Crystal and the Damned - Possession by Burggraf Audrey Read Free Book Online

in setting them straight :
    “Don’t go giving me any medals just yet. I didn’t do anything. Prince Dimitri burned them. And if you hadn’t arrived, I would already be dead. He sensed you coming and took off. I don’t know by what miracle you found me, but I can promise you that I thank heaven for it.”
    “Yeah, you’d better, you crazy little pain in the neck ! Luckily we realized you had disappeared in time. Give us the slip again and I’m the one who’ll waste you !” Cornelia exclaimed in annoyance.
    “Calm down, Corn,” Falada intervened, taking Crystal by the shoulder. “She’s already shook up enough.”
    The girl snuggled up against the Paladin. He led her away, leaving Glory and Cornelia behind.
    They moved slowly, Falada’s arm around her waist as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Behind them, they vaguely heard Cornelia grumbling to herself. She had been terribly afraid for the girl.
    Crystal knew this perfectly well and, her own terror having passed, she was very angry with herself. But then, at the moment, she was cuddled against Falada and she felt too happy and relieved to feel guilty. In his arms she felt like she was home. Nice and warm and protected.
    The Paladin decided to break the silence.
    “I don’t want to lecture you, but don’t go out without warning us, please. If you need some air, let me know ; I’ll go with you. When I celebrated your birthday with you, that went well, didn’t it ?”
    “And if I need to see boys ? You know, the kind that you sleep with,” the girl teased him, taking him by the hand. “Are you going to play bodyguard and wait in front of the door ?”
    “No. I’ll send Cornelia ; that way I’ll be sure that the guy takes to his heels before he has the time to so much as touch you,” the Paladin shot back. Then, more seriously : “Why do you do it ? Why sleep with men you don’t love ? You’re polluting yourself, you know.”
    “Maybe because the one that I do love isn’t sleeping with me ?” she replied mutinously.
    Falada gently separated their hands.
    “You should kind of stop chasing me, I think.”
    “Are you that afraid that I’ll catch you ?”
     
    The night was still dark, but dawn was approaching when they returned home. The apartment, a magnificent one, occupied the top floor of a luxurious old building. There were ten bedrooms with bathrooms, two living rooms, high ceilings decorated with gilding, heavy drapes and thick carpets, an impressive library, a room for training, and another one for meditation.
    The three girls and Falada crossed the entry hall and followed a series of corridors to the library.
    Helen was sitting there, lost in the middle of a pile of grimoires and other books that were strewn over the round table in the center of the room.
    “You’re grinding away at this hour ? What, did you miss your calling as a librarian on the verge of a nervous breakdown ?” Cornelia attacked with her usual friendliness.
    The historian Paladine put down the little mirror into which she had been gazing before the others arrived.
    “No, I’m redoing my makeup while waiting for my beautician,” she grated with a touch of nervous irritation. “And you, why do you happen to be up at such an indecent hour ?”
    “Crystal was amusing herself by going out in secret to have a party with the Dark Clan and Prince Dimitri,” Glory summarized, somewhat displeased.
    The young woman tried to defend herself :
    “I just wanted to have a normal sex life.”
    “A normal sex life ?” Miranda asked, astonished. She had just entered the library, awakened by the noise her friends had made coming in. “No, don’t tell me about it. I don’t want to know what you’ve subjected the poor girl to this time. Come over here, Crystal, I’ll treat your cheek before it gets infected,” said the red-headed sorceress, putting her hand on the wound.
    Crystal felt her injury sealing up. A gentle heat emanated from the palm of