*Xander*
I'd never used my powers before, not like this. That shadow of darkness was a mystery to me still, its presence life-long, but dormant. I'd heard the stories passed down from generation to generation.
I'd been old enough to witness my uncle, who showed much more of a promise to the powers of the Dark Lord than I ever had, overcome the soul-sucking darkness in his veins as he laid his heart before a woman with the blood of the White Queens.
My powers were minuscule, a faint fluttering in my body. But when Lena had marked me, well, suddenly I could feel those powers itching to get loose, to take over, drawn out by her own.
And when I watched more of those gray, molted creatures come out of the forest, followed by their handlers who were more human than hybrid beasts but not by
