Page 57 of To Crave Madly
“Pfft,” she waved her hand dismissively. “You leave Mr. Grumpy Pants to me. Besides, Torsten will be watching from the shadows. He’s always nearby.”
Instinctively, I searched the room for him and nearly jumped out of my skin when he appeared behind Lori. “Shitting hell. Does he always stand that close?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m starting to get used to it.”
The Shadow Fiend stared at me intently with his mismatched eyes. I got the feeling he didn’t like this idea of going off base either.
“I dunno, Lori…”
She folded her arms defiantly. “I didn’t take you for such a pussy.”
Ooh, fighting talk. Fuck. I hated it when people called my bluff. I always accepted the challenge.
“Fine. But if we get caught, I’m totally blaming you.”
“Yay!” She jumped up and wrapped me in a hug, squealing. She fired off a message to Rae, who answered in seconds. I swear that witch was psychic. She’d meet us at Midnight Sin in a couple of hours, which meant we had plenty of time to get ready. I wanted to look hot if I was gonna get me some tonight.
“Right, first things first we need to get hold of some Dragon Tears.”
“Dragon tears?” Lori’s face scrunched up in disgust. “You don’t mean…”
Ha. Her face was a fucking picture. “No, we aren’t going to go and make Cassian cry. Even though that would be fun. Dragon Tears is alcohol that will actually make you tipsy. If we’re going out, we are going to do it properly. And lucky for you, I know exactly where to find some.”
Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Why do I feel like we are about to go and steal something?”
“Because we are.Andwe’re stealing it from Cassian.”
“Count me in.”
I grinned. Time for some fun.
***
LORI
Saskia and I stood outside the door to Cassian’s basement. I told Torsten to disappear because I wanted him to be able to deny all involvement in this. I knew Cassian had already taken quite a dislike to my Shadow Fiend and I didn’t want him to have another reason to hate him. My heart was pounding in my chest at the thought of going down there. I was terrified at what we might find but also excited to discover what secrets might lurk down there. Out of all the guys on the team, Cassian was the one I knew least about. All I knew was that he was an Ice Dragon and a miserable fucker. I didn’t know where he came from, what he did in his spare time, or how he came to be at the Conclave.
“How do you know how to get in there?” I asked Saskia. “I thought the basement was off-limits.”
“We all know the code. We just never go down here. It’s like an unwritten rule.”
Oh. Just me that didn’t know then. Fantastic.
“Technically, I can’t tell you the code but…” she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I can’t stop you from looking over my shoulder.”
I snorted. She was a troublemaker. I watched her enter the code, which she did slower than was probably necessary, and I managed to memorise it.
The door creaked ominously as it swung inwards. I could just about make out the first few steps and then there was nothing but darkness.
“Creepy.”
“There’s a light around here somewhere,” Saskia mumbled while fumbling along the wall. “Ah-hah.”
Lights came on down the stairwell and flickered like the set of a haunted house.
“You sure it’s safe to go down there? Cassian isn’t around, is he?”
Saskia let out a little laugh. “God, no. I wouldn’t go anywhere near here if he was on base.”
