Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Iron manacles on her wrists and ankles were nailed to the wall behind Kira. The shackles left her skin to chafe and heal in a repeated pattern every time she moved, but the manacles weren't responsible for the pain burning inside her. Her hunger was. She hadn't fed since before she went to see her sister.

After the trio of vampires kidnapped her from Tina's building and brought Kira here by plane to this huge site of ruins, Radje had systematically drained all the blood out of her with multiple slashes from a silver knife. Not because he was cruel, he'd explained with a cold smile, but this way, she'd be too weak to free herself. Radje even had the nerve to tell Kira she had no reason to fear that any of his guards would debase her while she was in her helpless position nailed to a wall. After all, he was a Law Guardian, and Guardians did not condone certain disrespectful activities.

Kira wondered if the pompous prick actually believed anything that came out of his mouth, or if he only thought she was stupid enough to believe him. She'd seen the looks thrown her way by some of the mercenaries Radje had inside this ancient structure, and none of them were respectful. Kira didn't need her instincts to tell her that Radje's guards were merely biding their time until their master gave them the okay. She knew Radje had no intention of letting her live, and he could care less if those call ous men took a few moments of entertainment until they killed her as ordered.

"You have cause to rejoice," Radje said, sweeping into the room where Kira was.

"Mencheres has agreed to trade himself for you. He really must be weary of life. Or he intends to set a trap for me with the other Guardians tomorrow night, but all they would see is me, risking myself to bring a condemned criminal in."

"You sure thought of everything," Kira replied in a flat voice, hoping he'd leave so she wouldn't have to hear more of his self-aggrandizing.

Radje lasered his gaze into her, his dark eyes turning green. His long black hair was braided in a style that somehow still managed to look masculine, and those braids swung when he came closer to her.

"You are too pitifully young to understand how long I have waited, yet now at last it is time for me to claim my power."

"Don't you mean steal Mencheres's power?" she corrected.

He spread out his arms out in an annoyed manner. "That power was meant to be mine.

Even the gods agree. Why else would Mencheres suddenly long for death? Why else would his visions and ability to trace people fail? Had not all these things come to pass, I couldn't act against him in this way. You see? Fate has intervened for my success!" You narcissistic bastard, Kira thought, but she didn't push Radje's already-unstable temper by saying it aloud.

She knew why all those things had happened to Mencheres, and they had nothing to do with fate lending a helping hand in Radje's lust for power. It was centuries' worth of suppressed guilt, regret, and grief catching up with Mencheres, all coalescing into a wall of darkness that he couldn't see past and didn't think he had the strength to tear down. If Radje had a conscience, he'd be familiar with how strong inner demons could be. But, of course, the crooked Law Guardian was too empty inside to know anything about that.

"And you'll let me go after you get what you want from Mencheres?" she asked, only managing to contain the majority of her derision from the question.

Nothing altered in Radje's expression. "Of course. No one would believe any tales you would tell, and even if some did, there would be no proof."

Except for your new power, Kira mentally added. Only an idiot would believe Radje wouldn't kill her to protect that secret from being told. Hell, she bet the mercenaries who guarded this place had their days numbered, too. She could guess that the only reason Radje was pretending he'd let her go was so Kira didn't scream any warning to Mencheres when he demanded to speak to her before giving Radje his power.

Mencheres wouldn't give Radje anything until he knew she was alive. The Law Guardian would know that.

"So Menkaure took you as his lover," Radje said musingly, his gaze sliding over her in a way that made her long for a shower even more than blood. "I can smell him on you."

"Give me some soap and water, and I can fix that," she replied shortly. She didn't like the calculating gleam starting to appear in Radje's eyes, or the obviously explicit reference to Mencheres's scent on her. The sooner Radje left her alone, the better.

He came closer instead, stopping only inches from Kira. "When I first put a watch on your sister's residence, I wondered if it was futile. I sensed Menkaure had an affinity for you, so I did not expect him to let you return out of fear of a trap. If he didn't care where you went, then perhaps capturing you would benefit me nothing. Yet my guards heard you tell your sister that you had to sneak away from Menkaure to see her. That is why I knew you would be of use to me alive."

Kira suppressed a shudder as that disturbing gleam grew brighter in Radje's eyes.

"Tell me," he almost murmured, "how much did Menkaure claim to care for you?" The last thing she'd do was tell Radje that Mencheres loved her. He'd only do even more terrible things to her to spite Mencheres, but she couldn't pretend that she meant nothing to Mencheres, either. That would be too obvious a lie. Even though Radje believed Mencheres had a death wish, he'd still agreed to trade himself for her.

"We didn't have a lot of time together, but the time we spent was promising," Kira said in as much of a noncommittal tone as she could manage. Anger and hunger competed in her. She wanted to smash the smirk off Radje's face . . . and she'd give every cent she had for a bag of blood right now.

"Do you know what the Greeks used to call Menkaure?" Radje asked with feigned casualness. "Eros, after the god of lust. As Pharaohs, we were both considered gods by our people. I have been a Law Guardian for almost three thousand years, but before then, when I spent my time seeking my own pleasure, as Menkaure did . . . my nights were spent in such a sea of flesh that I would never be able to number all the women I had."

That anger burned hotter inside Kira, but she sought to keep it down and her emotional shields up. It wasn't enough for Radje to frame Mencheres and ruin his life.

Now he had to try and destroy his relationship with her, too, even though he fully intended to kill Mencheres as soon as he saw him.

"Good for you. With all those memories, sounds like you should direct a  p**n o titled Gods Gone Wild, " she replied, her voice almost sounding normal.

"Menkaure lived that way for well over two thousand years until he married," Radje said sharply, as if Kira had been too thick to figure out that Radje wasn't the only one swimming in a sea of flesh.