'O-of course.' She faced forward. 'I've got this one down.' One last glance over at him, and she muttered a curse. 'Lookit, the instant the rocks go, these three will attack. Fast. You've got to trace immediately.'
'They look slow.'
Without turning, she said, 'They want to look slow. You trace, and I'll dive out, okay?'
'Will they chase you outside?'
'They won't be able to see in the sun very well.'
'The rocks are about to go,' he grated. 'Get back—'
Sunlight shot in like a beam. Luckily, it was late in the day. He lunged back, leaving her room to leap for the hole. She shimmied out. But the basilisks charged with phenomenal speed, all three reaching the chamber and leaping with claws bared.
The largest crashed through all the rocks after her. Dust and rubble exploded into the air. Sebastian couldn't see her, only heard snapping jaws, then spied her as she ducked. Jaws slammed shut just over her head.
Sebastian dove for her into the sun, swallowing a bellow of pain, snatching her ankle. Just as he was tracing them, she kicked him in the face and scrambled away.
Before he could stop, he disappeared without her, then sent himself right back into the fray. Even half- tracing, he could barely see in the light. His skin burned as though splashed with acid.
The basilisk had disappeared? Kaderin was on her tiptoes at the very edge of the cliff, arching her back to keep from falling. Before he could get to her, she'd righted herself, skipping along the edge. She'd tricked it into falling?
The smallest one and the other were venturing out, blinking and hissing at the light. He dodged swiping claws to trace back into the dark at the other end of the cavern, then yelled for them.
When they sprang back inside the tunnel, he dropped onto his back beneath the larger one and thrust his sword up at its belly. A death blow, planted between scales as big as plates. Gutted. He yanked the blade back, rolling out of the way.
With a wet roar, it pitched backward onto the small one, trapping it. Sebastian shot to his feet, tracing to the last basilisk. As it scrambled to get free, claws frantically digging into the ground in front of it, Sebastian raised his sword over its neck.
It froze, then slowly turned its head to blink slitted eyes up at him. There was fear there.
Kaderin probably would have killed it already—and would likely see him as weak if he didn't.
'Oh, bloody hell,' he muttered, leaving it behind and tracing for her.
Damn it, he would not return later and free it.
Then, into the sun once more, swinging his head back and forth to find her as his skin threatened to catch fire. The pain was grueling. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a cave above the ravine. He traced in, doing his best to half-appear.
Even though he watched from the edge of the cave, the sun still reflected off the sand and rock, killing Sebastian's already damaged eyes, but he could tolerate it for a minute, maybe two, in this form.
He spied the largest basilisk twitching at the bottom of the ravine, with its head exploded against a rock. Kaderin was still on that ledge. Just as Sebastian was about to bellow at her in fury for kicking him, her gaze locked onto something in the ravine. Her face grew cold. A predator. That's all his mind could come up with to describe her.
Kaderin began pumping her arms for speed, sprinting until she became a blur. Blinking against the light, he didn't quite believe his eyes when she dove into the same ravine as the dragon.
He traced down, scouting another overhang, just in time. In front of him, twenty feet away, the siren gave a cry of surprise—just before Kaderin landed on her back, audibly knocking her breath free of her lungs. Kaderin had her knees dug into Lucindeya's shoulder blades, an arm tightening around her neck.
Just when he'd decided to brave the sun and trace Kaderin from there, Lucindeya jabbed up with an elbow. Somehow, Kaderin ducked around and missed it. She eluded any defensive move the siren had. She needed no help.
All around Kaderin, heat boiled up from the rocks. As he watched her through the haze, he realized he was awed by her, by the power in her graceful body.
And even by her sheer viciousness.
Kaderin yanked the siren up by the hair, swinging her around by it, gaining momentum until no part of the woman touched the ground. Kaderin finally released her grip as though with a bola, her fingers splayed.
The cliff face crumbled under the blow of Lucindeya's crashing body, rocks plummeting onto her back. Kaderin didn't wait to watch her being completely buried, but jerked her head up to the next mountain. She ran, leaping at the rock face, digging her claws in for a good start, scrabbling up to a high cave.
That cave at the top—that darkened cave—must hold the prize. And Sebastian could beat her to it. He pressed his sleeve against his cut lip, tasting his blood from where she'd kicked him.
Kaderin would be meeting him after all.
And the terms of the deal had just changed.
23
K aderin staggered into the cave, panting with exertion from the climb. When her vision adjusted, she found the vampire casually tossing the prize up from his palm.
The eggshell had pale striations of color twining around the width and was so fragile it was transparent.
'Now we're going to do things my way, Kaderin.'
Her eyes followed it as he tossed it up and down. 'Just give me the damn thing.'
'You never intended to meet with me.' He looked infuriated with her. The sun had blistered his forearms and one side of his face. 'And you kicked me.' A trail of blood had eased down from the corner of his bottom lip.
'I kicked you in reflex.' That was true. The basilisk had just burst through the rocks as if they were packing- peanut fillers and was on her heels. 'For future reference, don't grab my ankle from behind when I'm being chased by things with long, prehensile tongues.'
No matter what had happened between her and Sebastian, she wouldn't have tried to knock him out. Not to be a dragon's dinner or to burn in the sun any longer, although... 'In any event, you deserved to be booted. You changed the terms of our deal when I was under duress! Not very gentlemanly.'
'I feel less and less like a gentleman with you.' The very delicate egg was flipping end over end in his palm.
'You could break that.' She could scarcely breathe. 'It's the last one.' She was easing closer, tilting her head, studying for a way to seize it.
Something dangerous flashed in his expression. 'Do you think to take it from me?' He dared her to.
She froze, having no wish to tangle with a vampire while keeping the egg whole. 'But you have to hurry,' she said desperately. 'When Cindey gets here, she'll sing, and then you'll give it to her.'
'I don't believe she'll be moving for some time after what you did to her.'
'She's immortal. She'll shake it off. And she's hurt me far worse in the past. But she could reach us very soon. One pure note out of her pipes, and you'll be her slave forever.' At that thought, Kaderin inexplicably craved kicking her again. Or a really well-placed bitch-slap. At her larynx.
'If you believe that, then you won't mind striking yet another bargain to get this prize.'
'I've told you I will never sleep with you.' A bead of sweat trickled down her neck, then between her breasts. His gray eyes followed it greedily, then flickered with black. Storm over water. She shivered in the heat.
Even though his face was burned on one side and his hands as well, she was attracted to him and still aroused from earlier. Coldhearted? Once. Hot-blooded? He made her so. He alone could. And not just with sexual passion.
She'd enjoyed kicking Cindey's ass, and for some reason, she'd enjoyed that he'd seen her doing it.
'I want to spend a night with you, touching you,' he said, his voice low. 'That is all. However and wherever I choose.'
She raised her brows. 'So it'll be all about me? You say that now, but I know you think to seduce me to do
