A Den of Tricks (A Shade of Vampire #54)(40)

“Don’t take your eyes off me.” His whisper in my right ear made me yelp and jump. His hand came down hard and fast, and knocked the sword out of my hands.

Oh, no, no, no!

Before I knew it, Zane had me with my back against the wall, his massive body pressed against mine as my blade clanged loudly on the wooden floor. That was the sound of defeat I was hearing…

My breath hitched. I couldn’t move. His thigh had slipped between my legs, and my arms were twisted and caught behind my back, stuck between my body weight and the wall. When did he manage to do that?

I was helpless, my heart pounding out of my chest. Zane looked down at me. His red gaze darkened, his natural fragrance filling my lungs with hints of cedarwood and leather—so intense, almost mesmerizing. I could rip him a new one with my fangs, enough to get my arms out and claw at him like there was no tomorrow. But my instincts were on lockdown. I couldn’t react. My brain was working perfectly, but there was something about him that kept me pinned down and motionless.

His breath warmed my face, and his lips stretched into a lazy smile. What was he going to do now? Most importantly, how was I going to react? Because there was something terribly off about me where Zane was concerned. I had no desire to go for the kill. None whatsoever. He was still, by all possible definitions, the enemy. So why was I so reluctant to treat him as one?

“Do you mind letting go?” I whispered, unable to find my voice.

“I honestly don’t know what it is about you,” Zane replied, as he sank his face in my hair. I could hear him breathing in deeply, and it made my skin ripple in an eerily pleasant way. My own reaction was baffling. “I can’t get enough of your scent. I don’t know if it’s your soul that smells so good or just you—I’m not sure… but I just had to come see you.”

His words sank in slowly, hitting the bottom of my conscience with a loud thud, as I found myself softening against him. My muscles were relaxing, and I couldn’t do anything about it. My body was eager to betray me.

“Where did you get the swamp witch magic?” I croaked, changing the subject and trying my best to be a professional. Zane wasn’t making it easy at all…

He lifted his head to look at me, his gaze clouded and glimmering crimson. What a fascinating color to look at from up close! His eyes were like round rubies with liquid dashes of gold sprinkled in the middle, and I was slightly hypnotized.

“You just had to ruin the moment, didn’t you?” He sighed, shaking his head slowly.

“Well, I need to know,” I replied. “You are the enemy, after all.”

“Am I, though? Besides, you’re in over your head. You wouldn’t understand, Fiona.”

“Ugh, again with that same crappy line,” I groaned, manifesting an exaggerated amount of boredom. “Can you please come up with something new?”

He stiffened against me, and I could feel tension building up in his body. He held my arms, his fingers digging into my flesh through the layer of black leather. His gaze darkened as he inched forward, the tip of his nose touching mine.

“You might want to do yourself a favor and stay on my good side, Fiona,” he said slowly, his voice rumbling through my stomach. “That is, if you want to survive once it’s all over.”

“Wait, once what is over, exactly?”

He grinned and puffed yellow dust in my face. My brain lit up, but it was too late for me to do anything. Gah, he expertly conned me!

I wheezed and choked as everything went dark around me. My body surrendered, and I passed out, once again at Zane’s mercy. Damn…





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





We had a limited supply of invisibility paste with us, and we hadn’t found any on the daemon we’d captured to get us down here, so we decided to only use it if we had no other choice. We snuck through the outskirts of the city, making good use of all the nooks and crannies in the black stone wall that extended into the massive dome ceiling.

We used stairs and hid behind boulders, taking short one-minute breaks where appropriate, to calculate the next portion of our route and get closer to where Caspian said his friend lived. I had a hard time imagining Caspian’s daemon friend, but he certainly wasn’t going to be the strangest or craziest thing we’d seen all week.

The lights were always on in this underground city, so there was barely any notion of night and day passing, other than a town clock announcing yet another hour gone. We followed Caspian behind a cluster of dirty old huts, crouching to stay out of sight. Small, weak, and old daemons lived on this side, and they were out and about, growling and grumbling at each other. The occasional insult was hurled, causing the others to snicker at the daemon on the receiving end.

“Call them neighborly pleasantries, if you wish,” Caspian muttered, his jade eyes twinkling with amusement when he noticed the frown on my face.

“Yeah, I don’t see myself mowing my lawn and saying hello to one of these fellows anytime soon,” I replied.

He gave me a half-smile, then reached out to the side of the hut, where a cart was stationed. Several dirty black cloaks were piled up in it—he grabbed them, then handed them over to me, keeping one for himself. I took one, and passed the others to Jax and Hansa, who made sure Caia and Blaze each got a cloak as well.