If at all possible.
She took a step toward him as Caleb emerged from the servant’s quarter’s right behind her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he lifted her up and threw her to the floor. Braith’s vision became a shade of crimson as a bellow tore from him. He lunged forward, shoving through the guards closest to him as he felt the beast within take over and all his control slip away.
He was consumed with bloodlust as he jerked a man forward and seized the spear from him. Turning it in his grasp, he twisted it under his arm and plunged it into the vampire’s chest. Tearing it free, he drove it into the hearts of two more soldiers closing in on him.
Aria’s frightened cry drove him heedlessly onward. All he cared about was getting to her, and destroying anyone that had dared to touch her. He didn’t feel the spear that pierced his back and tore through his shoulder. He didn’t even know he’d been stabbed until the pointed tip shot out the other end.
He tore the spear free from himself as he spun on the two guards staring at him with huge, frightened eyes. He was about to cross that line again, about to completely relinquish himself to the darkness, and he didn’t care as he seized hold of them both. He killed the one quickly, almost mercifully, as he grabbed hold of him, slammed his fist through his ribcage and tore his heart out. The other was not so lucky as Braith spun him around and used him to deflect the four soldiers rushing at him. The man screamed and howled as he was pierced with multiple spears and arrows. He squirmed within Braith’s grasp but Braith felt no compunction over continuing to use the man as a shield as he battered his way through the crowd.
He lost sight of her as he was engulfed by soldiers. Something else pierced through his calf, driving him briefly to his left knee. Pain lanced through him, but he forced himself back to his feet as the guard he held heaved one final groan and went still in his grasp. Braith used his body to beat back two more soldiers as they lurched at him. He threw the flaccid body of the dead guard at three more of the king’s men and knocked them over.
The soldiers fell back; the crowd parted giving him a brief glimpse of Aria as she tussled against his brother’s hold. He grunted as another arrow tore through flesh and bone, ripped through sinew, and clipped part of his heart. Driven to his knees, Braith felt the rush of blood from the damaged organ as it seeped into his chest. It wasn’t a fatal blow, not at his age, not if he could feed soon, but it would weaken and slow him. The guards approached with far more confidence than they had before, and on top of his other wounds...
“No!” Aria’s scream was frenzied and raw with terror. “Don’t! Stop it, you’re killing him!”
Caleb was trying to grab her again when she savagely spun on him.
Chapter 12
Panic tore through Aria as she watched Braith go down on the marble floor. A scream of anguish ripped from her, she’d never seen so much blood. They were killing him, and he kept trying to get up and reach her. It was becoming devastatingly obvious that there were too many of them, he was simply outnumbered by the soldiers swarming him.
Caleb was grinning maliciously as he grabbed hold of her. Reacting on instinct and rushing adrenaline, she tried to drive her knee into his tender groin region again but he was better prepared this time. He slapped her fist away from its trajectory toward his face as she tried to change tactics. She lunged at him, throwing him a little off balance as she shoved her weight against him.
Every dirty trick her brother’s had taught her sprang to mind as she sought to free herself from him. Caleb was expecting her to go for his groin again, and she made a feigning attempt at it. His hands dropped, leaving his face, and her intended area of attack, exposed. Feeling like a crazed woman, she hooked her fingers and went straight for his eyes.
Caleb howled as she drove her fingers into his eye sockets. She tried not to think about what she felt beneath her fingers, she simply clawed as ferociously as she could until he threw his arms up and knocked her away from him. The jarring impact caused her arms to go numb as she stumbled backward. His hands flew to his face, she had not blinded him, but she’d injured him enough that blood pooled from his battered right eye. Aria was not fooled into thinking it would distract him for long.
She clasped both hands into a fist, and with the full force of her weight she twisted as she swung them upward. She caught him beneath his chin, and knocked his head back with a loud crack that gave her a spurt of satisfaction. Blood exploded from his mouth as he staggered back. It may ruin all of his plans, but he was going to kill her, she was certain of it now. Before this, he would have played with her and tormented her, but now if he got his hands on her again he was going to kill her in the vilest way possible.
She would just have to make sure that he didn’t catch her again.
Aria turned and darted away from him. Her heart hammered as she spotted Braith somehow finding the power to rise to his feet once more and take down two more guards. Pulling one of them forward, he yanked the vampires head back and sank his teeth deep into its neck. No, Aria moaned silently. No, no, no.
She may already be too late, she realized. She may have already lost him to the monster he could become.
She threw herself forward, rolling across the ground as she avoided the searching grasp of one of the guards. Grasping hold of a spear she staggered back to her feet as she ran for Braith; adrenaline and terror gave her a speed and strength she didn’t know she’d possessed until this moment. She didn’t know if it was the king’s blood, or her driving need to reach Braith, but all of her other injuries and her exhaustion was forgotten as a strength she never knew she could possess surged through her.
Toward the back of the room she spotted her brothers, Max, and Xavier. They had already been taken down; bloodied and beaten they were on their knees, surrounded by guards, close to the elongated tableful of the king’s horrible “guests.” Her chest constricted as she realized she was about to lose almost everyone she loved today.
Keegan raced around Braith, biting and snarling as he forced some of the guards back while dodging the weapons thrust at him. Braith tossed aside the guard as he rose to his feet and lurched toward her. A soldier, that had the misfortune of getting in his way, was easily disposed of as Braith broke his neck and tore out his heart. Aria heaved the spear at another guard, driving it deep into his chest. The man’s eyes bulged as he clutched at the wooden pole protruding from him.
She ripped the spear free as Braith went down again, an arrow protruding from his torso. She was dimly aware of the fact that the soldiers must have orders to take them alive; otherwise they would all be dead by now. Braith was powerful, the floor was littered with the soldiers he’d destroyed, but ultimately he was outnumbered. She was quick, she had caught Caleb off guard, but she was still human.