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Nightbred(41)



“What about me?” Sam walked up and planted herself in front of Lucan. “You want to teach me something, too?”

Chris didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She settled for cringing. “Sam, he didn’t mean it. He lost his temper.”

“At last, my lady arrives.” Lucan turned Chris loose and pushed her away. “Now we’ll each have a whore to plow, boy.”

Sam’s expression turned to from stone to ice. “Jamys, please take Chris back to the stronghold.”

“He can’t. I’ve banished Durand from my territory,” Lucan informed her. “He’s not taking the little slut any—” His head rocked back as Sam’s fist connected with his jaw, and the force of the punch made him stagger.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Sam demanded. “Jamys and Chris are our friends. You don’t banish him, and you don’t touch her. And who the fuck do you think you are, calling me a whore?”

Lucan rubbed the fading dark spot on his jaw as he eyed her and sneered. “I am your lord and master, my lady.”

“Oh, yeah?” She drew a gun and shot him. “Now you’re just beach trash.”

Chris couldn’t breathe until she watched Lucan pull the tranquilizer dart out of his chest before he toppled over. “Jesus, Sam.”

“Lord and master, my ass.” Her friend stood over her unconscious lover, aimed, and shot a second dart into his back. “Son of a bitch. If it wasn’t impossible for the Kyn to get smashed, I’d swear he was drunk.” She turned to Chris. “You feel like sharing?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s been acting so weird, ever since we got here.” As her friend’s eyes narrowed, Chris felt an irrational surge of guilt. “Listen, Sam, what Lucan said about—you’ve gotta know he was just talking off his head. He’s never even looked at me sideways. Or me at him. Ever.”

“Relax, sweetie. This isn’t on you.” Sam gave her shoulder an absent, awkward touch before she looked at Lucan again. “I don’t get it. I’ve seen him behave like a jackass before, and he never talks trash like that. When he’s angry, he’s an iceman. Wordy, sarcastic, and vicious, but an iceman.” She said to Jamys, “Is this one of the big secrets I don’t know about? Some kind of personality change Kyn males go through when there’s a full moon, or what?”

“The moon has no effect on us.” His dark eyes went to Lucan, too. “I have never seen him like this.”

Chris thought fast. “Could he have hit his head on something? Maybe that would have made him forget that he’s a decent guy that never acts like this.”

“Decency.” Lucan pushed himself up from the sand, looking as if he’d never been drugged. “You know nothing of that.” He regarded the three of them as he reached back and pulled the second dart out of his shoulder to examine it. “Poison. Pathetic.” With a contemptuous flick of his wrist he tossed it to the sand in front of Sam’s feet. “At least the whelp there had enough spine to wield a blade.”

“Oh, I was only trying to be nice.” Sam drew the nine-millimeter from her shoulder holster and pointed it at his face. “This one has copper rounds in the clip, lover. Would you like to find out just how much spine I have now?”

“You’ll suffer for this, you farthing bitch.” He abruptly turned on his heel and walked off.

The three of them stood in shocked silence, broken only by the sound of Lucan starting the Ferrari’s powerful engine before it roared off down the highway.

“Did he just threaten to make me suffer?” Sam’s voice sounded hollow.

“Yeah.” Chris couldn’t believe it, either. “Could he be immune to Alex’s tranquilizer, and we just didn’t know it?”

“That or maybe the cartridges are defective and he didn’t get a full dose.” Sam tucked the nine back inside her jacket. “Chris, until I say otherwise, don’t talk about what happened tonight to Burke or anyone else in the jardin.”

“Should I call Rafael and ask him to fly back tonight?” Chris knew that, as Lucan’s seneschal, Rafael was the only member of the jardin permitted to temporarily take charge if anything happened to the suzerain. Lucan also respected his second more than any other warrior who served him.

“Not yet. First I need to have a serious chat with Alex Keller.” Sam turned to Jamys. “Jamie, under the circumstances I think you’d better head back to North Carolina. Chris, will you give him a ride to the airport?”