Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

With his black leather pants and jacket, the shimmer of blades winking from holsters beneath, he looked as terrifying as any creature of the dark. And the look in his eyes? God, he may slaughter the next person who reached for Avianna’s hand. “You’re saying he isn’t menacing?” I challenged.

Ransom and Lyric both followed my gaze, then almost in unison tilted their head to the right in a form of defeat.

“Hawke is quite terrifying,” Lyric admitted.

“Only until you get to know him,” Ransom said. “Then he’s a real pain in the ass.” His eyes drifted to Olivia, who stood next to Hawke. Something churned in his gaze, almost fiery, but it was gone the second she met his eye from across the room.

She flashed him a look that could only be described as a child silently rebelling against the boredom of the party, and he returned the look with a contorted face of his own.

She laughed, and he winked at her before he reached for Lyric’s champagne flute. He threw back the contents in one gulp. He glanced down at Lyric, holding up her empty class. “I’ll fetch you what you like, my queen.” He said the title with such a teasing tone I gaped at him. He hurried off with a speed and beauty that reminded me of a lightning strike.

“Isn’t he supposed to be…more respectful than that?” I asked, completely flabbergasted by all the ways in which this new world was combatting what I’d been told all my life.

Lyric shrugged. “Ransom and I made a deal,” she said. “When Alek isn’t around, he treats me like a friend.” She blew out a breath. “I tried to make the deal with the others, but they weren’t having it. They treat me as an extension of Alek—which I am—but sometimes the formalities can be a little suffocating. Ransom gets that and does his part to make me feel…”

“Human?” I filled in for her.

“Yes,” she said, laughing. “I don’t miss my old life. Not at all. But I do miss people treating me like a normal person rather than a…queen.”

I sipped from my glass again, shaking my head. “I suppose if you’re going to turn vampire, a queen isn’t a bad place to start.”

She nodded, smiling with true pride in her eyes. “Every night I wonder how I managed to get so lucky. Being mated to Alek is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I’ve never known a love more real, deep, or consuming.” Her eyes found him without hesitance across the room where he spoke with several male vampires that looked ten times his senior. I knew that wasn’t true, though, because Alek was old as dirt.

Still, the sparks igniting when their eyes locked? God, it was enough to make me blush, and I rarely blushed.

I tore my eyes off of their private yet intimate moment despite being separated by an entire room and scanned the crowd. So many vampires were gliding this way and that, chatting and touching and laughing. If it weren’t for the sometimes flash of fangs, or the blood-filled crystal pitchers being offered on silver trays, I’d say it looked like the pompous parties my father would throw for the Sons of Honor. Same music, same game of networking and trying to climb to the top of the food chain.

“Is everyone here trying to get mated?” I asked when Lyric returned her attention to me.

“Not everyone,” she said. “But yes, many hope for that.”

“Poor Avianna,” I said, my gaze returning to her table. The princess had grown on me—likely due to the way she was adamant about not allowing someone else to lay claim to her. That, and the way she treated my best friend. “Does she always wear gloves?”

“Yes,” Lyric said. “She has an infinite number of fantastic pairs. I think she has a witch stylist hook-up, but she’ll never admit it.”

I chuckled, eying the romper I borrowed from her extensive closet. “She has phenomenal taste.”

“Doesn’t she?” Lyric asked. “I’m surprised they’re even still trying,” she said, motioning to the male vampire who currently reached for her hand. He bowed slightly at the waist, but not fully, which even in my world would be disrespectful to a princess. “Oh dear,” Lyric said, and my eyes widened.

“What?”

“He’s just said…well, it wasn’t exactly appropriate—” Her words broke off in a gasp, and I marveled at her enhanced hearing.

Hawke moved so fast my eyes couldn’t follow. One minute he was a statue holding up the wall behind the princess, and the next? He stood between her and the male, towering over him with enough death in his eyes to turn the vampire a few shades lighter.

“Should you do something?” I whispered.

“Nope,” she answered. “If the vampire was dumb enough to run his mouth in front of Avi and her guards, well…” She shrugged, a slight glint in her eye as Hawke hauled the vampire not-so-discreetly from the room.