Page 19 of His Mate By Vengeance

That explained a lot. Kyan loved a good warehouse killing and one of his powers was the ability to drop people into unconsciousness. Vin wouldn’t usually have succumbed, but the head trauma on top of the flashbang when he’d still been healing from his earlier concussion had obviously left him susceptible.

Vin blinked his eyes open and tried to make them focus. As he’d thought, he was hanging from the ceiling, his feet about a foot off the floor. It was just enough height to put him around eye level with Kyan if the bastard ever emerged from behind him. Sometimes it really sucked being short.

“It’s been too long, Sugar. Would you mind scratching my balls? I can’t reach,” Vin said.

Kyan’s response was to whip a vicious cane to his back. Vin jerked against the hooks despite himself and gritted his teeth to avoid making a noise as the move pulled at the wounds in his shoulders and white-hot pain flared everywhere.

“I know what you’re like, Vin. I won’t be letting you lure me in with that sexy voice of yours,” Kyan chided.

Vin breathed deep through his nose and focussed on everything that wasn’t the agony of his body. If he was getting out of this, he needed a plan. He could make out three other slow heartbeats besides Kyan’s, all vampires. If he could get rid of the coven leader, he might have a chance.

“Anyone else want to lend a hand?” Vin asked, letting his power sink into his words.

It was worth a shot. If he could get one of Kyan’s guards to touch him, or even just look in his eyes, he might be able to use his own power to charm them into helping him. Or he could use his unique venom to paralyse them. Most vampires had a few different venoms they could secrete through their fangs—to numb, cause pleasure or cause pain. Age had given his an extra kick when he needed it. But that wouldn’t help if he couldn’t get his teeth locked into their flesh.

Five more brutal hits to his spine followed, and the scent of his own blood filled the air. He could sense the bloodlust building in the gathered vampires, which was actually a strike of luck. If such a small amount of blood was tempting them, they must be relatively young.

“They won’t succumb to you because I won’t let them, Vin. I’ll be the one to silence that wicked tongue and they’ll spread the story. I’d say it’s nothing personal, but you’ve been a pain in my ass for decades. My people think I was curtailing my business because of your silent threats. That is not acceptable. I’m going to make an example of you, so everyone knowsno onecontrols me,” Kyan hissed.

What Vin should do was try to sweet-talk Kyan, convince him it would be more manly to let him down from the hooks and kill him unrestrained. Unfortunately, what came out of his mouth was, “Shit, Sugar. You should’ve said something if your ass was sore. I could’ve used more lube.”

Consciousness faded in and out as Kyan beat at him in response, raining down blows on every part of his body,especially the part he’d suggested Kyan was intimate with. Apparently, the coven leader was a little sensitive to the suggestion he took dick from anyone. Who knew? Whipping someone with a cane was a pretty inefficient way to kill someone, especially a vampire given some of his earlier hits were already healing, but it would probably get ninety percent of the way there, given the strength of their kind. Pain was an old friend of Vin’s, though, so if Kyan thought he was going to be gifted with a single scream, he was sorely mistaken.

Vin’s hearing became a little fucked once Kyan turned that cane to his head, but at some point, the relentless impacts paused, and Vin could swear he’d heard an explosion nearby.

“Lars, report,” Kyan snapped.

Vin could see him talking into a phone with what was left of his peripheral vision. He hadn’t taken any direct hits to his eyes, but that was only by sheer luck. Regardless, the swelling of the rest of his face was making it difficult to see.

“Fucking hell. Do I have to do everything myself?” Kyan growled.

Kyan glanced over at Vin as if to see if he was any threat and he did his best to look defeated and unconscious. It wasn’t hard.

“One of you take over with the cane. Don’t let him heal or he’ll kill you,” Kyan said, shoving the damn stick at a guard before striding out of the room.

Vin let a smile stretch his lips, hidden by his hair hanging lank and bloody over his beaten face. Finally. A mistake. He could hear the three vampires arguing over who was going to take over. Each second of delay let him recover a little more. Hilariously, they were all trying to avoid him. They were smarter than they looked. Except if they werereallysmart, they’d have run already.

“You do it. Look at that creepy fucking tattoo on his chest. Who pays a witch to magic something like that on their body?It’s like he’s staring at me even with his eyes swollen shut,” one of the vampires muttered.

“Awww, Sugars. You’re making me feel unloved. Tell you what. Why don’t you put that cane down and you can all have at me with those muscular hands of yours? I love a good spanking.”

His power felt slippery and distant, but he was desperate enough to fight his weakness to shove it in their general direction, and they were young enough that it worked better than he had any right to hope.

“Fuck. Don’t do that. The boss will kill you,” one of the guys said, and Vin’s smile widened despite the pain in his face.

He had them.

“You gonna let him touch me while you stand and watch, Sugar? Too scared to join in?”

The next thing he knew, three pairs of rough hands were on him, and he threw his head back and laughed before growling a single word carried on every ounce of pain and anger he’d been enduring. “Obey!”

Usually, his charm wasn’t so effective. But the combination of his blood everywhere and his mental state was enough to gift him control of their three minds.

“Get me down and release me. Keep your hands on me at all times,” he said, so disgusted at their touch that he almost vomited as he grit his teeth against even more pain. There was no way he could maintain control of them if they let go, though.

When his broken body finally pulled free of the hooks that had pierced it, he thudded down to the concrete.Fucking hell. He really should’ve told them to be gentle. A moment later, the pressure on his wrists and ankles was gone and circulation started painfully returning to his extremities.

The hands of his captors continued to grip his body,digging into the bruises and abrasions in retaliation as they tried and failed to fight his compulsion. He couldn’t risk keeping them around any longer.

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