Darkness Eternal (Guardians of Eternity)

“And he did this to you when you tried to escape?” she husked.

Uriel’s bitter laugh echoed through the nearby trees. “No, he allowed me to leave. This was his curse.”

“A curse?” She looked genuinely confused. No big surprise. Uriel was still trying to puzzle out what the hell had happened. “Are you certain?”

He rubbed the scar that had throbbed with a low intensity ache since his escape from the London docks, belatedly realizing that the throb had become more pronounced since his unexpected journey into the underworld.

A coincidence?

It had to be.

He couldn’t allow himself to consider anything else.

If he went postal and hurt Kata . . .

Yeah, he so wasn’t going to go there.

Not even in his darkest ‘what ifs’.

“Painfully certain,” he said, his voice clipped.

“What did he do?”

“The bastard made me his slave.”

Dropping his bomb of shame, Uriel abruptly turned to dive into the water of the stream. The cool, crystal clear water washed over his skin, although it couldn’t wash away the helpless fury that pulsed through him.

Surfacing, he shook the hair out of his eyes and turned to find Kata standing at the edge of the stream, her dark eyes troubled.

She was so beautiful that she made his heart ache.

The dark curls wildly tumbled around her lovely face. The ivory satin skin. The lush curves.

An intoxicating, earthy woman that called to a man’s most primitive desires.

“What did he do to you?” she softly asked.

He clenched his teeth against the savage longing that clutched at him.

He had to keep her safe.

Nothing else mattered.

“He said that I was to be the instrument of his revenge,” Uriel repeated the words he’d shared with Victor almost two weeks ago.

She averted her face, wading into the water until it lapped over the full curve of her breasts.

“You think this Jinn is the father of Laylah?”

He couldn’t deny her accusation. “Since there’s only been one Jinn sighting in London for the past millennium it seems like a safe assumption.”

“And that’s why you treated me like I carried the plague.”

He flinched at her harsh accusation, not wanting to remember his arrogant disdain.

“I’ve done everything in my power to rescue you.”

She refused to look at him. “You think I’m a Jinn whore.”

Even knowing it was a truly stupid idea, Uriel couldn’t stop himself from moving through the water to stand directly before her. Gently he grabbed her shoulders, battling back his surge of lust.

“I know that Marika held you against your will.”

She turned her head, her eyes snapping with her ready temper.

Kata would never be a soothing female. She was passionate, turbulent, and unpredictable.

She was also intensely loyal, courageous, and the very essence of female temptation, he acknowledged with a bleak sense of loss.

“And yet you suspect I might actually have enjoyed being trapped with the handsome demon?” she accused him.

He wouldn’t lie. Not to this woman.

“At first.”

“And now?”

“Now it doesn’t matter,” he said with simple honesty.

She once again turned away, studying the trees that lined the far bank as if she had a sudden fascination with the tiny violets that were hidden among the moss.

“Right.”

“Kata. Look at me,” he said softly.

“No.”

“Please.”

Grudgingly she snapped her gaze back to glare at him. “Satisfied?”

“No. I’m . . .” Words failed him.

“What?”

“Furious,” he at last managed to rasp.

She jerked as if she’d been slapped. “I didn’t ask you to soil your vampire hands with my tainted . . .”

“Shut up and listen to me,” he interrupted her.

The very air vibrated the force of her anger. “You’re an idiot if you think I won’t hurt you just because we had sex.”

“We didn’t have sex, we made love.” He cupped her face in his hands, shuddering at the erotic sensation of the water stroking over their nude bodies. He moved close enough that the tips of her breasts brushed his chest. “Or do I need to remind you?”

Her breath caught, the scent of her swift arousal perfuming the air.

“Uriel,” she growled in warning. “Don’t.”

His lips twisted, but he refused to release his grasp on her face. He wouldn’t let her believe he thought she was anything but glorious.

“Kata, what happened between you and the Jinn . . .”

She poked a finger into the center of his chest, her expression stubborn.

“I won’t discuss it.”

“Fair enough,” he swiftly agreed. “Someday you will trust me enough to share your past, but for now you can keep your secrets.”

“Big of you.”

He ignored her sarcasm. “All I care about is the Jinn’s curse. And what he might force me to do.”

Her anger faltered at his blunt confession. With a frown, she lowered her gaze to his scar.

“The demon is dead.” Impossible to know what she felt about the creature’s violent demise. “How do you know that his curse didn’t die with him?”