Blood & Steel

by Angela Knight

  Blade grunted. “What about Daven?”

  She curled a lip. “He’s younger than I am. Kruz was curious about how a vampire’s power would be enhanced by a cyborg’s tech. He’s strictly muscle, but he’s mean, and he’s good hand-to-hand. Tends to drop his guard on his left, though. I broke three of his ribs when I escaped. He’ll have undergone regeneration, but ribs heal slowly. Concentrate your blows there.”

  “Where do you think they’ll go to ground?”

  “Kruz had a safe house on Opolo. It’s more fortress than anything else, and Urthar designed the defenses himself. He likes it there, so I suspect that’s where we’ll find them. If they’re not out hunting you.”

  Blade was beginning to think he’d underestimated her. Wounded she might be, but she had a keen mind. “Why would they be hunting me?” he asked, though he knew the answer perfectly well.

  “You killed Kruz. Urthar loved that psychotic fuck like a saint his god. He’s going to want revenge.” She pursed her tempting lips thoughtfully, eyes going narrow over another sip of tea. “Daven probably considers himself well rid of Kruz. He didn’t enjoy slavery any more than I did, but he’ll follow Urthar because he’ll do better with him than without him. If I know Urthar, they’ll go right back to the assassination business without missing a beat.”

  “If we don’t kill them first.”

  “Which would be my preference.” There was a diamond-cold gleam in her eyes. It occurred to Blade that for all her vulnerabilities, Elyn Castel would be a bad enemy to have. He was damned lucky she hadn’t really wanted to kill him, just get the hell away from him. Her psychic scars might be horrific, but she didn’t let them stop her from kicking ass. He found he rather liked that.

  * * * *

  They returned to his cabin to share his bunk, tangled together more like lovers than allies. Blade woke with his face buried in her tumble of bright hair, her clean female scent filling his nose. Elyn’s head lay on his chest, while his hands cupped the warm, lithely muscled curve of her ass.

  They made sleepy love, then wandered into his ship’s sybaritic shower and did it again, her back braced against the curving wall as he pounded into her. She did not feed from him either time, much to his disappointment. Still, he knew that his Tekker blood volume needed more time than that to recover, and she said she had no intention of giving him anemia right before a potential fight to the death.

  Logically, he knew she was right, but he found himself missing the delicate sting of her teeth. He wondered why the thought of feeding her filled him with such savage satisfaction?

  Chapter 4

  The next morning, they went to her hotel, one of several at Kring Station. This one was relatively upscale, and her room was a generous suite. Elyn headed for the safe inset in the wall to reveal a gleaming bracer and a set of rings.

  Blade’s brows rose. “You’ve got a sonic ripper?”

  “Wouldn’t hunt vampires without one.” Elyn started working the ripper’s power bracer down over her hand to her wrist, then settled the attached silver rings into place on her fingers. A mental order made the ripper flicker into view—a length of three-dimensional light, thin as a rapier blade and about the same length. The light blade itself was harmless, being basically a triddie projection. It served the same purpose as tracer rounds, letting the user know where the actual blade field was. Otherwise you could end up cutting off your own hand with the sonic vibrations the ripper projected.

  Blade eyed the glowing weapon warily. “If you had a ripper, why didn’t you use it on me?”

  Her gaze flicked away from his. “Because I didn’t get it for you. This is for Urthar. ” Elyn switched the ripper off and went to work attaching the shield bracer to her left arm. “Plus, I didn’t want station security watching my every move. And they would have been once they picked up the ripper. I knew you were monitoring their comp system.”

  “Yet, you’re using it now.” He watched as she tested the shield, its repulse field delineated by a glowing disc. It would let her blade through, but nothing else.

  She shrugged. “Urthar and Daven are probably after you, and I don’t care to be unarmed when they show up. I’m good hand-to-hand, but not enough to fight a vampire Urthar’s age.” The twin bracers gleaming on her forearms, she moved to the hotel room’s wide closet and got out a single suitcase. It was already packed and ready to go. Elyn gave him a curt nod. “I’m ready.”

  He studied her face, eyes narrow and too perceptive for her peace of mind. “It wasn’t just Kruz. You’re afraid of them. No. You’re afraid of Urthar.”

  She went still. “I have reason to be. He’s a more creative monster than Kruz. Kruz wanted to break me so he could force me to do what he wanted. Urthar loved listening to me scream. He likes his ripper, but he really likes his whips.” Elyn snapped her teeth closed, realizing too late that she’d said too much. The pity in Blade’s black eyes burned like an acid bath.

  He thought she was weak.

  And worse, he had reason. Elyn gritted her teeth, remembering the raw terror she’d felt when she’d woken tied to his bunk. Shame scalded her. “Don’t you pity me,” she snarled. “I don’t deserve it. I survived those bastards with my sanity intact.”

  “Yes.” He said the word quietly, without condescension. “You did. How did you do it?”

  There was enough genuine admiration in the question that she felt her rage die. “You. And the ones he sent me to seduce before you.” Her room door opened and whispered closed behind them as they walked out into the cool, soothing pastels of the hall.

  “At first I couldn’t stand to be touched. I hated our victims as much as I hated Kruz and Urthar. As much as I hated myself.” Elyn raked her hair out of her eyes and shrugged. “But as the decades passed, those moments with men like you became a kind of twisted solace. They were going to die, or suffer a horrific loss at the very least, but I could give them something, a few minutes of peace and pleasure. And I could have the same.”

  He blinked. “But you were helping Kruz.”

  Elyn shot him a look, but there was no accusation in his eyes. He was simply trying to understand. She sighed. “I had no choice. Literally. That’s what I was trying to explain to you. Those of us who are Kith—like you are, like I was, have a psychic immunity to a vampire’s ability to control a mortal’s mind. Unfortunately, we’re also the only ones who can survive becoming vampire.”

  “And the psychic resistance breaks down when a vamp drains a Kith and infects him with the vampire virus?” Seeing her brows rise, he smiled slightly. “I did do some research.”

  She gave him a grim nod of approval. “After the transformation, the master vampire controls the slave vamp as utterly as you control your nanoplant computer. It takes at least a century to gain the strength to break that control, and I’m nowhere near that old.”

  “So you were helpless.”

  “And I also knew that any part I played in what happened, I was going to pay for.” Elyn’s mouth tightened as she remembered just how she’d paid, and how often. “Kruz and Urthar were the only ones who didn’t pay.”

  His eyes narrowed and went cold. “We’re going to change that.”

  * * * *

  They entered the sprawling deck where the Stiletto waited among the other small private crafts. Larger vessels orbited the station with passengers and crew shuttling back and forth. It was late in the midwatch, and the deck was deserted except for the servoids whispering between the ships as they did maintenance.

  The Stiletto’s gangplank deployed at their approach, and Elyn strode toward it at Blade’s side. “I’d suggest heading for Opolo first,” she told him. “That’s where the safe house is located, and that’s where Urthar will want to go to ground.”

  “If the house is as much a fortress as you say. . . .” Blade trailed off as Elyn’s head lifted. Ice skittered down her spine, and she flicked her fingers at him in a wait gesture.

  Which was when Daven hit him like a runaway shuttle in
a hard crunch of muscle and bone that blasted him right off his feet.

  Elyn swore as the two cyborgs tumbled across the deck, a blur of swinging fists and vicious kicks. They skidded apart, only to lunge at one another again with grunts of effort. Blade slammed a booted foot between Daven’s third and fourth rib, right where he had the healing break she’d described. Daven cursed and grabbed for his boot-top. Had to be a sheathed knife.

  Just as she expected, a nanoknife shimmered in his fist as he came up swinging. Blade leaped back, avoiding the lunge and flicking his own nanoknife out of a sleeve.

  Mouth tightening, Elyn activated her ripper and energy shield as she started toward them. The energy blade shimmered as she walked, emitting a low chime.

  “Traitor bitch,” a voice hissed, and she jerked aside by sheer instinct. A blade flashed past her cheekbone, and Urthar appeared as he dropped his stealth field.

  She laughed. “Even you’re not delusional enough to believe I owe you anything, you fucking rapist. You, and sure as hell not Kruz.”

  “He gave you immortality!” Urathar lunged. The ripper projection peeled a bell-like note from his fingers.

  Elyn swung up her shield and drove her ripper through it. The two blades collided with a metallic ring entirely too damned pretty for anything so deadly. “He tortured me, and you helped him.”

  He whipped his weapon around hers and drove it toward her heart, but she caught it on her shield, knocking the strike skyward.

  Simultaneously, Elyn flew into full extension, aiming the blade toward his right eye. He ducked and spun away, and their shields collided with a hiss and ozone reek.

  Her heart pounded furiously, but her mind had gone white and calm, focused with a predator’s intensity on his narrow hands, on the bunching muscles of forearm and leg. She sensed the next attack coming, a feint that flashed toward her ripper only to dance aside when she tried to knock it away with her shield.

  Elyn hissed as Urthar’s ripper sliced her forearm, sending a crimson splatter flying upward. Twisting, she managed to throw up her shield and deflect it from her heart. Their bodies surged against one another, and the vampire’s greater strength and weight bore her backward.

  She slammed a leg back and caught herself before he could force her off-balance, then spun aside like a bullfighter.

  Urthar’s ice-white eyes blazed in his pale, narrow face, hate jerking his thin mouth. Their rippers danced, chiming as they tested each other’s guard, seeking an opening, a path to heart or throat or hot, beating vein.

  Pain bit her arm, but she thrust the sensation away and ordered her cyplant to take care of the injury. The pain faded and the bleeding slowed as the implant accelerated her vampire body’s formidable healing abilities. Too many wounds, however, would overwhelm it. She couldn’t afford to let Urthar cut her again.

  His cold smile told her he intended to do just that. “I’m going to butcher you, little sow.”

  * * * *

  The nanoknife’s thin blade scored Blade’s cheek in a line of humming fire. He’d ordered his skin armored, but that kind of blade could cut even his thickened flesh. He grabbed Daven’s wrist and jerked. The big cyborg flipped over his head, and he spun and let go, sending Daven flying.

  The cyborg vamp hit the ground rolling, bouncing to his feet to rush Blade again, a snarl lifting his lips. Fangs flashed and his blade hummed.

  Blade twisted sideways, feeling his foe’s weapon hiss past his flat belly. Daven dropped, sweeping one leg like a scythe. His reinforced boot toe rammed the back of Blade’s knee, and Blade went down with a grunt of pain. If not for his nano-reinforced joints, he’d have been crippled.

  Daven pounced, blade drawn back. Blade caught the vampire on the soles of his boots and sent him flying, then leaped after him. His nanoknife hummed a high, vicious note that rose to a scream when he drove it downward.

  Daven twisted in midair, cat quick, teeth bared. He landed on his feet with a solid thump, driving his nanoknife forward to catch Blade's as the Tekker landed with a bang of boot soles. Nanoknives hummed, screeched as blade hit blade again and again. Strikes to the head, to the heart, to arms and legs—so fast even Blade couldn't see them.

  He fought by instinct, his mind a cool, empty silence, aware of nothing except Daven's blade, Daven's eyes, the twist and leap of Daven's body. He couldn't afford to think of anything else.

  * * * *

  Elyn circled with Urthar, savagely intent on killing her tormentor. But, even as she fought, some part of her was acutely aware of Blade and the hum and scream of the nanoknives. The rhythm picked up, grew frantic, and Elyn made a mistake. Her eyes flicked sideways.

  It was only for a split second, but Urthar saw it. A vicious grin split his narrow face, and his eyes lit with savage pleasure. "Ah, there's your empty heart!"

  He whirled and darted, sword lifted, right at Blade's broad back.

  Elyn acted without thought. Pure reflex sent her leaping with all her vampire strength. Elyn was smaller than Urthar, lighter of bone and muscle, and she flew over the vampire's head to come down with a thud right by Blade's side. Driving her shield against his shoulder, she shoved. He fell, skidding across the floor on his slick combat armor.

  Elyn got her blade up, catching Ulrich's attack in a parry that jarred her teeth. She knew an instant of triumph.

  And then something hit her in the back with a solid thump that sent her stumbling forward. Her computer shrieked, “Warning! Potentially fatal injury. Break off combat and retreat."

  She looked down to see the tip of the nanoknife protruding from her chest, glowing softly as its vibrations ripped her flesh.

  Daven had stabbed her from behind.

  She heard Blade roar her name. Daven laughed and twisted the knife. Her momentary numbness vanished in an explosion of icy agony as the sonic blade tore her lungs, her flesh, her bones. Elyn tried to scream, but it emerged only as a bubbling gasp.

  Urathar grinned. "Revenge is sweet, bitch." As if in slow motion, his blade dropped as he straightened, the better to enjoy her suffering at Daven's hand.

  That was her chance. She swung her blade up, vampire fast, gasping in anguish.

  Urthar's eyes widened, and he went for the parry. He was too late. Her sword sliced right through his neck, and his head flew. His body hit its knees and toppled sideways.

  Behind her Daven roared. "Bitch, you're—"

  He never finished the sentence.

  Elyn sensed a rush of air and rage, and suddenly the blade was gone as Daven tore it from her flesh in order to meet Blade’s new attack.

  A high note sounded, falling to the familiar growling snarl of a nanoknife cutting bone. There was no scream, no gasp, but Elyn’s vampire senses told her someone had just died.

  Something bumped and rolled across the floor. Elyn looked down to see Daven's head tumble past her left foot. A meaty thud sounded behind her —the rest of the vampire hitting the deck.

  Her knees buckled, and she started to fall, wheezing, bubbling as she fought to breathe.

  A strong arm slid around her waist. “Elyn, what the fuck did you think you were doing?" Fear and temper sharpened Blade’s voice to a bark.

  “Saving your. . . ass," Ellen gasped, though her voice was far fainter than she liked.

  Blade lowered her to the deck, his arms careful and tender. "I'm Tekker," he growled, frustration ringing in his voice. "My sensors would've warned me in time to jump out of the way. And my armored skin would have turned the blade."

  "Maybe. Or maybe Urthar would have shoved that ripper through your heart." Her voice fell to a gasping whisper as she stared blindly up at the ceiling. “I couldn't take the risk.”

  Ice rolled up her legs as her heartbeat began to slow.

  Elyn coughed, the sound deep and bubbling, and so damned painful it was all she could do not to shriek. Her mouth filled with the taste of copper. Another cough sent crimson spraying from her lips.

  Distantly, she heard Blade snarl, "Where's that rege
neration unit?" Then, coldly, "Tell them to haul ass. I want them here ten minutes ago. She's in shock and coughing blood."

  Elyn fought to keep her eyes open, but the ceiling spun sickeningly overhead. Her comp was saying something about restarting her heart the moment before the lights went out.

  * * * *

  Blade paced the infirmary in long, restless strides, staring at the transparent tube that contained Elyn's regenerating body. Clouds of pink fog billowed in the tube, concealing her from view. Daven had damn near gutted her before Blade had time to kill him.

  She’d almost given her life for him. Never mind that he'd sensed the attack. Never mind that he'd been turning even as Urthar rushed him. Caught between two vampires, he could have easily ended up dead.

  Elyn had saved him, and damn near died doing it.

  He remembered the way she looked moving under him, all heat and passion. When he thought about how he would have felt if she died, his stomach twisted and he felt hollowed out, just a shell with a hole where his heart should be.

  Why had she risked herself for him?

  Chapter 5

  Elyn woke lying in an infirmary bed. Her body had that achy, logy feeling she associated with a session in regeneration. That meant she’d come damn close to getting killed, as vampires healed most injuries just fine. Anything bad enough to put a vamp in regen would have killed a human outright.

  A thought had her jolting upright despite her exhaustion. “Blade? Where’s Blade?” They’d come so damned close to killing him. What if— He rose from a chair beside the bed. She hadn’t even seen him sitting there.

  “I’m here.” His dark gaze was surprisingly tender. “How are you feeling?”

  Elyn blew out a breath. “Much better now that Daven and Urthar are dead.” A sudden thought made her frown. “They are dead, right?”

  His smile was savage. “Oh, yeah. Between the two of us, they’re most definitely dead.”

  “How did Station Security feel about us beheading a couple of vampires?”