Page 99
Story: Lady of Darkness
Scarlett felt Sorin slide an arm around her waist to hold her up as her legs gave out. “All of them? From the past two years?” she whispered.
“I didn’t count them, but there are many,” Nuri snapped, rising to her feet. The wrath that filled her face was inhuman, and she felt Sorin tense beside her, pulling her tighter against him. “While you have been hiding in your manor being coddled by Cassius and Lord Tyndell, they were slaughtered.”
Scarlett felt the words like the punch in the gut Nuri had intended them to be. “You blame me for this?”
“You could have prevented all of this!” Nuri screamed. “You were too damn worried about protecting me and Cassius that you let the ones who could not protect themselves be bled dry and discarded.”
“Forgive me for giving a damn about you and Cassius!” Scarlett cried, her own rage rising up. “Forgive me for doing anything I could to keep the only family I have left safe.”
Nuri advanced, pulling her scimitars from her weapons belt. She pointed one at Scarlett. “The Black Syndicate is your family,” she growled. Her voice had gone quiet, filled with a deadly calm fury. Those fangs that had appeared remained out. “We are the ones who have been discarded and unwanted. You could have continued to press Callan to find out information. Instead, you let them cage you.”
“They would have tortured you, then Cassius. Juliette’s death was nothing compared to what they will do to you,” Scarlett retorted. “They stopped coming after them after that. They stopped for over a year!” She could hear the desperation ringing in her own voice, trying to make her understand.
“And instead of rolling over, that year could have been spent finding out what the hell they were doing. All of this could have been prevented. Instead Juliette died for nothing.” Nuri took another step towards her, her voice still lethal.
Scarlett looked around frantically for weapons. There was a dagger on the table. Sorin’s sword was leaning against the fireplace. Nuri was fast, as fast as she was, she would never make it to the weapons in time. “I thought, weallthought,” she amended, “that if I stayed away from Callan it would stop, and it did!”
“This was never about you and Callan. They wanted us and him to stop digging. You closing your legs to him was just an added bonus,” Nuri sneered, her lip curling.
Scarlett lunged for the dagger, bursting from Sorin’s hold, and Nuri instantly struck, as if she had been waiting for her to move away from him. Before either of them had taken more than three steps, though, a wall of flame separated them. Nuri hissed, lurching back. “This is not your fight,” she said through gritted teeth.
“No, but it is my apartment,” Sorin said casually, sliding his hands into his pockets. “And you conveniently waited until she left my side to attack.”
“Look at you,” Nuri said, her face twisting to one of disgust. “Another person to coddle her.”
“He is not coddling me,” Scarlett snapped, snatching up the dagger from the table. She threw it with deadly precision through the fire, and Nuri barely moved in time to avoid it. Scarlett walked to the edge of the flames, noting the lack of heat from them. “You need someone to blame, Nuri? Fine. I’ll take it, but do not for one second think I stopped caring about them. Everything I did was for them, and if that’s not enough for you, then you can go to hell.”
Nuri stalked to her, only the red and orange and gold flames separating them. “You have forgotten your purpose,” she said with an icy, calm wrath glittering in her eyes. “Juliette’s death is a complete waste if you cannot open your eyes and see what path lies before you.”
“I am doing everything I can,” Scarlett cried. “Why is this all on me?”
“Because you, of any of us, have the greatest ability to protect those who cannot protect themselves.” She gave a pointed look at Sorin before she said, “Callan arrives tonight at eleven. Prepare yourself.”Then she turned on her heel, stalked to the spare bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.
The wall of flame was instantly gone, and Scarlett stood rooted to the spot, staring at that slammed door.
“You were not wrong,” Sorin said from behind her, his voice gentle. “She was looking for someone to blame. You just happened to be the closest target.”
“She wasn’t wrong either,” Scarlett replied.
CHAPTER 29
SORIN
Sorin didn’t say anything as he watched Scarlett cross the room to his bedroom and shut the door behind her. Her normally arrogant swagger was gone. Her shoulders curled in and her hands fisted at her sides. As the door clicked shut, he ran through everything he had just heard and seen. His fire still writhed at his fingertips at how Nuri had waited until Scarlett had moved from his side to attack, and Scarlett had barely reacted to the news that Nuri was a vampyre.
He crossed the room, knocked once on his bedroom door, and entered without waiting for an invitation. She was curled up on his bed. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, facing the opposite wall.
“I do not wish to talk right now,” she said quietly.
Sorin pushed the door closed behind him and heard it softly click shut. “You do not have to speak,” he answered, crossing the room. He toed off his boots and went around to the other side of the bed. She stared at the wall, refusing to look at him. He simply settled onto the bed, leaning back against the headboard.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice edged and hard.
“Making sure you do not blot out the stars,” he answered. When she didn’t respond,he reached up and pulled a book from an orb of flame that appeared above his hand. He could feel her watching him.
“You are just going to sit in here and read? It’s dark,” she said doubtfully.
He lifted his palm and a small glowing orb of orange flame appeared near the book between them, illuminating the pages as he opened it and began reading. From the corner of his eye, he saw her reach up and delicately touch the small flames.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99 (Reading here)
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191