Edge of Oblivion

wasn’t sure, because he hadn’t spoken a word to her in the past few days, had just looked at her with that silent, burning intensity whenever their paths had crossed. But she knew he would figure out a way. Though Celian was the leader of the Bellatorum, D was the most clever, the most willing to take risks and defy authority, and she loved that about him.

She had only to shake her guard long enough to get to the sunken church, then D would handle the rest.

She was sighing in anticipation when her father walked into the flickering light of her large, white-on-white, candlelit bedroom.

“Eliana,” he said, and she jumped, guilty.

“Father!” She leapt from the overstuffed chair near her four-poster bed and snapped shut the book she’d been devouring: Lonely Planet’s Guide to Rome. “I didn’t expect to see you this early.

Good morning!”

Though there were no clocks in the catacombs, she knew it was morning. Dawn and dusk were felt keen as hunger pangs even far belowground. Regardless, clocks were entirely unnecessary: the Ikati of the catacombs had nowhere else to be.

“Good morning to you.” A small, secret smile flitted across her father’s lips, and he crossed to her quickly over the stone floor strewn with plush rugs and embraced her. “I’m going to be occupied all day, but I wanted to see you before the last Purgare tonight,” he said, low, into her hair.

Eliana pulled back and frowned at him, studying his handsome face, his burning, coal-black eyes, so like her own. “I don’t understand. What do you mean, the last Purgare? We’ll have another one next month. And the month after that.”

He took her chin in hand and gazed down at her, those dark eyes alight with a wild, feverish victory that took her breath away with its strange edge. She’d never seen him so wired. In truth, he looked a little...unhinged.

“I have an announcement to make, something that concerns all of us,” he murmured, holding her face in a way that made her nervous. It was possessive, more like a jealous lover than a father, and she stepped back, out of his embrace. He noticed her discomfort and his eyes flared. “Something that concerns you, too, daughter of mine,” he drawled, a new hardness in his tone.

Eliana had been in the middle of another step back, but she froze instantly and so did the blood circulating in her veins. “Me?” she whispered, thinking only of D. Her heart became a stampede of wild stallions in her chest.

How could he know of their plans?

His small smile grew wider, revealing his perfect, ultra-white teeth. Dressed elegantly and with care in his usual impeccable white that set off his burnished skin and tousled black hair to model-like perfection yet exuding the kind of raw menace usually found only in violent criminals, he looked like the love child of Cary Grant and Blackbeard the pirate. He stepped nearer, closing the distance between them, that undercurrent of menace chilling the air in her already cool bedchamber.

“You are my life, you know that,” he said, taking her shoulders in his hands. His voice was very low, controlled, giving nothing away. His eyes burned. “And your happiness is my only concern, beautiful Eliana. It’s what I’ve worked so hard for, all these long years.”

His fingers curled into her skin, and once again she fought the urge to step back. She’d never been afraid of him before, but there was something in his eyes...something so very dark.

“Father,” she managed, swallowing the panic that was clawing at her throat, “what are you talking about?”

He lifted his hand and leisurely brushed back a strand of hair from her suddenly perspiring forehead.

“I’m talking about destiny,” he whispered. “Yours and mine. Ours.” He made a sweeping gesture with one hand, indicating, she thought, all her kin who lived together in darkness beyond the rounded walls and burnished light of her room. “We were gods once, Ana, so long ago, before our destiny was stolen from us. But now we can take our destiny back and be gods once again. I’ve finally done it. ”

Relief flooded her, and she almost sagged into his arms, her heartbeat thrumming like a hummingbird’s. “Your project,” she breathed, trying to gather her wits. He couldn’t read her mind, but he was exceptionally good at reading her face. “Oh, Father, that’s wonderful...”

She trailed off because she really hadn’t the slightest idea if it was wonderful or not. No one could be secretive the way her father could, and for all the years she’d been alive she was aware of his work in the lab, aware of some grand scheme involving the fates of all her underworld kin, but he revealed almost nothing except to a very few of his closest confidants, and she wasn’t among them.

Her father took her face in both his hands and vehemently whispered, “My beautiful daughter.

Your young will rule the earth.”

Eliana’s heartbeat grew faint. First because her father seemed entirely beyond reason and second because she did not want young, and never had. But...did she have a choice? She was about to open her mouth to ask, but her mercurial father released her and smiled in a way that made all the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

“You will be at the convergence room at dawn tomorrow,” he commanded, “to stand by my side when I make the announcement. In the meantime, get some sleep.” His voice grew softer. “You look a bit...frazzled, my dear.”

Oh, he really had no idea. She sank back down into the overstuffed chair, trying to control her breathing, when a burst of inspiration hit. She cleared her throat and gazed up at him through her lashes. “I am frazzled. I haven’t been sleeping well, lately, Father.”

His brows shot up. “Oh?”

She nodded, then cast her gaze to the floor at his feet. “The new guard you assigned as my escort...”

“Yes?” he said sharply, instantly tense.

“Well, he...makes me uncomfortable.” This was absolutely true. The new guard watched her every move like a hawk. She didn’t know what had happened to the old—friendlier—one and didn’t dare ask; her father’s decisions were never questioned.

“Uncomfortable,” Dominus repeated, deadly soft.

Eliana glanced up at him. “It’s just...it’s just the way he looks at me.”

Dominus drew in a sharp breath. His head whipped around to the entrance of her bedchamber, where the guard stood vigilant outside, just his elbow and booted right foot visible beyond the heavy swagged drape that partially covered the rounded doorway.

“He hasn’t done anything inappropriate, Father,” she rushed to assure him, knowing it might save the guard’s life, “but still I would feel better if you could assign me someone else. Perhaps tomorrow, after the announcement? I’d be fine for just one day without a guard, I’m sure.”

He turned to look at her with narrowed eyes, and her heartbeat skyrocketed again. Terrified he sensed her little deception, she pleaded, “I’ll sleep better tonight without someone new watching me.

I’ll be fine, just for one day. One night. I really don’t think I can sleep knowing he’s there.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he hissed, stepping closer to loom over her. “I would have dealt with him—”

“I don’t want you to deal with him, Father, please! Just—just let me have another guard.

Tomorrow.”

He considered her in silence for several long, tense moments. Then his face softened and he said, “As you wish.”

Really? She couldn’t believe that had worked. She put a shaking hand to her face, adrenaline wreaking havoc on her nerves. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He bent and planted a kiss on the top of her head, then abruptly turned on his heel and walked toward the door. He paused just before passing over the threshold and said over his shoulder, “By the way, a very special guest will be arriving this morning. Someone who’ll be staying with us from now on, who I hope you’ll...like...as much as I do.”