When Darkness Comes (Guardians of Eternity #1)(24)

Abby gave a lift of her brows. "Do you think I'm going to argue? After the past few hours, I plan to stick to you like glue."

"A very nice visualization. One I intend to ponder at length later, lover. Still…"

"What?"

His lips thinned. "This isn't the place for innocents."

Abby rolled her eyes heavenward. Were all vampires demented? She hadn't been innocent since the day she left the cradle.

"I'm not a child, Dante," she retorted darkly. "I don't think I was ever a child. I've seen more evil in my life than most people can even dream of."

His expression softened as he reached out to brush his fingers over her cheek.

"I know that, lover. It doesn't mean that in your heart you're not still pure. Unfortunately at this point, we don't have much choice. Just… stay close."

Wondering what new horrors could possibly be beyond the door, Abby gave a slow nod as she stepped next to him and wrapped her arms tightly about his waist.

'You'll have to use a cattle prod to get me off."

Dante gave a low moan as he briefly closed his eyes. "Bloody hell."

Abby frowned at his odd behavior. "Is something the matter?"

"If I weren't already dead, you'd have me in the grave, lover," he muttered; then, reaching out, he wrenched open the door. "Let's do this."

She might have puzzled on his odd words if he hadn't swept her over the threshold and into a shadowed room that pulsed with the sound of Eastern music.

A sheik's harem, she realized as she glanced about the circular chamber that was draped in flimsy gauze and spangled silk. About the floor were tossed dozens of large pillows, several of them occupied by a variety of men and women who breathed deeply of the opium smoke coming from the brass braziers.

It was the corners, however, that drew her attention.

Although it was dark, there was no mistaking the writhing forms and Joud groans that echoed through the shadows. She may have never attended an orgy, but she certainly recognized one when she stumbled across it

Feeling her stomach twist with disgust, she clung even tighter to Dante. She had thought that nothing could bother her—well, at least nothing of the human variety—but there was a dark, hungry decadence in the room that made her skin crawl.

It was the hopeless desperation, she decided. That familiar sickness of the spirit that she had battled for longer than she wanted to consider.

Putting an arm about her shoulder, Dante did his best to block her view as he firmly led her toward an alcove at the side of the room.

"Viper will be in the back," he muttered. 'That's where the—"

Whatever the might entail was sharply choked off by a sudden shriek that split the air, and Dante was pried away from Abby by a clearly furious woman.

Stunned by the unexpected attack, Abby stumbled backward, watching in amazement as the assailant gripped Dante by the neck and lifted him off his feet to pin him to the wall with astonishing ease.

A vampire, she swiftly recognized. Not only would a mortal woman be incapable of tossing a grown man about with such ease, but she possessed that alien beauty that marked her as something more than human.

Far more than human, Abby acknowledged as Dante held out a hand to keep her from approaching.

As tall as Dante, the female vampire possessed a willowy body barely covered by a token sheath of gauze and hair past her waist that contained the rare shade of a golden sunrise. Her face was thin, almost feline with smoldering green eyes and lush lips that could fulfill any man's fantasy.

And she was clearly in a PMS mood.

Not struggling, Dante nevertheless regarded his captor with a wary gaze.

"Sasha."

"Dante. Now this is a delicious surprise," the woman purred. "You can't imagine how many days I have dreamed of just this moment."

Abby stiffened at the unmistakable tone. Hell, she wasn't attacking Dante because he was protecting the Phoenix.

She was his ex.

A startling flare of something that might have been jealousy raced through Abby as she folded her arms over her chest. This was the sort of woman he desired? Gorgeous, powerful, and immortal?

The… toad.

"An old friend of yours?" Abby demanded.

"Something like that," Dante conceded, his lips twisting in wry humor. "Now, Sasha, this isn't the time for one of our petty spats."

"Petty?" The woman narrowed her gaze to dangerous slits. 'You locked me in a cellar."

"Obviously you managed to escape. No harm done."

Sasha gave a low growl. "I was there for three weeks. I had to eat rats."

"I hear they're very nutritious." Dante grunted as the fingers tightened on his throat. "Dammit, Sasha, I wouldn't have locked you in that bloody cellar if you hadn't tried to stake me."

"You know I would never have done it. I was only playing."

"Playing?"

"You used to like our little games. Remember how you enjoyed being chained to the—"

"Chains are one thing, Sasha, but a stake is quite another," Dante hastily interrupted. "I didn't particularly care to stick around and discover where you intended to put it. Call me crazy."

Sasha gave a loud sniff. "It was still rude."