Read Online Shadow Rising by Kendra Leigh Castle - Free Book Online

balance. Uncertain. He needed to find some solid ground on which to deal with her, and soon.
    “If you didn’t kill Manon, who did?” she asked. The vicious, curved blade didn’t move from his throat, where the sting of it slicing into his skin was rapidly becoming torment.
    “Are you saying you believe me, after all that?”
    Ariane didn’t reply, and she didn’t have to. Damien could see that she would stand there forever, if necessary,waiting for an answer. Of course, he’d be out of his mind by then from the slow-dripping blood, the insistent sting of the blade’s edge.
    “This is interesting,” Damien said, wanting her to do something, anything to break the impasse. “I didn’t figure you at all for the sadistic type, and yet here you are, watching me bleed. Does my blood turn you on, love?”
    Violet eyes narrowed. “Don’t call me that. It’s very obvious you’re only in love with yourself. Nothing about you interests me.”
    It stung, which was ridiculous. Her petty verbal slaps at him were the least of his worries. And yet everything about Ariane smacked of a challenge. Her rejection of him most of all.
    Not interested? We’ll see about that.
    “Deadly and astute,” Damien said, his voice a bored drawl. “Look, are you going to separate my head from my body, or are you going to lecture me? I had a governess growing up, you know. I don’t need another. And you’re even duller than she was.”
    He lashed out from habit, accustomed to being as cutting as he pleased without anyone thinking much of it. Ariane’s flinch was barely noticeable, but Damien caught it… and immediately felt like a cad, something he thought himself incapable of feeling even before he’d been turned.
    “I may be dull to you,” Ariane said evenly, her chin tipping up just a little in defiance, “but I’m the one holding the sword. I’ll decide what to do with it after you tell me what happened here.”
    “I discovered a headless corpse and a simpering moron moments before being attacked by a crazy vampiress with a ridiculously large sword.”
    The slight curve of her lips was cool. “Funny.”
    “I was being deadly serious,” Damien snapped. “Though it’s nice to know Grigori have a sense of humor.”
    “We don’t.”
    “Well… shit.” He bared his fangs at his own reflection in the gleaming blade. It wasn’t supposed to end like this for him, done in by a beautiful woman immune to his charms over something he hadn’t even done. For once.
    Still she watched him silently, until he wanted to scream. Instead of that, however, he did something unthinkable: he told the truth.
    “I arrived only a few minutes before you did,” Damien said, his voice clipped as his accent thickened the way it always did when he was angry. “I’m sure you’re aware that Thomas Manon is— was —a wealthy broker with a lot of high-profile accounts among the dynasties. My information was that your friend Sammael supposedly saw him before he fell off the face of the earth. I had an appointment.” He glared balefully at her. “I don’t usually kill my appointments.”
    Something flickered in her eyes. “Usually?”
    “Look, everything’s got its occasional exception.” He hated the way his voice sounded, strained and petulant, like a child facing his inevitable punishment after being found out. What was the point in defending himself to her?
    Damn it, stop reacting and do what you’re good at , he told himself. Quit whining and start saving your own ass!
    It seemed an odd time to try and appeal to the better angels of Ariane’s nature—whatever those were—but charm, normally his first line of defense rather than his last resort, was all he had left. She’d been immune the last time. He’d just have to try harder.
    Or maybe not. He caught her eyes drifting down to the blood still trickling slowly from his neck, staining his clothes. Damien could see her anger had faded considerably. And discomfort had come to