I pulled the knife out of my back as I rose to my feet and walked over to where Tristan lay on the ground. His wide eyes stared up at the ceiling as tears ran down his burned cheeks. He didn’t see me any longer. He didn’t recognize the love I felt for him. There was only the pain and the horror that Macaire had manufactured in his mind. Tristan was locked in that world now.
The only thing I could give him was release from the pain. I could give him peace. Gritting my teeth, I placed my left hand on his right shoulder and plunged my right fist into his chest. I pulled his heart out as quickly as I possibly could so I wouldn’t cause him any more pain than he was already suffering. He slumped against me as I cradled his heart against my chest. His cool blood ran down my arm and dripped from the edge of my elbow onto the hard marble floor. I bowed my head and rubbed my lips against his soft hair as fresh tears rained down my cheeks. I had lost my dear, sweet Tristan, and Macaire had forced me to kill him in an effort to spare him from any more pain. I had lost my sweet Tristan and it was my fault because I hadn’t been there to protect him.
Danaus walked over and knelt beside us. He gently laid Tristan down on the floor, straightening out his legs and folding his arms over his chest. I slipped his heart under his folded hands. I wiped away my tears, smearing his blood across my cheeks. I was ready to kill Macaire now. I was ready to kill them all.
Chapter Thirty-One
Macaire smirked at me. I rose from the floor as if pushed up my some invisible force and stood between him and Tristan’s body. The hall was completely silent except for the crackle of fire and the steady thud of Danaus’s heartbeat. My temper had reached the boiling over point. I simply wanted him dead. I didn’t care how.
The Elder took a single step toward me and I threw my right arm out. Flames erupted from the floor around him. But before I could catch him, the nightwalker disappeared from sight. I hissed, twisting around to find where he had reappeared. I tapped into the energies around me, feeling him out. He was hovering just on the outskirts of the hall, close so he could watch, but safely out of my reach.
My head snapped over to Jabari, who was relaxing back in his chair. He waved his left hand at me as if to say that it was beyond his ability to help me. Like hell it was. If the Elder wasn’t going to aid me in the disposal of our common enemy, then I was going to use his powers to trap me an Ancient. I could feel Jabari’s powers curling around the room, mixing with Danaus’s and my own. I knew I could wrap my hand around them the same way I could use Danaus’s. I had no doubt that the Ancient was going to balk at being controlled by a pathetic creature such as myself, but I wasn’t going to give him any choice. Jabari had drawn me into this mess, he had made me Macaire’s enemy.
Waving my hand through the air in a sharp slicing motion, I extinguished the flames and stood perfectly still, waiting. Macaire reappeared by the dais, standing with one foot on the lower stair, his body partially turned toward me as if he had paused in the middle of climbing back up to his chair. “Do you blame me for your killing Tristan?”
“You destroyed his mind,” I snarled.
“I’ll admit that there wasn’t much there to destroy when I found him. It seems that he had a run-in with a bori,” Macaire said as he resumed his seat. There was an audible gasp that coursed through the room when he made that statement. I didn’t cringe away from the new censor that was coming from Jabari and Elizabeth.
“We had some problems. The bori has been recaged,” I said shortly. “Did you take care of the naturi problem you were assigned to?”
Macaire’s smile faded and his face twisted into an expression of extreme distaste. “The naturi were exterminated. How was your luck?”
“The naturi were killed, but it seems that something else was waiting for me. Did you have a conversation with Veyron before I arrived? Directed him to dispose of me and my companions?”
“Why would I do such a thing?” Macaire asked smoothly, but there was a warning glint in his eyes.
“Because you’re a fucking bastard that thinks of no one but himself. But I have to thank you. I needed a European territory, and now I am keeper of Budapest and Savannah.”
My only warning was a low snarl from the nightwalker as he launched himself from his chair and streaked across the vast distance that separated us. I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped Jabari’s powers around me and instincts alone helped me to disappear from that spot a half second before Macaire arrived. I hovered for a heartbeat in the swirling darkness, watching Macaire twist about as he desperately searched the room for me.
I reappeared right beside him and slammed my fist into his jaw before he realized I was even standing there. The nightwalker was thrown across the room, sliding several feet over the marble floor before coming to a stop directly in front of a group of nightwalkers that stared at me in utter shock. It was well known that I didn’t have the ability to appear and disappear at will, and yet I just had, making me ten times more dangerous than I already was.
Fear filled Macaire’s face for only a moment before it was replaced with rage. He had underestimated me, and that was only the beginning. I needed him to fear me. With Jabari’s powers firmly in my grasp, I telepathically grabbed Macaire by the legs and tossed him across the room, slamming him into the far wall with enough force to crack the stones. I casually crossed the distance between us before once again grabbing him with magic and tossing him around the room.
“You can’t do this!” he shouted with a slight waver in his voice. He was right. I couldn’t do this, not without Jabari on hand.
Watch yourself, desert blossom, Jabari warned as he pushed to his feet.
With his powers still in the palm of my hand, I slammed Jabari back down in his chair. I was being reckless, but I didn’t care. Killing Macaire was the only thing that mattered now. I would face Jabari later. Sit down and enjoy the show .
Macaire pushed back to his feet and launched himself at me again. Unfortunately, when I attempted to use Jabari’s powers to disappear, Jabari fought me. I got control of his powers again, but only it was too late. Macaire smashed both of his fists into my chest, breaking my chest plate and nearly crushing my heart. I was thrown backward several feet. As I hit the ground, a tight circle of flames sprang up around me, protecting me from a second attack as I regained my feet.
Standing in the middle of the circle, I looked around the room to find that Macaire was once again missing. But I could feel his energy close by. As I grabbed onto Jabari’s powers again, the flames that encircled me immediately went out. I fought for both for nearly a second before I finally gave up on the flames. Apparently if I was using someone else’s powers, I couldn’t tap into my own ability to manipulate fire. It would have been appreciated if Nick could have warned me of such a thing earlier.
With Jabari’s powers in hand, I grabbed hold of Macaire’s energy and forced him to reappear in the room directly in front of me. He stumbled a step backward as if to regain his balance, a stunned and horrified expression on his face. No one had ever pulled a nightwalker back once he had disappeared.
While he was still stunned, I released Jabari’s energy and tapped into Danaus’s powers. The hunter gave a slight grunt as I forced him to slowly boil Macaire’s blood within his skin. The nightwalker ran several feet away from me as if the distance would help as he scratched at the skin on the top of his left hand. Blood oozed out, popping and hissing as it melted anything that it touched.