Embrace The Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #2)(80)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

This time the Anasso fell to his knees.

Viper moved in for the kill.

Sensing his near demise the vampire turned his head to regard Viper with a desperate expression.

"I am the Anasso. The vampires cannot survive without me," he pleaded. "You condemn them all to death."

Viper paused with his sword held high. Almost surprisingly he felt nothing at ending the life of a once noble commander. Whatever the Anasso had once been he was now no more than a rabid animal.

"I condemn only you."

The sword arced downward with a flash of steel. The Anasso lifted his remaining hand as if to halt the blow but it was too late.

The years of decay had left him vulnerable and far too mortal.

With a smooth ease the razor edge slid through his neck and with a gurgling sigh the ancient warrior was dead.

Levet’s nerves were scraped raw.

Not so surprising.

What three-foot gargoyle creeping through a maze of tunnels while trying to dodge a herd of hungry vampires wouldn’t be a bit skittish?

But perhaps for the first time in his very, very long life he refused to allow his cowardly heart to overrule his fragile courage.

With every step he could sense himself drawing closer to Shay and he wouldn’t waver. No matter how many damn vampires were lurking in the shadows.

Of course it did help that while he could detect the scent of over a dozen vampires, he had yet to actually run across one of the beasts.

Courage was always better when it wasn’t directly tested.

Sniffing the air with a healthy dose of wariness Levet turned toward the richly decorated tunnels. He sensed they were coming to the lair of the Head Honcho, something that seemed better avoided, but there was no mistaking that Shay had come this way. And recently.

He inched forward until he at last reached the mouth of a vast cavern. There he stopped and sucked in a deep breath.

Predictably the woman trailing behind him managed to ram painfully into his wings and stomp on his tail before she realized he was no longer moving.

With a low hiss, he turned to glare into her petulant face.

"My wings are not your personal air bag," he muttered in low tones. "Could you please attempt to remember that?"

She sniffed, oblivious to his chastisement. "Why did you stop?"

"Shay is in there."

"What is it with this Shay? Is she your lover?"

"I have told you, she’s my friend."

"Pooh." Bella ran her hands suggestively over her lush curves. "I could be a much better friend if only you would wish for me to be at your side always."

At his side always? Levet shuddered at the mere thought. He was male enough to appreciate a beautiful woman, but he would lop off his own head before being condemned to an eternity with the flighty sprite.

"What do you know of friendship?" he demanded as he turned back toward the opening.

He felt her fingers lightly trace the edge of his wings. "I could be whatever you want I could satisfy your deepest fantasies."

Levet gave a twitch of his wings to dislodge her hand. "I don’t need a friend for that. Just enough money and a local brothel."

"I would do whatever you asked. No matter what it was. No matter how… difficult."

"That isn’t what a friend does."

"Then what is a friend?"

He turned his head to stab her with an impatient glare.

"Someone who cares about you, even if you don’t deserve to be cared about."

"That doesn’t make any sense," she protested.

His annoyance faded as the memories of Shay rolled through his mind.

Shay stepping between him and the tormenting trolls. Shay threatening Evor with castration, and worse. Shay returning to the auction house to rescue him.

"No," he said softly. "And that’s the beauty of it."

She opened her mouth to continue her ruthless badgering, but with a sharp motion of his hand Levet returned his attention to the cavern.

Shay was definitely close. But mere were also three vampires, the imp that Bella had warned lived in the caves, and…Evor.

"Damn." This was bad. Really, really bad. Reaching behind his back he grabbed the sprite’s arm and pulled her to his side. "How long will this magic take?"

"You wish it and it happens," she grudgingly conceded.

"Good."

Levet sucked in a deep breath as she hurriedly pressed her fingers to his lips.

"Don’t do this. Wish for me to be with you. I will rescue your stupid friend…"

"I wish I were the size of the King of Gargoyles," he growled.

He wasn’t sure what he expected. A bit of tingling. A puff of smoke.

Fireworks and a Sousa band.

What he got instead was a sharp blow to the head as he was suddenly far too large for the tunnel.

"Ouch." He rubbed the rising lump and glanced down at his body that was three times the size it had been.

His wish had worked. He was now large enough to rescue Shay from anyone and anything that might stand in his way.

A fortunate thing considering he had barely blinked when the sound of a high, piercing scream abruptly shattered the air.

"Sacrebleu. Shay."

Chapter Twenty-Six

It was like one of those horrible nightmares that used to plague her. The one where she was trying to flee from the witches, but her feet were relentlessly sinking into a thick mud. No matter how hard she tried to flee she just kept going slower and slower.

She could see Damocles with his dagger gleaming in the light. She could see Evor struggling as his life flashed before his eyes. She could see the short distance she had to cross to halt the relentless blow.

But no matter how fast she traveled she couldn’t reach the imp before the dagger was plunged into the troll’s treacherous heart.

A scream of fury and fear was wrenched from her throat.

Evor wasn’t the only one to see his life passing before his eyes, and it was all so brutally unfair.

For so many years she had taken her life for granted. She had even cursed the miserable existence given to her. Certainly she had never wakened with a fierce desire to leap from her bed and discover what the day might bring.

Now she at last had that. She had Viper. And the thought of dying now filled her with unbearable despair.

Continuing to run despite the futility of it all, Shay abruptly felt the earth buckle beneath her feet. She fell to her knees even as the stone around the entrance burst inward to shower her in a cloud of pebbles.

Not at all certain what had happened, she cleared her eyes and peered through the cloud of dust.

What she saw was a very large, very terrifying gargoyle. A gargoyle who reached out to bat the imp across the room.