A Tangle of Hearts (A Shade of Vampire #44)(41)

“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve never seen a man look at you like that before.” I chuckled, smiling playfully. I wondered if I could make her blush. Given her complexion, I was curious to see what that looked like.

“It’s still leering,” she shot back, irritation dripping from her husky voice.

“I thought you were a badass warrior succubus! Since when are you so sensitive to the way a guy looks at you? You ladies take pride in your superiority and independence, after all.”

She threw me the deadliest look yet. Golden fires burned in her eyes, while a muscle pulsated in her jaw. She pointed the crossbow right at me. She was so intense, I started to think she might actually shoot it.

My breath hitched a little.

“Mind your tone. I may be injured, but I can still knock you out of this tree before you can blink and then watch you writhe in agonizing pain.” Her voice was pure ice.

Once more, she’d left me speechless. All I could do was stifle my grin into a thin line and slowly raise my hands in a defensive and apologetic gesture.

It took her a while to point the crossbow elsewhere.

She could’ve followed through on her threat as far as I was concerned. Watching her beauty amplified from anger would’ve been worth every broken bone in the process—she was truly mesmerizing.





Serena





[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]





As soon as Bijarki started the fire, I took Draven into the tree shelter to change his bandage. He kept quiet as nightfall settled, and I could tell from his slow movements that he was getting tired. I helped him sit down on the soft moss and stuck the torch into the ground for lighting.

He listened as I opened a duffel bag and rummaged through it for medical supplies. I took out a roll of clean linen dressing and a handful of thick pads made of a soft fabric I didn’t recognize. Draven had given me instructions for packing the healing kit back at the mansion, but he hadn’t told me much about which item was which.

I pulled out two small glass vials with clear, odd-smelling liquids inside. Everything in his medicinal pantry seemed to smell weird.

“Okay, I’ve got everything you asked me to bring here. What do I do?” I asked.

“You pour a little bit of both vials onto the pads,” he replied. “They’ll go on my eyes—or better said, eye holes—and you wrap the dressing around. It’s quite simple.”

I didn’t like the sardonic tone of his voice. It didn’t bring out the best in me.

“Good to see you’re back to your old insufferable self,” I mumbled as I sat on my knees in front of him and proceeded to unravel the old bandage from around his head.

“I never left.” His smirk was a sobering reminder of how quickly he could sink back into his shell if I didn’t pay attention. I’d only left him alone for maybe half an hour while I’d gathered fire wood. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve recommended that he see a psychiatrist for mood swings.

“Yeah, I can see that,” I shot back.

“Well, at least one of us can.”

My irritation faded away instantly as I realized how terrible he must be feeling without his eyesight.

I’d completely disregarded his frustration. Even though his blindness was temporary, we didn’t know how long it would be before the Daughters would undo what they had done to him. But the more time passed, the harder it seemed for Draven to keep his calm, composed demeanor.

I removed the bandage completely, my fingers brushing over his soft skin and tousled hair. I held my breath for a moment, noticing the dark bruises around his sunken eyelids. My heart shuddered as I poured both liquids onto the soft pads and gently placed them over his eye sockets.

“Can you hold them up so I can wrap the dressing over?”

He nodded and brought his fingers up on top of the pads, over my own. His touch sent waves of heat through my arms. I withdrew my hands and reached for the linen bandage. His silence made it even harder for me to concentrate.

“So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” I asked, my voice weak but my mind determined to get me through the whole bandaging process without a hitch.

“Provided nothing kills us tonight, we will have another half day of walking north before we reach the tribe.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I retorted. I rolled my eyes and started pulling the dressing over his eyes, one layer at a time. “You can take your hands off. What I meant was what happens when we reach the Red Tribe? What’s the plan?”

A smile passed over his face, so faint that I almost didn’t notice it.

“The plan is to speak to the tribe chief and try to forge an alliance. Based on what Anjani has told us so far, they’re one of the few factions still standing and in possession of some very dangerous weapons. Combine that with the three tricks up our sleeves, one of which is currently recovering from a blow to the head, and we will have a tremendous tactical advantage against Azazel.”

“Will that be enough to destroy him?”

He shook his head, and I groaned, as I had yet to finish wrapping the dressing around his head. He stilled with a sheepish grin drawn on his face. Had he saved that grin from his childhood days, when Elissa had caught him with her journal?

The torchlight played with the shadow beneath his lower lip, further distracting me from an otherwise mundane task.