Page 74 of To Spark a Dragon's Love
She shivered, remaining perfectly poised as I accepted the gifts from the female cat shifters who’d arrived, but I could scent Willow’s rising desire above the new smells filling my home.
“No, but I’m sure you can find a way to tell me after our guests retire for the night,”she said.
Consider it done.
I growled again as I held my beast in check, standing next to my mate while she greeted the next guests to arrive.
I was lost in all things Willow when the door opened again and the cold scent drifted down the hall.
“You invited the vampires?” My back straightened and my fangs extended as I met Lucan’s tense gaze across the dining room.
He was already shrugging off his jacket.
“No,” Willow whispered, worried. “I didn’t invite anyone. I only accepted the requests for dinner and there were so many of them.”
Her slender fingers slipped from mine and her brow furrowed as she turned to the card table. “There’s no breeds or genetic markers on the requests.” She started flipping through the stack. “Montique, Declan, Clarot.”
“Clariot,” I corrected as the cold, deathly breeze raced down the reception hall.
Shadows gathered at my back, forming the outline of my wings, as the lights above flickered.
They swarmed the hall like a colony.
Porcelain faces and blood red lips with their movements too fluid. A sea of black clothes cliché as it was. Ten maybe twelve of them entered the hall with no counting how many more outside.
Lucan’s fury pulsed at my back as he moved across the dining room. I stepped in front of Willow, wondering how best to shield her while I caused the least amount of structural damage and the most amount of corpse final death.
A familiar face smiled from the colony as it parted. The female with white-blonde hair I’d stumbled upon in the MacAlister house massacre—Sabine.
There was an evil grin on her carved face as she walked arm and arm with—
“Clariot,” I spit the ancient’s name.
His silver hair was tied back with a leather strap and his matching silver eyes regarded me with a killer’s indifference. The cold aura that emanated from him made the danger from the rest of the gathered colony pale in comparison.
He wore a gray vest under his black tailored suit and carried an ornamental cane, but he still had the body and speed of someone decades younger.
“That’s a… a…” Willow gripped the sleeve of my coat.
“We need to get them outside. Away from our girls,”I told Lucan, sensing him move behind me.
Willow swallowed hard. “That’s a vampire,” she finished her sentence.
“Malachy.” His voice was a luring song that woke the distrust of my beast. “It’s been a while.”
Clariot smiled and waved his hand. The surrounding vampires disappeared. A black wisp of fog dispersed in their wake, leaving only Clariot and Sabine behind.
“Where did you send them?” I growled, pushing out my senses to inspect my territory.
“Outside your wards.” Clariot arched a brow. “Do you no longer trust your brother’s magic? I thought it was your safety net.”
I hissed a breath through my teeth, trying to ease some of my beast’s built-up aggression. Clariot was baiting me, but he was right. I was overreacting—for now.
The ancient corpse couldn’t enter my territory if he’d meant any harm. Though it wouldn’t stop a change of his cold, dead heart after he’d arrived.
Still, he had no reason to come. “What are you doing here?” I demanded to know.
“It’s past time I showed my respect to the guardian, especially in the light of new events.”
