Page 17 of Of Spindles and Nightfall
Now both of his brows rose. “An innocent…” He huffed in disbelief. “You mean to tell me you won’t feed off of humans, your food source, unless they’ve done some sort of crime?”
“I won’t feed off any human unless they deserve it.” Or they agreed to it, but she wouldn’t admit that to Zarathos. He’d only find a way to coerce an agreement out of the human.
He raked his claws through his hair, shaking his head. “Why, I’ve never…” He let out a frustrated growl. “You are in luck, Vampress. This human happens to be a murderer.”
Aryana’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe you.”
“He is. In fact, I only barely caught him in the act of killing a…child.”
She folded her arms. “Take him back.”
“You don’t have to draw all of his blood. You only need enough to get you through tonight—”
“Take. Him. Back.”
“I’ll bring someone else—”
“No,” she said quickly. No matter who he brought, she couldn’t be sure that they would be guilty of whatever he claimed.
“Shit. Fine. Die from your own gods-damned pickiness. But know that I did my part. That if you die, it’s not on my head. I held up my end of the bargain.”
To hell with this demon. He didn’t care about Aryana or the human. He only cared about keeping his precious agreement.A reasonable effort…
That was all this was.
Her eyes met those of the man, who still trembled against the wall and wanted him removed before her self-control snapped. “Agreed.”
Grumbling, he snatched the terrified human up by the collar and pulled the shadows around him until they were gone. Aryana breathed a sigh of relief when she was finally freed from the man’s irresistible scent.
When Zarathos reappeared, he still looked quite put out. He stalked over to the spinning wheel and sat before carefully attaching the needle.
“You can’t do that to me? Pull me out of here through the shadows?”
His raging eyes met hers. “If I could pull you out through the shadows, you think I’d go through all of this?” He gestured toward the spinning wheel. “King Salen had this room built specifically to hold vampires. He put holy water and crosses into creating every single brick lining this chamber, and the door. There is no magicking you out through the shadows.”
“Don’t holy water and crosses keep out most kinds of demons?”
His jaw ticked. “Not all of us.”
Holy water kept out full abaddons, being fallen angels. That meant Zarathos must have something else in him, something that weakened his abaddon blood enough to allow him to enter. She moved closer, trying to catch his scent again. She could smell his anger on him. Her brow furrowed. While there were hundreds of different species of demon, her father had encouraged her to learn most of the dominant demon strains.
When she scented Zarathos, all she got was abaddon. And yet, that didn’t describe these odd abilities he possessed.
She frowned, giving up, for the moment. “But how is spinning straw into gold helping me escape?”
“It keeps you alive until I can get the potion brewed that will aid your departure. I need one more night at least. Now, shall we ascertain how much you can take?”
She reached for the silver needle, but hesitated. “Do you see what I see? While you are spinning?”
He released a drawn-out sigh. “So many questions tonight. Does that change whether or not you agree to do this?”
“I want to know.”
He held her gaze. For a long moment, she felt as if he were measuring her ability to handle the weight of his answer. “Yes, I do. Can we get started?”
Damn it. She didn’t want her most vulnerable memories laid bare before her enemy. But she had no other choice. She swallowed past her pained, parched throat and nodded. Reaching out, she pressed her finger against the sharp point of the needle.
Her crimson fluid leaked down it, and Zarathos started the spinning wheel.
