Page 55 of Vengeance and Vipers

He makes a sound of derision. ‘We’d never! You know that, don’t you, coineanach beag?’ He asks her.

We’d? He talks about his crazy like it’s another version of him.

But the stupid girl nods at him, having no idea of the danger she’s putting herself in by agreeing.

‘When?’ she asks.

‘Now.’

‘No!’ I snarl. ‘She’s human. You can’t play with her like this. You’ll kill her.’

‘Ach! She’s strong and capable. You underestimate her. Besides, she already said yes. Rules of the game, you don’t break your word.’ He turns to her. ‘You understand what you’ve agreed to? When I catch you, I will have you, Jules. Doesn’t matter where; I’ll spear you on my cock. There’s no going back once we begin.’

She nods hesitantly again, and he caresses her face. ‘You’re everything,’ he whispers, and her eyes widen while mine roll.

He’ll say whatever he thinks she wants to hear, and she’s eating it up like an idiot.

He glances at me. ‘You keep an eye out for Maddox. If he finds out about this, he finds out aboutyou.’

Fuck!

I look from him to her helplessly, trapped between a rock and a hard place, knowing that I need to keep Jules safe from Krase’s recklessness no matter what.

‘I’ll give you a thirty-second head start,’ Krase says to her. ‘You can go anywhere in the house or the grounds, but don’t try to pass through the border spells, or you’ll get a nasty zap.’

She doesn’t move.

‘Run, little rabbit, run!’ he snarls, and she gasps, springing into action and fleeing from the room.

Krase laughs as he demons up, his thick tail swishing, his wings elongating. He smiles at me.

‘Shall we make it a little more interesting? If you find her first, she safe from me,’ he taunts, and I give him a long-suffering look.

‘You’re a cunt, Krase.’

Will she forgive me if I compel her to come to me?

Ah!

What do I care if she hates me or not? Still, if I want to get closer to her, I’ll need to curry her favor, not her distrust.

So, instead of reaching out with my mind to find hers, I watch the clock, and as soon as the second hand gets to thirty, I’m out of that room before him and sprinting down the hallway, wondering how I can find a human with no scent, if I’ll be able to use my fae senses to locate her by the magick on her as I run.

I must. I have to get to her first. It doesn’t matter what she thought she was agreeing to. As soon as she sees Krase in his demon form, she’ll change her mind. But it won’t matter to him. This is his game.

And to the winner go the spoils.

* * *

JULES

My own hand is clapped hard over my mouth so I don’t give myself away. Why did I agree to this? I have no clue. But I didn’t feel like I was being controlled when I did. It was all me when I nodded my head. He just … I could see the darkness leaching into him, hear the change in his voice, and I thought that if he fed, maybe he could push it back.

It definitely didn’t have anything to do with his rippling muscles, the chiseled jaw, his powerful body …

I roll my eyes at myself. There was something else too, something I don’t understand. The prospect of being chased by him, taken by him if he catches me, lit a fire in my veins that I’ve never felt before. I’ll do everything I can not to get caught, but I also want him to find me and do what he threatened.Promised.

I’m pretty stoked that I’ve made it as far as the forest. From the Billiard room, I ran straight up to Krase’s room, thinking he wouldn’t expect that. From there, I took the secret passages to the well I found when Daemon caught me and took me to Maddox.