Page 1 of Right Hand Of The Reaper
Prologue
Her
“Whatareyoudoing,little thief?”
The dark whisper caught me off guard. I was literally standing there with my hand caught in the cookie jar. Well, vault. And not just any vault. I was in the most secure vault of all the territories and its location was kept as the biggest secret in the Guild. It was supposed to be impregnable, but I’d never been one to back down from a challenge.
“Spring cleaning?”
My answer was met with a chuckle that was just as dark as his whisper. I turned in the direction that the voice had come from and found myself looking at nothing but thick black shadows.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” the dark voice whispered.
I reached into my backpack for my weapon. A modified taser fixed with enough voltage to knock out an elephant. I was a thief, not a murderer. I didn’t play with guns. But if the taser failed, I always had my lucky knife with me so I could cause a little damage.
“Where are you?”
“Right here,” he whispered by my ear. A pathetic yelp careened out my throat and my heart rate jumped. I spun on my heels to take a look at the guy who’d just made me jump out of my skin and my gaze collided with bright red eyes.
Shit. That meant vampire or demon. Why didn’t my inside guy at the Guild mention this? To be fair, he probably didn’t know. Barely anyone knew about this place.
“Are you nervous, little thief?” he purred. I tried to ignore how deliciously sultry his words sounded but, damn the guy had a sexy voice.
He stepped into the light and holy mother of chocolate cream donuts. The guy was huge. He towered over me with muscles upon muscles. I mean, jeez, the guy was solid. And gorgeous. His face was all harsh planes and sharp angles, with stubble that would probably feel amazing against my skin. His hair was dark, but there were too many shadows for me to tell how dark.
Fuck me.
His tongue ran over his beautiful mouth and his nostrils flared. “Is that why you broke in here?”
Um, what?
Ah, crap. I’d totally said that out loud.
“Nope. Funnily enough, I came here to steal something.” And why the fuck was I being so honest?
“That much I’d figured. It’s not very often someone gets this far into the vault.”
This job was legendary amongst the thieves of the Underbelly. No one had ever successfully stolen the Diadem and now I knew why. Shit. I was going to end up like Trent. He was the last person to attempt it, and no one had heard from him since. I guess I was looking at the reason why.
The pay out for stealing the Diadem was ridiculous. And I was desperate. I needed the money and the clean slate because I’d managed to piss off the wrong people.
“Well, this is great and all, but I’ll just be taking the Diadem and be on my merry way.”
A surge of power swam through the air. Fuck. He was definitely not a vampire. I don’t even think he was a demon. That power felt like something else.
Something ancient.
Which was definitely something I didn’t want to get involved with.
“I can’t let you do that, little thief.” His words were laced with a threatening rumble. The thunder before the storm.
Energy crackled in the air, and my eyes darted from his to the Diadem that stood in front of me. It was such a small little thing. So plain and unassuming. Twisted knots of gold and silver with black and white diamonds clustered in the centre.
“Don’t do it. I don’t want to have to kill you.”
Again, my eyes flickered between him and the Diadem. I knew it was stupid. I wasn’t going to be able to beat him. But I really needed that crown.
His hand shot out and captured my wrist before I had even blinked. Heat immediately burned through my flesh as his fingers wrapped tightly around me, but it wasn’t painful, it was comforting. Warm. Tender.
