If she'd thought she was returning to a house as dark as the one she'd left, she was mistaken. Kougar, Hawke, and Vhyper stood in the various doorways of the fully lit foyer, watching her with dark, menacing eyes. Mage meant enemy to them and, dear God, she couldn't think of any group she less wanted as her enemy.
She sidled closer to Lyon and he snatched her hand, pulling, her against him.
Vhyper pushed away from the wall where he'd been waiting, fury in every line of his body as he entered the foyer, stopping inches from Lyon's face.
"You mated with her, you bastard. I can smell it. She's mine!"
Lyon growled, deep in his throat. "She's Mage. She's no one's."
"Like hell. The Pairing was true. But you couldn't keep your hands off her. You took her for yourself. And now you're trying to make excuses. She's mine."
Lyon snarled. "No one touches her but me until we get this sorted out. No one!" He looked at Paenther. "How soon until the Shaman gets here?"
"A couple of more hours."
Lyon wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her hard against him, tugging her with him as he pushed past Vhyper. "Everyone in the war room. Now. I'll meet you there in five."
"Where are you taking her?" Vhyper demanded.
"I'm locking her up where she can't escape again. And where she'll be safe until we make a decision." Sliding his arm from around her waist, he took her hand and led her down the same narrow set of stairs he had on their way to the Pairing. The basement of the house.
But they passed the ritual room and crossed the wide gym to a mirror on the far side. With a press of his hand, the mirror opened to reveal a long, dimly lit hallway, both the walls and the floor, paved in stone.
The ceiling was high enough for Lyon to stand easily, but the passage itself was barely wide enough for the two of them to walk side by side. It reminded her of the dungeons of a castle.
Deep inside, she heard the growling and thrashing of an animal.
The passage opened onto a wide room filled, as Lyon had warned, with cages built into the walls. Cages separated by two feet of solid stone walls, each with a door made of thick massive steel bars.
Real torches hung on the walls outside the cages, the smoke darkening the air.
Wulfe's glowing eyes peered out from one of the doors, his fangs visible as he snarled.
A chill of foreboding snaked down her spine. "You're going to lock me up with him?"
"With him? No. But I'm putting you in one of the cages."
"Lyon…" She didn't like it down here.
"It's for your safety, Kara. The discussion upstairs is going to get heated. With everyone already on the edge of control, more than one may go feral. Especially if you're in the room. I'm not sure I can protect you from them all, especially if I, too, lose control."
He opened one of the cages, ushered her inside, then followed her. He took her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly until she was soft and melting against him.
"I won't let them hurt you, little one." His eyes were earnest.
Kara shook her head. "Don't make me any more promises, Lyon."
His jaw tightened, but he nodded. He brushed her cheek with his knuckles, then retreated, locking her into a tiny cage, barely large enough for her to lie down in. He'd just turned away when the sounds of a commotion reached her ears.
"Dammit to hell," Lyon muttered.
She watched as Tighe and Paenther carried a struggling Vhyper between them, Hawke walking close behind.
"He lost it, Roar," Tighe said. "I don't think he's getting it back this time."
Lyon nodded. "Lock him up." He disappeared from her line of sight as they got a snarling, spitting Vhyper into the cage. The door slammed shut on him with a clang.
As he reappeared, Lyon met her gaze briefly, the weight of the world in his own amber depths. Then he turned away and followed the other three Ferals down the long hall that would lead them back into the house.
Anything could happen to her down here, and he'd never hear it. Never know.
In the cage next to hers she heard Wulfe thrashing and growling like a wild animal. She shivered, glad for the robe that covered her from head to foot but knowing it wouldn't do a thing for the fear that was freezing her soul. The fear that her own strange heritage was going to wind up dooming her. As she glanced down, preparing to sit as she waited for her sentence, a movement outside her cage caught her eye, then was gone before she could be certain she'd seen something.
When she heard the clink of metal and the squeak of thick door hinges, she knew she hadn't been mistaken.
Her heart began to hammer. One of the Ferals was loose.
It took no time for her to wonder who. A moment later, Vhyper stood before her own cage, a smile playing around his mouth. A chilling smile.
"Convenient how all I had to do was pretend to go a little crazy and they brought me right to you, little mate of mine."
Kara shrank back, until the wall pressed at her back. "What are you doing, Vhyper?"
"Why, Kara, what do you think? Lyon said you're not mine, but he was wrong. You are mine. All mine. And those dreams you've been having?" He smiled coldly. "They're about to come true."
A figure stepped beside him, draped in the dark robe that matched her own, the robe of her nightmares. From the darkness of the figure's hood, strange, copper-ringed eyes shone.
Mage eyes.
The gate of her cage swung open and Vhyper filled the doorway. A cruel smile twisted his mouth.
"Come, Kara."
"Lyon!"
Vhyper lunged for her, twisting her back against him as his hand slammed over her mouth. "Shut up, bitch. He'll find you soon enough, but with any luck, it will be too late."
Kara struggled against him, but his hold was like iron, and he was too strong. When she tried to kick at his shins, he lifted her like she weighed nothing, immobilizing her.
Carrying a single torch, the Mage led them deeper into the tunnels.
Kara could hardly breathe for the hand blocking her mouth and covering half her nose. Her heart thundered in her chest, her mind shimmering with a fear greater than any she'd known since she arrived here. Because deep in her soul, she knew this was the danger she'd feared all along.
They stopped before a wooden door that appeared to be nailed closed, but the Mage pulled lightly, and the door swung open.
The musty smell of damp earth slammed into her as Vhyper carried her down the long, narrow steps into what looked to be little more than an underground cave. The steps and walls were formed by stone. The floor was dirt. Smoke from the torch filled the fetid air.
As the light filled the shadowed spaces, she saw the place wasn't as empty as she'd believed. Fire pits formed a small circle, in the middle of which hung a long length of thick rope hanging from a pulley attached to the ceiling.
But it was the gleaming metal that caught her eye and sent the blood rushing from her head in a cold wash of terror.
Knives. Long, wicked-looking daggers lay in a perfect row along one wall.
Her nightmares.
Dear God, no.
Vhyper released her suddenly, dropping her to the ground like a bag of mulch. Kara caught herself with one hand, wincing at the pain that shot up her wrist. Before she could lever herself up, a yank of her robe had her tumbling back down. Unceremoniously, the robe was pulled off her.
Kara scrambled to her feet and tried to run, but Vhyper's hard arm caught around her middle and lifted her off her feet.
"Lyon!"
"He can't hear you, Radiant. And I'll not have you escaping. This is your night, you know. The fulfillment of your destiny. Maybe not the destiny Lyon's been filling your head with, but your destiny all the same."
He lifted her off her feet and carried her to the center of the circle, where he once moire dumped her on her face and followed her down with a knee crushing her back.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Even when Lyon was at his most furious, he'd treated her with some amount of care. But Vhyper showed her none. He wrenched her hands above her head and tied them together with the end of the rope lying on the ground.
The vivid horror of hanging from the ceiling in her nightmares came back to her in a rush. Terror stole her breath. The moment Vhyper's knee released her back, she leaped to her feet, desperate to keep that nightmare from coming true, but there was nowhere to run. Even as she tried, the rope went taut, jerking her to the middle of the circle.
Slowly the rope pulled at her hands and arms, lifting them until she was on her toes, stretching to the point of pain. And then the ground fell away beneath her until she was swinging freely in the air.
Sweat ran down her temples, her skin at once flushed and freezing as panic ripped at her pulse.
Her body swayed and turned until she could see the robed figure bending at the wall, lifting two daggers in its hands. Terror exploded behind Kara's eyes.
"Vhyper, please. Please don't do this."
"Ah, but I must, Radiant." His voice was calm and pleasant, without remorse. He slid a wide plastic vat beneath her swaying feet. "The good news is, we probably won't kill you." He smiled in a way that had her heart clawing to crawl out of her throat. "The bad news is, by the time we're finished with you, you'll wish death had been our only intent."
Vhyper took one of the knives from his assistant and came to stand before Kara, his eyes gleaming with a cold brightness that spoke of true evil.
"Vhyper, don't. Lyon will kill you for this."
Vhyper chuckled. "Perhaps. But you are the Mage, right? And I have been suffering from a lack of radiance." He shrugged. "Time will tell what our fearless leader makes of all this." His face turned hard. "But it changes nothing."
He lifted the pointed tip of his dagger and pressed it against her chest, piercing her flesh just above the neck of her nightgown.
She gasped at the lick of fiery pain. But before she could catch her breath from that first tiny, assault, he slid the blade downward in a single mind-ripping swipe, slicing a shallow furrow from her sternum to the top of her pubic bone.
A scream escaped her throat.
Vhyper laughed, then turned her around and drew a second line of pain down her back.
Warm blood began to trickle down her thighs.
"Vhyper," she gasped. "Don't."
"Oh, but Radiant. I've barely begun." Two more scores across her shoulders, and the shreds of her nightgown fell away.
Her terror spiked.
"Get the others," Vhyper said. "Quickly."
Kara barely heard the sound of footsteps in the dirt above the pounding in her ears. But the sound of metal clanking together stopped her heart.
Tears trickled down her cheeks. Her fear spiraled.
Into her line of vision came the robed figures of her nightmares. Four stood where she could see them, but her ears told her there were more behind her. The hoods hid their faces from her frightened eyes.
"Vhyper, don't," she begged. "Please don't."
"Ah, but I must, Radiant. I must. Now!" he shouted suddenly.
All around her blades flashed. In a single, mind-shattering blaze of hot, white pain, they pierced her abdomen, clanking inside her as they pierced her like the spokes of a brutal wheel.
Her mind went blank, and all she could do was scream.
"We can't ascend a witch!" Paenther snarled, pacing the war room.
Lyon stood by the door, his back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Other than the two already in cages, all his men were in this room. And all were staying here. He would take no chance on one deciding to take Kara's fate into his own hands.
"She's the Radiant," Tighe argued. "You saw her as clearly as I did, B.P. We need to ascend her. It could take months for another to come forth, and we don't have that kind of time. We'll all be as crazy as Wulfe and Vhyper by then."
"Tighe's right," Hawke said, seated at the oval conference table, his eyes thoughtful. "We've got to ascend her. But we've also got to protect ourselves from whatever power she acquires as a result. If she already has magic, goddess knows how strong she'll get."
Lyon had listened to the arguments for more than twenty minutes and still had no clearer picture of what he was going to do. Though everything inside him told him Kara was innocent of any malicious intent, he wasn't a fool. He couldn't discount the possibility that she had, utterly, bewitched him. Which meant his belief in her innocence could well have been manipulated.
Deep inside him, his beast growled and snarled, demanding he protect her. "We'll wait until the Shaman gets here." He pushed away from the wall and met Tighe's gaze. "I'll be downstairs."
Tighe nodded.
Paenther fell into step beside him. "I'll go with you."
Lyon glanced at his second. "Afraid I might free her?"
Paenther made a move of his head that was almost a shake, but not quite. "I just figure you could use some company."
Lyon gave a bark of what passed for laughter and gripped the other man's shoulder. Something he almost never did. But it felt right, somehow.
"I'm not going to let you kill her, B.P. If she has to be destroyed, I'll do it myself."
Paenther's head dipped once. "Agreed."
They descended the stairs, to the lower chambers in silence. Not until they opened the mirrored wall in the workout gym did the sounds of Wulfe's snarls reach his ears.
The prisons had long ago been soundproofed in case any enterprising humans tried to search the premises. Humans the Ferals preferred not to kill.
Another sound reached his ears. The sound of a distant scream.