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“Blair, stop!” Kaien’s hands swatted at hers while she fought with him, trying fruitlessly to strip her of the saturated material that hugged her frame. “I need to see your wound better, vampire!”
“Get off me!”
Heart jumping into her throat, Blair wrestled with him even as her strength abandoned her, and a wracking cough seated in her lungs. The primitive monster that lived within refused to surrender to the man—even though he was trying to help her.
Kaien’s eyes grew wide once he bared her stomach, potent panic blooming in their depths when realization struck him. “Blair, if you keep moving, the bullet fragments will nick your—”
Fighting fervently against him, Blair knew the exact instant what he’d warned about happened. A flood of warmth pulsed against her skin and instantly, her vision wavered. Blood drained from her in a rush of crimson.
Black filtered over her eyes as consciousness evaporated.
Chapter Five
Dreadchokedhimasthe life literally drained from the injured vampire in his arms. Kaien tore away the saturated satin that clung to her torso. Even now, the tendrils of liquid sunlight crawled over her flesh, mapping a trail of silvery-red lines that exploded outward from the site of the bullet wound.
Just like Kane.
Though he desperately wanted to panic, the only thing that steadied him was his practiced hand. He’d need a clear head to perform at full capacity.
Those who’d suffered similar wounds had had the benefit of his twin’s blood to aid in their immediate recovery; Blair would have no such luck. And here, in a safehouse far from clan territory, no one else would be able to assist them. With Nina still recovering from her recoil, she wouldn’t be able to lend her powerful blood to Blair’s revival. Blair was relying solely on him to keep her alive.
Determination filled him anew. He wouldn’t let Blair die.Couldn’t.
Kaien hovered above her, his hands spreading over the wound on her stomach. With every pulse of his healing power, he clamped down the nicked artery that was spurting a colossal amount of blood into her abdominal cavity. He sent a barrage of healing energy into mending the leaking vessel, finding some semblance of relief when it sealed.
In the moments that followed, he poured his life-giving strength into the rapidly spreading liquid sunlight, cutting off its attempts to disrupt the very nature of her cellular structure. Blair’s heart quickened, the persistent pulse trying in vain to recover from massive blood loss and critical injury.
“Come on, Blair.”
His muttered words fell on deaf ears, the woman below him still as death. Already nearing his psychic limit, Kaien doggedly shook his head while his teeth ground together in ire.
He persisted, tenaciously pursing each molecule of molten sunlight that lit her veins from the inside out. As his concentration centered on the prone vampire in front of him, his strength continued to be split between her and maintaining the clan’s psychic network while Nina was unconscious.
He was bound to function as the primary backup to his twin while she was in recoil, but now that his focus was pried away, the connection was an invasive drain on his psychic reserves. Tremors racked through him as he tried to maintain the healing on the woman in front of him and the network that was centered a thousand miles away. Swiftly taking stock of his waning abilities, Kaien acknowledged the depleting state of his strength.
He couldn’t give up on Blair—not when it would spell death for the vampire.
Blair is dying; cover the network.The message to Remmus sounded as desperate as he felt.
Of course.Remmus’ mental voice was strong despite the distance, and instantly, Kaien felt the load of the psychic network taken off his shoulders. Immediately, what remained of his energy funneled into his hands as they knit together the broken and burned flesh of Blair’s torso.
Minutes passed while her flesh mended, but even with his renewed effort, his abilities began to flag. Already sapped from healing Nina’s injuries and supplying energy to the clan’s network, Kaien had begun with a tank that was half full. Adding on the effort of a remote teleport and tapping into Nina’s personal mental channel with Blair hadn’t helped.
Instead of withdrawing to save what little power he had left, he fought the instinctual urge to retreat. He doubled down on his efforts, knowing what it would cost him.
If he didn’t heal the wound—or at least get it to where she would begin healing herself—Blair would die. Kaien’s eyes frosted white as every ounce of his energy went to the rapidly healing wound that had torn through her saturated ivory skin.
“Hold on, Blair.”
Muttered words broke through the silence of the space around him, the confines familiar but unsettling in this context.
With the artery completely repaired, Kaien shifted his focus to the muscle that’d been damaged in the gunfire. He watched as the flesh began to knit together under his hands. Though tattered, Blair’s body kicked into gear at the last moment, multiplying his efforts.
That was when the power within him exhausted completely with a devastating snap.
Conscious of his position over the vampire, Kaien’s entire body jerked backward, sprawling him out on the cold wooden floor. Painlessly, he succumbed to the inescapable pull of his own energy drought.
Chapter Six
