Blood Double (God Wars #1)(32)

"I must be wimpier than I thought," I sighed, sliding down the door until I was slumped in the floor. "What's your name?" I stared up at my captor who was now standing over me, a terrifying scowl marring his features. Since I had no idea what to do, I'd frantically searched my mind for a course of action. Perhaps things would go easier if we engaged in a two-way conversation. I'd been locked up before, and I was silently petrified by my current situation.

"I am Kalenegar," he snapped. "You will come with me and I will evaluate your skills."

"At what?" I barely had time to respond before he gripped my upper arm in a tight hold and jerked me to my feet. He then disappeared as easily as anyone else who had folding capability.

*

"I know you can read others," Kalenegar shook me after I'd read perhaps the twentieth person in a crowded square. He'd taken me directly to Surnath, where people brushed past us, although they couldn't see me or Kalenegar—he'd shielded us. "You must prove to me that you can block the visions. There is no need to read everyone."

"I don't know how to block them," I whimpered as he shook me—he'd never let go of my arm.

"Do it," he snarled. I tried. Honestly. I had no idea how, or where to start, even, and I was exhausted. He didn't care.

"I will only ask once more," he hissed. "Block the visions, Breanne." At least he knew my name. I felt helpless. Even as a vampire, I couldn't break loose from his grip and I screamed as pain lanced through my brain. That was my first taste of how the Larentii might punish one who flaunted their orders.

"Block the visions," he repeated, fury in his voice. My head hurt so badly by that time I couldn't see the visions through my tears. He shook me again. I wiped the wetness on my sleeve and tried again, failing miserably. Twice more he gave the order. Twice more I failed. Twice more, the pain shot through my head, blinding me and driving me to my knees.

"You are worthless," he snapped and jerked me to my feet before tossing me onto the floor of the Queen's suite seconds later. "I will come again," he said. "If you fail to learn what I teach you, you will be most sorry." Then he cursed—in the Larentii language. I could only huddle on the Queen's carpet and shudder, my brain feeling as if it had been hit by electrical current.

*

"What is wrong with you?" Gavin gripped the same arm Kalenegar had grasped the night before. It hurt. Did I tell him about Kalenegar's visit? No. He wouldn't have believed me, and if I told him I'd been hurt, I didn't want to see the pleasure in his eyes at that admission. My life had been bizarre enough, without adding a sadistic Larentii into the mix. As a result, I was exhausted and my mind wandered throughout the Council meeting. All I wanted to do was curl up somewhere and sleep without interruption.

"You have work to do," Gavin shoved me into the Queen's office, where my comp-vid and comesuli requests waited. "I'll have blood substitute brought."

I didn't want blood substitute. I wanted real food and real rest. I was destined to receive neither. Stumbling toward the Queen's suite four hours later, I walked through the door. Thankfully, it was empty. I had hopes that Kalenegar had given up on his demented quest and had chosen to leave me alone. That hope was short-lived.

He pulled me from a sound sleep, two hours after I'd collapsed on the bed. "Get up," he snapped, pulling me up by the same arm. It hurt. I had bruises, too—where he and Gavin had gripped it too hard and marked my skin. A vampire would heal quickly—if they were allowed rest. It seems I wasn't allowed.

"Last night you failed miserably. Tonight, you will try again," the tall, blue sadist muttered as he set me down in yet another crowded area. This one happened to be a train station on Ooblerik. I wanted to hit him. With the power a Larentii wielded, that would be as effective as hammering a nail with a feather.

Four times, that night, he hit me with the mind-pain when I failed to block the visions. The last one knocked me out cold.

*

"She has some talent, but does not apply herself," Kalenegar muttered as Graegar examined Breanne. Kal had called out for one of the Five when he hadn't been able to rouse Breanne after the last mind-lance.

"She is small and frail, Kalenegar," Graegar muttered as light formed about his hands. "While she is vampire and stronger than some, you have hurt her. Is that your intention? To hurt her, or to get back at your father somehow, through her?"

"I am not compelled to answer to you," Kalenegar growled. "Fix her. That's why I called you."

"I will fix her, as you so ineptly put it, because she is deserving. You, on the other hand, are not."

*

Breanne's Journal

So many things rushed through my mind when I woke and stared into Graegar's face. I wanted to weep at the kindness and compassion there. That wasn't all I saw, however, and now and always, I will be grateful to him and the visions that came from his reading. So many things I learned that night, just by gazing at his face. No, he didn't get the visions, so I couldn't learn from him how to block them. I wished mightily that I might read Kalenegar, because those things certainly lurked within him. I only had to read people once in most cases, to learn how they might do what they did. Kalenegar's talents remained a mystery.

Graegar also insisted I be taken home and placed in bed. His hands went to my forehead, removing the last bit of pain Kalenegar had inflicted. I was asleep shortly afterward. For the first time in a very long time, too, I felt as if I'd received an adequate amount of rest before Gavin came and pulled me from the Queen's bed the following morning.