The Eyes of Bast by Lisabet Sarai

Author:Lisabet Sarai [Sarai, Lisabet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
Published: 2015-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

I gave the witch a fifteen-minute head start, just to make sure I wouldn’t bump into her on the way out. Then I pleaded a headache to Carla so that I could get home, back to Tom. My colleague’s expressions of sympathy triggered a sharp pang of guilt. I’m getting very good at lying. Normally I prided myself on my integrity. But all these lies—they were for Tom’s sake.

I’d told him I’d do anything necessary to release him from the spell. Riding uptown on the subway, I felt the depth of my commitment to that promise. I was ready to cheat, to steal, perhaps even to commit murder to save the man I loved.

Murder? If I believed Tom—and my heart certified the truth of his tale—Delphine Montserrat deserved death many times over. She’d used her black arts to extend her life far beyond her appointed years. Then she’d devoted that long life solely to evil, to gratifying her own cruel lusts at the expense of others’ suffering.

If it became necessary, though, could I do it? Could I actually kill the stylish, regal creature who had visited the shelter and pleaded so convincingly for the return of her ‘dear Melchior’? In her presence, all I’d wanted was to please her. Hiding my knowledge of her familiar’s whereabouts had been difficult enough. Even now, I couldn’t imagine harming her.

Meanwhile, these musings completely ignored the issue of her power. Even if I were totally immune to her glamor, what could I, an ordinary young woman with no supernatural abilities whatsoever, possibly do to counteract her dark magic?

I had to do something, though, or my beloved was destined to remain her slave.

‘Do not underestimate the power of love.’ My gram’s voice again, whispering in my memory like a breeze rustling the forest leaves. She’d spoken these words as she lay dying, as I held her hand with tears streaming down my cheeks. I’d had to lean close to her cracked lips to catch what she’d said.

‘Don’t go,’ I’d blubbered. ‘I need you here.’ I’d been only twelve, but not too young, in my culture, to experience death. All her children and grandchildren had clustered around her bed, silent, waiting for the end. I was closest, though, as I’d been throughout my brief life. I already had a premonition of the aching emptiness her death would leave inside me.

‘Listen to your heart,’ she’d breathed, before breaking into a ragged fit of coughing. Then she’d raised her hand, a black skeleton’s claw, and touched her forefinger to my chest, just above where my pendant hung on its leather thong. A weird shock racked my body, like some mini-convulsion. ‘Listen.’

She didn’t speak again. The spot where she’d touched me continued to throb, however, throughout the days and weeks of mourning, and the hollow of loss under my breastbone was a little less painful than I’d feared.

The power of love. When Tom and I came together, that power burned bright. How could I turn it against the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.