Forbidden Blood: A House of Comarre Novella by Kristen Painter

Author:Kristen Painter [Painter, Kristen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Vampires, Urban Fantasy
Amazon: B007MDWAUG
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2012-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Libertas. The word erased the last whorls of pleasure from Dominic’s kiss and left fear in their wake. Marissa had thought about it, but thoughts and going forward were two very different things.

“What do you mean, die?” he asked.

“I don’t know how to make it any clearer. Either I kill Arnaud or he kills me. It’s a death match. The winner gets their freedom.

Or a new comarré.” She shuddered. “There’s no way Arnaud would turn me down, either. He’d relish getting a new comarré and the chance he’d lose would never enter his mind.”

“You cannot fight him. I will not allow you to do that.”

She straightened. “You will not allow me? You don’t have that kind of say in my life.”

He held up a hand. “You’re right; I do not. I spoke out of turn, but it is insanity to think you could fight Arnaud and win.”

“Hah.” She glared at him. As much as she wanted to tell Dominic about her years of training in many different types of combat and her skills with daggers and swords, she didn’t.

Those were comarré secrets. Revealing them could get her into deeper trouble. If only she could just run away with Dominic, but that would simply give her a life of fear. She needed a life of freedom.

“Why do you laugh? You think you have a chance against him?”

“I don’t think it. I know it. I just don’t know how much of a chance.”

Dominic leaned against the workbench and studied her. “You could beat him?”

“I could.” Maybe. “Or at least come close.”

“Close still means you would be dead.” He shook his head.

“No, I do not want to be a part of this. Perhaps it is my own foolishness, but I find myself having…feelings for you. I am a passionate man, and I tend to give those passions free rein. What they want most is you. So you can understand why I do not wish you to go through this. Or anything that might harm you.”

Despite his declaration, her frustration built. “There is no other way for me to get free. No other way for us to be together.”

“We will find a place safe from Arnaud.”

“That place does not exist.” She got to her feet and paced toward the other end of the room, thinking. Books, bottles, and papers crammed every available space, making it hard to believe Dominic couldn’t find an answer among them somewhere. She Dominic couldn’t find an answer among them somewhere. She shook her head. “I will have to go back to him. And you will have to find a way to change my blood.”

He was quiet for a while, letting her pace. At last he spoke. “I have another idea.”

She turned and looked at him. “I’m listening.”

“You say libertas is the only way you’ll feel safe leaving him?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you could ever care for me? Not as a patron but as a man?”

Tiny sparks went off in her belly, the kind she’d never felt before. The kind that promised both pleasure and trouble.

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