Free Keeper of the Flame by Bianca D'Arc Page A

out here in the vinelands, even if the family they were protecting was highborn.
    Hugh paused in the shadows, watching them. The lady tugged on his sleeve, wordlessly communicating her impatience, but he would not move too hastily.
    “Let me just watch them for a moment. Something seems…” he thought in her direction.
    A more adamant tug on his sleeve made him turn his attention to her. Wide eyes looked up at him in the darkness as she tugged him downward so she could speak as quietly as possible near his ear.
    “You can still talk in my mind?” She seemed fascinated by the idea.
    He smiled slightly, relieved. “Of course. Now that I know you can hear me, I have this ability no matter my form. In time, you might even learn to do the same.” He returned to his study of the house. “There should be a guard right over there.” He gestured with the subtle movement of one hand. “I don’t see why—” he broke off, sinking to a crouch in a smooth gesture and taking her with him.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked in a low, urgent voice.
    “Good question.” The words, spoken in an unfamiliar voice, made them both whip around to the left.
    A black-clad man stood there, in the dark shadows of the vines. How had he approached without Hugh sensing him in some way? The lady shrank back in terror, crowding Hugh. Then he saw it. The snake eye tattooed on the stranger’s forehead and the deadly gleam of blackened steel in his hands.
    “Eyes.” Hugh didn’t need to hear the lady’s frightened gasp to know what they faced. Another assassin. “Why didn’t you just stick her with your blade while you had the advantage?” Hugh stood in the darkened field between the rows of vines to face the man and put some space between himself and the lady. He needed room to maneuver.
    “Terms of the contract,” the man replied offhandedly. “My employer wanted her to see it coming. There’s a bonus for terror. Plus, I find it personally more entertaining to make the target suffer.” He looked around at the dark vineyard. “And on her own land too. She’ll like that, she will.”
    “In my land, assassins take pride in their silence.” Hugh tucked away the news that the lady’s cousin had put out the contract on her life, though he could tell by the way her face drained of all color that it came as a shock to her.
    “It must be a very boring place, then.” The tattooed man moved, closing in as Hugh drew a short blade that had been sheathed in the leather strap over his chest.
    “I would call it civilized,” Hugh replied with a small amount of disdain.
    “I see you plan to act the hero.” The assassin sounded almost bored, but his eyes—the real ones, not the tattoos—missed nothing, actively watching Hugh’s slightest move. “I’m only being paid for her, but I suppose watching you die first will garner me that bonus.”
    Without warning, the man engaged, closing with Hugh in a lightning fast move. Had Hugh been any less alert, he would’ve been dead within seconds. But he was a dragon and had supernatural reflexes even while in his human form. He could see better in the dark than a regular person and had the advantage of dragon magic that allowed him to harden his skin against the sharp metal blade.
    While not exactly as strong as his dragon hide, Hugh’s unique magic allowed him to take blows that would leave normal people slashed to ribbons. The assassin moved like lightning, but few of his strikes landed and those few that did didn’t draw blood.
    Eventually the man changed tactics, maneuvering Hugh around the darkened vineyard, almost herding him. Hugh tried to keep himself between the assassin and the lady at all times, but he hadn’t counted on there being more than one attacker.
    A gasp from behind made Hugh spin. The lady was in the grip of a second assassin, this one with a matching snake’s eye tattooed on his forehead, directly between his real eyes. The blackened blade gleamed to Hugh’s sight as the