Sinful Seduction (Darkest Desire Book 3)

3. Blast From The Past

Tossing and turning Aurora was trying to sleep. The key term being trying. The guestroom at Dimitri's house was cozy, with a fluffy comforter that wrapped around her but did nothing to soothe the discomfort that was gnawing at her insides.

For most of the night she had tried to catch some sleep, like Dimitri had instructed her to do. And it had worked. Partially. She'd slept a couple of hours in 20-minute intervals in which she drifted off, before her tumultuous thoughts dragged her back into this semi-awake state in which her mind did nothing but whirl around a hundred different memories, and a thousand more questions. And so a deep, dreamless sleep continued to elude her.

Aurora was also annoyed at herself for going off at Dimitri after he told her about Salome. She shouldn't have gotten so worked up, and now Aurora knew she'd have to apologize in the morning. Now whenever she closed her eyes all she saw was that conversation with Dimitri from the night before, going over and over it again and again.

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~"Aurora....it's...-it's Salome. She's back" Dimitri's voice sounded hesitant, showing the reluctance clear as day on his handsome face as he rubbed his jaw and averted his eyes.

She froze. Like bucket of cold water being poured over her she felt her entire body go rigid, unable to move, unable to form a coherent sentence. Not a single word spilled from her lips, as if they'd somehow gotten stuck in her throat, the air refusing to flow in and from her lungs, making it feel as though some unforeseen pressure was being exerted on her.

"....Salome?" she finally managed, the word tasting like ashes in her mouth "...How?!"

Dimitri shook his head, trying to find the right words. He'd been looking for Aurora for almost a week, knowing that the news he brought would bring about mixed reactions. He'd expected Aurora to react quite intensely, but after finding her, frail and broken, at the cemetery, he had not known how to bring up the subject. In fact, he had considered not telling her at all, seeing the state she was in when he found her. Dimitri had cursed himself for not going to her sooner, for not looking after her, knowing her parents passing would cause her severe bereavement. But he'd always thought of Aurora as his big sister, the woman who'd looked out for him and spent all those years by his side, putting up with his crap and not taking any of his shit. She'd seen him grow up, from a young teen to the man he was now, and he'd always thought of her as indestructible. And yet, here she was, so seemingly broken.

It had frightened him, but Dimitri also knew that he couldn't keep a secret from Aurora. She'd find out, one way or the other, and she'd resent him for keeping it from her, no matter his intentions. Besides, she was over two hundred years old, and she was quite resilient.

So he spoke up "We got a tip at the ministry a while back. Intel suggesting Salome might try and get back into the country, join the ranks of Lord Voldemort. We get a lot of those these days, you see, people remembering names from back then and fearing retribution, seeing things that aren't there.....Anyways, I happened to catch it, and when it mentioned Salome I knew I had to follow through. Most of it was useless and led to a lot of dead ends-"

Aurora interrupted him, eyes now cold and emotionless, her voice almost detached, dangerously low "-...But?"

"-But finally, something payed off. Someone recognized her. I sent in someone undercover to get a positive identification, and then I led the team sent to retrieve her. She fought back, Aurora, and I almost lost one of my men. He might never fully recover from what that woman did to him. But we got her, Rory. She's in our custody"