NocC 016 - Laura Kaye - Vampire Warrior Kings 02 - Seduced by the Vampire King - Harlequin 2012-06 Read Online Free Page B

were hardly any old blue.
“Bright, like a sapphire,” he continued.
Kate sucked in a breath to respond. A hand clamped over her mouth. Another grabbed her wrist. Her finger squeezed and a single gunshot rang out into the night.
“Get him!” a male voice ordered. Commotion erupted around her. Growling. Cursing. Barked commands and replies.
Her own muffled screams added to the fray. “No! No! Don’t hurt him!” Fighting the hold that wrapped around her, she kicked and flailed and squirmed to get free.
“Clear!” someone called. “Oh, shit, Mikhail. It’s bad.”
Kate’s body screamed at the separation from her vampire. The palm of her hand burst into pins and needles. Her throat went tight and dry. She had to get to him.
He was hers. Hers!
“Damnit, Leo! Get control of her. I hear sirens,” a voice demanded.
“Stop fighting. Damn it. Be still, human.”
She slammed to the ground and the weight of a knee fell on her chest. Big hands pinned her arms to her sides. Barely able to breathe and her eyesight blurred from the blow to her head, Kate went limp.
A harsh masculine face appeared right before her, his gray eyes— good-guy eyes —boring into hers. “Calm. Sleep. Now,” he intoned.
Her mind went foggy. Darkness closed in around her.
Deep sorrow surrounded her. She’d lost him. She’d failed. That old feeling of foreboding and looming tragedy returned.
And that was the last she knew.
*

Nikolai floated on the edge of consciousness, not wanting to wake from the dream. In it, he was no longer alone, but had a mate who walked at his side. He didn’t know what she looked like, but the sound of her voice, the smell of her skin, the taste of her blood. Those he could never forget.
Sated by the sacred crimson nectar that flowed from her veins, Nikolai covered her body with his. Entered her. Howled his masculine satisfaction. Moving in her was a revelation of ecstasy and belonging. She clutched at his shoulders and murmured in his ear, You’re gonna be all right. You’re gonna be all right .
His angel, always taking care of him.
“My lord? Wake up. You are safe,” came a deep, familiar voice.
He didn’t want to leave her, to leave that place where he wasn’t alone.
“Come on now. Wake up.”
Nikolai surfaced as if he’d been trapped under water for days. Brain sluggish, eyes bleary, mouth full of cotton. He gasped and choked as he tried to make use of his thick tongue.
“Nikolai?” Mikhail’s voice sounded as if from a distance.
In the dim light of the room, Nikolai struggled to make sense of the shapes around him. Slowly, too damn slowly , his eyes regained the ability to focus.
Elbows braced on his knees, Mikhail sat in a chair by the side of his bed. Or, a bed, anyway. White walls and blankets. This wasn’t his room. The infirmary, and not the one in their city headquarters. They’d brought him to Vasilievskoe, his ancestral estate about an hour outside Moscow.
In that moment, as their gazes met, his friend’s brown eyes looked as ancient as he actually was. His head sagged on his shoulders and he clasped his hands where they hung between his knees. “I want to kill you.”
Nikolai chuffed out a breath. “Mishka,” he said, infusing an apology into his friend’s nickname.
“Don’t Mishka me.”
He deserved the other man’s anger. What could he say? “I’m sorry.”
Mikhail cursed and shoved out of his seat, the chair screeching against the tile floor. He paced and muttered under his breath. The other man still wore his fighting gear from the night before, twisting Nikolai’s gut with guilt.
“How long have I been out?” Nikolai managed to say, pushing himself into a sitting position with a groan. The movement made him aware that IVs were attached to the crooks of both arms. And, damn, but everything hurt.
“It’s early afternoon. About ten hours.” Mikhail whirled on him. “Ten goddamn hours I didn’t know if my king, my friend, would die or live to see another night.”
He winced