They were…a match.
I blinked and stuffed the invitation back into my pocket. Ever so carefully, I pulled one of the books from the shelf and opened its delicate pages. They didn’t flake as I had feared, but they were stiff from an ointment used to preserve the revered pages. I gazed at the writing, and just as the spine had shown, the pages were filled with his handwriting, in a language I couldn’t read. The ancient druid language.
I squinted at one page. A bowl had been drawn there with what might be a list underneath it, each sentence with what could be one word. Yes, probably a list.
Holy…shit.
These were druid spells.
How the fuck did the lord even know these?
Druids coveted their spells.
They killed to keep their spells to themselves.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”Lord Belshazzar roared.
A shot of electric fear raced through my veins, and I dropped the book like it had burned me as severely as the flames in his fireplace could. My head swiveled in the direction of the bathroom. He was standing in nothing but a pair of black pajama pants and a long-sleeved black t-shirt, but I still froze like a human seeing a vampire rage for the first time in their life. With his eyes blood-red and actually fucking glowing—didn’t even know that was possible—I held my hands up into the air, mumbling rapidly, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
Didn’t help.
The ancient vampire bashed into my backside, slamming the front of my shoulders into the bookshelf. I hadn’t even seen him move. Not a blur in my vampire vision. Nothing. The lord was in one spot, and then he moved so fast he was in another. I shouted in terror as he grabbed my hair and yanked my head far to the side.
His fangs sank into my neck in the next breath.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
~KIMBER~
“What are you doing?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping my voice would carry through the door out to the dance floor.
Before I could let out another shriek, my hands were yanked behind me, tied, and a gag shoved in my mouth.
Another tall, dark man appeared, but this one wasn’t wearing formal dress. He dragged me down the stairs, my dress tripping me up, and causing me to lose my footing.
“I thought you were smarter.”
There were figures on either side of the doors, dressed in black from head to toe, holding them open for us to pass through. A carriage waited for us, its door also open and unwelcoming.
Pulling madly against the hard grip of the man who dragged me down the stairs, I tried screaming through the gag.
His hand lodged in my hair and jerked me to stand still.
“Shut up, Kimber Raven. Shut up, or I will turn the magic on you and make you deaf and mute.”
With a heave, he spun me into the car and stuffed me into the back. Leaning in, he gave me a cruel grin. “We’re kidnapping you, Lady Raven. The temple does not deserve to have you as the world begins the Breaking. You will serve us, and you will lead us to power. Fight, and we will kill you. Escape, and we will kill the masters. Oh, and that tasty morsel you were dancing with, too. He should die, too, shouldn’t he?”
My throat worked of its own accord, and I held in my screams.
My magic wasn’t clean enough, honed enough, to escape his grasp or the ropes.
Slamming the door hard, he climbed into the front seat of the carriage as a passenger, and with a whip to the horse, we shot into motion across the grass.
I desperately tried to stay calm. It wasn’t easy as I was tossed around in the carriage. I’d been ripped out of the arms of the man who had just declared his courtship and was being shuttled away from everything that meant anything.
The cruel man turned in his seat and stared at me, now frazzled and confused.
“You don’t even know what you are, do you, girlie? Let me explain, then. You’re a pawn. You’re nothing more than something that gets moved across the chessboard to protect or save power. The temple will use you and destroy you, and eventually, toss you to the side as a sacrifice. You won’t have a golden crown to stand next to the Lost God. You won’t have gems and wealth as the prophecy says. You will be used. Wrung dry. Discarded and forgotten.
