Page 25 of Bite of Passage
Skarde scoffed.“Go ahead, kill me if you think I’m a problem.”
“If I cut off your head, you’d probably find a way to reattach it and persist in being a pain in my ass.”
He couldn’t figure out if that meant Cade was refusing a Directorate order to assassinate him, or if he believed Skarde would be too tough to kill.Either way, it raised his brother in his esteem.
“Are you here, witch?”Skarde called out.“Magdalene, for the record, I always thought Cade should set you free.He’s held you captive how long?Fifty…a hundred years?”
A muffled female voice came from Cade’s coat pocket.He drew out a compass-looking device, but it was so much more disturbing.The eyeball within its wooden cell moved around until it found Skarde.
“The fact that pieces of her can work without a body isn’t right,” he muttered.“Why don’t you put her back together and let her go?”
“She’s useful.”
“You’re scared of her.”He didn’t remove his fixation on the witch eyeball.Even small pieces of witches could be deadly.“You hear that, witch?Get free and you’re already in his head.”
The eyeball emitted a screech and began chanting.He caught the words the second time around: “The human from another realm chooses her maker who will become a stake breaker.”
Could his day go any further to hell?Another rhyming gem that sounded like it was about him.Had to be about him.Otherwise, Cade wouldn’t have bothered to make the trip here.
Human from another realm?Gemma.
Choosing her maker?He wondered if she’d choose a vampire other than him.He suspected not.But he wouldn’t volunteer to do her changing.The thought of another vampire, perhaps Cade, with his fangs in her neck… that was a big, fat oh-hell-no.
To hide the dread clamping his balls he said, “That has nothing to do with me.”
Cade shoved the eyeball that continued the phrase on rapid repeat back into a pocket.
“What do you think the stake breaker part means?”Skarde asked to distract him.Its meaning was obvious.
“We believe it means the vampire she chooses to be her maker will become resistant to normal vampire hazards.If this woman is the same one in your prophecy, you can see why the Directorate has concerns.”Cade stilled.
Fail to protect the one you turn, the world will burn.Your soul she will steal and incite an immortal burn.Amongst your people evil will churn.
“It’s simpler if you hand her over to me tonight.”The gravity in Cade’s gaze filled him with dread.
Cade had been told to kill him to get to her.
The Directorate clearly wanted to fight amongst themselves over who got to turn her and become the most powerful, if her turning granted the maker freedom from normal mechanisms that killed vampires.All that assumed whoever chose to do the turning deed would be able to complete it.That was the key, since no vampire seemed certain anymore that his or her blood would work.
Like hell Skarde would turn her over and risk someone trying—and failing—to turn her.
He should’ve sent Gemma back to her world.
“I’m not harboring anyone from ‘another realm’ who wants to become a vampire here.”It was the truth.Gemma didn’t want to become like him.“How about I send you a message if someone shows up who isn’t from around here?Won’t be me doing the turning.I don’t want to burn for all eternity or incite our people to pure evil.”
“Some of that was truth.”Cade pulled out a knife and began cleaning beneath his nails.“I don’t do games and, considering the amount of shit on my plate right now, I don’t have time to fuck around.I’m trying to be decent to you—although I’m wondering why I bother.”
“Get out or die.”
“Your strange ethics have bent you into a bleeding heart, which is problematic.”Cade charged, knife out.
Thank hell.
Skarde bent out of the way of the impending slash to his neck and punched Cade mid-back with the butt of his knife, not the pointy end.He could’ve ended this and killed Cade.That’d be too easy for both of them.Besides, he didn’t want his brother dead.
Cade growled in frustration and sliced downward—admirable chest stab technique.But not fast enough to strike his target.
Skarde easily sidestepped, whirled, and punched Cade in the jaw, sending him back several feet.To the other male’s credit, he didn’t go down.The whites of his eyes reddened as he did a super speed charge and tried to pin Skarde’s head for a neck slice.He side stepped again with a smirk.
