Chapter 16
Sixteen
Nero
My knees almost fucking buckled under me from a wave of emotion smashing into me. Mina. It was coming to me through our blood bond. I’d never felt it like this before. I’d purposely closed myself off to it, but I felt it now like I was being battered by a raging storm.
My female was suffering. She was in unbearable agony.
The monster inside me roared louder, bursting to the surface. I was going to kill them all. I was going to tear them to shreds and watch as they bled out at my feet.
The bond was strengthening with every passing moment. It was as if Mina were tugging on it, as if she were calling out to me.
I’m coming, Lalka. Hang on. Please, hang on a little longer.
I knew where I needed to go before I hit the city. Instead of going to the prime’s apartment, I stayed on the outskirts of Roxburgh, heading toward his weekend house. It would take half an hour by car. I could halve that on foot, but I still might not be fast enough to get to her in time.
I focused on the pull and flex of my muscles as I dug deeper, pushing harder, forcing myself to run at speeds I’d never reached in my life, until the huge mansion finally loomed ahead.
I snarled, and the sound, the feeling, was like lightning cracking deep inside me. It exploded from my gut, heat searing through my veins and throbbing in my chest.
I’m almost there, Lalka.
Two of the prime’s guards ran at me as I approached. I pulled my knife free, buried it in the chest of the one closest, then slashed the blade down his front, spilling his insides, then spun to the second male and used my fangs to tear out his throat, barely slowing my stride.
No one and nothing would stop me from getting to Mina.
Kicking in the door, I hacked through the two guards standing there and let the connection to my little doll lead me. The prime didn’t need a heavy guard, not in the house, because no one challenged the elders and the twisted things they did. The prime was used to doing whatever the fuck he liked and getting away with it.
He did what he wanted. He took whatever the fuck he wanted.
Not anymore.
He would pay the price for breaking our laws just like everyone else.
I rounded the corner at the end of a hall, and Gretchen, one of the prime’s servants, stood at a door with another guard. The female was silently crying, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
The male beside her stepped forward when he saw me, pulling his weapon. I knocked it from his hand and wrenched his head from his body. Gretchen cowered, trembling, but made no sound. She jerked back as I grabbed and lifted her out of the way. “Leave and don’t come back,” I growled.
She immediately spun and sprinted away.
Gripping the handles, I forced myself to slow down and open the doors as soundlessly as possible.
They swung open, and the sight before me decimated what remained of the ice I’d lived under for so long. It shattered, and the monster inside me, the wild thing, broke free after so many centuries of being buried.
Mina was tied down on a table, her dress torn from her, her naked body deathly pale and covered in bite marks. Her skin was smeared with blood, while the five elders fed from her, unaware of what was going on around them, blood drunk from gorging on my female, from hurting her, draining her.
Mina lay there unmoving, unblinking. No fight left in her. The sound of her heartbeat had slowed dangerously. The elders had lost control completely. They were killing her.
Baring my teeth, I ran to the nearest one, wrenched back his head, and tore it off. I moved with speed to the next and the next, until only the prime was left standing. Like the others, he was too blood drunk, blinded by his hunger, to notice what was going on around him.
“Prime,” I roared.
The older male blinked, breaking from his trance, and slid his fangs from Mina’s throat.
He lifted his head, finally looking around him. He blinked again several times, as he took in the decapitated remains of the four other elders—then his gaze sliced back to me.
“How dare you,” he seethed, Mina’s blood spraying from his red lips. “You will be put to death for this. You will—”
“No,” I snarled. “You are the one who will die.” In the blink of an eye, I closed the distance between us and grabbed the ancient vampire by the throat. He tried to toss me away, and any other day, he would have succeeded. He was older, stronger, but I was fueled by rage, the kind only a male protecting his female possessed. Right then, I matched his strength and then some. I squeezed the prime’s throat with everything I had, and he dropped to his knees, gasping.
I wanted to take my time torturing him, peeling the skin from his body, slicing and pulverizing until he begged me for death. I wanted to hear him scream. But my need for revenge came second to the needs of my female, and she needed me. Now.
His mouth opened and closed like a suffocating fish as he clawed at my wrist. I grinned down at him as I dug my nails into his papery skin—pushing deep until I could grip his spine, then I tore it out through his throat and tossed it aside. His lifeless body fell to the floor, and I kicked him out of the way and rushed to Mina’s side.
There was so much fucking blood. I quickly swiped my tongue over the gaping wound in her throat where blood still oozed, then gently, I took her precious face in my hands and turned her toward me. She was cold, her gaze dull, lifeless, staring straight ahead.
“Lalka?” Her pulse was slow, sluggish. She needed to feed.
Quickly I snapped the ropes around her wrists and ankles, then worked my way around her, licking the open bites all over her body, sealing them. She didn’t make a sound, didn’t move, just continued to stare blindly at nothing.
“It’s going to be okay. No one can hurt you now.” I swiped my tongue across the side of her waist, sealing the last bite and stopping the bleeding. “I’m going to lift you now, Lalka. I’m sorry if it causes you pain, but I need to feed you.”
She said nothing.
I lifted her carefully, still the pain must have been unbearable, but she remained limp, soundless. I carried her over to a chair and sat with her across my lap. “Drink, my love. You need to feed.”
Her head lay against my shoulder. She was too weak to fucking lift it. Sliding my arm free, I nicked the vein in my throat, just a small slice because she’d have to start slow and build up her strength. Lifting her higher, I cupped the back of her head and pressed her mouth to the cut.
She made a small whimpering sound, and I felt her tongue press against it with a barely there touch. I wanted her out of this place, I needed to get her out of here, but I was afraid if I waited any longer to feed her, I’d fucking lose her.
I’d just killed the elders, murdered all five of them in the prime’s own residence. I didn’t regret it. I’d do it again. But I didn’t know what that would mean for me, or for Mina. If we had to run, we would. I had more than enough money to protect and care for her anywhere in the world. I could take her wherever she wanted to go.
Which was why I needed to get her out of here. I needed to get her to safety.
Her lips moved, soft like butterfly wings against my skin, then she sucked gently. Relief filled me. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this way. “That’s it.” I rubbed her slender back, encouraging her to drink more. “Don’t stop, Mina.”
The seal of her lips grew firmer, and her hand slid up my chest to curl around the side of my throat. More relief rolled through me, so strong, so overwhelming, I shook from the sensation. Her legs curled up, her toes digging into my thigh—then she struck, going deeper.
Her fangs sunk into my vein, her nails into my shoulder, and she finally drew hard, her primal instinct for survival taking over, until her feeding became frenzied. I continued to rub her back. “That’s it, Lalka, take what you need.”
I was old. She could take far more blood from me before I would feel the effects.
The way I felt in that moment, she could have it all.
The sound of cars, several of them in the distance, reached me. The vampire court had been summoned. We needed to leave. I stood, Mina still in my arms, still attached to my throat. There were doors leading out to a garden, and I kicked them open and carried her out into the night, running for the cover of trees that surrounded the property.
I had to get her home, then I could deal with this. Yes, I could leave this city, I could take Mina away and make a life with her somewhere else, but I didn’t think it would come to that.
Not if I had my way.
I sprinted through the trees that lined the long driveway, away from the prime’s mansion, concealed from the cars that were headed toward it. I recognized the court members, all grim-faced and pale.
Fear.
I could smell it even through steel and glass.
They should be afraid.
They should be really fucking afraid.