“Don’t fuck with me, Fabian. You let him go. Do it, and do it now, or so help me I will gut Gideon right here and now.”
Not really. But Fabian didn’t know that.
The ancient vampire’s lips peeled back until I swear I saw his molars—and then slowly slid into a thin-lipped smile, the red tint to his eyes growing brighter. “Alec Royce was wise to take you under his wing. I can appreciate such ruthlessness.”
“Now!”
He shoved Devon away, nails swiping over his throat and leaving crimson streaks behind. “Done. Now you step away from Gideon, or you’ll see what it truly means to be merciless.”
Chapter 29
Sara and I carefully backed away from the necromancer, though I kept my knife on him as long as I could. Fabian stalked forward as soon as we gave him some room.
As the vampire knelt beside the necromancer, I checked on Devon. Sara knelt beside Tiny. I was pretty sure Tiny was just out cold; Devon, on the other hand, was bleeding profusely from the wounds on his throat, and awake, but not moving save for weakly clawing at his neck and gasping for air.
I cut a strip off my shirt with the knife, using the least filthy swatch I could find. I pressed the wadded material against the cuts to staunch the flow. His voice, when he managed to choke out a word or two, rasped and squeaked like that of a kid going through puberty.
“The hell . . . did you . . . did you do that for?”
“To save your life,” I hissed at him, hoping Fabian was too busy to pay us any attention. “Here, hold that compress—yeah, right there. Come on, we’re getting out of here.”
I hooked his free arm behind my neck and helped him to his feet, staggering slightly to one side with the weight of him. He wasn’t deadweight, but not far from it, either. Judging by the groans and wincing, Fabian had done a number on him. Getting out of here wasn’t going to be easy, but we needed to get moving before the vampire finished seeing to Gideon and decided to retaliate.
I turned us toward Sara, opening my mouth to tell her and Tiny to hurry up, but the words caught in my throat when I saw her tear-streaked face. My gaze slid from her to the downed hunter, and it felt like the blood in my veins froze solid.
Tiny wasn’t unconscious like I’d first thought. His neck was at an unnatural angle. There was no rise and fall to his chest.
Fabian had killed him.
“No . . . Tiny, no!” Devon’s voice was faint, hoarse—and broken.
The two had been good friends for as long as I’d known them. Tiny was a good man. I’d never really understood what drove him to hunt Others, what led him to live the life of a vigilante, and now I’d never have the opportunity to ask.
Did he have family? A girlfriend or a wife? Someone out there who would never know how he had died, someone waiting for him to come home?
Devon pulled away from me, dropping to his knees beside Tiny’s prone form, bowing his head. Sara set a hand on Devon’s shaking shoulder. He didn’t make a sound, but I had no doubt he was crying.
My hand fell to the hilt of the knife I’d tucked into its place at the small of my back. Drawing it once more, I hefted the blade and stomped over to Fabian, who was ignoring me in favor of cradling Gideon to his chest, crooning encouragements to the necromancer as he pressed a bleeding wrist to his mouth. It would heal his wound, yes, but that didn’t mean it was worth the price. The two might have been lovers, but I had to wonder if Gideon had any idea what kind of personal hell he was in for, being bound to the vampire.
I pressed the tip of the knife against the underside of Fabian’s jaw. He tilted his head to the side, looking at me out of the side of his eye, one fang visible as he sneered. “What do you want now?”
“You killed him.”
Jerking back from the blade a bit, he tilted his head a little more to see what the others were doing. Then back to me, his expression neutral. “Perhaps. He attacked Gideon. I saw no reason to be careful with how I handled him.”
With a snarl, I put enough pressure on the blade to give him a shallow slice, only enough to let him know I meant business. “As soon as that necromancer wakes up, he’s fixing what you did. You understand me? He fixes it, or I will kill you and whatever miserable remains of your bloodline I can get my hands on.”
A blur was the only thing that registered before I felt the bite of my own blade against my throat, his hand wrapped around mine, my other arm pinned, and Fabian pressed behind me, close as only lovers should be. His fangs brushed over my cheek and then earlobe as he whispered in my ear, his voice a seductive hiss.
“Oh, will you now? You think you have what it takes to kill me, little girl? Do you know how many have tried over the centuries?”
“Not nearly enough if you’re still here,” I spat.
He laughed softly, mocking, reminiscent of someone I had heard before but couldn’t quite place. “You just wait. Gideon told me what he promised you and your little friend. He can’t reverse death—that power is beyond him—but he can do something about her curse. Isn’t that what you came here for?”
I stopped squirming against his hold, some of my anger fading. The promise of help for Sara was the only thing that could have cut through my murderous rage at that moment, sending the bestial need to hunt and kill back to the depths it had clawed from.
“Watch. ”
I did as Fabian directed, turning my attention down to Gideon. The necromancer was stirring, grimacing and rubbing the back of his head where it had thumped against the carpeted floor when the vampire let him go.
Gideon sat up with a groan, then staggered up to his feet. His shirt was still bunched up near his shoulders. The only sign of the wound was an angry red line that showed Tiny had expertly sliced deep into his back, right between his ribs. That he was still alive meant Tiny had missed his heart, but it couldn’t have been by much. He was coming out of shock remarkably fast.
Gideon tilted his neck to one side, then the other, rolling his shoulders until a sharp crack sounded. When he finally opened his eyes, they turned to Fabian before anything else, hot with desire and an adulation that hadn’t been there before. I wondered if that was how I had looked at Royce and Max when they gave me their blood the first time.
Dimly, I heard the sound of tires crunching on gravel drifting in through the windows. Police? Backup? The first few Goliath warriors, here to even the odds? I could only hope. The quiet hiss of tires on cement and brief flash of headlights through the curtains and broken window heralded a newcomer, but whether he or she would think to come upstairs to find us was anybody’s guess.
Fabian didn’t seem terribly concerned. He continued to hold the blade to my throat, keeping me from pulling away, but he lifted his other hand to brush the back of it against Gideon’s cheek. The necromancer leaned into the touch, giving a visible shudder of ecstasy. It was hard to tell whether to be horrified, disgusted, or saddened by what the bond had done to him. Seeing someone that powerful made into a fawning puppet was like seeing a wild lion de-fanged and de-clawed. It might have made it safer to be around him, to some degree, but in its way it was still heartbreaking to witness.
“You promised to do something for these ladies. Do you remember?”
Gideon’s gaze briefly flicked to mine, the glittering green color flaring brighter. There was a tug in the back of my mind, like he was doing something to mess around with me again, but it didn’t last long. With a nod, he turned his attention back to Fabian, awaiting direction like an eager, demonic puppy.