“Oh, interesting,” Dizzy murmured. “That other vampire must have an addiction to Reagan’s blood. Usually it’s the human that develops the addiction.”
“It was probably on the younger side when it met her,” Callie whispered. “She made an impression and obviously didn’t kill it when she should have.”
“How’d she manage to get away, though?” Dizzy asked. “It didn’t seem to know she was here. Any vampire worth his salt wouldn’t have lost sight of her.”
“Youth.” Callie said it like Dizzy was dense. “Younger vampires don’t know their ass from their heads, you know that. That’s why their makers govern them well past their middle years. She still should’ve killed him, though. On the sly, obviously, so she wouldn’t have the maker breathing down her neck. Now it’ll just cause problems. It obviously can’t control itself—look at him. No self-preservation. Darius will rip him apart.”
“Probably for the best, though,” Dizzy replied.
Penny stared with rapt attention, never having seen this side of vampires before. The way Darius had shrugged off his humanity, bent over now with hands fully changed, suggested he was ready to rip that other vampire’s head from its shoulders. It was like two bucks fighting for the right to mate a female.
“Darius will not rip that vampire apart,” Reagan said through clenched teeth. “Starch, walk away,” she called. “He’s my bond mate. You have no claim here.”
“I tasted you first…” the other vampire said, sensuality and desire dripping from each word.
Clearly that had been the wrong thing to say.
“Oh shit,” Emery said.
As though he’d been held back by a rope that was suddenly cut, Darius rushed forward. He slammed into Reagan’s air wall and started slashing, sending sparks shooting out in all directions. Reagan tensed, and Cahal stalked forward to join her.
“Yes, I fucking know that, Cahal,” Reagan said, replying to his thought comment, and another wave of her magic bolstered the first. The other vampire surged forward as well, hitting the other side of that wall and trying to get to Darius. They were mindless in their territorialism, and the magic curling away from them reminded Penny of shifters. It seemed a strange kind of mating dance, heady and volatile, fused with passion and need. A claiming.
“Darius, you have to shrug this off,” Reagan said, but he slashed at her magic again, nearly breaking through before she could amp up her wall. “Emery, Penny, help. He can’t get to that other vampire, or he’ll owe Ja for finding him and bringing him here. We cannot let her have the upper hand.”
Magic curled from Emery immediately, forming a sort of diversion spell. Penny jumped in at once, though she wondered if it might be better to just knock Darius out and drag him away. It would be easier.
“Well, how about I just go kill that other vampire?” Dizzy asked, dead serious. “Then it wouldn’t be on you two. Because honestly, Reagan, it has to be done. This will clearly always be a problem. You should’ve known that.”
“He was shipped off to Europe,” she replied. “His maker moved, and he went with. I never thought I’d see him again. Fucking Ja just had to stick her big nose in. You can’t touch him, though, because she’ll still consider it a win. He needs to be sent away.”
“Agreed,” Callie said, opening the satchel slung across her chest as she marched in a half-circle to get around the wall. “We can’t kill him now. We’ll have to send him away, and then someone will have to track him down on their own later and kill him.”
“Good point, hon.” Dizzy joined his wife.
“This is so insane,” Penny said, working with Emery’s spell, uncomfortable with her reaction to this development. In the past she would’ve been scandalized. But now, she couldn’t deny feeling a thread of excitement at the intense magic wafting off Darius. It pounded with his claim on Reagan, his aching need to protect her against this rival threat. The desire to lay down his life to prove he was worthy of her. It was sexy in a crazy way, and that horrible demon sex club really had changed her for the worst.
“Here we go,” Dizzy said as he and Callie worked some plants and then blew some power into them, speaking a spell to life. They weren’t natural mages and so needed props and often words to cast their magic.
Emery sent his and Penny’s spell forward, layering it over Reagan’s. It molted into a sparkling brown-black layer, cutting off Darius’s sight and hopefully redirecting his focus.
“Come on, baby,” Reagan said softly, still through gritted teeth, walking closer but keeping some distance. “Fire up that big brain and think this through. This isn’t the time. You can’t let Ja have this over your head.”
“Got him!” Dizzy yelled triumphantly, as though reeling in a fish.