Free Seduced by Darkness by Lacey Savage Page B

much, sacrificed everything to find even just a shred of happiness. To have
it all end like this, on the decaying, stained floor of a crumbling building,
meant all that struggle had been for naught. Baal would win. And he’d gloat for
all eternity.
    Luke hesitated. His nails dug into the floorboards, leaving
deep gashes as he dragged them over the blackened surface. The smoke had
intensified, making it hard to see, to breathe, to think.
    “All right,” Luke conceded, and at that moment Varin knew
exactly how much it had cost him to utter those words. “Her life is in your
hands. Take care of her.”
    A whoosh of hot air spun Varin around. A moment later, he
was in full control of Luke’s body, trying to peer through squinting eyes and
lowered lashes. She was close. He could feel her presence deep in his heart.
    It made no sense, he knew, but he would have bet his
immortal soul on the fact that Baal hadn’t gotten his filthy claws on her. And
as long as the Lord of the Underworld hadn’t yet dragged her into his lair,
there was still a chance Luke and Heidi would survive this. There was still
hope.
    For all the good hope would do them.
    “ Menerva est’ar va !”
    Lillian’s booming voice reached his ears a moment before the
smoke cleared around him abruptly, as though someone had puffed out a breath
strong enough to scatter the scalding mass.
    Varin blinked fast, trying to focus through the mist
clouding his vision. The smoke had stung Luke’s eyes, making them water.
    He saw her at last, crumpled in a heap at the edge of the
room. For a moment, he could only make out the blood pooling beneath her, and
his heart did a skittering flip-flop in his chest.
    Rushing to her side, he fell to his knees and nearly cried
out when her eyelashes fluttered.
    She opened her eyes and pierced him with an intense,
soul-shattering stare. “Varin,” she whispered, trailing her fingertips over
Luke’s jaw.
    His knees went weak at the sound of his name on her lips.
The fact that she’d recognized him instantly, even though he still inhabited
another man’s body, should have floored him. Instead, it only reinforced what
he already knew.
    Heidi was like no one he’d ever met during the span of his
long existence, either in the mortal or immortal realms. She was unique, his
Heidi… and he’d be damned if he’d lose her to a creature that would trap her in
a timeless realm and torture her for eons.
    Lillian skidded to a stop beside Heidi’s fallen form and
dropped to a squatting position beside her. Under different circumstances,
Varin might have been aware of Lillian’s nude body, glistening with sweat and a
thick film of soot from the billowing smoke.
    As it was, he only had eyes for one woman.
    He held her right hand while Lillian grabbed the other. “I
think we’ve just run out of time,” she said, her blue eyes wide and imploring
as she fixed him with a pleading stare. “Which spell did you cast? When you
brought me through the veil with you -- which one?”
    Varin shook his head, wincing at the terror in her voice.
Had she feared him just as much when she’d been in the Underworld with him? Had
she hated him as much as he hated Baal for keeping him and everyone he cared
about captive for so long?
    He licked his suddenly dry lips and nearly staggered at the
unfamiliar feel of Luke’s silky-soft mouth beneath his tongue. “The binding
spell,” he murmured softly, unable to meet Lillian’s eyes. He kept his gaze
focused on Heidi instead, who was struggling to stand.
    When her torso swayed unsteadily as she rose, Varin pulled
her into his chest and pressed a hand behind her head. The wound had nearly
stopped bleeding, and for the first time Varin’s heartbeat slowed a little,
right down to something an athlete might feel after running a marathon.
    “The… binding,” Lillian said as a howl rose on the wind. A
gaping hole where the roof had been allowed some of the moonlight to pour
through, and the silvery light