Embrace The Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #2)(17)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

Beginning with the pasty-faced troll.

"For the right price, Evor would sell his own mother" he growled.

It took a moment before she grudgingly met his steady gaze. "I could hardly be expected to know you would be willing to grant your slave such a favor."

His hand shifted to cup the back of her head. "Why are you so determined to consider yourself a slave when I have yet to do so?"

She blinked at his blunt demand. "What else could I be? You bought me from a slave trader. You possess the amulet that keeps me chained to you regardless of my own desires."

"Would you prefer that I return you to Evor? You would rather possess a different master?"

"Does it matter what I want?"

"Answer the question."

Despite the darkness Viper could easily read the emotions rippling over her face.

Confusion. Embarrassment. And at last a reluctant acceptance.

"No," she whispered so softly that if he hadn’t been a vampire he would never have heard her. But he was. And he did. And it was enough to make his hand tighten on the back of her head to press her head downward.

Her breath came in a rush as he captured her lips, captured the heat of her, and pulled it deep within him. She tasted of warm honey and life. A taste sweet enough for a vampire to drown in.

Thrusting his fingers into her hair Viper allowed his free hand to sweep down to cup her hip. He wanted her here, now. He wanted her with a raw ache that was nearly frightening in its intensity.

Gently parting her lips with his tongue he searched the moist cavern of her mouth. He groaned deep in his throat as her hands clutched at his arms and for a startling moment she returned his kiss with the same frantic need that pulsed within him.

Heat flared between them, and then with a startled gasp Shay was abruptly wrenching her lips from his own, and regarding him with something perilously close to horror.

"Viper."

He swallowed a curse as his body clenched in protest before he was sternly chastising his unruly passions. What the devil was the matter with him?

He was a centuries-old vampire with endless power and sophistication. He did not indulge in public orgies. No matter what the temptation.

"You are right, this is hardly the setting for a romantic tryst," he muttered. "Nor is it the time to be distracted."

She sucked in a deep breath, the motion pressing her small, firm br**sts tightly against his chest.

Hell’s bells.

"How did you find me?" she demanded.

"I told you that I had the grounds guarded."

Her brows lifted. "I was followed?"

"Yes." Viper deliberately turned to regard me tall, silent vampire that stood in the distant shadows. Not surprisingly Shay stiffened with wary unease.

Santiago was an impressive sight with his leather pants and black T-shirt designed to reveal his thick muscles. His face was narrow with high cheekbones and his eyes the deep brown of his Spanish ancestors.

It took only a glance to know precisely what he was.

A trained warrior who would kill to protect those of his clan.

Shay swallowed heavily. "He’s a vampire, he couldn’t possibly have been patrolling when I left."

"This isn’t the Stone Age, pet," Viper drawled. "The grounds are guarded by a very high-tech system that includes motion sensors, silent alarms, and a series of cameras that are constantly monitored. Santiago was deep underground when he spotted you leaving."

"Why didn’t he send someone to try and stop me?"

"I told him not to."

Her gaze snapped back to regard him with open suspicion. "Why?"

"I knew I could easily track you."

"You wanted to spy on me."

"I will admit to some curiosity, but more than that I wanted to prove to you that you are a foot to try and escape."

Her expression abruptly hardened. "I know I can’t escape. You don’t need a guard. You have only to use the amulet and I will be forced to return."

"That’s not the point."

"Then what is?"

His hands shifted to cup her face, his eyes narrowed. "There is a powerful force that has tried to capture you more than once. Until we discover what it is you will not be allowed to travel on your own."

He was prepared for her anger. Slave or not she was not the sort of demon to mildly accept any sort of restrictions. Even those meant to keep her safe.

Astonishingly, however, he could read nothing but a flare of concern in her beautiful eyes.

"You believe I’m still in danger?"

"Don’t you?"

She chewed on her bottom lip before at last heaving a sigh. "Okay, point made. I was an idiot to take off on my own. You can let me up now."

Pleased that she seemed capable of allowing logic to overrule her fiercely independent nature, Viper slowly smiled.

"It seems a pity." His hands brushed down to the tempting curve of her throat. "I’ve thought about having you in this position for a long time. Of course, my fantasies didn’t include either of us in clothes, or a hovering gargoyle."

"I told you to—"

Her heated words were brought to an abrupt halt as a soft breeze rippled through the air and Viper was swiftly on his feet pushing Shay behind him.

"Master," Santiago called from the shadows.

"Yes, Santiago, I smell it."

He felt Shay grasp the back of his silk shirt. "Smell what?"

"Blood. Fresh blood."

"Crap."

A shiver raced down Shay’s spine as Viper slowly turned to face her. Until the past few moments she had managed to forget the hovering evil that seemed intent on capturing her. She had been so intent on how she could manage to rescue Levet from Evor that she had forgotten she possessed yet another enemy.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And embarrassing that Viper had remembered when she had not.

"Did you kill Evor and his trolls?" he demanded.

His tone was merely curious. As if he didn’t give a bloody hell if she had slaughtered the trolls.

And probably he didn’t.

"No, I didn’t even catch sight of them."

"So you saw no one? Heard nothing?"

"No."

His head tilted to one side. "And you did not think that unusual?"

Shay shrugged, thinking back to her swift trip through the auction house. "They rarely enter the auction house before dark. Besides, I used the back entrance and went straight to the dungeons. You think they were attacked?"

"Something was." He glanced back toward the silent building. "Wait here."