Taken by Darkness

At last reaching a connecting tunnel, Juliet straightened to find Levet waiting with an impatient expression.

“This way,” he urged, waddling with surprising speed through the darkness.

“You are certain?” she demanded, only to sigh in resignation as he continued on without so much as a backward glance. Following in his wake, she ruefully reminded herself that she had willingly chosen to rescue the aggravating gargoyle, even if at the moment she longed to give him a good shake. “You have not yet explained how you were captured by the Jinn.”

“He”—Levet halted to clear his throat—“caught me off guard.”

“Hmmm. You are hiding something from me.”

He hunched his shoulders, refusing to turn as he doggedly continued down the tunnel.

“It was not my fault.”

“What was not your fault?”

“I thought there was a nest of pixies, so I decided to perform a bit of magic to impress them.”

“Oh, lord,” Juliet muttered. She was familiar enough with Levet’s dubious magic to presume that it had been nothing less than a disaster. “What happened?”

Levet paused, then turned down a side tunnel, his tail twitching behind him.

“There might have been the smallest of explosions.”

Juliet frowned. Although she suspected that Levet’s notion of a small explosion was a good deal more spectacular than her own, she knew there must be more to his tale than he was revealing.

“Did you wound the Jinn?”

“No, but a part of the tunnels were exposed.”

“And?”

“And it happened to be the part where the Jinn had stored his treasure.”

“And?”

Levet impatiently waved his stubby arms. “And I might have taken something he considered of value,” he grudgingly admitted.

Ah. They at last were coming to the truth of the matter.

“Then why do you not simply return it?”

He turned into yet another tunnel. “I lost it trying to escape.”

Juliet’s stomach clenched with dread. She knew very little about the Jinn, but she did know a great deal about demons in general and there was not one species that did not consider the theft of its treasure a suitable reason to maim, torture, and kill.

“Maybe we should hurry,” she suggested.

“My thoughts precisely,” Levet agreed, his remaining wing fluttering and his tiny legs churning.

They rushed through the darkness in silence, both acutely aware of the heavy sense of dread that was beginning to crawl through the air. The Jinn was near.

Too near.

Intent on keeping pace with the gargoyle, Juliet nearly tumbled over the top of him when he came to an abrupt halt.

“Mon Dieu. I smell it.”

Juliet regained her balance and glared at her companion. “What is it?”

“Continue north, ma belle. There is an opening less than a mile away.”

“Levet?”

She watched in disbelief as the miniature demon scrambled up the side of the wall, pushing his small body through a crack that hardly appeared large enough for a bat.

Well.

She did not expect Levet to grovel at her feet with gratitude at her heroic rescue, but to actually abandon her?

She had thought they were friends.

Thoroughly vexed by the unexpected betrayal, Juliet stomped down the tunnel, dangerously distracted by her flare of anger.

Not that being on guard would have prevented the wall of the passageway from suddenly exploding inward as a body was thrown through it. Or her scream of fear as she recognized her mate lying in a pool of blood at her feet.

Falling to her knees, she reached to brush the raven hair from Victor’s face, her heart contracting at the deep gash that marred the ivory skin of his forehead.

“Victor?”

His lashes slowly lifted to reveal remarkably clear silver eyes, his wounds already healing. She shook her head. Only a vampire could be shoved through four feet of pure rock and appear barely worse for the wear.

“I thought I told you to rescue the gargoyle and leave,” he growled, flowing to his feet.

She straightened, glancing toward the gaping hole in the wall. “And I thought you intended to rid us of the Jinn.”

There was a cloud of foreboding, then the booming voice of the Jinn echoed through the tunnel.

“Where is the gargoyle?”

Victor stepped in front of her as the Jinn slammed his way through the wall, the air crackling with electricity.

“If you have any other tricks, little one, now would be an appropriate moment to reveal them,” Victor rasped, pulling a large sword from the scabbard on his hip.

“What of your warriors?”

“Dead or wounded.”

Shaking off the clinging dust, the Jinn pointed a finger directly at Juliet, his eyes glowing with an eerie light and his hair floating as if caught on a breeze.

“Give me the gargoyle,” he roared.