To Honor: Vampire Assassin League #22 by Jackie Ivie Read Free Book Online Page A

breath was only the first wave of her attack. Her artillery consisted now of how it felt to have her hands linked behind his head, her arms laced about his shoulders, her breasts pressed against his chest. Long locks of hair slithering along his skin. Her legs wrapped about his side. An ankle snagged around one of his knees. He was in an ecstasy of flesh-imbued awareness. The groan he gave contained every bit of it.
    ...and there!
    He’d brought her to Katmassen Castle, the largest and oldest of his estates. It was built into the side of a volcano that disguised any errant smoke he made. The façade of Katmassen wasn’t impressive. It was mostly tumbled-down stones. Overgrown rock. A waterfall. It hadn’t been listed in a guidebook for almost a century. Historians had discounted it. Observers thought it a ruin of little interest. They were all wrong. He’d had levels constructed over the centuries, burrowing deep into the mountain. All of it hidden. Safe. Secure. And his sanctuary was at the core.
    It looked just as he’d left it.
    The fire pit in the center was down to a glow of embers, sending murky light onto an array of items. His cache of ninja ancestral weaponry. The ancient Koka -ninja attire called shinobi shozoku. The throwing stars known as shuriken . The katanas that had been used in the Imperial Heian period before sword-making became a national art. A set of kubotan arm-bands, complete with hidden throwing spikes . Several sets of kamas , placed against black silk, where flickers of firelight glanced off the steel scythe blades and the manriki chains that attached them.
    Takeshi swooped past the array of weaponry, the motion stirring incense he’d left burning. A spiral of smoke surrounded and encased them. He landed with a jolt in the midst of his fountains. He had three of them, each sending rivulets of water cascading down over obstacles, making a soothing gurgle of sound. Everything was in place to assist with achieving fudoshin. Calm. Immobility .
    What a joke.
    He was as far from that state as imaginable.
    On their right was his bed. The one from the Edo period, when he’d been changed. His bed was constructed of dark wood, and draped with black silk to form an enclosure. More black silk coated his mattress, covered his pillows, and had been quilted into a comforter. All of it was lit with a greenish glow that came from the jade wall that was his headboard.
    The translucent stone was the exact match to her eyes. He’d thought it the moment he’d seen her. Now, he was certain.
    “Oh, my. Takeshi. Where are we?”
    She spoke in a hushed tone that still sent waves through the incense-imbued air.
    “My honden. ”
    “Your sanctuary? Oh. My. My. Again.”
    She unlatched her ankles from about his leg and slid to the floor. Now, she stood beside him, still encased in his arms. She hadn’t moved much. If anything, she felt even closer. Takeshi’s body vibrated in place.
    “Is...this real?”
    “Yes.”
    “All of it?”
    He ordered his arms to loosen. Granting her release. Trying for space. Strength. “I...need to warn you, Christine.”
    “Warn me? Okay. That sounds intriguing...in a scary kind of way.”
    She ran her tongue along her upper lip. And then she smiled. Takeshi lurched instantly and completely. Her arms flexed about him. She still had one wrapped around his waist. The other hand was affixed to his chest where it burned. Branded. Singed. Using a fiery sensation that had nothing painful about it. He swore if she moved, he’d have a mark. He was losing his train of thought. His reasoning. His ability to speak. Every word carried a tremor.
    “I am...Aka-sourah Clan.”
    “I know. You told me.”
    “Aka-sourah does not exist. Not...in any record. There is no history. It was a shadow clan. Trained in the dark arts.”
    “Okay.”
    “I am a ninja.”
    “I know. You told me that, too.”
    “There’s more.”
    “Takeshi. You are incredibly sexy. You know that?”
    He choked. Her