Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(25)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

Jaelyn was a killer. Cold, clean, efficient.

Samuel was a braggart.

“Nothing to say before you die?” he taunted, reaching behind his back to pull out the handgun he’d tucked in the waistband of his shorts. “No pleas for mercy? Or perhaps you’d rather barter? Are you ready to spread your legs now, my dear?”

She balanced her weight, her gaze never wavering from the center of his chest.

The silver was draining her strength at a dangerous pace. She would have one chance to strike.

She intended to make it a killing blow.

“Fine, I’ll make up some cool shit for you when I describe your death scene for the poor, grieving Ruah.”

She sensed the moment his finger squeezed the trigger, and with one fluid motion she was leaping through the air. The bullet sliced through her lower calf, but she ignored the pain as she landed directly before him. She would have a fraction of a second before he could shoot again.

All the time she needed.

With blinding speed she was stabbing the knife directly into Samuel’s heart, watching as the blue eyes widened in agonized shock.

“No …”

Allowing his panic to overcome his training, Samuel dropped the gun and grasped her wrist, attempting to yank the weapon from his heart. Jaelyn, however, was already slicing through his chest, ruthlessly ignoring his hoarse cry.

The crimson blood spilled down the ivory skin of his chest, filling the room with the scent of death.

Distantly Jaelyn was aware of the door being pushed open and the cold rush of power that warned a vampire was entering the room, but she didn’t allow her concentration to waver.

Samuel was weakening, but so was she.

Driving him backward, she pinned his flailing body against the wall. Then, with the clinical detachment that had been drilled into her over the past three decades, she used the knife to cut off his head.

It was a slow, messy business, but she never wavered. Not until Samuel’s head rolled across the floor, halting at the heavily booted feet of the large vampire standing near the door.

Feeling oddly hollow, Jaelyn allowed her gaze to travel from the lifeless eyes of Samuel up the well-honed body covered in black fatigues to the square face that was all too familiar.

“Kostas,” she breathed, dropping the bloody knife.

The leader’s soulless black gaze skimmed over her and Jaelyn prepared for his punishment. It didn’t matter that she had been lured from her rooms by Samuel. Or that he’d tried to kill her.

If the head of the Addonexus decided she’d broken the rules, then he’d make certain she lived to regret her mistake.

Instead he pointed toward the silver collar around her neck.

“The release is in the back.”

She lifted her hands to search the smooth metal, painful minutes passing until she at last located the hidden lever. There was a faint click before the heavy silver parted and she was tossing aside the torture device with a grimace.

“Are you permanently injured?”

She returned her wary attention to the elder vampire, already feeling the charred flesh of her neck beginning to heal.

Kostas looked like a Roman general with his large, muscular body, his finely hewed features, and black hair he kept slicked back into a short tail at his nape. But it wasn’t his physical strength that made him dangerous. Or even his considerable powers as a vampire.

It was the utter lack of conscience.

He was the perfect psychopath.

“I’ll be fine,” she muttered, her gaze dropping to the head that was swiftly turning to ash at his feet. “Samuel is dead.”

“So I see. A pity.”

He didn’t sound like it was a pity.

Actually he sounded … satisfied.

Jaelyn wrapped her arms around her chilled body, desperately longing to strip off the soiled robe and spend the next few hours in a hot bath.

“I don’t know what happened to him. He …” She struggled to keep the horror from her voice. “He attacked me. I had no choice but kill him.”

“Yes.” With the air of a teacher examining the work of a student, Kostas bent to study the disintegrating head.

“A clean cut despite the dullness of your weapon,” he at last concluded, straightening to meet her startled gaze. “Well done.”

“Well done?”

His lips stretched into the semblance of a smile. “Actually, I suppose I should say congratulations.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You have passed the last of your tests.” He offered a faint nod. “Tomorrow evening you will walk as an equal among the Addonexus.”

She tensed.

Did he just say what she thought he said?

“This was a test?” she rasped, the empty sense of shock being swiftly replaced with a white-hot fury.

“It was obvious from the beginning that you possessed all the skills necessary to become one of our finest Hunters. Indeed, it has been centuries since we have found a recruit with your potential.” His black gaze was without apology. “But there was concern that your tender heart might make you vulnerable. I am pleased to see that your instinct to survive is capable of overcoming any ridiculous attachment to another.”

“You sacrificed Samuel just to see if I would protect myself ?”

“You misunderstand.” He arched a brow, as if puzzled by her smoldering disbelief. “We sensed the envy that ate at Samuel and we knew it was only a matter of time before he attempted to be rid of you, but we did nothing to encourage his attack.”

Was that supposed to make her feel better?

Holy shit.

If she’d been a half a step slower. Or if she’d hesitated for even one second …

“And it never occurred to you to warn me?” she hissed.

“Of course not.” A hint of annoyance touched his arrogant face. “This was a lesson you needed to learn.”

“Damn you.” She stumbled backward, disgust toward the Addonexus, toward Samuel, and most of all, toward herself flowing like acid through her veins. “Damn all of you.”

It had been several centuries since Ariyal had woken in a strange bedroom with a thick head and queasy stomach.

In fact, the last occasion had been after a two-year-long bender with a Lamia demon who had taught him the meaning of “party ’til you drop.”

Now he opened his eyes with a wary caution, not entirely surprised to find himself sprawled on the floor of a cramped chamber that smelled of old blood and sex. None of it his, thank the gods.

What he didn’t expect was the unmistakable scent of vampire.