Page 16 of To Crave Truly

He stood. "As you wish."

Torsten pulled his shadows around him and disappeared back to the Under Realm.

"I don't like that guy," Cassian spat. He was normally cold and didn't care about anybody one way or another, but since coming back from the dead, and finally giving into the tension between him and Lori, he was like a different person. He even used words instead of grunts and growls. But I could tell he needed to be doing something other than waiting. We all did. Otherwise we were all going to end up murdering someone.

I clapped Cassian on the back of his shoulder. "I don't like him either, but Lori does. We will just have to bear him. You never know, he might even improve on closer acquaintance."

Cassian snorted.

"After all," I said with a grin, "you did."

He snarled at me and went to grab me but there was a loud fizz followed by an even louder bang.

"What the Hell?" I shielded my eyes from the blinding white light and my blood ran cold when I looked back into the centre of the room.

Rae was stood there, all covered in blood, with an unconscious woman in her arms. There was a moment of silence as we all tried to make sense of what we were looking after before she muttered one word.

"Help."

Then her knees buckled, and she collapsed in a heap in front of us.

What the fuck had happened now?

Chapter Eight

Lori

Mordecai was keeping Jasper locked in one of the guest rooms. This place was massive. I still had no idea how large it actually was, or where it was even located. There were corridors that went on forever, and I wasn’t even sure how deep into the earth this place went. There had been guards stationed all along the corridor and I wondered how many other people were being kept here. At least it wasn’t a dungeon, or if it was, it was the nicest one I’d ever seen, and I’d been in a few. I barked out a laugh making one of the guards at Jasper’s door look at me funny.

“Just debating whether you can be a connoisseur of dungeons.”

The guard raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips. “This isn’t a dungeon. The vampire, Farrow, is kept here for his own protection.”

I crossed my arms and ducked my chin. “Protection that requires a locked door and a guard. Yeah, sounds like dungeon to me.”

“The dungeon is on the sub-basement level.”

Interesting. “And that’s how many levels beneath us?”

“Thirteen.”

Jeez, this place was huge. Bigger than I thought. “And how—”

“The Master says you have one hour,” he replied, opening the door, and putting an end to my questioning.

“What? No. I want more.”

The guard bared his teeth, and I got an eye full of pointy pearly whites. “One hour. The Master has ordered me to use force if necessary.”

“The Master can go suck it. If he wants me to leave, he can come and get me himself.” I strolled into the room and shut the door behind me with a snap. There was a responding growl through the door, and I had no doubt he’d relay my message to Mordecai. I hoped he delivered it word for word.

I still couldn’t get my head around Mordecai. One minute he was being a gentleman, and the next, a complete, utter asshat. All these mood swings were giving me whiplash. It was unsettling that I couldn’t predict him. That he could move so quickly from one extreme to another. And that kiss…

That carnal, possessive, consuming kiss.

Fuck. I still couldn’t believe I’d done that. I still had the taste of him in my mouth and instead of being repulsed by it, I liked it. Man, I was in some seriously deep shit. I needed to get a handle on this whole vampire sire relationship before I did something that I’d massively regret.

“Jasper?”

---