The air held the coppery scent of his blood and the dark spice of his pain. He lay there in a daze, his back on fire, his entire body aching from the tension he’d held in his muscles.
The outer door opened and closed then footsteps sounded on the carpet. “Well, my friend,” a man’s raspy voice muttered. “You’ve really done it this time.”
Duncan let loose a bark of laughter, then groaned when even that movement hurt. “Atticus. Have you come to commiserate or condemn?”
A blessedly cool, wet cloth draped across his lacerated back, bringing a small measure of relief.
“Commiserate then,” Duncan murmured.
His friend went down on his haunches beside the bed and balanced by placing one hand on the top of the mattress. A haze of pain made it hard for Duncan to focus on his friend. He blinked, bringing the face of the former gladiator into focus.
“We’ve been instructed to stay away from you for two days,” Atticus said.
“So you’re here because…?”
Atticus grinned. “I never have been able to take orders.” His face sobered and he shook his head. “What the hell was this all about?”
Duncan closed his eyes. “She wants Kimber to raise Eduardo.”
Atticus was silent a moment. “She must hope your necromancer will have success where others have failed.”
Duncan’s eyes flew open. “What? She’s tried before?”
“Six months ago. The necromancer failed and lost his life in the attempt.”
“I didn’t know.” He frowned. Agony streaked through the damaged nerves in his back and at the renewed sense of betrayal at his queen’s hands.
“And she obviously still wishes to try.”
With a slight snort, Duncan looked at his friend. “I’ve been telling her for six months to give it up, but she won’t. Tonight she decided to ‘punish’ me for my disloyalty.”
A frown furrowed a deep line between Atticus’s eyebrows. “How exactly have you been disloyal?”
“By protecting Kimber instead of helping Maddalene coerce her into something I don’t think she can do. And even if Kimber could do what Maddalene wants, I don’t think she’d survive it.”
“And her survival is important to you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes.” Fatigue and sharp stabs of pain ate at his consciousness. He closed his eyes again. “You know where she lives. I need you to get word to Aodhán that I’ll be…delayed.” He stared at Atticus. “Don’t let Kimber know what happened. She’ll worry.”
Atticus rolled his eyes and stood. “And you think your fairy friend won’t?” When Duncan tried to lever himself up on his elbows, Atticus put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Be at ease, my friend. It will be as you wish.” He shook his head. “I’ll send a messenger and come back to clean your back and put some ointment on it. It’s all I can do at the moment.” He paused. “Maddalene leaves in a few hours for a meeting with one of the queens in the southern part of the state. She should be gone several days. I’ll do more as soon as she’s left the premises.”
Duncan let his eyelids fall closed once more. “I didn’t expect what you’ve done already, so thank you.” He felt his grip on consciousness begin to ravel apart. The last thing he heard was Atticus’s raspy voice as he spoke with someone else. Duncan’s head whirled. He stopped fighting the allure of darkness and slipped into the arms of oblivion.
Chapter Nine
After a night spent tossing and turning, listening for Duncan’s return and never hearing it, Kimber rolled out of bed. Thrusting her arms through her ratty purple terrycloth robe, she wandered out into the main area and saw Aodhán standing in front of the kitchen sink, dressed in his usual cotton T-shirt and jeans. “Didn’t Duncan ever come back?” she asked him.
He turned his back and placed his mug in the sink. “He sent a message that he’s been delayed. He’ll be back in a few days.”
“A few days?” Kimber moved to stand beside Aodhán. There was something wrong, she could tell. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. The way he shifted his weight on his feet demonstrated his discomfort with a conversation that had just begun. “What happened?” she asked. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that both of you have asked me to keep secrets, and I’m tired of it.” He faced her, leaning his hip against the counter. “I’ll tell you what happened to Duncan as long as you understand that the first opportunity I get I’ll also tell him about your zombie experiment.”
Her breath hitched in her throat. For him to threaten to divulge a confidence was…well, a huge deal. Once his word was given, Aodhán didn’t go back on it. It was a matter of personal honor. Something horrible had happened to Duncan. That was the only explanation for Aodhán now being so willing to break a confidence.
“Tell me,” she whispered.
“Two hours ago a vampire messenger sent by a friend of Duncan’s told me that Maddalene had Duncan…” His mouth pursed in a grimace of distaste. “She had him punished.”
“Punished how?” A pulse pounded at the side of her neck, and she pressed her fingers to it as if she could control it somehow.
“Forty lashes with a cat o’ nine tails that has shards of glass embedded in the strands.”
As realization of the damage that would do struck home, her eyes widened. Her mouth dried. “Oh, my God.” Feeling sick to her stomach, she wrapped her arms around her waist. Duncan. “Why?”
“Why do you think?” His eyes narrowed and for the first time she saw censure in their sky-blue depths. “He was protecting you. As always. Yet you credit him with nothing. Thank him for nothing. Give him nothing.” His voice never lost its calm displeasure. “And blame him for everything.”
“That’s not true!” Kimber pushed away from the counter and stalked into the living room. “Well, maybe I did, in the past. But I’ve changed my mind.” She caught herself and qualified, “I did sort of blame him for Bishop, but that was in the heat of the moment, in anger. I apologized later. I know there was no choice, and it was what Bishop wanted.” She tightened her arms around her middle. “And I’ve thanked him plenty.”
God in heaven, she sounded as sulky and sullen as a teenager.
“Have you really? Perhaps with pretty words you’ve thanked him, and if it were anyone other than Duncan that might suffice. But he needs more than pretty words from you.” When she would have responded, he lifted one hand. “And you know it.”
“But we…” She clamped her lips together, not ready to divulge intimate details of her relationship with Duncan. It was complicated. She drew in a breath and forced herself to look inward. Had she made it more complicated than it needed to be? Was she truly scared of Duncan?
Or was she scared of what he made her feel? Lust, certainly. Anxious, absolutely. But fear?
It was time to face the truth. She’d never been frightened of Duncan. Ever.
She closed her eyes, tears burning behind the lids. Even before the Outbreak he’d looked out for her, and that was when she’d started running scared. Vampires had always spooked her and she’d used that fear to hold Duncan at arms’ length. It wasn’t well done of her at all.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she rotated her shoulders to work out some of the tension building there. “How badly is he hurt?” she asked quietly.
“There were glass shards embedded in the leather of the whip, Kimber.” Aodhán’s voice was hushed with distress. “His back is in shreds, and he’s been forbidden to feed for two days.”
She stared at him in horror. “So he won’t be able to heal his back right away?” She clenched her fists. If he didn’t get a fresh infusion of blood soon after being injured, he’d be left with horrible scars. “She wants him scarred.”
Aodhán gave an abrupt nod. “Aye. In her eyes he’s chosen you over her. She would have given him only twenty lashes for that, but when he pressed her on the issue she added another twenty. She means for him to wear his marks of dishonor.”
Well,
this situation was completely unacceptable. She wasn’t going to allow Duncan to suffer for his protection of her. If that meant facing down the bitch on her own turf, so be it.
“Give me a minute to get dressed and get something to eat, and we’ll go.” She turned toward the bedroom.
“Are you certain you want to do this?”
She looked over her shoulder at the fey warrior. “I don’t have a choice, Aodhán. He’s in pain because of me. If you help me get past the vampires between him and me, I can help him.”
“As always, I am at your service.” His lips curled in a slow, wicked grin. “Especially against Maddalene and her blood suckers.”
When she went back into the bedroom, Kimber roused Natalie and explained what was going on. Natalie jumped up and threw on her clothes. “I’m going, too,” she said.
“You don’t have to,” Kimber said. She slid her hatchet through one of her belt loops. “I don’t know how many of the vamps are loyal enough to Duncan to let us through.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Natalie took Kimber’s hands in hers and gave her fingers a squeeze. “Duncan’s been here for us over the last six months. He’s saved our lives more than once. If there’s something we can do for him, we have to.”
Kimber pulled Natalie into a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I love you, you know that, right?”
Her friend patted her on the back and drew back. “I love you more.” Her grin was quick and easy, but Kimber caught the shine of tears in her eyes.
“I should say it more often,” Kimber murmured.
Natalie grabbed up her short sword. “I know how you feel, hon. No worries.” She slipped the sword into the scabbard she’d attached to her thigh. “Let’s go kick some vampire butt.”
An hour later, Kimber felt a vague sense of disquiet. She, Natalie and Aodhán stood at the gates to Maddalene’s complex. They’d gotten here with relative ease, having had to dispatch only three zombies. For once she’d managed to do it without getting any goo on herself, as had her friends. So when the vampire guards at the gates allowed them entrance, she frowned. It all seemed a little too easy.
“Have the stars aligned in our favor or something?” Natalie whispered.
“That’s what I was just thinking,” Kimber responded quietly. She kept a tight grip on the hatchet, though, just in case they were being lulled into a false sense of security. She wouldn’t put it past the rat bastards. Vampires were a tricky bunch.
When they entered the lobby of the enclave, a tall brute of a man stood waiting for them. He had to have been at least six-five, broad shouldered and lean hipped. As she got closer she realized his irises were vampire silver, though he seemed calm enough. She’d heard that once vamps hit a certain age—something around a thousand years or so—their eyes went silver and stayed there. So this guy was old. His hair was so black it seemed to absorb light and rioted in short curls surrounding a face that, had it been even a fraction less masculine, would have been called beautiful. Feminine, even. But sensually cruel lips and a sharp blade of a nose lent strength to his face. The thin scar that bisected his left cheek also kept him from being too pretty.
He nodded to Aodhán and looked from Kimber to Natalie. “Miss Treat?”
She lifted one hand. “I’m Kimberly Treat.”
He perused her, his face expressionless. She couldn’t tell if he was impressed or found her wanting, and gave herself a mental kick for even caring.
“We’d like to see Duncan. Please.” Even though she wanted to rail at him and demand he take her to Duncan right now, she figured good manners wouldn’t hurt. Might even help.
“I am Marcus Atticus. You may call me Atticus. I’m Maddalene’s third.”
Kimber blinked. “Sorry, her third?”
Those otherworldly eyes didn’t waver. “Third in command, following Duncan. If he’s not here or is…unavailable, I’m in charge. When you arrived at the gates seeking entrance, since Maddalene is not on site and Duncan is…indisposed, the guards contacted me.”
“I see.” Just how badly injured was Duncan? “Please, I need to see him.”
Atticus inclined his head and with a rather knightly flourish swept out an arm. “This way.”
“After you,” she murmured.
His lips twitched but he obligingly turned toward the stairs. He led them up to Duncan’s door and opened it. Once they’d all filed inside, he closed the door and moved to the middle of the room. As before, a fire burned in the living room fireplace, and Kimber noticed an additional scent—cinnamon and cloves.
Atticus stood at attention, his hands clasped behind his back. With his broad shoulders straight, his legs spread, he looked…dangerous. And really sexy, but she felt no draw toward him other than the natural feminine appreciation of a good-looking man. Now he said, “I will keep news of your presence at the enclave as quiet as I can for as long as I can, but you must realize that sooner rather than later Maddalene will learn you’re here. The fragrance bark I put in the fire will mask your scent for the time being. Once she returns from her visit with one of the queens in the southern part of the state, I’ll make certain her attention is directed elsewhere for a few days, but I can’t promise more than that.” He motioned toward the bedroom. “Help him while you can.” As he opened the door to the hallway, he said, “I’ll have two friends stand guard, those I know are loyal to me rather than our queen.” Then he was gone.
Kimber went into the bedroom, aware but not really paying attention as Natalie and Aodhán followed her. She went straight to the bed where Duncan lay on his stomach. The sight of his back, skin hanging loose in shreds and even missing in large patches, made bile rise in her throat. She heard Natalie gag, and Aodhán’s quiet suggestion that she wait in the other room.
“Oh, Duncan.” Kimber went to her knees beside the bed and stroked her hand gently over his cheek.
His eyes opened, the brilliant green dulled with pain. “Kimber?” Confusion drew down his brows. “What’re you doing here?”
“We came as soon as Aodhán told me what happened.”
Duncan’s scowl bounced off the fey warrior. “He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.”
“Yes, well, he’s gonna tattle on me, too, so don’t get too upset.” She glanced at his back again and couldn’t hold back the tears. “Duncan, why? Why would she do this to you?”
“She demands absolute obedience.” This came from Aodhán. “And throws a temper tantrum like a child when she doesn’t get it.” He gave a snort. “And this one is so pigheaded about the debt he supposedly owes her that he has stayed decades too long.”
Duncan shifted against the bed. A low groan dragged from his throat. There was one thing Kimber could do for him, and by God she would do it. She owed him.
She shrugged out of her denim jacket and let it fall to the floor, then pushed up the sleeve of her bright yellow sweatshirt. Thrusting her wrist in front of his mouth, she said, “Here.”
“What are you doing?” He pulled his head back, putting a few more inches between her wrist and his lips.
“You won’t heal if you don’t feed. And if you wait much longer to feed, you’ll heal with scars.” She moved her wrist closer. “Bite me. And this time I mean it.”
* * *
“Why are you doing this?” Duncan stared at Kimber’s face, forcing himself with every bit of control he had to not look at the blue-veined wrist plunked beneath his nose. This close he could smell the salty scent of perspiration mixed with the lighter floral aroma of her body wash. The flowery notes were faded, not fresh, so he knew her shower must have been last night. That thought brought the memory of being in the shower with her to the forefront of his mind, and blood surging to his cock brought that part of his anatomy forefront as well.
“Bite me, Duncan,” Kimber said again. “You need this.”
He shook his head. “You don’t want me to bite you. You said—”
“Forget what I said before. I was an idiot.” She brought her other h
and up and brushed his hair away from his face. “Duncan, you’re the only vampire here who can protect us.” She made a face. “That makes me sound pretty mercenary, doesn’t it? I want you to get better. I need you.”
As the realization of exactly what was going on hit him, alarm flared. She was here. At Maddalene’s conclave. The headstrong, impetuous… “You’re right. You are an idiot. What were you thinking, coming here?” He pushed up, gritting his teeth against the pain in his back, and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.
She stood. “I was thinking I could help you, you stubborn ass.” Once again that slender, frail wrist was thrust beneath his nose. “Bite.”
He shook his head. “No. Atticus will protect you.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She dropped her arm to her side and clenched her fists. “As much as it hurts my inner feminist to admit this, I do need the protection. Against one vamp I might be able to hold my own. Maybe. But against an entire enclave? Probably not. Atticus said he’d make sure Maddalene was distracted for a few days. Anyway, I’ll feel a hell of a lot better if Atticus, Aodhán and you protect us.” She shoved her arm up again, bumping his nose with the fleshy part of her palm.
Before he could tell her to get away from him, he heard Aodhán’s deep voice. “She’s right, Duncan. We need you at full strength, especially now that Kimber and Natalie are here.” He moved to stand closer. “I’ll make sure you stop in time, if that’s what’s worrying you.”
“It’s what’s always worried her.” He nodded toward Kimber.
“Well, then, I’ll be here to set both of you at ease.”
Kimber blew out a breath, her exasperation clear to see. “Duncan, for crying out loud. Just. Bite. Me.”
He couldn’t fight it any longer. His fangs elongated. His eyes burned, and he let the feral part of him come out. He licked across the silken skin of her inner wrist, then, holding onto her arm with gentle hands, bit down into her tender flesh.
Her hot blood slid down his throat, nourishing him, enticing him. Seducing him. Even as he felt his body begin to heal, his cock hardened. After a few seconds, he retracted his fangs and licked across the puncture wounds in her wrist. He looked down at her. At some point during his feeding she’d gone to her knees and now knelt between his legs. She glanced at his erection then met his gaze, her own eyes dark, the pupils dilated.
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