Page 99 of Lady of Darkness

Scarlett felt Sorin slide an arm around her waist to hold her up as her legs gave out. “All of them? From the past two years?” she whispered.

“I didn’t count them, but there are many,” Nuri snapped, rising to her feet. The wrath that filled her face was inhuman, and she felt Sorin tense beside her, pulling her tighter against him. “While you have been hiding in your manor being coddled by Cassius and Lord Tyndell, they were slaughtered.”

Scarlett felt the words like the punch in the gut Nuri had intended them to be. “You blame me for this?”

“You could have prevented all of this!” Nuri screamed. “You were too damn worried about protecting me and Cassius that you let the ones who could not protect themselves be bled dry and discarded.”

“Forgive me for giving a damn about you and Cassius!” Scarlett cried, her own rage rising up. “Forgive me for doing anything I could to keep the only family I have left safe.”

Nuri advanced, pulling her scimitars from her weapons belt. She pointed one at Scarlett. “The Black Syndicate is your family,” she growled. Her voice had gone quiet, filled with a deadly calm fury. Those fangs that had appeared remained out. “We are the ones who have been discarded and unwanted. You could have continued to press Callan to find out information. Instead, you let them cage you.”

“They would have tortured you, then Cassius. Juliette’s death was nothing compared to what they will do to you,” Scarlett retorted. “They stopped coming after them after that. They stopped for over a year!” She could hear the desperation ringing in her own voice, trying to make her understand.

“And instead of rolling over, that year could have been spent finding out what the hell they were doing. All of this could have been prevented. Instead Juliette died for nothing.” Nuri took another step towards her, her voice still lethal.

Scarlett looked around frantically for weapons. There was a dagger on the table. Sorin’s sword was leaning against the fireplace. Nuri was fast, as fast as she was, she would never make it to the weapons in time. “I thought, weallthought,” she amended, “that if I stayed away from Callan it would stop, and it did!”

“This was never about you and Callan. They wanted us and him to stop digging. You closing your legs to him was just an added bonus,” Nuri sneered, her lip curling.

Scarlett lunged for the dagger, bursting from Sorin’s hold, and Nuri instantly struck, as if she had been waiting for her to move away from him. Before either of them had taken more than three steps, though, a wall of flame separated them. Nuri hissed, lurching back. “This is not your fight,” she said through gritted teeth.

“No, but it is my apartment,” Sorin said casually, sliding his hands into his pockets. “And you conveniently waited until she left my side to attack.”

“Look at you,” Nuri said, her face twisting to one of disgust. “Another person to coddle her.”

“He is not coddling me,” Scarlett snapped, snatching up the dagger from the table. She threw it with deadly precision through the fire, and Nuri barely moved in time to avoid it. Scarlett walked to the edge of the flames, noting the lack of heat from them. “You need someone to blame, Nuri? Fine. I’ll take it, but do not for one second think I stopped caring about them. Everything I did was for them, and if that’s not enough for you, then you can go to hell.”

Nuri stalked to her, only the red and orange and gold flames separating them. “You have forgotten your purpose,” she said with an icy, calm wrath glittering in her eyes. “Juliette’s death is a complete waste if you cannot open your eyes and see what path lies before you.”

“I am doing everything I can,” Scarlett cried. “Why is this all on me?”

“Because you, of any of us, have the greatest ability to protect those who cannot protect themselves.” She gave a pointed look at Sorin before she said, “Callan arrives tonight at eleven. Prepare yourself.”Then she turned on her heel, stalked to the spare bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.

The wall of flame was instantly gone, and Scarlett stood rooted to the spot, staring at that slammed door.

“You were not wrong,” Sorin said from behind her, his voice gentle. “She was looking for someone to blame. You just happened to be the closest target.”

“She wasn’t wrong either,” Scarlett replied.

CHAPTER 29

SORIN

Sorin didn’t say anything as he watched Scarlett cross the room to his bedroom and shut the door behind her. Her normally arrogant swagger was gone. Her shoulders curled in and her hands fisted at her sides. As the door clicked shut, he ran through everything he had just heard and seen. His fire still writhed at his fingertips at how Nuri had waited until Scarlett had moved from his side to attack, and Scarlett had barely reacted to the news that Nuri was a vampyre.

He crossed the room, knocked once on his bedroom door, and entered without waiting for an invitation. She was curled up on his bed. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, facing the opposite wall.

“I do not wish to talk right now,” she said quietly.

Sorin pushed the door closed behind him and heard it softly click shut. “You do not have to speak,” he answered, crossing the room. He toed off his boots and went around to the other side of the bed. She stared at the wall, refusing to look at him. He simply settled onto the bed, leaning back against the headboard.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice edged and hard.

“Making sure you do not blot out the stars,” he answered. When she didn’t respond,he reached up and pulled a book from an orb of flame that appeared above his hand. He could feel her watching him.

“You are just going to sit in here and read? It’s dark,” she said doubtfully.

He lifted his palm and a small glowing orb of orange flame appeared near the book between them, illuminating the pages as he opened it and began reading. From the corner of his eye, he saw her reach up and delicately touch the small flames.

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