Johnny flashes a smile, trying to defuse the tension. "Darius is gonna be pleased. Old vamp blood like this? Worth a fortune."
I nod slowly, watching them work. The pump clicks on. Needles slide into Kayden's veins. Blood starts to flow—thick, dark, and potent.
The irony of draining a vampire isn't lost on me. With previous targets, I felt a curl of glee as I watched their panic, the way their strength slipped away. Predators who became prey. Their dust still lines the floor.
But now there's none of that. No satisfaction, no triumph. Just unease, coiling low in my stomach.
I touch my neck again. The wound's already closed, but the sensation still lingers—warm, intimate. Utterly wrong.
He's a predator. An enemy.
"You all right?" Darlene asks, her voice gentler now as she looks at me.
I muster a smile. "I am. He barely punctured me."
She nods, but her eyes give her away. I've been attacked by vampires before, and it took time to recover. I know her worry is double-edged—part protective, part professional. She sees me like a little sister, yeah, but I'm also her asset. The bait. If I can't do the job, the whole operation wobbles.
I reach out and touch her hand. "Really. I'm fine. I'll be ready to do this again tomorrow night."
"Uh, we've got a problem," Johnny says, leaning over Kayden's body.
Darlene's on him in a heartbeat. "What kind of problem?"
"His nightstone's embedded in this armband," Johnny replies, tapping the metal circlet locked around Kayden's wrist. "It's welded shut. No easy way to remove it."
"We cut off the hand. No problem," Piotr says flatly, already drawing a blade that looks like a machete.
"No!" The word rips out of me louder than I meant, echoing too sharply in the steel box.
Everyone turns and stares. I blink, forcing a casual shrug. "I mean… feels a little extreme, doesn't it?"
Darlene crosses her arms, gaze cool. "He's going to burn in a few hours anyway. One limb less won't matter." She nods toward the jagged opening in the east wall, carved precisely, so the rising sun would do what we won't.
"I know. I just…" I scramble for reasons. "The sun is nature. We let nature deal with predators. That's the whole idea, right?" I tilt my head, forcing a neutral tone. "Just feels like it's not our place to start hacking away at limbs."
I haven't taken pity on him. I haven't.
No way.
Before anyone can argue, Konstantin, the other brawny goon, turns, and heads for the exit. "Soldering iron. In the car."
I nod, exhaling, and offer him a small, grateful smile.
I don't even ask why a leshy—a literal forest spirit—keeps a soldering iron in his trunk. At this point, nothing surprises me. None of us are what myths promise.
A nymph, a faun, and a vampire go into a shipping container. The vampire doesn't come out. Sounds like the start of a bad joke.
And then… his eyes snap open.
They find mine first—confusion flashing to recognition, then hardening into fury as he takes in the chains, the cold metal, the draining rig at his side.
He jerks against the cuffs. "What the fuck—"
Piotr's fist slams into his jaw before he can finish. Kayden's head whips to the side, the next word swallowed in blood.
I wince, fists curling reflexively at my sides.
"You don't speak," the leshy says flatly. "Or you get more."
