A Demon's Dark Embrace: An Elite Guards Novel by Amelia Hutchins Page A

turned to the old man and glared. “Let’s get those archives,” he growled as he led the way to the study carrel. His mind firmly dismissed thoughts of what he ‘wanted’ to do and couldn’t fuckin’ do. Because when it came to that little librarian, it wasn’t rocket science. He wasn’t hitting it, period.

Chapter Six
    The halls of the Guild were almost empty as Ristan moved through them, his eyes scanning for unseen threats as he followed behind the librarian. She seemed sweet, and yet he never took anyone or anything at face value. Shit was never what it seemed, and the moment you let your guard down, you died. Now that she was finished with her duties for the day, it seemed that a little invisibility glamour and a bit of nosing around might be in order.
    He slipped silently by her and into her apartment, catching the subtle scent of jasmine as he passed her. She could be innocent, but she could also be guilty of being in league with the Mages. They’d all seemed innocent at first, right up until they’d started stealthily attacking the Fae.
    The Mages blamed the Fae for not being welcomed into the High Fae Castes, especially not on equal footing, as they were Changelings and not fully Fae. They’d never even bothered to come to the Horde, but then again, they hadn’t wanted to be a part of the Horde. They wanted to be accepted, but every Caste had those they easily accepted, and those they didn’t. Acceptance didn’t mean equality, though; this was something Ristan knew all too well.
    The Mages were half -human, and to the Fae, that used to be a death sentence. They were mortally flawed, as they aged, and the Fae were vain in their immortality and inability to die from natural causes. Who could blame them? They were frozen in time, at the age of their Transition, or close to it. Who wanted to watch as someone withered and slowly died as they aged? Granted, a Changeling’s lifespan was a lot longer than a Human, but aging was still inevitable.
    Of course, the Horde would have taken them in, had they asked. They’d been open to any Fae or creature that could in some way add to their numbers. Instead, the Mages had let their anger fester over time and had become monsters in their own right. The Mages had been systematically trying to destroy the Fae, and Faery itself, in retaliation. The Fae had traced the Mages back to the Guild’s doorstep, where they’d been hiding in plain sight. The hard part was separating Witches and Warlocks from the Mages, and figuring out who was actually there to protect the Humans, and which ones were using the cover of the Guild to destroy the Fae.
    Ristan swiftly slid into the entryway as he searched the room for any damning evidence. It was a small apartment with a kitchen and separate bathroom, living, and sleeping rooms all only a few steps away from each other. He caught sight of pictures—or, more to the point, frames. Olivia had walls of frames, with the original sample pictures they came with still displayed in them.
    He moved his eyes to the slim female as she moved inside the room. She removed her shawl and slipped out of her flat sandals. She stretched and moved to a docking station on the counter, popped her phone into it and touched an app for an oldies station. Ristan smiled, approving of her taste in music as the Beatles’ I Saw Her Standing There came on and her head bobbed to the beat. She softly muttered a spell and the music spread to the other rooms of the small apartment.
    “Kit?” she called, her eyes moving around the room. “Kit cat, if you don’t come out, mommy can’t feed you,” she called out, and then started dancing her way to the bag of cat food. She shook the bag, and moved around the small room, searching for the feline.
    “Bad kitty,” she said, her eyes passing over Ristan, and then slid further through the room. “I swear, if you got out, and you get me into trouble…” She let the threat hang in the air unspoken.
    Ristan