“Jesus Christ, Isolde,” he says in that sexy voice of his. “What are you doing?”
“I came to help you escape,” I whisper, glancing at the door. My heart beats like a rabbit’s. “Quickly, a serpent guard could burst in any second. If they find me here I’m dead.”
“Isolde.” Tristan takes my face between his strong hands, those electric blue eyes on me. “I don’t need help.” He motions with his head to the open terrace door. “All I have to do is jump off that terrace, and no serpent would be able to stop me. I’m staying because I intend to free you from this monster, no matter what. But.”
“But what?” I breathe, staring deeply into his eyes and relishing the feeling—this knight is ready to fight all these monsters for me.
“I need you to give me some time.”
I look down and push his hands from my face, moving away from him toward the open terrace door. I close my eyes and breathe in the salty air, bracing myself, my fingers sinking into the satin bathrobe. I ran over here the first chance I got, namely right after a bath. Opportunity presented itself while I was drying my hair.
“Time. It already feels like it’s been forever. If you only knew how much I’d like to jump right off this terrace and run away.”
Tristan comes close behind me, his scent of frost mixing with that of the salty breeze. Emotion swells in my chest, something I haven’t felt since I was a schoolgirl. I breathe in, enjoying the feeling.
“Isolde, back when you and Mark met, who were you protecting, and why?”
“It’s irrelevant. Because Mark getting the man or not wouldn’t help me in any way. He’d leave this town, this country, vampire territory. But he’d take me along, to some place from where I could never escape.” I raise my face to the breeze. My fingers sink into my arms as I brace myself, Tristan’s body close behind me. “I miss my sister. I miss Magda, too, and my sweet little Rux. I couldn’t bear to be taken to some place at the end of the world, without a hope of seeing them again.”
“Sweet little Rux, you say?” I can hear the smile behind his words. “Most people would call her anything but. She’s half vampire and half demoness, a nasty one, too. I’m saying that with all due respect, of course.”
“Most people didn’t know her as a malnourished ten year old, who’d been buried alive by evil aunts. They didn’t see her little black eyes cling with affection to Juliet and me, offering us her cookies when her ribs still showed like a skeleton’s. They didn’t see her baring her teeth like a little animal in her first attempts to smile—she’d never smiled before, she didn’t even know how to.”
I feel a vibration go through Tristan, and I know that my words moved him. Must be the tone of my voice.
He touches my elbows, his body brushing my back. I close my eyes, enjoying the sensation—my vampire knight, comforting me in the depth of my despair. Maybe the potion is to blame for what I feel inside, but I’m pretty damn sure I’d feel this warmth towards him even without it. He’s the first person showing me kindness in a very long time. Only now that I receive it I realize just how badly I needed it.
“I promised Serpaint that I’d help him get his target. Let’s use the time that I’m here, and try to use the potion again on him and his assistant. I still have some, and I’ll surely find an opportunity to slip it into their drinks. They deserve each other, those two slimy scumbags. Then, when he has what he wants and we have what we want—him in love with Soraya—I’ll get him to let you leave with me.”
“Leave with you,” I repeat, letting the words roll sweetly off my tongue. I’d love to run away with him. I turn around, looking up into his face. This could be embarrassing.
“Tristan, did the love potion have any effect on you?”
This must be the longest second of my life. Tristan DeKnight, the beautiful Prince of Spades, looks down at me out of those electric blue eyes with an expression impossible to read.
“Why do you ask? Do you feel anything for me?”
“I don’t know,” I lie. “I’m not sure.”
“If you do, I can help you,” he says with a reassuring squeeze of my shoulders. “We assassins have ways to deal with emotion.”
Kill this feeling? Hell, no. It’s the most beautiful thing I have.
I turn around, looking out the window towards the forgotten harbor.
“I’ll ask you for tips in case it happens. Now would you please check the hallway, help me leave your chamber? If anyone spots me I’m lost.”
He comes closer, and my heart beats harder. “But you don’t really want to leave this room, do you? You feel safe here.”
Hearing it put into words makes me break. I burst into tears, covering my face with my palms. My shoulders shake as I sob, and Tristan takes me in his arms from behind.
“I swear I’ll do everything in my power to free you, Isolde,” he whispers. “Even if it’s the last thing I do. But there’s one thing you need to know before you leave Mark Serpaint.”
He turns me around. I look up at him, my salvation rock in an ocean of despair.
“Even if Mark falls in love with Soraya and leaves you in peace, you will never be entirely free of him. When a serpent imprints on a mate, and takes them to bed, they are mated for life.”
My stomach revolts. “Please don’t tell me I can never be free of him. Tristan, the man is a monster. He did things to me, I’d prefer death to sex with him again.” I can’t withstand another wave of tears that makes me choke on my words and cover my eyes. Tristan pulls me to his chest.
His white shirt is open, my forehead pressing to hard pectorals with skin as smooth as my satin robe. That fresh scent of frost and power wakes in me the desire to lick him, letting the taste of him purge me of the serpent’s essence. It’s hard to refrain, so I push away.
Compassion shows vividly in his face.
“You pity me,” I breathe, trying to turn away, but Tristan’s hold tightens around me, keeping me in his arms.
“I understand exactly what you’re going through, Isolde. Your husband and I have a history, and I know how cruel he can be.”
“Yes, I got that. What exactly happened between the two of you?”
He pauses, his lips pressing in a hard line. “You are the only person in the world I feel I can share that with, Isolde, and maybe I will. Someday.”
“I understand. You’re not ready.”
“But there is something you and I need to talk about urgently—the reason why Mark sought you out in the first place.”
I hesitate.
“Come on, you need to relax first.” He walks to the mini-bar. The white shirt is tight on the muscular sides of his back, and narrow at his waist, luring my eyes to slip down his frame as he pours us both whiskey-cola. I force myself to look into his face when he comes back and offers me a glass, keeping myself from staring at his beautiful body that glistens between the open sides of his white shirt.
“Please, have a seat,” Tristan invites me, motioning to the small round table at the side of the open window. This is a guest room, furnished very much like a luxury hotel.
I sit in a chair hidden behind the curtain so no one can see me from outside, and Tristan takes the other chair.