Page 52 of Protector Unmatched

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Daphne stared at Pearce’s bloodied knuckles, then lifted her gaze to his face. Did she see shame there? Regret? She shook her head. One thing was clear: Pearce wasn’t who he said he was. When she heard the sound of a shot, she’d run to the front door and unlocked it with her spare key, then charged into her brother’s apartment, only to come to a sudden stop in the hallway, where she saw what was happening in the living room—two strangers battling with invisible foes.

She’d been so stunned that she’d frozen there. Frozen until she’d seen Pearce and the other man appear out of thin air. But when that stranger had then bent down to sink his fangs into his defenseless opponent, and Pearce approached her brother to—presumably—do the same, adrenaline shot through her veins and gave her the strength to intervene.

“Who are you?” She motioned to Pearce and the other man—or should she say the vampire? “Invisible vampires?”

The two exchanged a look as if they needed to get their stories straight.

“Your call,” the stranger, whose fangs she’d seen dripping with blood, said calmly, deferring to Pearce as if he was his leader.

Pearce ran his eyes over her. “I’ll explain everything. But your brother doesn’t look too good. We should check him out.”

She took a step to shield her brother. “Until I know who or what you are, you’re not getting near him.” She pointed to the other man. “You think I didn’t see him suck this Vasili guy’s blood? Do you think I’m blind?”

“No, I don’t think that at all. Exactly how long were you standing there, watching?”

She braced her hands on her hips. “Well, why don’t you take a guess, Mr. Invisible?”

For some reason, the fear she’d felt earlier had been replaced with anger. Pearce had lied to her. About everything. About who he was, about what he did.

“Okay. So you saw everything. Then you must have also seen that we saved your brother from these two goons. Even if we used, uh… unorthodox methods.”

Daphne thrust her chin up. “Who are you? Both of you.”

A moan suddenly came from behind her. Tim was gaining consciousness. She whirled around and crouched down.

“Tim? Tim, are you okay?”

“It hurts so bad,” he muttered through a thick lip. When he lifted his head, she doubted that he could see out of his eyes. They were swollen shut. Her heart went out to him. Even though she’d been so mad at him, she couldn’t stand seeing him in pain.

“Daphne?” Tim mumbled.

She touched his hand, stroked it. “I’m here, Tim. I’ll take care of you.” How, she had no idea. There were two injured, unconscious men on the floor, and she didn’t know if she could trust Pearce and his friend.

“Daphne,” Pearce said softly, and she turned her head. “We can help him with the pain.”

Hesitantly, she rose and took a step toward Pearce, but several feet still separated them. “How?”

Pearce motioned her to come closer, then pointed to Tim and then his ear and shook his head. He didn’t want Tim to hear what he had to say?

Curious, she approached him. “Talk.”

Pearce spoke in hushed tones. “You saw correctly. Ryder, my friend, is a vampire. But he’s not violent.”

She pointed to Ryder and said in equally hushed tones, “Hah! He sucked Vasili’s blood!” She’d seen it with her own eyes.

“I know. But he had to. Vasili shot him, and Ryder needed to heal. But Vasili is alive. He didn’t suck him dry. You have my word.”

Yeah, and what was his word worth?

He seemed to guess what she was thinking. “I know you don’t trust me right now. But for your brother’s sake, please let Ryder give him a little bit of vampire blood. It will take away the pain and speed up the healing process. He’ll be good as new in twenty-four hours.”

Was he completely mad? “You want my brother to drink vampire blood? Are you fucking nuts? Don’t you know anything about vampires?” Well, or about the lore, the legends, the fiction.

Pearce smirked. “Actually, given that I share a house with two vampires, I know quite a lot. And whatever you’ve heard, it’s wrong. The blood won’t turn your brother. It will heal him.”

She cast a look over her shoulder and looked at the sad state Tim was in. He moaned and shifted as if he was trying to shake off the pain. Tears shot to her eyes. She wished she had another choice. But she didn’t.