Page 44 (2/2)

Of course, he’d been a part of Viper’s inner circle long enough that even the lowest ranking vanize hih the hidden checkpoints

He turned twice more before they arrived at thecolonial building

Painted white with black shutters, the central double door was flanked by high, arched s and a wide porch with fluted columns The roof was low-pitched with a balustrade that connected the two long wings to the central house

Pulling the truck to a halt at the side drive, he shut off the engine One of the flunkies would move it later

"This is it"

They crawled out of the truck and headed toward the door Or at least, Santiago and Nefri headed that way

The ridiculous gargoyle hovered on the drive

"Levet?" Nefri oyle said, his tone indicating that he wasn’t overly eager to confront the fehtfall"

"No need to hurry back ona claard Santiago "You should take lessons in how to treat a hero"

"I’ll show you how I--"

"Santiago" Nefri grabbed his ar on the three-foot pest "We’ll see you at dusk"

Levet gave a dip of his head "Bon" With a flap of his fairy wings, the creature was taking off, no doubt uards wonder if they were hallucinating

Santiago gave a shake of his head "Why do you encourage him?"

"He truly is a hero"

Yeah And wasn’t that a kick in the fangs?

"Don’t reed in," a slish accent drawled froo jerked around to glare at the tall, slender vaht brown hair that was cut short on the sides and layered on top to lay with glossy perfection His face was chiseled with an austere beauty that Santiago considered arrogant but the fe His eyes were so dark a blue they looked black from a distance and usually shiuised his razor-sharp intelligence

As always, he presented the iant, perfectly polished And attired in a black Aro had spent in the past century on his clothes

With a roll of his eyes, Santiago climbed the steps to stand face to face with the vampire he’d known since his days in the pits

He wasn’t the only Gladiator who Styx had rescued

"Gabriel We need rooo’s shoulder, an expression ofon his face "Is this your latest? Nice Very nice"

"Watch it," Santiago snapped, plagued with a sudden desire to rip out those blue peepers "This is clan chief Nefri"

The hint of sexual invitation was abruptly replaced with a bone-deep reverence as the older vaiveto stand at Santiago’s side, "call htening, Gabriel waved a hand toward the open door "Please follow o didn’t knohy he was so discoht he would use such a prissy-ass word, even in the privacy of his mind?) He’d known from the moment he’d crossed paths with Nefri that she was more than just a powerful clan chief

It was impossible to miss the fact that she was far superior to others

But his overriding bitterness at Gaius’s defection behind the Veil had nore his instinct to treat her as a rare treasure Then, even worse, his male desire had kicked in It’d insisted that he deny the knowledge that this feood for a fors of society than royalty

And she was royalty, even if she didn’t carry the title of queen

A fact hammered home with painful clarity as the vampires and a handful of fey crowded around her in speechless awe Even a the most aristocratic ave her enough space to sip the blood that was brought to her in a Baccarat crystal glass on a silver tray Oh, and then there’d been the scra sent fro to use this accidental<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>