Chapter 22 Sable #2
I looked up. “It was about not knowing if we’d live through the night if we didn’t. That’s all. The bond was demanding, and you’d left with the rejection unfinished. And I’ll remind you that you were vampire food until I showed up, and I didn’t know if you’d walk away from that.”
He smiled, slow and wolfish. “So when you pulled yourself against me, when you came on my face and screamed out my name, that was just a side effect of not knowing?”
Heat flashed up my neck, and I stood up to hide it. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
He wasn’t teasing anymore. He pushed up on one elbow and studied me, eyes narrowing. “You really think you can separate what happened last night from this…” He gestured between us. “From this thing inside us?”
“I have to.” My voice cracked. “Because if I don’t…”
“What?” His voice was quiet.
I didn’t answer.
He stood, the muscles in his shoulders rippling as he moved. I hated how much my body reacted to it. He was already under my skin, despite all my efforts and knowing better.
“Look at me,” he said.
I didn’t.
“Sable.”
I met his gaze, and he touched the bruise blooming along my jaw. His fingers skimmed my skin, gentle despite his size, and everything in me stilled.
His wolf was closer. He wasn’t just watching me. He was guarding me.
He moved between me and the cave entrance, protective on reflex, and something inside me shifted.
Goddess, help me.
I wanted him to protect me.
“What’s your plan, beautiful?” A shiver went down my spine. “Try to break this blasted bond?”
“Pretty sure that’s a bad idea for now,” I said, forcing my tone to become clinical. “We cloak it. Suppress the signature temporarily so they can’t track us.” I tested my balance. “It’s possible with the right magic.”
“What’s the cost?”
I paused halfway through buckling my knife belt. “Why do you assume there’s a cost?”
He arched a brow. “Because you look like someone about to do something stupid.”
Smart bastard knew me too well already.
“Magic is known to be unstable on active bonds,” I admitted. “It could cause unpredictable effects.”
“On both of us?”
“Probably.”
Before he could argue, a sound cut through the air. Heavy footsteps, not trying for stealth. Too loud to be anything human.
Rhys’s head snapped toward the cave mouth, and he scrambled to dress. “What is that?”
“Trouble for us,” I whispered, silver already curling from my ring.
They were closer, speaking in harsh, guttural tones. Whatever was out there knew where we were and didn’t care about subtlety.
“Duergar,” I breathed.
“You can scent them already?”
My vampire instincts couldn’t stand duergar but used them when necessary when tracking lost Crux.
They were dark dwarves. Bounty hunters available to the highest—and sometimes lowest—bidder.
I slung my pack over my shoulder. “The vampires must have sent them when their first two scout troops failed to bring you in.”
“Then we fight.”
“We run.” I grabbed his arm. “You’re still healing. Duergar don’t kill you fast. They enjoy breaking you up slowly. And you’re not in top shape at the moment.”
The voices were getting closer. They had us cornered, and they knew it.
“This way,” I whispered, leading him deeper into the cave system. “Back exit, half a mile through the tunnels.”
We moved as fast as we dared through the darkness, me guiding him by touch. Behind us, the sounds faded, but I knew it wouldn’t last. They were expert trackers.
When we reached the exit, the tunnel opened onto a wide hillside that headed in the direction of Orion territory.
It was still a long run from here, four hours at best.
“There,” Rhys pointed to what appeared to be nothing in the valley. “Orion has an ages-old outpost, glamoured, just for moments like this. I can smell it from here. We can make it.”
I nodded, but something felt wrong. Everything was quiet.
That’s when I heard the whistle of displaced air.
“Down!” I tackled Rhys as a warhammer slammed into the earth.
The duergar wielding it was massive—seven feet of muscle and scars and brutal purpose. His eyes glowed with an inner fire, magic and madness combined.
“Found you,” he rumbled in accented English. “Everyone will be keen to bid on you two.”
Three more duergar emerged from cover, flanking us with military precision.
Rhys was shifting, bones cracking as his wolf fought to surface. I could see the strain, the way his movements were still sluggish. He wasn’t healed enough. He wasn’t ready.
The lead duergar swung his hammer in an arc. I rolled aside, the rush of air ruffling my hair.
Silver magic erupted from my hands, cold fire that caught him in the chest. He flew backward into a tree, wood splintering on impact.
The other two attacked simultaneously, war axes gleaming. I danced between them, my magic forming shields that turned their blades away, since silver magic was never meant for fighting. But they were strong, fast, and I was outnumbered.
One axe got through my shields, the handle catching me across the ribs. Bones cracked. Pain exploded through my side.
Rhys roared, his wolf finally breaking free. He launched himself at the duergar who’d hit me, but the leader was already moving, hammer raised for a killing blow.
Time slowed. I could see it happening—Rhys locked in combat while death approached from his blind side.
I didn’t think. Just acted.
Instead of attacking the threat, I grabbed at the bond energy and poured everything I had through it. Every bit of silver magic, every drop of hybrid strength, every scrap of power I possessed.
It worked.
Rhys moved like a storm unleashed. He tore through the duergar like they were nothing, killing them as quickly as they attacked.
Magic with nowhere else to go ricocheted back into me, but most of it stayed with him, burning through his system like acid.
He staggered as the power overload hit, his enhanced strength turning against him. Too much, too fast, through a body still healing from vampire venom.
Rhys rushed to my side in wolf form, and I reached for him, trembling from the aftershock. He nuzzled against me, warming me.
“Go alone,” I rasped, but he didn’t answer.
More coming. Reinforcements, I said through the bond, but he didn’t move.
“The outpost,” I gasped. “Then get to Orion land.”
He stood but stumbled. I held him with my energy as long as I could, but even his wolf was struggling to stay conscious. I poured everything I had left into him.
“Go!” I screamed.
“The hybrid!” a duergar shouted with fresh reinforcements at the tree line. A whole group of them, too many for me to outrun in my state. “Don’t let her get away!”
I looked at Rhys’s wolf, who still wasn’t moving. “Go—for fuck’s sake!”
There wasn’t time for both of us to make it.
Silver magic flared around me one last time as I pushed Rhys toward the outpost before turning to face the attackers, buying him precious seconds to run. At least one of us would make it home.
Rhys didn’t budge. He snarled.
At me.
And lunged.