A Tangle of Hearts (A Shade of Vampire #44)(35)

“Why don’t you have any horns?”

The look she gave me told me I had offended her, though I didn’t understand how or why. Her eyes seared into me and narrowed slightly for an added dramatic effect. It sent chills down my neck.

“That’s none of your business!” she hissed.

“It’s because she’s really young,” Bijarki interjected. “The horns don’t start growing on females until they hit their first few hundred years. She’s just a loud-mouthed sapling.”

I regretted asking the question, as I could feel Anjani’s temperature rise against my body.

“Nevertheless, this sapling could still beat you into a pulp,” she shot back.

“I would love to see you try, kid,” the incubus said.

Her fingers clutched the crossbow tightly, and she looked like she was tempted to shoot him. The tension mounted, layer upon layer. Bijarki was obviously not afraid of her, but I didn’t like seeing her angry. It made my stomach churn.

I looked around, trying to find something else to say. My hand instinctively gripped her side a little tighter, and my arm drew her closer. I heard her muffled gasp, after which she gradually relaxed against me.

“I’m surprised we haven’t been attacked yet,” I managed to say, clearing my throat and casually glancing around us.

“They can smell the poison from our arrows,” Anjani replied.

“They?”

“The shape-shifters running around us. The other creatures lurking in the darkness. They can smell the black thorn-weed and deadly nightshade. They’re not stupid. Most of them know to keep their distance.”

“Where’d you learn all this stuff?” I was in awe of her. If only we’d known about these poison-dipped arrows before.

“It’s part of our culture. We purchase or gather Eritopia’s deadliest plants and infuse them into poisons of varied intensities, from tranquilizers to crippling pain and paralysis to instant death and everything else in between,” Anjani said with peculiar pride. I figured this was her field of expertise. After Bijarki’s comment about her age, she probably needed to reassert herself as someone not to be messed with.

“And this stuff kills shape-shifters?” I asked, pulling an arrow out of the quiver tied to her waist and carefully inspecting its iron tip, glazed in a dried dark purple liquid.

“Yes it does. Be careful not to touch it. It’s extremely potent.” Her eyes were fixed on the tip.

I couldn’t help but grin. “Worried I’ll die?” I aimed to make her smile.

“I don’t really care. I just don’t want to spend the rest of this trip leaning against that self-entitled incubus for support.”

She was as fiery as an active volcano and seemed to enjoy verbal smackdowns. Once again, she left me speechless. I had my hands full with this one, and breaking through that hard outer shell of hers was not going to be easy.

I realized that I was eager for the challenge. I wanted to break through the hard casing. I wanted to get to her soft core and hear her whimper in my arms. The warrior succubus with silvery skin was hot as a summer’s day, but I wanted to find out what she was like beneath that fiery surface.





Serena





[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]





The trail leading up to the tribe was smooth, and we had sufficient sunlight to guide us along the way, despite the thick tree crowns stretching out above us. Even with Bijarki and Anjani commanding two deadly crossbows, I still felt on edge, fearing we’d soon be surrounded by more shape-shifters than we could handle.

I’d wondered why the shape-shifters hadn’t attacked so far, but after Anjani told us about the poisoned arrows, my fear slowly subsided. Nevertheless, I kept my eyes on the dense jungle that spread out on both sides, on the massive trees and moving shadows.

Draven walked by my side, his hand on my shoulder. My skin tingled beneath the fabric where he touched me, but most of my attention was aimed at whatever was lurking in the jungle. Somehow, he sensed that and squeezed my shoulder lightly.

“It will be all right, Serena. Shape-shifters don’t usually come out so brazenly during the day. What happened yesterday was a rare occurrence,” he said in a reassuring tone.

“I still find it weird that they’re not jumping us,” I replied, looking over my shoulder.

“They can smell the nightshade,” Anjani repeated as she walked ahead, leaning against Jovi with her crossbow ready to shoot. “Unfortunately my sisters and I lost ours when we went hunting yesterday. We were looking for it when we were attacked,” her voice trailed off.

“What were you hunting?” Draven asked.

A moment passed, and a distant hiss sent shivers down my spine. Draven’s hand pressed my shoulder again. His senses were incredibly sharp from those herbs.

“Shape-shifters,” Anjani replied.

My jaw dropped. Looking at Draven, he was also taken aback, both eyebrows raised over his eye bandage.

“Their blood is warfare material,” the succubus explained, noticing our stunned silence. I saw Bijarki looking over his shoulder. This seemed to be news to him as well.

“Care to elaborate?” Draven asked. “It’s not something I’ve heard of before.”

“We discovered it by mistake, a few years back,” Anjani explained, her voice somber and low. “A shape-shifter wandered into our camp one night and killed one of the girls. We reacted instantly and tore it apart. Its blood sprayed into the campfire, and it almost blew us away. It took us hours to put the fire out after it swallowed three of our tents. I don’t know what it is about their blood that is so volatile, but we now hunt these bastards and drain them for it.”