Page 105 of Cryptic Dreams
“Wraith bought them for me.”
“I assumed so. The fabric of one glove alone is worth at least a month’s pay at that silly library, not to mention the quality shows a refinement that can only be bred and not taught.”
Clenching my jaw, I force another smile and reach toward her outstretched hand. “He does have good taste.”
“Usually.” Drusilla’s gaze narrows on mine as she quickly places my glove in my palm, tugging me toward her as she tightens her grip. “It’s been slipping lately though, hasn’t it, my dear?”
Shit.
Shit, the glove is preventing us from touching.
The majority of our contact is blocked and…
“A word of advice, yeah? Between usgirls,” she says as she leans in and brings her mouth toward my ear. “Keep yourself in check at dinner Saturday. Atticus has no patience for bullheaded females and he tends to break them for ugly behavior.” I can smell the liquor on her breath as I turn my head slightly. “And if I think for one second that you may be looking to bebrokenby my mate, I’ll pull your liver out through your loose lips and deliver it to my son wrapped in a pretty red ribbon.”
“Drusilla, I—”
“And if you so much as dream about taking Wraith away from this city, your liver will be all they find of you.”
Before her words completely register, my mate’s mother is pressing a kiss to my cheek, and sending one extremely loud memory directly into my grey matter.
“See you soon, Zephyr darling,” I hear as the cold from her touch disappears and I blink wide eyes, Drusilla giving me a finger wave as Randolph whisks her away toward the door.
Slowly, I lift my hand to my cheek, barely touching where she’d kissed me as her words echo in my ears, and her memory plays on a loop in my mind.
I don’t know if it’s because the contact was brief and in a weird location, or if it was because I was so caught off guard by what she was saying, but the fact that I only saw one of Drusilla’s memories had to mean something.
Or maybe… maybe it’s because her memory pertains to the one important thing that came up, the topic she avoided by scolding me on etiquette—the only time I brought up the investigation. Because this memory definitely has something to do with that, and I need to get home to my mate immediately so I can share it with him.
26
New Kink, Unlocked
WRAITH
Itake a step back and lower the needle, watching as the veins in Gwendolyn’s forearm almost immediately begin to swell and expand under her skin. She screams around the gag in her mouth, tears streaming down her face as she fights against her restraints.
Titling my head, I ignore the way her shoulders pop and dislocate, the way her feet swing as her toes struggle to find purchase against the tarp she’s suspended above and instead focus on this bitch assassin’s arm. The light blue tunnels that carry her blood throughout her body have doubled in size and turned black as pitch;burningfrom the inside out. Gwendolyn’s fair skin begins to blister and bubble as the serum—a highly concentrated UV serum laced with silver and an unknown element Lydia is already analyzing—travels toward her bicep.
Wilfred, Gwendolyn’s mate and partner in trying to murder my gentle breeze and I, bellows as he lunges for her but it is useless. The two are crudely hanging from the ceiling of Declan’s room in my house, shackled by silver cuffs and chains, and hanging at least seven feet apart. And since my friend has already broken both of his femurs, the male couldn’t get to his mate in order to save her even if he was free.
My gaze flicks to him briefly, Wilfred now screaming around his gag as well, tugging and pulling at the chains despite the way they burrow further into his wrists. “It’s difficult, yeah? Knowing someone has set out to hurt your fated one, to kill them based on nothing but blind faith and conviction?” The male doesn’t stop his efforts to get to Gwendolyn, doesn’t acknowledge me at all and it makes me grin. “Thoseprimal instincts,the nearly animalistic urges to fight for and protect what’s ours never ceases, even in the face of imminent death and eternal damnation.”
Gwendolyn’s scream of agony redirects my attention, and as soon as my eyes land on her, they widen ever so slightly.
The flesh of her left arm has sloughed off from the bottom of her hand all the way down to her elbow and as the veins continue to burn, her skin follows suit. Blistering, splitting, peeling. The ivory cracks like porcelain before it falls from her bones in wet chunks, leaving nothing but an ash so black it looks like tar in its wake.
“Will you tell usnowwhat the unknown component is?” I ask both of them as Declan comes to stand behind Wilfred. “And perhapswhyyou had such large quantities of this serum in addition to the weapons you were transporting?”
“Or who you’re moving this shit for?” my friend grunts.
Both of our guests merely scream in reply so I return to watching whatXVS-3791does to the average vampire.
The standard UV and silver serum is fatal to anyone unfortunate enough to come into contact with it.
Liquifying the substance means it moves quickly and easily through the bloodstream but it’s typically encased in a bullet, which slows down the effectiveness no matter where one is shot. Those bullets are made of a specially engineered material that cracks once contact is made, allowing the UV-silver to seep into its new host and travel until it hits the heart, causing almost third degree burns to the organ while it fights to keep beating. Which in turn means it is pumping the serum back out into the bloodstream, thus killing its target in roughly thirty minutes depending on the location of the initial wound.
This, though… this XVS-3791 is quite different.
