'Allow him to use the ring to destroy us, perhaps?' came a voice from the doorway.
Adrian turned around slowly to face the blond man who lounged in the doorway with deceptive nonchalance. Adrian moved to block me with his body. I stepped to the side to look around him.
'Sebastian.' Adrian's voice was soft, but filled with so much menace it made the hairs on my arms stand on end. 'So you still live.'
Sebastian made a courtly bow. 'As you see, Betrayer. Alas that the same will not be said of you come the dawn.'
'The dawn?' I asked. Adrian promptly moved in front of me again. I pinched his butt and stepped to his opposite side. 'What do you mean, the dawn? You guys don't like dawn.'
'Your woman is not very intelligent, is she?' Sebastian said, looking bored.
'Hey!'
'You will leave Nell out of this,' Adrian said in a macho he-man sort of way that simultaneously warmed my heart and made me want to crack him over the head with the Pan statue. 'She has nothing to do with this.'
I elbowed Adrian, and slapped his hand when he tried to pull me behind him. 'Like hell I don't. I'm in this up to my armpits. Now, what exactly did your vague threat mean, Sebastian? What do you guys think you're going to do to Adrian?'
Adrian growled deep in his chest as Sebastian strolled into the room. 'A camarilla has been formed. The decision to destroy the Betrayer once and for all has been agreed upon.'
'Destroy?' I asked, horror growing at his words. They were going to toss Adrian out in the sunlight? Over my cold, dead body! 'You guys are insane! Utterly and completely—erk!'
Sebastian pulled a wickedly curved knife from his boot, casually gesturing with it.
'Stay back, Nell' Adrian said, moving forward to answer the wordless invitation Sebastian offered.
'And let you get gored again? No, thank you.' I grabbed Adrian and hung on. 'Look, this has gone too far. Obviously, Sebastian holds some sort of grudge—'
'Grudge?' the blond vamp snarled. 'He betrayed me, tricked me, helped bleed me dry until the only thing that stood between death and me was my desire for revenge. He did all that for the glory of his master.'
I looked back at Adrian. His eyes were indigo, intent on Sebastian. Although he stood as still as a statue, I knew he was poised to attack the other man. 'You did all that to him?'
'Yes,' Adrian answered, his eyes meeting mine for a moment, his gaze unabashed and offering no explanation.
'Oh.' I turned back to Sebastian. 'Well, I'm sure Adrian must have had a good reason to do it. He's not mean normally.'
'A good reason?' Sebastian asked a bit wildly.
'Do you think it's easy being cursed by a demon lord?' I asked, hands on my hips. 'Do you think he's had fun being the Betrayer?'
'Nell—'
'No, Adrian, I want to know. I want Sebastian to tell me what he thinks it's like to be bound body and soul to a demon lord, forced to destroy your own people. I want to hear from his own lips just how much entertainment he thinks you got from all this.'
'Nell, it does not matter—'
'I want to hear how enjoyable he thinks it is for you to ruin everything and everyone you love. Go ahead, Sebastian. Tell me all about it.'
Sebastian stared at me in disbelief for a moment before looking at Adrian. '
Adrian's lips twisted in a wry parody of a smile. 'She does not always see things as we do.'
I smacked him on the chest. 'Thank you both so very much! Can we get back to the attempts to kill each other and stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here?' The second the words left my lips I regretted them. I held up my hand as Sebastian started forward. 'Wait! I didn't mean that. We can talk this out, I'm sure we can. It's just a matter of finding a common ground—'
'She will die after your withered corpse has turned to dust and been scattered to the wind,' Sebastian told Adrian with an evil flick of his knife in my direction.
Adrian growled and thrust me aside.
'What makes you think you can beat us both?' I yelled, clutching the back of Adrian's shirt in my attempt to keep him from throwing himself onto the blond vamp. Adrian twisted and turned, trying to dislodge me, but I held on. There was no way I could stop them from trying to kill each other once the fight began, so I had to stop them before they started. 'You've gone up against us before, Sebastian, and lost both times. All I have to do is draw a binding ward on you and—'
In hindsight, I realize that belittling Sebastian's abilities and threatening him with a binding ward wasn't the smartest move, but I was on the verge of exhaustion, both mental and physical, so allowances have to be made.
Adrian didn't see it that way, though. When Sebastian switched his target and lunged for me, the wicked blade of his knife gleaming in the bare bulb hanging drunkenly overhead, Adrian sent me flying as he thrust his body between me and Sebastian. I cracked my head on the stone wall, seeing stars for a few seconds. By the time I cleared my head and got to my feet, Adrian—in better shape than the last time he'd met Sebastian—had the blond vamp pinned to the wall by the knife at his throat.
'You dare attack my Beloved?' Adrian snarled, his hand on the knife's hilt, ready to rip it across Sebastian's neck. Although Sebastian could survive the neck wound, not even a vampire with excellent regenerative healing skills could repair a severed head.
'Adrian,' I said softly, holding out my hand as I would to an animal in pain while I slowly approached him. His breath came ragged and hard, his eyes ice blue, so pale they were almost white. 'I know you are thinking it's a good idea to kill Sebastian, but it isn't. You can't do this.'
A low growling noise emerged from Adrian's chest. I touched him gently on the arm, slowly moving closer so that my body pressed against his. Sebastian evidently realized how close Adrian was to killing him; rather than striking out, which would have meant his immediate death, he stood still, watching us. Blood snaked out of the wound in his neck, soaking the front of his shirt. I eyed it worriedly. He was losing too much blood too quickly.
'Sebastian is not your enemy, not really. He is just as much a victim of Asmodeus as you are,' I said slowly, brushing my fingers through Adrian's hair in a gentle caress. 'I know you were forced to betray him. I know you had no choice then, but you have one now, Adrian. If you kill Sebastian, it will stain your soul forever. His death will haunt you for the remainder of your endless years.'
Pale blue eyes turned to look at me. I leaned forward, brushing my lips against his. As I did, his emotions swamped me, all his fury and anguish, a sort of madness at the thought that Sebastian would try to harm me. 'His death would haunt me as well. Do not do this, my love. Do not throw away the soul you have struggled for so long to regain.'
A great shudder went through him as I pressed my lips to his in a kiss that pleaded more eloquently than words. The madness receded with my touch, the fury that gripped him lessening.
'He would kill you if he could.' Adrian's voice was low and rough, as if he hadn't spoken in years, his breath brushing hotly on my lips.
'The acts you were forced to carry out have given him reason to hate us,' I whispered into his mouth, allowing his emotions to fill me. Behind the rage, guilt lay thick and black. 'But that does not mean you must hate as well. Every crime you have committed has been enacted against your will. Do not now commit one out of anger. Please, Adrian, show him mercy where none has been shown to you.'
He sucked in a deep breath, his eyes closing for a moment, and when they opened, they were clear again, a deep blue that signaled a return to sanity. He turned to Sebastian, the planes of his face stark. 'When you next think to kill my Beloved, remember that it was she who saved you.'
Sebastian had time only to respond in a squawk as Adrian yanked the knife from his throat, tossing the blond vampire's body across the room. I ran to follow him as he dragged Sebastian to the room in which he had been held captive.
'There is no lock. You must ward the door,' Adrian said as he slammed the door, leaving Sebastian lying on a ragged cot within.
