Masquerade (Vampires Realm Series Book 7) (Reading Sample) by Felicity Heaton (reading fiction txt) 📕

“Yes, Commander Tynan.”

Chapter 3

Vivek kept pace beside Sophis, his focus on the dark rundown residential streets surrounding him, alert and aware of every shadow and every nook where a hunter could hide. Sophis’s deep brown gaze remained locked ahead of her and he could feel she was on high alert too. Her signature was strong on his senses, sending a signal that she was a danger to him. She wasn’t. Their bout earlier this evening had proven that.

Sophis wasn’t strong enough to defeat him, not when he was focused. The times she had spoken of, taunting him with them to goad him into reacting and fighting her this evening, were both times when he had been distracted. He couldn’t remember what had shattered his focus, but he could remember that it had happened.

He glanced across at her.

She hadn’t said a word since leaving Commander Tynan’s office. He liked their new predicament just as much as she did but it was an order, and she was failing dismally at her role in their mission. Tynan had instructed them to leave their squads behind and masquerade as lovers. Playing the doting male turned Vivek’s stomach but he was willing to do it if it meant they remained inconspicuous.

Sophis wasn’t.

Unless her silent treatment and distance was supposed to be a lover in a foul mood.

She walked under the yellow circle of one of the streetlights hanging between the buildings and he frowned when the light flashed over her face, revealing the thin dark line darting across her right cheek.

He hadn’t meant to cut her.

The smell of her blood had been a distraction and she had used it against him. He had hoped to avoid cutting her for that reason. Distraction was a weakness. Saliva filled his mouth at the thought of blood. It was only a few days since his last hunt but he was hungry again. Tynan had him on duty most nights, either patrolling the city or mansion grounds, or working with some of the teams that would be responsible for security during the ball. Vivek knew that Sophis had received the same busy schedule since returning to duty a few nights ago even though she was still recovering. She was too damn young to be taking the lead against hunters. Her actions that night had been foolish. She should have teamed up with other members of her squad to take the hunter down or waited for him to arrive rather than going in alone ahead of them.

He clenched his fists until his short nails dug into his palms, anger curling through him as memories of that night flashed across his eyes.

Foolish female.

Where had it gotten her?

The hunter hadn’t been alone. Another had shot her in the back from a rooftop and the hunter she had been attacking had used the arrow sticking out of her shoulder as a weapon. He had dragged it over her back, causing the arrowhead to snap off. That hadn’t stopped him. The man had stabbed her again with the holy wood shaft of the arrow and torn a long line through her flesh with it, leaving splinters deep in her skin.

Sophis had gone down in seconds, screaming in agony as the holy wood burned her.

And he had slaughtered both hunters.

Vivek still wasn’t sure what had come over him.

His fists tightened at his sides. He wanted to kill the hunters all over again whenever he thought about it.

And he had thought about it a lot.

Sophis looked across at him, her gaze briefly meeting his, a frown creasing her brow.

Vivek uncurled his fingers and breathed out slowly, expelling his rage. She could sense it and he didn’t want her asking about it, because he didn’t want to question the feeling himself. He wanted to ignore it.

He wasn’t convinced that what their teams said about them was true—that they only fought like vampires and werewolves because they were attracted to each other. He would know if he wanted her. He wouldn’t want to fight her, that was for sure.

He would want to... he frowned as she moved off ahead of him, taking the lead and signalling him to follow.

Who did she think she was?

He had over fifty years on her, had trained her when she was nothing but a youngling trying to prove herself to her sire and the bloodline, and had saved her far too many times to count. If anyone should take point, it was him.

Everything male in him said to storm past her and take the lead himself but he held back, letting her have her way. If he tried to take command things would only degenerate into another fight between them, one which she would blindly go into believing that she would win. She wasn’t in any condition to fight him. She had masked her pain well earlier this evening but he had felt it in her, sensed it through where their bodies connected, his hand on her wrist and her shoulder. She was still healing from the vampire hunter’s attack.

That thought spurred him into catching up with her and then taking that all important step in front.

She growled, grabbed his arm, and dragged him back.

In line with her.

He had expected her to push him behind her, not to accept him at her side, as an equal.

She stepped ahead again, as though she had heard his thoughts.

This time, Vivek snarled and snatched hold of her wrist, pulling her back in line with him. She twisted her arm out of his grip and pinned him with a thunderous glare.

“You should follow me. We both know I’m the more capable leader,” she hissed the words with venom and a sliver of icy blue shot into her eyes before melting away again to reveal only darkness.

“Funny, I do not recall you being particularly capable when you patrolled the city the other week.”

Her anger washed over him, the strength of it swamping all of her other feelings until he could only sense that one in her. Her eyes spoke of other emotions, softer ones locked deep inside her, ones that drew questions up to the tip of his tongue. What made her look at him that way? It wasn’t hatred or rage that burned in her eyes but something else.

Not shame over losing to him.

Or fury over having to hunt with him tonight as punishment for their fight.

It was a mesmerising sort of warmth that bordered on passion or arousal, a heat that scorched his skin and made his bones ache with a ridiculous need to step into her, tangle his fingers into her soft rich brown hair and fuse their mouths together in a hard kiss.

Which was disturbing.

Regardless of how unsettled that desire made him, he might have gone through with it had she not been insulting him with the very lips he was intending to claim.

“You’re one to talk, Vivek. I can recount a thousand reasons why I’m far more competent as a captain than you will ever be, starting with your behaviour towards others of your rank in the guard and the despicable things you did tonight. You are callous, and unworthy of your position.”

He stepped up to her, using his height to intimidate her.

“You have no right to think that,” he snarled the words and ice flashed in her eyes again.

She countered him by stepping right up to him, until he was aware of how close her body was to his, until her proximity was all he was conscious of and their surroundings began to drift into obscurity. She pressed the tip of her finger into his chest. His skin burned as though her touch was holy wood against his bare flesh, not merely her fingertip against his thick black uniform jacket. She tipped her head back, locked eyes with him, and set her jaw in a most deliciously defiant way.

“Really?” She prodded his chest harder, digging her nail in as though she wanted to stake him through the heart with it. “You were intentionally cruel in your report, left Seth to patrol alone, and sought to turn my men against me. You have shirked your duties and brought disgrace to all captains of the Venia bloodline.”

Vivek opened his mouth to retaliate and then snapped it shut. When she put it like that, he couldn’t fail to see her point. She was right, his behaviour recently had been less than sterling, downright disgraceful in fact, but he wasn’t about to admit that to her, not when his pride was already dented.

He had given everything for his bloodline, had fought for his position within the guard, had fought for his vampire family and would gladly die for them too. Duty was everything to him.

Yet the accusation in her words rang true, and the disappointment creeping into her eyes made him feel like a bastard and unworthy of his position.

He had let himself down tonight and he wasn’t even sure what had compelled him to do those things.

But he hadn’t been slacking as she had insinuated and he hadn’t been trying to steal her men either.

“I did patrol with Seth.” It was a weak retaliation but a stand he needed to make. He couldn’t deny that he had carefully chosen the words used in his report so Tynan would fully understand how dangerous her behaviour had been but he could at least defend himself on some of her accusations. “I patrolled half of the grounds with my squad and then waited for him at the designated meeting point. Seth dragged his heels so we returned to the mansion.”

“To steal my men no doubt. You probably wanted to reach them before I could.”

That one stung. What sort of low opinion did she have of him to believe that he was capable of such a malicious act? He hadn’t been serious about having her men join his ranks.

“I felt you standing outside that room, Sophis. I am not a youngling. You were broadcasting anger and only the idiots in the room with me did not feel you there.”

She glared at him. “So you said those horrible things knowing I was listening?”

Hurt surfaced through the darkness in her eyes and he felt like a bastard all over again. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. He had said those things so she would know what was happening and could address the issues her men had with her. She was twisting everything against him and was intent on having things her way, but he wasn’t going to back down until she saw things as they truly were.

“Your men came to me.”

Her eyes widened and she blinked before taking a step backwards. Her hand left his chest and she stared at him in disbelief.

“Why?” There was a tremble to that word and Vivek turned his senses away from her, not wanting to feel how much she was hurting.

His gut tightened over the blunt way he had said it and how ashamed she looked, and he wanted to apologise to her but couldn’t bring himself to go through with it. She was riling him again, accusing him of things he hadn’t done, and he had only meant to set her straight. He couldn’t coddle her and protect her from the truth,