Sweet Ruin (Immortals After Dark 16)

“You must be freezing. You can answer my questions once you’re warmed up,” he said, considerate as could be. “There’s a robe outside the bathing chamber. Etched tiles control the water.”

She could handle cocky asshole Ruin. Nice Rune was throwing her. Still, Jo wouldn’t mind some time to mull over everything. Though so much had happened tonight, the facts were:

She and Rune had a mutual enemy.

He was presently staring down at her like he wanted to eat her up.

He wasn’t trying to murder her brother.

Or her.

Where did this new knowledge leave her? Idiot Jo was kind of crushing on him again. What if she could build a relationship (of some sort) with him (if he quit nymphs cold turkey)?

And then, with Thad possibly coming back into Jo’s life . . .

Two connections were within her grasp! Two people to notice if she floated away.

“Unless you’d prefer to remain with me while I dine.” His gaze dipped to her body. “I know what I’d like to see on the menu.”

EIGHTEEN

At a table in front of the hearth, Rune ate without tasting his food, his mind fixed on the vampire. The naked one bathing in his sauna.

Had he joined her, it would probably have been the most searingly sexual bath he’d ever enjoyed.

Two things stopped him. One: It would probably have been the most searingly sexual bath he’d ever enjoyed. He needed to maintain control. If she bit him at will . . .

Two: He’d decided he would have to secure her to his bed—to make sure she couldn’t bite him. He intended to draw on his customary coldness when interrogating her, but better safe than sorry.

Contrary to what she thought, Rune didn’t entertain bedmates here. It was his sanctuary. His bed hadn’t been equipped with restraints, so he’d had to repurpose those cuffs. Task completed, he’d opted for a quick shave and shower in another bathroom.

He scarcely believed he had a female in his home. If another Møriør discovered her, any one of them would annihilate her. She was the ally of an enemy—which meant Josephine was an enemy of the Møriør as well. Plus, she was a security liability.

Killing her was the most logical option. Especially once he’d extracted any information about Nïx.

Yet the demon in him rebelled. Even his rational fey side demanded he first explore why Josephine could drink him. And why she affected him so viscerally.

Everything about her was different. When she’d pointed out his solitary chair, he’d barely stopped himself from explaining that he had allies he’d die for. That they lived communally, and he came here only for respite.

Damn it, information flowed to him.

He’d had no impulse to tell the lovely shopkeeper Loa his secrets. Never in all his lifetimes had he divulged one. So why the urge to with Josephine?

He had little appetite, had never been so eager to interrogate a subject. Get focused, Rune. He dug in his pocket for his talisman. He rolled it in his hand, contemplating those indecipherable symbols yet again.

He’d received the talisman the day his sire had died, the day Magh had made her decree about Rune’s future. He’d pointed out the flaw in her plan to make him an assassin. . . .

“I can’t trace.” If he could, he would have long escaped.

“You possess demon blood; you can learn from my guards.”

Excellent. He would learn to teleport, then use that ability to get free. He hadn’t thought Magh the “Canny” would be so stupid—

“I might reunite you with your dam, should you serve me well.”

As if struck, he swayed on his feet. “She still . . . lives?” For years, he’d believed her dead, the most likely fate for a slave who’d disappeared in the night. He pictured his dam’s lively blue eyes. She’d always had a ready smile for Rune, striving so hard to mask her misery from him. “You or your henchmen killed her.”

“As much as I would have enjoyed that, she lives.”

“I-I don’t believe you.” Gods give me the power . . .

“No?” Magh snapped her fingers. One of the guards traced to Rune, handing him a small bag. The homespun material carried traces of his dam’s scent—tinged with fear.

He ripped into the bag. Parchment had been folded around his mother’s talisman, her sole possession. He opened the note, scanning the familiar handwriting and the language of demons, but some of the script was smudged, illegible:

My cherished son, please accept this talisman as a token of my love. It will always remind y ________________________________________.

I know not the runes, but I believe th __________________. You must ______________________________________________ constantly and nev ______________________________________.

Do not allow the queen to use me to h________. Strength and power flow through our family’s line, and the years will bear out the following tru _______________________________________________.

Never forget that. I love you so much and only wis _______________.

Rune swallowed, dragging his gaze from the letter to Magh. “ Where is my dam?”

The queen raised her blond brows. “I cannot tell you, else forfeit my leverage.”

“The letter is smudged.” He held it up accusingly. “I can’t read all of it.”

“The poor dear wept as she wrote it. I said she lives—I didn’t say she was glad of that fact. There are some fates worse than death.”

His breath left him. He would do whatever this evil bitch asked of him to free his mother.

And Rune had.

The old queen had been right about his prospects as an assassin, about the value of his seductive nature. His first target had sneaked Rune into her sanctuary, lowering all her protections. A fatal mistake.