Page 102 of Cursed Lifeline

Confused, I button my slacks and continue to settle my breathing as I wait for her to continue.

“That’s how you just made me feel. You’re right, Talon. You don’t do feelings. You throw them away and never consider the emotions of those you’re affecting in the process.”

“Celeste, I …”

The carriage door slams as she refuses to listen to my plea.

But to finish whatever I was about to say next, I’d have to go against everything I just told her. Everything I just did.

I’d have to open up those feelings. Emotions. Demons I’ve kept locked away for three centuries.

Disposable?

No.

Celeste is anything but disposable.

In fact, I sense she’s the vital key I’ve been searching for for close to three centuries.

The key to opening the one thing I’ve never let anyone, not even the woman I loved before, into.

My heart.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I put myself back together and ease off my seat. With a tight grip, I open the door, take hold of either side of the carriage door frame, and step out after her.

Lit sconces adorn the rock walls of Ember’s estate. They illuminate the way to hell with their portentous glow. Two guards step from the shadows. Armed with medieval axes, their threatening approach has the bitter anger of the slayer that filled the carriage on our way here slowly diminishing. Her shoulders lightly shake with fear. Stepping up behind her, I yank her right wrist behind her back. She eyes me furiously over her shoulder. Wrenching her left wrist behind her just the same, I stare into her eyes and give her a wicked grin.

“Don’t make me regret this,” she hisses.

Leaning forward, I whisper in her ear, “My hands are coated with our sins.”

For emphasis, I run a slick ghostly touch down her neck as I finish shackling her hands in restraints. Her body trembles as the scent of our transgression melds and forms an intoxicating dependency that grows the longer she stares me down with a heated desire she’s intent on denying.

“Regret?” I chuckle. “Whatever penance we’re about to meet, I’ve made my peace. I have no shame. No regrets. Tell me, slayer, can you say the same?”

The guards come closer. Celeste tries to look away, but my shadows force her chin back in my direction. I hold her provoked gaze with wild, unhinged eyes and draw strength to do what I have to next from the displeased anger violently simmering just behind her hazel irises.

Her breath feathers against my lips as she sharply says, “Fuck this up, and I’ll make you pay for whatever stunt that was that you just pulled in the carriage.”

“Is that a promise?”

“It’s a fucking threat. You don’t believe me? Fuck around and find out.”

“Fuck around with you? With pleasure.”

Pushing her a step forward as the guards come within earshot, Celeste struggles to get out of my hold.

“I brought Ember a present,” I grin, tightening my grip on Celeste’s wrists and pulling a dagger from my hip.

Times may have changed, but weapons never go out of style. Who needs a gun when this dagger is the one thing I’ve always been able to count on to get me out of every impossible danger I’ve encountered in my immortal existence. Reaching around and holding it against Celeste’s throat, I pray its reputation has the same power to deliver us from the perilous course set before us now.

Celeste sucks in a shaky breath as the cold metal grazes her skin.

“Breathe, kitten,” I whisper as I push her a step forward.

“If I do,” she hisses, “All I smell. Is. You.”

She glances at me out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze flashes down to my hand at her throat.

---