Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(106)

But she’d be damned if she’d be called princess.

It was just so ... pansy-ass.

“Watch it,” she muttered. “I already told Elwin that if he ever called me that again I would slice off his tongue.”

He arched a teasing brow. “But whether you like the title or not, you are their princess.”

She shook her head as they moved to the large room at the front of the house that had once been the formal parlor.

When they’d first arrived it had been stuffed full of the former housewife’s finest possessions. Sofas, chairs, china cabinets, and a grandfather clock that Ariyal had taken out back and burned within minutes of their arrival.

There was nothing quite so annoying to creatures with super hearing than the constant tick tock of a clock. Add in a cuckoo bird and it was nothing short of hell.

Now it had been thinned to a few sturdy pieces of furniture and shelves that Ariyal had built to display their collection of ... well, they hadn’t exactly agreed what they would collect.

But whatever they chose, it would be theirs.

A display of their life together.

“Princess. That’s going to take some getting used to,” she admitted.

His eyes filled with a smoldering warmth as he deliberately ignored the large vampire and pureblooded Were who stood with unreadable expressions near the bay window.

A warmth that she felt down to the tips of her toes.

“We have an eternity,” he promised.

“Do not be so certain, Sylvermyst.”

The voice of Kostas echoed through the room a heartbeat before the Ruah dropped his shadows to reveal his large, muscular body that was attired in a black T-shirt, camouflage pants, and shit-kicker boots.

Decades of training sent Jaelyn to her knees, her head lowered as her leader approached.

In the back of her mind she’d known this confrontation was coming. You couldn’t defy the Addonexus and expect to get away unscathed.

But she’d hoped that she would have time to discover some escape clause that would allow her to keep Ariyal without forfeiting her life.

Obviously, time had run out.

“On your feet, Hunter,” the ultimate leader of the Hunters commanded.

Slowly she lifted herself upright, her gaze skimming over Kostas’s finely hewed features and the slicked-back black hair before settling on his soulless eyes.

“Jaelyn.” At her side, Ariyal shifted to wrap a protective arm around her shoulder.

“You will stay out of this, Sylvermyst,” Kostas commanded, his gaze never wavering from Jaelyn. “I will deal with you later.”

“Please, Ariyal,” she pleaded softly, deliberately untangling herself and stepping away from her mate. If she was going to be sacrificed to sate Kostas’s bloated pride, she didn’t want Ariyal caught in the cross fire. “Hello, Kostas.”

His lips thinned, as if he was annoyed by her response to his surprise visit.

What did he expect?

Wailing and pleading and serious ass-kissing?

It simply wasn’t her style.

“Do you know, I had great expectations for you, Jaelyn?” he chided, speaking to her as if she were a disobedient child rather the vulnerable young woman he’d tortured and tormented for decades. “You had the potential to become the greatest Hunter in the past millennium. It was only your heart I questioned.”

“And so you tried to destroy it.” Her chin tilted. “I will never forgive you for that.”

He shrugged. Emotionless.

“A Hunter cannot have a weakness.”

She could feel Ariyal’s growing fury, laced with fear, as it pulsed in the air. She sent him a warning glance not to interfere before turning her attention back to the man who had the right to destroy her.

“I happen to believe it’s my greatest strength,” she countered.

His lips curled into a sneer. “If that were true then it wouldn’t have led you to betray your loyalty to the Addonexus.”

“I never asked to become a Hunter.”

“It was your destiny.”

“Chosen by you.”

“Chosen by fate,” he insisted. “Do you have any notion how many vampires would quite literally kill to be in your position?”

She did.

Being a Hunter brought her the sort of awed respect her fellow vampires coveted.

It was bound to go to any female’s head.

But the few benefits didn’t come close to making up for the nearly soul-destroying price she’d paid.

“Then you shouldn’t have any trouble filling it,” she said.

Kostas’s fury spilled through the room like icy needles. “Now is not the time for flippant remarks.”

She shrugged. “Do you want me to beg?”

His eyes narrowed, assuring Jaelyn that even if she could manage to kiss this man’s ass he wouldn’t be satisfied.

“You could, but it would do no good,” he drawled, proving her right. Not that he wouldn’t enjoy seeing her on her knees begging. He might be missing a heart, but his ego was fully functioning. “You have committed the worst crimes known to the Addonexus.”

“I thought attempting to kill the Ruah was the worst crime?”

He imperiously ignored her accusation. “Not only did you allow yourself to form a relationship with your prey, you actually mated with him.” He cast a condemning glance toward the rigid Ariyal. “And if that were not bad enough, you have reneged on a contract with the Commission.”