Page 145 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

My stomach twisted. Aster pulled me to my feet, his warm breath fanning over my face. I homed in on the tips of his fangs as I went still.

“You’re teasing me.” His lips curved. “Bad girl.”

Was this… working? I could stomach the nausea so long as Aster didn’t harm me. So long as he kept his word.

“I was the first to taste your blood…” he continued, sucking in a deep breath as his gaze drank in every inch of my body. “Blood unlike any other. Pure sunshine and flowers and decadence. Something dark and rich hidden beneath the surface. Tell me, Evie. Are your true desires as dark as your magick?”

I was disgusted, and I knew I had a hard time hiding my emotions, so I channeled the discomfort into fear. Vampires loved fear.

“Aster,” a voice called in the distance.

Conrad walked out from the shadows of the estate. His eyes tracked our closeness before landing heavily on me.

His body was cloaked in expensive clothing. His face was unblemished. He carried not an ounce of remorse for the brutal torture of his mortal wife. The wife he’d forced to carry his child.

Aster smiled, looking at Conrad with admiration.

46

EVIE

Conrad spoke to Aster in a hushed tone as we entered the estate. A few born women gathered in the back foyer. They assessed me with snakelike eyes, expressions cold even as their lips curved.

“This will only take a moment, dear. I’ll have you wait for me in the library,” Aster said.

He gestured for my familiar babysitters to take their positions. Upstairs, I watched as Aster followed Conrad into a study. The door closed, and I swallowed a gasp.

A witchy wind danced around us. The outline of light, the ornate carvings on the door—it all lined up with my premonition.

I needed to listen to the conversation happening inside that room.

Instead, I was ushered down the hall and into the library. I couldn’t leave empty-handed. Not today.

I pretended to study the books on a nearby bookshelf while my guards stood by the door.

“Are you from here? Or Isolde?” I asked them.

“Why?” one fired back snottily.

“Just trying to make small talk,” I muttered.

“Isolde,” the other said. “Ignore my brother. He’s in a mood.”

I had one shot. What I was about to do was as crazy as when I stabbed Kylo with a poisoned needle. Maybe crazier, considering I was surrounded by bloodthirsty demons, and I was going to use one of my only emergency measures.

Glancing over my shoulder, I locked eyes with the nicer born brother. “Could you help me reach this book?” I asked.

The irritated one rolled his eyes.

“Sure, miss,” said his dark-haired brother. Country manners. I wondered if that was how they both knew about what I’d done. They were clearly Aster’s men, from the same region I was born.

The vampire reached for the book I’d pointed to. My hand slipped inside my hidden dress pocket, fingering the satchel of freshly made herbal powder.

At the same time, I concentrated, a chant rolling through my mind as I forced a book across the room to fly off a shelf.

I glanced in that direction, quickly making sure the ornery vampire brother had done the same. At the same time, with my heart hammering against my ribs, I flicked powder into the closest vampire’s face.

With a small gust of wind, he inhaled. He dropped the book and stood stock-still, frozen in place.