon swell until it overwhelmed every atom of her body.
There was a familiar hum as the transformation changed her cells, only to stutter then stop. Her energy wasn’t strong enough.
“Putain.” Eve slammed her fist on the floor next to her. The frustration gave her added strength, and the vibrations jolted through the floor, rattling the bars.
She snapped her gaze to Serena.
Serena’s lips widened in a chuckle.
“What?” Eve let the growl of frustration rumble up her throat.
“You swore just like Cain.”
“Me? No.” Her voice faded. She realized she’d used his favorite cuss word. Her cheeks flushed. She didn’t even want to contemplate what that meant. She raised her hands then let them drop. “How many Elysians are there?”
“It was a man and a woman who experimented on me. The man pushed his way into my head. I had my psychic shields up, so he tried to find cracks in my shield to get through.” Her shoulders sagged, and she drew her knees up against her chest. “He searched for triggers in my psychic presence to figure out which ones would force me to shift. He drew out my lion, then tortured my beast to make me shift back.” Serena’s voice had lapsed into a monotone. She had obviously retreated into a part of herself where no emotion could touch her.
This had to be difficult for her to recall, but Eve needed to know so she could figure out a plan to get them out of here. “That’s not all he did, though, right?”
Serena tilted her head so her cloud of hair fell over her face, hiding it. “In my human form, when I was tied down, he used his psychic energy to seduce me into shifting.” Her voice faded. She clutched her arms around herself and rocked back and forth.
“He succeeded, didn’t he?” Eve’s voice was gentle.
She had to force the words out. She knew it was not something this amazing woman wanted to say to her, but it was something she had to get out in the open. The faster Serena acknowledged what had happened to her, the faster she could start healing.
Serena’s frantic movements stilled. When she raised her head, Eve’s chest tightened. Those tawny eyes held a mix of fear, shame, and so much anger. Eve wondered what she had unleashed.
Serena flung herself at the bars that separated them.
Sinking to her knees, she clutched the rods, resting her forehead against one. “He turned something that was the most joyous experience in the world to something that I was ashamed of.”
The pale rays of the sun came in through the window and glistened off her tears.
Eve closed the distance between them
and dropped to her knees in front of Serena.
She clutched Serena’s fingers that were curled on the bars. “You can’t blame yourself.” Her voice was fierce.
“I should have resisted, I shouldn’t have given in.” Serena’s eyes were pale shadows of beaten amber. “It was easier to withstand the pain. But once he started using the pleasure points of my psyche, I couldn’t hold back. I had to reveal my beast.”
Eve didn’t want what had happened to Serena to damage her. She was so vital, so full of life. Eve was going to try her best to make sure Serena came out of this with her strength of will intact.
“The Elysian used your emotions, the core of what it means to be a shifter, against yourself.” She was blunt and made sure to keep all empathy out of her voice.
Serena didn’t need someone to make her weak right now. She needed the strength to find that part of her that she’d hidden away for fear of it being hurt.
“If you let that hold you back, you are only surrendering to him,” Eve said.
The lion shifter lifted her head. Her lips drew back to show her teeth. “Who said anything about surrender?” Her eyes met Eve’s and held.
In hers, Eve saw the awareness dawn. Serena had realized Eve was trying to get her to fight.
“Sometimes you do what’s needed to survive. It’s not right or wrong, it just is.” Eve sat back on her haunches.
“Is that what you did?” Serena sniffed and used the back of her hand to wipe her tears from her cheeks.
“To make alpha I had to face and kill my challengers. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was expected of me. I had to do what it took to win for I could not let my father down.” Thinking about her father made her chest feel heavy. The grief of losing him hadn’t faded, it had just changed shape to become a shadow she carried inside her. “I am drawn to Cain, but there is no future for us. I will not let my dragon hurt him, so once this mission is over, I will leave…” Her voice faded. Who was she kidding?
Obsession: Paranormal Romance : Dragon Shifters, lion shifters, immortals and wolf shifters (Dragon Protectors Book 2) Page 11
