He pursed his lips. “Well, I suppose I could consider a measure of forgiveness. I am, after all, renowned for the generosity of my heart.” He sent a raspberry toward Tane as the vampire muttered his opinion of worthless gargoyles. “And our introduction was not under the best of circumstances.”
“No.” She cleared her throat. “I suppose that Caine’s been captured and his lair overrun with Weres?”
The tiny demon snorted. “The last I saw of Salvatore he had rescued Harley and they were fleeing from Caine while his mangy minions were in pursuit.”
Laylah sucked in a sharp breath, her heart slamming against her ribs. So Caine was away from his lair and obviously distracted.
She would never have a better opportunity.
“Can we save the reminiscing?” Tane abruptly intruded into their conversation. “Levet, get over here.”
They turned to watch as Tane decapitated one of the vampires just as the one he had knocked out earlier came to his senses and rose to his feet to barrel across the cave.
“Surely the mighty Charon does not need assistance to deal with three scrawny vampires?” Levet demanded.
Tane managed to yank the vampire clinging to his back over his head, stabbing his dagger deep into the attacker’s chest.
“Not if they’re busy draining a mouthy gargoyle,” he muttered.
“As if I would allow such nasty creatures to touch me.” Levet wrinkled his snout. “Mon Dieu, they smell like they just crawled from their graves.”
Tane flashed his fangs at the tiny gargoyle. “Then do something to help put them back in.”
“Well, I do have a magnificent fireball spell,” Levet offered. “Although there was the teeniest trouble the last time I used it.”
“What trouble?”
“There might have been a minor cave-in.” Tane yanked the dagger from the vampire’s chest and pointed it toward Levet. “No fireballs.”
“There is no need to bellow.” Levet sniffed in offense. “Either you want my help or you do not, please make up your mind.”
Laylah forced her attention away from Tane as he cut out the heart of the nearest vamp. Although he was injured from dozens of wounds, it was obvious he would soon be done with his attackers.
“Thank you, Levet.” She patted him between the horns. “I really am sorry for your … injury. Now, I really must run.”
Tane growled low in his throat, grasping the remaining vampire by the throat and lifting him off the ground as he turned his attention to Laylah.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Leaving.”
“Now?” “Yes.”
“You intend to abandon me in the middle of a battle?”
She glanced toward the two disintegrating vampires on the ground and the third who was all but dead, again, struggling to escape Tane’s crushing grip.
“Do you think I’m stupid enough to wait around so you can force me to the Commission?”
Something that perilously close to amusement shimmered in the honey eyes.
“I brought you chocolate cake.” His black brows lifted. “It was homemade.”
It had been delicious. German chocolate with fresh coconut and pecans …
She shook her head, moving toward the entrance to the tunnel. “I don’t care if the cake was orgasmic, it’s not worth being exterminated.”
A wicked smile curved his lips. “If it’s orgasmic you want, my sweet …”
“Goodbye, Tane.” She gave him a finger wave, pretending she didn’t notice the sizzle of heat that raced through her blood. Stupid vampire smiles. “I can’t say it’s been a pleasure.”
“Laylah.”
Ignoring Tane’s bellow and Levet’s flurry of French protests, Laylah charged through the darkness, knowing she was wasting her energy unless she came up with a plan for escape.
She had to get out of the tunnel.
And she had to do it before Tane finished off the last of the boneheads who’d been stupid enough to attack him.
Rounding a curve, she skidded to an abrupt halt. What was that? A breeze? Her hand lifted to her cheek. Yes, definitely a breeze. And the air was fresh. Which meant there had to be an opening nearby.
Her heart was pounding so loudly she wouldn’t have been able to hear a train approaching as she scrambled up the side of the wall, using her strength to crack open the small fissures in the ceiling.
It would all be a hell of a lot easier if she could just shadow walk, but it was difficult enough to crack open the stone of the tunnel until she rested, let alone rip a hole through space.
That was something you really wanted to be on top of your game to try.
She choked on the clouds of dust that filled the air, her eyes watering as a shower of rocks pelted her on the top of her head. The mini cave-in, however, had the intended result and, hoping the yummy chocolate cake hadn’t widened her ass, she wriggled through the narrow opening.
For a heart-stopping moment, her jean shorts were caught on a jagged rock, but grasping a nearby clump of grass she pulled herself out of the tunnel.
Panting and covered in dust, Laylah crawled away from the hole she’d created, impatiently brushing away the blood that dripped from a wound on her forehead. She wanted to flop on the damp grass and catch her breath, but she forced herself to her feet and jogged over the rolling field.
For the moment she might have outmaneuvered pain-in-the-ass-Tane, since no vampire, regardless of how arrogant, would dare the sun that threatened to rise at any minute. But he wasn’t stupid, and he already suspected she’d deliberately led him away from Caine’s lair.
He would use the tunnels to return there.
Thankfully she had a straight shot back to Caine’s, while the tunnels twisted and turned, forcing Tane to travel almost twice the distance.
With any luck at all she could retrieve her baby and disappear before anyone could follow.
Her lips thinned to a hard line as she found a dirt road that wound its way through empty countryside and picked up her speed. For the past fifty years her luck had been nothing but shitty.
Why should it change now?
Chapter 3
The sun was setting by the time that Laylah arrived at Caine’s lair, but as Levet had promised, Caine was long gone. And so were most of his guards.
Thank the gods.
She wasted no time in silently slipping into the private outbuilding that was wrapped in layers of thick illusion that kept her presence hidden from the world. Or at least it had until Caine had insisted she travel with him to Hannibal.
Inside there were few comforts. A ratty couch and chair that she’d found in an abandoned house along with a television was the sum total of furniture in her living room. While the attached room held a narrow cot and a crib. She didn’t collect possessions.
She’d learned since the death of her foster mother not to become attached. Whether it was to people or places.
Both could be snatched away.
Well… she rarely became attached, she had to qualify as she scooped the sleeping baby from the crib and headed away from the lair.
From the moment she’d caught sight of the golden-haired child that appeared to be no more than a few months of age she’d tumbled head over heels in love. A perfect angel. Not that she knew if he possessed a claim to heaven or not. Actually, she didn’t know anything about the baby.
Nothing beyond the fact she’d taken it from the mists. And that it was held in a stasis spell so he remained locked in a web of protection, impervious to the world around him.
For nearly fifty years, she’d kept him hidden. Not a particularly difficult task since there was no need to offer the usual care that an infant would demand.
The child was … inanimate. Or at least that was the only description that came to her mind. As if he was a beautiful doll awaiting the spark of life to be breathed into him.
And, as far as she knew, she was the only creature in the world who could touch the spell that surrounded him.
Which made it all the more imperative that she keep him safe.
Fleeing from Caine’s lair, Laylah made a brief stop among the local wood sprites. Despite their flighty natures the tribe owed her a favor after she’d saved the life of the queen. The time had come to call in her marker.
Then, with a brief prayer her luck would hold, she headed across the recently planted fields and cow-filled meadows, aimlessly headed in a northwest direction.
She didn’t know where she was going.
Just … away.
Far, far away.
By midday her lurking exhaustion crashed over her with a compulsion that could no longer be denied.
She either found someplace to rest or she collapsed in the middle of a corn field.
Searching out the nearest house, she helped herself to a few of their groceries, then made herself as comfortable as possible in the hayloft of the nearby barn. Hardly the Waldorf Astoria, but it would keep off the drizzling rain that had started to fall. And best of all it was vampire-free.
Biting into an apple, she glared at the barn filled with the usual machinery needed for a small farm as well as a pile of old bikes and forgotten toys that were tossed in a corner. A rusting museum dedicated to the passing years of a typical human family.
She pretended she didn’t notice the treacherous pang of envy in the center of her chest.
She was ecstatic, wasn’t she?
She’d managed to escape certain death.
And if she was alone in a stupid barn with mushy apples instead of decadent chocolate cake and wicked vampire kisses, it was a small price to pay.
Grumbling beneath her breath, Laylah snuggled between the stacks of hay and closed her eyes.
The past few days had been one disaster after another.
Once she was rested she would go out and steal a box of Ding Dongs. A chocolate fix was all she needed to drag herself out of her weird mood.
She barely closed her eyes when she tumbled into a deep sleep that was long overdue. Which no doubt explained why she didn’t pick up the approaching danger until too late.
Far, far too late she realized as she awoke to discover her body already on fire with a sizzling excitement that wrenched a moan from her throat. Her eyes snapped open, not entirely surprised to find Tane stretched out beside her, his slender fingers running a path of destruction along the plunging neckline of her muscle shirt.
He might be a cold-hearted brute, but for reasons that defied explanation, she responded to him like a harpy in heat.
Okay, there were plenty of reasons to become hot and bothered by the vampire.