He paused in front of the room they had been about to enteryesterday before Hades summoned him toAzagoth’slibrary.“You’re going to love it in here.”
“I know.”Shadows still flitted in her eyes, but her skinhad brightened with excitement, glittering faintly in the light from thesconces on the walls.“I can already sense the power emanating from at least adozen gemstones.”
He threw open the door, and she didn’t wait.She waspractically a blur as she raced around the room, stopping in front of variousdisplay cases and stands.Some things she touched, some she avoided, and whenshe saw the crystal horn she both smiled and backed away, muttering somethingabout quartz crystal and kryptonite.She reminded him of a delicatehummingbird, flitting from treasure to treasure, and when she finally came torest at a brilliant ruby the size of her fist, he joined her.
“This one sings with power,” she whispered.“It’s so evil,but so…tempting.”
He remembered what she’d said about some stones acting likedrugs on her species, and he wondered if she was falling under the ruby’sintoxicating spell.
“That,” he said, as he peered at the gemstone from over hershoulder, “was given toAzagothby Lucifer himself.”
She jerked back with a hiss.“Satan?”
He was close enough to feel her heat and smell her natural,spicy scent beneath the artificial pine of his soap, and his cock stirred tolife again.Not that he could do anything about it here, inAzagoth’splunder room.Disrespecting the Grim Reaper landed you in the statue room as aliving work of grotesque art.
“Satan and Lucifer are two different people,” he told her.“Lucifer is dead, but some say his spirit lives on in that stone.”It wasn’ttrue––Azagothwould know if that were the case.Butit was hard to kill rumors like that.
And sometimes, you didn’t want to kill them.You wanted tonurture them.
“So much malevolence in that one.”Jedda shuddered and movedon to the slightly smaller blue topaz next to the ruby.“This one, too.Mysister Manda would have loved it.”She turned to him, her expression troubled,her crystal eyes glassier than usual.“Don’t letAzagothtrade these, or sell them, or give them away.They’re dangerous.”Sheswallowed.“Really dangerous.”
“I don’t have much influence over him, but I’ll tell himwhat you said.”
She nodded absently and moved on to the next gem, agrape-sized tanzanite that sparkled atop its black velvet base.Closing hereyes, she trailed her finger over the shiny surface.“This one is incrediblypowerful.Full of neutral energy.So much that an elf could absorb it, but thestone itself would have to be warehoused.”
He stared at her, confused.“Wait.When you absorbgemstones, don’t they disappear into your body?”
“Ideally, yes.”As shespokeshelooked down at the tanzanite, her long lashes casting shadows on her face.Shewas mesmerized by the gem, but he was mesmerized by what she was saying, unsureif he liked where this might be going.“But some stones are too large or toostrong to be fully contained in our bodies.We can absorb their properties, butthe stone itself must be stored somewhere safe.”
He froze as the implications of what she’d just said sunkin.If she’d absorbed his Ice Diamond, it could be lost to him.
“Somewhere safe,” he repeated, almost numbly.“Like adhampirevault protected by Wardens?”
“Exactly,” she said with a nod, and frost formed in hischest.“The stones need to be protected because if one were to fall into thewrong hands, it could destroy us.”Her gaze flew up as if she sensed his mood,and she laid an apprehensive hand on his arm.Her touch was gentle, her voiceconcerned, and he wasn’t ready for any of it.He stepped away.She followed.“Razr?What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?”he rasped.“What’swrong?I saw theEnoch diamond in Scotland.Mydiamond.And I’m thinking I might not begetting it back.”
“What?”Her head snapped back as if he’d slapped her, shockwritten all over her face.But on its heels was anger, coming in fast and hot.“Wait.”She advanced onhim,finger pointed like aweapon.“You’ve known all along thatIhad it?You’vebeen lying to me this whole time?Why the charade?”
“Because I didn’t know you,” he said.“I didn’t know whatyou do with the gems.And it was too important to fuck up.I thought you werejust storing it, but you absorbed it, didn’t you?”
It was part of her.He knew it.That was why, at Shrike’scastle, his ring connected to her like it was linking to Wi-Fi.
Silence stretched, the room growing so quiet that Razr heardhis own heartbeat pounding in his ears.Jedda took a step back, and he smelledfear in the air.Dammit, he hadn’t wanted it to go this way.And he still hadquestions.Lots of them.
“Jedda?”
“Yes,” she whispered.“It’s...”She swallowed hard and tookanother step back, her gaze locked on the floor.“It’s my life-stone.”
“Life-stone?”He didn’t like the sound of that.Sounded...permanent.“What is that?”
She scooched to the side, edging toward the door.Reachingout with his mind, he locked it.
“It’s my life.It’s the building block on which all theother stones sit.Only my death will release it.”A cloud of diamond dustformed around her, glittering in the overhead lights, coating the artifactsnearby.
Fuck.This just kept getting worse.“Can you replace it?Obviouslyyou survived before you got it, right?”
It wasn’tcold inhere, but sheshivered and wrapped her arms around herself.And she still inched toward thedoor.He hated that she was so afraid of him, but hell, if someone wanted theone thing that kept him alive, he’d be a little nervous, too.
