Nick thrust his legs and shoulders off the floor, but Malvern’s hold was superhuman. He slammed Nick back into the rug.
“Before we struck our deal with Verinetti for Manhattan, we relied on those like Stan to work for us. True human scum.”
Nick’s blood pounded in his ears. Trojan was Malvern. It felt like the universe was shaking him, rattling his teeth.
“Did you kill Stan too?” he spat out.
“After you threw me over the rail of that parking garage, we found him and our money. He died soon after.”
Nick closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. He couldn’t overpower Malvern. He’d have to outthink him. Gabriel was coming. He’d have a distraction soon. He just had to keep Malvern from killing him until then.
“I don’t suppose you’d let bygones be bygones? Let me vamoose with my woman?”
Malvern’s fangs dropped and his next words came out on a hiss. “She is mine.”
A prickle of hate-filled jealousy climbed his spine. Nick wanted Malvern dead, wanted to see him bleed. Despite his best efforts at remaining calm, he answered Malvern through his teeth. “No. Rowan ismine.”
“Then I take her from you!”
In a flash of pale flesh, Malvern struck, his fangs piercing Nick’s neck where it met his shoulder. He cursed as pain tore through him, like being stabbed with a pair of knitting needles. He struggled against Malvern’s hold and managed to wrap his legs around the vampire’s hips and squeeze. Was it possible to crush a vampire’s bones? He sure as hell was going to try.
His head spun as he felt warm blood trickle down his neck beneath the heat of the vampire’s mouth. The worst part was the swallowing, the violation of having his blood forcibly taken and used as energy to take more. As angry and terrified as he was, Nick made himself relax under the vampire’s bite. It was the opposite of his instincts but was his only chance of causing Malvern to drop his guard.
It worked. Malvern must have thought the blood loss had weakened Nick, because he loosened his grip and shifted to get a better angle at his neck. Nick used the opportunity to work one arm free, reach over the back of the vampire’s head, and gouge his eyes with his clawed fingers.
Malvern gave a strangled moan and dissolved into a dark mist, filtering through Nick’s grip. Nick stumbled to his feet and staggered back, drawing the last stake from its sheath on his thigh and pointing it toward the gathering fog.
The dark mist coalesced quickly into the pale shape of the vampire, and one fist shot out toward Nick’s head. Nick shuffled right, and the vampire’s punch landed in the wall. With speed and dexterity he could only ascribe to Harriet’s potion, Nick dodged and stabbed the vampire’s side, keeping his grip on the stake as he pulled away.
Malvern staggered back a step, looked down with annoyance at the wound in his gut that was already stitching itself up, and gave him a pitying look. “Oh dear boy, you don’t even know how to use that, do you?”
Nick raised the bloody stake between them. “Try me.”
An evil little smirk curled Malvern’s lip. “You know, I’ve already had her,” he said. “All of her. And she was glorious.”
Fury burned through Nick’s veins and he tightened his grip on the stake. He wanted to shred the vampire, tear him limb from limb, attack with abandon, bite, claw, and kick. To take out every bit of anger he was feeling on Malvern like his own personal vampire punching bag. But he didn’t. Malvern would expect resistance. He must feign the opposite and wait for him to make a mistake.
Criminals, if observed carefully, always tipped their hand when given enough time and space. It came down to narcissism. Most diabolical minds wanted to be known, they wanted others to be an audience to their dark brilliance. Without even realizing it, Malvern had told Nick his currency. It was Rowan. Her blood. Dragon blood. He forced his mind to steady. Slowed his breathing.Nick backed up against the edge of the bed, putting himself between Rowan and Malvern. He raised the stake.
Malvern swaggered toward him, toying with him. “Put it down. You’re human. No match for a vampire.”
“I threw you off the top of a building once. I can do it again.” He bent his knees and prepared to fight.
A smile spread his lips. Gabriel had appeared in the doorway.
“You thinkRowantastes good,” he said to Malvern, allowing his eyes to dart over the vampire’s shoulder. “Wait until you taste her brother.”
Gabriel charged, but Malvern was faster. Nick’s feet left the floor and his back slapped against the wall across the room with a resounding crack. He crumpled to the floor. For a moment all he could do was shake his head and try to gather his bearings. It took a second for him to process that Malvern had thrown him across the room before sinking his teeth into Gabriel, most likely believing that was the end of Nick.
His body did hurt and his vision blurred as he got to his feet, but Nick had known pain before. He’d been beaten more times than he could count growing up and had still found the strength to keep going. And all those times as a kid when he was bloodied and hungry, he never had someone like Rowan to fight for. She was far more motivation than he’d ever had before to live, to survive.
His hand closed around the dropped stake as air came back into his lungs in tiny sips. Everything he felt for Rowan channeled into his torso, his shoulder, his arm. He took one step, then two. Then he buried the stake in Malvern’s back, up, under the ribs and straight into his cold black heart.
Gabriel pushed the vampire off him with a look of disgust. The coven master’s body flopped to the floor and instantly stiffened to the state of a long-dead corpse. Nick spit on his cold gray body.
“For the record, I did not enjoy that,” Gabriel said. “But I promised you a shot at taking him down.”
“Thank you,” Nick said, hobbling over to Rowan. He wished he had a knife to cut the ropes, but he made short work of the knot anyway. He tossed the bindings aside and pulled her into his arms. She was limp as a rag doll and much too pale. He held his ear to her lips and felt the slightest breath hit his skin. Tapping her cheek, he hugged her to him. “Rowan. Rowan, honey, wake up.” He turned desperate eyes toward Gabriel when she didn’t stir. “What’s wrong with her? Why isn’t she recovering? She told me she was immortal.”
