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would want her aware for the coming conflict with Ryan. Destroying her now would not serve his purpose.
Blake's eyebrows rose in surprise as Carissa calmly met his gaze. "Ryan really did choose well with you, my
dear," the vampire purred. "I find myself hoping that we can come to some agreement, you and I."
"I rather doubt that," Carissa gasped as Blake began playing with the pins already laced through her flesh.
"Come now, what loyalty do you really owe Ryan? Yes, I know you have been lovers, but she seduced you and
used you. Why should you suffer for her?"
"And you don't plan to use me?"
"Of course I do. But I have never come to you under false pretenses. I tell you openly that I admire your beauty
and your spirit. You know that Ryan will come here to rescue you, but you would not need rescuing in the first
place if it weren't for her."
"Yes," Carissa gasped, "and it would give you much more pleasure if you could hurt Ryan with my defection."
"Beautiful, spirited, and intelligent," Blake murmured. "It would be a pity to waste all of that."
Now Carissa could feel the older vampire probing with infinite skill along the paths of her emotions. He did not
bludgeon her as she expected, but his velvet voice acted as a counterpoint to the sexual power of his gaze. She
had never felt sexual arousal with a man, but Blake was waking something in her that set her desire burning
even as it nauseated her. She struggled, but all of her strength of will could not stop this mental rape. Carissa
took a deliberate breath setting her heart beating again. The pain from the silver pins redoubled, and she all but
passed out from the renewed fire. She used the pain to counter the sexual tension Blake was building. She let
the fire fill her consciousness until Blake pulled back with a scream. She had struck back at him, not with her
own will, but with what he himself had done to her.
Blake snarled and slapped Carissa hard. She yelped, but the spell he was working was broken. Carissa knew he
could still subvert her will, but he wanted to seduce her. Only that would give him the triumph over Ryan that
he craved.
"Stupid bitch. Suffer then for your lover. Let her use you as she has used so many others. As she tried to use
Alyssa against me centuries ago."
"Alyssa? But you made Alyssa "
"Yes, I did. Ryan used her as bait, just as she has used you. But I stole Alyssa from her. It was my bed Alyssa
craved. It was me she chose. In that, she was much wiser than you."
Blake saw the look of dismay on Carissa's face. He laughed. "Did you think you were the first? Did you think
you were the only one Ryan has loved? If it is indeed love to seduce a woman only to use her against your
enemy. Oh no. You are not her one true love. You are just the last in a long line of pets she has used and
discarded."
"If that were true, you wouldn't be here."
But Blake only laughed again and picked up another silver pin. "Shall we begin my concert?"
Carissa shuddered but stilled her heart again. She would not let this man poison her. She could not believe him.
She would not. But the pain of the silver in her flesh was nothing compared to the pain of her doubt.
Shane met Ryan at sunset with the news that the wagoner had indeed gone to pick up his temporary employer
at a tavern near the end of Queen Street. It was close enough to Maclarin House to be more then a coincidence.
While Shane got the carriage ready, Ryan and the others hunted. Only Clywd abstained, and no one rebuked
him for refusing. Shane approached the warehouse carefully. He stopped well short of Queen Street and let the
vampires out to approach on foot. He begged to be allowed to come with them, but Ryan pointed out that they
might need the carriage in a hurry. Near the end of the street, where the unsuspecting wagoner met the man
who was his death, Ryan met her own people.
"It's not Maclarin House," Thomas whispered eagerly. "It's that other warehouse there." Thomas pointed.
"How do you know?"
"We watched the house, like you said, but there weren't nothing to see. Then we do see a vampire come out at
sunset, but not from the house you said. So Jarred and I went to take a look."
"Thomas," Ryan said warningly, "your job was only to watch."
"What for then did you teach me to fickle a lock, m'lord, if not to have a wee look now and then? Anyway, they
have a boat pulled up under the house, a good-sized one, and the humans who sail her are sleeping there, but
there is no sign of m'lady. So Jarred and me, we think it must be that warehouse there."
"Did you go look inside there as well?"
"No, m'lord, we not be crazy going into a nest of vampires in the middle of the night. But come morning, see,
we could "
"No. I want you to stay here and watch Maclarin House. If any of the humans come out, shout a warning."
"Yes, m'lord." Both men were armed with wooden clubs, and Ryan suspected they would enjoy a fight just
now.
"Well, that explains why none of my agents spotted Blake coming into town. He used a smuggler's trick." Ryan
sighed. "I'm going to look at the warehouse to see if I can find out how many others are with Blake. McKay, has
Carissa taught you yet how to stop your heart?"
"No, I haven't mastered that yet." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]