Torment (Craving 2)

I couldn’t pay attention to what he was saying. I had to concentrate on facing this threat. I had to concentrate and be more than I have been up to this moment. There was no running away from her, she would follow.

Allora had reason to want me dead. I alone could free Devin and she couldn’t have that. She murdered my grandmother in order to keep him on the other side.

Did she know who I was?

If she didn’t yet, she would soon. What to do? It came to me like lightning flashing before my eyes, and I knew I had to zero in on my Shama with all my might if I was going to survive this night.

“Jeremy!” I heard Devin scream his name as he moved off to Jeremy’s quarters to get his attention. Devin knew what I was about to face. He knew the female in the shadows had to be none other than Allora.

I took in her scent and filed it to memory.

She, the female in the dark corner, moved forward. The moonlight rested on her and I could see that she was tall, lithe, and graceful. Her blonde hair was like silk. Her amber lit eyes were bright, so bright with fury that I could see them shine across the room.

Her skin was pale, but she had a classically lovely face. She moved with caution, so I knew she was aware that I was a witch with some power.

“Allora,” I said softly.

She did not respond. We had information that made us confident she was in London, but damn, here she was. Had she taken an evening flight? A charter perhaps?

She was supposed to have a meeting with the ancient vampires of her clan at the Council Center in London. What had happened? Had that meeting been canceled?

My Shama was already burning with instructions, always protective of me when I was in da

nger, and hell, every instinct said I was in immediate danger.

I could feel Allora’s power, a might specific to her aura. I concentrated on it, learned its perimeters as my magic scanned her and encased me in my witch’s shield.

The ancient vampire, Allora, stood, eyeing me, but the sneer she wore on her face told me she didn’t know who I really was. Oh, she knew I was a witch…but that was all she knew. For now.

And then I saw it, something glinting in the narrow ray of moonlight that shined through the window. A sword. She held a sword of some potency. I could feel its magical might across the room.

Was this the sword she used to kill my grandmother? If so, it was now even more powerful than it had been. Damn, I was in trouble!

Shit, shit, shit!

~ One ~

“ALLORA,” I SAID AGAIN, AS calmly as I could muster, and felt ashamed that my voice, even to my own ears, sounded shaky.

“Hello, witch,” she said, and sneered. “What are you doing here all alone and in the dark?” She didn’t move, but stood very still and took in my appearance from head to foot.

She noted I looked at the sword’s glinting blade, and she smiled before she lifted it and pointed it right at me.

From her behavior, I knew she hadn’t seen me arrive through the portal. She must have thought I had fallen asleep on one of the sofas?

She couldn’t hear or see Devin because Jeremy had spelled the portal to only show the jungle scene, like a movie whose actors had not yet arrived.

She couldn’t hear him shouting either, and I silently complimented Jeremy on his complex and effective magical spell.

I couldn’t help myself as I stared at her, taking in every facet of her physical presence. Something was off, though I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

I already disliked her for so many reasons. The number one reason, she had beheaded my immortal grandmother, taking her away from me before I even had the chance to meet her.

As this loomed in my mind, so did something else, something I had never really felt before…hate!

Auntie Elle would be sad to learn that I had just experienced an emotion she had always railed about. “Never hate,” she would tell me. “You may dislike, but you may not hate. Hate is ugly and causes pain.”

And still, the emotion took hold.