Page 59 of Ravenous
“At least the work’s never dull.” And lately, they’d been swimming in jobs. By day, she worked as a chambermaid for the royals—demoted, unseen—but by night, she and Inkletter played gods, bending the Skein to their will. Between her jaded experience and his vast knowledge, they were unstoppable.
She’d been wrong about him. Inkletter wasn’t cold. He felt everything too sharply.
And, sin of sins, she’d begundependingon him.
Worse, she craved him still.
He’d lost weight lately, which meant he wasn’t feeding. Which meant he wasn’t bedding anyone. A twinge struck low in her chest.
But they’d agreed: no sex, no distractions, no blurred lines. Their partnership was its own reward.
Nadje divided the gold, then poured herself a generous measure of blood mead. She hadn’t been feeding from live quarry either. “I’ve got a lead on another job.”
He arched a brow. “Relocating a kraken from the Scarlet Shallows to the Twilight Sea?”
She brightened. “That’s a great idea! But this one’s easier. Once I’ve set it up, I’ll call you. Oh, wait, Ican’t. Because you won’t give me your summoning sigils, like demons do all the time.”
Instead, he gave her his usual excuse: “When I’m in repose or study, I want no interruptions. Nothing is more important than my true calling.”
“I’ll bet you gave your sigils to Arctos.”
“He’s trustworthy.”
Ouch.Though she’d begun to trust him—a miracle for Nadje—Inkletter didn’t trusther. “Any day now, Berserker forces will strike Bloodreach to free their people,” she said, rolling the mead in her mug. Emilia had hoped so;Nadje had been less hopeful. She had sympathy for those Berserkers, but she had more sympathy for herself, and business was booming now. “I’d just like an escape route in case things get messy.”
“I’ll check in tomorrow.” Yet he lingered, still as a statue, disapproval radiating from him.
She sighed. As with any partnership, there were highs and lows, pros and cons. “Just spit it out, incubus.”
“You do not feel as if tonight’s job was beneath us?”
“Matchmaking a near-extinct species? I’m feeling like a model Skeinian right now!” But when she caught the tightness of his jaw, she groaned. “You’re still brooding about the warlock.” Inkletter refused to let the transaction with Baelor go, his resentment simmering like that lava. “Again, if we hadn’t done that job, someone else would have.”
“That kind of facile reasoning excuses anything.”
She took another slug of mead, rolling her head on her neck. “Why can’t you just enjoy yet more successful missions where no one died and everything turned out well? We’re in aput up or shut upsituation. And I can always find another partner.”
“Put up or shut up? Those are my parameters?”
“Yes. Maybe tonight should be your last job.” If they did dissolve their partnership…she could coax him into one volatile, goodbye tumble first. Dinner and dessert. Her fangs ached at the thought.
Two times in the arms of an incubus though? With his fluids affecting her even more? Dinner, dessert,disaster.
And the thought of never working beside him again made her stomach churn. He was dependable, steady. When he said he’d do something, he did it.
She wasn’t alone anymore, and that knowledge comforted her. Especially now.
Lately, Bloodreach felt unsettled, the air charged like a fault line before it split. She’d felt this before, when the Badlands trembled and the sand itself lifted, whispering of catastrophes.
Did some massive force gather energy to wreck everything? Talk about changing market conditions!
Prince Co?tin was the epicenter, she knew it. Though he’d raged at first about Lia, he’d since grown quiet, setting out regularly from Bloodreach. Why?
Crawling anxiety skittered inside her chest. Her breath caught, shallowand fast. Like when she’d breathed her mother’s ashes…when they’d coated her skin, camouflaging her from the strigoi and the sun.
That memory always came with suffocation.
She recalled days before her death, Mama saying, “The strigoi used to be vampires like us. These Badlands changed them, morphed them into monsters. Something in the sand, maybe.”
