Bound to Me Read Free Page B

fault.”
    Valerio paused and turned to face me, one eyebrow raised.
    “Jabari always knows where I am,” I said with a slight shrug of my shoulders. “I fear if we are to continue to travel together, that it is something that you will have to tolerate.”
    “Ahh . . . yes,” he said with a slight hiss. “Your doting guardian likes to keep a close eye on you, and I’m sure even more so now that you’ve fallen in with the likes of me.”
    “Nonsense. There is no one more faithful to our people and the coven than you. I’m sure that Jabari trusts you,” I countered, laying a hand on his chest.
    Valerio’s head tipped back with a bark of laughter. “I’m sure Jabari doesn’t think such a thing at all, and if you’re honest with yourself, I’m sure you don’t either.”
    I paused a moment and then smiled up at him. “You’re quite right. I don’t. But regardless, I am here with you now and I am here to stay.”
    “Good girl,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my forehead before finally turning around to the front door.
    Valerio said nothing to the nightwalker when he opened the door. He simply nodded once and motioned for him to enter the hallway that was still as black as night. I spared our guest only a cursory glance before I turned toward the main parlor and padded silently on bare feet across the creaky old hardwood floor. Candlelight flared to life as I walked past each candelabrum until a fire suddenly roared into existence a second before I took a seat in a chair next to the fireplace.
    You’re intentionally trying to scare the young thing , Valerio laughed in my head.
    I’m just trying to create a more hospitable setting , I replied innocently.
    Liar.
    I recognize him as a flunky of Macaire. What’s wrong with scaring him?
    Not a thing, my dear. Not a thing.
    Valerio settled behind my chair, leaning one of his arms along the high back, while crossing one foot in front of the other in a supremely relaxed stance. The nightwalker who had come to call on us was young, barely more than a couple centuries old. But then so was I. The time I had spent with nightwalkers who had passed the millennium mark was more than normal for most nightwalkers. Combine that with the fact that I had killed nightwalkers more than three times my age, and I tended to forget my youth.
    “Forgive the unexpected intrusion, Valerio,” the nightwalker opened, quickly bowing to my companion. “I have been sent by the coven on urgent business.”
    “It is my sweet companion you should be begging for forgiveness, as it is her pleasure that you have disrupted, Gustav,” Valerio commented blandly.
    A frown flitted across the blond nightwalker’s face before he could catch it, as his eyes slid over to where I was sitting. Settling deeper into the cushions of the seat, I reached over and ran one hand over Valerio’s closest leg while I smiled smugly at the flunky.
    Blond hair with ice blue eyes, Gustav reminded me of Macaire’s three other flunkies that I had killed during fights before the four members of the coven—fights that had been intended as entertainment. Now Macaire didn’t allow his underlings near me without a very good reason.
    “I was trying to do Mira a favor by ignoring the fact that she is here in London with you considering that she has been forbidden to be here,” Gustav said with no small amount of enjoyment.
    Uncrossing my legs, I jerked upright in my chair and twisted slightly so that I could look Valerio directly in the eye. “What is he talking about? I haven’t been forbidden to travel to London.”
    Valerio gave a half shrug as he met my narrowed gaze. “I’m afraid you have been. The last time we were in Venice, Jabari informed me that I was not to take you to London under any circumstances. You were forbidden from setting foot on the island.”
    “Why?”
    “He never said.”
    Forcing a smile onto my lips for the benefit of Gustav, I struggled to keep my voice from rising in volume.