Page 38 of The Marked and the Broken
“What the fuck?” Knox asks from the doorway before he rushes forward to help.
“They were still doing it,” I tell him, shaking my head as we search for a way to release the constraints.
Blood is starting to soak through the shirt I have wrapped around this lamia’s arm, and I notice that he’s just sitting here, watching me warily.
“Knox, I need your shirt. Do you know anything about lamia, like how to stop them from bleeding to death?” I ask.
Knox whips off his shirt and hands it to me, and then he starts messing with a chain under the arm on his side of the chair. Enoch, Kallan, Nash and Sabin pour into the room, and everyone but Sabin’s eyes harden when they take in what’s going on.
“Vinna, what are you doing?” Enoch asks me, stepping forward and reaching for me. Sabin grabs him and stops him from pulling me away, and they start arguing.
“I need something that’s going to dilute the shifter venom that he put in all of my cuts and that I’ve been dosed with since I was brought here. Then I need to feed, so I can start to heal,” the lamia informs us.
“I can put something together for the toxin,” Knox tells me, and then he motions for Sabin to come over and take his place. Sabin steps in and starts working on the same chain that Knox just was.
“Are you guys crazy? Are you forgetting that lamia kidnapped us, Vinna, and killed your friend?” Nash asks from the corner of the room he’s standing in as he takes in everything with disdain.
I shoot him a glare. “Not this lamia, Nash. He didn’t take us.” Nash shakes his head in obvious disapproval, and disappointment wells up inside of me. “I was taken by casters, too; should I also assume every caster I meet is bad and deserves to be tortured and brutalized?” I ask him casually. I turn to Enoch who I can see is having the same issue with this situation as Nash. “I refuse to generalize a whole species based off the actions of a few.”
“That’s probably because you have very limited experience with this particular species,” Enoch grumbles.
“Well, being that I’m alive and pretty much everything that I am today because of a lamia, I’m going to say I probably have more legitimate experience than you do,” I argue.
I turn back to the crystal-blue eyes of the lamia that’s still strapped to the chair. “So the whole feeding thing is new to me. Do you prefer a neck, wrist, blood in a cup? What works best for you?”
His eyes widen in shock, and they move cautiously from me to the others in the room. “You…you would feed me?” he asks, his voice low and just shy of a whisper.
“You said you needed to feed, right?” I ask, confused. Do they not drink from people like I thought they did? Shit, did I just offend him? “Sorry, maybe I’ve seen too many vampire shows. I didn’t mean to be an asshole,” I rush to tell him.
His ice-blue eyes search my gaze, and his lips seem to be fighting not to show any hint of amusement. “No, they pretty much have it right. Well, my face doesn’t morph into that of a demonic shar-pei, but we do drink from people when we can.”
Sabin gets the metal on the lamia’s arm unlatched and moves to do the same to his leg.
“What’s your name?” I ask him as I place my wrist in front of his face.
Sabin gets one leg unchained and relocates to my side of the chair to finish working.
“Siah,” he answers, and I notice that his pupils start to dilate as I push my wrist closer to his mouth. I nod in encouragement and press closer to his mouth. He abandons the obvious wariness he’s feeling about this situation and sinks two sharp canines into my wrist. He pulls his fangs from the new wound quickly and then seals his mouth around the punctures and sucks hard at them, his eyes never leaving mine the whole time.
I’m oddly fascinated by what he’s doing and very aware that we’re being watched by disapproving eyes, but helping him is the least I can do after what Silva just did to him. I turn away from the sight of this lamia feeding from me and focus on the others in the room. Ryker is standing in the doorway, waiting to be told what we need.
“Where are the others?” I ask, ignoring the strange pull at my wrist.
“Valen, Bastien and Torrez are taking Silva to the main house and making sure that Aydin and Evrin don’t leave. Knox is making something in the other room.”
Out of nowhere, purple magic sparks to life on my forearm, and before either of us can pull away, the magic strikes out at Siah as he’s drinking from me. His eyes widen with fear, but as he absorbs the magic, his eyes close, and his face relaxes the tiniest amount. I don’t hear his moan, but I can feel it where his mouth is attached to my wrist. The next thing I know, pleasure is surging through me, and I tilt my head back, reveling in the feeling of it.
“Does that mean what I think it means?” Sabin asks, his tone pure shock.
Siah flinches back from my arm, and just like that, the euphoria is yanked from me too. My head snaps down, my eyes immediately landing on his, and we both just watch each other for a beat. The last chain on the chair is loosened, and just as Siah pulls his arm free, Knox pushes past Ryker with a bottle of blue liquid in his hand. I step away from the lamia as Sabin and Knox start administering the blue liquid to his wounds, but as I watch, I start to feel oddly fuzzy all of a sudden. I hold out my arm and move toward Ryker so he can heal me, when the world tilts out from underneath me, and I watch as the ground rushes up at me. I’m yanked away from the pain the ground promises and wrapped up in someone’s arms. I feel the telltale tickle of magic moving over my body, and then everything goes numb…and then dark.
* * *
I’m warm when I come to, wrapped in strong arms, safe, confused, and surrounded by people. Voices dance around me, and I feel like I could almost float on the anger in the room as they argue. I nuzzle the chest my cheek is pressed against, and soft lips kiss my forehead. I blink slowly, my eyes adjusting to the light in the room. Ryker’s sweet smile looks down at me, and I can’t help but return it.
“My hero,” I sigh dreamily, and his chest rumbles with a laugh that vibrates through me. “Thanks for catching me,” I tell him and pull his lips down to mine for a quick kiss.
“Wish I could claim the save, but the lamia caught you,” Ryker tells me, his face so close that all I can focus on is how much I want to turn that quick kiss into so much more. “Then Torrez almost ripped him apart when he walked into the room to find an unconscious you in the arms of some lamia no one knew. It got worse when Torrez caught his scent and realized he was one of the lamia that breached his old pack’s territory.”
