"Yes, it was," he said calmly, cutting her off before he returned the hourglass to its shelf. "That was the exact wording of our contract. You set up the terms and I abided by them. Now you have to free me for ten hours."
She balled her hands into fists as her face turned as red as her mussed hair. He knew she was having to mind her tongue to keep from calling him a liar. But then she knew what he did-he couldn't lie. Once his word was given, it was unbreakable.
"I hate you!"
He snorted. "Don't keep saying that, Artie. It's cruel to get my hopes up."
In her anger, she threw her hair over her shoulder as she continued to fume at him. His gaze narrowed on her exposed neck, which caused his stomach to rumble.
She paused instantly. Her green eyes darkened as her heartbeat picked up.
Unable to stand the temptation, Ash jerked her to him with one arm, dipped his head down, and pressed his lips to the throbbing vein that enticed him like a Siren's lure. The sweet fragrance of her blood made his own heart pick up speed as he opened his lips to taste her. He felt his incisors growing until he knew they were long enough to give him what he needed.
Growling deep in his throat, he sank his fangs into her neck and tasted the life that flowed inside her. Feeding was the only time he really wanted to be in her presence. The only time she didn't infuriate him beyond his best tolerance.
Here, for a moment, he found her soothing. Her blood calmed him as it nourished his hunger. Without breaking from her, he separated her thighs again and drove himself back into her body.
Lifting her legs from the floor, she cried out in happiness as her hands roamed his back while he continued to take what he needed.
He would be free of her soon...
Susan looked up from the floor as Ravyn entered the room with an air of distraction hovering around him. There was something strange about his demeanor. It wasn't like him to be so preoccupied. Normally when he was in a room, he was in the room.
"Are you all right?"
His face grim, he rubbed at the back of his neck. "I don't know. Nick's words keep chasing themselves around in my head. Kind of like ferrets or something else vile and evil. Not that ferrets are particularly vile, they're actually kind of tasty when I'm in leopard form."
Susan screwed her face up. "That's disgusting."
He winked at her. "I know and I'm only kidding. I don't like anything raw in either form... except for female flesh."
"Ew! That's worse, you cannibalistic necromaniac."
"You mean necrophiliac?"
"No. Necromaniac as in 'lunatic with the dead.' "
He appeared to consider that. "Actually, wouldn't it be un-necromaniac, as in 'the undead'?"
Susan held her hands up in surrender. She knew when she'd been bested verbally. "Switching topics back to Nick. What's bothering you exactly?"
"After you left, he kept saying that he thought one of our own, a Dark-Hunter, would betray the rest of us."
That bothered her, too. It was really a scary thought, but she had a hard time believing the men and women she'd met upstairs would turn on one another. There seemed to be an unspoken respect and brotherhood that existed between them.
"Boy, as Erika said, he's just a ray of sunshine, isn't he?"
Ravyn didn't seem to find the humor in her sarcasm. "Yeah, but I think he's right. Can you imagine how much damage a Daimon could do if they possessed a Dark-Hunter?"
More than she really wanted to think about. The Daimons had done enough damage in Daimon form. Imagine one masquerading as a good guy... that could get ugly really fast. "How easy could that be to do? I mean you guys kick serious Daimon ass, right?"
"I don't know-they've taken out two of us already and came too damned close to killing me. It's enough to make me wonder how much of Nick's crap is true and what isn't." He cocked his head as if realizing that his words were really getting to her.
She didn't like the thought of being Daimon bait. But then neither did he.
"Don't worry about it, Susan. I'm just thinking out loud." He moved forward to hand her the manila folder in his hands.
"What's this?"