A Darker Crimson by Carolyn Jewel

Author:Carolyn Jewel [Jewel, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780505526588
Published: 2009-04-05T19:39:15+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

“I know you’re not asleep,” Korzha said. A note of anger underlay his words. “Who was it?”Without turning over, Officer Donovan said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me. I can smell it,” he said. Her mind was closed to him, and that made his heart ache. He would not feel for her. Did not want to. “This room reeks of sex.” His voice trembled and the betrayal of his control shocked him.

Humans always misjudged a vampire’s ability to see and sense. Always. A child had more hope of gulling a vigilant parent than a human had of fooling a vampire. Claudia squeezed her eyes tightly closed, and her breathing went shallow. God, she just did not know she couldn’t fool him. Not about this.

“What difference does it make?” she said. Did she think he felt nothing? “Go away,” she said.

Her voice came out lifeless, and Korzha wanted to weep the tears that ought to be hers. He reached for her mind again—a light touch that sent her sitting bolt upright, ready to battle. She was a warrior to be admired.

The first thing he did was look at her eyes. There was no hint of madness, only hopelessness. “Don’t you dare try any of that voodoo head stuff on me, Korzha,” she said. She teetered on the edge of hysteria. He could smell the tears coming. “Just don’t, okay?”

Like that, he was at her side, kneeling, close enough to touch, but not touching. He was done with humans. Done. In all things emotional, he’d been done with them for longer than she’d been alive. But he wanted to make everything all right. This was his fault. His alone. She should not feel so dear to him.

She pushed at his body. “Get away from me.”

“Are you hurt?” The demon’s scent rose to him. Sweat. Heat. Lust.

She let out a sharp puff of air. “Not so you can see.” He took her face between his hands and tipped her head toward his. Their eyes met, and he almost couldn’t stand to look. She radiated despair, a quiet closing of a door in her mind. The smell of sex and sweat, hers and the demon’s, became sharper. He ought to have known this would happen. He knew enough of demons and their nature that he ought to have known she wouldn’t be safe. He should have come after her right away, healed or not. While Jaise was alive, the other demons hadn’t dared. But now, a different demon had touched her, had put himself into her body and left her like this. Anger rose in him, fury. He, Tiberiu Korzha, had touched her, caressed her, fed from her and marked her as his. She trusted him enough to agree to a permanent connection between them—vampire and vampire-maker. If she hadn’t trusted him, she would have made her own deal with the demon Council. Now he wanted to kill whoever had done this to her.

“Go away,” she whispered.

“I should have come sooner.

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