Bound By Darkness Page 0,38
her, bending down to whisper against her lips, still swollen from his kisses. “I’m willing to train you.”
She rammed her fingers into his hair, but she made no effort to push him away.
Thank the gods.
“For a fairy who claims he wants to live in peace you play a dangerous game.”
He traced her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue. “Your turn to share.”
She shivered, the scent of her arousal spicing the air. “I think I’ve shared more than enough.”
“Tell me, Jaelyn.”
“Tell you what?”
“Why do you have nightmares?”
She cursed, abruptly pressing her hands against his chest. “Levet.”
He lifted his head with a frown. “The gargoyle?”
“Yes.”
Ariyal had a vague recollection of the miniature demon who had been traveling with the vampire Tane.
Aggravating pest.
“Well, he would certainly give anyone nightmares, but I’m not sure what he has to do with our conversation,” he muttered.
“He’s approaching.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“ Damn.”
With a pang of regret, he rolled off the bed and yanked on the jeans that had replaced his dojo pants before he left Avalon. Then, holding out his hand, he muttered the harsh words of magic that called his bow and arrows.
Behind him he heard Jaelyn pulling on her bits of spandex before she moved to stand at his side.
“What are you doing?”
“His arrival can’t be a coincidence.” Ariyal concentrated on the door, prepared to shoot the moment it opened. “The creature has obviously followed us here.”
“Not us,” Jaelyn corrected. “He’s looking for your charming spirit.”
“Who?”
“Yannah. He has some sort of gargoyle crush on her.”
He turned to watch her efficiently pull her hair into a smooth braid.
“Is this a joke?”
She crushed his brief hope with a decisive shake of her head. “No. He scented Yannah on me when I arrived in London and decided to join us.”
“And you let him?” he snarled in disbelief.
“Hey, he helped me rescue your ass, so just ...”
“Just what?”
“Chill.”
The King of Were’s lair in St. Louis
Santiago shuddered as the mists at last cleared.
Mierda.
He hadn’t signed up for this when Styx had sent him in search of Cassandra.
He was prepared to battle demons, Sylvermyst, and even a mage if necessary.
He wasn’t prepared to be hauled around in a strange, choking mist by an exquisite female who had turned her back on the world centuries ago.
Or to abruptly find himself in an unfamiliar room miles from where he’d started.
Swiftly he took stock of his surroundings.
A dirt floor. Cement walls that were lined with towering shelves that held hundreds of dusty bottles. A collection of aged-wood barrels in the center of the room. And at the far end a series of arched doorways where Santiago could catch the low hum of refrigerators.
A wine cellar?
“Where the hell did you bring me?” he muttered in confusion.
“I am not entirely certain.” Nefri shrugged, not looking nearly as troubled at having dumped them in this strange cellar as she should. Not even when an unmistakable stench filled the air.
Santiago yanked the dagger from the sheath hidden at his lower back.
“Dogs,” he hissed.
“Bloodsucker,” a mocking voice retorted as one of the shelves slid aside to allow a pureblooded Were and a cur to step out of a hidden tunnel.
Santiago lifted his brows at the sight of Salvatore and his faithful sidekick Hess.
As always, the King of Weres was dressed in a hand-tailored designer suit. This one was an Italian wool in a pale charcoal with a white shirt and a burgundy tie. With his dark hair pulled into a neat tail and his lean face freshly shaved, he looked more like a mobster than a Were. His companion, on the other hand, looked like a hired thug with his six-foot-six, heavily muscled body and shaved head.
“Ah, not just a dog, but the King of Mutts,” he taunted, grimacing as Salvatore snapped his impressive teeth in his direction. “Shouldn’t royalty be house-trained?”
Pointing a gun that was loaded with silver bullets directly at Santiago’s heart, Salvatore nodded toward Hess, who swiftly moved to stand behind Nefri. The cur’s indecent bulk and the brutal glint in his eye made the slender female appear dangerously vulnerable, but no one in the room was stupid enough to doubt that she could kill any of them in a blink of an eye.
Her power pulsed about her in terrifying waves.
“Santiago.” Salvatore placed himself so he could keep an eye on both intruders. “Clearly I need to have a word with Styx. The arrogant bastard doesn’t seem to understand the concept of barriers.”
“Styx had nothing to do with our ...” Santiago considered his words. Vampires and Weres