The Kingmakers(63)

Sanah stood staring after them, having a hard time comprehending the vampire's actions.

The creature had saved Adele with no thought of his own safety. From the blood trail he left, his wounds were grievous, more than capable of killing him. Sanah swayed on her feet and leaned against a wall to steady herself.

The implication was astounding. Mamoru was wrong! This creature did love Adele, enough to risk his life for her.

Even as Sanah tried to comfort the wounded and stunned, she couldn't shake the image of Greyfriar throwing himself on Adele.

A vampire saving a human.

A man saving the woman he loved.

This changed everything.





THE ROOM WAS dark and quiet. Adele was hesitant to disturb the silence. Her head pounded. The powerful explosion had only been a few hours past, but the pain wasn't bad enough to stop her from what she needed to do. Despite the darkness, she moved unerringly through the room and placed a tray on a table at the far wall. A dim shape shifted on the bed next to her and a pale face turned toward her.

“I didn't mean to wake you,” she said softly.

“Don't be foolish. Did you have any trouble getting what you need?”

She laid a hand on his shoulder and kissed him. “No. The good thing about being an empress is people don't ask too many questions.” She turned up the lamps and winced at the sight of Gareth's back still riddled with shrapnel. She had cut away the ruin of his clothes with scissors, but more delicate surgical instruments were needed to extract the vicious shards.

Gareth raised himself up. “You know you won't hurt me. You let me feed, so I'm already stronger. The remaining ministrations are simple.”

“Easy for you to say.” Adele took a deep breath. “I've done it before, I can do it again. Lie flat, please.”

Blood oozed slowly from some of his wounds, staining the sheet below him a dark red. If it weren't for his bravery she would be dead along with many others. How many times now had he thrown himself on the pyre to protect her? How long before his luck ran out? She didn't want to think about it and focused instead on the task ahead of her.

His back was bare and raw. After sterilizing the tweezers, she went to work on a small piece of metal shrapnel protruding from his back. She pulled hard at the shrapnel but it resisted, which meant it was wedged in deep. Her gut knotted at the thought, but she had no recourse but to take the scalpel and cut around the shrapnel. Mercifully, he never flinched. Then she leaned over and gripped the metal more firmly. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be,” was his swift response. “Scars just add to the mystique.”

“We both have far more than we need. My new goal is for us to go at least six months without an injury.”

He laughed quietly. “That's far too optimistic.”

“Three?”

“Two.”

“I'd be happy even with one,” she admitted softly. She moved into a better position over him and pulled, ignoring her own aches and pains as she wrestled with the jagged metal. A nasty five-inch fragment of steel came free of his muscle with a spurt of blood. Adele gasped at the size of the shrapnel as her stomach rolled.

“Easy. You did fine. It didn't hurt,” he reassured her.

“I know,” she panted, breathing harshly through her nose to stem the nausea. She dropped the shard into a metal tray with a loud clank. No matter how many times she mended him, it never seemed to get easier for her, even though he felt no pain. She was terrified that perhaps someday she would be as blasé about it as he was. Adele never wanted that to happen.

“Then breathe deeply, slowly.”

“Just keep talking to me. How did you know that man was carrying a bomb?”

“I could smell it.”

“You know about explosives?”

“My time spent on the front has burned the smell of explosives into my memory. The bomber did not expect that. But his kind are not skilled assassins.”

“His kind?” Adele tweezed out another fragment, this one smaller and easier to extract.

“I suspect the man was Undead.”

Shock burned through her, pausing her hand. Gareth had told her about the human cult of the north. The thought of them chilled her to the bone. Adele instead concentrated on removing more shrapnel. She had only another three dozen pieces to pull out. “Undead. In my city.”

“It raises the question as to how they got here,” Gareth remarked. “They need transportation. Someone had to ferry them here. And a ragged bloodman airship couldn't possibly slip through unnoticed.”

“Meaning a human conspirator.”

“We know they exist.”

A scowl marred Adele's face. “And where there was one, there are more.”