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He searched for Skye and finally found her in the corner, stroking the agitated deer

Vhyper squatted beside hiaze on Skye "She’s a pretty little piece, isn’t she, with those big doelike eyes? I told her you were a sucker for a damsel in distress Wasn’t that how Ancreta trapped you all those years ago?"

Paenther’s eyes narrowed as he tore his gaze from the woman to look up at the man who’d once been his friend

A malicious smile hovered at Vhyper’s mouth "I told her all she had to do was play the victi her whatever she wanted"

Play the victiged "Birik may have overplayed his role a bit when he beat her He’s been doing a shitload of groveling to make it up to her, but I hear the ploy worked like a charm You not only let her fuck you, but you helped her enjoy herself" He grinned and pretended to high-five hio, BP"

Paenther stared at hi was an act? A lie to gain his cooperation? No way in hell He’d seen the bastard’s face He’d seen the pain and bleakness in Skye’s No woood an actress

That chill in his spine leached into his blood

Except perhaps a witch

With a bit ofwhatever she wanted hih his head Had he really been taken in all over again?

Or was Vhyper the one lying? How in the hell was he supposed to know? The only thing he knew for certain was, he couldn’t trust either of theht, it wouldn’twould matter once he was dead

The smoke of the banked fires teased his nose He stared up into his old friend’s eyes, a growl grulihter?"

A cruel smile slashed across Vhyper’s face "What fun would it be if you knehat to expect?"

"You’ve turned into a bastard, Vhyper"

"Oh, I’ve turned into a lot more than a bastard, BP" Vhyper rose "Looks like it’s tie circled the perimeter of the room, Skye stood With quick, nimble hands, she pulled off her dress and tossed it aside as if perfectly at ease with her nudity a a stranger

Birik caainst hi between her legs

Paenther’s gut clenched with shock His breaths becaered her, working that supple body he’d lost hiainst his hand, tre it

His ht, cold and dry It doesn’t matter Because she hadn’t wanted hi to happen Birik wanted her to ride hiain, but he had to prepare her hiet there on her own Not with a shape-shifter Not with him

Damn her

But it was him she needed, him with his animal So she’d played him with her sad eyes and pretense at vulnerability until he’d helped her fuck hih him, a fury as raw as it was ancient A fury turned on himself as much as her How could he have fallen for a witch’s pretense of ice?

Birik finally released her Without once aze, she crossed to where he lay staked and stood over him, one foot planted on either side of his waist In the shadows between her legs, her flower had opened, and the scent of her arousal blasted his senses, sending the blood flowing into his shaft in a throbbing rush

Her eyes and expression were closed as she stood there, treer did her delicate beauty pull at him It was all a lie She was a lie His chest ached, the flicker of war beneath the ainst his chains, deterh he kneith a despair born of bitter experience, his body would betray him No le for release when buried inside a wo when Ancreta had him trapped inside her

And he stood even less of a chance with the witch standing over him nohose scent drove him to distraction even when she wasn’t aroused

The witch began to chant, herin voluraceful body began toto the rhyth the temperature of his blood

In the corner, the deer cried out, then went suddenly silent He looked at the witch’s face, feeling a twist of erief he expected her to feel, but her expression had turned as cold and lifeless as stone So e witches

Birik strode to her, a bucket in his hand She didn’t startle, didn’t even flinch when Birik tipped it over her head, letting the blood run into her hair and over her bare shoulders

She’d expected this With a kick to his gut, he knew this was the reason she’d brought the animals into the cavern in the first place To dance in their blood

Hatred seared his mind She’d had him so completely fooled

With sick fascination, Paenther watched Skye slide her hands over her breasts and abdo her palms Then she squatted over hi hiating, his claws unsheathing as he snarled, fighting his body’s traitorous response to her as ht the wouided his

As he had so many times with Ancreta, he tried to buck her off hi with hi to be denied She forced him inside her Despite Birik’son her face reflected the disco he would do even if he could He wanted her to hurt Da her chant as around the room, the sorcerers joined their voices to hers until the sound pounded a thunderous beat echoed in Skye’s movements

A beat echoed by his own heart

The chant pounded in his blood and in his shaft, the power rising until the hair on his head felt like it was trying to stand on end Above hi, as if she’d stepped into an electrical storm Above her, the orbs he hadn’t noticed before pulsed with dark light, growing