Sorcerer: Betrayal: Power of Air (Book 4) by D. L. Harrison Read Free Book Online Page B

the information.  Now she was dead. 
I felt horrified, and guilty, and angry as hell.  Yes, it was partially my
fault she was dead, but ultimately it was the council who had killed her, and hidden
like children.
    I reached over and hit the button for the right floor, and
felt numb as the door closed, and I started to rise.  As soon as I reached the
first floor my magic rushed back and I reinstated my three tier shield, and
then reached out for the plan.  It was rather late, but I wanted to know who
came up with this plan and the conversation that led them to betray their ally.
    The council was easily in my range, a hundred and fifty feet
was a whole lot of floors.  They’d been watching on the closed circuit camera
in the elevator, and now they were getting ready to flee.
    Hell no.
    I reached out and ordered the air to hold them there.  I wrapped
the three of them in their own shields so tightly they couldn’t even move a
finger.  I read their panic through my fire element as they struggled, and I smiled
a mirthless smile.  A week ago I hadn’t been strong enough.  Oh, I could have
killed them a week ago, but held them helpless in the grip of my power?  That
was new.
    I thought of Diana, and wished I hadn’t been so high
minded.  I could have killed them all long ago and freed her.  Instead, she was
dead.  I sighed, and shook my head with regret, that was a path I didn’t want
to travel, would never travel.  If I had killed them long ago I’d have been
wrong too.  This was self-defense, and justice.  I wouldn’t be like them, not
even now.
    The elevator opened and I walked over to the conference
room, they had the elevator camera on the television.  I turned to the three of
them.  Charis and Alexios glared at me with an implacable hatred in their
eyes.  They were so cold.  Ceara’s eyes were still on the monitor, and I could
see the weight of grief in them as she stared at Diana’s blackened body.
    They didn’t talk, but then they couldn’t.
    My voice sounded empty, was I in shock?
    “So many things have run through my mind to say to you. 
Angry words, lecturing words.  But as I bare your lives Charis and Alexios, I
see those words would be wasted.  It never would have occurred to you to ally
to a stronger power, and even now you won’t get it.”
    I shook my head, I was just babbling, trying to make sense
of the senseless.  They were evil, an uncaring evil.  Something about being
turned to vampire leached their emotions after so many years.  Ceara while cold
at times, still had the ability to feel at nineteen hundred years old.  Charis
and Alexios were empty inside.
    At first I considered that it might be the element of air
doing it, that air was intellectual, the power of the mind and not emotions. 
But I realized that wasn’t right, Aitheria was a pure elemental of air, and she
was caring, loving, and a being of deep emotion.  No, it had to be something
else, something that breaks with the making of a vampire.
    Something unnatural, I would never be like them.
    I looked at them, studied them, and Ceara with all my power,
and I couldn’t determine the cause.  It was time to end it anyway.  With a
small burst of power, I incinerated both of them within their shields, there
was nothing but a pile of dust swirling to the ground.  There was no
satisfaction, no feeling of… anything.  Diana was still dead, gone.  Forever.
    I took a seat at the table and stared at Ceara and said
three words.
    “You voted no,” and I released my power.
    Well, the power holding her.  I wasn’t stupid, I kept my
triple shielding up.
    Ceara sat across from me warily, “What now?”
    I took a deep breath, “You tell me.  We can live in peace. 
You voted no, and that’s partially why I’m not going to kill you.  I want to,
because Diana was yours, and you went along with the others and ordered her to
do what she did.  For that alone I want to kill you, but I also recognize you
had no