But the Solarc was not kind. He was not forgiving. He’d decreed the gate between their worlds closed, and now, millennia later, all the Sanguinar suffered for a mistake their fathers made before they were even born.
There was no sense in dwelling on that which could not be altered. The best he could hope for now was to help his people survive long enough to see Project Lullaby to its completion. Once the strongest of the human bloodlines was restored, there would be enough power to feed the Sanguinar. They’d never be the powerful creatures they’d been created to be, but at least they’d live without constant hunger.
At least then there’d be enough food to go around for some of them to have children of their own.
After so many centuries of experiencing nearly everything life had to offer, the only thing Tynan truly wanted was a child of his own. Until he could be sure that child would not suffer from starvation, he’d vowed not to bring a life into this world.
The temporary high of consuming Madoc’s blood made breaking his vow tempting, but he’d fought temptation often enough that he did so now with hardly a conscious thought. It was better to focus on the immediate things surrounding him and leave his dreams for the times when he needed something to distract him from the hunger.
As a matter of habit, Tynan used a small amount of the power flowing into him to read Madoc’s mind. What he found left him deeply concerned.
Madoc was going to kill himself. Tonight.
Tynan couldn’t let that happen. Madoc’s blood was too rich, its power too recently tapped to let him waste it in death. He knew the leaves on the Theronai’s lifemark were fake—painted there by someone Tynan could not quite see—but there was something else about him that Tynan had sensed last year, when Madoc had shared his blood for the first time in order to save Nika’s life.
There was a dark energy hovering about Madoc, close to his skin. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was or where it came from, but he knew what it did. It kept Madoc’s last leaf suspended on his skin, unable to completely fall.
If any of the other Theronai found out about this, they’d have Madoc killed.
Tynan wasn’t going to let that happen, either.
The only solution was to save the man’s life, and the only way to do that was to find his female counterpart.
Nika, perhaps? Tynan wasn’t sure. The two hadn’t spent much time together, from what he could tell, and even if they had, the manifestation of signs of compatibility could very well be obscured, not only by the fact that his lifemark was bare, but also by whatever energy it was that kept that last leaf frozen in stasis.
Without experimentation, Tynan couldn’t be sure what to think. The only thing he knew for sure was that Madoc needed to live. If he had to experiment to make that happen, then he would, even if it meant suffering through the horror of drinking Nika’s blood.
The single drop he’d consumed last year had nearly driven him mad in the space of a few brief seconds.
Just the thought of having his mind shattered like that again was enough to make Tynan shake. If it hadn’t been for years of mental control, he would still be screaming from that one drop, locked inside that nightmare she endured. Unless, of course, it had simply killed him.
He’d warned all his brethren that her blood was tainted and that they should avoid taking it unless the circumstances were dire.
Madoc’s death qualified as dire. His blood could feed Tynan’s kind for years. That alone was worth Tynan’s risking his life.
He dialed Logan. It was still daylight outside, so he had to let the phone ring, then dial again before Logan was able to rouse himself from the grip of sleep.
“I need you to come home,” he told Logan.
“Why? I thought you wanted me to follow Iain to see if I could retrieve one of the Synestryn offspring.”
“Something more important has come up. I’ll send someone to take your place. How far away are you?”
“Three hours.” Logan’s voice was thick with sleep.
Tynan looked at Madoc sprawled on his couch. “Try to hurry.”
“What’s going on, Tynan?”
He didn’t want to say too much over the phone. He didn’t trust that Nicholas or one of the other Theronai wouldn’t be listening in on his call. They had all kinds of technological gadgets Tynan didn’t understand. “I need you here in case things go wrong. In case I need my second-in-command to perform his duties.”
When Logan spoke again, all signs of sleepiness were gone from his voice. “What are you planning?”
“Something necessary.”
“I’m leaving now,” said Logan.
“It’s still light out.”
It had been several years since sunlight had touched a Sanguinar’s skin, causing one of the Solarc’s Wardens to come hunting for blood and retribution. Everyone wanted to keep it that way.
“I’ll be careful. Wait for me, okay?”
Tynan hung up the phone without answering him. He’d wait as long as he could without risking Madoc.
In the meantime, he had plenty of uses for Madoc’s power. First, he was going to tweak the cure he’d been working on to reverse the Theronai’s infertility so the next batch of serum was ready to test on Angus. Next, he was going to muck around inside Madoc’s thick skull and do his best to remove the Theronai’s plan to kill himself. Then he was going to figure out whether the femur Nika had brought him could have belonged to her sister. He hoped not, because it could mean another female Theronai was out there somewhere.
If he could get the Theronai breeding again and help pair up another two couples, that would go a long way toward saving his people from starvation. Of course, he had about three hours to do whatever he was going to do before risking his life by taking Nika’s blood.
He truly hoped Madoc stayed asleep long enough for him to finish his work. He’d seen the way the man looked at Nika, and he did not want to be on the receiving end of Madoc’s fury.