Raising Innocence: A Rylee Adamson Novel(50)

Before the Emperors could respond, Faris lifted his hand, beckoning someone from deep in the shadows of the room.
There was a shuffling behind us and a petite old woman stepped into view. She was ancient, her face a line of wrinkles, yet they were surprisingly pleasant. There was the look of a sweet old granny in her, and I struggled with that thought knowing that she was a vampire, the slightest flash of fang confirming my thought. She was dressed in a floor length grey shimmering gown that was offset by her long train of bright white hair. Her hazel eyes were clear though, sharp in their intelligence. Maybe the sweet old granny analogy wasn’t as close as I’d thought.
The Old One came forward, using an ornate walking cane to guide her. Faris stepped back to allow her into the presence of the Emperor and Empress. The Old One did not bow nor scrape. She got right to business.
“I have seen in my visions the coming of a new dawn. Soon your bones will be dust and ashes.” Her voice had only a slight tremble to it. I wondered how old of a vampire she was if she looked and sounded as old as Yoda.
The Empress put her hand to her chest. “You are not the only one with visions.”
“I am the only one with true visions,” The Old One replied, surprising me with her strength and razor sharp sudden anger.
Reminder to self, don’t piss of the Old One.
She, the Old One, closed her eyes. “A Tracker must be found. One who carries the Blood of the Lost. That will be the deciding factor.”
A murmur slid throughout the room, voices raised in questions not quite fully vocalized. But all I could hear was the Old Ones words rattling around my brain.
The vampires were looking for me. Did Faris know that I had the Blood of the Lost? Shit, shit, shit! I had to get out of here. Panic spilled upward, and I had to clamp down on the inside of my cheek to keep from babbling that it wasn’t me they were looking for. A whole fucking nation of vampires, looking for me. Nope, that was not a good sign toward my longevity.
The Old One lifted her cane again, pointing at Faris. “Whoever binds the Tracker to them will be able to seek out the last of the Blood. These are my words, this is my vision, this is what those who wish to rule must accomplish.”
Finally the scene faded, and as I slipped away from Faris’ memory, I took one last glance back at the Empress.
Smiling right at me, she blew me a kiss.

16
I came to slowly, confused by the sensations running through my body. Someone was breathing softly on my neck, just below my ear and a pair of well-toned arms held me upright. His hardness pressed between my legs, reminding me of the pleasure I’d been feeling only moments before. My head lolled.#p#分页标题#e#
“Liam?”
The arms around me stiffened, then let go, dropping me unceremoniously to the ground. With a grunt, I hit hard, remembering as I rolled what I’d just seen.
And who had been holding me; what had we been doing.
I used my momentum to roll up to my feet, facing Faris. He was glaring at me. I glared right back, embarrassed at how easily I’d fallen under his sway, how my body had responded to his.
“Who the fuck is Liam?”
Wow, he seemed really perturbed by the idea that it wasn’t him who’d turned me on. My eyes widened and I shook my head as much to clear the lingering arousal as to deny him.
“No. I’m not going to tell you shit.”
He drew himself up and continued to glare at me. I just didn’t know what was going on. The first time we’d met, he tried to enthrall me, and then he’d attacked me. Next, he helped me get rid of the demon venom (in a roundabout way), and now he seemed almost jealous of the fact that I hadn’t called his name after a minor tryst that my mind had barely been present for.
“What the hell, are you bi-polar or something?” I frowned at him. “Can you just make up your mind whether you’re going to kill me or . . .” Yeah, didn’t want to say that, no need to encourage him to—
“To kill you or . . . what?” He purred, his eyes trapping me. Shit, I’d walked right into this one.
I licked my lips, and his eyes tracked the movement sending my heart into a spiral of out of control thumps that I really didn’t want to analyze. “Nothing. Kill me or don’t. But no more games.” Okay, that sounded good.
Right.
He smiled, and it was the smile he’d given the dowdy servant in his memory. “I think we are just getting started. We got off on the wrong foot. I was working under a certain . . . assumption.”
“You need to leave. I have kids to find.” I itched to have a blade in my hands; vulnerability ate at me. And I was hoping that I could get him to leave, though I doubted he would do so before he was damn good and ready.