wife,” Azriel launched himself from the bed in one jaunty bounce, “so lovely, such a prize . . .”
He approached me with all of the stealth of a hunting cat. I took a step back, and another. The wall stayed my progress and my breath raced in my chest. I had nowhere to run. Trapped. Azriel reached out and caught a lock of my hair in his hand. He teased the strands between his thumb and finger before smoothing them behind my ear. “Who could resist the beautiful Darian Charles? The police will find signs of your struggle. They’ll assume the thieves took you to use for their own wicked devices. They’ll search for you, I have no doubt. But in the end, you will be presumed dead. Raped, abused, and drowned in the bay perhaps.”
“Why?” I choked out. “Why would you do this?”
“You’re special, Darian.” Azriel placed his palms against the wall on either side of me. He stood so close, I felt the heat of his body pulse against mine, and a spark ignited every nerve ending of my traitorous body. “I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you.” He placed his cheek against mine so his lips hovered at my ear. His lips brushed my earlobe, and I shivered. “And I take what I want.”
Chapter 4
I take what I want.
No one had ever wanted me. Not my parents, not the suitors my father tried to pawn me off on. Not even my own husband. Something blossomed in my chest to replace the crippling fear. Azriel’s tone dared me to challenge him on the matter. And for the life of me, I could detect nothing but honesty in his words. He. Wanted. Me.
“I’m not special,” I said. He hadn’t pulled away from me, and his warm breath tickled my ear. He laughed softly, and I shuddered.
“You have no idea how special you are,” Azriel murmured. He traced his nose up the ridge of my ear, and I all but melted against the wall. I couldn’t slow the wild beat of my heart, and my breath came as if I’d run all the way from San Francisco to Seattle. My hands, which had been balled in fists at my side, slowly crept between us and I pressed my palms into the unyielding muscles of his chest. Marble. Azriel was a god cut from stone. “I will never hurt you,” he said. “I will never treat you with cruelty.” He dipped his head and placed a gentle kiss where my pulse pounded in my throat. “But, Darian, do not doubt that you are mine.” His face met mine and his eyes burned with the intensity of his vow. “Forever.”
Mine. Forever. I couldn’t explain it, but his words felt right. He wanted me when no one else ever had. I couldn’t explain his motives for wanting me. For killing Henry, changing me into this inhuman thing, and taking me away. But I didn’t care. I wanted him too.
“There are no others like us?” I asked.
“None.”
It was all too much to process. My life, my very existence, had changed in the blink of an eye. And I had Azriel to thank for it. “You said your Fae forefather had dubbed your kind as Shaede. What of his people?”
Azriel shrugged as if he cared not for any other creature, human or otherwise. “Few and far between,” he said. “You needn’t worry your pretty head about it. There is not a creature roaming this earth that would cause us trouble. We. Are. Alone.”
With each word his mouth neared mine. When our lips were within a hair’s breadth, I left my physical body behind, melting into shadow. I slipped from beneath the prison of Azriel’s arms and regained my solid form at the open French doors. The night breeze stirred the drapes and brought with it the salt tang of the waterfront. Even with my heightened senses, I could see nothing of this new city as I stared out across the balcony. Only the dotted lights of the street lamps told me civilization lay somewhere below.
“So,” Azriel sighed as he turned to lean against the wall. He folded his arms across his chest and followed my gaze out the open doors. “I take it my fiery maiden has found her modesty once again.”
I fiddled with the bodice of my torn dress, pulling at the fabric. “I suppose I have.” I wished I didn’t feel so utterly exposed when Azriel looked at me. “After all, I barely know you.”
Azriel gave a rueful laugh and pushed himself away from the wall. He sauntered to the bed, again looking like an animal on the prowl. In one fluid motion, he became nothing more than a swirl of dark air, and when he reappeared he was sprawled out on the bed. “Alas, I shall be lonely still.” He made a dramatic show of fluffing the pillows behind him. “For another night, at least. If you don’t want to join me, I suppose I’ll leave you to the sofa. I trust it will accommodate you.”
I stood gaping as Azriel extinguished the lamp. It only took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light and I watched as he loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. He seemed to revel in the attention, drawing out the act for an inordinate amount of time. My stomach clenched as he shucked the garment and sent it sailing toward a chair. My eyes traced the hard planes of his chest, down the ridges of his well-muscled stomach, and lower. That same self-satisfied smile that had sparked my earlier courage curved his full mouth as he reached for the button of his breeches. My startled gasp elicited a chuckle as he abandoned his efforts of undressing completely. “Far be it from me to offend your virginal eyes. I suggest you get some rest, my darling. You’ve been through quite a lot, haven’t you?”
I sensed the question was rhetorical, and besides, I doubted I could summon my voice even if I wanted to. Azriel was too stunning. Too bold. Too magnificent to be real.
“Here,” he said, tossing me a blanket from the bed. “I doubt you’ll need it, but in case you feel a chill.”
I caught the blanket and wound it into a ball around my hands. “A gentleman would take the sofa for himself and offer a lady the bed,” I said.
“Yes.” Azriel snuggled down onto the mattress and gave a contented sigh. “A gentleman would. Good night, Darian.”
I don’t know how long I stood there, staring at him. It wasn’t until I saw the steady rise and fall of his chest that I tiptoed to the side of the bed. My savior was no gentleman, he had admitted as much. And yet, I admired his unapologetic nature. He did not make excuses for his behavior or pretend to be anything other than what he was. I found his lack of pretense refreshing. “Good night, Azriel,” I whispered as I brushed his hair back from his brow. I couldn’t help but wonder, as I stared down at his perfect countenance, if I hadn’t jumped from the frying pan straight into the fire.
* * *
Unforgiving sunlight streamed down upon me, pressing me further into the cushions of the sofa. I felt the weight of daylight as I never had, as if I’d been bound in a strait jacket. Gone was the silky softness of shadow. Instead I recognized the sensation of being confined within my own skin and I wished I could peel the layers away and free myself from the prison of my flesh.
“You will soon grow accustomed to it,” Azriel said as he drew the curtains shut over the windows and balcony doors.
I rubbed the dregs of sleep from my eyes, but I was still so tired. I could sleep the entire day away, and I hoped that Azriel would let me. “I feel . . .”
“Trapped,” Azriel finished my sentence for me.
“Yes.”
“Only in the hours of darkness can you become one with the shadows,” Azriel said.
“I find that very disconcerting,” I grumbled.
Azriel laughed, and the sound of his mirth brought me closer to wakefulness. “Spoken like a true Shaede,” he said.
A true Shaede. Is that what I was? “Can I please sleep a little longer?” I asked. “Just until the sun sets.”
“I have no intention of letting you lay abed all day.” Azriel pulled the blanket off of me and tossed it to the floor. “We have things to do and sights to see. Aren’t you hungry?”
Hungry? Famished would have been a more accurate description. I hadn’t eaten in . . . “You never told me,” I said as I sat up to greet the day, “how long I was unconscious. It had to have been more than a week for us to travel all the way from California to Washington.”
“A week,” Azriel said with a carefree air. “Or two. I admit I don’t pay much attention to the passing of time. What does it matter? Are you hungry or not?”
