RUJIN’S POV “Step into the containment unit, Asset Dew,” Vance growled, and his voice was a tad bit highere that usual with pride and arrogance.
Koro didn’t move.
“Did you hear me?” Vance demanded “Oh, I heard you.” Koro’s voice was flat.
“I just wanted to enjoy how stupid that sounded.” Several guards tightened their grip on their thermal lances, and Vance sighed.
“You continue to mistake defiance for leverage, and you better understand this is a command.” “And you continue to mistake a glass coffin for a good idea.” A few councillors shifted uncomfortably.
I almost smiled, and Vance’s eyes narrowed.
“Step into the unit.” “No,” Koro spoke up.
“No?” Malakor barked.
“Do you understand who you’re speaking to, hybrid?” Koro finally looked at him.
“Do you understand who you’re threatening?” The room chilled, and even through the bond, I could feel his Wolf pacing beneath his skin.
Dangerous.
Hungry.
Waiting.
Vance pointed toward the containment cylinder, “The extraction of your cooling functions will proceed regardless of your cooperation.” “Cooling functions?” Koro laughed.
“You make me sound like a broken object.” “You are Syndicate property,” Malakor spoke up with arrogance and annoyance.
“Funny.” Koro tilted his head.
“Last I checked, property doesn’t usually get a vote.” Malakor slammed a fist onto the table.
“You’ll do as you’re ordered!” “And if I don’t?” The Elder opened his mouth and then closed it, because everyone in the room knew the answer.
The golden thread of the Thermal Lock hummed violently between us, and the overhead lights flickered.
I felt Ignis stir immediately.
He is going to do it.
The Dragon’s voice rolled through my mind like molten rock.
Our wolf is walking into their trap.
Let him, I answered.
They mean to separate us.
” Ignis pointed out.
Let them try.
I snickered, and Ignis snarled.
You trust him too much.
I trust him exactly enough.
I responded through the mind link.
Koro looked at me, and I saw a silent question, and I raised one eyebrow.
His lips twitched with the smallest smile, and then he turned toward the cylinder.
“Well,” he said.
“Let’s see how much money they wasted building this thing.” “Well,” Vance warned.
“What?” He shrugged.
“You should be frightened.” He responded.
Koro laughed, a real hearty laugh.
“Director, if this works, I die.” He pointed toward me.
“If it fails, he explodes.” The smile widened.
“So either way, one of us ruins your day.” Several councillors paled, and Vance’s jaw tightened.
“Enter the unit.” Koro stepped forward.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The Thermal Lock stretched, and Ignis roared.
STOP HIM!
My Dragon slammed against my ribs hard enough to make my vision blur.
If the circuit breaks, we burn!
Then burn, I growled back, and the giant titanium doors opened, and the Blue cryogenic gel churned inside like liquid poison.
Koro stopped at the threshold and looked over his shoulder.
“Hey, Mark.” He spoke up, and my pulse hitched at the way he drawled my name.
“What?” I responded pretending to be unaffected.
“If this kills me…” His grin turned vicious.
“I’m haunting you.” Despite everything, a laugh escaped me.
“You’d never shut up long enough to become a ghost.” “There he is.” Koro nodded.
“The scary Don everyone keeps talking about.” Then he stepped inside, and the doors slammed shut.
CLUNK.
The sound echoed through the boardroom, and Malakor immediately rose to his feet.
“Begin isolation!” “Finally,” Vance muttered.
“Initiate the sequence.” Blue gel surged upward, and Koro vanished waist-deep beneath the freezing liquid.
The effect hit instantly, and my lungs seized, and heat slammed into my chest, and I doubled forward, the table beneath me blackened, and smoke poured from my mouth.
“What is happening?” one Elder shouted.
“The cooling cycle is working,” Vance said.
But his confidence sounded thinner now, and inside the cylinder, Koro’s expression changed.
Pain flashed across his face, and his body trembled.
The gel continued rising, and the Thermal Lock screamed.
A high, metallic shriek tore through the room, and the lights burst overhead, and Glass rained from the ceiling.
Councillors ducked, and Vance stumbled backward.
“What was that?” I knew.
Ignis knew.
THEY ARE FREEZING HIM!
Ignis erupted.
THEY ARE STARVING OUR MATE!
Heat exploded through my veins, and the marble table cracked.
BURN THEM.
Ignis roared Flames erupted from my shoulders, and the councillors screamed while the Guards scrambled backward and the boardroom temperature surged.
“Contain him!” Vance shouted in a panic.
“Deploy shields!” Malakor yelled.
No one moved, and I realized that no one could, and the Dragon was awake.
Inside the cylinder, Koro suddenly lifted his head, and his eyes glowed gold.
“Oh,” he whispered, and then a smile formed slowly as his eyes widened in joy.
That smile terrified me, and I knew exactly what it meant as Koro had figured something out.
“Koro,” I said quietly.
His grin widened, and he spoke up, “Watch this.” The cryogenic gel around him began to disappear, and I realized that his Vampire was feeding while his Wolf was channeling, and the bond was transferring, and somewhere in the middle, physics gave up.
“Oh no,” Vane murmured from the doorway.
Vance looked at him.
“What?” Vane sighed.
“Oh, this is going to be expensive.” BOOM.
Erruption came, and the cylinder ceased to exist, and glass vaporized with steam exploding outward.
The shockwave threw guards through the air, the marble table split down the center, the Councilors hit the floor while the room vanished beneath a hurricane of violet mist and orange fire.
Silence filled the room, and for three long seconds, nobody spoke as steam cleared.
Koro stepped out, perfectly unharmed, and looked around the ruined boardroom.
Then at the Elders, then ten at the melted remains of the containment unit.
“…Huh.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“I honestly thought that would be smaller.” The horror on Vance’s face was worth every second as Vance hurriedly summoned the guards to assist the council members in getting up from the ground.
He is magnificent; Ignis, my dragon, spoke up, and he sounded so boastful and egoistic, and I swore he pumped his chest up.
I watched Malako’s eyes widen, and I knew that was my cue, and I stepped towards Koro and moved to stand in front of him with a grin on my face and basking in the satisfied look on his face.
” Mark’s, I am no one’s slave, and I will never exist in a cage,” Koro grinned as his eyes twinkled with mischief.
” You have just proven your worth,” I responded with the same satisfied grin on my face.
Give me more motivation!