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He half shrugged. “No, but I would still recommend it.”
Though I couldn’t see the point, I locked the door as requested, then turned and looked around. The room was little more than a small white box, with no furniture other than the bed and the light screen. I walked across to the touch panel and slid a finger across the appropriate app. The TV came to life. The scene it revealed was one man viciously fucking another as he sucked the life from the poor fellow. The only sounds to be heard were the slapping of flesh against flesh and the occasional slurp.
I shivered and turned my back to the screen. I might have to listen, but I didn’t have to watch. Not the whole sick performance, anyway.
Azriel still stood near to the door, Valdis held by his side. She gleamed with an ugly blue-black fire.
I raised an eyebrow in silent query, and he said, “There is much unrest outside.”
I know. Fear sharpened within me. Amaya responded immediately, her noise adding to the ache in my still-tired brain. “When do you think they’ll attack?”
“We are not dealing with sensible vampires in this place.” He paused, then added, “We’re not even dealing with your kind of sensible.”
The comment drew a smile, as he’d no doubt intended. “Then we could be in big trouble.”
“And it means you will have to watch the screen to see when the Rakshasa appears. I will deal with what comes.”
My gaze flicked to the light screen. The vampire was reaching his climax and the whore was intact, and alive. “I will, when I have to.”
He nodded. His attention obviously wasn’t on me, but rather on the danger that lurked beyond the closed door.
“How many do you think they’ll send at us?” I asked quietly.
“There are at least a dozen, by the feel of it.”
Twelve against two weren’t great odds by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren’t insurmountable given that we had not only Azriel’s skills but the two swords, as well. It could have been a whole lot worse. It could have been half the damn room.
I flexed my fingers and glanced briefly at the screen. The room was being cleaned and the blood whore escorted away. “I still can’t see the point of testing me like this if they’d rather see me dead.”
“As I said, we are not dealing with any rational mode of thinking.” He paused. “We could leave. We have that option.”
“But it’s not one we can take. However crazy this whole setup is, proving I can protect myself against a horde of crazy vamps might just be enough to save me from the council’s death edict—especially if the Rakshasa doesn’t turn up tonight.”
“Then prepare to fight.” His gaze came to mine, the blue depths storm lit. “It’s not going to be pleasant.”
My stomach began to churn. I stepped back and raised Amaya. Her fire burned over the hilt and crawled across my skin, as sharp and as electric as the hissing in my mind. Hissing that said, Come, come, come…
I shivered, and wished I couldn’t hear the beat of those words, or feel the answering echo of anticipation deep inside me. Wished the vamps that were crowding closer and closer down the hall would just leave us alone.
But all the wishes in the world wouldn’t change the reality. Not this time.
Then Azriel said the two words I’d been dreading.
“They come.”
And they did.
Only not just through the door, but from the ceiling itself.
Chapter 12
There was little warning, just a crack of sound as half the damn ceiling fell on our heads and spewed a seething mass of hissing, hungry vampires onto the floor—at the exact same time the first lot hit the door and crashed it open.
Back to back, Azriel said.
I pressed against him and ignored the plaster still falling around us, Amaya held at the ready and her die, die, die chant a scream inside my head.
Azriel entered the fray and Valdis screamed. It was a sound of defiance, a call for blood. I shivered and swung Amaya as the first of the vampires scrambled to their feet. Her fire rained through the air, the droplets hitting floor and flesh with equal deadliness, burning whatever it touched but having little impact on either. Then her sharp point met flesh, but there was no jolt, nothing to indicate I’d hit anything at all. An arm plopped to the floor and blood sprayed, covering all of us. The scent of it filled the air, fueling the hunger already rampant in the room. The nearest vampires turned and attacked the injured vampire, sinking their teeth into his flesh and tearing him apart. They reminded me of dogs fighting over a bone, and again I wondered at the council’s willingness to destroy their own just to test my worthiness.
