Never Show Fear by Nicola Claire

Author:Nicola Claire [Claire, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780473520557
Published: 2020-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

I sit next to Ellie for dinner. Hakan’s on her other side. Across from me is Alain. To my left is Zahra.

Alain and I have not discussed my attack on him, but I know my Kindred is smarting.

He doesn’t know why I charged like a crazy rhino.

I think I’ll have to explain myself.

But right now, he isn’t even thinking of Zahra. Zahra might as well not exist at all.

Alain only has thoughts of my sister. And they are heartbreaking.

You wouldn’t know it, though, to look at him. He converses with Hakan and his lieutenants; shares a joke or two while sipping his blood.

He’s the only one not eating the food here.

It’s a strange thing to witness vampires eating roast meat and steamed vegetables as if they have working stomachs. I have to force myself not to stare.

It’s not hard.

Zahra is like a flame to a moth; I can’t help but gravitate toward her.

I feel her mind brush mine.

I’m instantly hard.

It’s embarrassing, really. How easily I react to this woman, I know so little about. Just her nearness is setting my skin alight. The smoke I see in her eyes when she looks at me turns my body inside out. I’m restless. Horny. The food, while superb, is something I endure until I can feed the insatiable hunger inside with Zahra.

Nothing will assuage me but my Witch.

“Ekram has been seen on our border,” Hakan is saying. I struggle to concentrate on the words. Zahra has pressed her long leg against mine. She reaches across my plate for the salt, brushing her breast against my arm.

I fist my hands on my thighs, my jaw flexing with the willpower needed to stay calm.

“Our scouts are watching their progress,” Hakan says, between sips of blood wine. “He thinks he’s sneaking up on us, but we’ve changed our patrol routes since he was last in the castle.”

“Or he’s merely offering you something to watch while he sneaks in a soldier from the rear,” Alain offers.

“We’ve got the rear covered,” Ellie says, and Alain hides his despair from everyone else but me, and only because I am his Kindred and can read his mind and heart. “And we’ve tripled our guards.”

Alain says nothing. He’s barely said two words to Ellie since we got here. In his mind, however, he tells her so much.

“The latest intel,” Hakan adds, “leads us to believe he will wait until tomorrow to strike.”

“Daylight hours?” Alain asks.

If Ellie’s aware that Alain speaks only to Hakan and not to her, she doesn’t show it. I brush her mind with mine and find her focused on her Entwined and no other.

Hakan’s mind is equally as devoted to his wife, but he’s better at keeping the conversation going.

“It’s possible,” he says. “But he may expect us to only prepare for a nighttime attack. Either way, we’ll be ready; we have the high ground.”

Not literally. The castle is slightly elevated, but not enough to make it difficult to attack. No, what the Kral has is the castle itself.

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