She sensed he was stil angry with Patrico for not protecting her earlier on, for hiding and saving his own skin. This fight was a matter of honor. If Patrico defeated his adversary, his prowess would exonerate him. But dammit! Patrico was already badly injured from the earlier fight at the beach house! How could he hope to win?
“Why kill the police officers, Mustaphus?”
Tezra communicated solely to him, attempting to save Patrico’s life. As far as she was concerned, the fact he’d come to save Katie from Krustalus at his own peril was al she needed to forgive him.
Again Mustaphus glanced in her direction and exposed his canines with a hiss.
For distracting him so thoroughly, she gave him a smug smile.
“You killed Patrico’s hunter friend. Before this, you’d murdered
several barflies.”
She only assumed the woman he’d helped kil in front of Patrico was just one of many, and that he’d stil been kil ing women to this day.
When she felt Voltan’s grip loosening a bit, she tried to twist free, but he tightened his hold and she scowled at him.
Patrico sliced at Mustaphus’s chest, connecting with the vampire’s sword arm. Mustaphus cried out, the blood col ecting across his sleeve. He quickly switched the sword to his left hand. Damn, he was ambidextrous?
“The police were on to you, weren’t they Mustaphus?”
she quickly said, before Patrico wore himself out and made a fatal mistake.
“They planned to take you, except Daemon’s Uncle Solomon was at your home. He looked similar to you, despite
protesting his innocence, the police officers killed him. He never fought them, did he? He was innocent all right, and your
friend. Although, if he’d known the truth about you, he would have turned you in to Daemon. Wouldn’t he? You were a master
manipulator, and you got your best friend killed!”
Mustaphus suddenly sifted, appearing in front of her. He grabbed her throat with lightning speed. Before anyone else could react, Patrico bolted after him and with a thrust, jabbed the hunter’s blade into the vampire’s back, the metal reaching his heart with single-minded focus.
Mustaphus didn’t have time to scream. His hand on Tezra’s throat dissolved into ashes, and the remainder of him quickly fol owed.
Relieved Patrico lived to fight another day, Tezra bowed her head to him. Whatever else he had neglected to do in the past, he was not a coward in her eyes anymore. His chest heaving, he looked like a man exonerated from his past.
But the show wasn’t over. As soon as Mustaphus lay in ruins on the stone patio in front of her, Krustalus lunged at Daemon.
“You will die, Krustalus!”
Tezra shouted into his brain.
He offered her a sinister smile and struck at Daemon, their swords clanking with the impact.
“Do not think you can distract me
like you did Mustaphus, sweet Tezra. That’s what you were doing, no? You will be my ultimate challenge.”
Daemon whipped his sword around so quickly it was a blur.
Krustalus again impeded Daemon’s progress with a sword block and resulting thunk.
“I promised to kill you, you bastard! I will still do so!”
He raised his brows, but kept his focus on the real threat, Daemon, prince of their people.
“It will be hard to do, if Voltan
continues to hold your wrist
.”
“It’s him.” Katie’s voice cracked with emotion. “He kil ed Mom and Dad.”
Tezra stared at the gun Katie held, her mind shifting through the ramifications. Bul ets wouldn’t work on the vampire unless they were silver, though even regular lead bul ets could make him weaker for a short while. But she didn’t want her sister getting involved. What if the vampires turned on her?
“We’l handle this in our own way,” Daemon said, his voice stern. “The vampire way. Put the gun down.”
“Katie.” The panic rose in her blood as Tezra wriggled against Voltan’s confinement to reach her sister and stop her, but she couldn’t free herself from the giant’s strong grip. “Katie, honey, lower the gun.”
Daemon thrust his sword again at Krustalus, and the vampire defended himself with a whack at Daemon’s blade.
For a second, they separated.
A trigger clicked in rapid succession; the explosion deafening to Tezra’s sensitive vampiric hearing. The smel of gunpowder discharged in the breeze, and three bul ets slammed into Krustalus’s chest. Not silver, or Krustalus would have dissolved into ashes.
Tezra glanced back at Katie who immediately turned the gun on Daemon, her face streaked with tears. “You changed Tezra against her wil .”
Alarmed, Tezra hastily summoned the ability to sift. Not sure how it happened, but in a blur she slipped out of Voltan’s grasp, her molecules shifting so fast, the giant didn’t expect it. She didn’t have time to think about it. The sensation of being lighter than air changed quickly to feeling pinned down by gravity. Even so, she managed to lunge between Katie and Daemon. If Katie shot Daemon and weakened him, he could die at Krustalus’s hand and doom everyone who cared for the prince of the vampire clans.
Katie’s eye couldn’t fathom Tezra appearing so quickly, and she fired the gun at Daemon. The bul et ricocheted off Tezra’s ribs and lodged in her heart before her mind could accept her sister had shot her. Tezra grabbed her chest and col apsed to her knees. Adrenaline flooded her system, preventing her from feeling the pain.
Realizing what she’d done, Katie screamed, “Tezra!” and threw the gun on the patio.
“Jesus,” Daemon said, grabbing Tezra’s arm.
“Concentrate on Krustalus!”
she ordered Daemon, giving him a look that could kil .
“You know I’ll live.”
Though she had serious doubts as the warm blood soaked her gown. Then she thought of the irony of the situation. If Daemon hadn’t turned her, Katie’s bul et would have kil ed her. If Daemon hadn’t turned her, Katie probably wouldn’t have shot at him and hit Tezra instead. If Daemon hadn’t turned her, she wouldn’t have been able to sift in front of him and wouldn’t have been shot no matter what. Such were the strange thoughts swimming through her mind while Katie sobbed next to her, her hand covering Tezra’s seeping wound.
A streak of pain jolted her heart. Despite the shock, Tezra’s mind drifted and people blurred. She noticed Bernard’s left arm was cut when he drew near her. He yanked off his tuxedo jacket and bunched it against her wound while she lay on the hard stone patio. The funniest notion crossed her fuzzy brain—Bernard now had the best excuse in the world to ditch the tuxedo jacket he hated so. Patrico tore his jacket off too, and placed it under her head.
Vaguely, she heard Daemon and Krustalus’s swords sweep through the air nearby and crash with clanks and clangs, bringing her attention back to the battle for power. Sweat beaded on Krustalus’s brow, but Daemon looked like he hadn’t even begun to fight.
Did the bul ets help to slow Krustalus a little despite his being an ancient? She couldn’t tel if Krustalus was any weaker, though Tezra was glad Katie shot him, for her own peace of mind. But the notion she would try to kil Daemon disturbed her most.
Worse, knowing she was the reason for her sister’s anguish al over again, Tezra felt sick. How would she ever make things right between them? Another shard of pain ripped through her, and she gritted her teeth.
“Speak to me, Tezra,”
Daemon ordered.
“Concentrate on the fight, Daemon,”
she snapped back, not wanting him distracted for an instant over her. He had to kil Krustalus, make him pay for his crimes. And not get himself kil ed in the process.
Daemon gave her a smal smile and slashed again at Krustalus.
Tezra focused on the devil, Krustalus. The blood from the bul et wounds seeped through his shirt now.
“I’m sorry I was not the
one to injure you, but as long as the one you hurt most retaliated, I’m glad.”
Tezra broadcast her telepathic communication for al the vampires to hear.
“Your sister will die when Daemon is dead, but you…you will be my mate and endure many lifetimes with me, Tezra darling.
Never fear.”
“Help me up,” she ordered Bernard, finished with the murderer’s threats, though she felt so weak she wasn’t sure even with his help she could stand.
Bernard’s eyes widened. “No, Tezra, lie stil until Daemon can take care of you.”
“I have business to tend to, dammit, Bernard! Help me up.”
Patrico waved his sword at Krustalus. “He was the vampire who was with Mustaphus and who kil ed the woman in the al ey a decade ago.”
Several vampires murmured comments.
But Tezra was certain the SCU hunter’s words wouldn’t influence the vampires much. Certainly, his statement wouldn’t affect Krustalus.
Krustalus danced close by, dodging out of the path of Daemon’s sword, his black shoes barely making a sound on the patio.
She couldn’t do much good, she imagined, but she had to strike at him, for her sake, for the sake of her parents, for Katie and because she’d promised the devil himself.
Thrice she tried to sift to get closer, but her skin grew clammy, her breathing more shal ow, her heart rate slower, and she didn’t move an inch. Damn that she was so newly turned—wel , and that a bul et was lodged in her heart. She felt her body trying to reject the foreign object penetrating the muscle, centimeter by painful centimeter. Having difficulty concentrating, her mind continual y drifted, and she knew she needed blood.
Blood
. The bloodlust fil ed her with a sense of urgency, desperation, but not for anyone’s blood. Just Krustalus’s.
She thought she saw the blonde Anatola smiling at her, but the vamp’s face wavered before Tezra, and the expression wasn’t sweet. Did she hope Tezra would die? The vamp had to know better. Maybe she sensed Tezra would leave Daemon after this was al over. Or maybe she was amused that Tezra’s own sister had shot her.
Tezra gritted her teeth against the physical and emotional pain she felt. How could Katie have tried to shoot Daemon?
In a haze, she heard the sound of swords clanking again. Daemon! Again Tezra tried to sift. At first, she didn’t think anything had happened. Not until Katie screamed, Bernard swore and Patrico attempted to alert Daemon, bringing her back to consciousness. In her weakened condition, Tezra hadn’t managed to stand upright, but instead lay on her side, facing Krustalus’s ankle.
Good enough.
By the time he noticed her, it was too late. She bit hard into his ankle, through the trousers, sock, everything.
Immediately, Daemon stabbed his sword into Krustalus’s heart before he could retaliate.
She hadn’t even tasted a drop of the vampire’s blood before the pant leg flattened against ashes. Her mind swirled in confusion. Daemon shouted something, peppered with a few choice curses that included her name, then the lights al went out.
***
Daemon resheathed his sword and lifted Tezra off the floor. “Bring me blood.” But before he moved her to his bedroom, Voltan stopped him.
“Six hunters are at the front door, my prince.”
Daemon frowned. “They had better not think of arresting Tezra.”
“The Chief of Police is with them.”
“What?”
“He’s told them about Krustalus and Mustaphus.”
Patrico joined them. “I’l speak to them. Clear up the whole matter of Tezra’s parents’ deaths and my speedy resurrection. It’s about time I did something right.”
Daemon bowed his head, acknowledging the hunter had made his amends tonight. “If you need my help…”
Bernard stepped forward, favoring the wound he’d received when he’d helped Daemon fight the insurrection in the house, his face pinched with pain. “I’l back you up, Patrico. Let’s take care of unfinished business.”
***
“Tezra love, stay with me,” Daemon coaxed, his heart beating out of bounds. He sifted her to his master bedroom suite and laid her in the bed.
Her face pale, she lay deathly stil as he removed her bloody gown and pul ed the blanket just below the wound. From the bathroom, he retrieved medical gauze, then began issuing orders telepathical y while he covered Tezra’s wound to stem the bleeding.
“Maison, where’s the doc?”
“On his way, Prince Daemon,”
Maison said.
“The gun—has someone secured it?”
“I’ve put it away, out of Katie’s reach,”
Atreides responded.
With al the strife, Daemon had forgotten al about Tezra’s sister.
“Katie, who’s watching her?”
“Mycenia. She’s taken her to the guest bedroom and is getting her cleaned up and changed,”
Atreides said.
Dammit.
The blood soaked through the gauze and Tezra was growing weaker by the second. Though he tried to stop the flow of blood from Tezra’s wound, Daemon found her vampiric abilities were too new to work quickly enough to heal her injuries, and she was stil losing way too much blood.
“Where the hell is Doc?”
Atreides appeared with bagged blood and helped Daemon hook up an I.V. to Tezra’s arm. “I’m sorry Doc Hol owel is taking so long. We’re not sure what’s—”
“I’m here, my prince,” Doc Hol owel said, appearing behind them. He added painkil er to the I.V. “I was patching up a couple of your men left to guard the warehouse district who tangled with some of these rebels who hit you earlier.” He considered the severity of Tezra’s wound and shook his head. “Because she’s so newly turned, her system is trying to fight the foreign object in her heart but is incapable of regenerating the broken blood vessels at the same time. If I were to remove the bul et, her body can concentrate on healing.”
“Do it.”
The doctor worked so quickly, he had the bul et it out in a matter of seconds, while Daemon and Atreides assisted him in the procedure. Then with vampiric precision, Doc Hol owel reconnected some of the larger blood vessels to lessen the bleeding until Tezra’s body could take over. “Maison says her sister shot her and appears to be in a mild case of shock.”
“If you’l look at Katie, I would be grateful.” Daemon held Tezra’s hand, rubbing his thumb over her soft, cool skin.
“And the hunters, Patrico and Bernard? Do you wish me to see to their injuries as wel ?” Doc Hol owel taped fresh gauze over Tezra’s wound, then pul ed the blanket higher.