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  Eric huffed out a laugh. “Understatement.”

  Kyle eased forward, hands still up. “We don’t have much time. Oriana will be back soon and she’s not one to wait.”

  I let him help me, and was glad I did. The door was too narrow. I would’ve never made it in there on my own. Kyle didn’t bother with questions. He picked me up, all six and a half feet of me, and sidestepped through the entrance, helped me undress and find my balance, and waited politely outside while I took care of business.

  Such a gentleman.

  Thank God I still had control of my bladder and bowels. No idea why. I hadn’t felt my legs in months, couldn’t feel an arousal, though I damn well knew it was there, but I could piss and shit. It was more than most paraplegics could do.

  Kyle stepped inside and helped me clean up, redress, and wash my hands. He settled me back in my chair about thirty seconds before hard-soled shoes hit the stones lining the short hallway leading into mine and Eric’s new home.

  Kyle hissed in a soft breath and put his mouth close to my ear. “Behave.”

  I jerked away from him. “What the fuck?”

  His mouth thinned and he shook his head so slightly I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t been right next to him. “Where do you want me to put you, against the wall or on the mattress?”

  “Wall.” At least I’d still be mobile if push came to shove. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

  Oriana glided into the room. Her gaze swung around to mine and a slow smile lit her round face. “Jason, darling. I hope Kyle treated you well.”

  “He did, Mistress Oriana.”

  Her smile slipped. “I told you not to use my name. Pets do not use their mistress’ names, Jason. Must I punish you to drill the lesson home?”

  “My mistress is Elizabet,” I said evenly. “I appreciate your offer of protection.”

  “It wasn’t an offer.” She whirled on Fen. “Prepare the offender.”

  Fen bowed. “Yes, Mistress. Amos, Noah, strip him down.”

  Amos and Noah, the other pet that had greeted us, ambled over to Eric. Noah dug a pocket knife out of his pants and cut Eric’s t-shirt off while Amos worked Eric’s shoes and pants off. Eric cooperated, twisting this way and that under Amos’ steady hands. A few minutes later, he was completely nude. Amos and Noah each grabbed one of his arms and hauled him to his feet.

  Oriana sighed and clasped her hands together. “Excellent. Who first, then?”

  I whipped my head around. “What do you mean, who first?”

  “Why, who will take him first, of course.” Oriana glided to me and rested a light hand on my shoulder. “That’s how we do things here, darling. I let my pets have their fun before Fen wields his special brand of punishment. It’s…messy.”

  My stomach clenched into a knot. Eric could handle a lot of things. Rape and physical torture were not two of them. The last time anything similar had happened to him, his beast had formed and taken over for nearly a whole night, the night Eric had staked his claim on me, as a matter of fact.

  I bottled the memory up, hiding it from the prying minds of those around me. “He’s under the queen’s protection.”

  Oriana’s brittle laughter echoed around the room, raising goose bumps along my skin. “Darling boy, the queen doesn’t care what happens to one budding vampire.”

  “She cares about this one,” I insisted.

  “Jason, don’t.”

  Noah casually backhanded Eric across the face. The force of the blow twisted Eric’s head around and it thudded into the wall. Eric calmly swiveled and fixed his gaze on the other pet. Blood trickled from one corner of his mouth, oozing out of a thin cut.

  My hands tightened on my chair. “Don’t do that again.”

  Noah’s mouth curled into a cruel smile. “I’ll do anything I fucking please, crip.”

  “Noah, darling,” Oriana chided. “Don’t speak to Jason that way. Now, the other pets will be here soon.”

  I shrugged her hand off. “You do this and Elizabet will come after you. Are you ready for an all-out war?”

  “You’re determined to irritate me today.” She sighed and bent at the waist, putting her eyes on level with mine. “Elizabet is old and weak, and her hold on her own children diminishes daily. I have no reason to fear her.”

  “And Marco?” I said softly. “Tell me you’re not afraid of him and I’ll call you a liar.”

  “Watch your tongue,” she hissed. “I allow you liberties, boy, liberties the other pets beg for. If you can’t muster appreciation, at least show some respect.”

  I leaned forward and caught her dark gaze with mine. “Eric is Marco’s protégé. How do you think he’ll react when he finds out what you’ve done here?”

  She blanched away from me. “You lie.”

  “Do I look like I’m lying?”

  “It doesn’t matter. The one you call Eric violated my laws. For that, he will be punished. Noah, Amos, you know what to do.” She stood slowly and pressed a shaky hand to her stomach. “The rings offend me. Remove them now.”

  She spun on a slippered foot and stalked out of the room, Fen close behind her.

  Amos knelt in front of me and took my left hand in his. “Don’t make this hard.”

  I fixed a cold stare on him. “I’ll want those back.”

  He shook his head slowly and slipped my rings off my fingers, first Gianna’s, then Eric’s. “You’ll have to work that out with the mistress.”

  Oh, I definitely had an issue or two to work out with Oriana. She might not like my methods, either, and I couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t be a scorched pile of ash and bone when I was done.

  Amos stood and ambled over to Eric, took his rings and stuffed them into the front pocket of his jeans, then propped his back against the wall next to my husband.

  Kyle moved behind my wheelchair and rolled me to the far wall. “You don’t have to watch,” he murmured. “She set aside a room for you.”

  “Forget it,” I said.

  “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  “Why are you watching? Waiting for your turn?”

  “I have my own duties, Jason.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  His mind brushed the edges of mine. There’s more going on here than you can see, so much more.

  That brief glimpse of his mind startled me. I tilted my head to the side and lowered my voice. “You’re not supposed to be able to do that. A mere pet shouldn’t be able to break through Eric’s protection.”

  He isn’t the only one with secrets.

  Across the room, Noah unbuckled his belt and shoved Eric’s chest into the wall. He pulled his dick out and ran a tight fist over it, pumping his hand over a growing erection.

  Eric pressed his cheek into the stone. He was smiling, soft and sweet, and his eyes were unnaturally dark in his pale face.

  Noah’s body stiffened and his hand stilled. “What are you doing?”

  “Playing.” Eric’s smile grew, exposing fangs glittering white and deadly sharp against his red, red lips. “Let’s have fun, pet.”

  A flush crept across Noah’s face, darkening his skin, and his eyes bulged. He gasped and slapped a hand over his left pectoral. Amos leapt forward and caught the other pet as he staggered and fell.

  Kyle’s hand slid to my shoulder. “That can’t be good.”

  “You have no idea,” I said.

  I closed my eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and opened myself fully to Eric. Well, not to him exactly, but close enough. My master needed me. For the first time since Gianna had fallen, I had the strength to help him.

  Chapter Three

  A light thud startled me. I opened my eyes. Amos had dropped to one knee on the floor with his back to me. He cradled Noah in his arms, and that was all I could make out.

  Amos turned toward the door and screamed, “Fen!”

  Kyle’s fingers dug into my skin through my t-shirt. “Shit.”

  “You’re telling me,” I murmured.

/>   “No, you don’t get it. When Fen sees what’s happened, he won’t ask questions. He’ll react.”

  I ground my teeth together. “What do you expect me to do about it?”

  “Rein Eric in.”

  I laughed, short and bitter. “Yeah, right. Eric’s not in charge anymore, and his beast doesn’t exactly listen to reason, especially when it feels threatened.”

  “Three days,” Kyle muttered. “Three fucking days.”

  “What’s happening in three days?”

  A hard clatter of footsteps came from the entrance.

  “My mistress arrives,” Kyle whispered. “Never mind. Don’t say anything, not a single word.”

  Fen ran into the room followed by half a dozen other pets. He skidded to a stop at the edge of the hallway and was nearly plowed down by the momentum of the men behind him. “What the fuck happened?”

  Amos shook his head. “I think he’s having a heart attack.”

  “He’s a goddamn pet,” Fen snarled. “Pets don’t have fucking heart attacks.”

  One of the men behind Fen clutched his eyes and screamed shrilly. He staggered into the wall, rebounded off of it, and collapsed into a heap on the floor. His voice gave out abruptly and his body jerked once, then stilled.

  Another pet knelt beside him and felt for a pulse. “Holy mother of God. I think he’s dead.”

  Fen rounded on Eric and stabbed a finger at him. “You.”

  “There’s still time to save Noah.” Eric cocked his head. Noah stiffened and groaned, and Eric laughed softly. “Then again, perhaps I miscalculated slightly.”

  Fen stalked forward and grabbed a handful of Eric’s hair, wrenching his head back. “What the fuck are you doing to my men?”

  “What could I possibly do from over here?” Eric wiggled his hands, rattling the handcuffs binding him to the wall. “See? I’m completely tamed.”

  “The fuck you are.” Fen jammed his face close to Eric and lowered his voice. “So help me God…”

  A third pet grabbed his throat. His shoulders heaved and his mouth gaped, and even I could tell he wasn’t getting any air into his lungs.

  Kyle shifted his grip, cupping my nape, his fingers stiff and cold. How long can Eric keep that up?

  I shook my head slowly, careful to keep the movement as small as possible. The cold man hadn’t started drawing on my strength yet. He still had plenty of Eric’s, but he was bringing down one man at a time. Oriana had to have more than nine pets in residence, especially if she’d known we were coming and had prepared for our arrival as carefully as I suspected she had. It took more than three hours to build a wheelchair ramp, and that’s all the time that had passed between us touching down and her pet taxi driver dumping us out at the seat of her power.

  “Do you know how long it takes for a man to suffocate?” Eric asked softly. “It’s painfully slow, an awful way to die.”

  “Stop.” Fen yanked Eric’s head back. “Stop whatever you’re doing or I’ll kill you now.”

  “And risk displeasing your mistress? I think not.”

  “If that’s the way you wanna play it.”

  Fen rammed Eric’s head into the wall, and Eric grunted. The suffocating pet sucked in a loud breath and another, and a short laugh burst out of him. A second later, his eyes rolled back in his head and he slid limply to the floor.

  “Goddamn you,” Fen said, a hard edge roughening his voice. “I told you to fucking stop.”

  “Let. Me. Go.”

  Another clatter of rapid footsteps announced the arrival of more pets. I tensed under Kyle’s hand as Oriana raced into the room, her skirt held high. Her steps slowed. She dropped her skirt and knelt beside one of the pets lying on the floor, skimming her fingers over his forehead. “What is this? What’s happening here?”

  Fen released his grip on Eric and whirled on her. “It’s him, this fucking half-vampire you brought here. He’s killing us off one by one.”

  Oriana rose slowly, her gaze on Eric. “That’s impossible. No fledgling vampire is strong enough to do this.”

  “He’s doing it,” Fen said. “Let me kill him now.”

  “He hasn’t been punished yet. He stole Jason from us, and now he needs to be punished.” Her hands curled into fists and her voice thinned, rising in volume with each word. “I will not have miscreants in my territory. I will not have thieves and murderers. I want this pet punished. I want him to suffer in a way no one will ever forget.”

  She spat the last words out. They echoed through the room, diminishing slowly in the still air.

  A slow, rattling clap filled the silence left behind. Eric leaned one shoulder against the wall, his battered face turned toward her, his palms hitting one another in a steady, mocking rhythm. “A lovely display of temper. Two thumbs up for the rage sapping your pets’ strength.”

  She punched her fists into her thighs and screamed at him, her fangs protruding, her features contorted into an ugly mask. I flinched. Jesus Christ. What a fucking harpy.

  Kyle pinched my neck. Watch it. She can hear you.

  Oriana’s chest rose and fell with each harshly panted breath. Gradually, her fingers relaxed and her head bowed. “ ‘Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.’ Are you familiar with that quote, Jason?”

  “No, Mistress Oriana.”

  “And you a proper Lutheran.” She lifted her head and gazed at Eric. “It’s from the Bible. Ecclesiastes chapter two, verse eleven. Sometimes that’s what I feel like, as if everything I do, everything I’ve worked to achieve here, has been in vain. Years of struggle and hardship. You’ve dealt with hardship, haven’t you, my love?”

  I said nothing. What could I say? The answer was obvious. Yeah, I’d had hardship, more than some, a helluva lot less than others. I hadn’t gone crazy trying to deal with it. On the other hand, I wasn’t a vampire and hoped to God I never would be.

  “What we do here is fleeting, Jason. Our time is only a shadow. It passes quickly and is forgotten by the changing world, never to be thought on again.” She pivoted and trod quietly toward the entrance. “Fen, you may begin your work now. That offensive whelp won’t be able to control you so easily.”

  “With pleasure, Mistress.” Fen’s thin lips curved into a malicious smirk. He swiped one hand at the other pets. “See to the dead. Return in one hour with as many pets as you can gather.”

  Kyle’s hand tightened on my nape, but I didn’t need the warning to know something bad was coming. It was heavy in the air, coiled for the strike, and eager to lash out at the unsuspecting.

  Fen dug a pocketknife out of his pants and flipped it open. “I’m going to enjoy this so much, and when I’m done, you’ll beg me to put you out of your misery.”

  Eric turned his face into the wall, his mouth a thin slash across his face. Fen pressed the tip of the knife against the base of Eric’s neck and corkscrewed it into the skin. Eric gasped as dark drops of blood oozed to the surface, staining his perfect, pale skin.

  Fen licked the blood away and shivered. “Rich, tasty little fuck.”

  He chose a spot an inch away from the first puncture wound and dug the knife’s point into Eric’s flesh, and I tensed. Why wasn’t Eric doing anything? Why didn’t he stop that fucker from hurting him?

  Eric’s mind flicked across mine. Patience, lover.

  The knife flashed in the dim lighting and slashed across Eric’s back, ripping open a long, jagged cut. Bile clawed its way into my throat. “Stop it,” I said, my voice so thick I barely recognized it. “Whatever it is you think we’ve done, it can be worked out in front of Lanu.”

  Fen grunted and licked his way across Eric’s back, lapping up the blood he’d spilled. His hand lashed out again and the knife scored another cut along Eric’s skin, parallel to the first. Eric sucked in a breath and jerked away, and Fen laughed, low and husky.

  I opened my mouth and got a good tast
e of Kyle’s palm. His fingers dug into my cheek and his breath whispered across my ear. “One more word and I’m filling your mouth with my dick.”

  I cut my eyes toward him. Any other time, I’d welcome giving him a blowjob, but now? What the fuck was he thinking? Eric was being tortured and somebody needed to stop it. If Kyle wouldn’t, I would, and my only weapon right then was my voice.

  He jostled my head. “Not. Another. Word.”

  I nodded slowly, and he eased his hand away. Across the room, Eric’s fingers curled into fists around the metal links chaining him to the wall, and Fen rubbed his cheek along the half dozen open wounds he’d carved into Eric’s back. The knife clattered to the floor as Fen fumbled the fastening of his jeans open, and sick fear twisted its way into my gut. The one thing Eric really feared was being forced into sex. Marco and the men Eric slept with to ease his bloodlust were one thing. He always did what he had to do there, for himself, for his family, but this? No, this was something else. He would hate having Fen inside him, just as I hated having to sit idly by while it happened, completely useless.

  Fen shoved his pants down to his upper thighs and yanked a tight fist around his engorged cock. His mouth fastened on to the first cut he’d made at the base of Eric’s neck, and Eric winked at me. I sagged in my wheelchair. No rape. Thank God.

  Don’t thank God yet, Kyle’s mind whispered.

  I scowled at him. Would you get the fuck outta my head?

  Forget it. We need the bond. Be easier if you took my blood.

  Then give me your wrist.

  Can’t. Oriana’s decreed blood-sharing off limits. Wants to keep you pure.

  I bit back a sigh. Christ, Kyle. Give me your goddamn wrist.

  His fingers tangled in my hair and yanked my head back, and his mouth came down on mine. I sat there like a complete, brainless idiot, too stunned to react. He was kissing me and, God, it was good. I hadn’t kissed another soul besides Eric since Gianna’s fall, and only rarely did he kiss me now with the raw passion imbued in Kyle’s touch. Eric was too afraid of hurting me, too afraid I’d collapse under the weight of everything that had happened to us, so fucking afraid my body would rebel. I missed it, missed him, so much.