Page 27 of Princess Broken

I nod and then turn toward him. I couldn’t claim to feel comfortable around any of these four scary men, but between them, Blade frightens me the least. On a terror scale from one to ten, I’d put Blade at a seven and Phil at fourteen.

“See you in the barracks,” Flame says, and then he crosses his arms over his chest and drops through the hole.

Bending over, I follow his path.

Stretching his arms high above his head as he falls, Flame cuts into the water like a knife. Speaking of knives…

“Fancy a swim?” Blade asks me. “There’s no need to jump. Flame is so dramatic. We can go in through the barracks.”

“Barracks?” I ask.

“Where we sleep.”

“Did you all serve in the army together?” I tip my head to the side, wondering if they still might be in some kind of army.

“Something like that,” he says.

A faint light glows from the pool below, one that’s from more than a match.

“Come on! Jump down!” Flame’s voice echoes up and through the hole. “The water feels great.”

Looking down, I spot him. Flame’s got a burning torch in one hand as he treads water and looks up toward me.

Unexpected excitement rushes through me. Always getting into trouble as a little girl, it’s been many years since I’ve done something truly spontaneous, and the idea of jumping overtakes me. Holding my arms tight against my chest, I step forward and drop through the hole.

My stomach rises into my throat as I fall, and I cry out as my pointed feet strike the pool, the sound quickly muffled by water. My skirt rises around my body, and my arms lift above my head as the water swallows me. I look up as I continue to drop.

Flame’s strong legs kick above me, dark shadows below the glow of his torch, and I hover under the water, using my arms to keep me submerged. I love how the cold water stole my breath for an instant, and how it flows around me now, cooling my skin and licking against the heat I’ve been feeling between my legs.

Relaxing, I let my body adjust to not drawing in air. I’ve been a vampire for a century, but my lungs still sometimes forget that they can go a long time underwater without taking a breath.

The current changes, and a few seconds later, Blade’s muscular body shoots past mine, surrounded by tiny bubbles of air. Clearly he decided to jump too.

Blade strokes a few times from below me, and then uses his arms to slow his momentum when he reaches my depth.

Facing each other, we both tread to keep our bodies from rising as we look through the water and into each other’s eyes. In spite of the darkness, maybe because of it, Blade’s silver eyes are like beacons, glowing and shining through the mesh of my long hair floating around me. His hand reaches forward and brushes back some of the long strands.

Blade didn’t touch my skin, I’m not even positive that his fingers touched my hair. He may have just used the water as a tool to move it, but his gesture felt like a caress.

Pushed by the currents, my body drifts toward his—or maybe one of us is actively moving toward the other. I can’t tell, but I’d rather blame the currents, pretend that neither of us has any ability to battle the forces drawing our bodies closer together in this underwater dreamscape.

Blade’s arm shifts, and metal flashes in my peripheral vision. But before I can register the source, something tugs on my scalp.

I snap my gaze to the side.

Using a sharp knife, Blade has cut a lock of my hair.

I turn back toward his eyes, question and alarm in mine.

His expression is dark and hungry as he brings the lock of hair to his lips, kissing it before shoving it into one of his jean pockets. I didn’t see what he did with the knife, or where it came from, but it’s gone now. I shift my Blade threat assessment up from the seven I’d assigned him. Who am I kidding? On the danger scale, none of these men rates less than a ten.

Shocked, but not quite as angry as I feel I should be, I use my legs and arms to propel me to the water’s surface, my hair and skirts flowing behind me. When I surface, Flame is floating on his back about twenty feet away, still holding the torch.

He straightens and smiles. “I knew you’d take the dare.”

I’m not sure how to respond to that and don’t get a chance.

Blade bursts above the water not far from me, his body rising well above his waist before settling back down to the surface. Waves ripple out from around him, the water glistening over his dark skin and clothes.

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