Kiss of Crimson Samantha Coville (best short books to read .TXT) 📖

girl was hurrying Eloise upstairs and out of sight. Presumably to her room.

Madame Leona watched her disappear before turning her attention back to me.

Here we go.

She eyed me from head to toe and back to head again. I couldn’t read in her eyes whether she was satisfied with what she saw or not.

“Did you give Eloise the rash idea to slip out tonight and go look for you?”

I finally showed some emotion. I balked, appalled. “Why would I ever do that? I was trying to find a way to leave her out of your blood war. I wanted her miles from that place, which, for the record, I thought she was.”

Leona nodded and placed a manicured hand on the banister of the grand staircase.

“And when she arrived at that horrid warehouse you were holding the poor boy in, you suddenly had a change of vampire heart? That’s what you expect me to believe?”

“I would almost never consider disobeying my master.” I swallowed hard. “I think Eloise is the only person, human or vampire, I would do something like that for. That’s why I almost considered it a blessing she was out of the picture. I could finally do my job.”

Leona drummed her fingers. She was silent for a moment, thinking. Pondering.

Please let that be a good sign.

What irony it would be if I was so terrified of my own master that I ended up dying at the hands of his rival.

“So what do you need now? Why have you come to my home? I presume its sanctuary from Jardin’s wrath?”

“Yes, unfortunately. Quitting is not something you do in this industry without facing some consequences.”

She laughed. I cocked an eyebrow as I couldn’t make heads or tails of if that were good or bad. This woman was a steel wall.

“I’m quite aware of what’s usual in this industry. Well, you’re in luck. I’m willing to make you an offer.”

Well, this was further than I had expected to get. But what sort of offer would Madame Leona want to make with me? I didn’t exactly have many bargaining chips to work with right then.

She continued. “I’ll allow you to take shelter in my home. But, in exchange, you’ll work for me now. I don’t know what Jardin was paying you. But I’ll pay more. You’ll be my new carrier until I can find a replacement, and then I’ll find suitable work for you from then.”

I scoffed, and she held up a finger to shush me.

“As you work for me over the years, you will have the chance to slowly gain Eloise’s trust again. I’ll allow it. And you can remember that. It’s all by my good grace.”

I bit my tongue. I knew this was the moment where diplomacy mattered and I should take her offer, no matter how insulting it was.

And it wasn’t my pride that was hurt. Sure, she was a human giving me a bottom-of-the-barrel offer. But that wasn’t the issue.

I shook my head. “No deal.”

She raised an eyebrow, signaling for me to explain my decision. I noted that she didn’t seem very surprised at my rejection.

Maybe this woman knew more than I thought.

“I’m out of the business now. And I don’t intend on leaving a master just to end up under another. No, I’m not a worker anymore and I’m not here to make a worker’s deal with you.”

I walked past her and got a few steps up the staircase before turning back to her. She could no longer use the stairs as a way to tower over me and try to make herself seem more important just by perspective.

I was surprised she didn’t try to stop me. She merely smirked.

“I’m here as a free vampire who is in love with your daughter. I’m a man with something worth fighting for, someone that I care about. I’m trying to make a deal with you that will keep me alive long enough to get back in that fight. And if you don’t want to work with me fair and square, then I’ll say my goodbyes to Eloise for now and you sure as hell are going to hear it from her.”

There was silence. My heart was pounding. So many things that I’d kept bottled up were being spilled to a woman who despised me the day before.

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Then I suppose that settles it, hm? You may stay here as long as you need to devise your plan against Jardin. In exchange, I expect you to make the decisions that have the best outcome for Eloise. Think about her before you do something daft and get yourself killed. As you’ve pointed out, Lord knows she’ll find a way to blame me for your death.”

The relief washed over me instantly. The infamous Madame Leona wasn’t going to have my head.

Not tonight, at least.

I started taking the stairs two at a time to try and find Eloise’s room. The house was massive, so it’d take a few wrong doors. But I needed to hold her again.

“Oh, and Arden,” Leona called up to me.

I turned to meet her eye.

“I already knew I was going to let you in the house. You bringing Eloise and the carrier boy back to me showed me you had the right intentions. I just had to ensure you had the heart to go through with whatever needs to be done to keep my daughter safe and happy.”

“Your confidence flatters me, Madame.”

She chuckled. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I still barely trust you and I will have a guard watching you like a hawk, but it’s a start. Don’t screw it up.”

“Of course, Madame.” I gave her a salute which earned a playful glare from my host.

Back to finding Eloise’s room.

Poor girl probably thought her mom was skinning me alive.

Seventeen

Eloise

I paced back and forth in my bedroom, hugging my arms around me to help stop myself from shivering. I couldn't tell if it was from the cold that had