The Blood Bracelets #3: Soul Scarred

Chapter Twenty-Two

When Eljae woke, it wasn't on the cold stone floor of a cage, or of a prison cell.

It was on silk cushions.

Her eyes opened to a lavish garden, paved in fresh green grass with an illuminated pool at the opposite end. The garden was large enough to fit a hundred people, closed in by tall sandstone walls and lit by huge orb-shaped lights which were sprawled through the flower patches and hedges. She found marble statues decorating the garden as well, though they weren't of mere men and women – they were, Eljae suspected, of half-breeds with both human and demonic features as if Tiberius had had them sculpted to match the living ones he collected.

Eljae had expected to wake in a room full of caged half-breeds, all howling or wailing for freedom or silent in their desolation, but instead she had the star-riddled sky above her, and several small outdoor fires offering heat against the night time chill.

She was, however, chained. Her wrists were cuffed and linked to a chain imbedded in the wall behind her, and her eyes lifted to find a two-storey mansion looming behind her. Her eyes darted from each window, all lit from the inside but shielded by cream curtains, and the wide, French doors that lead from the garden to the inside of the mansion were too far for her to peer into.

So Eljae sat up, the silk cushions rustling beneath her, and then looked toward the nearby sun lounges and more scattered silk cushions she assumed guests sprawled across during summer parties. But there no guests, and there were certainly no half-breeds. Wasn't Tiberius supposed to have the most expansive collection of half-breeds? Where did he keep them?

'The garden is spectacular, but it is nothing in comparison to the ostentatious décor inside.'

Eljae's gaze narrowed as she turned toward the French doors where Tiberius appeared, dressed in an open-collared white shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and the same dark suit pants he had worn at the viewing. He flicked the butt of his cigarette into a nearby pot plant and then turned to face her, his mouth curled into a half-smirk.

But beside him was another, and Eljae's hackles rose with primal instinct as she regarded the massive lioness just as it turned its head toward her. The lioness was undeniably demonic, considering its coat was a pale sky-blue, its tail tipped with a ball of spikes like a mace, and razor-tipped claws that almost put Eljae's to shame. The lioness' eyes were a startling blue, glowing with unnatural power.

Eljae focused on its scent, which was predominately feline but also edged in that same unique demonic scent she had come to associate with the incarnations after she met Lust. So if the lioness was an incarnation, which one was it?

As if disinterested in Eljae, the lioness turned away just as a Doorway peeled open in the middle of the garden. It looked nothing like the Doorways opened by Immortals though, more like a portal directly into Hell thanks to the red-and-black smoke that curled along the edges of the Doorway, and the empty dark void that the Doorway seemed to lead to.

The lioness disappeared through the Doorway just before it closed, and Eljae turned back to Tiberius.

'So,' Eljae said, holding his pale-orange gaze, 'which one are you?'

Tiberius' smirk widened and he gestured to the garden with a grand sweep of his arm. 'I thought it was recognition that I saw in your eyes as consciousness left you,' he said. 'But isn't it obvious? I mean, all this wealth and the ability to obtain more could only attract one type of incarnation, after all.'

'Greed, then,' said Eljae, scoffing. 'Of course.'

'Of course,' Greed echoed. 'This exiled Immortal was the perfect candidate; his greed was almost unquenchable.'