"You can keep her," Dragos said, resuming his trek toward the gathering. "Have your man drive the boat back across the lake while we're meeting. I will radio him when he is needed again."
"Go," Fabien ordered in response, then he was right back at Dragos's side, as eager as a hound begging for scraps. "Sire, about the child...really, you must see for yourself. She is gifted with an extraordinary talent that I am certain you will appreciate. She is an oracle, my lord. I've witnessed it for myself."
Against his will, curiosity pricked to attention. His steps slowed, then stopped. "Bring her."
When he pivoted around, Fabien's eager grin spread even wider. "Yes, sire."
The child was ushered to him once more, her footsteps resisting, stubborn heels digging into the old pine needles and sand that littered the small slope up from the dock. She tried to fight off the vampire guard who held her, but it was useless effort. He simply shoved her forward until she was standing directly in front of Dragos. She kept her chin wrenched down, her eyes cast to the ground at her feet.
"Lift your head," Fabien commanded her, hardly waiting for her to comply before he took her skull in both his hands and forced her to look up. "Now, open your eyes. Do it!"
Dragos didn't know quite what to expect. He wasn't at all prepared for the startling paleness of her gaze. The girl's irises were as clear as glass - flawless mirrors that instantly mesmerized him. He was vaguely aware of Fabien's hissed excitement, but all of Dragos's attention was rooted on the child and the incredible glimmer of her eyes.
And then he saw it...a flicker of movement in the placid reflection. He saw a form moving through thick shadows - a body he thought he recognized as his own. The image became clearer the longer he stared, rapt and eager to see more of the gift Fabien had described.
It was him.
It was his lair as well. Even veiled in dark mist, the images reflecting back at him were intimately familiar. He saw the subterranean laboratory, the holding cells...the UV light cage that contained his greatest weapon in the war he'd been preparing for all these many centuries. It was all there, shown to him through this Breedmate child's eyes.
But then, a moment of stunning alarm.
His pristine lab, so rigidly secured and orderly, was in ruins. The holding cells had been thrown open. And the UV light cage...it was empty.
"Impossible," he murmured, struck with a grim, furious awe.
He blinked hard, several times, wanting to dislodge the vision from his head. When he opened his eyes again, he saw something new in the child's damnable eyes...something even more unfathomable.
He saw himself, begging for his life. Weeping, broken.
Pitiful.
Defeated.
"Is this some kind of f**king joke?" His voice shook - both with anger and with something too weak for him to acknowledge. He tore his gaze away from the girl and fixed it on Fabien. "What the hell is the meaning of this?" "Your future, sire." Fabien's face had gone quite pale. His mouth worked for a moment without sound, then he finally sputtered, "The child...you see, she is an oracle. She showed me standing here, at this very gathering, presenting you with a vision of your future that pleased you immensely. When I saw that, I knew I had to save her for you, my lord. I had to offer her to you, no matter what it cost."
Dragos's blood was lava scorching his veins. He should kill the idiot here and now, just because of this insult. "You obviously misread what you saw."
"No!" Fabien cried, grabbing hold of the girl and wheeling her around. He gave her a hard shake. "Show me again! Prove to him that I am not mistaken, damn you!"
Dragos watched as still as stone while Fabien peered into her eyes. The Darkhaven leader's horrified gasp told him all he needed to know. He reeled back, as white as a sheet. As stricken as if he'd just witnessed his own murder.
"I don't understand," Fabien muttered. "It's all changed. You have to believe me, sire! I don't know how she's changed the vision, but the little witch is lying now. She has to be!"
"Get her out of my sight," Dragos growled to the Enforcement Agency guard who held her. "I'll take her with me when I leave, but until then, I don't want to see hide nor hair of her."
The guard gave a nod and removed the child, practically dragging her up to the house.
"Sire, I beg you," Fabien pleaded. "Forgive me for this...unfortunate mistake."
"I will deal with you later," Dragos said, not bothering to couch the threat that rode undercurrent of his words. He resumed his progress toward the gathering, more determined than ever to make his authority - his unmatched power - understood to all.
Chapter Twenty-nine
It was fully dark when Niko and Renata arrived at the coordinates Gideon had supplied for Edgar Fabien's property up north. The Darkhaven leader evidently owned a sizable chunk of wooded land, far enough out of Montreal that the surrounding area remained widely undeveloped: acre after acre of huge conifers and evergreens, not a living soul in sight except for the occasional deer or moose that bolted at the first scent of the heavily armed vampire creeping through their unspoiled sanctuary. Nikolai had been running solo reconaissance on the area for the past few minutes. A two-story house made of logs and stone was tucked into a thick corner of the forest. A narrow, unpaved drive, barely wide enough for one vehicle, cut a meandering path through the trees to the front of the house. Niko skirted that driveway from the cover of the woods, taking note of the two SWAT- garbed Enforcement Agents posted near the halfway mark and the three large black Humvees parked in single-file formation just outside the front door of the place. Three more vampire guards, M16 rifles at the ready, covered the entrance. The east and west sides were each also under watch by an armed sentry.