Burned by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,6
herself to pause and take a deep breath, trying to clear her fractured thoughts.
She wrapped her arms around her waist as she trembled with…what? Fear, certainly. Annoyance. And was that excitement? Oh, rats.
“Could your magic interfere with a disguise spell?” she demanded.
“Of course not—” Levet’s startled words were cut short as his wings fluttered and his tail twitched. “Oh.”
Tayla grimaced. She didn’t like the sound of that ‘oh.’
“What does that mean?”
Levet didn’t answer. Instead he countered with his own question. “Tell me what has you so upset.”
She would never have told him if she’d been in her right mind. She didn’t ever talk about her past. After all, sharing could be dangerous. Not only to herself, but also to the person who she might be foolish enough to tell.
They might very well be tortured for any information of her whereabouts.
Dramatic? Maybe. But she didn’t want to take any chances.
Now she found the words tumbling from her lips before she could censor them.
“Twenty-five years ago I was working at my father’s jewelry store in Las Vegas when a group of trolls burst through the back door and kidnapped me.”
“Trolls? In the middle of Vegas?” Levet appeared oddly confused. “That was unusually bold for the creatures.”
“Not really.” She shrugged, trying, as always, to block the memories of the horrid night. “They must have seen I was there alone. I couldn’t have fought off one, let alone three.”
Levet managed to look even more confused. “You were there alone?”
“Yes. My father had a shipment of gems coming in so he took the guards with him,” she explained. At the time she’d been surprised by her father’s insistence that he take the entire staff with him, but later she had to assume he must have suspected there was going to be trouble that night. “He’d only been gone a few minutes when the bastards came into the shop and tossed me into a box made of iron.”
Levet hissed in anger. “I know those boxes. Only mine was silver.” He shivered. “They were slavers?”
She nodded, startled by the gargoyle’s confession. Clearly they had more in common than she realized.
“They weren’t actually in the trade, but they supplied the…”
“Merchandise,” Levet finished for her.
She shuddered. At the time she’d thought nothing could terrify her more than being hauled to a smelly camp hidden in the middle of the Mojave Desert. She’d been bathed in fine oils and dressed in a tiny bit of satin so she could be bartered off to the highest bidder.
But there was worse to come.
“Yes, but they didn’t put me in the auction,” she admitted. “Instead they offered me as a prize to a dragon.”
“A dragon.” Levet blinked. And blinked. “Do you mean a real dragon?”
Another shiver raced through her. She’d been as shocked as the gargoyle when she’d been tossed through a portal and landed in a tangled heap in the middle of a shadowed cavern. Remaining on her knees with her head bowed, Tayla had fearfully peered through her tangled hair at the lethal creature who’d studied her with a blatant hunger.
She’d immediately known it had to be a dragon even though she’d never actually seen one in person. But despite the humanoid form with thick black hair and a brutally carved face, there could be no mistaking the sizzling power that had threatened to grind her bones into dust. Or the tendrils of smoke that curled from the flared nostrils.
At the time she had no idea if he intended to eat her or force her into his bed, but without warning, another male had entered the room.
Not just a male, but another dragon, she’d swiftly realized.
This one, however, was…
Words had failed her, as she’d taken in the stark, unimaginable beauty of his lean face that had been framed by glossy black hair. His features were finely chiseled, with a hawkish nose and angular cheekbones. His brow was wide, intelligent, and his lips beautiful, but hinting at a cruelty that’d made her shiver. His eyes had been faintly slanted and smoldered with an amber fire that’d slid over her with a barely concealed contempt.
It was only when she’d unconsciously risen to her feet that his eyes had narrowed, the disapproval searing away as he’d allowed his gaze to roam down her tense body.
To Tayla, it’d felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. Her breath was wrenched from her lungs and her entire body tingled with an awareness she didn’t understand.
With a slow, purposeful stride he’d crossed the cavern to stand directly