Rage. Rage ripped through me like a battle ready axe. Control yourself, I thought. Concentrate and watch for their weaknesses. I willed my facial muscles to relax into an appropriate visage. Never let the enemy see your vulnerability. Their advantage could be your death, I knew. So I watched them closely. Jasmine and Luca made an immediate connection. Of course he’d heard her sound, I thought, and wanted to tear down the stage wall with a spiked flail. I expected their attraction and that was one of the reasons why I’d monopolized her time - that and her perky breasts and ass. And then there was her talent, definitely her talent, I thought. I’d assumed that my sound had kept him away. I realized then that it had been his choice.
So Luca had fought his instincts. I understood that because his emotions and motives were always transparent. He never understood the art of war. Still I hadn’t seen clearly enough that she had also been aware of him. It wasn’t just her human ambition that drove her to seek him out, but his music. It spoke to her. He was already in her thoughts. Her voice was lush. Some would say glorious. I laughed at that thought. Glory. I calculated how my attentions had enhanced her abilities. That, I thought, would keep her tethered to my side, like a beautiful young battle horse. She was a sweet little morsel and it occurred to me that her talent would cause my fame to escalate. But then I also understood, after I’d seen Jasmine and Luca together, that she would also be seminal to Luca’s destruction. That was an added bonus. You could say that it was perhaps the answer to my struggle for the last five hundred years. I had my reasons for wanting to destroy Luca, for he had once destroyed me.
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