A Ride of Peril (A Shade of Vampire #46)(19)

“This one’s a concealing spell,” the Daughter said as she read a couple of passages from another chapter. “It’s supposed to be like a paste of sorts, a mixture of ingredients that one spreads over any surface they wish to conceal. The incantation is short. We should write this down. Draven and Serena might need it.”

I couldn’t help but gaze at her, unable to wipe the smile off my face. She was so innocent, yet capable of the strangest things. And here she was in the middle of the night thinking of ways to help my sister and the Druid. Despite her ingenuity, the Daughter had developed this sense of urgency that we’d all been facing for days. She looked at me questioningly.

“What is it, Phoenix?”

“Nothing. I’m just amazed at how selfless you can be. Others would be moaning about how tired they are, yet you’re fishing for more spells to help Draven and Serena,” I replied, my fingers playing with a lock of her hair.

“Well, I haven’t found the protection spell that they need against fire yet, so we might as well write the useful ones down in the meantime.”

I nodded and proceeded to jot down the ingredients for the concealment paste. Most of the herbs and powders she mentioned sounded familiar, giving me the impression that I’d seen some of them downstairs in the greenhouse and in the basement. Vita had put labels on everything.

However, as the minutes went by, I started to acknowledge the heaviness in my limbs and head. I hadn’t syphoned in a while, and I was hungry for energy. I tried to concentrate as I wrote down the quantities in the order in which she dictated them, but eventually I started to lose track and blanked out for a few moments, unable to get my brain back in motion.

“Phoenix, are you okay?” the Daughter asked, furrowing her brow.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just a little hungry.”

“But we had dinner.”

“I’m a sentry. I need energy,” I reminded her, and she nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll ask Field or Jovi tomorrow. I can syphon from them.”

I’d told her about my abilities before but without much detail. She shook her head and took my hand.

“Why not me?”

I blinked, then blushed, remembering the times I’d secretly tried to mind-meld and syphon off her during our first couple of days together. I scratched the back of my head and decided to tell her the truth.

“Well, to be honest, I tried before, but I couldn’t. I mean, you’re blocked off from me somehow. I can’t touch your mind. I can’t draw energy from you.”

She thought about it for a while, then smirked.

“What about earlier?” she asked.

“What…what about earlier?”

My mind raced to our moment in the banquet hall, before we found the third book. She’d opened up to me, and I’d been able to feel her emotions in ways I’d never thought possible. The memory of her scent inundated my consciousness, and I felt that invisible string between us tugging my heart. Then it hit me.

“Earlier in the banquet hall, when we talked about death,” I said.

“Yes.”

“You opened up to me. I felt what you felt.”

“Yes.”

A heartbeat later, I conceded. “I’m confused. I’m sorry. I don’t think straight when the sentry side of me is hungry.”

“I don’t know myself well enough, but I think that it has to do with me whether you can or cannot syphon off me. Why don’t we try? I give you my permission. I will open up the way I did earlier, and you can try.”

My gaze found hers, and a delicious heat spread through my chest, making my arms tingle. I shifted in the chair to face her. I cupped her face with my hands and took a deep breath.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded and let a sigh roll out of her chest. I felt her then, like earlier in the banquet hall, as she relaxed and let her walls down. A flurry of emotions flowed through me, and I closed my eyes, looking for the source of energy inside of her.

First, there was darkness. Then, there were thousands of thin ribbons of pink, white, and orange—her emotions, all aimed at me, different but delightful shades of yearning and affection. I let it all in as I swam through the darkness searching for the center of her being.

A thick pillar of electric violet energy towered in front of me with no apparent beginning or end. It pulsated and buzzed and beckoned me to come closer. I reached out for it.

A tremendous life force crashed into me. Wave after wave filled me up and rushed through my veins like a river during a storm.

The world began to unravel through the darkness, the galaxy exploding outward as I watched Eritopia come to life. I traveled through time and space as I syphoned this primordial energy from the Daughter, and I watched it all evolve. The planets, the sun, the moon, the trillions of stars. The mountains, the rivers, the endless plains, and the angry seas. I saw incubi and Druids and countless other species. I could see everything inside of her, layer upon layer of creation. She was Eritopia.

I felt my strength recover, and I opened my eyes to find the Daughter looking at me. Her energy continued to flow through me, unstoppable and powerful. It was more than I could take, and the idea of an overdose started shaping in the back of my head. It was something I had never felt before.

Whatever she was made of, it was of godlike proportions. The energy stored inside of her, that endless stream of liquid violet lightning, was insanely intense. The destructive potential chilled me, as I realized that she could probably wipe out an entire galaxy if she released all that force at once.