Embrace The Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #2)(45)

Levet ducked his head to finish off the last of his stew. And more importantly to hide his expression from her.

"I have nothing better to do for the moment. I might as well remain and protect you while I await something to catch my fancy."

Shay found herself ridiculously touched. For all his grumpiness the gargoyle did care for her.

"Levet—" About to demand that he find someplace safer to be, Shay was abruptly cut off as a roar split the night air. "What the hell was that?"

Levet hopped off his chair to go to the door and pull it open. "The howls of the damned. Or a very angry vampire. They seem to be coming from the garage."

"The garage." Shay slowly lifted herself to her feet as a sense of dread filled her stomach. "Oh."

"What is it?" Levet demanded.

"I might have had some difficulties with Viper's car."

"What sort of car?"

"A Porsche, I think. What does it matter?"

Levet rolled his eyes heavenward. "Holy mother of God."

Shay frowned as the gargoyle grabbed a loaf of freshly baked bread and headed toward the stairs to the basement.

"Where are you going?"

"To find shelter from the coming storm."

There was another roar and Shay pressed a hand to her cramped stomach. "You just promised you would remain to protect me."

Levet sent her a raspberry. "You wrecked a man's Porsche. You are on your own."

"Traitor." she called after the retreating demon.

Her voice was still ringing through the kitchen when the back door was thrust open and a surge of power rushed over her skin as Viper stepped into the room.

Despite her best intentions Shay discovered herself backing into the nearby counter as he swept forward.

"What did you do?" He came to a halt a few steps away, as if not at all certain he could trust himself to be any closer. Shay clutched the countertop behind her, grudgingly accepting that even in his fury he was fiercely beautiful. It was almost an effort not to reach out and touch him just to remind herself he was real and not just some fantasy from a woman's dream. "Stop by a demolition derby on your way?"

She sternly gathered her thoughts.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

"I'm not used to driving a stick."

"So you drove it into every tree and ditch you could discover?"

Her lips thinned at his sharp tone. Beautiful or not there were times when he was damn annoying.

"It's not that bad."

"It's a total wreck."

"I'll admit that there are a few scratches and dents, hardly a wreck."

The midnight eyes narrowed. "The drive shaft is beyond repair, the transmission is shot, the—"

"Okay, there are some problems," she interrupted, inwardly wincing as she recalled just how many ditches and trees she had managed to locate. "It's just a car."

"Just a car?" He blinked as if she had spoken a foreign language. "That is saying that a Picasso is just another painting. It is ... was a masterpiece."

"You were the one who ordered me to take a car and leave."

"I did not realize that I needed to specify that it be returned in one piece."

Enough. Her chin stuck out and she planted her hands on her hips. He had to be the most insensitive, ungrateful, ill-mannered vampire ever to walk the earth.

"What do you want from me? An apology?"

For a moment he continued to glare at her and then without warning his rotten mood seemed to slide away and that dangerous, sinful smile slowly curved his lips.

"Mmm... what do I want from you." He moved forward with a sensuous grace. "An intriguing question."

Her heart gave an alarming jolt. All the warning she needed to keep this vampire firmly at arm's length.

"Don't you dare come another step closer."

His soft chuckle trickled down her spine. "Now, pet, you know better than to challenge me."

"Don't do it."

Of course he took that next step. He was a vampire, wasn't he?

Shay allowed instinct to take over. As he reached out to touch her face, she grasped his arm and with a swift motion she was diving to the floor, using his momentary astonishment to pull him down with her. With a hard kick against the floor she had rolled Viper onto his back and was perched on his chest.

It had all happened with such a smooth ease that Shay knew that Viper had done nothing to fight back. A suspicion that was confirmed as she glared into his smoldering eyes.

"Now what do you intend to do with me?" he murmured softly, his hands moving to cup her hips in a suggestive grip.

Thank God for the thickness of jeans. She wasn't sure what would happen if he touched her bare skin again.

Nothing she should want.

"Don't tempt me."

"But that is precisely what I want to do." He did something with his chest that rubbed against the juncture between her legs, sending a small shock of pleasure through her. "Are you tempted?"

She gritted her teeth. "To put a stake through your heart."

"Before or after you scream out your pleasure?"

"We don't have time for this nonsense," she muttered, giving a sudden shriek as he lifted himself to his feet in a fluid motion and she was forced to wrap her legs around his waist or be dropped onto her backside.