Page 131 of Beds and Blades

Both wore fitted black armor. Both had red eyes. Command layer.

They stood with the stillness of predators who had already measured the room, calculated every outcome, and found no reason to hurry.

Skip’s panic crashed through me.

Too late. The vampires moved as one.

The first came for me. Gaius stepped into its path, his sword already clearing its sheath.

“Get to Scipio.”

The second vampire moved between me and the chair, cutting off the center of the room.

Then everything happened at once.

The first vampire struck.

Gaius caught the blow on his sword, but the force of it drove him back three hard steps across the stone.

He stayed on his feet.

Before the creature could strike again, Gaius turned the recoil into a cut at its throat. His blade found the narrow gap above the neck guard, and dark blood opened beneath the edge.

For one impossible instant, I thought he had killed it.

Then the wound closed. The vampire smiled.

Gaius attacked again.

He fought without wasted motion. Every strike had purpose. Every step kept his body between the creature and me.

He knew what he was facing. He knew he could not match its strength. He fought anyway.

I lunged toward Skip.

The second vampire shifted into my path before I had taken two steps.

I changed direction. It changed with me.

It was herding me, keeping me where it wanted me while the other creature dismantled Gaius piece by piece.

The first vampire caught Gaius’s sword arm and twisted.

Bone broke with a crack that filled the hall. Gaius staggered. Before the scream could escape him, he drove his shoulder into the creature’s chest and forced it backward.

Half a step. Against one member of Morvanna’s command layer, half a step felt like a small victory.

The vampire struck him across the chest and drove him backward. Gaius hit the wall shoulder first and collapsed to one knee. His sword fell from fingers that no longer obeyed him.

“No!”

He tried to rise. Of course he did.

Gaius had saved my life once. Even now, broken and bleeding, he was trying to do it again.

The vampire reached for him.

Flavia hit it first.