Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(12)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

Her eyes flashed with indigo fire, her struggles becoming serious.

“My only interest in your body is hauling it to the Commission.”

He pressed the knife against her throat, refusing to regret the smell of burning flesh.

If she tried to take him to the Commission then he’d have to do a hell of a lot worse than singe a bit of skin.

“Wrong answer.”

“Shit, that burns.”

“Hold still and you won’t be hurt,” he informed her, lifting his free hand to form a portal.

Instantly the familiar shimmer floated beside him. No other fairy could match his speed in forming a portal. Or his tolerance to iron.

Which were only two of many reasons he’d been chosen to lead his people.

Jaelyn froze, her gaze trained on the magical opening that hung near her head.

“What are you doing?”

“Returning you to Avalon.” His gaze narrowed. “And this time I will make certain no one will be coming to your rescue.”

She cursed, grudgingly turning her head to meet his ruthless gaze.

“Wait.”

“Why should I?”

“We …” She looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. “… might be able to negotiate.”

Instinctively he lifted the dagger from her neck, absently watching her skin heal the small burn.

He should return her to Avalon. No ifs, ands, or freaking buts. The odds were that she was either there to haul his ass to the Commission.

Or kill him.

Neither possibility was particularly pleasant.

Still, he hesitated.

Wasn’t there some human saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

It was surely wiser to have her in sight until he discovered how she truly had escaped from Avalon?

Dubious logic, but he was going with it.

“Another bargain, poppet?”

“Something like that.”

His gaze lowered to the small br**sts perfectly outlined by the black spandex.

“What do you intend to offer?”

She growled, but amazingly she made no effort to sink her pearly fangs into his arm. In fact, her mouth curled into what he assumed was intended to be a smile, although it was remarkably closer to the onset of rigor mortis.

“I’m willing to give you a few days to track down Tearloch,” she managed to choke out. “If you swear you will only capture the child and not sacrifice her.”

Curiouser and curiouser.

“Why?”

“I won’t help you kill an innocent.”

He pressed the blade back to her neck. “Don’t play stupid.”

She snapped her fangs, barely missing his fingers. “Careful, fey.”

“Earlier you refused to even discuss my need to stop Tearloch and Sergei,” he reminded her. “What changed?”

She shifted until the blade was no longer burning her skin, her raven braid spilling across the damp pavement.

“I’m no more anxious than you for the world to end. Especially if it means becoming enslaved by the minions of hell.”

Ariyal shook his head. “You really are a terrible liar, poppet.”

She made a sound of impatience. “Look, I’ve offered to give you the time you need to track down your tribesman. What does it matter why?”

“Because I don’t trust you.”

She met him glare for glare. “Believe me, the feeling is entirely mutual.”

“I should return you to Avalon.”

Something that might have been panic flared through her eyes before she was crushing it beneath a layer of ice.

“I’ll only escape again,” she warned in frigid tones. “And the next time I won’t hesitate to haul your ass to the Commission.”

Ariyal silently cursed.

He was an idiot.

His tribe had suffered untold pain and humiliation to be rid of their ties to the Dark Lord. He couldn’t afford to be distracted now that there was a chance the brutal bastard might be returned to this world.

The sensible solution would be to kill the perilously tempting vampire. Or at the very least to return her to Avalon and lock her in the lower harems where nothing could escape.

Instead, he was going to keep her with him.

What choice did he have? There wasn’t any place he could put her, not even in her grave, where she wouldn’t be nagging at his thoughts.

“You swear not to interfere?” he rasped.

“Not unless you try to kill the child.”

“Bloody hell, I know I’m going to regret this,” he muttered, rising to his feet, although he kept the dagger handy.

Jaelyn was upright and angrily tossing back her long braid in less than a heartbeat.

“You and me both.”

Still fully aroused from the feel of her body beneath him and furious with his odd compulsion to have her near, Ariyal grasped her upper arm and jerked her across the road.

“Let’s go.”

“Go?” She scowled, but allowed herself to be led toward the back of the looming townhouses. “Where?”

“If you insist on hanging around then you can at least make yourself useful.”

Her lips parted to offer a scathing comment, only to snap shut as they came to a halt near a servants’ entrance.

“The mage,” she said, her hand instinctively reaching for the shotgun that she usually carried strapped to her side. She glared at him when she came up empty. “And he’s brewing something.”

He nodded, catching the sweet scent drifting through the air.

“Yes.”

“It smells …” She blinked in surprise. “… good.”

“Fey.”

“What?”

Ariyal breathed in deeply. “The plants he’s using are grown only by the fey.”

Her surprise hardened to suspicion. “Do you know what he’s concocting?”

He shrugged. “I would guess it’s a potion used to keep him from aging. Mages are humans and must use magical herbs to make them immortal.”

The suspicion remained.

No big surprise.

“You’re sure it’s not a spell he’s about to cast?”

“He’s a dark mage.”

“Yeah, I got that,” she snapped impatiently. “All the more likely he’s about to create some nasty potion, right?”

He studied her pale, perfect face. It was impossible to determine a vampire’s age. Jaelyn could be a few decades old or several millennia. But he suspected that she was barely out of her foundling years, despite her skills as a Hunter. There were too many gaps in her knowledge for her to be an ancient.