lean, powerful body. His hand rested on my belly and I could feel the way my muscles reacted, the way I reacted.
“Are you going to come to me, little aneira?” he whispered, dipping his head and nuzzling my neck.
I found my voice at the brush of his teeth on my neck.
Figures it would take that.
Yeah, having a vampire pressing his teeth to your throat, even in dreams, is enough to get the adrenaline going.
Full-fledged vampires aren’t the hot and sexy things of books. They are deadly. Cold. Soulless, powerful and yes, they can be sexy as hell—Jude is proof of that, but I suspected it might safer to share my bed with a pit viper.
Summoning that image to mind gave me the strength I needed to move.
My sword arm is mighty.
I will not falter…
Rolling out of bed and away from him, I grabbed the T-shirt from the foot of the bed and jerked it on. “Jude, seriously. How often are you going to do this?” I asked.
“You had to get dressed, didn’t you?”
I shot him a dirty look and immediately wished I hadn’t. Moonlight gilded him with its pale light, turning his blond hair to silver, casting that carved face into angelic lines as his eyes glowed.
They were green. When he was angry, they glowed red with blood hunger, but right now, they were alight with an emerald luminescence that raked over my skin like a caress.
Damn it. It had been too long since I’d gotten laid. The last boyfriend I’d had ended up leaving town after he’d been offered a very lucrative job. He was around off and on now, but it was more off than on and we’d drifted apart. Still, there were times when I missed him. A lot. And not just because of the sex.
But if I’d gotten laid anytime in the past couple of years, Jude wouldn’t seem so damned appealing right now. That look in his eyes was enough to drive me mad, but I wasn’t going to let him get to me.
Not any more than I hadn’t already.
“What do you want, Jude?”
He laughed. It stroked over my skin, begged me to laugh with him. Nope. Not doing that. Definitely not. “You know what I want, little warrior. When are you going to stop avoiding me? I haven’t seen you in months. You’re not taking my calls and you won’t take the work I send your way…foolish, that. Your silly little business is hurting for work and we both know it.”
Silly.
Running my tongue along my teeth, I returned to my bed.
I could let the anger I felt at the insult get to me. Or I could use it.
I’d rather use it.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Jude’s eyes widen as I drew closer. His hand snaked out as I reached with my own.
But I wasn’t reaching for him.
I was reaching for the sword I kept under my pillow.
No, I couldn’t wield it in dreams…but I could use the strength I found in it.
The hilt settled in my hand, like an extension of my arm. Just touching it made me feel like I’d…come home.
Touching a sword. Yes. I’m more than a little messed up.
Smiling at him, I said, “I’m waking up now.”
My sword arm is mighty.
I will not falter.
I will not fail.
My aim is true.
My heart is strong.
The mantra of the aneira—the people I’d descended from. My mother had been full-blooded. My father had been human. Still, that had been drilled into my head and I’d shouted it out on the practice fields of Aneris Hall, the hell where I’d lived for the first fifteen years of my life.
The entire thing would take several minutes to recite, but the first few lines were enough to get me through the worst things. Sometimes, I had to say it several times a day.
My name is Kit Colbana.
In a world filled with shapeshifters, vampires and witches who can turn your insides into your outsides, I’m next to nothing; a peon.
I’ve got a knack for killing and tracking things down. I’m a talented thief, although I try to avoid that line of work, if I can. Luck tends to swing in my favor, although sometimes it’s in a very odd manner, but at least I land on my feet when I ought to be landing in a grave or worse. And I have the ability to fade out…I can go invisible. A handy skill for an assassin, I guess.