Page 83 of The Serpent's Bride
Slowly, hesitatingly, Nadi reached into the coat pocket and procured it. Placing it into his palm, she felt like she was somehow in trouble. “He was just concerned about?—”
Rolling down the window with the wood and ivory handle on the door, he whipped the envelope out of the gap before rolling it back up. “I am very well aware of what he wasconcerned about.”
“I…I wasn’t going to take them.”
“Good. They’re poison.” He stared out of the window.
“I mean, I know drugs aren’t good for you, but?—”
“No, little murderer!” he snapped without warning. Like a shattering piece of glass. Suddenly, his hand was around her throat, and she was pressed up against the door of the car. He was caging her in, his face hovering close to hers, his chill breath washing over her lips as he hovered only inches away from her.
If it bothered Ivan at all, it didn’t show in his driving.
Nadi just stared at Raziel, wide-eyed, lost in those crimson eyes of his, too stunned to speak. She had no weapons. Not even her hairpins. There wasn’t anything she could do except cling to the front of his coat and wait to die.
“You don’tunderstand, do you?”The vampire laughed quietly. “What you’rereallyup against? The games you’ve walked into…? The depths we’ll sink to for a chance to torment each other?” His gaze flicked to her lips. “Do you know how many of my pretty little things he’s killed, just to annoy me? How many of my toys he’s broken just topiss me off?And not because he hates me, oh no…just because he’s my big brother and that’s what wedo.”
“I—”
“Quiet.” He ground out the word, the hand around her throat tightening enough to cut off her air. “The pills he gave you areliteralpoison. Perhaps he truly thought they were an act of kindness, killing you before I had the chance to. Maybe he’s even smitten with my little murderer and was being merciful, who knows. Whocares.You’remine.And no one gets to kill you butme.Understand?”
His hand released enough that she could gasp in air and struggle out a choked “Y—yes.”
“Good.” He sat back on the seat and gazed out the window again like nothing had happened.
They rode the rest of the way in silence.
And all she could think to herself was…
I’m going to make you fucking suffer.
Nadi had one day before they left for Raziel’s “ancestral home.” One day to make sure the boat was just a little less crowded when they left. One day to kill Hank. The question was…how?
Luckily, Raziel had a lot of business to attend to that was going to keep him locked away in his office and out of view. It would be a day trip to sail there, and likely a day trip back, and he needed to sort out his affairs.
Good.
That meant she could do a little bit of quick figuring out. The first thing she needed to discover was…where was the best place in the home to dispose of a body? Her first instinct was the trunk of a car. But with the garage under constant surveillance by multiple guards, that wasn’t going to work.
Plan B. She could find somewhere in the house to hide corpses where they wouldn’t be found for long enough that it wouldn’t matter. The issue was, Raziel had a great manyservants and guards who were always poking around and going in and out of seemingly everywhere. And if someone found Hank’s corpse, the jig would probably be up. No, she needed somewhere decent to throw him.
So, she set about exploring Raziel’s house, opening every door and searching through every possible nook and cranny for places she could stuff a corpse. Luring Hank down into the basement to murder him wouldn’t be hard. It was obvious Hank was attracted to Monica. But the question was, was he attracted to herenough to risk it?Was he more afraid of Raziel’s wrath than he was horny for his boss’s temporary new wife?
She could only hope that in Hank’s head, it was an incursion that would sort itself out in forty-eight to seventy-two hours when she was dead. Therefore, low risk, high reward.
There were a decent number of locked doors in the basement. She had half a mind to pick the locks, but without the ability to re-lock them, she knew that suspicion would immediately fall on her once they were discovered open. She figured at least one was a wine cellar.
Another one was probably a space for Raziel’s collection of…specialty furniture and implements.
She snickered at the idea.
Time to think of a Plan C. And fast.
To clear her head and give herself a chance to think Nadi decided to go for a walk around the yard. More fake shrubbery, trees, and grass. It was funny to her, how vampires wanted to surround themselves with theappearanceof the Wild but loathed the idea of the reality of it. They wanted to feel in command of it.
That they were somehow superior to it.
Pacing around the edge of the property, she could at least enjoy the sunshine. That was a benefit to being out from the underground. As much as she missed her home, and howrefreshingly cool the air could be down there, the sunlight up top in the city could be wonderful.
