s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

way." Blake sounded like a father scolding a child.
"What did you do to Alyssa?" Carissa asked, half afraid to hear the answer.
"Oh, nothing very dire. I just took her thoughts. I could see how Ryan manipulated her into contacting me to
tell me of your existence. You know, she quite felt guilty about it. She rather likes you, but in the end, she had
to bow to her old master. She has served me well in this coil, so I think I will allow her to keep Edinburgh when
I am done here."
Carissa digested the news. Alyssa had warned her not to trust Ryan. Was this what she had meant? For all that
she wanted to disbelieve Blake, his words had a strong echo of the truth around them. Ryan had let her think
Blake was long unmade, saying that she had fought him centuries after their first encounter. She had not
warned Carissa at all. From the beginning, Ryan had been training her, but was it to withstand Alyssa and her
court? What danger had they posed to her all these months?
Blake broke in on Carissa's thoughts. He was an old master at reading a victim's state, and he knew he had
planted a seed of doubt in Carissa's mind. But it wouldn't do to let her think of it too long just now.
"Do you recognize these?" Blake held up a tray containing a set of a dozen sapphire-headed hat pins. At the
bottom of the tray was a dagger set with a sapphire in the pommel. "Yes, these are the stones from the necklace
you sold all those months ago. Alyssa did not want to part with them, but I can be very persuasive. I had these
pins made especially for you, and the dagger. The dagger is for Ryan. I will kill her in the same way she killed
Perry. I will enjoy her screams, but just now, I would like you to serenade me."
Blake picked up the first pin and held it up so Carissa could see the glint in the lamplight. Blake did not have to
tell her that the shaft was silver. She tensed as he moved toward her with the long pin. When he slid the shaft
under the skin of her breast, she screamed, and his laughter mingled with the sound as he slid the deadly silver
into her breast until the curve of her flesh forced the point back out. A finger's length of silver now lay beneath
Carissa skin, like a line of fire and ice burning its way into her body.
Carissa caught her breath in a sob as Blake picked up a second pin. The smile on his face chilled her. He was
enjoying her pain. She bit her lip as he began sliding the silver into her other breast. She knew she could stop
the scream and deny him his pleasure, but at what cost of strength? She screamed again, and the giggle that
escaped Blake was almost like that of a child. Carissa lay gasping while Blake stroked her flesh under which the
pins lay. The pain was dizzying, and she was not sure how much more she could take. Twice more he drove the
deadly silver into her breasts. Carissa could hear her own screams echoing off the walls. She was ashamed of
her weakness, but nothing in her life had prepared her for this kind of pain.
"Yes, yes, it is an exquisite pain, isn't it, my dear?" Blake's hand strayed toward a fifth pin, but then he stopped.
"I mustn't be greedy though. I don't know how long it will take Ryan to find you. You do know that silver is
deadly to our kind? Yes, yes, you do. In time, even just these four pins I've placed in your lovely flesh Ryan
really does have exquisite taste. I will have to tell her that before I kill her oh yes, even these four pins will kill
you in time, but it might take weeks. Not a very nice way to die, is it? I tell you what. Each day that it takes
Ryan to find you, I will add four more pins. Call it my nightly concert." Blake looked at the tray. "But that will
give us only two more nights of entertainment. Well, if she doesn't find you by then, I will just have to use the
dagger. Do you know that a silver-poisoned cut scars? Ryan left several on my body the last time we met."
Blake stroked Carissa's cheek, tracing a line from her eye to her chin. "It would be a shame if I had to mar that
beauty."
Blake was caressing Carissa's body again, his hands sliding to her thighs. "Oh, yes, and I mustn't forget to rape
you, but I think, I really do think I would like Ryan to be here to see that. Now, you can scream all you want,
but you might want to save your strength. I'm off to do a little hunting, myself. Good night, my dear."
Carissa watched Blake walk out of the long room. She was glad he had left the lamps burning, for she wanted
to memorize her surroundings. Blake wanted Ryan to find her, so he would have left clues for Ryan. Carissa
needed to conserve her strength. She studied the room and committed it to memory. It was both long and wide,
and there were crates stacked along one wall: a warehouse then. There was a smell of water, but not salt water.
Perhaps it was one of the ware-houses on the Water of Leith. She wasn't sure what her observations gained her,
but Carissa felt that each bit of knowledge was power, and so she gathered all she could find.
Carissa tried her chains, but she knew that it would be futile. Ryan might be able to break them, but she could
not. Now she needed to exercise her control like never before. The silver would poison her, over time, but only if [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]