SEDUCTIVE PREY

ONE HIT WONDER

Hours later and there is still no update from Kaia on any communication from Lucifer. Which means he's on to us, and we should be on guard. Eli increases the number of guards protecting the compound, putting everyone on high alert for an attack, and I pour myself into trying to call to my power with my grandpa.

"Any luck?" Lucas asks as I walk into the main room. Frustrated.

To demonstrate just how successful my attempts have been at recalling my power, I extend my palm to him in an attempt to conjure up his power, only to conjure up a magnificent puff of smoke.

And true to his good nature, Lucas smiles.

"Well it's a start Ali-Cat. And it means your power is still there. We just have to find the on switch."

God I've missed him.

And thanks to Kaia for making him a Lucifer expelling necklace because I've finally got my friend back.

"Okay, but how? Normally I just have to think about what I want to do, and it happens. That's not working for me now."

"What did you just say?" Tristan perks up. Studying me closely.

"That I normally just have to think about what I want to do, and it happens."

"No wonder you suck at being a siphoner," he scoffs. "That's not how our power works."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is we don't just conjure it up out of thin air, we pull it out of ourselves. It's like pulling on a tether anchored to everything that makes us who we are. Drawing the power out of us is like pulling that tether and coaxing the power forward. You've been going about this all wrong," he walks up to me and flicks me in the nose.

A kernel of hope blooms inside me. If he's right, then all I need to do is change my method for trying to channel my power and I'm back in business.

Please God let it be that easy.

In the meantime, I sock him in the shoulder for flicking me in the nose, and he laughs.

"Show me." I tell him. Eager to start trying.

Everyone stands around us to watch as Tristan teaches me how to access my power.

"Inside you, you should sense a well of power. It will feel like a strong current," he places his hand on my chest to show me where to draw it from.

Ethan looks down at his hand, then up at Tristan like he's a hair away from killing him, and Tristan backs away from me. Hands in the air.

"I'm just trying to show her where to pull from. Do I have your permission to continue?" He looks to Ethan before proceeding.

Ethan gives a curt nod, and Tristan keep his eyes on him while he guides me through tapping into my power.

"With Kira, it could have been as easy as a thought, but siphoners typically access their power by finding the strongest energy source inside them. That's typically the well of your power." He explains.

Closing my eyes, I search inward for a source of energy stronger than the rest, and it doesn't take long. There's a well of energy exactly where he said it should be practically screaming at me. Only, the moment I call to it, I quickly realize it's too volatile for me to handle. And I clumsily ricochet it throughout the room. Forcing Tristan and the Syth to throw up a shield to block everyone from the blow.

I should feel bad that I damn near killed everyone in the room without trying, but I can't help the smile that forms on my face. Because after weeks of feeling helpless and useless, I finally have a modicum of hope.

"Perhaps we should try that again in an environment conducive for training."

Tristan suggests.

Which... hell yeah.

While my grandpa and Triston find the best place for me to train, I can't help my excitement.

"I need you." Ethan whispers into my ear. Hooking his arm around my waist and fading with me to an empty room where he backs me into a wall and kisses me wildly. His hands enveloping me and pulling me as close to him as our flesh will allow. "I knew you had it in you." He skims his lips over mine.

We kiss until our lips hurt. Desperate to get out of our clothes and under some sheets. But a whining noise captures my attention, and I yank Ethan to the floor just in time for a silver stake to miss his heart.

We're back on our feet in a matter of seconds. Only, instead of running away from our assailants, Ethan walks toward them like he can't be killed.

Shit.

I run after him, hoping to stop him, but he walks faster than I can keep up with. Here one minute and gone the next, like he's jumping through time.

Damn Vampyrs.

A daemon collides into me, its claws swiping at my neck, but I manage to block it long enough to get my hands on the broken piece of a leg of a chair and impale it between the eyes. It's warm, sticky black blood coating my skin in ew. Another daemon collides into me, knocking me backwards, and bells ring inside my head after it slams into a wall.

Fucking. Stupendous.

Now I'm seeing spots, and my vision is blurred.

I'm seeing double.

A third daemon charges at me, not giving me enough time to recover, but before it reaches me, it simply vanishes into thin air. And for several moments, the only thing that can be heard is Ethan's gasping breath as he collects it's soul and the soul of every daemon in the vicinity inside himself.

Absorbing their agony, their anger, and their pain.

Reliving their memories, their lives, and their hopes as if they were all his own.

And he staggers forward underneath the weight of it all, dropping to one knee as he tries to steady himself.

That's when I see it... an archedaemon. One of Satan's highest ranking daemons just below his son. He raises his sword to bring it down on Ethan who is unaware of the threat at his back, and this time when I tap into the unstable power at my core, I don't bother trying to control it. I just aim and fire. Throwing everything I've got at the daemon closing in on my mate. Hitting him dead center and obliterating him into tiny little particles of embers that wink out into nothing.

Ethan glances over his shoulder where the daemon once stood and then back at me. A quick nod of his head showing both his gratitude and how proud he is of me. Because I fucking did it.

I'm back.

Well... sort of.

There's no time to celebrate, though, because two more archedaemons drop in on us and Ethan turns to face them both on his own. I'm desperate to get to him, but he's still too far away. And it appears as if I'm a one hit wonder, because that one shot has taken more out of me than it ever did before. I am fighting to keep my eyes open as sleep threatens to take me.

Opening my mouth, I attempt to call out for Ethan before I pass out, when I feel a pinch in my neck, and a hand cup my mouth. My voice dies in my throat, and the last thing I see before my eyes close is Lucifer's smug little face smiling down at me.

"Got you."