Eternal Seduction (28 page)

Logan finally stopped laughing. “The goblin.”

He snapped his fingers and pointed at her in the shape of a gun. “Gotcha. Did you freak out yet?”

“No.” She backed away from Syn, who was still between her legs, then moved to stand next to him. “Trinity kicked me in the stomach, but all that did was make me feel sick.”

He cast a devilish glance to Trinity. “Want me to give it a shot? I bet I can get her to go.”

Logan stared between them. “Do I really need to ‘go’?”

“You should know what it feels like when the beast takes over,” Trinity advised. “Like I said, it’s different for everyone. If you know how the beast affects you and what kind of sensations it causes, then you can try to stave it off. The last thing I want is for you to be on the street in New York when it happens the first time. If you lose control and break the Veil,” she paused to whistle, “I don’t want to see K put in that kind of situation.”

Logan stiffened at her words. She didn’t want to see Kerestyan put in that situation any more than she wanted to be in the situation. “Okay,” she looked over at Odin, “have at it.”

He laced the fingers of both hands together then pushed back on them, filling the quiet air with a series of cracks. “This might just be therapeutic. You ready?”

She drew a deep, fortifying breath. “Not really, but I’ll live.”

He stared down at Syn. “Go over to Trinity. This is for Logan’s betterment and will only help Kerestyan. You stay out of it.”

Syn let out a long whine but lumbered over to Trinity, who’d moved to stand about ten feet away, and then plopped down next to her feet.

Logan stood still as Odin began to circle her, like he was some wild bird of prey and she was nothing more than an injured field mouse.

His lips curled into a snarl as he passed in front of her for the third time. “You’re a dirty street waif who isn’t worth the skin you’re printed on. You’re selfish. Detached. Disinterested. You’ve probably walked away or stood by and watched as some innocent person got hurt or abused, and chances are, you didn’t feel a damn thing while it was happening.”

She arched a brow at this feeble attempt. “You might want to try harder. Being called names doesn’t bother me, and considering how long I lived on the street, your last dig is a given.”

The malicious smile that spread across his lips was unsettling at best. “I’m just getting warmed up.” He walked around her again, and then stopped to stare into her eyes. “My brother, the only man I would go to war for and protect with every cell in my undead body, the man who’s given you more choices than he was
ever
given, deserves better than
you
. He deserves someone who knows what honor is, someone who understands what it means to believe in something with all their heart.” Disgust set into his familiar features. “You don’t have a heart.”

Logan steadied herself as an odd shifting sensation spread behind her belly button. She clenched her jaw tight and stared right back into his blacked out eyes. His words stung like a thousand dirty needles, but she refused to let it show. She should’ve known this was the tactic he’d use, but under no circumstances would she give him that victory.

“You don’t know what love is,” he spat at her. “You can’t even recognize the purest of all emotions. Kerestyan looks at you as though you’re the most precious treasure in this world. And you,” he paused to look her over, “you stare at him through your cold, dead eyes, as if he’s just another drug to you.”

She forced the words through her teeth, “Kerestyan is not my drug.”

He sneered. “Yes he is. You use him for what he can make you feel, and then you discard him as though he’s nothing more than a used syringe.”

Logan winced as fire erupted in her blood. Crimson fell over the room like a sheer curtain. Shadows danced like obsidian flames around Odin, taunting, beckoning her to strike out.

Reaching out with both arms, she shoved him back. “I would never discard him. You don’t know how I feel about him.” As the sound of his laughter reached her ears, the dark essence building inside her grew larger, filling her chest. “You don’t know me!”

“I know you lie there like an icy statue in his arms, and he feels it. Kerestyan feels your indifference and it tears him apart every single time. Does knowing you fill him with pain make you happy? Do you get some kind of sick pleasure out of knowing you can bring an Ancient to his knees? If one of his enemies comes knocking on your door, will you lure him into your arms so they can hold the blade to his throat? Or will you do it yourself? How long will it be before Kerestyan dies because of you?”

She squeezed her eyes closed. “I wouldn’t do that to him!” She struggled for a breath, but the air felt too thin, too light to sustain her.

“Your words are nothing but lies from the lips of a woman who can’t even be honest with herself. Lies,” the hiss of his cold breath stung her cheek. “My brother loves you…and we both know what you do to people who love you.”

The moment his last words broke over her, something in Logan changed. She felt the stranger inside her burst to life, felt the odd sensation of someone stepping into her, as if her body, her skin, was nothing more than a coat.

Her mind raced at the same frantic pace as her heart. Memories flashed behind her eyes as though she was staring through the windows of a speeding subway car. Her greatest moments of happiness merged with her darkest nightmares. Whispered voices from her past and present came from all directions, converging into a deafening scream before all but one fell silent.

“Kerestyan, an honorable knight imprisoned inside the very armor which holds and protects him.Odin, a fierce warrior leading droves of men to their death because the rage inside him inspires nothing greater.”

“You’re no better.” Logan heard the words leave her own mouth, but her voice was twisted, filled with a quiet rage. She opened her eyes and stared up at Odin through the scarlet fog. “How many times did you lead your own brother into a battle that could have killed him? How many nights did he lie broken on a bloody battlefield because of you?” She narrowed her eyes on him. “Is it me who doesn’t deserve Kerestyan’s love, or is it
you
?”

A glassy haze claimed Odin’s black eyes.

In the space of a single heartbeat, the stranger who’d taken control of Logan dissipated, leaving her with only one instruction.
RUN!

She took off like a gunshot, heading for the doorway to the main hall as an angry, thundering roar shook the floor beneath her. She heard Trinity scream the same warning her mind had given just as she broke past the doors and into the hall.

Fear like she’d never felt before coursed through her body, pushing her legs faster and faster until the stone walls of the hallway were nothing but dark blurs.

Without giving it a second thought, for better or worse, she cut right and pushed through the blackened doors then flew across the black marble. She ran up the stairs, and didn’t stop moving until all she could see was the wall of ivory bones that made up the back of Stefan’s throne.

She sucked in mouthful after mouthful of cold air, attempting to catch her breath as the muscles in her legs throbbed a spiteful rhythm.

“I assume you now understand what you perceived to be a stranger inside you, is in fact your beast?” Stefan asked. His usually serious voice was filled with no small hint of amusement.

Stupid goblin has a death wish.
“Yeah, I got that now.”

“You don’t have to hide, Logan. In his current state, Odin will not follow you
here
.”

She would’ve argued she wasn’t hiding, but considering her crouched position…yeah. She stood up and shook out her legs as pain burned the muscles in her thighs. Stepping around the throne, she smiled as the sound of happy panting touched her ears. She turned her head to find Syn sitting at the bottom of the stairs, his big, pink tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

“Congratulations,” Stefan said as he plucked a large bone from the side of his chair then tossed it down to Syn. “You’ve successfully completed the third part of your testing.”

She arched a brow. Mostly because of what he’d said, but partly because of the way Syn’s bushy tail swished back and forth as he chewed on what was probably someone’s thigh at one point.

She focused her complete attention back on Stefan’s hollows. “I’m being tested?”

He nodded. “There are four parts. Part one was you realizing in order to progress, you had to regress, and in turn release the vice withholding your success. Part two was your acceptance and understanding of why your physical body needed to reflect the new life you’ve embraced. Part three,” the corners of his mouth raised a bit, “was becoming one with your true self, and learning the beast is not a separate entity, but a reflection of baser truths and desires.”

Logan sighed. She couldn’t argue with anything he’d said, but she wasn’t exactly pleased to learn she was jumping through invisible hoops.

At least he told you. That creature doesn’t owe you any explanations.
She stiffened at hearing the new voice in her mind. No longer twisted and angry, the voice sounded more like hers, but with a slightly sharper edge.

Stefan’s faint smile lengthened. “When the beast is calm, always carefully consider the words she chooses to speak. Even when she’s enraged, take comfort in knowing she still speaks a version of the truth.”

Logan smiled at him. Although Stefan was more than a little scary, especially because of his lack of eyes, there was something about the calm delivery of his words that made it hard not to listen…and something even more compelling about the wisdom behind them.

She considered him for a moment, her smile still in place. “So, what’s part four?”

He gave a warm but equally as unsettling chuckle. “Enlightenment.”

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“No. However, I will tell you that your mother was nearly correct. Diamond strands cocoon every being in this world, including a creature such as myself. Yet the question is not, where do the threads lead you? The question is, who do your strings lead back to?”

Logan shivered as a chill slid over her and goose bumps rose through her skin. “Let’s not go there. I’m still reeling from learning how duped the humans are. How many unwitting CEO’s are in the pockets of vampires, and just how many politicians are backing plays they think are their own, but aren’t.”

He actually laughed a rather loud and hearty sound. “Perhaps in time you’ll be more prepared to discuss such topics.” He turned his head away from her a little as his jaw hardened back to that line of unforgiving stone. “No!”

She followed his line of view to the left edge of the expansive platform the throne sat on, just in time to see Syn, who stood next to a black pedestal with a large chessboard sitting atop it, lowering his hiked back leg.

Stefan extended a large, metal covered arm and pointed at the doors. “Go outside.”

She tried to stave it off when Syn snorted in their direction then trotted off towards the huge black doors, but she couldn’t. “Of all the problems for someone like you to have,” she laughed. “Who’d have thought house training would be one of them?”

“It’s not funny,” his deep grumble reverberated in her chest. “Odin, and that damn wolf, will be the death of me.”

It took a good two minutes for Logan to stop laughing. She wiped the tears from her eyes and cast a glance back over to the chessboard. Now that she wasn’t distracted by the sight of Syn preparing to defile it, she noted one spot on the board cast a subtle red glow.

She started down the steps, but stopped and turned back towards Stefan. “Can I go look?” When he nodded his permission, she continued down the stairs and made her way to the side of the board.

It wasn’t until she stood right next to the pedestal that she realized the pieces were intricately carved to look like different people. Most were fashioned from obsidian glass or ivory, but the two with the scarlet light shimmering around them were unbelievably lifelike in color.

A tall, platinum blond woman wearing a red cat suit stood on a squared base made of ivory, and a shorter woman with dark hair and Spanish features stood in jeans and t-shirt on a circular obsidian base.

Unlike all of the other pieces on the board, the blond and brunette shared the same black marble space.

Logan shifted her gaze back to Stefan. “Why are there two in the same square?”

“They are in play, competing for the space.”

She arched a brow at him as the goblin in her belly curled into a warm little ball, and if she wasn’t mistaken, let out what felt like a strangely contented purr.

Stefan descended the staircase and in a few powerful strides moved to stand at her side. “Are you familiar with chess?”

She nodded. She’d spent time on sunny days at different parks in New York watching people play on the worn, washed out boards. Some of the homeless were known for being Master chess players, but she wasn’t one of them. “I know the basics.”

“The rules are very similar to the game of strategy you were familiar with as a human. However,” he plucked the Spanish woman from the board and handed her to Logan, “my pawns have far more to lose than a space.”

Logan stared down at the piece in her hand. “You play with people?”

“I present supernatural creatures with obstacles,” he corrected. “My opponent and I arrange the circumstances, but in the end, the pawns choose their own path. Their decisions and the consequences of their actions determine the amount of time they grace the board.” He motioned to the ivory likeness of a man dressed in robes. “Lucien, my gentle yet misguided brethren, has stood proud on this board for thousands of years.”

She swallowed the dry knot forming in her throat. She remembered Vouclade telling her how old vampires manipulated young vampires, but she couldn’t imagine someone who’d been on the board for ‘thousands of years’ being considered a young vampire.

But then again, Vouclade was twice as old as Kerestyan, and Stefan was probably a lot older than Vouclade.

She stared between the Spanish woman and the other people on the board. “Do they know? I mean, I’m sure they all know about manipulation…but do they know you actually have them on a board, like a real game?”