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Cassidy’s human-speed perceptions took a little longer. When she realized how close the lethal blade was to her own throat, she gasped. Unthinking, she put up her hand to ward off an edge that would sever her fingers before she even knew she had touched it.

Dominique reached for her wrist—which was all the distraction Kambyses needed. A titanic force plowed into him, carrying him away in a blur. There were only flashes of his sire’s dispassionate face. Wind rushed in his ears, and copper pooled in his mouth just before something hit his back with stunning force. A hammer blow to his right shoulder, then another to his left thigh, splitting his bones. He shrieked in agony, but the pain subsided into a crackling tingle almost as fast as it hit, the fire-blood already racing to repair the damage.

Kambyses stood before him, his long hair in only slight disarray. On the other side of the room, Cassidy stared in open-mouthed shock. Dominique tried to rush to her side, fetch her up and run, but he couldn’t. His one arm and leg refused to move. Looking down, he saw why. The hilts of his swords protruded from them, their blades run through his flesh and bone and the carved-wood relief behind him, pinning him in place. His blood oozed and dripped, adding ice and snow to the stench of fire and ash.

He vibrated with fury. He had been here before. Immobilizing him with his own weapons was Kambyses’s favorite means of disciplining him. “Is this truly your answer to everything?” he roared. “Run me through and ignore me when I ask for the slightest consideration?”

Kambyses tilted his head a tiny amount, drawing attention to the spot where he had given Dominique his vein. As he did, his mind opened to him again. Nico. You don’t even know how many questions you still have. Or how far you must still travel. I will show you the way.

With that, Kambyses held out his hand to Cassidy. She shook her head as though to clear it and took a tentative step toward her summoner.

“Cassidy, no,” Dominique commanded.

She gave him a tight smile that said she knew better than to think she had any say in what would happen next.

“It’ll be all right,” she said, though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than him. She moved across the room and slipped her fingers into Kambyses’s hand as she met his gaze with a brave smile. “We haven’t been introduced. I’m Cassidy Chandler. The amusing one.” When there was no reaction from Kambyses, her expression faltered into heartbreaking uncertainty.

As though leading her in a dance, he guided her around until she faced away from Dominique. Her shoulders relaxed. Her heart slowed its mad gallop. She sighed, under his spell.

“Don’t touch her, you miserable, filthy old piece of shit!”

Kambyses paid him no attention. Neither did Cassidy, who likely was no longer aware of anything real. She tucked her hair behind an ear and angled her head to the side, letting the bite come. The moment it did, she collapsed into his arms.

Dominique screamed his outrage, his beast well off its chain, and scrabbled against the wall like a pinned insect.

Kambyses fed only briefly. Then he let his head fall back, eyes closed, a mirror to the limp form he held in their macabre dance. The tip of his tongue appeared, relishing her blood, still bright scarlet on his lips. Then he scooped her up to hang in his arms like a string-less puppet and gazed down at her.

Whatever effect she hoped feeding from her would have on the ancient one, there was no evidence of it. Kambyses was in complete control as his prey curled against him and grasped the front of his silk shirt.

“How much more we are together. Don’t you ever forget it,” Cassidy mumbled against his shoulder. “Don’t…forget. Never—” Her ragged gasp and moan left no doubt which memory she was reliving—what he made her relive.

“No!” Dominique cried. Kambyses being privy to his most intimate moments with her—all their joys and dreams, fears and desires—was like another sword running him through, this one slicing open his heart. He shook with the force of the anguish tearing at him.

With a languid sigh, Cassidy went limp, one arm dangling, jaw slack. Kambyses regarded him with profound concern, even pity. “You have much to learn, Nico.”

“Hurt her and I will hunt you down and destroy you,” Dominique snarled through his tears. “If it takes a thousand years and costs ten thousand lives, I will find you, and I will end you!”

“I know,” Kambyses said with a thin smile. Then he walked away with his burden. The door obligingly swung open, swallowing him, taking with him Dominique’s heart and soul.

The redhead, Monica, peered around the edge of the door and winced when she caught sight of him. “Ugh. What a mess.”

“Release me,” he ordered with the deepest compulsion he could muster, but the sound of her sandals already retreated down the stairs.

Desperation mounting, he wrapped his left hand around the hilt protruding from his right shoulder and pulled. The katana budged, but the moment it did, his shoulder blade broke again with a sickening, muffled crack that had him seeing stars. Hissing through the pain, he kept pulling before the bone could mend again with ferocious speed, fueled by the fire-blood. Dominique had been weak as a hatchling sparrow compared to the strength that surged through him now. Yet, it still hadn’t been anywhere near enough to challenge his sire.

No matter. For Cassidy, he would do it again. As soon as he got free.

The katana came out only so far. His arm wasn’t long enough to pull out the entire length, and grabbing the blade itself would only cost him fingers. The shorter sword skewering his thighbone prevented him from levering himself up. It was also well out of reach.

The last time Kambyses had left him like this, he didn’t return to release him until dawn. This night would likely be no different. Except, this time Dominique wasn’t worried about the coming day so much as he was about Cassidy.

He strained his ears for any clues about what was happening in and around the mansion. For a while, only indistinct rummaging, traffic, and footsteps reached him. Muted radio chatter was his first clue of what was about to happen. The throaty rumble of marine engines waking up confirmed it.

Apokryphos was making ready to leave.

That Kambyses would be aboard was a given. That Cassidy was with him was inevitable. That Dominique would have no way to reach them once the yacht was at sea was inescapable.

Their thousand-year battle had already begun.