Page 59 of A Shadow in the Reaping
"I'm sorry I ever doubted you," I whisper to the sheets in a dramatic soap opera voice as I smooth out the ripples and wrinkles across the surface of the bed.
"Are you talking to my sheets?"
"Yes. You were right. They're amazing," I say. I kiss my fingertips and press them to the bed. "Goodbye, lovers. Always remember me."
Ashen smiles as I turn my sly grin toward him. "I was wrong, what I said the other day."
"What's that?"
"Your mind is not a terrifying place. It's anunusualplace. Sometimes a bizarre place."
I chuff a laugh as I pick up my notebook and pen. I take Ashen's offered hand. "Your sweet-talking skills might need some improvement."
"But most of all, it's a wondrous place, vampire." Ashen leans down and lays a sweet kiss on my cheekbone, letting it linger as he takes a deep breath.
We leave Ashen's room without further delay, moving in silence down the corridor and the stairs. As we pass into the grand hall there's a sound in the shadows, a scraping of claws against stone. Ashen pulls me into the darkness behind a pillar as I catch the scent of something musky and feral in the distance of the room.
"Shit," he whispers, leaning forward to peer around the column. I hear a chattering sound, recognizable for its uniqueness. Another calls back in reply from the opposite side of the room.
Hyenas.
I lean around the other side of the column, into the shadow. I see the hulking shape in profile as the creature sniffs the floor close to the cauldrons. It's enormous, about the size of a truck. Bits of fur and flesh hang from its skeletal face. The bone of a leg is visible through a tear in its skin.
Not just hyenas.Really fucked uphyenas.
I move toward Ashen behind the safety of the column.
"What thefuck?" I whisper. Ashen looks down at me and draws his sword from its sheath with a slow and practiced hand.
"They shouldn't be in here," he replies, his voice barely more than a breath of sound.
"You don't say."
He looks at me for a long moment and I see the concern in his eyes. He bends carefully to set the bags on the floor, then lets the strap of my katana slide from his shoulder. He hands the sword to me. "Do you have Angelwing on this one too?" he asks as he rolls up his sleeves. I nod and unsheathe my blade. "Good. You're going to need it."
"Great, because I'm dressed to kill," I say, glancing down at my dress, the same one he found for me at the house in Cairo. I meet Ashen's eyes and smile, giving him a wink.This is going to be great. He smiles in return.
"Ready, vampire?"
I give a single nod. Ashen leans down, folding his free hand across the back of my neck and pressing his lips to mine in a searing kiss. He pulls away and looks into my eyes. I expect he'll say something likebe careful, orstay behind me.
"Have fun. Don't hiss too loud," he says. He gives me a wicked smile as he turns away.
And fuck me if I don't realize that very instant that I've fallen head over heels in love.
Chapter 26
Ashen stalks down the hall. The hellfire comes alive across his blade, black smoke billowing behind him to flow across the floor. The hyena next to the cauldrons looks up and lowers its head and shoulders. It braces for a fight. It yips and cackles. Another dissolves from the shadows. I can hear more in the depths of the room, their attention drawn to us.
A third hyena surges from the dark recesses behind the pillars and lunges for Ashen, but his sword is already carving an arc through the air. It sweeps from down low and cuts the darkness. I hear the sound of rippling flame.
A yowl echoes up the columns as Ashen hits the shoulder of the creature. The jaws snap toward him. He ducks. The animal spins in fury but Ashen is already swinging. His sword lodges into its side.
The beast falls from Ashen's blade. Its jaws smack shut as its face hits the stone. It lies unmoving, and I can smell the thick blood that glistens on the floor.
Ashen is already making his way further into the room to attack the next beast. There's grace in the way his back and shoulders carry power through every swing of his sword. He's calculating. He's formidable. He's really fucking hot.
He's also having all the fun.
