Page 16 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
I barely make it onto the shelf before a vicious hiss fills the room. I don’t turn to know it’s spotted me.
The snake whips me with its tail and knocks me off the shelf. I hurtle through the air and land in the dirt in the center of the room. The hatchet falls just beyond my hand but I manage to keep hold of my dagger. I flip to my back and try to scurry away, but the serpent catches my foot beneath the weight of its body.
My fingers graze the wooden handle of the hatchet. The snake’s massive head slides over its coils and bloodied scales toward me. The beast might not have an expression, but I can feel the rage. The need for revenge.
The head draws back to deliver my death.
It starts its strike with a furious hiss just as I manage to grab onto the handle of the hatchet. I throw it at the snake’s open mouth. The blunt end strikes one of the fangs and snaps it like a twig. The ax doesn’t hit like I hoped but it does knock the snake off course. It offers an instant of distraction.
I sit up as the snake dives toward me, its angle a little off. My shoulders twist. I pivot away. The snake’s head is so close I could count every scale.
Mykaikenplunges into the eye of the snake in a fatal blow.
It takes both hands to hold fast to the handle as the head quivers. The body contorts and thrashes in loops of erratic motion. I taste dust and the sweet venom of my success. I smell sulfur and blood and something familiar, something that gives me an instant of pause. Something like-
A flash of light blinds me. Blood cascades over my body in a pulsing spray. For a moment I wonder if it’s my own.
The heavy head of the snake is stuck to my dagger but its body coils away, severed in a clean and smoking strike. It twists into the darkness as though still enraged. The scent of seared flesh floods my nostrils.
I look up from the serpent head impaled on my blade. My gaze collides with the eyes of a demon, his pupils consumed with black flame.
Ashen lowers his sword as the hellfire burns the shadows between us.
The deadliest predator has entered the room.
CHAPTER7
Flame ripples across the sword. It throws light across the looping, twisting body of the snake. It illuminates the Reaper from below, casting the rest of the barn into shadow.
I can’t move. Ashen’s beauty is equal parts devastating and terrifying. His skin is radiant in the light from his blade. His short, dark hair falls across his forehead. Smoke pools around his feet. His eyes burn with the darkest flame, boring into me like twisting knives. A muscle ticks in his clenched jaw as his gaze bounces between my eyes.
My heart surges against my bones. Lightning claws through my brain, striking at my skull.
Asshat Reaper Motherfucker. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have to suffer this constant pain. I wouldn’t have endured a month of torture. I wouldn’t be changing, maybe dying. I’d have fucking fingernails.
To add insult to injury, I’m now covered in gore and the Reaper looks pristine, as usual. The sleeves of his black shirt are rolled to his elbows. The edges of his tattoos peer out at me from his open collar. Not a spot of blood is visible on his tailored black pants and his polished brogues.
“Vampire-”
I bare my fangs in a silent hiss.
“Lu-” he tries again, taking a small step toward me.
I scramble back, my fingers still clutched around the handle of the dagger that impales the severed head of the snake. I draw it behind me and snap my arms forward in Ashen’s direction so that the head slides off the blade. He dodges the flying hunk of snake meat and I glare at him in disappointment. I cock my right arm back in a threat to throw the dagger.
“Angelwing,” he says, his voice thin with a note of urgency. I halt my hand before I let the blade loose. “Are you sure there’s not still poison on the blade?”
I glance at the dagger.Hmm. He might be right, though I suspect he wouldn’t leave such a risky, lethal poison to chance. I’m pretty confident he would have made sure it was clean before it found its way back to me. But just in case, I don’t think I’m ready to let go of such a valuable weapon. He’s fast, so there’s a good chance I might miss. And there isno fucking wayI’m going back to the Shadow Realm.
The red gleam of rage in my pupils reflects across the silver-infused steel of my blade. I slide my gaze back to Ashen and narrow my eyes. The light within them brightens in a threat. And he’d better fucking get the gist of it from mysuper expressive face that I need to work on. I’m not saving the chance of poison on the dagger for his benefit, but for my own.
How did you find me?I ask, gesturing with my blade.
“I will always find you, vampire,” he says.
That is one promise I actually believe he will keep. Ashen leans a hint forward as though preparing to take a step. I point the tip of thekaikentoward him.
Stay the fuck away, I whisper, every word slow and purposeful so there can be no doubt what I said, even without a sound.Ninmen Elsal,I breathe, hoping each puff of air from my lungs is close enough to a whisper that it will manifest a summoning. Areckoning.
