Bound. Jen Colly

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СКАЧАТЬ met Soren.” As this new arrival strode toward them, his hair fell forward, brushing his bare cheeks.

      Soren handed over his papers, the identification a requirement of emissaries and couriers. As soon as he walked away from Balinese, he would burn the document, leaving nothing to tie his name to Arianne.

      “Welcome, Keir Falderra. I’m Captain Savard. Lord Navarre is unavailable at the moment,” the captain said smoothly. “Remove his bonds.”

      A blade sliced though the ropes around his wrists so quickly it must have already been in position, waiting to stab him should he make the wrong move.

      “You have a message for me?” Captain Savard prompted.

      “My message is for Lord Navarre Casteel alone. It is not meant for you.” Keir braced his shoulders, prepared to make a quick escape. This had a good chance of ending badly.

      The captain smiled tolerantly, and motioned for him to follow. He did, all the way to the other side of the room. Under a light mounted on the wall hung a framed document signed by Lord Navarre and stamped with the fleur-de-lis seal of Balinese.

      Lady Arianne had a similar parchment in her council room. Not every city had a blood heir, and not every blood heir was competent. The title then temporarily fell to the captain until a noble could be elected to take his place. That is, unless the lord had appointed his successor. Lord Navarre had made it doubly clear that his city belonged to Captain Devlin Savard.

      The situation wasn’t as simple as an attack on Balinese. “You said Lord Navarre is unavailable. Did you mean to say dead?”

      Captain Savard suddenly seemed interested in him and supplied an answer. “Injured.”

      “The messenger your city sent claimed a demon entered Balinese. He never mentioned your lord had fallen.”

      “He didn’t know. Vidor left the city before Navarre was harmed. Shortly after we executed the demon Vidor mentioned to you, dozens attacked our city. We’re recovering from several deaths and injuries.” Captain Savard halted his explanation. “My messenger, is he safe?”

      The captain had intentionally breezed past the topic of his lord’s condition, redirecting their discussion. Keir shrugged. “He was, last I knew.”

      “Have demons entered Galbraith?”

      Keir laughed. “Not a chance. Galbraith is surrounded by farmland. We don’t have enough life in the country to sustain a demon, unless they’re interested in bleeding dry the local sheep. Not to mention our gate is damn hard to find.”

      “I’m glad to hear it.” An amused smile made a brief appearance on Captain Savard’s face before he squelched it. “Do you have a message for me?”

      “I suppose I do.” He may have forgotten the exact words, but the meat of the message remained the same. “Lady Arianne shares your concerns regarding demons gaining entry to your city, and for the return of their kind. My lady freely offers aid in any way, should it be needed.”

      “I fear bringing unfamiliar faces into the city won’t help at this point. Balinese appreciates the offer and concern, but we are fully functional, though overly cautious, as you discovered.” Captain Savard paused, looked him in the eye. “I do apologize for your treatment.”

      “I’ll live,” Keir said with a lopsided smile that stung his split lip.

      “Surely you were aware that demons ran free, yet you still brought this less-than-critical message across Paris? Why?”

      “My lady asked me.” Keir knew instantly what the captain was implying, and he wouldn’t let it stand. Arianne was not careless with the lives of her people. “And she didn’t send me directly through Paris.”

      “Good.” The captain nodded, then after a deep breath, continued with a lighter tone in his voice. “Will you stay with us through the daylight hours?”

      “No. Let’s not keep this unfamiliar face in your city longer than needed,” Keir said, satisfied with getting one last dig in regarding his treatment. “I need to go. My lady awaits your response.”

      Two full hours of darkness remained, and he craved movement. Nowhere near enough time to make it back, but he wasn’t going home just yet. He had to make a stop in Paris.

      * * * *

      Keir had taken a slight detour on his way home and drove into the heart of Paris to seek out another vampire city. Talvane. Arianne hadn’t asked him to stop, and he’d probably catch hell when he got back, but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to return home with news of her brother. The delay had cost him time, but home was within reach, though the drive to Galbraith would take what was left of the night.

      A stillness enveloped him here in Paris, a strange sense of being visible, and yet invisible, as he walked to the speedy little car he’d borrowed. Keir had parked it several blocks away from Talvane on a quiet street. No need to draw attention, to him or a city full of his kind.

      He caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows between the widely spaced streetlights. He’d stirred up enough stray cats tonight to know that whatever lurked was fairly large. Scanning the stretch of sidewalk, he crossed the street. Nothing.

      Then a shadow shifted to his left, and the soft scrape of boots gained ground from his right. Two of them. Great. They hunted him, and he carried no weapons. Had he been mistaken for a human by fellow vampires in search of sustenance? This made the most sense considering his close proximity to Talvane. They could be Stalkers, vampires bent on keeping knowledge of their kind from humans, enforcing law and order above ground and eliminating demons. But they never traveled in pairs.

      Keir stopped and turned, his only choice to face them head on. “What do you want from me?”

      A man stepped from a hidden alcove onto the street a dozen feet away. Keir studied him, trying to get a sense of his species; then suddenly the man’s eyes illuminated into an uncanny dark red that flared with each approaching step.

      Keir recoiled. Everything he’d been taught claimed demons maintained a sallow and ghoulishly melting face of a man paired with eerie red eyes. Whatever this was, it shouldn’t exist, and yet it was undeniably demon.

      A second demon emerged onto the street, followed by a third. This sucked. Give him a weapon and he could take down an army, but he didn’t have one, and he wasn’t a brawler. Three demons and a nasty round of hand-to-hand combat didn’t make for pretty odds.

      No doubt, they’d win, but if they wanted to shred him to pieces and drink him dry, they’d have to work for their dinner. On the back of a deep breath, he let out a chilling cry and charged straight into the midst of red eyes and bared fangs.

      He hit the first demon low, jarring its center of balance. It fell hard, its heavy body doing all the work for him. The splitting smack of its head hitting the road brought a nasty grin to Keir’s face. They hadn’t expected his army of one to attack. One demon down.

      He rolled away and popped back to his feet, then dropped into a crouch. The two remaining demons were already in motion. They pounced, dropping him back to the ground. He howled. A sickening crack in his arm radiated pain from somewhere below his elbow. Fractured, maybe broken. He wouldn’t last long.

      Trapped under their crushing СКАЧАТЬ