Lost Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 4)
Page 44
His lips purse like he’s thinking that over.
“You’re attracted to him,” he says, no emotion in his tone as he crosses his arms over his chest, studying me. “That’s dangerous. He has the dragon inside him, even if he can’t shift.”
“What
do you mean?” I ask, clearing my throat.
He disappears instead of answering, and I sag to a chair, wondering where this leaves us. Slade doesn’t like being lied to, and certainly not by me. It wasn’t a true lie more than a lie of omission.
Before I can stew over it too long, Slade reappears and tosses me an ancient, red book I’ve never seen before. It’s thin and bound by the cracked red leather with a symbol of a curved dragon on the front.
“I’m not naïve enough to think I can ban your affections for him. But you should know the fate that awaits you if you decide to continue on this path. He’s drawn to you, Kya. There’s a reason for that. I wrote the highlights down in our language so you could read it for yourself. Let me know if you’re interested in me reading the rest of the book to you.”
When he disappears again, I collect the book, and I dematerialize, heading to one of our private bunkers.
Without another thought, I open the book, and my heart hammers my chest as I read the slave language notes Slade promised me, each stuck on a page with highlighted passages that I can’t read. The slave language are the only words that make sense.
At least now I know what his beast wants with me.
The door swings open, and Slade steps in, confusing me. He hunted me down?
“There’s a problem,” he says, his lips tensing.
“What?”
“The lycan who fought with Simone—”
“Amy... Wait, you saw that?”
“I heard of it. Amy is missing, and it looks like someone took her.”
That fleeting feeling that nagged me earlier returns. The blood-starved came at us in ambush formation. The night stalker was on his phone, and I had a bad feeling about him that I pushed aside.
“You’re positive?”
He shrugs. “I’m not, but we need to know. There’s only one reason they’d take her.”
“To find the queen,” I say on a quiet breath.
“Or the princess,” he adds, sending a gut-clenching fear into the pit of my stomach.
They’ll kill them all.
Chapter 13
The eyes of another...
Amy lifts her head, trying to remember why it aches so badly. She tries to move, then curses when she realizes she’s chained to the wall. Her breath catches in her throat when she finally remembers what happened.
They have her. They took her. They probably want to find Alyssa and the others, but they have no idea how resilient she can be. Death will come before she betrays any of her friends.
Her eyes search the room, seeing a window to the far side. Stones surround her, as well as another man who is chained at a distance to her side. His head hangs low, and she shifts, trying to see him better.
“Hey!” she whisper yells.
He stirs just slightly, slowly rousing from what looks like an exhausted sleep. His eyes sluggishly open, and he peers at her with a familiar gaze... His eyes look just like Leah’s...
“You’re Leah’s father,” she says aloud, then grimaces at the fact she said it too loudly. The last thing she needs is to call attention to herself before she can escape and kill that bastard she thought she loved. That bastard she did love.