Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

from the rocks. As he watched her through the haze, he realized he was awed by her, by the power in her graceful body.
    And even by her sheer viciousness.
    Kaderin yanked the siren up by the hair, swinging her around by it, gaining momentum until no part of the woman touched the ground. Kaderin finally released her grip as though with a bola, her fingers splayed.
    The cliff face crumbled under the blow of Lucindeya’s crashing body, rocks plummeting onto her back. Kaderin didn’t wait to watch her being completely buried, but jerked her head up to the next mountain. She ran, leaping at the rock face, digging her claws in for a good start, scrabbling up to a high cave.
    That cave at the top—that darkened cave—must hold the prize. And Sebastian could beat her to it. He pressed his sleeve against his cut lip, tasting his blood from where she’d kicked him.
    Kaderin would be meeting him after all.
    And the terms of the deal had just changed.

23
    K aderin staggered into the cave, panting with exertion from the climb. When her vision adjusted, she found the vampire casually tossing the prize up from his palm.
    The eggshell had pale striations of color twining around the width and was so fragile it was transparent.
    “Now we’re going to do things my way, Kaderin.”
    Her eyes followed it as he tossed it up and down. “Just give me the damn thing.”
    “You never intended to meet with me.” He looked infuriated with her. The sun had blistered his forearms and one side of his face. “And you kicked me.” A trail of blood had eased down from the corner of his bottom lip.
    “I kicked you in reflex.” That was true. The basilisk had just burst through the rocks as if they were packing-peanut fillers and was on her heels. “For future reference, don’t grab my ankle from behind when I’m being chased by things with long, prehensile tongues.”
    No matter what had happened between her and Sebastian, she wouldn’t have tried to knock him out. Not to be a dragon’s dinner or to burn in the sun any longer, although... “In any event, you deserved to be booted. You changed the terms of our deal when I was under duress! Not very gentlemanly.”
    “I feel less and less like a gentleman with you.” The very delicate egg was flipping end over end in his palm.
    “You could break that.” She could scarcely breathe. “It’s the last one.” She was easing closer, tilting her head, studying for a way to seize it.
    Something dangerous flashed in his expression. “Do you think to take it from me?” He dared her to.
    She froze, having no wish to tangle with a vampire while keeping the egg whole. “But you have to hurry,” she said desperately. “When Cindey gets here, she’ll sing, and then you’ll give it to her.”
    “I don’t believe she’ll be moving for some time after what you did to her.”
    “She’s immortal. She’ll shake it off. And she’s hurt me far worse in the past. But she could reach us very soon. One pure note out of her pipes, and you’ll be her slave forever.” At that thought, Kaderin inexplicably craved kicking her again. Or a really well-placed bitch-slap. At her larynx.
    “If you believe that, then you won’t mind striking yet another bargain to get this prize.”
    “I’ve told you I will never sleep with you.” A bead of sweat trickled down her neck, then between her breasts. His gray eyes followed it greedily, then flickered with black. Storm over water. She shivered in the heat.
    Even though his face was burned on one side and his hands as well, she was attracted to him and still aroused from earlier. Coldhearted? Once. Hot-blooded? He made her so. He alone could. And not just with sexual passion.
    She’d enjoyed kicking Cindey’s ass, and for some reason, she’d enjoyed that he’d seen her doing it.
    “I want to spend a night with you, touching you,” he said, his voice low. “That is all. However and wherever I choose.”
    She raised her brows. “So it’ll be all about me? You say that now, but I know you think to seduce me to do more.”
    “No, I won’t expect you to touch me whatsoever. I won’t expect sex.”
    “The altruistic vampire. And you’re just going to be doing these things to me and not reacting?”
    He ran his free hand over his mouth. “No, I believe I will be reacting quite a bit. Let me worry about my reactions. You have my word. No more. No less.”
    She tilted her head. “And then I get the prize?”
    “When I’m done with what I