I padded out, as quietly as possible, switching the axe to my right hand so I could hold the wall with my left. My brain felt like it was too big for my skull. I focused on that third doorway. I just needed to get there and hope like hell this worked. Then I could lie down and enjoy a nice long coma.
One doorway down. A crash behind me made me jump. I looked over my shoulder. Wait. Which direction had that come from? I couldn’t see anything, but I knew he was getting closer. Risking a fall, I moved faster.
Almost tipping over, I caught myself and gritted my teeth through the pain. Second doorway. Dark spots filled my vision, the white noise getting louder. I grabbed the doorknob, bracing myself upright, but the door hadn’t been closed completely and it gave way, taking me with it.
What was that hissing? I blinked my eyes open. Shit. I was on the floor again. The whispered hissing became more urgent, and I heard something hit the wall of the room next door. The gathering room. Cadmael was already there.
Shitshitshitshit. Could I still make this work? I rolled to my stomach so I could push up to my hands and knees again, coming close to passing out. I knew I was in a time crunch, so I was panicking while trying to breathe through the pain. First thing’s first. Stand up. It took a few attempts, but using the axe handle and the wall, I got myself upright. I was in a strange twilight space, between consciousness and unconsciousness. I knew it wouldn’t take much to put me down, so I had to get this done.
Moving faster, racing against an unwilling nap, I made it to the gathering room and looked in. The room had been trashed, holes punched in walls, furniture smashed into shards. Cadmael stood in front of the fireplace, staring at the portrait of the prince.
Hopefully that’d keep him occupied while I moved as quietly as I could behind him. Pleasepleaseplease.
I was a couple of feet away, using the axe as a cane, when he flinched, stood straight, and spun. Eyes vamp black and more than a little crazy, he stalked toward me, his hands fisted. I’d never survive a punch. It was now or never.
I lifted the axe, but his hand was already around my throat, squeezing. I was about to die. This sucked.
“Why is it always you?” he growled.
Twisting my arm, I brought the axe over my shoulder. He squeezed harder and my head exploded in pain all over again. As my vision went dark, I threw the axe, hoping against hope it hit its mark.
Twenty-Seven
More Questions Than Answers
“Sam? Sam!”
The sound came to me from down a long tunnel, far away and fuzzy around the edges.
“Sam, darling, can you hear me?”
I heard the darling. Clive was okay then. That was good.
Later—I think later—I woke in a softer place. I hadn’t tried to open my eyes yet, but it smelled better too. Clive. It smelled like Clive and not mouse droppings, thank goodness. He must have bathed me.
Blinking, I brought our room into focus. The fire cast flickers of light across the ceiling in the cool dark.
My head still hurt, but nothing like I thought it would if I lived through whatever in the hell all of that had been. And I definitely hadn’t been sure I would. I didn’t know how I had, unless my theory was correct.
“Clive?”
And then he was there, leaning over me. “Hello, you.” He brushed a stray hair off my face with the lightest of touches.
“Are you why my head doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would?” I’d been clenched and panicking ever since I saw him frozen and unresponsive. Seeing him here, impossibly handsome, made my heart beat faster.
“I would imagine so,” he said. “It’s getting close to sunrise, so I won’t be able to keep it up much longer, though.”
“You’re here and so am I. We’re both somehow okay. That’s enough.” Lifting my hand, I brushed my thumb across his cheek. “I love you, you know.”
“I do,” he said, leaning in to give me a soft kiss.
I could just lie here forever, quiet and content, but I needed to know. “What did I miss?”
“Well,” he said, walking around the bed, “quite a lot.” He lay down beside me, propped his head on one hand while his other rested on my stomach. “When you threw your axe into that portrait, it broke whatever spell was holding Vlad and me.
“We followed your heartbeat to the gathering room and found you crumpled on the floor and Cadmael in a daze with the skin burned off his hands. We tried to question him, but he had no idea what was going on. He did finally confess, though, to having been experiencing blank spots in his memory over the last week or so. He was more belligerent to you than normal because he thought you were the one screwing with him, as you’re the only one who always knows when he’s dipping into your mind and the only one who’s ever been able to keep him out.”
“Huh. Well, on one hand, yay for breaking the spell. On the other, a vamp of his strength and power having blank spots is concerning,” I said.
