Dominic turned his head away from Lucius but not for long. Despite the oddities he’d witnessed so far, he couldn’t forget that the man standing before him had risen to great power through very violent means. If the rumors were true, and there was no doubt most of them were, the seemingly harmless vampire standing less than a foot away had committed unspeakable monstrosities, instilling justifiable fear in a great many vampires. Endearing as he might seem, the pack could not afford to forget their quirky host was known for being very clever, very cunning, and very dangerous.
Dominic turned his senses to full capacity and his eyes did a fast but thorough sweep of the forest. His vision gained more clarity as the sky darkened. Though its progress was gradual, the pack had already noticed that their strange new world had begun to dim in tiny increments and intervals since Lucius had driven up beside them. Aside from the trees that seemed to glare at them through dark spots in their bark, appearing to throw out stop signals with their hand-like branches, no other living, breathing creature was in sight.
Dominic felt a knot form in his chest. The ability to still experience human fear was the human ability he had wanted to lose but hadn’t. Since emotional responses are born in the mind and not in the body, he knew he would remain victim to the same handicaps he’d struggled with pre-transformation unless he surrendered to the darkness. He turned to face his pack with a courageous smile and stance knowing it was his job to keep their nerves calm and to remain alert to any challenges they might encounter.
Dominic was uncomfortable with the strange presence he felt lurking close by but was even more uncomfortable by the disappearance of Stephan and his pack, uncertain why they had hidden themselves. He had almost hoped to see them hanging from their trees onehanded, staring back at him with their dark, mean little eyes. When nothing glared back but the taunting trees and their insulting branch gestures, he turned his attention back to Lucius and almost lost his balance at the glare that awaited his attention.
Pain erupted in his left temple and sliced his thoughts in half. Its intensity caused one of his knees to weaken and threatened to drop him to the ground. Dominic bent down to snap his bone back into place but never took his eyes off Lucius. Penetrating and merciless, the head vampire’s glower continued to bore through him, the grip on his irises and attack on his pupils merciless. He had to will his legs not to fail him and forced himself to maintain the eye contact that was causing him such agony. Dominic knew the master was trying to assess his courage and endurance and it was not a test he planned to fail.
He envisioned Raina in his mind and used the power of love to kick-start the magic that Lucius’ presence had depleted. Sensing the change in posture among his pack members, Dominic feared his family would make a fatal mistake in the absence of his direction. Though he could feel the weakness of its delivery, Dominic shot a message to the only one he knew could still receive it.
Stay put, Raina, and tell the others to do the same.
I won’t let him hurt you, Dom.
He won’t. It’s just a test.
An invisible hand seemed to squeeze at his neck and its grip tightened by the second. The force resulted in Dominic seeing blurred and shiny stars, rather than maintaining clear vision but still, Dominic refused to