Page 20 of Burned Alive to Be His
“No,” I say in a low, final growl.
“What?” she hisses, her seduction shattering, revealing the raw fury beneath. “You would deny me? Forher?”
“I would deny you because I am not in the mood for your games, Phina,” I say, shoving her back. She stumbles, her perfect body losing its grace for a moment. I feel a cold, grim satisfaction at the sight.
She recovers quickly, her face a mask of pure, venomous rage. “You are a fool, Xvitar! She has bewitched you! Can you not see it? She makes you weak!”
“She is a tool,” I snarl, my patience gone. “A means to an end. Nothing more. Her mind and body are required for the trials. They must be unbroken. You will not interfere again. You will not touch her. You will not even look in her direction in a way I do not like. She is mine to test. Not yours to break. Do you understand me?”
My voice is a low, dangerous rumble, a promise of violence that she, unlike the human, understands perfectly. Fear flickers in her eyes, quickly masked by hatred.
“You will regret this,” she spits. She snatches her tunic from the floor and stalks out of my cavern, her pride a shattered, glittering thing.
I stand there, my body humming with a strange, restless energy. The confrontation has left a foul taste in my mouth. I look down at my own hands, at the scales that cover them, and for a fleeting, insane moment, I wonder what it would feel like to have soft skin.
“So the great Xvitar is brought low by a piece of human filth. You defend her honor?”
Grakar’s voice, thick with mockery, comes from the entrance of my cavern. He stands there, leaning against the rock wall, a cruel, knowing smile on his face. He has been watching. Of course, he has.
“I defend my property,” I say, turning to face him. “Something you would understand if you had anything worth owning.”
He laughs, a short, ugly bark. “Property? Is that what you call it? I saw you, Xvitar. I saw the way you looked at her after she made a fool of Phina. That was not the look of a master assessing his tool. That was the look of a male, blinded by a soft body and a strange scent.”
“You see what your ambition wants you to see,” I retort, my voice dangerously calm. “You are looking for weakness where there is none.”
He pushes himself off the wall and takes a few steps into my cavern, his presence a brutish, unwelcome intrusion. “Am I? I see a warrior who has lost his focus. A predator who has forgotten how to hunt. You spend your days watching a human, providing for her, protecting her from the insults of our own kind. You have not challenged me in the circle since she arrived. You have not led a hunt. Your fire is being banked, Xvitar. And she is the one smothering the flames.”
“My fire is my own concern,” I snarl, my temper beginning to fray.
“It is the clan’s concern!” he roars, his voice echoing in the cavern. “Vorlag fills our heads with prophecies of salvation through weakness, and you, our strongest warrior, are the first to fall into the trap! That thing,” he says, jabbing a thick finger in the direction of Judith’s cave, “is not our salvation. It is a disease. And it is your downfall.”
He steps closer, his eyes burning with a fanatical light. “Mark my words. You are becoming obsessed. This obsession will make you weak. And when you fall, I will be there to take your place. I will lead our people down the path of strength, of conquest. I will burn the weakness from this clan, starting with your pathetic human pet.”
He holds my gaze for a long, charged moment, the air crackling with the unspoken promise of a future battle. Then, he turns and leaves, his heavy footsteps echoing his challenge.
I am left alone in the silence of my cavern, the words of both Phina and Grakar ringing in my ears. They are vipers, striking from the shadows, their words coated in the venom of their own ambition. I should dismiss them. I should ignore them.
But I cannot.
Because a cold, hard part of me knows that they are right.
I am becoming obsessed.
This human, this strange, fragile, defiant creature, has burrowed under my scales in a way I do not understand and cannot control. She is a constant, irritating presence in my thoughts, a low-grade fever in my blood.
I stride to the entrance of my cavern and look out. I can see her, a small figure patiently rebuilding the stone windbreak that Phina’s cronies destroyed. She moves with a quiet, determined grace, her focus absolute. She is a creature of immense, infuriating resilience.
Grakar called her my downfall.
I watch her, and for the very first time, I feel a flicker of something other than rage or lust or possessiveness. It is a cold, sharp spike of fear. Not for me.
For her.
Because in this world of fire and stone and predators, I am beginning to realize that I may be the most dangerous thing of all.
11
JUDITH
