The Red Lily (Vampire Blood #2)(79)

She repeated her mantra, calling her soul to still.

Nikolai, Nikolai, Nikolai …

Her mind drifted as the pain grew too intense. Beyond the crowd, through the rising flames and the smoke clouding her vision, a tall figure barreled forward, his blond hair a streak of lightning as he knocked one person after another out of his way, zigzagging and pounding his way through. Her avenging angel stormed closer to the platform, the look of a malevolent demon come to collect his souls. Her mind floated into darkness, her voice dying among the smoke and flames but not before she whispered …

"Nikolai."





Chapter Twenty-Three

If rage had a name, it was Nikolai. He heard her screaming from the snowy fields sloping away from Dale's Peak. He blurred through town, following the cries of a mob and the crackling sound of fire and the smell of burning flesh. As he flashed into the town square, he saw in horror the maddening crowd watching his beloved Sienna burn alive. Her naked body exposed, her fair skin charring blacker with every second. He blurred through the horde, up to the platform, and leapt to the dais with his unsheathed dagger. In a blink, he'd cut her free, scooped her in his arms and bounded back to the platform. She cried out when he touched her burnt skin. Her head lolled to the side as she fell unconscious.



       
         
       
        

"Sienna. Sienna." He set her down and removed his coat, not noticing a soul but her until someone spoke.

"Who the bloody hell do you think you are?"

Nikolai stood slowly, white-knuckling the hilt of his dagger, and faced the man whose voice he recognized from when he was bound on the widow's floor. The man flinched at the expression Nikolai shot him.

"And who are you?" Nikolai asked with such dark gravity, the men behind him stepped backward. The Legionnaires had frozen, watching, none of whom he recognized.

"I-I am Lord Barker. This woman has been condemned as a-"

The lord's eyes went wide. His mouth fell open as he gurgled blood and tried to suck in air. A deep slit opened in his throat, staining his clean, white shirt and satin vest crimson before he crumpled to the ground. No one had seen Nikolai move. He was dangerous on any other day. But today, he was utterly lethal. He stood over Sienna like a dragon over his most precious treasure, daring any man to come close where he could devour them.

"Who am I?" Nikolai swept his cutting gaze over the crowd. "I am the devil himself. And if one of you even moves in her direction, you'll be dead before you can take a breath."

A Legionnaire reached for his sword. Within three seconds, Nikolai had cut the throats of every man on the platform, gutting the vampires from naval to sternum and nearly severing their heads as well. Before they had even fallen into mutilated heaps, Nikolai sheathed his dagger dripping with blood and lifted Sienna in his arms, gently wrapping his coat around her exposed torso.

He walked to the edge of the wooden steps, heaving deep breaths, his rage riding him hard, his voice razor-sharp. "Get out of my way."

The crowd scattered, mothers clinging to their children. Nikolai sped back the way he had come, taking the south road toward Hiddleston. As he passed Hanover Stables, a man stepped forward onto the road and waved. Nikolai stopped, his inner beast telling him to kill and maim some more. Make them all bleed.

He recognized the startled face of the stable owner, Bart, who held both hands up in surrender.

"Please, I mean you no harm. I heard what was happening today and refused to go to support such villainy." He cast a sorrowful gaze at Sienna. "This town is corrupt. I knew she was innocent."

"Yet you did nothing to stop it."

He twisted his beefy hands in his work apron with regret shadowing his face. "Wait. Please. For a moment. For her."

Bart disappeared into a workroom. Astrophel whickered from her stall directly across. Ramiel stared out at him. Nikolai had forgotten them entirely. The stable owner returned with a white wool blanket but beckoned Nikolai closer under the overhang. Bart flipped out the folded blanket and spread it wide on the dry hay. 

"Set her down and wrap her in this."

Nikolai did so, cringing when her brow furrowed with even the slightest brush against her right side, which was blackened and oozing from her burned feet all the way up her legs and ribcage to her shoulder. Her face bore a blade-length burn from cheek to chin. And the bite marks. Fucking hell. Nikolai's knuckles cracked as he balled his hands into fists.

He lifted her wrist and pierced her flesh, giving her his elixir. Though he could not heal this deep an injury, he could numb her pain. Her pinched brow smoothed as the elixir released into her bloodstream. He licked the wound so that it would seal shut.