Assassin: Fall of the Golden Valefar (A Paranormal Romance—Book #6 in the Demon Kissed Series) by H.M. Ward Page A

just as she rounded the corner. Natalia stopped. She
couldn’t move. Ice filled her body, traveling up her veins, and making her
break into a cold sweat. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe and found herself
dry-heaving onto a pile of rubble. Falling to her knees she couldn’t hold her
head up. Long dark hair fell over her shoulders.
    What did this to her? She’d seen men die before, but she
never reacted like this. Her body never betrayed her like this. Paralyzed with
cascading emotions, she couldn’t move. Weakness plagued her limbs, as her face
rested against the sharp rubble beneath her cheek. As she heaved, she knew why.
She felt it. Part of her was like them, part of her wanted to kill them because
she could. In the room, she had stood over Eric’s prone body. The chance was
there. She could have killed him. She could have tormented him. Things could
have been different. The savage nature of her bloodlust coursed through her
body. She’d nearly done it, but at the last second she fled. There was no way
to know for certain if Eric was the right man.
    Her body trembled, rebelling against the darkness within
her. She didn’t want to be like him. She would not be cruel and destroy. Every
fiber of her being was repulsed, she couldn’t be like Eric. No. Tears slid down
Natalia’s face. She heard nothing except her own body protesting, until she
felt Eric’s hands lift her off the ground.
    “You’ll be all right,” his voice was soft, as he cradled
her in his arms. But she wasn’t. The man she wanted to kill, to tear apart with
her bare hands was holding her in his arms like a child, speaking softly in her
ear. Oh god, what if I was wrong? What
if Eric isn’t the man she’d been searching for at all? The thought shook her. She
leaned against his chest, feeling the beat of his heart and closed her eyes,
trying to push every thought out of her mind.
    Eric looked down at her and cursed. Her frantic heartbeat
slowed as she rested her head against him. She should fear him. Terror should
course through her veins, but it didn’t. When he held her, he felt her pulse
slow. He felt her fear ease. She trusted him and she shouldn’t, but after he
acted like this—he finally understood why the girl liked him. She waited for
moments like this, moments when Eric acted beyond his own comprehension.
Compassion overrode his anger, and doused his rage. The desire to protect her
was too strong. As long as he was around, no one would harm her. She knew it. And
now, so did he .

 

 
 
    CHAPTER ELEVEN

 
 
    Natalia awoke on a massive bed. Sunlight was pouring into
the dark room through a window above. Tiny patches of colored light filled the
room. As the previous night came back to her, she sat up slowly. The red corset
was nowhere to be seen, and she was wearing a black tee shirt that smelled like
Eric. The red G-string bottoms were still in place. He must have changed her
out of the corset, which she was grateful for. The metal boning dug into her
ribs and bruised them while she wore it. Looking around the room she could see
that she was inside a group of small buildings that had collapsed on each
other. At the center was a stained glass window, probably from a church. That
was where the colored light was coming from. The rose window was still standing,
held up high above the rest of the mess left from the war.
    Natalia didn’t see Eric at first. It took a moment for her
eyes to adjust. Or maybe she just didn’t believe what she was seeing. Eric was
sitting cross-legged on a stone, watching the dust dancing in the stream of
colored light. He looked like a child, frozen, mesmerized by something so
common and simple. His hair looked lighter, golden, in the light that crowned
his head. His face seemed at peace, and lacked the hostility that was usually
pinched between his brow . He stared unblinking,
looking almost forlorn, as if he lost something he’d never find.
    She cleared her throat, and said softly,