by Marcy Jacks
He turned toward the noise, spreading his wing out in a quiet glide just as the red dragon, Seth, and several others flanked beside Lucian.
His chest ached with the best kind of relief. Lucian sighed at the sight of his friends, and for the first time in weeks, he felt their collective minds reaching out to him.
Are you all right? How did you get away? Seth asked.
You’ve got holes in your wings! Stefan said, no composure in him at all.
And Lucian didn’t care. He felt for the first time as if he was back home.
I’m fine. I’m all right. He didn’t feel all right. I just need to relax a little, I guess.
Where’s Sorin? Was he with you?
Lucian should have known that would be one of the first questions Seth would ask him.
Sorin…
He couldn’t finish the thought. Lucian couldn’t focus, and his hope that Sorin’s betrayal wouldn’t hurt so damned much with the distance he put between them wasn’t helping. He was still in pain. God, he should have known better. This was still fresh. This still hurt like an open wound.
As if his body was burning all over.
Land, Lucian, Seth commanded. You need to rest, and we need to talk.
Lucian nodded. That seemed like the best course of action. He was tired and aching. Something was wrong, and he couldn’t figure out what it was.
He swooped down with the other dragons, several feet away from a highway. It was death, but it made for a good runway. He and the others immediately rushed into the tree line for cover, just in case someone did end up driving along and seeing them.
Lucian puffed and panted for breath even as he shifted back into his naked, human form. He reached out to steady himself against one of the trees, and it wasn’t enough to stop the trembling in his legs. He couldn’t breathe. He could barely think.
“Jesus, Lucian,” Stefan said, coming up behind him. He put his hand on Lucian’s shoulder. “Your back…”
Right. Lucian nearly forgot about the time Sorin had whipped him, that cold, ruthless expression on his face.
“What did they do to you?” Seth asked.
Lucian looked back at his friends. Andrei and Dimitri were there, as well. “Who’s watching the house?”
“Marxus and the new guy James have that.”
“Albert?”
Seth pressed his lips together. “He’s dead. Got taken out in the attack that took you.”
Lucian groaned. He honestly felt like he was going to be the worst kind of sick. He couldn’t handle this. He didn’t like this. He wanted to go home and hold his mate and realize that all of this was a sick and twisted dream. None of this was real.
“Where’s Sorin?”
Lucian’s heart thudded painfully. He shook his head, letting his anger boil to the surface again. “He betrayed us. He was in on it the whole time.”
“What?”
Lucian looked up at his friend, needing to see that shocked expression on Seth’s face for himself.
It was good to know someone else felt the same about this as he did.
“That can’t be right. Are you sure?” Stefan’s eyes bulged in much the same way as Seth’s.
“Who do you think gave me the marks on my back?”
Dimitri hissed. “God, I am so sorry.”
Stefan reached out, touching Lucian’s shoulder again, comforting him.
But there was no comfort to be had in any of this.
Seth looked at him as if he was trying to see inside of Lucian’s head. “Sorin betrayed you?”
Lucian nodded. “Yeah. Told me as much himself.”
“Okay.” Seth nodded, crossing his arms in a way that Lucian knew meant the man was thinking about it. “And you believe this?”
Lucian opened his mouth to say yes, he did believe it. How could he not believe it when it had come from Sorin’s mouth? When he’d watched his mate for as long as he could as a prisoner and saw no love in the man’s eyes?
No love in Sorin’s eyes when Sorin happened to be looking at him, that was.
The problem was…he couldn’t answer. Lucian wanted to answer that, but he couldn’t. There was no answer he could give that made sense.
Maybe he was thinking a little more clearly now, but…
“I don’t know. I don’t want to believe it, but you didn’t see him.”
“Was there a reason why he could have been doing these things?” Seth asked. “He was in that house with his father. It might not have been the greatest idea to be outwardly sticking up for you.”
That was what Lucian had thought.
“Sorin’s a bloodsucker,” Stefan growled. “He told Lucian what he was there for. Why not take his word for it?”
Lucian growled back at the man. “Don’t call him a bloodsucker.”
Of course, Lucian had called Sorin a bloodsucker. And a whore.
Right to his face.
Don’t feel guilty for that. He didn’t have anything to feel guilty for.
Stefan wet his lips, lightly shaking his head, but he didn’t argue against Lucian either.
“Whatever is going on,” Seth said, “do you want us to go back for him? We can try to get him out of there. If the house is in any kind of chaos after your escape, then we might have an opening.”
“What? No way!” Stefan said. “We’ve got Lucian back, and if the blood—if the vampire wants to stay with his own kind, then we should let him.”
Lucian had never felt so conflicted over anything in his entire life. It was a strange sensation, and he had to admit, he didn’t like it at all.
“It’s your call, Lucian. Whatever you want, we’ll do it.”
Stefan sighed. “Fine, yeah, whatever you want and we’ll do it.”
Lucian thought back to just fifteen minutes ago. He’d been holding Sorin in his arms, and Sorin had kissed him and held him back so sweetly. Sorin had moaned for him, begged Lucian for him, touched him and caressed him as if he did love him. As if…
As if it were going to be the last time they ever had together.
But Sorin had then said it was only because the mating had forced him to want Lucian, to need that one last time.
But then why not just work at breaking off the mating himself? Why bother with this entire thing to begin with? Why let Lucian go at all if he really was convinced Lucian was the villain?
It wasn’t adding up, and even if everything aligned perfectly, Lucian couldn’t handle this anymore.
He needed his mate back. He needed to look at Sorin away from that evil house and all the people within it and really ask him if he’d meant the things he’d said.
Whether Van was useful to Varrick or not, Sorin would never want to be around that dragon if he could help it.
“We go back for him,” Lucian said. “We take him home where he belongs.”
Chapter Nine
The only reason why Sorin couldn’t slip entirely into unconsciousness was because his body seemed determined to not let him. The rope around his neck that kept him sitting up choked him whenever he went a little too slack, and he kept coming to.
Not all the way. He seemed to be in some strange middle ground.
Sorin had heard the body would work to defend itself in cases of extreme pain or discomfort. It wanted him awake so he would keep breathing, but he kept trying to pass out because of the burning.
It hurt so much. He felt it, felt his skin peeling and bleeding. Van and the betas had opened his shirt before leaving, so Sorin felt that fire on his chest.
At least it took away from the pain inside his chest. He couldn’t focus on the way his heart hurt, on the way Lucian had looked at him right before Sorin walked away, when his skin burned and smoked the way it did.
Worth it. It was worth it. He let those words consume him. It didn’t matter how much this hurt him, so long as Lucian would live.
He hoped his mate would forgive him one day, even if he never understood this.
His mind kept trying to blo
ck out the pain, but every time he took a breath, it hurt. The gag in his mouth was something he was grateful for because at least that helped to stop him from screaming too loudly. He didn’t want to go out like that. At the same time, the material—he thought it was a tie—was starting to cut against the side of his mouth.
Biting down on it helped him to focus through the pain, to remind him of why he was here and who he was doing this for.
Not that he’d wanted to make a gesture this grand, but if he was going to get betrayed like this and left to melt in the sun, then at least he could comfort himself knowing Lucian was free. He was going to be safe and would be far away from here soon enough.
“Jesus Christ, Sorin.”
Sorin opened his eyes a second time. The sight of Lucian didn’t shock him, not really, because he wasn’t there. This wasn’t real. At least it better not be because Sorin was suffering here so Lucian could escape. Not so he could be standing over Sorin watching him bleed out as the sun’s heat cut deeper and deeper into his skin.
Sorin was exhausted. He couldn’t fight, couldn’t try to talk even through the gag. He just wanted to tell his mate how sorry he was. How much he loved him and that he hadn’t meant a word of what he’d said or a thing he’d been forced to do to him in that house.
Lucian knelt down. His hands trembled as he reached out, removing the gag from Sorin’s mouth.
“Sorin, sweetie, can you hear me? Fuck, Seth! I need your shirt!”
“Got it.”
Seth appeared, taking off his shirt while Lucian worked to button up Sorin’s, protecting his chest against the sun.
Seth draped the white shirt over Sorin’s head. It helped, but it wasn’t enough, not in the state he was in.
“Are you real?”
“I’m getting you out of here.”
For a hallucination, Lucian worked fast. He brought out his claws and sliced away the rope beneath Sorin’s neck.
“We’ve got company,” Dimitri said.
How many people were in his hallucination?
“Handle them,” Lucian replied, reaching around and getting Sorin’s hands.
It felt good when the ropes were off. As the sun had been burning him, the ropes had been digging into his flesh and skin. He hadn’t liked it. It hurt, and now that he was free, he felt less cutting against his flesh.
Lucian pulled Sorin closer into his arms, cradling him against his chest.
“I’m sorry,” Sorin said.
“Don’t speak now.”
He had to. He couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t want to die without Lucian knowing. “I didn’t mean any of it. I’m sorry.”
He felt Lucian stroking him on top of his head through the shirt Seth had given him, heard the thumping of Lucian’s heart, and felt the trembling breath the man took in. “I’m taking you home.”
Sorin wanted to smile, but he couldn’t seem to make his burned lips work. He was dying. Good. He was tired, and there was no better way to die than to be in Lucian’s arms.
He wasn’t alone. He hadn’t wanted to die alone, and he was getting his wish. The man he loved was here, whether this was real or not, and it was all he could have asked for.
Lucian pulled Sorin up into his arms. Sorin heard, vaguely, some of the words Seth said, but not all of them.
“The vampire is ours. We’re taking him home with us.”
“No! This is his punishment. He deserves to die!”
“If anyone’s going to punish him, then it will be his mate and no one else,” Seth snapped, and even in this strange, sluggish state Sorin found himself in, he could still make out the dangerous growl that came from the other dragon.
“Seth, I can’t wait anymore. I need to take him now,” Lucian said.
“Take him. We’ll handle this.”
Sorin managed to get his eyes open, but the shirt wrapped around his head was covering him too much, and he couldn’t see all of Lucian. He wanted to be able to see him.
He reached up, weakly pulling at it. Lucian stopped him. “No, no, sweetheart. Leave that on until we get home.”
But they weren’t going home. Sorin wouldn’t get another chance to be able to better see his mate.
Not that it mattered because the next thing Sorin became aware of was the hard flap of Lucian’s wings and the sensation of being pulled up into the air.
The sun was still hot, but the wind was cool on his skin, and Sorin settled against Lucian’s chest, letting himself fall into oblivion.
This wasn’t a bad way to go, actually.
* * * *
Oh God, Lucian almost hadn’t recognized his mate. He would have flown right past the scent of burning had it not been mingled in with Sorin’s smell.
It was the last place he’d expected to find him. He thought he would be flying straight back to the house, that he would have to search all the rooms, breaking through the reinforced windows or even creating holes in the walls until he found him sitting comfortably with a bottle of some expensive wine in front of a fire.
No, instead he found his mate tied up to an eight foot tall wooden stake and gagged outside in broad daylight while a group of betas and omegas watched, waiting for him to bleed out.
Not right. It wasn’t right, and Lucian didn’t need to be a psychic to know who had done this to him.
Van. That motherfucking piece of shit. Lucian didn’t care if those betas and omegas back there were slaves or whatever. He hoped Seth beat the piss out of the lot of them. Lucian would have if he didn’t have to worry about his limp mate dying in front of him.
Sorin looked at him as if he were drunk, barely realizing Lucian was actually right there. Christ, he’d even tried to take the shirt off his head that Seth had wrapped around him.
Lucian flapped his wings harder. With flight it would only take an hour or so to get back to the mansion, but that was an hour too long, and Lucian had no idea if his mate would make it, if he would still be breathing when they landed.
Sorin drank Lucian’s blood when they were in bed together. Lucian had that much to be grateful for. That would have given Sorin something of a resistance to the sun, and the extra blood would keep him alive for longer. His chances were still better than what they’d been before. He could make it. He was going to make it. Lucian was taking his mate home, and when Sorin was safe, he would get his answers.
* * * *
Seth threw down the beta who had tried challenging him. The man got up, and Seth punched him in the head.
It was honestly impressive the way the beta didn’t stay down. He glared up at Seth, his fangs out and threatening as a trickle of blood slid down his face.
“You vampire-loving piece of shit! Killing him would have meant hope for the rest of us!”
“Yeah, well, that’s too damned bad for you. Get your hope some other way.” Seth was in no mood to be sympathetic to their plight. Regardless of what was going on between Lucian and Sorin, Sorin was still Lucian’s mate. They had no right to take his life.
“If you want your freedom, then you’re going to fight for it.”
“We are!”
“Some other way,” Stefan said, stepping in. “Why turn on the son of your master? Why not just gang up on your actual master? I’m sure you’d rather Varrick was the one tied to this pole.”
“We would rather it,” said another beta, a man standing off to the side, as though just waiting for the right moment to jump in and defend his friend. “There’s too many people being paid money to serve him. There’s too many other betas who are loyal to him. It’s impossible to get through without killing the omegas in the house.”
“So you went after Sorin then,” Seth said. “Why?”
“Van,” said the beta on the ground, pushing himself away from Seth even as he glared at him. “He said you were good people. He said you were the sort of dragons who would help us.”
That got Seth’s attention quick. “Van is here?”
Lucian had left that part out, but the man had a
lso appeared to be in shock over everything.
“Is he a prisoner?” Dimitri asked, looking about as stunned as Seth felt. Stefan didn’t look much different from everyone else.
The betas and omegas looked amongst each other, as though confused by the question. “No. He’s working with Varrick, but it’s just a ruse. He’s hiding there so he can gain the man’s trust. He’s going to help us get out of here.”
The glaring returned. “He said you would be the sort to help us.”
“We will help you.”
“Then bring the vampire back here!”
“No. As far as I’m concerned, that is completely off the table so you might as well not bother to ask for it.”
The beta shot to his feet, his eyes blazing, his claws long and sharp at his sides.
He was clearly struggling to keep from attacking.
“If you want our help, we’ll offer it,” Seth promised. “But you’re not going to make demands on me. Sorin is the mate of one of my best and most trusted allies. You don’t get to touch him.”
He could tell this wasn’t going over so well with the crowd he had. No one seemed willing to give an inch, and with Seth’s terms out in the open, it seemed as though no one wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt either.
“We’ll put our trust into Van,” the beta said. “He knows what our suffering is. He doesn’t make demands on us.”
“Uh-huh,” Seth said. “Are you sure Van isn’t just using your misery and pain to elevate himself among your ranks? He’s tried that before back at the house we took over.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” said one of the omegas, a small little thing with fox ears. Seth’s heart broke when he noted the lack of a tail swaying behind him. “He listens to us. He doesn’t make threats. Sorin threatened me.”
Much as Seth wanted to think Sorin had his reasons, he knew better than to say such a thing to the people in front of him. They wouldn’t be willing to hear it, and it would just cause more problems.
“We’ll come back, eventually. Some of your men have defected to come work with us. We’re learning everything we can about the situation.”