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“It was.”
Lucius roared, his hands fisting in his hair a second before he shoved the chair hard enough that Blair leapt to her feet to avoid being flung across the room. Beside him, Drake’s expression had darkened in fury, his eyes tracing over Blair’s form to inspect for damage.
“Where were you shot?”
“Here.” She touched her forefinger to the spot that was still tender. “Right as rain now, gentlemen.”
“If he’d have shot your heart, you’d be dead!”
Lucius stalked up to her and grabbed her shoulders in a bruising grip. With a hiss, he voiced his obvious displeasure, grabbing ahold of her arms in a rough but possessive measure.
That was when it all went to hell.
The vampire snapped his head toward the oncoming threat a half second before Kaien’s fist barreled into Lucius’ cheekbone, an unmistakable crack resounding in the cavernous hall. The sheer force of the Raeth’s punch sent Lucius staggering into the wall on the other side of the room.
This time, however, Blair was prepared. Immediately, she leapt forward to coil her arms around Kaien’s quivering frame, dismissing Lucius as the saner party for the moment.
“Stop, Kaien,” she begged, hating the way her voice wavered. “Stop.”
Lucius’ hiss from behind her sent a wave of primitive shivers up her spine, and she had no doubt that the other male had gotten to his feet and was one step away from pouncing on the Raeth she held captive.
“Everybody chill the hell out,” Blair shouted. The sudden silence whispered of impending violence, and before her, Drake stood stock still, unmoving in his shock.
From the rigid tension playing across Kaien’s body, she could tell he’d locked eyes with Lucius and the two were engaging in a far deeper play for dominance. Neither male would give in. Both were predatorial, alpha males who wore the mask of civilization but held an instinctual animalism that spoke to their supernatural natures.
If it escalated, neither would be the victor.
A guttural growl escaped through Kaien’s clenched teeth, reminding Blair that Kaien was undoubtedly the apex predator in the room. At over twelve hundred years of age, the Raeth could handily overpower her or any vampire regardless of their innate physical prowess. The only reason he’d stopped his assault on Lucius was the fact that Blair had intercepted him before he could follow through.
Shivering as scarcely tempered rage bled through their ghosting mating bond, Blair let out a steadying breath. And then, her hands slowly traced up from where she held him captive to settle softly on the strong line of his jawbone.
“Kaien, look at me.” It was a plea. “Look at me.Please.”
A jolt went through his features before he blinked once and then complied. The weight of his gaze settled on her, but when she was reason returning to the unmistakable intelligence behind his eyes, she slumped against him.
“Lucius meant me no harm.” Her words were garbled against his chest, her hands slipping around Kaien’s tapered waist. “He was merely worried about me.”
“Be calm, Luc.”
Kane’s sane voice soothed quietly from behind her, and Blair knew without a doubt that he’d held Lucius back from attacking as Blair had done with Kaien. The sound of a brief scuffle behind her had her turning around, pinning the two vampires with a glare. Kane had restrained Lucius physically, and when he’d released the other man from his hold, Lucius had irreverently shoved him away.
“You mind enlightening us on the latest installment of Blair’s Wild Life?” One ebony eyebrow raised incredulously at her as Drake examined her entanglement with the Raeth she clung to.
Squaring her shoulders, she removed herself from the intimacy of Kaien’s embrace but ringed her finger and thumb possessively around his wrist.
“It’s complicated.”
But Drake wasn’t pulling his punches, and a thread of suspicion darkened his gaze before he turned to the Raeth. Drake had never been a mere pretty face, and Blair would bet her bottom dollar that he’d already figured out why Kaien had reacted so violently to Luc’s perceived threat.
“Why are you here, Kaien?”
Kaien inclined his chin, but his eyes gave nothing away. “Because I want to be.”
The healer held eye contact with the vampire, unwilling to expand upon his answer. Quiet, Drake flagrantly analyzed the other man, missing nothing. With a sigh, Drake frowned and glanced toward Blair with an unspoken question in his eyes.
However, it was Kane who broke the strained silence. “May I request a moment alone with you, Kaien?”
The pair of them had been close for centuries, and Kane was perhaps the only other one in the room who could temper Kaien’s impulses. It made Blair glad she had another person to count on—especially if things didn’t smooth over quickly.
