Chapter Fourteen

Pandra cautiously watched Toni takea step closer.

"You and I have some extremely vital business to conduct," Toni told her. "I need you to stop fighting. No more violence of any kind. Can you promise me that?"

Pandra's heart skipped a beat. How absurd that Toni would be willing to trust her word, but it was obvious she did, and somehow that…made her want to comply. She nodded.

"Please, let her go, Nyko," Toni said to the Whopper.

Pandra's arms were released. The Whopper—Nyko—stepped back from her, though he didn't go far.

The other R?u-vamp also remained nearby, heavy boots planted in a wide stance.

Pandra shoved her chin back up again, keeping her focus on Toni as she waited for her immortality ring to work its magic and re-secure the joints of her mandible bone. Cor, but Toni was beautiful. Raymond would be pleased to know just how stunning she'd turned out.

Toni's gaze moved over to the black-haired bloke laid out on the garage floor. "What happened to Breen, Jacken?"

"She broke his left fang," R?u-vamp retorted.

Toni's blonde eyebrows rose. "I thought fangs were too strong for that."

"Usually that's the case, but…" Jacken sneered. "She's a bit on the strong side."

Two vamp males raced into the garage, one had cowlicked light brown hair, the other had hair so blond it was nearly white.

Jacken gestured them to a stop. "Kasson, Jeddin, stand down for now."

The two men gawked at the bloody-mouthed, unconscious vamp sprawled out on the garage floor. He was quite the spectacle, that one.

Pandra dropped her hand from her jaw and rotated it once to test it. When it didn't fall apart, she spoke to Toni. "You have Raymond's power."

Silence.

Chatter-chatter-chatterwent an air vent, like pebbles tumbling through an aluminum pipe.

Toni gave Pandra a flat stare.

Pandra glanced at the vent. "You're his favorite, you know. He has a picture of you in his den, the only of his children who made it into his precious man lair. You're about two years old, holding a red ball—"

"That's not the matter of importance I need to discuss with you." Toni kept her expression neutral, but Pandra sensed emotional currents roiling below the surface. "The man you…attacked, Thomal, is lying in the hospital on the verge of death. Because of you."

Near death? "Well, that's not my doing." Pandra made a blithe sweep of her hand. "God's truth, someone else must've thrashed him after I left the hotel."

"You don't understand." Toni offered her a wintry smile. "When a Varcolac feeds on and has sex with an unmated female, as Thomal Costache did with you, he goes through a cellular change that biologically connects him to that female. Thomal is now physically dependent on your blood, Pandra, and yours alone. Because of that, for the last nine days, we've watched Thomal wither steadily towards death while we've scrambled to find you."

She went silent for a long moment. Of all the convoluted bilge water, she'd never expected to hear something like this. "That doesn't make a whit of sense. If this Thomal chap is so dependent on my blood, what the bleeding hell did he do before I came along?"

"He fed on donor blood. But that option is no longer available to him now that he's gone through The Change and is bonded to you."

Bonded? That didn't sound like something she wanted to be, not to a vamp. Not to anyone. "Well, how do we undo this effing change?"

"There's no undoing it."

"What? You're codding me."

"Unfortunately, no. The bond is permanent, Pandra."

"But…" The beginnings of dread stirred at the back of her throat. "Truly? Never?"

Toni spread her hands. "As long as you're alive on this planet, a sixth sense radar within Thomal will know it and make it impossible for him to take in any other blood but yours."

The hairs on the back of her nape prickled up. "I see." Her chest burned, the hot coal that lived inside her flaring up. A crackle echoed through her ears and red flashed at the corners of her retinas.

"Pandra," Toni interjected quickly. "We're not going to hurt you."

"I'm sure not," she drawled. "I mean you didn't just say this Thomal chap will be released from his bond if I'm dead, did you?"

"No one's going to kill you," Toni insisted. "Thomal's too weak to endure the wrenching process of unbonding right now. Moreover, that's not our way. We don't kill without proper cause."

Pandra blew out a laugh. "What more does a girl need to do?"

"Believe me," Jacken stomped in. "We're keeping the option on the back burner in your case. Meanwhile, you're stuck here because Thomal needs your blood. You don't like it? Go fuck yourself. You sealed your own fate the night you abused two of my men. So that means you put your attitude in check, lady, or your time here will be spent hanging from a meat hook as no more than a vein for Thomal. We clear?"

Pandra hooded her lids, trying to hide a flicker of alarm. Could they really keep her here against her will, if they had a mind to? Of course they could. That long trip down meant she was umpteen meters below the soil. "I should jolly well think so," she returned dryly. "You didn't exactly beat around the bush, chum."

The bicycle chain whisked again.

She swiveled her head toward the noise, and saw two large garage doors sliding open, revealing a Pathfinder vehicle sitting on an enormous elevator platform. The idling engine shut off, no doubt because the Pathfinder had nowhere to go. The Lincoln Town Car was all skew-whiff in the way, wispy strings of smoke still eddying from the two back tires.

Three men climbed out of the newly arrived vehicle. One had long blond hair caught back in a ponytail, a bloody cut on his brow, another had a black goatee and a small gold earring, and the third, stubbly black hair and a bull skull tattoo on his arm. Each owned the kind of sculpted, muscular bodies seen on men who fight for a living…or for their lives. Hard-nuts, all, not a jellyfish among them.

Pandra's chest shook with a tremor of claustrophobia. The three didn't come down off the platform, but her situation squeezed in on her all at once; she was enclosed on all sides now by men of supernatural power whose breed had always been hostile enemies to her own. She didn't know where the blinking heck she was, only that she was underground, deep enough to render escape extremely difficult, if not impossible. She was trapped, surrounded, and possibly helpless.

"No one's going to hurt you," Toni repeated. "As long as you cooperate."

Pandra sucked in the garage smells—oil, petrol, WD-40, Windex—to tamp down another upsurge of R?u. The demon state was flaring up to protect her, but R?u often did her more harm than good.

Somewhere out of sight, a door slammed, followed by the thunder of running feet.

"They're coming." Toni strode forward, palm outstretched. "I'll need your immortality ring now, Pandra."

She made no move to comply.

She rarely took off her ring, certainly never removed it in an overtly threatening situation like this one. And hard-shit to anyone who wanted to force it off. Bribe, threaten, torture…there wasn't anything anyone could do to confiscate her ring if she didn't fancy having it removed.

Except for Toni. Aye, Murk had firsthand knowledge of Toni's extraordinary ability to get around Raymond's enchantment and remove their rings without receiving a shock.

Pandra supposed that meant her ring was coming off, will her, nil her. So, either she could continue to stand here being a stubborn knothead, and then the Varcolac would hold her down—maybe tank her full of more of that enchanted drug—and take her ring off that way. Or she could make a show of being "cooperative."

"Very well." Pandra held out her right hand to Toni, her brows arched high. Let's see if you can do what they say you can, Sunshine.

Toni slipped her ring right off.

Blimey…

Tucking the ring into a small box, Toni trousered it.

Ice washed through Pandra's belly. "I thought you only needed to change me into real blood for this Thomal chap?"

"That's true," Toni responded.

"But you're not giving me my ring back?"

"No, I'm not."

"Right. I almost forgot. You want to leave the snuffing-Pandra option open to the R?u-vamp over there, don't you?"

"Please don't refer to my people as vamps, Pandra."

The pounding feet grew louder, and then four men exploded into the garage.

A nattily dressed black-haired Varcolac with a medical bag rushed in first, casting a surprised glance at the zonked-out vamp. Next came Sideburns and her nemesis, Crumpet, the two carrying a fourth limp bloke between them. They had the fellow propped between them, each with a hand under the chap's thighs and the fellow's arms looped around their necks, making it look like he was sitting in an invisible chair. Or slumped in a chair, as the chap's head was lolling off his shoulders as if held there by no more than an imaginary length of fishing line.

"Put him against her," Crumpet ordered Sideburns. "Hurry!"

The unconscious fellow was shoved into Pandra's body. He drooped against her, his breath cold as deep water fish against her flesh. She quickly stepped back.

"Don't move, you fucking whore!" Crumpet lashed out a fist, the punch catching Pandra with a vicious crosscut to the jaw.

Her head whipped to the side so hard she felt her cervical vertebrae grate together. Her lungs bottomed out of air. Bejesus, she hadn't been braced for that.

"Arc…" Toni began.

"See what you've done to him!" Crumpet bellowed at Pandra.

Pandra back-paced several more steps, little spasms leaping through her belly like a herd of hunted gazelles. The garage rolled arse over kettle before her eyes, then righted itself. Bile was a rotten lemon in her throat. Now that her ring was gone, all the aches and pains from her recent fighting bouts were coming to life, some nagging, most screaming: kneecaps, cheek, kidneys… Crumpet's punch to her face just now was really fecking reminding her that her jaw had been broken by Whopping Vamp a short time ago. She had the sudden, silly urge to lie down.

"Hey, I got this." The Varcolac with the goatee came down off the elevator platform and walked up to Crumpet's side, speaking quietly. "This has been a tough couple of weeks, Arc. So why don't you let me take care of Thomal on this one?" Without waiting for an reply, Goatee pulled Thomal out of Crumpet's hold, then looked at Pandra. "You ready to give this a shot?"

She didn't budge, didn't answer, too overwhelmed by another ludicrous urge. She wanted to hum the song Inga used to sing to her when Pandra's childhood world would spin into a rage, an all-too-often occurrence in a house full of half-demons and a father who always insisted on his own way, and woe betide the person who didn't give it to him.

D?r satt en liten f?gel i p?ronat?. ? sjongde s? m?nga vackra viser…

A little bird sat in the pear-tree. And sang so many beautiful songs…

But that was before Pandra had grown into a woman and learned that life was to crush or be crushed.

"Look, Pandra," Goatee said. "Thomal's one of my best friends and I don't like to see him hurt. But you released my wife, Marissa, from Raymond's control, so I don't have a beef with you. I only want you to make my friend better. Can we be cool with that?"

Why was it so ridiculously relieving to learn that there was at least one person here who didn't want to have her guts for garters? The pain of her injuries making her weak-minded? She took a step forward, catching a better gander at Thomal. Shitting hell, this was the man she'd sported with eight nights back? Couldn't be. Her bloke had been unfathomably attractive, golden skin, sharply carved features, vibrant blond hair, and iridescent blue eyes flecked with gold. He'd had a docking great body, too, a perfect combination of muscle and leanness. His sleek, supple form had suggested the ability to move at lethal speeds while the width of his shoulders and the honed shape of his muscles promised his agility came with substantial strength.

At first she'd been so focused on his brother, the crumpet, she hadn't realized how attractive this one—this Thomal—was. She'd wager that was a common mistake, too. Most women probably thought Crumpet was the better looking of the two brothers. But no.

Either man could've been splashed all over the cover of GQ magazine, without question, but it was Thomal's face which hadn't been Photo-shopped into plastic perfection. A tiny scar nicked through his right brow, his lips were a little off-center, and his eyes were full of a hidden darkness; profound waters moving through his soul, warning that he just might be fighting as many inner demons as she was. All of this gave Thomal character, and made him way more handsome than his brother.

That magnificent fighting animal was gone now, though, reduced to a Raggedy Andy doll in the arms of Goatee—who she now knew was Nichita. Thomal was definitely on the verge of death, with sallow skin stretched like parchment over wasting muscles and his shimmering blond hair faded to a sickly straw color. A strange knot gnarled up Pandra's heart. How long would this man have lasted if boredom hadn't lured her out to the San Diego airport tonight. One day? Two? The thought was oddly disturbing.

She nodded. "All right."

Nichita moved forward.

"Wait a moment, Devid," Natty interceded. "I'll need to shock Thomal. His fangs won't elongate without it. He's too far gone." The doctor opened his medical bag and pulled out two long probes, wires trailing down to a black box.

Nichita changed his hold, securing Thomal against his chest with one arm, the other hand pressing Thomal's head back to his shoulder. "Okay, Doc. Fire away."

"You'll feel this, too," Natty warned.

"Just light him up."

Dr. Natty set the probes onto each of Thomal's canines and squeezed the trigger. A small bulb on the box blinked on.

A biting snarl whiplashed out of Nichita.

Thomal's body went rigid, his spine bowing, the cords in his neck knotting up. The light went out, and Thomal wilted lifelessly in Nichita's arms again, his thick, dark blond lashes lying against his cheeks like the wings of a dead bird.

Crumpet howled.

Curses erupted from the warriors.

Nichita met Pandra's gaze. "I need your help," he told her quietly. "Thomal has to get your scent into his head, okay?"

Feeling right knackered at this point, she didn't protest when Nichita propelled Thomal toward her again, pressing him right up against her body. With a hand on the back of Thomal's head, Nichita angled his friend's face into her neck.

She stood there, arms limp at her sides. Her body hummed as Thomal's breath hit her flesh in ragged bursts. If memory served, this bloke's bite gave quite a lot of pleasure and, as shagged out as she felt at present, she could stand with a bit of that. "He's warmed a bit," she told Nichita.

Nichita pulled Thomal back. "Hit him again, Doc," he told Natty.

Natty set his probes. The small bulb reignited.

Thomal came awake with a shout, thrashing in Nichita's embrace, his body convulsing and his legs kicking out.

His left foot missed Pandra by mere millimeters.

"Hey, man, it's me, Dev. Everything's fine. Your woman's here and you gotta feed now, okay?" Nichita placed Thomal against Pandra once more.

Thomal's chin came to rest on her shoulder and he shuddered against her, a jumble of quaking, shivering muscles, his body jerking over and over. A low growl reverberated out of him and then his head came up, his eyes locking on hers like blue laser beams.

The two of them stood frozen in place, suspended in a strange tableau for she didn't know how long. She started to speak, but…what was she supposed to say? So sorry about all that raping bosh, my good man, didn't mean to give offense seemed…rather gauche. She wasn't sure if she was sorry, anyway.

Thomal broke contact first. With another low growl, he pulled her hard against his chest and drove his fangs into her throat.

She tensed, then air eased out of her lungs. His bite didn't hurt this time. She gripped his shoulders as the sound of his frantic gulping filled the garage. Her eyesight grew fuzzy at the corners, but she still could make out Nichita, forehead bowed to the middle of Thomal's back, and everyone else in the garage, also with lowered heads, as if to give them privacy for some intimate act. But they were only—

Oh, my giddy aunt. Her belly liquefied. She'd bloody well forgotten how intense the pleasure of this was. A quiet moan slid out of her before she could catch it back. She was suddenly sitting on a volcano, hot lava ecstasy boiling up all around her, lifting her up until it felt like she was floating outside of her own body on a cloud of steam. The heated sensations seeped into every cell, swirling through her body in hundreds of mini twisters that funneled directly into her naughty bits. Her knees turned to porridge, joining her belly in the land of mush. She dug her fingers into Thomal's shoulders as her nethers throbbed with a primal, aching need, wetness slicking the area. She arched in his hold, only a thin remnant of willpower keeping her from slamming her hips forward into Thomal's and biting him back: his earlobe, his throat, his nipples…

With a torn breath, Thomal extracted those lovely ivories from her neck and surged back against Nichita.

She stumbled out of Thomal's hold, her lungs working heavily.

Thomal's eyes glinted like sapphires, his cheeks ruddy with color. His wanger was erect as a Scottish caber in his trousers.

She swallowed carefully. Intimate, indeed. Her own knickers were practically stuck to her.

Nichita lifted his head. "How're you doing, man? Can you stand now?"

Thomal didn't answer. His chest moving, he kept his gaze nailed to hers, his face a churning cauldron of savage emotions, too many for her to read. She was savvy enough to ken most weren't good, though.

Toni broke the spell. "Oh, crap," she hissed.

They all turned around.

Visible over the backseat of the Lincoln Town Car were two identical faces, both wearing the same expression of utter, jaw-breaking shock.

Faith and Kacie Teague had woken up and been watching this drama play out for…how long?

To judge by the looks on their faces, they'd seen every-blooming-thing.