* * *
Morning light filtered in through Cassiel’s eyelids. He realized too late he had fallen asleep and left himself defenseless when he sensed Zev looming over him. The camp was quiet.
They were alone.
Forcing himself to keep calm, Cassiel listened for Zev’s movements. Slowly, he tightened his grip on the hilt of the silver knife hidden under his crossed arms. A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Cassiel snapped his eyes open and slashed out. Zev’s startled roar filled the camp. He was in his human form, staggering back, and clutching his bleeding arm to his chest.
His eyes flashed yellow. He gasped in pain through clenched teeth. Stumbling, Zev dropped to his knees as his complexion quickly turned ashen. Dark blood oozed from the wound. His veins blackened beneath his skin and coursed up his forearm like a web, spreading across his shoulder to his neck.
Cassiel rose to his feet, surprised the silver had been immediately debilitating. He hardly cut him. “I warned you.”
“I was not going to hurt you,” Zev rasped, a sheen of sweat sprouting on his face.
“No, I suppose now you won’t.”
Dyna came running through the trees with haphazard clothes and hair dripping wet. She must have been bathing in the nearby stream. “What happened? I heard a shout!” She gasped at the sight of Zev’s bubbling wound. Her wide eyes flitted from him to Cassiel’s knife. “What have you done!”
She snatched a small ceramic vial from her satchel, popped off the cork, and yanked Zev’s head back to pour the murky purple liquid down his throat.
Zev heaved and coughed, clutching his stomach as he convulsed on the ground. Dyna patted his back, murmuring soothing words as he vomited. His forearm became so rigid it turned white as more black sludge dispelled from the wound.
Once Zev stopped convulsing, she stood and spun to Cassiel. “You almost killed him!”
Cassiel looked away, his face growing hot. “It wasn’t without cause.”
“What cause?” she hissed.
“The mongrel attacked me.”
Zev snarled at him, baring his teeth.
“Oh, have I offended you?”
“You have no right to bloody criticize me,Nephilim.”
Fury blazed through Cassiel, and he pointed the knife at Zev. “Speak that word again, and I’ll cut out your tongue.”
Zev growled, “You will receive respect when you give it. If you don’t wish to be called that, you’ll not refer to me as anything other than a werewolf.”
“Call yourself what you will. Silver still burns you.”
The were-beast staggered to his feet. Expression murderous. Cassiel beckoned him forward with the knife.
“Enough!” Dyna jumped between them. She pushed on Zev’s heaving chest, failing to hold him back even in his weakened state. Her shoes dragged through the mud as he advanced. “Stop it, Zev. Stop! If you fight him, you will hurt me!”
He jerked to a halt.
She shook her head. “Another cut will kill you. Please, don’t do that to me.”
Zev closed his bloodshot eyes and heaved a deep breath. He walked away through the bushes, heading for the stream.
Dyna remained facing the direction he went. “I had sent him to wake you, Prince Cassiel. You slept through the morning and if we had delayed any longer, we would not reach Landcaster today as you had demanded.”
Cassiel shifted on his feet, taken aback by the anger simmering in her quiet tone.
“You will apologize to him.”
He retorted. “Come again?”
