Page 126 of Kiss of Seduction

“She suggests we wait,” Hasan said. “Until we know how Varro was aware of the meeting and to prepare for your presence, Natalya, making a play would be foolish. Your Court may be solid as steel, and we don’t doubt your loyalty, but that doesn’t mean information can’t slip through the cracks.”

He didn’t need to specify what he meant. It was something she and Aleksander already suspected. They could have a leak. A spy, somewhere in the high-rise.

Hasan turned to Natalya. “Is the slave trustworthy?”

Natalya’s eyes flared scarlet. It cascaded a faint red glow on the walls. “I suggest you rescind that question, Hasan.”

Hasan took a small step back. Her fiendish appearance had an effect. “I have concerns.”

“They are unplaced.”

“She was with him for a long time, Natalya,” Aleksander said. “She tried to go back to him when you first freed her. Fear could make her do foolish things, such as share information best kept within our halls.”

Natalya turned to face Aleksander slowly, only because she needed the time it took to move to get herself under control.

“Aleksander, respectfully…” Her voice had a devilish timbre to it. “Do not say something like that again.”

Hasan stepped back even further, but Aleksander remained in place. They stared at each other, rulers of a Court that shouldn’t exist and which stood only because of their ability to work together. Aleksander, with his intelligence and ruthlessness. Natalya, with her wisdom, control, and infernal knowledge of how to make people tick.

If he made another accusation against Evie, she would disregard all of it in favor of throwing him through the window.

“Lady…” Drago said, surprising Natalya. “I know that you trust her, but these two are unknowing of the private ways of fiends. I have wondered myself what makes her worthy of your trust and if you fully understand the consequences of giving it to her.”

Drago was the only one who knew Evie had seen her marks. He’d found out Evie undressed her to get the salt pellets out of her back. Though Aleksander had heard it too, Drago was the only one who understood the implications of it.

“You overstep,” she said, voice full of warning. She turned back to the two vampires. “As do you. If you do not trust her, then trust me. Evie is mine. And I say she isn’t a suspect in this.”

She didn’t want to explain. She didn’t know how she’d begin to do it. She didn’t understand how Evie had such a hold over her. How she had started leaning on the woman, finding calm in her touch, her voice, and her presence. Even hours after she’d gone, Natalya still felt the strange, unfamiliar longing for Evie to return. Joy at the prospect of seeing her again.

Perhaps this was what it felt like to miss someone.

Not wanting to further anger a greater fiend, Aleksander and Hasan changed the subject and started discussing the layout of Varro’s estate.

“I apologize for overstepping, Lady,” Drago said as Natalya drifted out of the conversation. Her mind wanted to be elsewhere.

“Never question Evie’s allegiance in front of me again,” Natalya said sharply. “Ever. Understood?”

Drago nodded and then didn’t speak. Instead, he… fidgeted. The huge man, made to commit violence and cause pain, rocked from foot to foot.

Natalya frowned. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, Lady. I only have a concern.” He spoke quietly now. Dragoneverspoke quietly. Natalya hadn’t thoughthim capable of it. “Your Evie was accompanied by an uninitiated woman the night you were attacked.”

Natalya’s frown deepened. She didn’t know much about Sam, but there was something about her, beyond her scaring Evie, that Natalya didn’t care for.

“Is there a question in that statement?”

“Who is she?” Drago asked. “Do you know her name?”

This was unusual. Drago didn’t care for humans. They were too breakable, and most were terrified of him. Natalya cocked her head, suddenly much more interested.

“I’ll give you her name. But first, I want the reason you’re asking about her.”

Drago lowered his eyes. “She was in pain, Lady.”

As a greater Lust fiend, Natalya could sense the emotions of others if she wished to. Being of Wrath, Drago could sense pain in the same way. It was satiation for him. He fed on it, alongside violence.

“So she satiated you, and now you’re enamored?”