Passion Untamed (Feral Warriors #3)(9)

"Well, well, if it isn't my old friend, B.P. I must say, you're looking a little underdressed." Vhyper sauntered over to him, his mouth lifting into a smile that held no humor. "I knew you'd come to rescue me. Catching you was easy as child's play."

"Why are you here, Vhype?" Paenther asked evenly. His emotions were always under tight restraint, caught with the rage he battled every minute of every day.

Vhyper shrugged. "You know why."

"Do I? All I know is Zaphene turned you against us. What did she do to you, Vhyper?"

Vhyper tugged on his earring, his brows lowering. For a moment, Paenther thought he saw the old Vhyper walk through those eyes.

"Truthfully, I'm not sure it was the witch's doing. I think it happened the night we raised the spirit of the lion. I got bitten by that Daemon blade the same as the rest of you, but it changed me, B.P." His eyes narrowed in thought. "It rid me of my conscience. I'm not entirely sure it didn't steal my soul." Vhyper grinned suddenly, the coldness like frost over his eyes. "A hell of a way to live."

Paenther stared at him, railing at the fates. Not Vhyper. You can't have Vhyper! He owed the snake his sanity. His life. Grinding his teeth together, Paenther fought back the tide of anger. The Ferals would come. He needed to learn all he could.

"Are the Mage still trying to free Satanan and his Daemon horde?"

Vhyper tugged at his earring. "Of course."

"Why? How can you help them unleash that evil?"

Vhyper shrugged. "And what is evil, B.P.? Is it evil for the owl to kill the mouse?" He smiled coldly. "Depends on your point of view, doesn't it? On whether you're the owl...or the mouse."

"Satanan will destroy this world."

"Will he? Or will he simply feed from it? The Daemons were always at the top of the food chain."

"You're not a Daemon."

"True. But I'm not looking for power out of this." Again, his old friend's eyes narrowed, something approaching confusion entering their dark blue depths. "It's a compulsion, B.P., to free the evil."

"The evil's infected you, Vhype. It's controlling you. Fight it."

As quickly as the confusion had entered the shape-shifter's eyes, it disappeared again. His grin turned malicious. "It's not controlling me, Paenther. Nothing controls me now. Not even my conscience." He shrugged as if he were admitting a weakness for  p**n . "I find I've developed a taste for the misery of others."

Paenther shook his head. This wasn't the man he knew. "Why am I here?" His gaze flicked up to the pulsing orbs above his head. "To raise power to fill those? Or something more?"

Vhyper's smile was cold. "Depends on how much you raise." He lifted his hand and turned. "Later, B.P."

"Vhyper, wait. What about Foxx?" He had to know if the witch had told him the truth. Not that he could trust anything Vhyper said, either.

The man glanced back. "He got away. The witch wasn't interested in him and by the time the other Mage realized there were Ferals on the mountain, he was already gone. But the mountain has a magic all its own. If he started up the mountain at all, he'd have been snared by the spell."

Dread curled in Paenther's gut. "What spell?"

"An incantation to confuse. As soon as it took hold of him, he would have forgotten why he was there, forgotten all about you until he'd driven a good long way away. By then, he wouldn't even remember where he'd last seen you."

Vhyper laughed. "Had you hoped for a proper Feral rescue? Not going to happen, B.P. Foxx won't be able to lead them back here. You'll never leave here alive."

As he stared at the man who used to be his friend, something real moved through Vhyper's eyes, a glimmer of warmth. A hint of pain. A glimpse of the friend he'd known for so many years.

It was there and gone in an instant, swallowed by the evil. But Paenther's pulse began to pound. He knew what he'd seen. The Vhyper he'd give his life for was still in there. Subjugated to the darkness, but not lost. Not completely.

"Vhyper, fight it."

"There's nothing to fight, Paenther," he said coldly. "There's no one here who will help you. You have a role to play, just as we all do." Vhyper's eyes began to glitter. "It's going to be amazing, B.P. Things are going to happen you won't believe. And you won't want to miss. You'll have a front-row seat, old friend. I'll make sure of it."

Vhyper turned and walked out the door.

"Vhyper!" Paenther strained against his shackles, rattling his chains on the rock until his body was damp with sweat, and the coppery scent of his own blood coated his nostrils. Desperation, fierce and terrible, vibrated through his body as he fought to free himself with every ounce of strength he possessed.

Foxx was safe, but unless both Vhyper and the witch had lied to him, he wouldn't be leading the others back here. Paenther was as lost as Vhyper unless he could somehow find a way to reach his friend beneath the cold eyes of the evil that had ensnared him. Unless he could find a way to free them both.

He remembered thinking, after the witch Zaphene infiltrated Feral House, turning Vhyper, that things couldn't get much worse. He hadn't had a clue.

Now he was caught in trouble as deep as the blue of the eyes that had ensnared him. And he had a bad feeling this trouble had only begun.