The woman had taken a hand to Damien’s chin, much like he had just done to Amma, and he wasn’t knocking it away.
Steeling herself to speak to Xander, Amma swallowed. She pulled her knees up, pressing back into the chair even deeper to keep both blood mages in sight. “Who is she?”
“You don’t already know? Well, I suppose he wouldn’t say.” Xander draped his elbows over the chair back, lazing even closer to her. “That would be Delphine Delacroix, and for anyone but a blood mage, I’d call her the love of his life. She nearly killed him, but what is that fictitious feeling you humans callloveif it doesn’t nearly put an end to you? Delphine is unscrupulous and conniving and downright evil.”
Amma’s mouth twisted into a frown. “Like you.”
“Exactly!” Xander popped up and sauntered around the chair to drape himself over the arm opposite her. “But she evengives me the heebie-jeebies. She was the worst partner for him, not abductableat all, unlike you. Not that I like anything that can pull so many of Damien’s strings.” His dark eyes bore into her, lips turning down.
Amma wrapped arms around her bare legs, both getting a chill and breaking out in a sweat. She wished she had that dagger if only to flash it at him.
“So, if you’re here, then that means I should sick my little friends on you again, right?”
Amma sat up, chest pounding. “Cedric’s dead.”
“Oh, my condolences, Widow Caldor.”
“We weren’t married, thank Osurehm, but how did you even know about any of that? And the Sentries too?”
“That ragtag team of adventurers happened upon me by happy accident because they thought I had something to do with you. I cut them a deal, and helping them, helped me. Or, it was supposed to, but you managed to sink your claws right back into Bloodthorne’s weak will again.” His amusement had all fallen away, a shrewd cast left on his pointed face. “A shame you’ll still have to die so we can retrieve that talisman.”
Amma’s heart dropped into her stomach.
A huge grin cracked over his face. “Surprised I know that too? It’s amazing what Bloodthorne was willing to admit when he was desperate for my companionship.” He sighed, leaning back, eyes drifting to where the other blood mage stood. “Though it looks like he might replace the both of us.”
Amma snapped her attention back to Damien. The woman was just up against him now, whispering in his ear.
“You wouldn’t be interested in banding together, would you?” Xander asked the question so casually, as if he hadn’t just had her abducted and given over to a man who would let his entire battalion assault her for revenge. “Just until we get rid of Delphine, I mean. Then I’ll go right back to planning out how Imight kill you off.”
Amma’s insides roiled, and she glared at him. “Do you have any idea what you put me through? What kind of person Cedric was?”
“No, of course not.”
Traitorous tears sprang to her eyes as she took a deep, ragged breath. “What you did to me—”
“Save it.” Xander loomed over her, eyes and voice gone cold. “I really couldnotcare less.”
CHAPTER 6
IF TRUE STRENGTH RESIDES IN SUBMISSION, THEN WHY DOES IT MAKE ONE’S KNEES ACHE?
Delphine Delacroix was a breath away from accosting them, Damien knew, and so he beat her to it. He only realized a moment too late that he had done exactly what she wanted. But there would be no pretending he hadn’t seen her, and no avoiding her either—she would use whatever means she could to get his attention eventually, and even without access to noxscura, she would find a way. She always did.
“Slumming it, I see.” Delphine took a step back, shadows covering her face as she raised a goblet to her lips. Her eyes shone from the dark, vibrantly silver like the serrated edge of a blade, flicking back to where he’d left Amma—or abandoned her, more like.
He didn’t look back, trusting Idris, and he didn’t acknowledge the comment—it would be a mistake to let Delphine know he cared, and she’d already seen too much. “I thought you didn’t come to these anymore.”
“And I thought you didn’t fuck slaves.” She wrinkled her nose, eyes slicing through him over the rim of her drink. “What happened to all of your superiority about where you put your cock?”
“Realized it was already blighted by where it’s been.” He gave her a quick look up and down. She was still, of course, perfect, but something always had to be sacrificed for perfection, and with Delphine, it was all the parts that made one human—a thingDamien hadn’t realized he valued until recently.
She pursed her mouth, setting down her goblet, and then that smile broke out over her face, the one that she didn’t ever really mean. “It’s so good to see you, darling.” Her lips grazed his cheek, and frigidness bolted down his spine, but he couldn’t move, old habits as hard to break as his will once upon a time, but everything that had happened to his loins with Amma atop him was snuffed out like sand dumped on a brazier.
“Can’t say the same.”
“But you came to me regardless.”
She was right, and he had just tossed Amma to the side as soon as he’d seen her—what the fuck was he bloody thinking? Damien took a measured step back.
