Eternal Beauty: Mark of the Vampire (A Penguin Special from Signet Eclipse) by Laura Wright Page B

way of what he wants.”
    “I will take that chance,” Erion stated flatly.
    From behind the counter, the
mutore
laughed softly. “How brave you are,
Mutore
. I, however, have no interest in baiting a rabid shark with my blood. My death weighs heavily on my mind at all times—and my family’s.” He flipped through a file of papers on the table. “Speaking of which, where is my elixir? The one you promised me. The one you believe Cruen may have, the one that may prolong my life.”
    Erion grunted. “I must get to Cruen to find it.”
    “Then we are at an impasse,” the male said sadly. “I do not know where he is. He has not contacted me in some time.”
    Erion’s eyes narrowed. “You know something. I can feel it, smell it.”
    The male lifted his head, locked eyes with Erion. For one moment, he looked the true reptile his Shifter genes carried. Scales appeared on his face and neck, and between his teeth a forked tongue darted out.
    “Yes, you know something,” Erion hissed.
    The reptile retreated on a gasp, and left a bereft looking male with deep fear in his eyes.
    The demon inside of Erion, the lion-like animal that clawed to get out, growled with possessive ire. “Cruen took something that belonged to me.”
    “What? Your dignity?” Raine sighed. “Welcome to my universe.”
    “A
balas
.”
    Raine stilled, his gaze holding Erion’s tightly, curiously. “Why would he take a
balas
?”
    “It belongs to me.”
    The words took a moment to sink in. “It?” Raine looked horrified.
    “He,” Erion said gruffly. “A boy. My boy.”
    The words were strange on his tongue. It had been a mistake, the boy’s conception. After learning of Nicholas’s existence, Erion had been watching his twin for some time, was so curious as to his brother’s strange relations with women. Now Erion knew that Nicholas had only been carrying out a long stretch of torment from his past, a pattern of prostitution that his mother—their mother—had forced upon him as a young vampire. But Erion had seen only pleasure, connection, the bliss of being touched, in Nicholas and the females he mounted.
    He’d wanted that too.
    Fuck, he’d wanted that desperately.
    He’d met with one of Nicholas’s females, allowed a mating to take place between them. It had been a good union, comforting. He’d had no idea she’d borne a child from their coupling. Hadn’t known until several months ago. He’d thought such a thing impossible as Cruen had told him and all the
mutores
that they were unable to breed.
    A growl escaped his throat, rumbling through the dusty air of the
mutore’s
shop. Another of Cruen’s many lies. For too many years, the bastard
paven
had pretended to care about them all, pretended to be a father, when in truth he’d used them. They were nothing but tools , heavily muscled lab rats that Cruen hadn’t deemed worthy to breed.
    Erion’s face and body language must’ve taken on a raw, hostile air, because Raine inched back, shaking his head and looking fearful.
    “I am sorry he has taken your
balas
,” he said in a careful voice. “I wish I could help.”
    “You will help,” Erion said, retreating from the blips of his past with barely suppressed rage. “I don’t wish to harm you, but if you keep something from me—something that would help me find the
balas
—I won’t hold my beast back from ripping you apart.”
    Abject fear glittered in Rain’s eyes. “It is only rumors, rumblings.”
    “Whatever it is, I want it all.”
    Behind the desk Raine crumpled into a chair. He looked utterly miserable. “It is nearly too fantastical to be believed. I don’t want to send you on a wild, impossible ride.”
    Ah, the male did know something. He had been wise to press. “Nothing is impossible when Cruen is involved.”
    “This is true, but . . .” Raine’s jaw tightened. “If I give you the information I have, you must promise me something. My daughter is in swell. I wish to live to see this child.