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"Stand clear."
Smart fucking idea. He didn't know who had the thunder god voice, but it would defuse Rand, and Cai didn't want Brian hurt, either. But nothing was going to stop him...
White hot pain shot through his core, like something had detonated in his gut and spread up through his diaphragm and chest. Suddenly his lungs were pumping madly, heart jumping.
More rage filled him, because the pain was so overwhelming it drained his strength and loosened his grip on the vampire hunter's throat. Looking down, Cai blinked, startled to see a sharp blade sticking out of his stomach and curving up close before his ribs and chest. Someone had jammed a long, curved sword into his lower back and let it emerge from his upper abdomen.
That would explain why it fucking hurt so much, though if the blade hadn't been so wicked sharp, he expected it would be hurting like a hundred sons of bitches, instead of ten. Maybe twenty. And it hadn't severed his spine, because otherwise he would have lost feeling in his legs and crumpled to the floor.
All sorts of unlikely plans to twist free of that blade shot through his mind, but his assailant was faster even than them.
A palm clamped onto his shoulder, thumb against his neck, and a hard body, thigh to chest, pressed to his right side, so close it was lover intimate. The menace in the deadly voice that spoke against his ear wasn't pillow talk, though.
"Let him go."
Cai had his wrist deep in body cavity, his forearm running with blood. The human's heart was so close to his fingertips he could feel the thud. The vampire hunter should be focused on bleeding out. Instead, his mouth was twisted into a matching sneer, adrenaline and anger overriding pain. With the least opportunity, he'd keep fighting.
Both of them pinned and wanting to fight; neither able to do so. Life was a bitch.
"Withdraw your fist from my servant's chest, slow and easy, or you die right here."
That came from the one who'd skewered him, making it clear why the vampire hunter wasn't well on his way to dying.
"He's no servant," Cai spat. "He's a vampire hunter. A killer."
"He was at one time. Now he serves me. I will not tell you again." The voice did something with the blade that sent more indescribable pain vibrating through Cai, wresting a cry from his lips. He heard a growl and realized that growl had been growing in volume and strength while he'd been distracted by his impalement.
A slight movement from the male vampire who held him said he might have spared a glance to his right. "Your wolf is close to attacking again. If he does, my cher and Lord Brian will be forced to break him into pieces. Pick your battles. This isn't one of them, unless you wish to die, here and now. Do it."
Cai curled his lip, but he'd lost his chance to accomplish what he wished. If he twitched his fingers anywhere closer to the heart, the vampire would know because he was there, wasn't he? Deep in the head, heart and soul of his servant. He'd slice and dice Cai before he got anywhere close, and then Rand...fuck, he'd third marked Rand.
Shit. Slowly, he pulled his hand out of the vampire hunter. He gave him credit; the human's eyes never wavered. His face was tight with agony, but he still looked like he'd be happy to go a couple more rounds with Cai, as soon as either one of them was capable.
But as Cai withdrew, a female vampire with sable brown hair and blue-green eyes was there, easing the human down the side of the wall. She refused to back off even when he seemed to want her to move back from the fray.
He was protective of her, that was obvious. It was also quite necessary, because the female was even younger than Brian, and a made vampire on top of that. Maybe only a few years as a vampire under her belt, which meant Cai could crush her even more easily than he could have Brian.
The one at his back was a different matter. He smelled...ancient. He held the power of centuries. Not as old as Lyssa, but raw power and something else made Cai think this vampire would be a match for her, regardless of the difference in ages.
"Be still. I don't want to sever your spine," the male said in a cool, even tone. "You'd heal, but it would take a very unpleasant day or two, and I understand there is a need for your services. I've not harmed anything that can't be sufficiently healed within a couple hours, with some of your servant's blood. But you must remain still."
Cai decided not to tell the vampire what he could do with his instruction. He hated that when the blade slid free, he hissed out another sharp cry. Fuck, that hurt. He didn't expect Rand to be there to catch him as the beautiful female had his opponent, so he was surprised when Rand was indeed there, in human form, easing him down to the floor.
The older vampire wiped his sword across Cai's shirt front in a ritual cross movement. It was probably some crazy samurai sign of yeah, I kicked your ass. Rand shot a notably hostile glance his way. The male seemed unaffected by it, but he did straighten and step back, sheathing the katana in a scabbard harnessed to his back.
He was tall, lean, with unnaturally dark eyes and a loose fall of black hair around his sculpted face. He wore a gi, as if he'd been working out with that deadly blade before joining them in the study.
He moved to the side of the female vampire and the injured human. Cai's bloody hand closed into a fist again, feeling how close that beating heart had been.
"I should have done it," he muttered. "Why the hell did I mark you like that?"
"That isn't what stopped you. Who is he?" Rand asked. He'd pulled on his jeans but he knelt by Cai shirtless, his hand over the sword wound, stanching the blood with his balled-up shirt. Cai swallowed over the sudden wave of weakness, the inevitable result of an injury that severe.
"He's a vampire hunter. He killed someone I know...a while back. A friend."
Rand glanced over at the other wounded male. "I thought you had no friends or family."
"I don't. Not anymore. There was just the one."
"Oh. Just one...ever?"
"Yeah, I don't make friends easily. Shocker, I know."
Rand pressed his lips together and lifted his wrist toward Cai's mouth, offering. Cai shoved it away, ungraciously. "Not here. I won't fucking be nursed like a baby in front of him."
Rand laid a hand on the side of his throat. He seemed remarkably unconcerned about anything else happening in the room. "If you're too stubborn to feed here," he said steadily, "then we go back to our room where you will. You're very pale. More corpse-white than usual."
"Nice. I can't die."
"Yes. But you also can't leave until you're strong enough to do so, and we both wish to leave here sooner than la
ter, correct?"
Calm logic. Whatever had kept Rand so deep in his head when he first arrived seemed to have been put aside to handle the immediate crisis. That semblance of his normal self relieved Cai, though he felt like a shit for everything suddenly being about him, when Rand had had the far more stressful past few hours.
"Yeah, yeah," Cai said gruffly. "You just want to be the hero who saves the girl."
Rand gave him a patient look. Cai would have shot off a couple more stupid things, but Lord Brian, who had been examining the injured hunter, now came to Cai's side. As he squatted next to him, Cai saw he'd shed the lab coat that Rand had bitten through. The sleeve off his dress shirt had likely been punctured, but he had that rolled up high on his arm. The area above the elbow was bound up in a torn piece of the coat, a temporary dressing to handle the blood until the wound knitted.
"I'm sorry," Rand said. "My wolf doesn't always reason the way I do."
"I expect you and your wolf are very much on the same page most times. Your Master was under attack. That's all that matters to a servant, when the bond is true." Lord Brian slanted him a benign glance. "And a small price to pay to see you shift twice."
He turned a more serious gaze back to Cai, pulling the torn shirt up to examine the sword wound. Cai would have protested and shoved him away, but he was taking a break from belligerence in favor of recuperation.
True to vampire healing abilities, the run-through was already closing, though he would need blood to accelerate the internal healing process, as Rand had pointed out.
Brian's expression was far less amiable when he met Cai's eyes. "You're alive right now only because you are of use," he murmured. "And because Lord Daegan was aware of that and would not kill you indiscriminately. You understand?"
"You understand how little I give a shit?" Cai closed his eyes at Rand's look. "Did you give us everything you need to give us, so we can get the hell out of here?"
Brian shot him an inscrutable look when Cai opened his eyes, but offered a tight nod. "Almost. Lord Daegan and his servant, Gideon, were going to discuss other tactical considerations with you."
"Gideon Green." Cai bared his teeth. He'd already known it, but hearing it confirmed, said aloud, provoked his bloodlust once more. "What the fuck is a vampire hunter doing here, bound to a vampire?"
