The Immortals 3 - Shadowland Read Online Free PDF Page A

darlin’.” He laughs, looking me over and shaking his head. “Trust me, you want way more than that. But not to worry, it’s like I said, I’ll wait for as long as it takes. It’s Damen I’m worried about. And you should worry too. From what I saw those last six hundred years, he’s an impatient man. Bit of a hedonist really. Didn’t wait for much of anything so far as I could tell.”
    I swallow hard and strive to keep calm, reminding myself not to fall for his bait. Roman has a knack for locating my weakness, my psychological kryptonite so to speak, and pretty much lives to exploit it.
    “Don’t get me wrong, he’s always been one to keep up appearances—wearing the black armband, appearing inconsolable at the wake—but trust me, Ever, the moss hadn’t time to adhere to his shoe before he was back on the prowl. Looking to drown his sorrows in whatever or—should I say whomever —he could. And even though you prefer not to believe it, take it from someone who’s been there all along. Damen waits for no one. And he certainly never waited for you .”
    I take a deep breath, filling my head with words, music, mathematical equations stretching far beyond my abilities, anything to drown out the words that are like carefully honed arrows aimed straight for my heart.
    “ Yep. Sawr it wit me own eyes, I did! ” Smiling as he slips into a thick cockney brogue and back out again. “Drina saw it too. Broke her poor heart. Though, unlike me—and, I’m afraid, quite unlike you—Drina’s love was unconditional. Willing to take him back no matter where he’d been, no questions asked. Which, let’s face it, is something you’d never do.”
    “That’s not true!” I cry, voice hoarse, dry, as though it’s the first time I’ve used it all day. “I’ve had Damen since the moment we met—I—” I stop, knowing I shouldn’t have started. It’s useless to engage in this fight.
    “Sorry, darlin’, but you’re wrong. You’ve never had Damen at all. A chaste kiss here, a bit of sweaty hand-holding there—” He shrugs, gaze mocking. “Seriously, Ever, you think some pathetic attempts at second base can actually satisfy a greedy, narcissistic, self-indulgent bloke like him? For four hundred years no less?”
    I swallow hard, forcing a calm I don’t own when I say, “That’s a lot further than you ever got with Drina.”
    “No thanks to you,” he spits, harsh gaze on mine. “But, it’s like I said, I’m a man who can wait. Damen is not .” He shakes his head. “Shame you’re so determined to play hard to get. You and I are a lot more alike than you think. Both of us pining after someone we’ll never truly have—”
    “I could kill you right now,” I whisper, voice shaky, hands trembling, even though I promised Damen I wouldn’t do this, even though I know better. “I could—” I suck in my breath, not wanting him to know what only Damen and I know, that targetting an immortal’s weakest chakra, one of the body’s seven energy centers, is the quickest way to obliterate them.
    “You could what?” He smiles, face looming so close his breath chills my cheek. “Slug me in my sacral center, perhaps?”
    I gape, wondering where he could’ve possibly learned that.
    But he just laughs, shaking his head as he says, “Don’t forget, luv, Damen was under my spell, which means he told me everything , answered every question I asked—including a good bit about you .”
    I stand there, refusing to react, determined to appear composed, unruffled—but it’s too late. He got me. Right where it counts. And don’t think he doesn’t know it.
    “No worries, luv. I’ve no plans to go after you. Even though your glaring lack of discernment and tragic misuse of knowledge tells me that a quick jab to the throat chakra is all it would take to destroy you for good—” He smiles, tongue snaking around his lips. “I’m having far too much fun watching you squirm to attempt something like that.