Page 105 of The Guardian's Curse

“Because, as I told Elliott yesterday, I’m cursed,” she said. “My vision is getting worse every day, and I don’t think I can see well enough to draw the sigils. I also don’t have all my—” Her stomach plunged, and she caught the words before they could spill out of her mouth. My books. They’re at Alistair’s house. “I don’t have all my supplies.”

If she said she needed books, Elliott could pry out of her where they were. And then he might send his people to kill Alistair. While she was certain that Alistair could tear Elliott apart, she wasn’t so certain about his odds if he had humans that were under his thrall that attacked the house in broad daylight. He would be helpless.

“What supplies do you need? Make a list, and someone will fetch what you need,” Victoria said.

Her mouth was dry as she swallowed. “I can tell you. But I still can’t see very well.”

“You’ll have to make do,” Victoria said. “The Baron will allow you to attend to your own matters after this is done.”

“That could be too late.”

“Then it behooves you to work quickly, doesn’t it?” she asked.

She took a tentative step toward the petite blonde. “Do you really want to be doing this? Or did he make you do it too?”

Her brow arched. “Of course I want to be here,” she said. “It is a great honor to be a human assistant to the Casteron.”

“And he didn’t enthrall you?”

“He gives me power,” she replied. “Just as Cristiano did before him.”

“What does that mean?” Shoshanna asked.

Victoria shook her head and gripped her forearm. Her grip was powerful as she guided Shoshanna across the tiled floor. “I did not bring you here to answer all your questions. Get to work. Ruby will help you draw as needed.”

Once someone delivered a box of chalk and an assortment of rulers, Shoshanna worked for hours. As they had done in Infinity, several workers broke up the tile around the elevated dais where the Baron sat. Kneeling on the hard concrete subfloor, Shoshanna crouched with her face just inches from the floor as she measured out the points of a circle. It was slow work with her vision fading. Elliott hadn’t said how fast he wanted the work done, so she thought she might stretch it out over months. But as she purposely started to draw slower, she found herself resisting.

This isn’t what he wants, she thought. I can do better.

Instead, she worked as quickly as she could with her limited sight and working only from memory. Heavy curtains covered all the windows, giving her no sense of the time. She only realized that it had been hours when her stomach growled. Sometime later, Victoria delivered them neatly packaged salads. She had only eaten a few bites when the human woman grabbed the food. “You’ve barely done anything.”

“This takes time,” Shoshanna replied. “It took me a week to do all the work at Infinity.”

“The Baron wants this complete by tonight,” she said.

Shoshanna laughed. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Then you can tell him as much,” Victoria said. “He will not be pleased.”

A chill prickled down her spine. The woman kept her dinner, and she knew she wasn’t going to find any stashed snacks here in a vampire den. Her knees had begun to ache, and her hands were covered in chalk dust when she heard a deep male voice say, “Good evening, sir.”

Dread pooled in her growling stomach as she raised her head to see a dark-clad male figure coming her way. “Good evening,” Elliott said calmly. His legs were all Shoshanna could see as he stopped to survey her work. “I expected this to be complete. I told Victoria as much. Why is it incomplete?”

“It takes a long time to do,” she replied. “I told her that when I did this at Infinity, it took me a week.”

“Is that true?” he said, gently gripping her chin. “Tell me why you’re working so slowly.”

“I can barely see,” she said, her voice trembling.

“And?”

The truth pushed up like vomit. “And I don’t have all my books.”

“Where are your books?”

She clamped her lips shut, but Elliott pressed his finger to her lips. The taste of his blood was warm and sharp, and she involuntarily opened her mouth to let it trickle over her tongue. Shame pulled tight around her as her need for it rose. He gently touched her lips, then tipped her chin up. “Where are they, Shoshanna?”

The power he held was stronger now, and there was no resistance. “At Alistair’s house. Everything is there.”

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