Page 83 of Lucien

twenty-one

Lucien

Blood.Metallic,tangy,cinnamon-scentedblood, flooding his nostrils.

Luc’s mate was bleeding, and not for Luc’s pleasure…

That was the first fact that entered Luc’s consciousness as he came back into awareness.

Luc growled low, tugging his mate closer, enraged by the scream of pain his human let out at the movement. Why was his mate hurting? Why was he making those sounds at Luc’s touch?

Luc gentled his hands, rearranging their bodies so he was holding his mate close by an arm around his chest. That grip didn’t seem to hurt his mate, not the way grabbing his arm had.

Luc hadn’t meant to hurt him. Hewouldn’thurt him. He just needed Jamie near.

He was starting to remember things. Another vampire had tried to take his mate away for good. Another vampire had tried totakeJamie from him.

The next fact Luc became aware of was that he himself was injured.

He could feel his throat gaping open, its inner workings exposed to the air in a way that didn’t feel natural. In the far back of his mind—in the dark depths, where he was still capable of reasoning—he knew it was open enough that something in his spinal cord had possibly been severed, enough for him to have lost consciousness.

Luc could feel it healing, that itching feeling of his parts melding back together. He’d need to feed soon, to aid the process.

He was also getting his mate dirty, covering his lovely back with blood from his wound, but that couldn’t be helped. He needed his mate close.

Because the next fact…there were people all around them.Vampiresall around them.

Luc snarled, growling a warning at the closest figure. Threats everywhere. They were going to try to take his mate away from him.

Luc would tear them all apart before he let that happen.

His mate was meanwhile muttering nonsense words at him, craning his neck to try to look in Luc’s eyes from his restrained position. “Relax, monster. It’s just Danny.”

But names meant nothing to Luc. Not now. The only name that existed in his mind was Jamie’s. Anyone else approaching was just someone who could try to take his mate. Hisbleedingmate. That was the only thing that mattered.

Luc lifted his mate’s injured arm with one careful hand, trying to inspect the damage, growling louder when that awful whimper of pain came out again.

We’ll fix it, the other presence within him said. Luc set his mouth to the offensive wound, licking at it. He could fix it, yes.

No, no, the voice murmured.We’llfixit. He’s too fragile like this. Too breakable. He was willing to die. We willnotlet him die. We tried it your way, Lucien. Now we do it my way.

Luc pondered that while he lapped at his mate’s wound, vaguely aware of other, less important conversations around him.

“What is going on with him right now?”

“He’s clearly snapped, gone feral. Guess we’re putting down more than one today.”

Luc lifted his mouth from his mate’s arm, letting out a challenging roar at that. No vampire would be putting him down. Not while he had a mate to protect.

“Easy, monster,” Jamie soothed before turning his attention to the source of one of the voices. Luc didn’t like that as much—his mate’s focus on the intruders instead of him—so he rubbed his nose along Jamie’s chin, trying to get his attention back. “He’s notferal. He’s nothing like that creep who tried to chew on me.”

“Triedto?”

“He’s just feeling…overprotective.” Jamie was petting the arm Luc had banded around his chest. It felt nice. Luc would be rumbling a purr if there weren’t so many other people around.

“Overprotective for sure.” The smaller vampire who’d tried to approach earlier agreed. Luc knew he knew him—somewhere inside, he was aware he knew that smaller vampire quite well—but he couldn’t place his face at the moment. He didn’t care to; it wasn’t important. “It’s like he’s…regressed? He seems to be operating on instincts, and those instincts are to keep you safe. And, um, keep other vampires away. Including me and Roman.”

“Monster, it’s okay. They’re friends,” Jamie said.

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