Shards: Book One of the Anderian Series

Chapter 7: Taken

I'm not sure what I thought would happen when I made that declaration. It sure as hell wasn't laughter—not after his outburst over my appearance—but that's exactly what Cian did. Threw his head back and laughed, but when he lowered his gaze to meet mine again, there was no humor in his eyes.

"What odd company you keep Laura Kincaid," he said, his hand going to his hip, to the same spot he kept the sword he used to kill Molly. It wasn't visible right now, but it was there. Hidden.

"Do you deny it?"

"Bria," Laura exclaimed, shooting an apologetic look at Cian. "She's human and doesn't know any better."

"You're defending him? The man who killed your mother?"

The vampire narrowed her eyes at me. "I'm sure you're mistaken."

"There's only one of you that's mistaken," Cian said, walking around me, eying me up and down with a smoldering heat that had my fingers curling against my thighs. "This woman is not human, not entirely."

That caught mine and Laura's attention, albeit for different reasons. Her awed, respectful expression morphed into rage, and those fangs appeared once more. I had to remind myself why I was here and who he was before I pounced on him, begging him to tell me what I was. Among other petitions.

"What am I then?"

He blinked. "A ghost."

"You bastard," Laura screeched.

The cracking of bones and splitting hiss of skin filled the room as spines protruded from her arms and neck. Only Born vampires were blessed with them, and I'd never seen them up close—few who did lived long enough to describe them, and those who survived tried to block it out. The spines of females were rumored to be poisoned and from green hue and the noxious, sour odor filling the space, I figured it safe enough to move that rumor into the realm of fact.

I scrambled out of my seat and backed away toward the window. Cian glanced at her and rolled her eyes. "I did not come here to whet my sword with your blood today, vampire. Do not force my hand."

"You killed my mother," she sobbed. "You are a murderer, and the Council will hear about this."

"The Council is the one who sent me after her." He spoke as if he were explaining himself to a child. "And while I had a hand in her death, Molly took her own life."

"Lies."

He was telling the truth—mostly. If Molly had been captured that day, he would have taken her to the Synod, not the Supernatural Council. As far as I knew, no Andariens sat on the Council since they had their own.

"Laura," I said, lifting my gloved hands in what I hoped was a soothing gesture. A weird liquid was oozing from her spikes, and one pulsed with every pump of her heart. Was it also true that she could eject them from her body like darts? "He's telling the truth. Molly impaled herself on the sword."

A bit of the murderous haze faded from her eyes as she focused them on me. "W-what? How do you know that?"

"Yes, how do you know that?"

Ignoring Cian, I said to Laura, "Think about why you hired me."

She shook herself. "It doesn't matter. She was running from something. She was scared. It was you, wasn't it?"

The Anderian took three steps to close the distance between us, and the rough plaster scraped my back through the thin material of my blouse. Gods, he smelled fabulous. Like spearmint and eucalyptus and something earthy. His nostrils flared like he was smelling me too, and it was on the tip of my tongue to ask him if he liked my scent.