For your reading pleasure, an excerpt from SHADOW RISING, coming July 29!
"You think you’ll find Sam because they’re paying you. But I know I’m going to
find him, because I actually care.” Her voice quivered slightly, but there was
steel in her eyes.
Another first for him: strong emotion from a
Grigori. Interesting.
“Kitten, I hate to tell you this, but caring
doesn’t count for much. It tends to be more hindrance than help.” Damien heard
the sound of regret in his own voice and immediately tried to pull it back, lock
that part of himself back down. Sympathy, empathy…they had no place in his life.
In any vampire’s life. He
was telling her the truth, even if she didn’t want to hear
it.
“Don’t call me that. I’m not a kitten, and I’m not
your pet,” she snapped. “It doesn’t matter what you think about it. I wouldn’t
expect a man like you to understand.”
It stung him, another surprise, and an unpleasant
one. A man like him? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Damien
watched her rise, feeling a little like she’d just slid a sharp blade between
his shoulders. The pain was just as sharp, and just as
unexpected.
He caught her hand in his before he could think
better of it, rising to stand only inches from her. Her skin was cool and
silken, and Damien pulled her closer. She was surprised into compliance, and
Damien used the momentary advantage to move in, murmuring directly into her
ear.
The desire that made him shiver at her nearness was
nonsensical. He knew it. But Damien could no more fight the sudden attraction
than he could just let her walk away. And once again, he found himself using
that gentle, unfamiliar tone.
“Wait,” he said softly. “Don’t go storming off.
You…surprise me. Grigori aren’t exactly known for their deep emotional
attachment to one another, you know.”
He could feel the tension thrumming through her,
but she made no move to break away from him. She turned her head slightly to
respond, and Damien knew that to an outsider, the two of them looked like
lovers, about to go home and do unspeakable things to one
another.
I wish, he thought.
Instead, he now had the very sharp point of a small dagger biting insistently
into his abdomen.
“You know nothing about my kind,” she said, “and
you underestimate me. Try and turn me in if you want,
Mr.…”
“Damien,” he said, amused again at her formality.
“Damien Tremaine. It’s not ‘Mr.’ anything. And if you make me bleed on my new
shirt, I’m going to be very put out.”
“Damien, then,” she continued. “You can try to turn
me in, but they won’t catch me. This is too important. I don’t know what’s going
on, but I intend to find out…whether or not you try to get in my
way.”
“I believe you can count on that…kitten. And next time
we meet, I’ll be stealing that terrible
wig.”
She pulled back just enough for him to see her eyes
flash angrily as she yanked her hand out of his. He caught just a glimpse of
silver as she slipped the dagger back into…gods above and below, was that a
garter?
“My name is Ariane, not kitten,” she
hissed. “You won’t find me so amusing if our paths cross again. Good
night.”
With that warning, she spun on one sexy, spindly
high heel and clipped away on those long legs of hers. Damien watched her go,
hungrily taking in every tight little swish of her ass as she headed out the
door. He wasn’t alone either. There wasn’t a man in the place who wasn’t
drooling into his lap over her.
Bemused and frustrated, Damien settled back onto
the bar stool to finish his martini. Her scent lingered around him like a ghost.
Ariane, he thought. A
pretty little kitten with intriguingly sharp claws. He looked forward to
“getting in her way,” as she put it. She might want to avoid him, but he planned
to show her just how tenacious he could be when he wanted
something.
He wanted to
win.
