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With nothing else to give to his mate, Andrew allowed him to take  a small drink of blood from his vein.

It was supposed to be small. Vlad latched onto him and seemed to suck back until Andrew was forced to push him off.

“I’m sorry,” Vlad said, wiping at his mouth and still panting like he’d never known rest in his life.

Andrew shook the dizziness of blood loss out of his eyes. “It’s all right. This is harder than I thought it would be.”

Vlad put his back to one of the trees, lifted his knees, and then rested his forehead against them. He groaned as though agreeing with him.

Andrew didn’t regret it, though. Vlad didn’t say he did, either.

Andrew hated having to do it, but they couldn’t stop moving.  Maybe he could transform into his wolf and Vlad could ride him the rest of the way? Andrew wouldn’t be able to run full speed with the added weight, but with only half the distance left to go, it might make the trip a lot faster than what it was right now.

Mind made up, Andrew pushed himself to his feet and gently put his hands under Vlad’s arms to pull him up. “Come on. We―”

He stopped at the sound of a twig snapping, and he shot his head

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up to look around.

Vlad weakly got back onto his feet. “You’re right. I’m just so―”

“Shh.” Andrew put his hand over Vlad’s mouth. In his shock over

the act, Vlad didn’t attempt to speak anymore.

He didn’t need to. Andrew saw it all over his face and in those red

eyes. What’s wrong? they said.

He wasn’t sure. That twig had snapped several yards, maybe even  a couple of acres, behind them.

Not necessarily a big deal when you were in the forest. All sorts  of animals could make noises like that.

The problem was, with the way the wind blew down on them, if it had been an animal coming from that direction, even at that distance,  Andrew should’ve been able to smell them.

He scented nothing.

“We need to go, right now,” Andrew said.

“What?”

He transformed so quickly that his borrowed clothing shredded.  As a grey wolf, he shook out was remained of the strips of cloth from his fur.

He looked up at Vlad, and then he bent down on his front paws just enough, hoping the other man understood the hint.

Thankfully he did, and Vlad climbed on just as Andrew shot off, running as though their lives depended on it. Which they did, he supposed.

No sooner had he really started running did the sounds of hyena-like laughter fill his ears. The vampires knew he was running, and they were giving chase.

Unlike Vlad, these vampires were trained warriors, and they would be able to keep up with his pace. Maybe even catch him.

No, don’t think that. Don’t think that. You’re almost home. James

will help us!

He just had to get close enough so that when he called his alpha

through their shared link, the other man would be able to hear him

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and send out help.

“Jesus Christ!”

Vlad’s shocked yell had Andrew looking over to the side, and the predatory smile on the lips of the big, red-eyed vampire was enough to make Andrew’s heart jump top.

Fuck. These guys were fast.

Just as the vampire guard reached out his hands for Vlad, Andrew quickly smacked into him, sending the vampire flying into a heavy pine tree.

He doubted that would stop the guy, unless Andrew had gotten lucky and the vamp had been staked on one of the branches.

He doubted he was going to get lucky.

He couldn’t smell them, but now that they were no longer focusing on stealth, with the loss of their surprise attack, he could hear them. They were still only hairs behind his tail, but now Andrew could make out the sounds of several pairs of heavy footsteps chasing him through the trees.

There were lots of them. So many. Holy God, it must’ve been the entire team of vampire guards from back at the house. If they caught  Andrew now, he wouldn’t be able to fight them off. They were going to kill him.

“My lord! Run ahead and I’ll flank his right!”

“Get men on his left! Box them in!”

“Don’t let him escape with the prince!”

They yelled instructions to each other as though Andrew wouldn’t  be able to understand what they were saying in his wolf form. Maybe  that was exactly what they thought.

It didn’t matter what they thought. Andrew wasn’t about to stop.  He’d let his legs fall off first. He was going to outrun them. Because  unless they were the suicidal ones, they wouldn’t chase him directly  onto the property of a pack of werewolves. He could see in the dark  just as well as they could. He just needed to―

“Andrew!”

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Vlad’s shout came too late for Andrew to react to it. It felt like a

wrecking ball had been swung into his gut, knocking the wind out of  him and launching him and Vlad into the trees pretty much the same  way Andrew had done it to that last vampire.

The tree was smaller than the last one at least, and it snapped  easily under his weight. Before Andrew could groggily get to his feet  and shake off all the twigs and pine needles and such, more weight  was pressing down onto him. Arms and hands, as strong as steel,  locked around his paws and neck. Large bodies climbed on top of his  back.

With a ferocious start, Andrew realized they were trying to put him down. He snarled and swiped at them. Bared his teeth and bit down on whatever got in the way of his teeth.

He flung himself around like a wild animal. Two of the vampires were thrown from his back. The rest clung to him and were as hard to scratch off as fleas. When he bit down on another vampire’s arm, two more came up and locked their hands over his jaws. The way they’d grabbed him forced his mouth open while preventing him from biting down on their fingers like he wanted without hurting himself.

Not that it already didn’t hurt to begin with. Jesus H. Christ! They were going to rip his jaws apart!

Andrew whined from the pain, unable to hold back the sound as he was forced down onto his side or else have his jaws ripped apart.

“No! Stop it!”

Vlad ran up to one of the guards holding onto Andrew and tried to pry them off. It was enough chaos that Andrew was able to briefly free his mouth and snap at the nearest leg of one of the guards before those fingers clamped down on his lips and jawbone again.

More of the guards came forward, and they needed three of them to stop Vlad’s thrashing and kicking.

Andrew snarled and tried to fight again as his mate was pulled away. He was kicked repeatedly in the stomach for that one. Again and again and again, until he had no air, his lungs wouldn’t work, and

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he vomited all over one of the guards still holding onto his mouth.

He backed away, cursing and shaking the puke from his arms and  jacket. The other vampires laughed at him, and Andrew was kicked  promptly in the face for having the nerve to soil the clothing of one of  his attackers.

Though his mouth was free once more, and he could’ve fought, he knew he should, Andrew just didn’t have the strength. His beating took it all out of him, and he was helpless to do anything but watch as  Vlad was dragged away, yelling and screaming.

Strips of leather were used to hog tie his paws together and to keep his long mouth shut. He could do little more than growl weakly at his attackers for what they were doing to him and his mate.

“Got him down easier than I thought we would.”

Easy?

“No, look. See the bits of blood on his fur, right here at the neck?”

They were crowding around him, examining him the way a group of children would examine an injured bird they’d found.

“Prince Vlad must’ve fed from him.”

“Disgusting.” One of the vampires spat near Andrew’s head.

“Who would want to drink from a werewolf?”

“Guess the prince didn’t want to run away with this thing after

all.”

Their voices were far away, and Andrew couldn’t listen to them any longer. He passed out to their banter and to the sound of Vlad’s angered yelling. All he could think about the entire time was how he’d failed.

* * * *

Boris liked slapping Vlad, because he knew Vlad hated it. Vlad would rather take a real punch, but Boris would slap him instead because he wanted Vlad to feel demeaned and little, like he was too

frail to take a man’s hit.

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Vlad was never allowed to retaliate on the simple reason that  Markus wanted the connection to Boris’s empire back in Russia, so he never did anything but stand there when Boris was in the mood to hit him.

This time, all things considered, when the sharp smack of that hand across his cheek registered in his mind, Vlad lost it.

He saw red. Literally, his vision turned to the color of blood as he roared and went on the attack.

If Vlad hadn’t been so goddamn angry, he might’ve found the shocked expression on Boris’s face to be funny. As it was, he just wanted to rip the man’s throat out and drink all of his blood.

Lord Dragunov was a warrior, however, and even though Vlad got the jump on him, even managed to push him down onto his back in the patchy grass and dirt and get a few hits in, Boris knocked Vlad off of him with ease.

Vlad had never seen Boris so enraged. He’d never seen the man’s face covered with blood before either. Had Vlad really done that?  Maybe he would get lucky and those long lines down the other man’s face would scar.

Then again, Boris might just enjoy having them if they made him look any more ferocious.

“You worthless little
 
shit,
 
” Boris sneered, his hand clamping down on Vlad’s throat, gripping tight. It felt like he was breathing through a straw. “You dare put your small, weak hands on me? You belong to me! You do as I tell you to do! You dare dishonor me by letting that wolf touch you?”

He kept going on and on about the dishonor that Vlad had placed on him by fornicating with Andrew, by running away with a werewolf, and by choosing such a creature over Boris’s noble form.

Vlad could barely hear him. Boris never let up on his grip, and soon all the blood that had rushed to Vlad’s head was not going back down again. His face became hot, and his ears started to ring until he couldn’t hear anything at all.

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Then the grip on his neck was removed, and his hot cheeks were slapped again and again, hard, until he was better able to pay attention to the man above him.

Boris grabbed him by his collar and actually shook him a little.  “You listen to me when I speak!”

Vlad coughed. “Who told you?”

For the second time since he’d known the other vampire, Boris’s face paled in shock, and then, for the first time, he punched Vlad in the head.

Vlad saw white sunlight behind his eyes. Boris hadn’t even hit him that hard, and Vlad didn’t think he would bruise, but the hard

knock of those knuckles against his skull almost made him pass out.

Boris got to his feet and paced, shaking his fists around as he  spoke in rapid Russian. Vlad didn’t know a lick of Russian, but he  didn’t doubt that the other man was just complaining, very loudly, to  himself about Vlad’s mistreatment of him.

Maybe the other man wouldn’t want to be joined to him after this.  Vlad might’ve felt happy about that if he wasn’t convinced that Boris would just want to kill Andrew if he couldn’t bring himself to be joined with Vlad.

His fears were confirmed when Boris signalled to one of the guards and made a cutting motion across his neck.

“No!” Vlad shot up and ran for the other guard to stop him as he pulled a knife from his boot. Andrew was just lying there! He was completely helpless, and they were going to kill him!

Boris stretched his arm out and snagged hold of Vlad before he could reach the guard. With the speed he was running at, he nearly knocked Boris back onto the ground, and the Russian lord grunted with the effort of keeping Vlad still.

Vlad hadn’t known he could be so strong, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and that guard was still moving toward Andrew with the knife in his hand.

“Stop! I command you to stop!”

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He didn’t listen, didn’t even stop to look back. They were obeying

Boris’s orders and no one else.

He did the only thing he could think of doing. He kissed Boris, full on the mouth, just the way Andrew had kissed him and Vlad liked.