Free Trial of Fire by Kate Jacoby Page B

such a child would give him immortality; he didn’t know what this one would give him. It mattered not. Now he was more than young enough to sire another child; Valena herself was not yet too old to bear another – assuming he let her live.
    ‘Bring her here.’
    She did not struggle. Though bound hand and foot, though drugged half-senseless, her defiance shone through; her eyes pierced him. This was no betrayal to her but obedience to some higher truth.
    Flanking her were two Malachi,
Bonded
Malachi, though whether she could tell the difference he didn’t know. Even so, she would feel their devotion to him keenly. They drew her close, then forced her down on her knees before him. At his gesture, they removed her gag; she swallowed hard at its sudden absence.
    She was still beautiful: lush honey-coloured hair, eyes of darkest brown, flawless skin, a mouth to invite seduction, a body to fulfill it. She had been the first woman he had ever touched, the first to make him weaken. Even as he’d taken her, he’d revelled in the danger in her eyes, the risk that one day she might try to kill him.
    But even he had not thought her capable of infanticide. ‘You failed,’ he began with a shrug. ‘You must know DeMassey is dead. That’s why you …’
    That was why she’d done it: because her protector was no longer around, though why DeMassey had gone to such lengths to protect another man’s child, he couldn’t begin to guess.
    ‘You know you will be hanged for murdering your own child?’
    Her eyes blinked slowly, the result of the sleeping drug which had kept her under control while he was busy. ‘Hanged? You think I fear death after what you’ve just done? Hah. You underestimate me, as always.’ She turned her head away, but couldn’t stop the heavy tears which fell from her eyes. She neither blinked them away, nor moved to wipe them.
    ‘Why did you lose faith in me?’ Nash asked, genuinely curious. ‘I never turned on you. I gave you all you asked for. I even left you alone these last few years, hoping that you would tire of DeMassey and return to me.’
    ‘Liar!’ The heat was drugged away from her voice, but the bitterness remained. ‘I was of no use to you, that’s all. Just as I will be the moment you get your hands on Jennifer Ross, your Ally. I was always destined to be cast aside, so don’t pretend otherwise. I just wish I’d seen it sooner.’
    ‘Or you would not have borne my daughter?’
    Valena blinked slowly again, meeting his gaze, but seeing nothing of him. Her voice dropped to a weary whisper. ‘I wish I’d killed her in my womb. She … she was a monster … just like her father.’
    Nash laughed, triumphant. ‘You hated her! Like you hate me! Now I understand.’
    ‘You understand nothing!’ Battling the drugs, Valena struggled to her feet, fury blazing from eyes which knew him too well. ‘She was my child and I loved her. So did Luc, something you will never understand. I did it because’ – she paused, swallowing a sob  – ‘because I knew what a monster like you would do with your own flesh and blood. After all, didn’t you murder your own father and regenerate from his blood?’
    Nash raised his hand to strike her, but paused. DeMassey had done this.He’d lain in his bed, badly injured, deliberately taunting Nash, provoking him in order to— He would not put Valena out of her misery by conveniently killing her. This heinous crime, this
betrayal
demanded vengeance. She would suffer before he killed her. He would see that light of defiance in her eyes finally die; only then would he be satisfied.
    He turned his back to her, facing the house. Raising his hands, he let loose the power which thudded through him, making his whole body sing. Shaking with the pleasure of it, he clapped his hands together – and the house exploded into flames. Even as a great cloud of smoke plumed into the air, he turned back to face her.
    ‘You will never be free,’ he murmured.