Page 6 of Blood Slumberm

He narrowed his eyes at her. “How? Are you a mage in the Order of Chera or an apostate who stole that staff?”

She weighed a spindle in her hand, and power stirred in her aura. “I suppose I am an apostate as of today. But until yesterday, I was a temple mage. I earned this staff, and I’ve slain unholy creatures with it before. I do hope we can keep this a cordial negotiation.”

He couldn’t place the magic he sensed in her. Ignorance of her abilities put him at a disadvantage. “You’ve been secluded in a temple for years. Why should I believe you can provide me access to a prince like Rixor?”

She drew herself up and looked him in the eye, her chin high, her face cold. He felt the truth in her aura. She had the Will torule, and she had once been accustomed to being obeyed. Sitting there with her tousled hair and blood drying on her throat, she looked like royalty.

“I am Celandine Pavae,” she declared, “Princess of Aligera.”

Troi bit back an incredulous curse. Of all the women who might have woken him…

She was his greatest enemy of all. He had a scheming Pavo in his bed.

She gave him a smile that must have made her lovers grovel and her enemies quail. “Do you believe me now?”

Aligera had always been known for its wealth and ruthless political acumen. That hadn’t changed in a thousand years, so he doubted it had changed in the last century. She was one of the most influential women in all of the principalities, duchies, and city-states that comprised Cordium. Or had been, before the present-day Rixor had dethroned her, it seemed.

“A Pavo princess brought low in the Temple of Chera,” he mused.

“Almost as humiliating as a Taurus prince turned into a Hesperine.”

Her point cut deep. He gave her a cold smile, showing his fangs. But she didn’t shrink from him in terror.

“You can take a Pavo princess out of her court,” he said, “but you cannot take the courtier out of a Pavo princess.”

She replied, “You can take a Taurus prince off his battlefield, but you cannot take the fight out of a Taurus prince.”

“I see we understand each other.”

“Indeed, there is no love lost between us. Our dynasties have been stealing principalities from each other for generations, when our own relatives weren’t stabbing us in the back.”

“Are you a descendant of the Rixor I knew?” Troi demanded.

Her gaze went to his fangs, and he could smell her sweat, but no fear showed on her face. “No. His family is a collateral line tomine. The bastard who now rules both Galeo and Aligera is my cousin.”

“Don’t expect my sympathy for your infighting.”

“I know better than to expect anything from you but hatred. Unfortunately, we are one another’s only way to get revenge.”

Revenge. Was that the red in his vision and the thirst burning inside him? It was.

A hundred years ago, he had wanted justice for his men. Now it was too late for that. Nothing was left but vengeance.

A base mortal desire. Contrary to the belief that his kind were evil beasts, immortals had much higher principles than humans. Vengeance was anathema to Hesperines.

But Troi remembered how to be human.

Celandine gathered the long curtain of her hair in her hands and laid it across one shoulder, tilting her head. “If you will assist me against our common enemy, I will give you as much blood as you need, anytime you want it.”

Troi’s gaze fixed on her bloodstained throat, and his mouth watered. Merciful Goddess. He had bedded the greatest beauties of Corona and feasted on the most powerful immortals. But he had never hungered for any of them as he did for the tired, vengeful woman before him.

Starvation had robbed him of his wits, and she was his first meal in centuries. There could be no other reason why he desired her so. Once he regained his full strength, he would be immune to this Pavo temptress.

“We need each other,” she said. “I can’t bring down Rixor on my own, and without my help, you won’t make it two steps out the gates before the Mage Orders capture you. But if we can tolerate each other for seven days, we will have our revenge—and then be free to go our separate ways.”

No matter what she was planning, he would play her games. She was his way to Rixor, and he would use her.

Troi bared his fangs. “I will destroy him.”

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