Pain seared across Vicky’s back as something embedded deep in her shoulder and twisted there. Bone and muscle tore; hot blood ran down her flesh and soaked her sweater to her skin. So surprised by the sudden attack, she didn’t have time to react before the door thumped shut and a heavy body hit her solidly in the back, bringing her down beneath it.

She fell on top of her coat, trapping her weapons beneath her. Before she could regain her feet, a knee shoved into her spine, pinning her to the floor at the same time her attacker jerked her right arm back and, placing their knee on it, yanked it back to snap it at the elbow.

Vicky’s teeth sank into her lip, drawing blood as she suppressed a scream of agony. Shards of pain lanced through her arm as it fell limply beside her. It seemed the appendage didn’t even belong to her as she stared at her numb fingers, willing them to move, but there was no life in them.

“Hello, whore,” a male voice hissed in her ear.

Anger surged forth to replace her shock. She briefly wondered if it was the man from downstairs, but he couldn’t have recovered enough to come after her already. She had no idea what was going on, but this prick had stabbed her, and she’d make him pay for that. It didn’t smell like a Savage perched on her back, but she sensed something more than human.

Judging by the way he positioned himself with his left knee in her back and his right one on the floor by her head, it was his left hand twisting the weapon deeper. Which meant he could have another weapon in his right hand, positioned over her heart. And she’d bet money he’d stabbed her with a stake.

“Where is he?” the man demanded.

“Who?” she asked.

“Don’t play dumb with me, you bloodsucking leech.”

Well, that confirmed her growing suspicion he knew what he was dealing with when it came to her. Was he a hunter? And if he was, then why would he risk the truce by attacking a vampire?

“Were you talking to him on the phone?” the man asked.

Vicky glanced at where her phone had skittered across the room to lay ten feet away from her.

“Were you talking to Nathan?”

Hatred choked his voice when he spat out Nathan’s name and twisted the stake further into her shoulder blade. Bits of wood broke off inside her when the tip tore through sinew and bone; she could feel them burrowing deeper into her body. Vicky gritted her teeth and laughed bitterly.

“I’ve been tortured by far worse than you, you prick!” she spat.

The man didn’t respond as he twisted the stake until she felt his hand against her back and the tip of the stake scraped her collarbone. Vicky laughed again, hoping to bait him into making a mistake and not into staking her through the heart.

“I’ve seen him with you. Are you fucking him? Has he sunk so low as to stick it in something as repugnant as you?”

“We’re not having sex,” she replied, “but I have sucked his dick a time or two.”

The sharp inhalation of his breath followed a subtle shifting on her back. He intended to kill her, no matter what; she had to make a move. Her broken arm had healed enough that needles of returning feeling stabbed her fingertips.

But what move should she make? If she tried to get her legs beneath her, he would feel it and counteract her movement.

“Is he coming here?” the man demanded.

“He’s come here many times.”

“You’re—”

Before the man could spew more degradation at her, Vicky spun underneath him and swung her broken right arm up. Her arm hung at an awkward angle, she barely had any control over it, but she knocked him to the side when she bashed him in the head with her floppy forearm. Stars burst before her eyes as the motion rebroke her arm and her fingers went numb again.

Can’t stop. Keep moving.

He’d hammered the stake deep enough into her shoulder that her weight on it didn’t push it in any further, but he’d hit a nerve or something that made her left arm more useless than her broken one. Planting her feet on the floor, she propelled her hips up, knocking him further off balance. Unable to use her hands, she shoved her hips up again. When the motion rocked him forward, she swung her head up and bashed her forehead off his nose.

His blood burst over them both. The potent scent of it caused her fangs to lengthen. She’d fed before going to meet Duncan tonight, but there was power in this blood, and her survival instinct screamed at her to tear his throat out and end this.

I will not kill again! Not unless it becomes necessary! She could get out of this without murdering another, but she would end him if she had to.

Rolling her hips, she tried to knock him free as he pulled his arm back and punched her in the face. She didn’t cry out when her nose broke with a crunch and the world spun. No, it would take far more than that to make her scream.

Lifting her crooked arm, she threw it at his head again before jerking herself to the side. She finally managed to knock him off and staggered to her feet. When the man leapt up and spun toward her, Vicky delivered a high sidekick to his chin that snapped his head back. Before he could recover, she turned and slammed her other foot into his chest.

Blood sprayed from his mouth, and his breath erupted from him in a whoosh as he flew five feet back and into the kitchen. He smashed into the wall, forming a perfect man-sized dent in it. Plaster rained down, and for a few seconds, he remained three feet off the ground before falling.

Without her arms to help balance her, the force of the kick staggered her into the wall behind her as the apartment door flew open. The impact of the door bashing off the wall caused the single lightbulb to sway back and forth over the garish blood splattered across the carpet.

Nathan loomed in the doorway; the veins in his forearms stood starkly out as his gaze flew around the room before settling on her. She found herself gazing at a man on the verge of losing all control.

Her adrenaline waning, Vicky slid to the floor, and her head bowed as exhaustion swept her. Her hands fell uselessly beside her. Her broken arm remained turned at an awkward angle, the hand twisted grotesquely away.

Before her imprisonment, such a spectacle would have had her screaming her head off and probably thrown her into a state of shock. Vampire or not, she didn’t like gross things, and she definitely didn’t like it if parts of her were disgusting. Her arm was nasty, but not the worst thing she’d ever seen.

Nathan closed the door and rushed over to her. His knees smacked off the floor when he went down beside her. Grasping her chin, he lifted her head to study her swollen nose and the blood trickling from it. The black bruise spreading across the bridge of her nose and encircling her eyes gave her a raccoon appearance. More dried blood flaked off her lips and cheeks.

The killing rage suffusing him caused his hand to tremble on her. If they were still alive, he’d destroy whoever did this to her. The red of her eyes faded to become their beautiful emerald color again when she met his gaze.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, torn between destroying something and pulling her into his arms to cradle her there for the rest of his days.

“Yes,” she said, her voice distorted by her swollen lips.

Someone had punched her in the face. “Fuck,” Nathan snarled.

Turning, he hunched protectively in front of her as his gaze went to the unconscious man in the kitchen. Nathan’s breath hissed in when he recognized the man. He had no idea if Jordan was alive or not, but Nathan hoped he was. No matter what happened, Nathan would make him pay for this.

“He was in the apartment when I entered, or at least I think he was, it all happened so fast,” Vicky said, her voice slurred. “I think he’s a hunter.”

“He is.” Nathan rose to his feet.

“He said he'd seen us together.” She wished her arm would heal so she could wipe the blood off her face, out of her mouth, and she could tear out the stake. “He hates you and, of course, me.”

Nathan stalked over to his supply of weapons. Lifting the lid on the trunk, he pulled out two sets of the zip tie handcuffs stashed inside. Nathan strode over to Jordan and knelt in front of him. Before he could check for a pulse, Jordan groaned and his eyes fluttered behind his closed lids. Remorselessly, Nathan shoved Jordan over until he lay prone on the ground. He yanked Jordan’s arms behind his back and tied them there before securing his ankles together.

When he shoved Jordan back against the wall, he studied the man. His swollen nose twisted to the side. Dried blood caked his face, the front of his shirt, and some of it streaked his brown hair. Fresh blood continued to trickle from his nostrils.

Vicky had done a number on him, but he knew she’d held back. If she beat Jordan into this condition, then she could have killed him.

“You should have killed him,” he stated.

“I won’t kill again if I don’t have to,” she replied.

He rested his fingers on the floor as he turned to look at her. “When it comes to your safety, your life, you must do whatever is necessary to survive, Victoria,” he said.

“I know that, but it wasn’t necessary, yet. Besides, would you have understood it if I killed one of your men?”

“If it meant you or him, if it meant keeping you in my life, then yes, I would be fine with you killing him. I always will be.”

His words astonished her more than that bastard’s attack had. Trying to maneuver herself into a better position, she used her feet to push herself up the wall and winced when the motion shifted the stake.

Rising, Nathan stalked back to Vicky and knelt beside her again. “Easy,” he murmured as he touched her cheek. “This never should have happened to you. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault, but I think you might have some dissension in the ranks,” she muttered.

“There has been since I agreed to the alliance.” He placed his hand gently on her shoulder. “But I never expected anything like this. Lean forward so I can take a look.”

Vicky kept her eyes on her attacker as she did what Nathan instructed. “Maybe he’s a lone wolf.”

Nathan’s teeth clamped together when he saw how deep the stake was embedded into her. It took a few moments for him to compose himself enough to speak again. “Perhaps,” he muttered, more concerned with her than hunter politics. Lowering his head, he kissed her temple. “The stake has to come out.”

“I know.”

“It’s going to hurt when I remove it.”

“I can take it.”

Nathan nestled her head against the hollow of his shoulder as he steadied himself. She could take it, but he loathed inflicting further pain on her. Her breath warmed his throat when she kissed him tenderly.

“Go on,” she murmured. “I won’t heal until it’s out, and I’d like to be able to use at least one of my hands again sometime soon.”

Leaning back, he glanced at where her other arm hung awkwardly at her side. The palm of her hand was turned up, her fingers curled in, but there was no movement in them. “What—”

“It’s broken; it will heal soon. Please, just get that thing out of me.”

Nathan resisted climbing to his feet and going over to beat Jordan into a bloody, lifeless pulp. She’d come so close to being killed tonight and by one of his own.

Nathan had no idea what he would do, but he had to figure out a way to keep Vicky in his life.

But that was something for him to figure out later; now, he had to help her.

“I’ll do it as quick as possible,” he promised.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him.

His fingers gripped the inch of stake still protruding from her body. Unable to get a good enough grip on it to yank it out, he had to twist it to maneuver it out of her. He felt it scratching her bone, but she didn’t make a sound as she kept her mouth against his neck. When it was a few inches out, he was finally able to pull it free. A small grunt, followed by a sigh, were the only sounds she made throughout it all.

“Are you okay?” he demanded as he tenderly clasped her face.

“I’m fine. That was nothing, believe me.”

“Vicky—”

“I’ve experienced far worse, Nathan.”

“Never again,” he grated through his teeth. “Never again.”

“You can’t promise that; our lives are too dangerous.”

“Maybe not, but I can promise I will do everything in my power to protect you.”

Tears burned her eyes. “You shouldn’t say such things.”

He brushed a straggling strand of hair away from her face. “It’s the truth.”

She didn’t have the strength to argue with him, and neither of them needed a reminder of his looming engagement.

Lowering his head, he kissed her lips, careful not to apply too much pressure. “You could have been killed.”

“Not the first time, and probably won’t be the last.”

Nathan couldn’t stop the involuntary snarl her words tore from him. She was his to protect, and someone had brutalized her again. The possessive feeling ripping through him rocked him back on his heels as an unfamiliar emotion swelled within him. Not only did this woman continually astonish and excite him, but she’d dug her way into his heart until all he wanted was to hold her and keep her from experiencing any more atrocities.

He’d failed her in that today.

“I kicked his ass with two useless arms,” she said with a smile, hoping to distract Nathan from whatever had hardened his face into something murderous. However, her words only caused a vein to throb to life in the center of his forehead and his lips to whiten when he clamped them together.

“Jordan will pay for doing this to you,” he vowed.

Vicky barely recognized his guttural voice. Then, over his shoulder, she saw movement.

“Nathan, he’s waking,” she said.