the knife was flying through the air. Adrian leaped to the side, but not quickly enough. The knife imbedded itself to the hilt in his chest.
'No!' I screamed, running toward him.
'Now you die, Betrayer,' the blond man said, swaggering forward.
Adrian faced the vamp, his chest rising and falling quickly as he pulled out the knife. The black of his shirt grew even darker as a wet stain spread across it. I knew without touching his mind that he was quickly running out of strength, the wound coming perilously close to nicking his heart.
'You will die and our people will be safe at last,' the blond vamp snarled.
Adrian raised his head, but it wasn't to glare at the vamp. His gaze touched mine, and I blinked in surprise to see in it regret mingled with sorrow. Within seconds those emotions were gone, and his eyes were brilliant ice-blue chips of determination.
'You have tried to destroy me before, Sebastian, and you failed. You will not succeed this time either.'
Adrian was gathering himself for an attack, an action that I knew in my heart would leave him dead. Without thinking, I threw my hands out and drew the pattern that had been burned into my brain so many years ago, piercing with relative ease the shadow that had lain over part of my psyche.
Sebastian's eyes widened as my hands, remembering something my brain had long forgotten, sketched ancient symbols into the night air. The symbols twisted and curled upon themselves, glowing silver in the air for a moment before fading.
Immediately, pain sharp and deep slashed through my head. I clutched my temples, desperately trying to stay on my feet as Adrian stared in surprise for a moment at the glowing symbols. Sebastian cursed and swore as he tried to move, only then realizing what I had done.
The stab of pain melted into my brain, leaving me faintly dizzy and weak. Adrian grabbed my hand and jerked me past the impotent, snarling Sebastian.
'I will destroy you, Betrayer! You and your Beloved both will die for the crimes you have committed!'
'What the hell?' I asked, staring at my hands as Adrian dragged me down the road, forcing me into a limping gallop alongside him while he muttered about making the train. 'Where did
'You're a Charmer,' he answered breathlessly. 'You drew a ward to bind him.' He glanced at me briefly as we approached the train station. 'You said you could not charm, and yet you drew a powerful ward.'
'Don't look at me, I have no idea how I did that,' I replied, glancing behind us, the pain caused by drawing the ward thankfully a fast-dimming memory. 'The other vamp is still out there.'
A blast from beyond the station warned that the train was about to leave.
'It matters not. Come. We must hurry.'
I raced up the steps, pausing at the top when Adrian almost doubled over, his hand to his chest.
'You're hurt badly, aren't you? We'll stop and—'
'No,' he gasped, shoving me past him into the station, toward the platform. 'We must leave now. I do not have the strength to fight the two of them together.'
His thought shimmered in my mind as we raced through the station. I jerked the tickets out of my pocket as we burst out onto the platform. The train tooted its horn a couple more times, slowly starting to move. Adrian lunged forward, jerking open one of the doors. I told my aching body it could rest if it got me on that train. Then I said a little prayer and jumped. I fell onto the floor inside, quickly pulling myself out of the way as Adrian threw himself beside me.
We lay panting and gasping for a few seconds before he got to his feet, helping me up. I waved the tickets at the conductor, who had given a mildly curious glance at our unorthodox entrance before we collapsed into a seat at the end of the car as my entire body screamed abuse at me, my mind numb with the events of the last twenty-four hours.
Adrian sat in the seat facing me, hunched over, his hand to his chest.
'Are you OK?' I asked. Stupidly. Of course he wasn't OK, he'd just been stabbed. Even a vampire had to feel a stabbing.
'Yes,' he said, his breath shallow and fast. 'Your head… I felt your pain. Is it better?'
I touched my temple. 'All gone, but I don't think I'm going to try warding again.'
The conductor wandered over to check our tickets. I gave them to him, scooting over to sit next to Adrian, casually leaning into him in a way that would hide the blood seeping out of his chest. I didn't want to think about at what point I'd gone from being captive to protector; I just wanted the conductor gone so I could see how badly Adrian was hurt.
After a few questions about where we were going, the man moved off to another car. I waited until a couple with two screaming kids passed us before turning to Adrian. 'How bad is it?'
I pushed his shoulders until he was leaning back at a drunken angle, using my body to shield us in case anyone went down the aisle in the center of the car.
'It's healing. Leave it.'
'I told you I don't take orders without a good reason.' I brushed his hand aside and unbuttoned the black silk shirt that was glued to his chest, biting my lip at the deep slash in his pectoral muscle. The knife had barely missed hitting his nipple, and, going by my scanty knowledge of anatomy probably had come very close to striking him in the heart. The wound was still bleeding, but sluggishly. 'You can heal yourself?'
'Yes,' he said, his head back. I gave the wound a long look, then stripped off my jacket and pulled my arms from the sweater I was wearing. Beneath it, I squirmed out of the thin cotton camisole, taking it off and re-donning my sweater before turning to him. His face was still, his lashes thick slashes of black on cheeks gone pale with the loss of blood. Using my teeth, I tore a little hole in the bottom of the camisole, ripping off a couple of long strips before folding the remainder of the fabric over into a soft pad.
'This may hurt,' I murmured as I glanced around the car before pressing the pad to the hole in his chest. His eyes opened to watch me as I slid my hands into his shirt and behind him, strapping the pad down with the strips of fabric. I tried my best to not notice the way the warm flesh of his naked back felt, but I couldn't resist spreading my fingers along the muscles before withdrawing my hands.
'Why are you doing this?' he asked, his eyes narrowing as I buttoned his shirt.
'I don't really know,' I answered truthfully. 'I was kind of hoping you'd be able to tell me.'
His eyes closed again as his head sagged into the high back of the seat. 'Every unredeemed Dark One has a Beloved, a woman who can save his soul.'
'Yeah, Melissande told me about that.'
'In order to be redeemed, the two must Join.'
'You mean sex?' A warmth started in my belly, spreading out to the rest of my body as the wicked part of my mind indulged in some extremely detailed fantasies concerning him.
'No. Yes. Not wholly. A physical relationship is the fifth step, but there is more to a Joining than just lovemaking.'
'So you think that because we can do the Vulcan mind meld, I'm your savior, and we're bound to end up having wild bunny sex together?'
He grimaced with pain.
'All right, I'll take back the wild bunny sex question since you're in no shape to even be thinking about that. Just tell me about this fifth step,' I asked, leaning forward to brush a tendril of hair off the stubble on his cheek.
His eyes opened and caught me in a clear blue snare. I looked at his mouth, so near, so tempting. Normally held in a tight line, relaxed his mouth was sensual, the curve of his lower lip singing a sweet siren song that I couldn't resist. I kissed him gently, feathering light little kisses along his lips, watching in cross-eyed wonder as his eyes darkened to midnight.
'What was that?' he asked, his breath fanning my face. I shivered at the rough touch of his voice, my mind filled with erotic thoughts that I wasn't entirely certain were mine.
'A kiss. I think you're sexy, remember?'
'That wasn't a kiss,' he said, his voice low, reverberating within me. '
