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Because he was drawn to her as no other woman before And there was only one way to deterive your vow to me, demon And I&039;ll accept it"

The vow-the recitation that would bind a rage de to his queen No ceremony, no witnesses, just a pact between two to become one He would vocalize his claiht to her, then she would forever be his queen "My people will never recognize a e coerced by sorcery-or a conception fueled by your notorious potions"

"Rydstro your reaction to me"-she delicately pointed to his erection-"do you really think I&039;ll need to use sorcery on you?" He clenched his jaw, unable to deny as so obvi­ous"

"Of course you&039;d kill me after our babe is born?"

Our babe He&039;d never said the phrase in his life Even she tilted her head at the words

But then she slowly s and took his breath away Had she noticed? "Well, I wouldn&039;t be a very good evil sorceress if I allowed you to live"

"Then there&039;s one thing I can assure you You will

never get my vow from me"

"Then, Rydstrom, I can&039;t let you havebeca hiht roin?

This creature taking hi the power struggle between them, the cohts he usually buried at once Secrets long kept- and forever denied "Then all you&039;re doing is wasting hened

"What makes you so confident that I can&039;tto be inside me?"

Because so much is at stake Never had Rydstrom been this close to all he wanted

He had to escape to get to his brother before he did so monumentally selfish Cadeon was a cut­throat mercenary who had just come into possession of what he&039;d yearned for most in the world "You couldn&039;t tempt me from my duty before-and I didn&039;t even knoho you were then" Bravado, Woede

She stood, her shoulders back "You haven&039;t seen everything I have to te a ribbon at her bodice The gown slid over her pert

nipples down her narroaist and shapely legs to pool at her feet

All that remained on her exquisite body was a sheer scrap of white silk covering her breasts and the tiniest panties he had ever seen

His lips parted, and his cock felt like it could rip through his pants With her eyes flashing, she raised her chin, well aware of her effect on him and prideful of it

If this felorious

In that instant, he decided, I&039;ll claim her as my war prize when I escape

And he would use her to get free

L anthe shuffled to court, listening to her iPod, deep in thought

A fewin an electronics store watching coveted cable She&039;d caught a show about dolphins in captivity

When the aniic and bored, their trainers would put fish into a container so that the crea-tures would have to work to get the out how to open it

Lanthe re Sabine to one of those burned-out dolphins who couldn&039;t swim freely or hunt for their meals

Sabine had been made a killer but had no one to destroy, a survivor with no calamity to endure Which made her a burned-out sorceress She had been for centuries

Yet tonight when Sabine had locked her gaze on the deiven a deet froeon to court, Lanthe had to walk outside, and the night sky above see old fears-

What the hell was that? She&039;d thought she&039;d heard soaze darting, she snatched her ear buds free, then froze for several heartbeats Only silence Losing it

Her nerves were getting to her-that had to be it It hadn&039;t helped that the shuffle function had selected songs like "Don&039;t Fear the Reaper" and Jeold, thought I would grow old, it wasn&039;t to be "

She&039;d been pensive for weeks, fearing that Thronos would find theods forbid, he&039;d discover a way to cross over into the plane of Rothkalina

When Sabine had created that extensive illusion tonight, Lanthe had wondered how it couldn&039;t have drawn the Vrekeners

Though her sister responded to fear with anger, Lanthe just got scared So was on the horizon for her, and she sensed her outlook wasn&039;t good

Once she reached the main hall, she hurried toward the entrance to court There, two revenants stood guard outside the towering double doors As she approached, theyto court al away from it As she passed members of the Pravus, they whispered about her behind their hands, treating her like an outcast, though she was a blood relation to Omort

Lanthe was a princess of the realreat towers of Castle Tornin was her own Still, they followed her half brother&039;s lead in deciding how to treat

her

The Invidia-with their wild antler headdresses, whips on their belts, and star patterns over their nipples- laughed at her The Undines, evil nymphs with paint dusted bodies, openly scorned Lanthe

The Libitinae, four raven-winged bringers of death, frowned at her with tilted heads For fun, they forced men to self-castrate or die They simply couldn&039;t com-prehend Lanthe&039;s need for male companionship

Lanthe supposed she hadn&039;t helped her respect quo­tient by doing ninety-four-point-seven percent of all thethe revenants that lined the walls, of course Mathematically, this h school slut

She&039;d never been to high school, but she&039;d watched movies like Grease, The Craft, and Varsity Blues-and they all dealt with school sluttitude I&039;irl

She&039;d liked none of her ex-lovers, but she loved sex, I lots of it, and well, call her crazy but once a male stole her sorcery when she was in the throes, she didn&039;t let hied her not to sleep with Sorceri, but vampires only wanted her blood, and demons and cen­taurs were considered animals The rest of the breeds here? Creeeeeepy

She passed the enigeneral in their ari-ment of vicious fallen vampires Known as the Eneht, from his white-blond hair to his eyes that were more pink than red to his impas­sive face

He was one of the few vaht actually be interested in sex in addition to blood But he could scarcely be arsed to give her the time of day

There&039;d only been onelife who&039;d ever looked at her with affection and perfect acceptance Lanthe feared-and her precious self-help books indicated-that she bedded one male after another because she ached to see that look once ht of their parents&039; murder hadn&039;t been the first time Lanthe had encountered that Vrekener boy

But Thronos had grown up to be her worst eneht of her and glowered Lanthe didn&039;t knohat she&039;d done to incur his lasting animosity, but it had become a fact of life for her Sabine had said that he innately feared Lanthe After all, if Lanthe could ever regain her ability, she could coet hoield his powers

Oracle nu incident" would spark her per­suasion once more Lanthe waited impatiently as nearly half a millennium passed by

"What news?" Omort said when she reached the steps to the dais As usual, Hettiah sih her features

and Sabine&039;s were si was tepid in colamorous and beautiful Sabine

Lanthe cleared her throat Sabine went deed a two-pointer! No, too blase "Our sister was successful," she said instead "She&039;s taken the demon

captive"

At her words, O the arold Hettiah noted the reaction with a doleful look

His eyes darted to the east wall of the throne room- which was covered with stone tablets They were covenants, tabletsinto any of a variety of dark pacts, with the terms inscribed in the stone for all to see

The four iance to each other-O of the fire deaze was fixed on Sabine&039;s tablet It was a Sanctuary-an ancient Sorceri covenant that ensured as long as she kept her body "pure," no male could "taint" it For centuries, she&039;d suffered her virginity instead of any intercourse unwanted or unnatural

If a tablet fell from the wall and broke, all would know that soree with dread for Sabine&039;s to break- proof positive that she was having sex with Rydstroeon?" Oged "Half an hour, I guess" "I see your sister isn&039;t having as easy a time as she&039;d predicted," Hettiah said with a smirk

"No, that&039;s not true, Hettiah" It hadn&039;t happened yet, but of course it would soon "I&039; with hied bird "

The de hand over hisit

With his gaze raking Sabine&039;s body, Rydstro steps His eyes were growing black once e or both?

She assumed that he would try to escape, would likely seek to use her as a hostage, unless she could

seduce hiht she still had a chance-he couldn&039;t hide his body&039;s reaction to her Yet the conflict was plain on his face

Rydstrom didn&039;t knohether to claiain from this?"

"I told you"

&039;&039;No, you personally Your kind looks down on mine Why would you ever want to wed a deaze "Is O over you to compel you to do this? Has he imprisoned a family member? Alover?"

Sabine could tell howforced into this "No, he has no one that I hold dear iin the prophecy

Foretold centuries ago, it stated that if the Queen of Illusions bore the heir of the fallen king of the rage demons, that prince would unlock a source of incon-

ceivable power If she didn&039;t, the Pravus would fall to

its foes

"Eager?" he bit out

Earlier the de es But she sensed that with the possibility of her coercion gone, Rydstro with her and had reached the end of his patience

She could see hi down A lowed fully black In a flash of insight, she realized she was seeing a side of] Rydstrom that few had encountered before

"You have no idea what you&039;re playing with," he said,

his tone cruel

"Tell me"

"You won&039;t win this"

"No? Just iive you what­ever you want I&039;ll fulfill every secret desire you have"

"What do you know of ain she probed his h

When he was directly before her, he made no move to touch her This close to hiht She could perceive the heat co, his hands shot to her caasp as he ripped it off her, exposing her breasts to hi herself immediately, she asked in a femme fatale voice, "Do you think them pretty?"

As he peered hard at theether in answer

"Won&039;t you touch them? You&039;ve waited all your life to pet your feht he would succumb, he wrapped her hair around his fist He yanked her close until he was staring directly down at her

"A little girl like you shouldn&039;t toy with a demon like me," he said with another yank, until her hands flew to his broad chest "You&039;re going to lose, and when you do, I&039;ll make you pay for this"

"Is that so-"

He cut off her words with a brutal kiss It was so dif­ferent fro to please her Now he see her But she liked how bold and firh ht up, lowering her defenses When she rowling sound breaking fro his torso with her bared breasts, she ainst his lips, "Rydstrom, put your hands on them You know you want to feel roan, he covered her flesh The heat and texture of his palms shocked her A warrior&039;s hands, callused froain, flicking her tongue with his

When he pinched one nipple-hard, angrily-she gave a cry, anticipating pain; instead, pleasure flooded through her body

What a surprise

He pinched the other one until both peaks were plurazed his flattened pal her tender flesh

He drew his head back "Your eyes are turning blue" A timbre of pure masculine satisfaction marked his tone "You like ers, he knew nothing about her, but the way he stroked her was perfection

Her breasts grew heavy under hisfor this For hi what it would be like to have ainside her "More, deainst his chest Still fondling her breasts, he leaned in to run his face against hers, his breaths hot at her ear When his big shaft prodded her, he ground it against her

One of his hands trailed down her belly toward her sex Her hips rocked up in invitation, but he teased his fingers at the line of her panties

"Mmm Touch me there, demon" She trembled with anticipation as his hand slowly inched inside her panties Illusions of fire began to appear, but she extin-guished theers sle of curls He hissed in a shocked breath to I find she was shaven everywhere below it His voice I gravelly, he said, "So softwill I find you wet, I sorceress?"