Chapter Eight ~Cret~

The last hour had passed in the most unrelenting pace it had nearly driven me to madness. A tingle of pain still pulsed from where Serenity had dug her knee into my back and the ache from my broken nose was finally starting to dull, puffy tender flesh now surrounded the area. I had forgotten how violent and persuasive she could be. She left so swiftly after, rushed out and disappeared before I could talk her into staying, but I still had the link to her mind.

She hadn't closed me off and I doubted she knew how. That was my own special trick, once Serenity opened the door by trying to peer into my thoughts it was easy to work my way back into her mind along that same path, and I couldn't stop looking into her thoughts. The need to shift through the confusion rattling her mind was too overpowering, or maybe it was my hope to stumble upon those erotic thoughts of hers.

I grinned at the memory of those fantasies she so unwillingly shared with me. Ones that involved me and inflated my ego, but my mind was no better. I couldn't remember the number of times I fantasized about her. Everything about Serenity enticed me and for the first time I was able to look through the fractured torment of her mental state.

Through the years I stalked Serenity I often wondered what she was thinking or what she felt, but I was unable to. Even though I studied her in length there were moments where her actions held to no form of natural logic to the patterns of her behavior I had studied.

Once I watched her in a small village. It was an insignificant place, just another meaningless stop to rest for the Vamdari as they continued on their path of conquest. They rushed upon it like wildfire and used the villagers to feed for strength for their next battle.

A little child, a boy was left in the wooded area just beyond the village and when one of her men went to feed on the child she stopped him. Of course the man complied and left her to feed on the child as she willed, but Serenity refused to drain him. Instead she calmed the child and waited until her men had retired for the day. Then, with boy in hand, she traveled far out of the path of the Vamdari's set course. Entrusting the boy to the next village, and leaving.

That act of compassion should not have been possible with the powerlust she displayed, her taste for complete suffering and destruction. It didn't happen once but on many occasions, while other moments when in the heat of battle, she preformed unspeakable acts that boiled rage deep within me. But it was those moments, those rare moments of compassion that made me want to understand her. I wanted to know the thoughts racing through that mind of hers as she looked upon the few people she spared.

Now I had that access.

Even with the distance between us I could sense her, read her emotions as easily as I could read shadows, and they were as confusing as my own.

In those heated moments we’d just shared I nearly gave myself over to her, I would give her anything she asked for. My dark-self would have bowed before her, and worshiped the raven goddess in any way she would allow. Her dark allure too strong for my reason to pull me though, I found myself needing to attract her to me. To prove my worth and dominance. I felt more alive in those troubled moments than I had for the last ninety-seven years thinking she was dead. The blood inside me was still warmed and racing, and my heart had fallen into a steady rapid pace anytime I drew my attention to the fingers that caressed that perfect olive flesh.

I need her, a voice growled inside of me.

I couldn't let this happen, not now that the Opsona were on their way. My shadowed messengers had returned bringing news that all of the clans were marching on Tentusa. We would meet in the capital in three days. That gave me limited time to get what information I could from Serenity and then I would need to kill her. If they found her, if they saw I had failed then my life would be in danger. Both of us would be in danger, and by her living the world was in danger.

Tossing one of Rhea's many books onto the fire I watched as it burned, the pages curling back as they submitted to the flames. Transforming from pages of parchment scribbled with ink into dark colored ash, sealing Rhea's secrets away. I would have to hurry and destroy all this information because they were coming for me.

I was being kept alive for a reason, a purpose and I would have to be ready when they came. I would fight and if I survived… Then we will say a real good-bye Serenity.