Read Online My Immortal Assassin by Carolyn Jewel - Free Book Online Page B

Christophe was sharing his physical experience. She gave back what he needed, which was her complete adoration. He looked into her blue eyes, knowing that his mageheld saw and felt what he did, and said, “I love you.”
    He felt the slight diminution in his power that was the result of whatever had gone wrong the night he killed Tigran. He had not understood then what had happened, which was that Anna, or Gray, or whatever she was calling herself now, had managed to damage him when she took Tigran’s magic. The woman now possessed part of his magic. Not much, but any part was too much. That magic might mean the difference between keeping Erin and losing her forever.
    For that, Christophe decided, Anna Spencer had to die.

CHAPTER 7
    Broadway near Baker Street, San Francisco
    T he first step to treason was easier than he’d expected.
    Durian walked to the mini-fridge tucked under the desk. He wondered if he was mad to be doing this. Binding Gray to him with an oath of fealty was not without precedent. Nikodemus himself had bound a witch to him. There was no practical reason why he could not do the same. There were, however, myriad political reasons why he shouldn’t.
    He took a bottle of water from the fridge and gave it to Gray. He had himself under tight control. He always did. There was little chance she’d see more than he intended if they did happen to link again, as would be natural, given that she was kin. The kin had long followed strict customs about what degree of psychic contact was acceptable between each other and with humans. Since the first trouble with the magekind, many of those customs now gained the force of law.
    Gray twisted off the cap and drained half the bottle without taking a breath. She looked at him so steadily he wondered if she’d guessed after all the enormity of the step he proposed. He wasn’t sure it would matter to her, whether or not she had picked up on that. Certain humans were highly intuitive—or nascently gifted that way. She might be one of those. If her sister had been a witch, perhaps the ability ran in the family.
    “I’ll teach you what you need to know.” With that, he leapt off the cliff into free fall. He was going to do this. There was no taking back an offer he should have run by Nikodemus first.
    “I’m listening.” Her hair, he noted with a shudder, was almost precisely the same color as the couch.
    “There is one condition,” he said.
    She lifted her chin. Suspicious thing, wasn’t she? “Yeah?”
    “It is crucial that you fully understand what I’m asking of you.” She frowned, and he said, “Perhaps more so for you than anyone else I might ask this of, given your history.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “Meaning?”
    “Your oath of fealty to me will be more binding than any physical tie you can imagine, Gray. Understandably, you have strong feelings about your personal agency, if you will. If you do this, there is no walking away because you decide it’s inconvenient or that you don’t care for the responsibilities imposed on you.”
    “What responsibilities?”
    “You will be obliged to support me. You cannot act against my interests without consequences you will find most unpleasant.”
    “Right.” Her mouth tightened while she thought about what he’d said. “You’ve sworn fealty to Nikodemus?” When he nodded, she continued. “It’s common for the free kin to swear fealty to each other?”
    “It is how our society operates.”
    “All right then. I’m in.”
    This was exactly what he’d feared would happen; agreement without due consideration. “Gray—”
    “I get it. Fuck you over and it’s pain and suffering for me.” She laughed to herself but it wasn’t out of amusement. There was a hardness in her that made him sad, despite his disinclination to pathos. “I know all about pain and suffering, trust me.”
    He nodded because she did.
    She pointed at him. “I get it. Really, I do. You teach me how to deal with what I