“You’re a warrior,” Charlie said under her breath, her eyes wide.
He sliced his head to the right. “Not anymore. Now I’m just a scientist. I prefer to fight my battles in a more peaceful way.”
Cassius rose from his seat. “I don’t believe it. You’re no warrior.”
Liam hadn’t said a thing that wasn’t true. He turned to Metluk, waiting for him to verify his story. The other vampire sipped from his goblet and crossed his legs at the ankle. “I smell no lie, Cassius. I am satisfied.”
Take that, fucker. Liam raised his gaze to meet Cassius’s. The vampire lunged too fast for him to see, but a sudden sharp pain in Liam’s neck told him he’d been bitten. Instinctively, he cocked his arm and thrust the heel of his palm into the vampire’s Adam’s apple while at the same time sweeping his leg behind Cassius’s. He had no doubt that vampires were faster and more agile than he was, and his chances of success with this move were low. But his blood must have distracted the creature because the move actually worked. Cassius fell backward into the fire.
He was up again in the blink of an eye. Liam lowered himself into a crouch, braced for an attack. But the vampire stopped abruptly only inches from him as if he’d slapped a glass wall. It took a second for Liam to register that there was a shield of light between them… and it was coming from Charlotte.
“It’s time to go,” she snapped.
“Charlie,” Cassius said. “We were just messing around. Boys will be boys. I promise if you return to the fire, I won’t touch your human again.”
“One round, Cassius. That’s all I promised you. Now we really must be going. Send my love to Demidicus.”
She waved one hand in a polite goodbye, but Liam noticed she didn’t drop her shield until they reached the carriage. The sound of the vampires’ distant laughter faded as she closed the door on Nochtbend.
“By the Mountain, Liam, are you okay?” Her voice sounded shaky.
“Yeah, I think so.” He pressed his fingers into the wound on his neck.
“I’m so sorry. I should have never put you in that position,” Charlie said.
None of this was her fault, but he nodded anyway. When someone apologized, it was a gift you accepted. “It must be hard being a princess. I imagine you felt… obligated.”
“Yes.” She sighed. “I was. Our political relations with Nochtbend have been uneasy in the past, and Cassius and I have a romantic history. If I refused his invitation, I was afraid it would give him a reason to make my refusal into something it wasn’t.”
“Probably the right decision.”
“You’re hurt.” She moved to the seat beside him and brushed his hand away to press her own fingers to the bite. A glow ignited at the point of contact and filled the carriage.
“Can you heal me?”
She winced. “Not exactly. But I can close the wound.”
“Ow!” He jerked away from her fingers when a sharp, burning pain traveled through his neck.
“There. Not bleeding anymore.”
“Because you cauterized it!” He winced, his fingers hovering over the burn.
“I’ll get you some salve from Maiara when we’re back at the palace. She’ll heal you right up.”
“Maiara, that’s Alexander’s mate?” He was starting to put the family together.
“Yes. I can’t believe you remembered that. I think he only mentioned it once.”
He rubbed his sore neck. “A lot about this trip is permanently seared into my memory.”
Silence spread through the carriage once more, and Liam leaned against the seat, suddenly exhausted. It had been one hell of a long day.
“Thank you for standing up for me back there, when Valcrun asked about my wings.”
He couldn’t see her face in the shadows, but her voice had held genuine gratitude.
“It’s no one’s fucking business what you do with your wings in bed. It was a rude question. That whole thing back there… that guy Cassius was trying to get under your skin. I don’t know what happened between you two, but he’s not a friend.”
