Claimed By Shadow Read Online Free

older brother. He’d also been my first crush. I hadn’t cared about his family name, or that he was a first-level master and a Senate member. I’d been far more interested in the way his rich brown eyes crinkled at the corners when he laughed, in the mahogany hair that spilled over his broad shoulders and in that wickedly perfect mouth, still the most sensual I’ve ever seen. Among his other titles, Mircea was also the vamp Tony called Master. It was something that should have made me question the sincerity in that handsome face a lot sooner.
    “The dúthracht doesn’t create emotions,” Casanova corrected me. “It isn’t a love spell. It can only enhance what is already there. Which is why it’s odd that anyone would have used it on you at what, age eleven, twelve?”
    I nodded numbly, but the truth was that I didn’t find it odd at all. My mother had been heir to the Pythia’s throne before she eloped with my father. The fact that she’d been disinherited meant nothing as far as my chances for succeeding were concerned, however, because it isn’t the old Pythia who chooses the new one. The final selection is made by the power of the office itself. In all but a handful of instances over thousands of years, it has selected the designated heir, the one groomed as a successor by the old Pythia. But Mircea had gambled that I would be one of the exceptions and had spared no effort to ensure that I’d still be eligible when the moment arrived.
    For reasons I didn’t fully understand, the heir has to remain chaste until the changeover ritual begins, and Mircea hadn’t wanted to risk a teenage infatuation removing me from contention. So he’d marked me as off-limits by putting a claim on me himself. Bastard.
    “You said it boosts emotion,” I said, thinking about the first time I encountered Mircea as an adult. “Are you only talking about mine?” Mircea hadn’t appeared exactly uninterested when I saw him last, but it was difficult to be certain. Most vamps are excellent liars, but he is the undisputed, number one champ, possibly because it’s his job. He’s the Senate’s chief diplomat, the guy sent into tricky situations to get whatever they want through persuasion, seduction or deceit. He’s very good at what he does.
    “No, it’s a two-way street, one of the spell’s big drawbacks in most people’s opinion.” Casanova leaned forward, apparently enjoying lecturing me. “Think of it as an amplifier on a stereo: every meeting edges it up a notch. You have to give it something to start with, but once it’s up and running, you’re on the path to obsession with each other whether either of you likes it or not.”
    I turned away so he wouldn’t see my expression, and tried to ignore the hard knot in my chest and the tight ache in my throat. I didn’t know why I felt so betrayed. It wasn’t as if I had ever completely trusted Mircea. I knew that no master vampire, especially a Senate member, fell into the category of nice guy. He couldn’t have achieved his current position by being anything less than ruthless. But I would have given odds that he wouldn’t do something like this. Tony, yes; that I could see, but I’d foolishly believed that his boss was different. Stupid. Who did I think had trained him?
    I looked back to find Casanova carefully expressionless. “You’re saying this is dangerous.”
    “All magic is dangerous, chica ,” he told me gently, “under the right circumstances.”
    “Don’t hedge!” I didn’t need my feelings spared, I needed answers. Something that would help me figure a way out of this.
    “I’m not hedging,” he insisted. A woman let out a high-pitched scream and his eyes shifted to a spot behind me. “Damn!”
    I looked over my shoulder to see that my three roommates had decided to take up darts, despite the fact that the bar was not actually equipped with a board. While I’d been distracted, Deino had positioned herself at one end of the bar and