Page 168 of Vampire's Choice

She’d paused, her mouth tightening. “I apologize. I know Ruth has given you her marks, but you aren’t a servant. You aren’t a vampire. I can’t command you. I can only ask. I know you’re an accomplished fighter. But it is your speed and your ability to fly that I need.”

“I will do as you ask.” He met her gaze. “I am here to be on your side. Because that is Ruth’s side.”

Lyssa had moved to face Pallas and his High Fae. Even if the males with her had the same magical power—and only Maddock came close, maybe—they were a fleet of sailboats facing down fighter jets.

Kane sucked in a breath. Waves of power were gathering, pulling oxygen from the air. Winds began to lash the trees and make the trunks sway.

“We are going to help them,” the young vampire ordered. He sounded exactly like his mother. Except he wasn’t.

He gave the boy cruel honesty. “You’re not strong enough, and you will get them killed by dividing their attention between the fight and protecting you.”

Anger flashed through Kane’s eyes, but so did pain. “They had me out in the yard by the time it happened, but I saw how valiantly they fought. I heard…I heard her cry out when he died. I want their deaths.”

“Elisa taught me how to sew a skirt hem,” Farida said softly. “I was working on the stitches, right before they attacked.”

Merc thought of how Elisa had put him to work in the kitchen. Curving her flour-dusted hand over his to show him how to pinch a pastry crust.

The tree shuddered and Merc increased his grip on them both. The battle had engaged. The clearing lit up like the Circus at the end of a performance, bolts of power, sparks, flashes of light. As he suspected, Maddock and Lady Lyssa held their own on the first barrage, but it wouldn’t last. Pallas and his supporters knew what their advantages were, and they weren’t in the mood to draw it out. They were employing their Fae magic liberally, making it difficult for the others to get into the action enough to make a difference.

Daegan was the exception. Whomever he fought had to engage with him directly, countering his swordplay with their own weaponry, as if he was immune to most of their magic.

Merc thought of what he’d heard about Daegan, whispers around the Circus. Some say he is Lucifer’s son. A fallen angel.

No, not a fallen angel. But if he possessed an angel’s blood…

He’d promised Lyssa to protect the children, but to his way of thinking, Kane and Farida would be far better off in the world if their parents were, too.

Ruth would concur.

“If you swear not to leave this tree, I will lend my aid,” he told Kane. “You must stay here and protect Farida.”

She was strong and tough, but she was also a young female vampire, very much at risk in this environment. This wasn’t the only Trad enclave in the area.

“I don’t need anyone’s protection,” Farida said, but when she clasped her hands together, they were visibly shaking.

Merc and Kane exchanged a look, and when Merc rose, pushing out of the tree to hover before them, Kane drew her to his side, the two of them settling in the crook of the branch. “It’s all right. I’m not going to let anything happen,” he told her.

Farida put her arms around him, her face against his neck. As Kane held her more tightly, her lids lifted to Merc, showing him her somber gaze.

She knew how to keep Kane out of the fight.

“Go,” Kane ordered. “Please.”

Merc shot away from them. He swooped into the clearing as Pallas was driving Lyssa back, trying to skewer her with showers of ice crystals. She was shielding, blocking, sending back spellwork to pull the ground from beneath his feet, calling rocks and branches to strike him, tangle him up. It would not be enough. He was pure High Fae, and her magic use, though a lot of raw power, didn’t have his centuries of honing and skill.

But certain kinds of raw power could prevail against centuries of polish. Which appealed to Merc, because he could imagine how irritating the Fae would find that.

There were reasons he and Ruth got along.

Maddock was trying to hold back five, and Mason was backing him up, doing what he could. He knew some basic protection spellwork, and his strength and speed were formidable. Six were currently engaging Daegan and his blade, Gideon also doing what little he could to assist, just as Jacob was with Lyssa.

Merc went for the head of the snake, barreling toward Pallas. His theory about why Daegan seemed unaffected by certain Fae magic was about to be tested. At this speed, the protection shield Pallas was using to block Lyssa might hit Merc like a brick wall. Or…

Merc went through the shielding like a bullet through smoke. He drove the Fae off his booted feet. Before Pallas stopped rolling, Merc was on top of him, wings beating like a hawk’s when landing on prey. It confused the Fae, kept him disoriented as Merc gripped his arms, pulled them back and out of their sockets, his feet snapping Pallas’s spine like a twig. He yanked the Fae up, a broken doll.

He would likely heal, but Merc had immobilized him for now. He dropped him, spun and went for the group harassing Maddock, knocking them over like bowling pins. He moved so fast in their ranks, none could see him as he broke more limbs, spines and necks. The echoes of their howls followed him, but Maddock could now handle them, pressing the advantage Merc had offered him.

While the Fae magic was less effective on Daegan, it was preventing him from delivering a killing blow. So he’d adapted, choosing the tactics Merc had. When he had the opportunity, he’d cut off hands, or a leg below the knee, severing bone. The Fae were adapting too, however. Three of them combined forces, and the ground beneath Daegan’s feet exploded.

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