CarnalPromise Read Free Page B

long.
    Which was why she had to find Craddock soon. If Drakkar ever
got a hold on her, she would never get away. Yet she would die if she left
Craddock go unpunished.
    She bit her lip as unbidden images came to her. The torturous
look on her father’s face, his words to save herself as her sire forced her
onto the last safe transport leaving the ship. These visions—these ghosts—still
haunted her. Jinn squeezed her eyelids tighter to force the moisture in them to
abate. Yet melancholy threatened to consume her. Craddock, Ulrich’s older
brother, had done this.
    Jinn suspected her father knew her uncle had been the
traitor. Only now did her father’s actions and his words to her make sense. Tell
no one, Jinn, except Sophos. The Nyphosian negotiator will know what to do.
Craddock…
    Then he died.
    Must find him. Must find the sick bastard. Must make
him pay for his sins.
    A lone tear streaked down her cheek. She’d sacrificed much
for her revenge—her people, her home. Her family. She would not be denied now.
She would find her uncle. No one was better at tracking than she was.
    No one.
    And when she captured the malevolent man, her father’s ghost
could finally rest.
    Holding on to that thought, she inhaled a deep breath,
confident she would complete her mission.
    Or die trying.
    A warrior’s death. A life’s ending she could accept.
    Somber dreams seeped into her thoughts. The impending demise
of those that faced her. Her possible end at the hands of her hated uncle and
his biodroid. She accepted these visions. Embraced them.
    She inhaled once more to ease her tension. Her heart rate
slowed, her breaths grew even. In moments, Jinn drifted into the land of
Morpheus.
    The last thought she had was of the warm, calloused hands of
Drakkar, stroking her body, protecting her.
     
    Rain dribbled off Drakkar’s hood and into his face. He
sucked in a draught of air to detect Jinn’s scent.
    Nothing. Scowling, he studied the darkened doorway of
the Nyphosian outlet. As long as she used the Earther potion she’d developed to
cover her body’s unique perfume, he was the only one who could scent her. And
he had to be physically close to do that. But two could play that game. When he
discovered what she used, he developed a potion of his own. He was sure she
hadn’t realized who’d freed her from the Telrusian.
    After she took off, Drakkar could track her essence a while,
but the heavy rain had washed away any lingering trace. Their only recourse was
to go to the Nyphosian outlet to ask after the woman Jinn had tried to protect.
Perhaps the priestess would know where his mate went.
    Mate. Yes. Whether they had formally bonded or not,
she was his—and he needed her, in more ways than the obvious. He knew that in
his soul. More than to garner the peace, yet he didn’t understand entirely why,
nor had he had the time to search deeper in his being to find the answer.
    Stepping out of the dark alley, he strode to the entrance,
his companions silent next to him. Loping up the steps, he clenched his fist
and pounded on the large gilt-laden door.
    After a few moments of silence, he raised his hand again but
before he could pummel the wood harder, the portal cracked open, revealing a
half-naked man who stood almost as tall and as broad as he did.
    “Who calls at this late hour?” His voice rough with sleep,
the Nyphosian priest held a light globe over his head.
    Drakkar spanned the doorway, ready to pounce inside. “I’ve
come to see if a priestess of yours has been returned to safety. We found one
captured in an alley in a seedier part of town but she took off before…”
    The scent hit him. Hard. She was here.
    Drakkar growled. “Let me in.”
    Khariton stepped beside him and pulled his arm. “I’ll handle
this.”
    “N—”
    Khariton jerked him back then stood between him and the
Nyphosian as he pressed Drakkar toward the Svendian headmaster’s son, but
Drakkar surged against his Number One toward the