Tomas and Breandan rolled around in the grass like two fools, but two fools with dangerous weapons. Breandan straddled Tomas, a shard of wood in his hand. The tendons on his arm and neck were bulging, and the deadly point of the wood was a mere jerk away from spearing Tomas in the chest. My vampire-boy was on red alert. He looked menacing with his fangs fully on display and his eyes glazed black; nostril's flared. Snarling up a storm his mouth snapped for Breandan's neck.
I grabbed my jumper off the floor and dropped through the hole. As I landed my already abused ankle twisted, and I dropped like a stone. Why it had not healed?
My emotions were wide open, and wildness seeped from Breandan's nature to mine. It rubbed me up the wrong way, and I found myself unable to stop the fight, because I was battling the more carnal of my urges. It was telling me a threat, a vampire was close and to attack. The conflicting feelings of hate and lust I felt for Tomas had my stomach in knots.
"Calm down," I said through my teeth, and staggered up. "Breandan, look at me."
He didn't look, but his ears twitched and I knew he was listening. First I was going to try and talk him out of trying to stake my vampire then I was going to tear him apart.
I could hear voices around the corner. The noise of them busting through a brick wall had been loud and messy. We had woken the building up and it was only a matter of time before confusion made way for ruthless order. Three floors up there was a ragged hole in the side of my building leading into my room. There was no way I'd even be able to hide it. It had demon stamped all over it. The Clerics were going to piece it all together, and that would be it for me. The Clerics would come and find us. In fact, Lord Cleric Tu was probably up there with the body of his dead partner. He would know it was me in the forest. He would know somehow I had gotten demons past the Wall, and into the Temple. All of this passed through my mind in less than the time it took me to glance up at the hole then glare at Breandan, since he was still on Tomas like white on rice.
He turned his head to look at me, and his expression was wary. Damn right it should be. I was beyond pissed.
"I should have known," he said to me. "I smelt him on you, but I thought I was wrong." I was going to have to start taking many more showers if it was that easy to figure out who'd I'd been with by a lingering smell. His eyes roamed the space, for he could hear the voices too then came back to Tomas. "You are mine, not a dead things snack," he hissed.
He hadn't seen the kiss. He thought Tomas was about to bite me. Well, I didn't know if I should tell him he had it all wrong, or to leave it alone. Correcting him would bring up questions as to why I was pressed up against the wall with the vampire-boy all in my space with his fangs out.
Tomas didn't say anything. He watched me. His gaze felt heavy and as I looked into his eyes I whispered, "I want him alive." Breandan made a short noise of impatience and I raised my voice. "Get off him. Now."
"I do not know what he has done to make you feel like you have to help him, but you must see he is-"
"You killed her!"
I spun round at the anguished yell.
Cleric Tu was red in the face and it looked like he had been crying. He clutched a metal rod in his hand. I remembered the drained body of the Lady Cleric and wondered how close they had been. Had Tomas killed his love?
Breandan slid off Tomas and hauled him up with one arm, moving so fast they both blurred. Tomas and Breandan stared at each other, not a foot away. Tomas looked pointedly at Tu and Breandan shook his head.
"We have no choice," Tomas said curtly. "He's seen her."
My head swung between them, trying to figure it out what they were discussing. What choice was there to make?
Cleric Tu lunged at Breandan. Tomas was suddenly beside me, snarling. Eyes pitch black and fanged face scary as death, but he wasn't the reason fear gripped me hard and had the breath whooshing from my lungs. Breandan was losing. How such a thing was possible was beyond my comprehension, but his movement was slow and his reactions sluggish. Each time the pole came near him he shied away. Tu lunged forward again, thrusting with the rod at Breandan's torso. Instead of a thump to the stomach the pole kept going, slicing through flesh, and burying itself in Breandan's stomach. Silence. Tu let go of the pole and staggered back, face slack with shock.
