“Kill me,”she begged the vampire without words, but he gave her an almost imperceptible shake of his head and bared his fangs.“They’ll make me hurt Peter. Hurt everyone. They want Cade and Eli!”
“You have said enough, conduit,"Freya snarled, and coherent thoughts fled. Fragments, words, pleas ran through her mind, but nothing made sense and she was still burning.
Regulus advanced on her, a gleam in his blood red eyes, but as he reached for her, flames shot from her hands and she screamed. He leapt back, the fire licking the hem of his leather coat.
Sameen’s muscles locked tight, the seizure taking hold of her as Peter—his wolf almost silent—sailed over a burning patch of grass to connect solidly with the vampire’s chest.
“You pathetic, weak thing. We should have put an end to you long ago. Get up!”
She couldn't. Not until the seizure ended, but Freya didn't care, and the magic drew a scream from her throat as every fiber of her being cried out in pain.
Regulus tossed Peter’s wolf aside like he weighed nothing at all, and Peter fell with a pained yelp. When he tried to get up, his left front leg collapsed under his weight.
“Stay down,” the vampire ordered and stalked towards Sameen.
She fought to say something...anything...to Regulus, but Freya was too strong, and she could only stare at him, pleading with eyes that struggled to focus and hoping he’d understand she didn’t want to do this.
Blood stained his hand, and when she blinked, he disappeared. Or so she thought until he hauled her up from behind, covering her mouth as she tried to scream.
The sweet, coppery tang of blood coated her tongue, and Sameen retched, trying to spit it out, but there was so much. Her stomach roiled, and Freya called forth more fire, but Sameen’s body was too weak, and the practitioner cursed her with every foul word she knew.
Sameen prayed the end would be quick. If Regulus drained her, she’d consider her death a good end. One that wouldn’t hurt Peter, Cade, Mara...anyone else.
Fangs pierced her neck, and she closed her eyes. Deep in her battered mind, she thought she heard the vampire’s voice.
“Take from me. Trust me. Trust your own strength.”
Her body obeyed without question, his influence even more powerful than Freya's, and she swallowed the blood filling her mouth and sucked at the fresh wounds on his palm. After a second mouthful, he dropped her, racing away too fast for her to see where he’d gone.
Peter. She had to find Peter. But Freya wouldn’t let her. The witch was livid at this little act of rebellion and forced Sameen to take off at a run, right for the stone structure and to the stairs that led to the ritual room.
Chapter Seventeen
Peter
His wolf didn’t understand what the hell was going on. He’d heard his mate cry out, and when he’d turned, he’d seen Regulus carrying her away from Eli and Caitlin.
The vampire owed him a life debt. One that should have extended to his mate as well. And yet, they’d been battling each other.
Peter tried, once again, to get up, but his shattered left leg wouldn’t hold him. He had to shift to heal himself, and that would take time he feared he didn’t have. Regulus hadfedfrom Sameen. Bitten her and taken her blood, and all Peter could think about was driving a stake through the man’s heart.
He reached for his humanity, but before he could shift, Regulus was at his side. “There is no time,” the vampire growled, his iron grip holding Peter by the nape of his neck. “The soothsayer foretold this. ‘Salvation comes from strength of heart. Not of body.’ Your mate’s body is too weak to fight them. But her heart...that may still triumph. With help. Yours and mine. Drink. I took from her to forge a connection. If you now take from me, you will benefit from that connection as well.”
Peter didn’t understand anddefinitelydidn’t want to drink Regulus’s blood, but the vampire swore under his breath and held Peter’s gaze, using hisglamourto fucking compel him to lick the blood welling from the open wounds on his palm.
Mara screamed again, and the vampire’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the tower. “Hurry. There is little time.”
The blood felt like it was acid flowing through Peter’s veins, but his broken leg healed in a few seconds, and he felt stronger than he had in years. He bounded for the castle, marveling at his speed.
No wonder the practitioners targeted vampires for the power of their blood.
He still couldn’t understand why Sameen had to fight the Thirteen at all. Eli’s casting should have protected her. If she was under their control again—and though he didn’t want to believe that were true, why else would she and Regulus have been fighting?—would she survive? Would any of them?
On the second landing, a blast of magic burned the fur on his right shoulder, and his wolf dropped and rolled, coming up across from a door shimmering with a greenish-yellow hue. Paddy held on to the stair rail across from him, his breath sawing in and out of his chest, and inside the large circular room, Liam growled and attacked a woman wearing a light purple robe while Caitlin used her air to drive a second, identically dressed man back ten feet, sending him tumbling out of a window with a scream.
Four more practitioners—or novitiates—appearedout of thin air, and a lupine blur—that could only be Ewan—leapt for one of them. Farren, who’d been on her side next to an unconscious, human Tierney, staggered to her feet and growled.
Peter leapt for the doorway, but the magical barrier threw him back, and Paddy stood up a little taller. “Go,” the old man wheezed. “Ye’re needed at the top. Earth and air must once more pair...and love will offer choice.”
