Page 28 of Vengeance and Vipers

He’s distracted by the beauty in his fae-induced vision. My fingers shake as I will them to move. I just need my hand to tip, and the tacturn will be on the floor …

I put everything into it. I can feel him getting stronger, and I commend him. I wouldn’t have thought that what amounts to a sex dream would give him what he needed, but his coffers are filling quickly, and I only have seconds.

My hand jerks with my effort to control it, and the chain of the golden, fae bauble falls, sinking to the stone bed and, mercifully, taking the fucking tacturn with it.

Free!

I feel him realize what I’ve done, but I keep him back, taking complete control; I demon-up, and my claws close around her throat again.

Her eyes flutter open, still in the throes of whatever they were just doing. She’s not even focused on me. Instead, she moans, liking my firm grip around her neck.

The foolish female doesn’t seem to realize that I’m not going to fuck her; I’m going to crush her pretty little neck.

I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but play, my thick fingers closing incrementally around her until she can’t breathe and claws at my arm ineffectually. Her eyes finally clear and find mine, full of terror, and I grin as the life begins to leave her.

Without her here, there will be no energy for him to keep me in the dark. I’ll have won our war within the day.

My nostrils flare as I straighten, and I frown. There’s something in the air that wasn’t there before. I sniff. It’s her.

It’s odd. I’ve never scented anything like it before. I take in a deep breath, and I shudder at how divine she smells. With a very human gasp, I drop her lifeless body immediately and back away.

What have I done? How could I not haverealized?

My back hits the bars with a clang as I shake my head in disbelief. I didn’t know. How could I have known? She didn’t smell like that before. She didn’t smell of anything except dried blood before.

I’ve killed her.

Just as I think it, though, her eyes snap open, and she springs up, darting across the cell, through the open door, and slamming it closed behind her.

I watch her dart this way and that, my horror and self-loathing rapidly transforming into excitement and … joy?

My grin is large as my prey works herself into a frenzy, trying to open the locked door that leads into Maddox’s wine cellars. She pulls and pulls, looking back at me in terror every so often.

She doesn’t know I no longer wish to kill her.

Quite the opposite.

She’s mine!

* * *

JULES

I look behind at Krase. He’s still in his demon form, and I try not to look at it because it’s making me weirdlyexcited.

He wants you dead, you idiot!

I pull again at the handle, but it doesn’t budge, and I glance behind me. He’s at the cell door. He says some words in a language I know all too well, and it makes my skin crawl.Fae.

The damn thing swings open, and I stifle a cry of fear because I know he’ll take joy in the sound. I pull with everything in me, and there’s a great crunch. It finally comes loose!

I tear the door practically off its hinges as I fling it open, and I run through the wine cellar, but I can’t see the stairs. This place is fucking massive!

He’s behind me. I can feel him but don’t look back as I race down one of the many aisles of wine. This really is a helluva collection.

Fucking rich supes. All I took was a few hundred grand, but there must be millions of dollars worth of aged grape juice down here.

I get to the end and slide into one of the shelves, making the bottles clink as the whole thing shudders a little, and a tiny part of me worries that I’m going to break something, which is the dumbest thing ever. What do I care if Maddox’s pretty bottles break? The thing is, I know my evil captor must care a lot about this cellar, and it makes me not want to destroy it.