Darkness Revealed (Guardians of Eternity #4)(101)

She felt a sudden twinge of fear. There was something in the smoky voice that sounded very much like good-bye.

“Will we ever speak again?”

He paused, almost as if listening to a voice only he could hear.

“Once your fate has been decided,” he at last said. “Until then I am not allowed to interfere.”

“Oh, no.” Anna gave a sharp shake of her head. “I’m done with fate. All I want is a nice, peaceful life with the vampire I love.”

“I fear that destiny is not yet finished with you,” he warned in a rueful voice. “Now go to your vampire. I’m not of this world and even I can hear his anguish.”

Anna felt herself beginning to fade from the castle and, with a wistful smile, she watched as her grandfather shifted back to the shape of a wolf.

She didn’t care what destiny might want from her.

She’d done her duty and she intended to reap her rewards.

In the arms of her vampire.

Cezar kneeled beside the large bed in Styx’s mansion with his hands threaded through Anna’s lush hair. At his side, Levet studied the unconscious woman, his delicate wings twitching with unease as he attempted to inch away from the frigid waves of desperation that were pouring off Cezar.

Smart gargoyle.

His inability to rouse Anna had pressed his temper to a lethal edge and he was itching to kill something or someone to ease his frustration. Unfortunately, for the moment he needed the gargoyle’s ability to sense magic. Which meant he could do nothing more than glare at the creature with an icy fury.

“Well?” he snarled, making Levet jump with a nervous squeak.

The gargoyle cleared his throat and struggled to find his voice. “She seems…healthy enough.”

Cezar muttered a foul curse, his hand running a tender path down Anna’s cheek, lingering on the healing wounds that marred her perfect skin. He could tell she was healthy. She wouldn’t be healing with such speed if she weren’t.

What he needed to know was why she wouldn’t wake despite being far away from the crumbling Avalon.

“Then why is she still unconscious?” he gritted. “Is it magic? Did Morgana put a spell on her?”

Levet wrinkled his snout, the gray eyes troubled. “There is something that feels fey, but the scent is…”

Cezar hissed at the gargoyle’s uncertainty. “Curse your hide, the scent is what?”

“Sage.”

“What does that mean?”

“I truly don’t know.”

“Then who would?” he snapped, furious that he had wasted his time with the impotent demon.

Wisely taking several steps from the furious vampire, Levet was still struggling for an answer when Anna abruptly stirred beneath Cezar’s fingers.

“Cezar?” she murmured softly.

A savage relief jolted through him as he lowered his head and touched his lips to the pulse beating at her temple.

“Anna,” he husked, allowing the scent of honeyed figs to sink deep inside him. “Anna, what is it?”

She forced open her heavy lashes to reveal a rueful amusement glittering in the hazel eyes.

“Leave poor Levet alone.”

There was the sound of flapping wings, and then without warning, Levet landed in the middle of the bed, a smug expression on his ugly face.

“Oui.” He reached out a stunted arm to pat Anna on top of her head, blowing a raspberry in Cezar’s direction. “Leave poor Levet alone.”

“Don’t press your luck, gargoyle,” Cezar growled, never taking his gaze from Anna’s pale face. Dios. He would happily kneel here for an eternity just to be near this woman.

“Ha. You are the one pressing your luck, vampire,” Levet retorted, his courage miraculously returning now that he was hovering behind Anna. “You should have seen him, Anna. There I was sitting in the kitchen, enjoying a delectable roasted pig, a pig I might add that I was forced to hunt and kill all on my own, not to mention roast, and then this demented vampire comes charging in, demanding that I drop everything to…” His words broke off as the lamps in the room began to glow and then flicker before the bulbs burst in a shower of glass. With remarkable speed the gargoyle was flying toward the door. “Fine, I’m going, I’m going.”

Waiting until the door slammed shut behind the fleeing demon, Cezar regarded his mate with a stern expression. “Don’t you dare smile, Anna Randal. Someday I’m going to do the world a favor and have that pest stuffed and mounted.”

Her hand lifted to run her fingers through his hair, the simple caress enough to send a blaze of heat through his body. Of course, just the thought of Anna was enough to send a blaze of heat through his body.

He’d been blazing for her for two centuries.

“I don’t believe you for a minute, Conde Cezar,” she said, her voice low and filled with an unmistakable invitation. “I think you have a lot more bark than bite.”

His fangs lengthened, his erection so hard that he was relieved he was wearing nothing more than a pair of silk boxers.

“Dios,” he groaned, “don’t say such things.”

Pressing herself higher on the pillows, Anna allowed a wicked smile to curve her lips.

“Why not?”

His gaze instinctively lowered to drink in the beauty of her br**sts, barely covered by the lacy white bra. When he’d taken off the sweatshirt and jeans earlier it had merely been to make her more comfortable. Now he silently applauded his decision for an entirely different reason.