Chapter 26

The sharp pain of my hair being yanked on jerked me out of my meditation. I snapped my eyes open but didn’t fight back. The same man was holding me, and he didn’t look happy about it.

Before I could change my mind, he twisted my arm up behind my back.

“Just watch. The master wants to play with one of his new toys.”

“How very Renfield,” I muttered under my breath.

Either he didn’t hear, or he ignored the comment.

The same vampire as before sauntered into the room, the oily grin on his face as he surveyed us. Me, basically helpless in his servant’s grasp, Katsuro unconscious on the floor, and Nimbus trapped in that awful cage.

“You almost made it, too,” the vampire said. “He almost escaped with his magic, but we were just in time. These things are too dangerous to leave wild and on their own. There’s no telling what mischief they would get up to.” He waved at Nimbus.

While I hadn’t exactly avoided looking at my poor cloud puppy, I hadn’t spent any great time viewing his prison. I knew it would take magic to free him, so I’d focused on that.

I was forced to look now. As before, he seemed peaceful, but that golden leash attached to his collar, that thing, was evil regardless of how pretty it was. That was the thing I needed to destroy. If I could get that, Nimbus would be able to escape the cage, regardless of how clever it was. I suspected it was more to keep people from stealing the nimbus than it was to prevent him from escaping.

How he’d gotten away all those weeks ago with a leash still attached, I might never know.

The apples on my mental apple tree hadn’t fully ripened yet, but we were out of time. I found the threads of magic that bound Nimbus and started picking at them.

The vampire turned toward the cloud puppy and took a step closer. I guessed it was that toy he wanted to play with.

I needed to distract him. I didn’t want anything to happen to Nimbus, and we needed to get him away.

“You know, it’s polite to introduce yourself when you’re torturing someone.”

“Is it?” He turned back to me, his smile gone from oily to downright malicious.

The first thread on the leash unraveled, but there were so many more to go.

The creature stalked toward me, grabbing the front of my shirt, and slowly bunching it up into his fist before jerking me out of his minion’s grasp.

“You can call me Master.”

I snickered, more to piss him off than because I was amused. Terror turned my limbs to ice and curled through my gut, but another strand unraveled in Nimbus’s golden shackles, and so I kept at it.

“We don’t have that kind of relationship.”

His lips twitched as if he were fighting a laugh. “We could.”

I felt his willpower brush against mine, digging into the shields protecting me, and trying to dominate me as my joke had suggested.

Splitting my attention between protecting my mind and picking away at the threads of Nimbus’s prison was actually easier than I would have expected, but I couldn’t do much else, and when the vampire—I refused to call him master, even in my head—tossed me aside, I could only lay there. I’d come up against Katsuro.

Waking him up would certainly provide a distraction, but would I be able to survive long enough to finish freeing Nimbus in the process? I had to wait to be sure.

I guessed the other vampire wasn’t worried about me trying to wake up his rival, and he left me there, gesturing for his minion to get something off a shelf.

Jaz must have entered at some point. She flicked her hand to get my attention. When I met her gaze, I heard her voice in my mind.

Wait. Not long now.

I picked frantically at the threads. I wasn’t even halfway through destroying the magic containing Nimbus and if we were close to a confrontation… Well, I needed this thing destroyed.

The minion handed the vampire a container from the shelf. It glinted in the light, maybe crystal or some other sort of fine glass, and had a golden stopper. It was either extremely pretty or ostentatious, and I couldn’t decide which.

The vampire turned back to me with that oily grin firmly plastered on his lips.

“As you have destroyed our blood supply, I believe I will see if this can replace the need.” He gestured at Nimbus.

I didn’t want him to use Nimbus for anything. I picked at the strands of his bindings as quickly as I could, not replying to his taunts.

The vampire tilted his head, studying me.

Shit, could he sense the magic?

Jaz, possibly wondering the same thing, came forward.

“Master,” she said with the utmost subservience. “I’ve been informed there are werewolves at the gate.”

She’d certainly waited to tell him. That gave me hope.

The vampire’s brow furrowed, and the smile left his lips.

Good.

“Well, deal with it.”

She bowed and made like she was going to exit the room.

“Wait!”

Jaz turned.

“This can deal with it for me.” He again gestured at Nimbus.

Oh, hell no. I twisted toward Katsuro and yanked the wooden bolt out of his chest before they could stop me.

I definitely heard swearing as strong hands grabbed me and hot fire sank into my neck. I almost lost myself as I orgasmed harder than I’d ever come in my entire life, but the urgency of my purpose let me fight through the haze and destroy the last of the golden threads holding Nimbus captive before I lost consciousness.

He was free, that much I knew. I hoped he would remain that way, though I couldn’t do anything else for him. At least not at the moment, possibly ever again. The rest was lost in a chaotic melee of shouts, bellows, and the distant howl of a wolf as my consciousness fled after another mind-blowing orgasm as Katsuro drained my life away. I was content knowing he’d exact some powerful revenge and that I’d done everything I possibly could to rescue my nimbus.