Read Online Bound By Darkness by Alexandra Ivy - Free Book Online Page B

allowing their lips to brush as he spoke his low warning.
    “ Querida , you haven’t seen aggressive yet.”

Chapter 5
    Jaelyn perched on the steeply slanted roof, her eyes narrowed as Ariyal easily tugged open the unlocked skylight.
    She shook her head, her unease intensifying as she shifted to crouch beside the Sylvermyst.
    “It must be a trap.”
    “No one ever thinks an attack will be coming from above. Especially vampires.” Ariyal shot her a taunting smile. “Not surprising considering the fact they spend the majority of their lives in the dank ground.”
    Jaelyn clenched her hands, silently condemning Siljar and the rest of the Oracles to the nearest hell.
    It had been bad enough to be stuck with the unpleasant duty of tracking down Ariyal and hauling him to the Commission. But now ...
    She was a Hunter, not a babysitter for an aggravating, pain-in-the-ass Sylvermyst.
    “We aren’t dealing with a vampire,” she said between clenched teeth.
    He shrugged. “No, but this lair was built for one and Sergei spent most of his life in the company of a leech.”
    She allowed her frigid power to swirl through the air. “You’re pressing your luck, fairy .”
    He flashed a wicked smile before he was shifting to drop through the skylight with a liquid grace. He landed without a sound and tilted back his head to meet her jaundiced gaze.
    “Are you coming?” he softly demanded.
    “As if I have a choice,” she muttered beneath her breath, refusing to acknowledge his astonishing beauty as a stray beam of moonlight played over his pale, perfect features and the fascinating shimmer of his bronze eyes. Instead she pushed forward and landed next to the fey in the narrow hallway, her senses sweeping through the townhouse. “The mage is below us.”
    “Yes.” He paused, turning his head toward a closed door just down the hall that was paneled in a dark, glossy wood with gilt-framed paintings gathering dust. “But there’s a spell of protection through there.”
    She frowned. “The babe?”
    “Only one way to find out.”
    “Don’t forget your promise,” she warned, muttering a curse as he ignored her to shove open the door and disappear into the room beyond. She was swiftly following behind him, stepping into the obvious nursery to find the annoying man standing near a wooden cradle. “Ariyal, did you hear me?”
    “Perhaps you should let me concentrate, poppet,” he commanded, his gaze focused on the crib, where she could see a tiny bundle she presumed was the child. “We’re surrounded by a spell.”
    She froze, glaring at her companion in smoldering frustration.
    Dammit. She hated taking orders almost as much as she hated magic.
    A double reason to feel the urge to rip off someone’s head.
    “I told you this was a trap,” she hissed.
    “It’s not a trap.” He held up his slender hands, waving them above the crib as if trying to sense some unseen force field. “There’s a magical web to protect the child.”
    “Can you get rid of it?”
    His brow furrowed as he concentrated on the magic he could apparently sense beneath his hands.
    “Yes, but not without alerting the mage.”
    “Too late,” a voice drawled from the doorway.
    Jaelyn whirled around, prepared to pounce as she caught sight of a man standing in the doorway wearing nothing more than a burgundy robe with his silver hair hanging about his thin face.
    Vaguely she recognized him as Sergei, the mage from the Russian caves, although his gaunt, unshaven face and his shadowed eyes suggested the past weeks hadn’t treated him kindly. Still, whatever his troubles, his magic was obviously working just fine as he managed to cloak his scent and approach them without warning.
    He flinched at the flash of her fangs, his hand shaking as he held up a small glass vial filled with an amber liquid.
    “Stay back, vamp,” Sergei warned. “I spent several centuries concocting the perfect spell to kill a vampire as slowly and painfully as