But what to do about it?
Clay looked like he was back to thinking up ways for him and Mariel to escape. While escape wasn't a bad thing, she thought it was dangerous to attempt. Vellum would be forced to capture them and worse, he'd have to change the way he handled them, treating them not as companions but as a resistant food source. Mariel didn't like imagining that scenario. Not one bit.
So she kept an eye on Clay and interrupted him when he tried to goad the vampire. If Vellum knew the motive behind Clay's change of attitude and sudden animosity, he didn't show it. If anything, he acted as though he didn't notice it at all. But Mariel knew he was aware of it. Once, she had caught him looking after the Marshal after the other male had made a point of walking a wide circle around Vellum to reach his horse. Vellum was curious for the moment, but how far would he need to be pushed to become irritated with the Marshal's behavior?
That sunrise, after Vellum closed his box lid over himself beneath Clay's baleful eye, Mariel decided to confront Clay.
"What's gotten into you?" she demanded.
The two of them sat beneath a rocky overhang that was part of a small outcropping they'd been fortunate to find in an area otherwise as flat as hotcakes. The sky was orange and rapidly brightening with a new day.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered and tipped his head to rest it against the rock at their backs. He closed his eyes and rested his arms on his drawn-up knees. "You should get some sleep, Mariel."
"Don't tell me to sleep, Clay. Not while you're stirring up trouble for all three of us with your pig-headed behavior!"
That prompted him to crack open a golden eye. "Pig-headed? Now, that's mighty harsh."
"And appropriate. Along with cowardly."
Both eyes snapped open to glare at her. "Be careful what you say, Mariel. You don't accuse a man of being a coward. Not lightly."
But she wasn't intimidated by him. "My accusation wasn't made lightly. You're afraid and lashing out at Vellum. Why? Because he touched you? He did so before, when he drank from you."
"He didn't do then what he did—" Clay broke off, a flush streaking across his cheeks. "Taking a bite out of my neck is one thing. But what he did when all three of us were together was wrong. He went too far."
"How so?"
"Because he made it intimate. Between me and him." Clay muttered the last and turned his face away, though Mariel could still see his blush deepening. "He makes me feel things I don't want to feel with that bite of his. If you're there and we're focusing on you then it's alright. More than alright. I want it. But me and him together—it can't happen."
She laid a hand on his shoulder. "I understand that this is difficult."
She watched a muscle jump in his jaw as he held back what he wanted to say. Mariel wasn't just shining him on when she'd claimed to understand his confusion and discomfort. Not only was Vellum a man, he was a vampire, a potential killer of men. How Clay was expected to reconcile that, she wasn't sure. What she was sure of was that Vellum wanted to breach the Marshal's defenses. As Vellum had told her, he found pleasure in domination. An alpha Marshal of the Empire would be the ultimate conquest.
In realizing that, she began to reassess their situation here. What if Vellum refused to back down? Clay would resist and they'd likely fight. At the very least, Clay would refuse to continue to feeding him, which would render him useless to Vellum unless the vampire fed from him by force. The situation was too volatile and unpredictable to her liking.
Too dangerous.
"Maybe you shouldn't stay," she heard herself say. When he turned and gave her a look of surprise she forced herself not to back down. "He wants things from you that you're not prepared to give him. He's told me so." She nodded when he paled. "If you're not comfortable with that, then you should go."
"Mariel, there's no chance in Hell that I'm leaving you alone with him. He's a monster."
"If I stay, he might not pursue you. He might decide that I'm enough to sustain him if he also drinks from saberwolves."
"Mariel, no! I'm not leaving you behind as some sort of diversion or sacrifice. What kind of man do you think I am?"
"If you stay," she said distinctly, "you'll have to submit to him."
His eyes widened, but only for a moment. He firmed his jaw and a steely determination filled his gaze. "My job is to protect you, Mariel. I swore an oath to do that and I won't break it no matter what is required of me."
"If that's true, and I believe it is, then you'll have to find a way to accept what he wants from you."
He didn't look away. "I'll do what I must."
"I think you're the strongest man I know," she murmured. "I don't know of any other man who would sacrifice himself this way to keep me safe."