“Bah.” Gregoravich waved a beefy hand. “One punch to the jaw and he was out like a baby.”
A fifth vampire moved into the cave on silent feet. The black-haired one who’d awoken her. Even while in the bloodless sleep, she’d heard his velvet voice whisper in her ear. She’d felt his fervent kiss. Her fingers went to her lips, then her legs wobbled. He was at her side, steadying her with a hand wrapped at her elbow.
“Enough,” he ordered over his shoulder. “We’ll rest for three hours. Gavril, you have first watch.”
The quiet one nodded and fled the chamber in a blur. The others moved a little farther into the cave, sitting in the shadows and propping themselves back against the wall before closing their eyes. She couldn’t imagine anyone comfortably sleeping in that position, but she’d never encountered men like these.
She swiveled back to the leader. His full attention rested intently on her face, accelerating her heart rate.
“Who are you?”
“Come,” he commanded gently. “Sit down.”
She didn’t argue. She could barely stand. Even so, she protested. “I don’t need rest.”
“I know what you need, Princess.” The rumble of his melodious voice sparked a warmth in her chest. “Please sit,” he urged more gently, guiding her to a spot near the cavern wall where a circle of kindling was stacked neatly into a tent shape. Larger stones framed it in.
She sat and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around herself as the cold settled in. Vampires could easily regulate their body temperature, but only when well-fed. The vicious churning in her gut reminded her she needed blood. Soon.
“What’s your name?” she asked softly, her voice still rough from lack of use.
He knelt and picked up two flint stones, cracking them together three times before a spark popped off onto the kindling. Leaning in, he blew the spark to life. A flame licked up quickly onto the dry tinder. He leaned to his right and lifted a log from a stack. They’d prepared this place for precisely this moment. A stop off in their escape.
He rocked back, crouching on one knee. “My name is Mikhail Romanov. I am Captain of the Bloodguard. We come by request of the Black Lily.”
She sat straighter, still hugging her knees to her chest, quivering. She’d heard rumors of the Bloodguard. A covert and deadly band of mercenaries who didn’t work for the crown or any single aristocrat, but only for men they chose—human and vampire alike. They swore allegiance to themselves alone and no one else. Some nobility snubbed their existence, saying they thought themselves too arrogant to devote their gifts to the kings of the land. Others called them heroic for taking the part of unfortunate humans who could not help themselves.
She wanted to know more about this captain, but her immediate interest was in whom they served now.
“Arabelle and Marius sent you?”
He nodded.
She smiled and exhaled with relief. A sudden wave of tender emotion swept over her, all of what she’d endured bubbling to the surface. In a single act of defiance, she’d broken her engagement to Prince Marius and encouraged him to go after the one he loved and the one who loved him. She’d not known the depths of the queen’s evil. When the queen had discovered the truth, Mina’s fate was sealed. The crown’s Legionnaires had promptly escorted her back to Briar Rose, where she thought she would be on house arrest. She was terribly wrong.
As they’d crossed the threshold into Mina’s own palace, Queen Morgrid’s Legionnaires had slashed open her lady-in-waiting, Kathleen’s, throat. Mina watched her one lifelong friend die before her eyes while she screamed in protest, in agony and heartbreak. To no avail. The officers promptly dragged Mina to the eastern tower and locked her inside. Not a soul returned until after she slipped into a coma from starvation three weeks later. The bloodless sleep.
She shivered. Mikhail stood and moved behind her, wedging himself in a sitting position between her and the cavern wall.
“What are you doing?” She’d never had a man so intimately close.
He stretched out his legs, bracketing her body. “Straighten your legs.”
Though this man was a stranger, she found herself oddly compelled to obey him.
“Now lean back.”
“What?”
He didn’t wait for her to comply. Gripping her upper arms with firm hands, he pulled her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, pressing his legs closer to hers. Instantly, she was enveloped in steamy heat. His temperature was up from the exercise of combat. She closed her eyes, unable to withhold the slight sound of pleasure at the tactile heat of his body.
“Better?” His husky whisper was at her ear.
She stiffened. He gave her a light squeeze, one arm banding her waist, the other across her chest, where his hand gripped her opposite shoulder.
“Relax. Do not fear me. I’m only trying to get you warm.”
“I don’t fear you,” she snapped, though the tenor of her voice sounded high and strained.
He chuckled, his broad chest rumbling against her back. “Defiant, aren’t you?”
She didn’t answer. “Why are we stopping so soon? So close to Briar Rose?”
“They’ll be floundering for hours, trying to reorganize. We killed all of the officers in command. That’s the downside to Legionnaires. They’re a well-disciplined machine, which means the soldiers are completely lost without someone giving them orders.”
He was right. “How do you know you killed all the officers?”
“They wear their pretty little bars on their lapels.”
“Yes, but how do you know you got them all?” Her chin stopped quivering, but her body continued to shake.
“Standard Legionnaire operations. When a threat presents itself, the commanding officers meet the threat first, assess, and determine the best strategy to extinguish said threat. After Dmitri spirited you away, we waited to be sure we’d taken care of the officers so there would be no one left in command. For Legionnaires, it’s much like cutting the head off the snake. The body will writhe uselessly, trying to find a direction to no avail.”
“I see,” she said, teeth chattering.
“You need to feed and rest before we move on. My blood will be enough to regulate your body temperature and give you strength till our next stop, where we’ll get you a human bleeder for real sustenance.”
His reminder drew awareness to her parched throat and the agonizing churn in her belly. Loosening his hold, he uncuffed one of his sleeves and rolled it up past his forearm. When she realized he planned to feed her directly from his arm, her pulse lurched into a gallop.
“I—I can’t feed that way.”
“What do you mean?” He finished rolling up his sleeve, baring a well-muscled forearm, a thick vein prominent. Her mouth watered.
“I don’t feed from the flesh.” She squeezed her eyes shut, his heat and heady scent pulling her canines from their rest, thickening her mouth.
“What other way is there?”
“I usually—that is, I mean, I’ve always had my host fill a cup for me.”
Silence. Stillness.