The roar of the Black River Falls was the countdown clock.
Lila was bound and gagged, her back pressed against the damp, cold stone wall, staring at the prize: the Sentinel Stone pendant, lying less than five feet away, glinting innocently beneath a tangle of severed copper wires. The assassin, whose identity she now terrifyingly suspected, was halfway out the high window, moments from escape.
Seconds. That was all she had to warn the monster who had spent the last week tormenting her.
Lila twisted violently, ignoring the pain in her taped wrists and ankles. "Mmmph! Mmmph!" The duct tape muffled her panic.
Chloe, injected with the pure fear pheromone, was shaking violently next to her. She pointed again at the stone with a desperate, bound hand, her muffled sobs reinforcing the gravity of the moment. Chloe understood the simple math, if the Shadow Council killed Adrian, they would kill the witnesses—Lila and Chloe—next.
Lila focused her will. She couldn't walk, but she could slither.
She used the rough stone wall to push herself forward, shuffling on her bound rear end. The distance felt like a mile.
One foot. Two feet. The Sentinel Stone, Adrian's public symbol of ownership, was now her only chance. The irony was a bitter taste beneath the tape on her tongue.
The assassin paused, balancing on the narrow window ledge. "Goodbye, Omegas," his cold voice drifted in. "Your freedom comes at a high cost."
The figure dropped out of sight. He was gone.
Lila let out a frantic, muffled cry and lunged the last few inches.
Her outstretched fingers scraped against the cold stone floor, reaching the edge of the tangle of wires. The pendant was right there.
She pressed her thumb against the thick glass of the Sentinel Stone. It was cold, heavier than she remembered, and pulsing faintly with a residue of Adrian's aggressive magic.
Contact.
Lila had no idea how the Sentinel Stone worked. She only knew what she had read in the original novel's exposition—it was an ancient True Blood telepathic link, built for communication over massive distances.
She couldn't speak, she couldn't write. She had to send a message using the only tool Adrian had been interested in, data and emotion.
Lila closed her eyes, shutting out the physical pain, the stench of Chloe's synthetic terror, and the roar of the Falls. She focused entirely on the Cyan Tingle in her palm, channeling her newly awakened elemental sense into the stone.
She didn't send a plea. She sent a report.
Lila flooded the link with four distinct sensations, using emotional context as data points:
LOCATION DATA: The overwhelming, chaotic roar of the Black River Falls, transmitted as a dizzying noise and the metallic taste of unstable elemental energy. He will know the location is an energy nullification zone.
THE TRAP: The sudden, specific memory of the Shadow Council sigil on the operative's suit—a flash of pure, cold conspiracy. He will recognize the enemy.
THE LURE: The sharp, sickening, artificial scent of Chloe's pheromone, instantly tagged with the mental label, SYNTHETIC FEAR—DECOY. He must know the high distress signal is fake.
THE WARNING (Personal Data): Finally, a burst of her own, genuine, non-synthetic fury and distress—the rage of the Blue Flash combined with the cold contempt of the T.I.M.E. Event—sent with the single, overriding mental command: DO NOT ENTER. He must know the warning is real, and it comes from his Asset.
Lila collapsed back against the wall, utterly drained, her hand cramping violently around the Sentinel Stone. The pendant remained dark, silent.
Had it worked? Had her desperate, toxic SOS been received?
A moment of agonizing silence passed, broken only by Chloe's whimpering.
Then, the air in the tower changed.
It wasn't a sound. It was a pressure.
The roaring chaos of the Falls suddenly seemed distant, muffled by a far more potent, terrifying force. The air in the stone room became thick, heavy, and metallic—a thousand times stronger than the residual fear scent.
It was Adrian's True Blood Aura, but amplified to a lethal, catastrophic level. It hit the tower like an avalanche of pure, possessive rage.
The pressure wasn't directed at Lila, it was directed at the entire environment that dared to contain her. It was the scent of a predator who has had his highest-value property tampered with.
Lila was instantly paralyzed, pinned to the wall by the suffocating force. This was beyond the PPUED of the cave, this was True Blood Hunting Protocol.
A clear, cold voice, vibrating not from sound but from the direct telepathic link, slammed into Lila's mind. It was Adrian, speaking with the chilling fury of a scientist who has just received critical, life-saving data from a runaway experiment.
I acknowledge the location data. I acknowledge the enemy sigil. I acknowledge the decoy.
LILA. DO. NOT. INTERFERE. I am one minute out.
The contact was broken.
Lila was left shaking, utterly paralyzed by the sheer, unbridled power of his response. He had received her message—every calculated, data-driven detail. And now he was coming.
The window where the assassin had escaped burst inward with a shower of stone and glass, not from a blow, but from the simple impact of Adrian's proximity.
A figure landed silently on the stone floor, dark and massive against the gray gloom of the window.
It was Adrian. He was armored, his black leather shining with dampness, and his eyes were not the chilling silver she was used to. They were a terrifying, incandescent red, glowing like molten metal in the dim light. They were completely devoid of pupils, radiating a cold, destructive light that spoke of absolute, unbridled fury.
Lila had never seen this before. It wasn't just rage; it was a primal, physical transformation. She realized with a jolt that she was looking at the raw, unfiltered danger of a True Blood pushed to its limit.
"The Deviation ends now, Assistant," Adrian said, his voice low and dangerous, radiating the kind of fury that warps reality.
He didn't move toward her. He moved toward the wall next to her, where the assassin's tracks led toward the broken window.
"The lure was successful," Adrian stated, his eyes fixed on the assassin's small, complex tool kit abandoned near the window frame. "The Shadow Council has chosen a location where they believe the elemental chaos will neutralize my power. A fascinating miscalculation."
He reached out and, with clinical efficiency, tore the duct tape from Lila's mouth in one swift movement.
Lila gasped, the rough tape leaving a stinging heat on her lips. "They—they're aiming for the valley! They have snipers! Don't follow them!"
Adrian didn't look at her. He simply pulled the hood of his cloak up, obscuring his face, and drew a single, wickedly curved dagger.
"I am not following, Lila," he said, turning back to face the center of the room. "I am waiting."
He planted himself directly in front of the damaged communications array, his immense, furious Aura battling the ambient elemental chaos of the Falls.
A sudden, high-pitched whistle cut through the roar of the Falls, signaling the trap was sprung. The sound was immediately followed by the distinct crack of high-powered weaponry aimed at the tower.
Adrian simply raised his hand, still looking directly at Lila. "Tell me everything, Assistant. And be quick. The entertainment is about to begin."
The fate of the True Blood Alpha—and Lila's own survival—now rested entirely on her ability to deliver a flawless, life-saving report to the monster she had just desperately tried to flee.