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Blair had never felt anything so disconcerting in her life. To be so intimately connected to another being, as if she were laid bare before this Raeth, threw her world off balance. Ghosting between them, the bond joined them with a connection that whispered of a far deeper link. It was as if her soul had reached out to the man and ensnared him—completely without her knowledge or approval.
Her belated gasp shocked both of them out of their silence. She pushed out of his suddenly lax grip with hostility, pivoting on her heel to sneer at the man behind her.
“What the hell have you done to me?”
Kaien’s expression, which had been one of disbelief, twisted to anger. “What did I do to you? You’re the one who sunk your fangs into me!”
Never once in her life had she seen Kaien lose his calm. He was Nina’s composed and collected twin, perhaps a little sarcastic. Except now.
Blair shoved away from him, completely off kilter as her mind sped through how the link could have possibly occurred. “The mating bond comes from the Raeth! Vampires don’t have mating bonds with each other! You’ve woven this link between us somehow, and I want itoutof me.”
“I can’t create a mating bond,Blair.”
In a rare show of anxiety, his hand raked through his short blond hair. Blair’s eyes fixated on the blood that’d started running down his arm from where she bit him. Her hunger churned ominously in her gut.
“How do we get rid of it?”
“How the hell should I know? I’ve never had a mating bond before.”
Dizziness swarmed through her head, instantly reaching out toward the wall to keep herself steady. Kaien, as if he were nothing more than a watchful guardian, held his hand out to stabilize her.
“Sit, I need to check your wound.” His voice was authoritative, a general directing his soldier to abide by his bidding. Blair was no mere pawn to move about the game board under his will.
“Bite me,” she dared, snapping her fangs at him.
Instead of countering her untoward behavior, he simply motioned toward the couch. Kaien watched her while her strength seemed to flee her. Here, in the low light of dawn, the unearthly masculinity that clung to his form was even more apparent. Hunger for his blood suddenly became secondary to the hunger she felt for him as a man.
Blair purposefully ignored him as she complied, hating the weakness that threatened her stability. Her hand clasped at the wound on her stomach.
Soft leather welcomed her when Blair retreated into the comfort it promised. The Raeth was next to her silently as she lifted her shirt, his eyes tracing over the injury that marred the flesh on her stomach.
“Where does it hurt?”
Blair stiffened when Kaien’s warm hands connected with her naked flesh. His tenderness was apparent despite her continued abrasiveness.
“Pain is constant, but not nearly as bad as the initial wound. I suppose I have you to thank for that.”
Her hands clutched aimlessly at the blanket that’d been left abandoned after their … connection. She felt vulnerable around him—in more ways than one.
“When you thrashed after I brought you here,” Kaien explained, delicately probing the injured area, “a bullet fragment nicked the aortic artery in your abdomen. The massive blood loss you suffered caused you to lose consciousness.”
Blair inclined her chin. “Where is Nina? Why didn’t she respond to my request?”
“Nina is in recoil in our territory.” A tick started in his jaw. “Where I should be.”
“Why is she in recoil?”
“A handful of clanless Raeths came into our lands to abduct several of our children. Nina utilized her abilities.”
“Where the hell were you?”
Growling, Blair slapped his hands away, infuriated that Nina had had to utilize the destructive side of her nature. Inevitably, the usage of such devastating gifts was to her own detriment.
“Fighting by her side,” Kaien replied blandly, shooting her a contemptuous gaze. “I am not my sister’s keeper, nor do I have any say about how and when she employs the darker aspects of her gifts.”
Blair scoffed and folded her arms over her chest, suddenly conscious of the fact that she was half naked. “Are you going to manifest me a replacement shirt or keep ogling me, Casanova?”
Chapter Seven
