Page 33 of Our Sins in Shadows (Coven of Sin 2)

Eros dumped the guard’s severed head to the ground, wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, and stretched to his feet. As he approached me, his scent of cloves and smoke swaddled me like a comforting blanket. Reaching up, he picked out a glob of the guard from my hair and smoothed down my rogue trusses.

I loved this side of Deathwish. With me, he was a different version of himself that no one else seemed to see.

I leaned into him, and just as I hoped, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his muscled heat. A sigh blew past my lips at the kiss of his skin, smooth and hot, against mine. Burying my nose into the juncture of his shoulder, I breathed in his deep, smoky scent.

“Do you know where they took him?”

Eros’ mouth brushed against the shell of my ear. The grazing kiss was meant to comfort, but then he said, “When the guards dragged him away, they said something about the top floor,” and his words had my heart dropping to the pit of my stomach.

The top floor. That’s where Lavinia said the demonstration was taking place. Dagon already had Vincent in his clutches.

What now?

Within me, a war raged. My human survival instincts screamed at me in one ear to get the hell out of here and leave Vincent behind. In the other ear, the monstrous side of me that was desperately in love with Vincent was pushing me to abandon all sense and go to him.

I’d be an idiot to allow that part of me to come out at this moment. If I did, there’d be no stopping her from going to him. To her, it didn’t matter if the entirety of Erik’s cult was eagerly waiting around with their popcorn and opera glasses, ready to watch us get it on.

But there was no way I could indulge her. It would be stupid to try and rescue him.

Closing my eyes tight, I focused on steadying my escalating pulse.

“How many vampires live in this coven?”

“Hard to pinpoint an exact number,” Eros answered, his tone dark and stormy as if picking up the direction my thoughts were heading. “Somewhere between four, maybe five hundred. Look at me, Ruby.” The stern edge in his voice had my eyelids blinking open. He held me back in his arms, his hands firmly gripping my elbows. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but if it has anything to do with freeing Feral, forget it.”

“We can’t just leave him.”

“We have to. There’s no way we can take them all on. We have to go back to the Cape and regroup.”

Of course, he was right. There were too many of them for us to fight. And I wouldn’t ever forgive myself if I got Sterling and Corry captured. Not to mention Vincent would never forgive me. He’d want me to leave him. If I went back for him, I would just end back in the clutches of my brother, where he would take something that I wanted to happen between Vincent and me and make it ugly.

“Ruby?” Eros shook me gently, extracting me from my storm of thoughts. “What’s happening? Where did they take you?” His eyes dropped to my scantily clad frame, banking with that fire again. “And why are you dressed like that?”

“Erik took me to see Dagon. He mostly wanted to rub the fact in my face that tonight he’s going to use his magic to force Vincent to mark me in front of his demented cult. Then Lavinia showed up.”

Eros bared his fangs in a vicious scowl at the mention of Sharpe’s young protégé. “Lavinia?”

“It’s alright. She’s on our side. She’s coordinated an escape for us with Sterling and Corry. They should be waiting outside. All we have to do is fight our way through the lobby. I think.”

There was a clang behind me as the stairwell door slammed open. Whirling around, I saw Lavinia enter with a scathing expression on her little face. Her eyes drifted over the headless guard to settle on Eros and me. “There you are! You couldn’t wait five more minutes to reunite with your mate? What if there’d been more guards?”

“Our princess doesn’t listen to demands very well.” Eros’ hand dropped to my hip, his fingers digging possessively into my flesh while his other hand delicately traced over his mark on my shoulder. A perfect combination of rough and tender, just like him. “Well, not unless the demands are coming from me, isn’t that right, doll?” the vampire teased, his cadence nothing more than a hoarse whisper now.

My cheeks flushed the same color as my dress, and I gave a soft growl of approval that rattled up from my throat almost of its own volition.

Lavinia wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”

Stooping, the girl picked up the silver baton the guard had dropped and gave it a test swing. “If you two are done eye-fucking one another, might we continue our escape?” Lavinia’s admonishments trailed off when her gaze swung to the empty cell beside us. “Wait a moment. Where is Prince Vincent?”

At the mention of my brutal prince, my thoughts went dark again.

“They said they were taking him up to the top room,” Eros answered while his eyes narrowed on me in a silent warning. “We both understand that going to retrieve him would be a fool’s mission. We’ll have to leave him. Right, Ruby?”

“Right...We’ll have to leave him, for now.” I swallowed, hating how the words invoked a bone-deep ache inside me as I spoke.

The charming, upbeat music that played overhead through the elevator speaker as we were carried up to the lobby was almost hilarious, considering all the murder that was about to go down.

Eros had his arm slung over my shoulders, my body resting against the hewn rock of his frame. We were an interesting trio. A nearly naked man, built like Hercules, his beard speckled with flecks of black and his long hair hanging down in strings to frame his face, making him look like some kind of demon fresh out of Hell.

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