The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 2 Blood Honor and Dreams (32 page)

“I don’t know about you, but I’m so sick of
hearing about Merrodin.” A smooth drawl came from behind him. He
tried to turn to see who was speaking but swayed dangerously in his
chair at the attempt. Feminine laughter filled the space behind him
as the speaker moved to the empty chair beside him. “A full bottle.
Surely you have enough to share.” She raised an eyebrow at him and
smiled. A beautiful smile, in fact, on a beautiful face. Shade
focused himself, a task that was getting more difficult by the
glass, and tried to remember if he had seen her in the town before.
Long, dark hair cascaded over her shoulders and framed the creamy
pale face. Her dark eyes were fixed on him with what seemed almost
a predatory light. “Did you lose your tongue?” she asked, with
another smile playing across her beautiful full lips.

“I, uhh … Well, no,” Shade muttered and had
to fight the impulse to smack himself in the forehead at his
stammering. The first beautiful woman he had seen in days, and he
was tongue-tied. “If you would like a drink, you are welcome to
it,” he offered, sliding the bottle closer to her. “I can get
another glass from the waitress,” he added, realizing belatedly the
only glass available was the one he was grasping.

“No need,” she replied and took a long pull
directly from the bottle. Shade watched quietly and tried to force
himself to think of something intelligent to say rather than simply
stare at her long slender neck and extremely low cut bodice.

“So you are new in town then,” he began,
forcing his eyes back up to her face. To his embarrassment she was
smiling at him with a knowing look in her eyes.

Setting the bottle back down gently, she
rested her elbows on the table and leaned closer. “I am. Just came
in on a ship this morning,” she replied, her voice nearly a purr to
his ears.

“Well welcome to Morcath, then,” he offered
with only a bit of bitterness in the words.

“You look like you are having a miserable
night. Whoever she is, she isn’t worth it,” the woman replied with
what could have been sympathy. “I am, though,” she added with a
smile that was definitely predatory. Even he couldn’t mistake that
expression.

“How did you know it was a woman?” he asked
with a disgusted sigh.

“That isn’t the right question at all, but
I’ll answer it anyway. As sweet as you are on the eye it has to be
a woman and only a woman can make a man drink like you are
drinking,” she explained.

“I could have just found out I’ve contracted
a lethal disease,” he offered with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head
faintly with an amused smile. “You are obviously Elder Blood and
the Elder Blood don’t get sick or catch diseases,” she
countered.

“Well, there is that, so what was the correct
question to ask?” he asked, swirling his drink in his hand. The
conversation had him distracted enough that he wasn’t sure he
actually wanted to complete his mission of getting blisteringly
drunk.

Can you prove you are worth it
? would
have been a good one.
Would you like another drink
? would
have worked. But the one I was looking for was
Do you have a
room here
? Want to try again?” she replied in a teasing
voice.

Shade eyed her for a long moment and took
another sip of his drink. In Sanctuary, a woman would have never
spoken to him like this. Of course, in Sanctuary, all the women
knew who he was. There was a certain appeal in this anonymity that
he couldn’t deny, and it wasn’t as if he had a reputation to
protect anymore. “Would you like to prove it while enjoying another
drink in your room?” he asked with what he hoped was a charming
smile.

A wide smile spread across her mouth again
and she slowly nodded. “Very much so,” she purred and stood slowly
with catlike grace.

“Well, I’ve never been one to deny a lady,”
Shade said and stood, grabbing the bottle as he did. “Lead off,” he
said motioning toward the stairs with his free hand.

“That is good to hear. I do hate to be
denied,” she said as she walked toward the stairs.

Shade fell in behind her and tried to keep
his gaze from lingering on the skin tight leather pants she was
wearing. He felt a moment’s panic as he began to climb the stairs
and quickly silenced the inner voice that was screaming at him to
go back to his ship alone. He was sick to death of listening to
that inner voice. So far, it had gotten him nowhere. “So are you
going to tell me your name?” he asked as they reached the hall
above.

“Are you going to tell me yours?” she asked,
glancing back at him.

“Do you want the real one?” he countered,
taking another pull from the bottle.

“Do you?” she returned and pushed a door
open.

“OK, we seem to be at a standoff then. Names
are not important,” he relented, and followed her into the dimly
lit room.

“For right now, they aren’t,” she agreed and
took the bottle from his hand. Tilting it back, she took a long
pull and crossed the room to the small table. “Close the door,
would you?”

Nodding, Shade pushed the door shut and
glanced around the room, not really sure what exactly he should do
first. “I feel I should warn you I’ve uh, never … Well I haven’t …”
His voice trailed off as she sat the bottle down solidly on the
table and turned back to him, her fingers rising to the laces of
her bodice. “So, no small talk. Got it,” he muttered, his gaze
locked on her every move.

She smiled at him and raised an eyebrow as
she let the garment drop to the floor. Raising one hand, she
crooked a finger at Shade, motioning him forward and he found
himself in motion before the thought fully registered. “Don’t worry
about it being your first time. I’ll show you exactly what to do,”
she promised in a low throaty voice.

“And I have a feeling I’ll happily do
whatever you say,” Shade murmured as she began to unlace his pants.
He watched her in fascination, still not quite believing he was
doing this. Gripping him by his unbuckled belt she spun him back
against the table with more force than he would have thought her
capable of, and dropped to her knees in front of him. Puzzled for a
moment, Shade watched her with confusion and then shook his head
slightly. “Your mouth. Are you sure you want to use your …” His
voice trailed off as she ignored his objections. “Never mind what I
said, you obviously know what you are doing. Please continue,” he
said weakly and hastily braced himself against the table. The inner
voice was, for once, deathly silent.

* * *

Mind fogged and sweat soaked, Shade looked up
at her in eternal gratitude. “I have no idea why I waited so long
to do that,” he muttered, his words thick. His entire body hummed
with pleasure and his eyes were heavy. “Give me a minute to rest
and I’m more than willing to make up for lost time, though,” he
said with a weak grin. With a contented sigh, he let his eyes
close.

He drifted in complete bliss for a long
moment before quick movement from her sent his inner voice
screaming. His eyes flashed open in time to see her arm plunging
downward, the faint glint of metal in her hand. “Damn, lady I
warned you it was my first time!” he gasped as he caught the hand
just before the dagger grazed his ribs. “What the hell?” he
demanded, locking his gaze with hers.

“It’s nothing personal,” she assured him and
brought her knee up hard between his legs. On reflex his body tried
to curl against the pain and she used his moment of shock to wrench
her hand free. With an icy expression locked on her beautiful face,
she brought her hand sweeping down again this time aimed at his
throat. Frantically he raised a hand to intercept as best he could
and felt sharp pain as the dagger stabbed through his palm.

“Oh, I don’t like you right now,” he hissed
and brought his free hand around to knock her off of him.

Snarling, she sank her teeth into his arm as
she tried to wrench the dagger out of his other hand. Her leg
twisted again, trying to strike once more and he twisted away from
it at the last moment. With a muffled curse, he cast the first
spell that came to mind and stared down in shock at the small stone
resting on his stomach. Breathing raggedly, he looked away from the
storage stone to his mangled hand and then back to the stone. He
wasn’t entirely sure if it was safe to use that spell on living
creatures but he hadn’t exactly been focused on her well-being when
he cast it.

“That’s it. I’m done with Immortal women,” he
gasped and watched his wounded hand slowly healing. Shaking his
head, he tried to get his breathing back under control as he stood.
While it hadn’t registered in his mind at the time of the fight,
the coloring of the dagger was firmly in his mind now. It had been
black with sigils down the blade and a shining stone in the hilt,
exactly the same as the Nightblades carried. He couldn’t think of
anyone that would be dumb enough to impersonate a Nightblade, which
meant he needed to get out of town as soon as possible.

With a muffled curse, he pulled his clothes
on as quick as possible and dropped the stone into his jacket
pocket. He needed to get to the smith’s shop in a hurry and get
what parts the man had finished. It was doubtful that he had
finished it all, but some was better than none. Fortunately, Charm
had been staying on the spell hawk since they had arrived, so there
would be no trouble locating his partner. With a final glance
around the room, he grabbed what remained of his bottle and headed
down the stairs, taking them two at a time.

* * *

“Shade, what the hell are you doing?” Charm
demanded in a sleepy voice as he stepped down from the ship.

“Getting us ready to go tonight,” Shade
replied and continued pounding the lead supports into place along
the nose of the ship.

“Why?” Charm asked, sounding somewhat
bewildered.

“Couldn’t sleep. Figured, what the hell, I
might as well work on the ship in a near blind panic for a while,”
Shade replied with sarcasm dripping from his words. Standing, he
fished the stone out of his pocket and tossed it to Charm. “Happy
Name day. Enjoy, but don’t open it anywhere near me.”

“What is it?” Charm asked, staring down at
the storage stone with suspicion.

“A very angry naked woman armed with a sharp
knife,” Shade replied as he lifted the first of the Barllen strips
and began to attach it to the lead supports.

“This is going to require more explanation,”
Charm said dryly and examined the stone closer. “You do realize
this spell isn’t intended to be used on living creatures, right?”
he asked, looking back to Shade with disapproval.

Shade paused, stood straight again, and wiped
a bit of sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm. “Well,
Charm, her knee was lodged in my balls and her dagger was through
my hand so I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly or sparing much
consideration for her well-being,” he explained.

“What did you do to her to piss her off that
much?” Charm demanded.

Shade stared at him blankly for a moment and
then returned to setting the Barllen. “I don’t think I even want to
dignify that with a response, but I probably should. I think all I
simply had to do was exist. She was a Nightblade. Apparently the
wrong people know I’m here so we need to go as soon as possible.
You can either stand there and insult me and this can take half the
night, or you can help and we can get out of here before her
friends show up. Your choice.”

“Someone in the town sold you out,” Charm
concluded and moved to help.

Shade paused and looked across at Charm,
locking gazes with the older rogue. “Charm, if someone in this town
sold me out why did it take seven days for a Nightblade to show
up?” he asked quietly.

“How else would they have found you?” Charm
asked quietly. “Could they trace the ship? I thought you removed
all location devices from it.”

“I did remove all location devices,” Shade
muttered and shook his head at Charm. “You’ve been making reports
to the Fionaveir rather steadily. Did you happen to tell them which
town exactly we were in?” he asked.

“The Fionaveir have nothing to do with the
Nightblades,” Charm objected, his tone indignant.

“Would you bet your life on that? Because, I
don’t think I’ll bet mine on it again,” Shade replied and turned
his attention back to the ship’s modifications. “Especially if
anyone of them figures out what I’ve done here,” he added,
motioning toward the ship.

“I don’t think there is anyone else foolish
enough to attach Barllen to a magic based ship, Shade, I wouldn’t
worry,” Charm assured him dryly.

Shade paused again and smiled at Charm. “Are
you sure, Charm? What if they realized the same as I have that you
could fly straight through the Barrier with this ship. Think about
it. I could be the first prisoner to escape,” he whispered. He
could feel Charm’s gaze locked on him and didn’t need to see the
rogue’s expression to know it was concerned. There were certain
prisoners on Sanctuary that would kill for a way out of the Barrier
and in the past thousand years no way had been found, until
now.

“Fine line between genius and insanity and
I’m dancing on the line. That’s what you are so fond of saying
right?” Shade asked with a wide grin and chuckled. “How’s my
dancing now Charm?” he asked with a smirk.

Sanctuary

Jala watched in sympathy as the young man
writhed on the table. He looked to be near her age and would have
been handsome had his features not been twisted with agony.

“This is a bad one, and as you can see the
patient is in a good deal of pain. So our first step is to make him
more comfortable,” Rose explained as she moved to stand at the
front of the table by the young man’s head. With practiced hands
she placed fingers on both of his temples and closed her eyes. A
warm golden glow enveloped her hands and the man’s face eased, his
eyes fluttering and at last closing in an expression of peace.