Free Sword and Shadow by Saje Williams

we’d best give him some reason to believe it,” she said, as she reached out, wrapped strong fingers around the back of his head, and dragged his mouth to hers.
    “What are you doing?” he murmured against her lips.
    “Do you or don’t you know when to shut up?” she replied, drawing her face back just a little. “We have to make this look good, or else he’ll never buy it.”
    Personally Raven didn’t give a damn if he ‘bought it’ or not. He’d made his threat and, the way he saw it, it would take a damn sight braver person than that little mite to ignore the threat.
    www.samhainpublishing.com 55
    Saje Williams
    Of course, he thought, seeing a spark of what had to be irritation rising in Val’s eyes, there was something to be said for playing a role to the hilt. He returned the kiss as if he meant to swallow her whole.
    The exact instant before Val would’ve been forced to break the kiss herself for lack of oxygen, she felt herself being pulled away to arm’s length by Raven’s firm but gentle grip on her upper arms. She found herself panting slightly, the edge of her vision tickled with tiny motes of light as she tried to fill her lungs with air. Damn. Kissing a vampire is a whole new experience.
    She saw a hard edge in his gaze as she met his eyes and she felt her heart pounding in her chest. She didn’t know exactly why she’d kissed him, but hadn’t regretted it at all until she saw the deep pool of dark fire behind his stare. “Before we start anything like this,” he murmured, almost angrily, as he kicked the door shut behind him yet again, “you’d better be damn certain where you want it to go.”
    Taken aback by the vehemence in his tone, she opened her mouth to say something—anything—but was interrupted by a loud explosion and a sudden sideways lurch of the deck beneath their feet. “What the hell was that?” she cried out, her originally intended words snatched away by shock and fear.
    “Cannon fire,” he replied through a clenched jaw. “We’re under attack.”
    “By who?” she asked, instantly realizing how stupid the question was. If she didn’t know, the chances of him knowing weren’t one hell of a lot better.
    He ignored the question, spun and ran for the ladder leading to the deck, little more than a blur as he burst through the door and vanished from sight. Cursing, she grabbed up her rapier and dashed out behind him.
    Who on this world has cannons? was the crazy thought that careened through her head as she ascended the ladder. And who gave them to them? One way or another, it was her job to find out.
    56
    www.samhainpublishing.com
    Sword and Shadow
    Emerging on deck, Raven must have looked like a good target. A bandy-legged little man wearing a bandanna and a leather cuirass charged at him with a naked rapier. Moving like light made flesh, Raven danced forward and plucked the blade from his hand, dealing him a back-hand blow that lifted him bodily from the deck and hurled him over the rail into the sea.
    Raven glanced around, instantly measuring the distance between their ship and the pirate ship off the starboard side. He caught a flash out of the corner of his eye and something nipped at the collar of his jacket, humming like an angry bumblebee as it passed. His vastly superior night vision spotted a lone figure in the rigging of the pirate vessel, fiddling with something in its hands.
    Raven turned and vaulted the thirty or so feet between the two ships, landing lightly and scurrying up the rigging with uncanny dexterity. He snatched the shooter up with one hand, shaking him violently until the weapon fell from his grasp to thud heavily on the deck beneath them.
    Allowing himself a wry grin, he threw the pirate up toward the mainmast before leaping back down to where the gun had fallen.
    His feet struck the deck without a sound and he bent down to scoop up it up. He turned it over in his hands, frowning. It was some sort of muzzle-loaded pistol, its design one