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Then he looked up at Eli, and his face drained of nearly all color.

Vlad stepped forward as Ivan stepped back, shaking his head.  “You again…”

Eli’s brows came together. “What’s with this guy?”

“He’s not right in the head,” Andrew said. “That’s all you need to know. Let’s just go.”

Ivan wouldn’t take his eyes from Eli’s face, and Vlad was forced to reach out and take him by the arm, gently pulling him forward.

The whole time Ivan stayed close to Vlad, whispering. “He’s the ghost. The spirit I’ve been seeing as of late. What is he doing here?”

Vlad wanted to tell him that there was no such things as spirits or spectres, and that the man he saw was very much alive, but that would

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have to wait. They just had to get out of here. That was all Vlad  wanted. To go away and never come back to this hell ever again.

They scrambled down the stairs, and Vlad paused when he noted  the blackened body lying in the middle of the stone floor. That hadn’t  been there before.

Andrew’s eyes were also on the body, and he turned to Eli, apparently having similar thoughts as Vlad. “Where did that come from?”

Eli frowned, and then realized what Andrew was asking about.

“Oh, that was there when I came in.”

“Not when we did,” Andrew said, stepping a little closer to  inspect the body. He sniffed the air―trying to scent death?―and then  wrinkled his nose. There were blood-spattered footprints on the black  marble floor, so whoever it was must’ve walked there before

collapsing.

“Pretty sure he’s dead, man,” Eli said. “Let’s just go―”

The blackened body arched up and screamed. It roared at the top  of its lungs, fangs exposed, eyes blazing red and filled with dark  blood.

“Jesus Christ!” Andrew jumped back.

With its face up and the sound of that voice, even shrieking like it  was, Vlad recognized who it was.

Boris. The Dragunov Lord had attempted to flee it seemed. The  extent of sun damage to him was clearly worse than Vlad’s mother.  He must’ve gotten a full dose of it before he could escape his  bedchamber.

Boris’s head snapped to the side, and he looked at Vlad much the same way Ravinia did when she noticed her son.

He didn’t get to his feet to attack, maybe it was because he couldn’t, but he was just as fast as the queen had been. Actually, he was faster. He crawled across the floor like a lizard, insanely fast.

At first Vlad thought he would go for Andrew because he was the closest, but he came at Vlad.

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He was too fast, and Vlad had barely backed up a step before the other vampire had grabbed him around the legs and tripped him up.  He fell backward into one of the granary tables, knocking it over and breaking the wood.

Vlad grabbed Boris around the mouth, keeping those teeth from biting down on his face or neck, but then Boris bit Vlad’s thumbs.

His scream was more like an expulsion of air that pained his throat to make.

The pain! Oh, God, the pain! It felt like Boris was trying to bite clear through the bone in his thumb.

“Get him off! Get him off!” Andrew screamed.

He, Ivan, and Eli came and put their arms around Boris’s chest.  They tried to pull the vampire off, but his blackened skin just shredded like wrapping paper.

“Fucking hell!” Eli yelled as he threw away a chunk of burned flesh.

Get him off me! Get him off me! Vlad tried screaming. His lips moved and some sound came out, but not the words he wanted. Then

Boris wrapped his hands, his crispy, burned, black hands, around

Vlad’s throat.

Boris might have been trying to strangle him, but it was almost as though the pain had supercharged all of the nerves in his body, and he passed out from the overflow of agony.

* * * *

Andrew grabbed at the guy’s neck as he strangled Vlad, but only managed to pull away another hunk of flesh. His fingers were slippery with the man’s blood and gore, and he couldn’t even get a decent grip on him anymore.

Was this guy immune to pain or something? He needed to get him off Vlad!

He was still strong, despite his injuries. Eli tried to push the guy

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off, and they rolled, but his black fingers were still around Vlad’s

injured neck, and now Vlad wasn’t fighting back anymore.

No!

Andrew searched around, he saw the broken wood from that small

table thing, and one of the legs was snapped off.

He ran for it, picked it up, put it at an angle on the floor and

stepped on it.

Homemade stake.

“Get out of the way!” he yelled, charging forth.

Eli only noticed him coming and managed to pull Ivan out of the  way right before Andrew sunk the stake right between the vampire’s  shoulder blades.

Finally, a reaction. The vampire released Vlad’s neck and reared back. Another glass-shattering roar was released from that throat before the entire black body seemed to light up from the inside.

He went off like a red firework. A loud bang echoed throughout the entire room, red sparks flying everywhere, and it was done and over with.

Andrew had no time to contemplate the strange way vampires

died. He rushed to Vlad and fell on his knees before him.

He gathered his lover into his arms. The bandage around his neck was black and mangled, and Andrew saw blood oozing out from beneath it.

“Vlad? Vlad!” Andrew shook him, but there was no fluttering of  eyes, no groaning, nothing.

“Does he live?” Ivan asked. The prince looked damn near  hysterical.

Even vampires had to have a heartbeat. They survived on blood,  so they needed a pumping heart to make sure that blood got to all the  places it needed to in their bodies.

He couldn’t hear that heart, and with his entire body tight with  fear, Andrew put his ear down over Vlad’s chest.

It was there, but barely. Nothing to be relieved about just yet.

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“We need to get out of here, right now,” Andrew said, rising to his  feet. “Tell the others we’re coming and get Isaac to give you the  thermal blankets.”

“He can have mine,” said Ivan, and he pulled the blanket off of his

small shoulders and covered Vlad with it.

Andrew pulled the blanket over Vlad’s face and nodded to Ivan before taking off. “Thank you.”

He needed to get to Isaac. Vlad was in no condition to be carried on Andrew’s back, not while he was out like this. Isaac would have to

hold him and ride back with him on his ATV. He would have to make

sure the blanket never fell off of Vlad’s body while he drove, too.

The sun was nearly down, the sky orange and the shadows long,  but it was more than enough to kill a vampire who was exposed to it  for long enough.

Andrew screamed for Isaac as he ran out of the house. The alphas  saw him coming and rushed forward to help.

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Chapter Sixteen

Vlad felt like he was being jostled around way too much. He was in that place between asleep and awake, and he just wanted to fall further into sleep.

He was tired. Why did everyone have to keep moving him?

It would be so much easier if he wasn’t so damned hot and

uncomfortable.

As though granting his wish, someone must have turned on an air conditioner, because his body cooled down considerably. He almost felt like he was being dipped into a pool of cool water.

Then he couldn’t breathe again. Boris’s monster face appeared before him, and he panicked. Vlad fought with everything inside of him to keep those black hands from touching him, but he couldn’t.  Boris stroked his face and his arms, he touched his neck, and the more  Vlad fought, the stronger he became, but he could still not get Boris off of him.

No! No!

Vlad opened his eyes. Everything was dark and blurry, and he still couldn’t breathe. Water entered his throat, and when he coughed it up, bubbles appeared before his eyes.

Then he was pulled up.

Vlad inhaled sharply, but there was still water in his throat and mouth, and he coughed and choked. A hand smacked him on the back in the most undignified of ways, yet it was just what he needed, and he took in his first clear breath.

Andrew wrapped his arms around Vlad’s soaked body and held him close. Vlad hugged him back, even when Andrew’s embrace

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became so tight that Vlad had trouble breathing again. He never  wanted to let this man go.

“Oh, Christ,” Andrew said, kissing Vlad’s hair, lips, neck, and  cheeks. “Don’t ever scare me like that again. Don’t ever let me lose  you.”

Vlad had no answer to that, so he just continued to hold onto his  lover, being comforted by the strong embrace and comforting Andrew  in return.

They were both in a pool of some kind, at least Vlad thought so, but then he took note of the other werewolves standing around them.  They were standing on grass and sand and small rocks. Vlad shifted his feet and felt sand and some sort of slimy plant squishing between his toes, and he knew they were actually in a pond.

He knew better than to assume that Andrew would bring him into dirty water in his condition, and when the pond water had gone into his mouth, it had tasted clean and fresh.

He gently cleared his throat, preparing to attempt speech, but there was no pain.

In fact, when Andrew kissed him, touched his neck and hair, there

was no pain from Vlad’s outer injuries either.

“What―” he said, shocked when his voice came out clear and

strong, no pain from the inside of his throat. Just in case, he  whispered his next words. “Where are we?”

Still no pain. He reached up to touch his throat and found smooth  skin instead of broken blisters and lumps.

Andrew was still holding him close as he answered, still hesitant  to let him go. “This pond belongs to my pack leader. We don’t know  how, but it has healing abilities.” Andrew’s whole body shivered.  “Thought you were gone there for a second.”

What Vlad had ever done to deserve such a caring person for a  lover, for a life mate, he would never know.

Someone cleared his throat. Vlad’s eyes were working perfectly now that he’d blinked the water out of them, and the number of

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mostly naked men surrounding the pond shocked him.

He tried not to blush. He was going to have to get used to this sort  of thing if he was going to live with a werewolf, he supposed.

Ivan was kneeling in front of the water, appearing dazed as he let  his fingers trail around in the water, creating small ripples. The  werewolf called Eli was looking at him strangely.

For a second Vlad thought that perhaps this was another case of a  werewolf discovering a mate with a vampire, but then, no, that could  not be right. Eli was holding the hand of another male, someone with  dual-colored eyes, and one of the few to be wearing clothing.

“Come on, time to get out,” Andrew said, and they waded their  way out of the water.

Vlad was sorry to leave it, but eager to see where his mate lived,  where they both were going to be living now that they were free. Vlad  never felt so privileged in his entire life, holding Andrew’s hand and  walking next to him. The fact that Ivan was now here as well, and that  they would never be bothered again, was the icing on the cake.

Andrew explained all that he could about the land they lived on,  and apparently, it was not without its dangers either, but Vlad knew  he could handle anything that came his way. He was a vampire, and a  prince no longer. He would learn how to defend himself, and maybe  with enough training, he would be able to keep pace with Andrew.

When they got back, Andrew had Vlad stand at the door of one of  the houses and then jogged off to speak with his alpha, the man with  the deeply scarred face named James.

He came back with a grin on his face. “We have twelve hours,” he  said.

Vlad blinked as he was ushered inside the small cabin. “Before

what?”

Andrew was still eagerly pulling Vlad along, down a narrow hallway before opening a wooden door to a bedroom. The bed inside took up almost all the space within, but it was the perfect size for the one thing Vlad wanted from Andrew the most.

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“Before James will call us for questioning.”