Burned by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,1

da.” He gave a wave of the bottle.

Tayla tossed aside the towel, studying her companion with a faint smile.

“What’s that?”

“My favorite wine.”

Tayla wrinkled her nose, watching Levet move to take a seat at the table near the windows.

“I’m not much of a drinker,” she told him.

“You will like this, I promise,” he assured her. “Besides, we are celebrating.”

Hmm. That was news to her.

“What are we celebrating?”

“I had my first satisfied customer.”

“Ah.” With a small smile, Tayla placed the scones on a plate and gathered two wine glasses. “That is of course a reason to celebrate. Tell me about your satisfied client.”

Levet’s wings twitched with pride. “I managed to find a perfect match for a beautiful young ice sprite who’d been living alone in the Arctic,” he informed her. “I connected her with a fire sprite who has been eager to start a family.” He heaved a deep sigh. “It was love at first sight.”

Fire and ice?

Tayla gave an inward shrug. Perhaps opposites truly did attract.

Moving to the table, she set down the plate of scones and allowed Levet to pour them both a glass of the amber wine. With an unabashed eagerness, the gargoyle reached for one of the delicate pastries.

“Ma belle, these are très bien,” he sighed, eating the scone in one large bite. He demolished two more before he lifted his glass. “A toast to success.”

“To success,” she murmured, taking a cautious sip of the wine. She lifted her brows as she tasted the hint of nectar that was blended into the expensive vintage. The bottle had to have cost the gargoyle a small fortune. “Yum,” she breathed, taking a deeper sip. “Where did you get this?”

Over the years she’d bought small vials of nectar, but since she was desperately trying to save every penny she could get her hands on to keep a roof over her head, it was a rare occurrence.

Now she savored the warmth that spread through her.

The gray eyes returned to study her with an unexpected intensity, starting at the top of her dark gold hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back with hints of fire in the silken strands. From there he moved to the pale oval of her face, lingering on the light green eyes with fissures of jade before taking in the narrow nose and the plush peach lips.

He took a minute to approve of her slender body, casually attired in a pair of ivory slacks with a cashmere sweater that she’d matched with a pearl necklace, before he answered.

“I have a direct connection to the King of the Fey.”

Tayla made a choked sound. She’d heard rumors that the rare pureblooded fey had returned to this dimension, but she hadn’t been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of one.

“How could you be acquainted with the Chantri?” she demanded.

Levet took a sip of his wine. “Not that I like to toot my own horny, but—”

“Horn,” Tayla corrected with a twitch of her lips. “Toot your own horn.”

“Horn or horny, it is all the same thing.” Levet blithely waved a clawed hand. “The point is that I have saved the world on more than one occasion and I have several VIDs who are deeply in my debt.”

Tayla blinked in confusion. “VIDs?”

“Very Important Demons.” Levet gave a preening flap of his wings. “Including the King of Vampires and the King of Weres.”

Tayla furrowed her brow. She hated to doubt the tiny demon’s honesty, but it seemed a stretch to believe that he was actually acquainted with such important creatures.

“If you have such powerful friends then why did you choose to set up your dating service in this isolated neighborhood?” she asked, truly curious. “Wouldn’t it have made more sense to be somewhere you could use your connections to attract customers?”

The gargoyle wrinkled his small snout. “There might have been the teeniest, tiniest misunderstanding when I opened my business in Viper’s club.”

“Viper.” Tayla tilted her head to the side. She’d heard that name before. “The vampire clan chief of Chicago?”

“Oui. He is a selfish pain in the derrière.”

“What happened?”

Levet hunched his shoulder. “I was considerate enough to chose his club, the Viper Pit, as the location for my dating service. I even threw a party to celebrate my new business. But did he thank me? Non. He claimed the bottles of champagne I’d borrowed from his cellar were some priceless vintage and tossed me out the door. Fah. He even threatened to have my head mounted on his wall if he caught