noble. My heart is strong. My aim is true. I am aneira…my heart is strong—
No fear, damn it. I could be drowning in it, and he damn well could smell it on me, but I sure as hell wouldn’t show it.
As he leaned in closer, his mouth against my ear, I clenched my jaw.
“Listen, you little fool. You’re going into a place that we keep safe for our young,” he growled. “You got that? And while you aren’t exactly what I’d call a threat in our world, our young still aren’t precisely ready to defend themselves. You go in there swinging silver or anything else, it’s going to piss them off. Some of them may try to shift, which will scare you enough that you might try to defend yourself and you’re obviously too stupid to know when to pull back and when to fight. If you hurt one of them, somebody in there will try to kill you. Which means I’m bound, by my word to My Lady to kill them—just because they are defending our young.”
He all but spat each word and I knew if he wanted, he could snap my neck in an instant. It was getting hard to breathe, too hard, and I could all but feel the warming in my palm as the magic that connected me to my blade started to waken.
Then it was done. Damon loosened his hold and let me go. “Do you think you can get that into your fool head?”
Shoving upright, I glared at him over my shoulder. “Go fuck yourself,” I rasped out and it was like I had to choke the words out through a fucking straw. My face throbbed; my wrist and arm weren’t feeling too much better, but my throat felt like it had been pulverized.
Burning hot with rage and humiliation, and yet somehow cold with fear, I placed my hands on the truck and stood there as he did a quick, impersonal pat-down.
One thing was certain.
He was enough of an ass that my long-dormant libido had settled back into complacency.
Hell, he might be on the same level of dangerous as Jude, but he was a few steps higher on the asshole meter. Kind of pathetic. I hadn’t thought anybody could outpace the vampire, but this guy had managed to do it in a day.
Now that takes talent.
Chapter Four
My right hand itched.
From the minute we stepped foot inside those gates, it itched.
I had no weapons.
I didn’t have my sword.
And although I could have the damn sword at any time I wanted, if I let her come to me, it was going to incite riots, according to my asshole bodyguard, and if that happened, he’d have to kill people to protect me.
That shouldn’t bother me.
The problem was that it did and he’d figured out exactly what nerve to hit.
I didn’t like death.
I’d killed people and I’d do it again, probably before this job was out. I definitely didn’t want it to happen if I could avoid it, but damn it, what was the problem with me carrying my sword?
“If you go in there stinking of fear, you’re going to set them off,” Damon muttered.
“Well, if you didn’t want me afraid, you shouldn’t have set me off,” I pointed out, then I scowled at the sound of my voice. Fuck. I sounded like I’d swallowed a bunch of broken gravel and rusty nails and my throat hurt. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t dealt with before, but it still pissed me off.
He frowned and looked over at me.
Then he stopped and went to catch my arm.
I backed away. Fast. Part of me wanted to cringe. The body remembers abuse. For a long, long time.
“Don’t touch me,” I warned him. I wouldn’t cower. Not in front of him. I could practically feel the fear bleeding out of me, replaced by anger. I am aneira—my heart is strong. And I sure as hell wouldn’t cower in front of this bastard.
Something flickered in his eyes, that frown still tightening his face. But he nodded. “Try to keep the fear under wraps, kitten. You don’t want to go breathing fear over a bunch of adolescent shapeshifters. They’ll think you’re hard up for a date,” he said, starting back up the path. “If you are that desperate for some rough fun, I can give it to you.”
His meaning hit me about five heartbeats later.
I would have laughed if it wouldn’t have hurt so much.
At the doorway, I was subjected to yet another pat-down.