Free Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole Page A

lucky break for us. To be bitten by a vampire is . . . altering.” He glanced away briefly before facing her once more. “I’ll find a way to protect you from him. Somehow. He might be ancient and skilled with a sword, but I’ll figure out a way. When he returns, I’ll make my move.”
    She didn’t share Cas’s optimism. That chilling lethality . . . “Wait, you said ancient?”
    “At least nine centuries.”
    How very . . . old . She didn’t know how she felt about that. But for Caspion, this was disastrous. Age brought strength to immortals. “He said he has no plans to return for me, but he definitely will for you, Cas. Do you really think you can defeat a professional killer? A long-lived Dacian? You certainly hadn’t earlier—you were convinced that he’d end you.”
    “That was before you were involved. Now I have to find a way.”
    Salem said, “That’s the thing about an assassin—wiv each kill, he risks capture or death himself. A long-lived assassin means he wins every single time .”
    Cas rubbed his throat again.
    Bettina pressed her advantage. “There’s only one course of action. Enter the tournament. Raum and Morgana guarantee each contestant’s safety out of thering. The vampire couldn’t touch you. And you know you can beat anybody who enters.”
    Though he wasn’t as powerful as he could be—death demons garnered strength from each kill and his job had been to track, not execute —Cas was an excellent swordsman, and he could trace.
    A flicker of hope rose in his eyes. Then he shook his head. “And if I win? What then? Say I eliminate this assassin afterward and wed you. You would deprive my fated mate of her male? I’d be making both of our lives miserable.”
    Her mind cried, I might be your mate. “You can’t know it’s not me. And I’m free to love whoever I want to.” Unlike many Lore species, Sorceri didn’t have a mystical fated mate per se. But they did wed and form lifelong bonds.
    “I’m sorry, Bettina.” His expression looked genuinely remorseful, his blond brows drawn. “I can’t enter.”
    Disappointment threatened to engulf her, but she strived for a calm tone. “I see. I could ask Morgana for help against the vampire.” Bettina’s godmother was just like a big sister.
    That one did not ever, ever, ever want to cross.
    Yet Bettina was desperate once more. “She doesn’t arrive until this eve—won’t stay on this ‘wretched demonic plane’ any longer than necessary—but I could ask her then.”
    Morgana reviled all demons, still couldn’t believe her best friend Eleara—Bettina’s late mother—had wed one. But the sorceress might actually agree to help Cas just to thwart the vampire.
    Morgana would interpret Trehan Daciano’s actions with Bettina as a trick, and Sorceri were supposed to bethe tricksters—not the trickees. The great queen might kill the vampire for that alone.
    Cas took her shoulders again. “You can’t tell anyone else about this! No one is supposed to know the Dacians even exist. Already too many know. I’d be betraying Mirceo even more.”
    Mirceo? “But Morgana can help—”
    “Vow to me, Tina. You would put the Sorceri at risk, put yourself more at risk!”
    When he looked at her like this, with his blue eyes glowing with feeling, she could deny him nothing. She mumbled, “I vow it.”
    “This is all fine and good,” Salem said, “worrying about Caspion. But you have plenty on your plate to be worrying about. Not every female in the brothel was lucky enough to be serviced by him. I saw other competitors inside. A trio of two-headed Ajatars. Cerunnos. Even a pus demon—oh, ’scuse me, an excretorian—was there.”
    Ajatars had metal teeth and breathed fire. Cerunnos were snakelike humanoids. Excretorians leaked pus from every pore. She turned to Cas. “Please don’t leave me to this fate. They will cancel the tournament completely if I’m not a virgin. Can’t you just . . . would it be so