Bound by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy [59]
What they needed was a fast means of getting him back to fighting strength.
“I want your blood,” he bluntly admitted.
She took a sharp step backward, her face rigid with shock. “For what?”
He arched a brow. Her outrage seemed a little hypocritical considering she was a damned leech.
“To help me heal.”
“Is this a joke?”
“No.” He lifted his sword, the moonlight dancing over the silver metal. “I can draw power from my blade.”
“How?”
“Our people have many weapons, but our true Sylvermyst blades were forged before the banishment of the Dark Lord,” he slowly admitted.
Her eyes narrowed. “Which means?”
“The metal was smelted in the pits of hell with silver and the heart of a Lamsung demon.”
Her gaze shot to the sword. “Soul stealers,” she muttered.
He nodded. Lamsungs were rare demons who survived by sucking the life from their enemies.
“The blade absorbs the power of my enemies.”
She turned to meet his gaze, her own expression guarded. “And gives you strength.”
“Precisely.”
A short, oddly tense silence settled between them before Jaelyn took another step backward.
“Stay here.”
He reached out to grab her arm. “Where are you going?”
“To get you blood.” She jerked her head toward the woods. “There’s a pack of hellhounds less than a mile away.”
He regarded her in confusion. “I can use yours. I don’t need much.”
She jerked away, licking her lips. Almost as if she was nervous.
“ No.”
“Why not?”
“I ...” There was another lick of her lips. “I can’t.”
No, not can’t.
Won’t.
The vampire had already made it clear she wouldn’t lower herself to feed from a nasty Sylvermyst. Now she was making it equally clear that she wasn’t going to lower herself to offering her precious blood to restore his powers.
He squared his shoulders, hiding his shredded pride behind a mocking smile as he swept past her rigid body.
“Right. See ya around, poppet.”
“Ariyal, what are you doing?”
“I’ll do my own damn hunting, thank you very much.”
Jaelyn cursed her stupidity as she watched Ariyal march away, his back stiff with wounded pride and his steps not nearly as steady as he would no doubt wish them to be.
She’d blown it.
In spectacular fashion.
She smacked her palm to her forehead. For god’s sake, all she had to do was keep an eye on one Sylvermyst.
A job she should be able to do in her sleep.
But over and over she’d managed to screw up her assignment.
Now she was stuck watching him walk away, furious with her weakness but smart enough to know that for the moment she had no choice.
She couldn’t allow him to take her blood.
Not when she didn’t fully comprehend the ramifications.
Yeah, it was more than likely that the blade would absorb her blood and it would do nothing more than give Ariyal the strength he needed to heal.
Then again ...
She shivered, turning to gaze over the silent cornfields.
What if the blood reacted as if he’d taken it straight from her vein?
The consequences could be nothing short of cataclysmic.
“He’s getting away, you know.”
The disembodied voice sliced through the air a mere second before there was a whiff of brimstone and Yannah suddenly appeared directly in front of her.
Jaelyn yelped as she grabbed her shotgun and pointed it at the intruder. Her finger was ready to squeeze the trigger when she belatedly recognized the heart-shaped face and black eyes that shimmered like chips of ebony in the moonlight.
“Dammit.” Jaelyn shoved the gun back into its holster, glaring at the creature, who calmly stroked her hands down the white silk robe. “You scared the bejeezus out of me.”
“Did I?” Yannah blinked with exaggerated innocence. “I thought Hunters were trained to never be caught off guard?”
“I wouldn’t be caught off guard if you walked around like a normal demon,” Jaelyn protested in cold tones, hiding her embarrassment behind a layer of ice. It wasn’t her fault she’d allowed herself to be dangerously distracted, was it? If Ariyal would stop being a pain in the ass then she could concentrate on the important stuff. And he wasn’t the only