Hellhound (35 page)

“So go perform this incredible plan on Demetrius,” I
barked.

“Never! Insolent child, he deserves to die.”

I pulled my lips over my fangs and screeched. The
ceiling cracked and crumbled above us.

“Selene, calm down!” Serph ordered.

“I think Claudius knew about this plot. I think Claudius
gave the kill order to the archers to prevent me from discovering Nathanial’s
involvement. I don’t know, Claudius, maybe you even devised the plan. Maybe you
should step through the cerebral chamber and show us what you know.” I took a
step forward.

“You can’t force me to do anything, child,” Claudius
chided.

“But we can.” Mother looked up from her seat.
“Stepping through the cerebral chamber would do nothing except clear your name
and any lingering suspicions. That is, if you truly have nothing to do with
these accusations.”

“No. I will not step into the chamber. Besides, the
muses aren’t cooperating right now.”

“Do it now, old man,” I snapped, taking another step.
Danther moved to stand in between us. “Didn’t I say that I would rip your
throat out and demolish you in front of the clan?”

“Watch your tongue,” Danther warned me.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

My gaze hadn’t left the indignant Elder for more than
three seconds when a course of white lightning stunned my view from the corner
of an eye. I jumped out of the circle just in time. The white and peach spot
where I stood was bare and singed black. A foul, rustic odor filled my
nostrils. The stench only grew when I repeatedly bounced out of the way of
other lightning bolts.

 Carter dashed ahead of me in a blink of an eye,
toppling Claudius. The Elder zapped Carter, who writhed on the ground at his
feet. Claudius flashed out of control, and the other Elders were forced to
intervene. He was belligerent. The Council was forced to use their physical
powers, which many hadn’t used in years.

This was bad. This was very bad.

The minions pulled away from the striking hands and
fangs as the Elders balled together like an orb of vipers. Silver and electric
white waved over them as their bright essences glowed.

I pulled Carter to his feet and helped him to the door,
practically dragging him to where the rest of those present watched in awe.

The room lit up. Lightning struck across the ceiling
in random, branched patterns. Wind formed from nothing and curled into a vortex.
A funnel of gray cloud touched the floor like a tornado. Fire erupted from the
corners of the walls. Mist doused our clothes. All the elements of nature
rushed into the room and crowded us. Most of the minions hugged the doors and
walls, but we couldn’t get out. The wind suctioned in the only exit.

After a quick and devastating struggle, the Council
prevailed and brought Claudius to his knees. He collapsed face first into the
circle. His straight nose dug into a scorched spot. Claudius swung around to
strike at more of his fellow Councilmen. They called over Carter and the other
sub sentry to help secure him.

When they dashed over, tying Claudius’s hands behind
his back and smacking his face into the floor, they made sure to avoid his
glowing white, electric fingers. I took off in their direction, and Danther
barely missed grabbing me.

Using Antonio’s speed, I raced to stand behind Carter.
Claudius had another string of lightning to blow out. I swiveled back and to my
right, pulled the crescent from behind me, and wrapped it around Claudius’s
wrists.

In an instant, beneath mental command, the crescent
tightened and ejected the teeth that injected the Elder with my essence. I
hoped it worked because Claudius was stronger than I was, and he could fight my
control.

“Stop it, Claudius,” I hissed.

He fought for several minutes, but finally calmed down
and froze. The sub sentries and Councilmen released him.

“Sit up and tell me what you had to do with the
murders. Why are you so bent on rising up against me and nearly destroying your
fellow Councilmen?”

“This is not appropriate use of your weapon on an Elder,”
Serph snapped, though he was clearly out of breath.

I scoffed and returned to Claudius. “Tell me now, old
man.”

He bared teeth but ultimately obliged. My essence
would cause madness in him the longer he fought it, and he felt it already.

“I hate you for denying my son marriage. If the
tracker was out of the way, you would’ve married Nathanial, and both of you
would have ascended to the throne. You would’ve had children, and our line
would control more and more of the clan. You ruined everything, and I will not
let you live, much less revive that tracker.”

I crouched to my knees and looked him in the eye. “Did
you know what Nathanial intended to do?”

He shook his head but replied, “Yes.”

“Oh, why, Claudius?” Serph threw his hands into the
air. “Why would you bring this crashing down on our clan?”

“Tell me who else knew about this plan,” my voice
trembled.

“No one else.”

“Did you give the kill order on Ashton to prevent me
from unearthing the truth?”

“Yes.”

“What else?”

Through tight lips he answered, “I devised the plan
but molded Nathanial’s thinking so that he would believe he came up with the
scheme. I let him do everything, so that my name wouldn’t be brought up. He
wasn’t supposed to die. Things were supposed to be clean cut, not this mess.”

“Let me get this clear—you were behind the murders?”

“Yes,” he growled.

“And according to justice and the ways of the clan,
you deserve to die, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

I looked up at the Council. “Who denies me this
right?”

Danther was the only person who stirred. He took a
step forward. When my eyes flashed over him, he froze. He went to open his
mouth, but promptly snapped it shut.

“The right is yours,” my mother boldly spoke.

One at a time, the rest of the Council concurred.

“Well then,” I muttered and looked into Claudius’s
eyes, “looks like you’re mine, old man.”

He bowed backward under my mental command and clenched
his teeth. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as my clawed fingers pushed
through the viscous membranes of his skin, skull, and brain matter. I absorbed
everything that I could, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The latter two seemed
to prevail.

When I pulled out, Claudius fell back in spastic
contortions. Without asking, or confirming, I dipped my clawed fingers into his
chest cavity, moving through his ribs until his heart beat in my hand. I squeezed
and pulled up the lightly colored essence as it crawled up my hand and arm,
illuminating my dark flesh with its silver glow.

This was the second most intoxicating, surreal, and
frenzied feeling that I’d ever experienced in an essence ascension after Father.
Other ascensions were done on varied levels of criminals, never on such a
powerful and ancient Elder, only him and Father.

When it was all done and over, I fell back. My head
whirled with emotion and memories, and my body fought to assimilate the new
assault of powers. I sat in the middle of a large crowd, which loomed over me.
Everything was a blur. The conversations were a hum. My world slowed down and
beat in rhythm with my heart.

I didn’t remember too much of what happened after
that. I retrieved my crescent as the minions and sub sentries prepared
Claudius’s body for burial. I headed to my room, ignoring everyone.

The Council would send out a transmission within the
hour to inform the rest of the clan of what transpired. Claudius the Elder
evoked the plot against Augustus the Elder and Demetrius the tracker, bringing
in his son, Nathanial the undertaker, to carry out the sinister plan. Ashton
the tracker/shape-shifter was involved, committing the actual physical act in
the guise of Demetrius. All the guilty parties were now deceased. Their burials
would take place the next day. Their bodies would be thrown to the wild beasts
in the woods to be devoured, their bones scattered, and their memories and acts
blemished for eternity.

I crashed on my recliner, not remembering if I even
bothered locking my front door. My trench coat hung over the back of the couch
and my crescent was uncomfortably cushioned between me and the seat. I was
fatigued beyond belief and knew that I would pass out any minute. And I did.
Instead of facing my own dreams from my thoughts, my mind pushed through
Claudius’s memories.

The beautiful thing about being the great descendant
of Mnemosyne was that my mind worked her powers even during my sleeping hours.
Humans called this auto-pilot.

My body finally found rest after all the stress from
life, this case, and both the memory retrieval and essence ascension. My mind
never paused, and that was a wonderful thing.

Claudius struggled for dominance his entire life. When
he had a son, he and his late wife immediately paired Nathanial with me once I
was born. This arrangement ensured that he would gain more control in the Council.

When I began to rebel, Claudius had a fit and urged
Nathanial to talk some sense into me. When he refused, he spoke with my father.
When my father refused, he barked at my mother.

I was infuriated with a dead man.

Claudius was disgruntled when I rebelled by mating
with the tracker, moving out of the domicile, and embarking on the treacherous
road of a hunter. Claudius pushed Nathanial to intervene, but Nathanial felt
that I would get over wild days and return to reason within time. This did not
fare well with his father.

Claudius approached my father, but my father loved me
dearly and said that he couldn’t control who I loved. The marriage arrangement
would have to be broken if I didn’t make the so-called “right” decision. This enraged
Claudius.

“You’re a coward, Augustus! You can’t stand up to your
own daughter? Why should you be in a position to rule an entire clan? You
should have never been allowed to father such a hideous progeny. This defies
tradition. Tradition must be maintained in order to preserve the species. One
day, when we’re strong enough, we’ll rise against the mortals and re-take this
world just like the days of old. These are our plans, aren’t they? Our goal was
always to put the humans back under our hand.

“Birthrights must be maintained. Selene must marry my
son, and together they must become Elders on the Council and produce children
to continue the course.”

“Please, leave Selene alone. She will come around soon
enough.”

“But don’t you see how far she has already strayed?
She’s become a hunter, mated to a tracker, and lives more and more away from
the clan. She’s practically separated from us and her destiny. The longer we
allow her to run her course, the further she wanders, and the more difficult it
will be to bring her back.”

“Let this go, Claudius. Leave her alone. This is the
end of our conversation.” Father calmly walked away.

When Claudius rebuked Mother, he pushed her to become
more volatile toward my decisions than my father had been. When Father found
out what was going on, he stopped Claudius dead in his tracks.

“Do not threaten my wife,” Father growled, “or I will
sever your head.”

Ah, like father, like daughter.

Sometime later, Nathanial approached Claudius about
Ashton’s dealings with the females of other clans and his second nature.
Claudius immediately grabbed onto the details and formed a plan.

“My son,” he said to Nathanial in the privacy of his
large apartment, “Selene should not be able to marry whomever she chooses,
especially a tracker, a man of inferior blood.”

“But what can I do? Selene is a headstrong woman. She
wouldn’t easily bow to demands. In fact, she would rebel even further. The only
way is to allow her to roam for a few, wild months. She’ll come to her senses.”

“No, no, no! The tracker has his claws deep in her.
Who knows what he plans? Maybe he’ll marry her and try to take a throne with
her.”

“That would never happen.”

“What if he tries to make changes, using her as a
puppet in the Council?”

“He can’t marry her.”

“So we must stop this absurd courting now. Nathanial,
my boy, do you love Selene?”

“Yes, father, of course. She will make a lovely bride,
a strong mother, and our union will be beneficial for the clan.”

“Demetrius has claimed her heart. You should have done
something, anything, to prevent this. I’ve tried, but you must also. If you
can’t, or won’t, sway Selene’s heart, why haven’t you done anything to
relinquish the tracker’s hold?”

“What should I do? Take her from him? She’s as strong
as her ancestors and free-willed. She will not yield to me so easily, Father.
She is not like Mother, who did as you told her.”

“Your mother was the way a woman should be—obedient.”

“Our women are different today, Father, and you know
this. They wield great power, which is why they mother great men.”