Page 20 of You Only Love Twice
They both went through the glass. Slamming into the snow outside, he rolled onto his back and gasped. The shock of intense cold on his naked flesh, following so swiftly on the heels of the raging heat, broke the last vestiges of the drugged hold on his body.
"What the hell happened?" Silas shoved to his feet, throwing the blanket at Dmitri to sling around his waist.
He didn't know.
Dmitri glanced up at the burning room, pushing to his feet. Why was his mouth so dry? What was that taste? The last thing he could recall was Hollis giving him the glass of blooded wine before she smiled at him and began to tug at the laces tying her nightgown together.
He'd drained the cup dry.
You drank the wine.
You lay with her....
And then you slept....
A sleep so deep, he'd barely felt the bed catch fire.
Horror sent him reeling. Ghost had warned him not to compromise himself when it became clear the game he'd been playing with her was deeper than they'd both intended.
Dmitri had been working for Lord Balfour to form the prospects of an alliance between the Russian Blood Court and the English prince consort, and she'd been working for the Duke of Malloryn to destroy it. He'd never been entirely certain if she'd known of his loyalties. With his Russian heritage and his accent, he could pass for one of the court, and nobody knew he worked for Balfour.
But she'd been pointed out to him as a target by Ghost.
"Malloryn's 'cousin,'"Ghost had laughed."Or at least, that's what he's telling everybody.Ostensibly here to assist in the diplomatic efforts by pursuing an English-Russian marriage alliance, though Balfour's warned us Malloryn wants to destroy any prospect of a treaty and the girl's his spy. A former Falcon of Balfour's, if you can believe it. Malloryn's hinted he'd like to marry the girl off, and half the court is salivating. Not for marriage, of course. It would dilute their precious bloodlines. But she's got them exactly where she wants them. She's a beauty. They're all baying after her, but for some reason she seems to have singled out Sergey Grigoriev, which means Malloryn wants something from Sergey. Your mission is to distract her. Keep her away from Sergey. And find out what she's after."
"How, precisely, would you like me to do that?"
The question was not without merit.
"Seduce her. Become her friend. Kill her. I don't care. Just keep her away from Sergey, and keep it quiet. We don't want to draw Malloryn's attention. Balfour considers him a pup, bested by his betters, but I'm not convinced. There's a certain kind of rage in his eyes whenever he looks at Balfour. I've seen hate like that before, and it's dangerous."
"Seduction's not my style," he'd said coolly. No. For him, the kiss of a knife to a throat was as close as he got. They all had their skills.
"She's already rebuffed Silas. So you'll have to learn."
But with Hollis, it had been easier than he'd ever expected. The second he laid eyes upon her, he'd known he'd wanted her. He'd done his duty; intercepting her for a dance before she could make her way across the ballroom to Sergey. She'd glanced over his shoulder the entire time, eyes tracking Sergey, until he made her laugh and she'd finally looked at him as if she sawhim.
"See something you like?"he'd asked.
"I don't know,"she'd responded, as she swayed in his arms."I haven't yet made up my mind."
The smoke in his lungs still choked him as he stared up at the burning manor. People were streaming from the main doors, spilling out onto the snow in alarm.
"What happened?" Silas asked, lifting his head and spitting on the snow.
Dmitri couldn't find the words to answer.
There was no other explanation he could imagine.
The woman he'd given his heart to had tried to kill him.
* * *
Now....
The warm bundlein his arms stirred.
Obsidian strode up the circular staircase within the abandoned manor he'd found on the outskirts of London, heading for the observatory. His head ached, driven into the past by Gemma's presence, though all he could truly remember were flames.
