Shaedes of Gray: A Shaede Assassin Novel

my mouth or why weren’t my feet, for that matter? Why couldn’t I just turn around and face him?

I thought of leaving my corporeal form, but knowing it wouldn’t do much good, I remained frozen where I sat. Left with no choices, it was either turn and face my maker or sit like a mute fool and wait to die. With considerable effort, I stood. And even though I felt like I was standing on a metal floor in a pair of magnetic boots, I shuffled my bare feet against the hardwood, inch by inch, until I turned to face the man I’d been hired to kill.

The moment my eyes met his, every memory of our time together crashed over me like a tidal wave. Every moment. Every kiss, every touch—all of it.

He smiled and his eyes wrinkled at the corners, sparking to life with the light that had stuck in my memory over the many lonely years without him. He rested his right hand over his heart and rocked back on his heels, putting me instantly under his spell.

“If it’s possible, you’re even more beautiful than I remember,” he said.

“You left me,” I blurted like an idiot. At least my mouth was working again.

He laughed his cold and humorless laugh, causing a dread chill to race down my spine. I’d never understood just how much power he held over me—until now. Because I had the strange feeling that I’d leave with him in a second if he asked me to. I’d forget my promise to Xander and disregard every sweet word from Tyler’s mouth for an ounce of affection from him.

“Azriel,” I choked, as if the word burned my throat.

“Darling,” he answered.

I was in trouble. Big trouble.

And then . . . I remembered myself. Bullshit. He was nothing but a low-life, lying piece of shit. Savior or not, he was dangerous, a threat to my existence. I shouldn’t have been thinking about where we could run away together. But I should have been counting the steps from me to my sword. What was wrong with me? I’d succumbed to the glamour of my own kind for the last time. Azriel had tried to have me killed, or at the very least poisoned by his Lyhtan lackeys. Not to mention the fact that he’d dropped me cold, leaving me alone with nothing but lies to structure my existence. Screw him and his perfect GQ face.

“I’m going to slice your sorry ass into little, tiny pieces,” I snapped. I wasn’t completely confident I could kill him. I hated being on the defensive. My plan had been to ferret him out, bring the fight to his door. Start with the ball in my court. So much for planning.

Azriel threw his head back in a burst of chilly laughter. “There’s my girl,” he said. “You had me worried for a second.”

“I have nothing to say to you.” I matched his tone in temperature. “You’re a dead man.”

“I only wanted to see how you were doing.” He smiled another model-worthy smile as he walked around my couch, closer. Too close. “Not too bad, from the looks of it.” The heat from his presence bathed me in balmy air. I was suddenly overcome with a desire to reach out and touch . . .

“What brings you here?” I asked, turning my gaze from his glowing features. “Haven’t had a good ass beating in a while? Feeling suicidal? I can take care of that for you.”

“Ah, but I’d rather die by your hand than live by anyone else’s,” he said, laughing at his own lame attempt at humor. “I think you said that to me once, if I’m not mistaken.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said, lying through my teeth. “I’ve forgotten everything about you.”

“If you say so.” He laughed and plopped down on one of my chairs like I’d invited him to settle in.

“I hear you’ve gone into the business of waging war against your own people,” I said, inching closer to the kitchen, where I’d left the katana.

“And I hear you’re shacking up with the king,” he said. “Doesn’t that make him sort of like your grandfather or something? Pretty sick, Darian.”

“Oh, I’ve already done pretty sick—about a hundred years ago.” I couldn’t let him get the upper hand. I knew too well that I could easily succumb to his charms. He’d kept me under his thumb once, but it wouldn’t happen again. “Are you disappointed your Lyhtans didn’t finish me off the other day? I owe you one, you know. Actually, if we’re getting down to business, I owe you two or three.”

“I didn’t come here tonight to fight you, Darian.” He said my name with such ease, something I couldn’t bring myself to do. His name was like poison on my lips, a curse.

“I suppose you didn’t.” I was within feet of the katana now. All I needed to do was shed my corporeal form and I’d have it in my hand. “You came here to kill me, quick and easy. But that’s not going to happen tonight or any night.”

Azriel laughed, and the sound of it tore at my heart. The pain of him leaving me was as fresh as if it had just happened.

“Are you in league with the Enphigmale?” I asked. “Should what happened to Delilah fall on your shoulders?”

His eyes danced with mischief. “I never wanted to leave you, you know.”

It was the wrong thing to say. The anger rose in me and I’d made my decision. He was going to die—right here, right now, in my living room. I’d worry about cleaning the carpet later. “Liar. You intended to leave me just like you intended to lie to me. Why? You didn’t need to keep me in the dark. Why keep the truth of my existence from me?”

He looked sad, if only for a fleeting moment. It wasn’t enough to soften my hard-boiled soul. “My hand was forced. The less you knew about yourself, the better. And after a while, I liked it that way. You were my secret and mine alone. If my father hadn’t exiled me, we might have conquered him together. You could have ruled at my side. But it’s too late now. What’s done is done, and now that you’ve been found and others understand the importance of your existence, there’s no going back. You can’t run from Fate. I might not have you at my side, but you’ll still get me what I want.”

What a load of bullshit. I felt my body drift into shadow, and as I became solid, my hand wrapped around the grip of the ancient katana. I freed it from the scabbard with blurring speed, but before I could put the blade to good use, Azriel had passed into shadow and was gone.

“Fuck!” I screamed, slicing through the air.

Sleep would’ve been impossible after Azriel’s visit, so I strapped the katana to my back and headed out in search of trouble. The Pit seemed as good a place as any to start, and with only a few more hours to go until closing, I’d be able to pin down Levi for a minute to talk. At the very least, he may have heard a rumor or two that could come in handy. Either way, I didn’t want the night to end without a little bloodshed.

The club smelled like stale alcohol, cigarettes, and sweat. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and walked through a couple groups of drunken slobs, parried a few friendly hands, and kicked one brave soul in the shin after his palm made contact with my ass.

It was unusually crowded for so late in the night. The counter was strewn with discarded glasses that Levi and a cocktail waitress were hurrying to throw in the dishwasher while wiping down the bar and restocking the bowls of peanuts, popcorn, and other nasty-looking snack foods. The TV was tuned to ESPN, and a few guys were catching up on scores from throughout the night while their dates crowded together and whispered in a tight circle.

Levi steered me in the right direction. “See that girl over there?” He pointed to a petite blonde, standing alone and swaying her hips in time to the music. “She’s just what you’re looking for.”

I tipped him a hundred-dollar bill (it was worth it), and made my way through the die-hard partiers to where the girl danced by herself. She couldn’t have been taller than four-eleven, and her long blond hair looked wild and uncombed, swirling in a knotted mass to almost her knees. Her eyes were closed, and in a dreamy sort of way she rocked to and fro, her arms waving like tree branches in a strong breeze. She seemed completely oblivious to everything around her. Only the music held her attention as the haunting beats dictated the sway of her hips back and forth, back and forth, like the tide washing up on shore.

I recognized her as a Sylph, an air creature, to be more exact. She bore a striking resemblance to the woman seated next to Xander at the Summit earlier that day. Raif had pointed her out to me. The energy coming from her didn’t surround me like the bubble of pressure a Lyhtan’s presence caused. And unlike the hum that had come from the Fae, her energy was more like a soft wind caressing my face. I was quickly learning to identify these inhuman creatures by the way they felt to me, rather than the way they looked.

I cleared my throat, but I doubted she heard me above the music, so I tapped her shoulder. She opened her