"I didn't mean to," Yevgeny said. "I needed the pup and was following tradition to get her."

"I've left plenty of bodies lying around to discourage that tradition."

He was not happy with what Yevgeny had done, but as he watched the pup lick the younger vampire's chin and the vampire rub the pup's head without seeming to notice, he knew he wasn't going to kill Yevgeny. He'd let him get away with the theft-for the h.e.l.lhound's sake.

"How did you get involved in this?" he asked Valentine.

"Innocent bystander," she answered.

"I asked for her help training it," Yevgeny said. "And she taught me all the magic I know."

"You poor dear," Tess sneered.

"But where are the demon and my other pup?" Dan asked.

"Here," Valentine answered.

She pointed toward the window just as a huge black body came crashing through it.

EIGHTEEN.

"d.a.m.n!" TESS SAID AT THE SIGHT OF THE PURELY malevolent h.e.l.lhound. It reeked of insatiable hate and hunger. She knew death on four paws when she saw it.

She stopped thinking and morphed, missing some of the action as her perspective and vision changed from human to wolf.

The demon entered to add to the chaos in the crowded room within the instant it took her to change. The creature screamed hatred as he raced toward Valentine. The ancient vampire's attention was on the attacking h.e.l.lhound.

Tess sprang onto the demon's bare back before the creature reached its prey. She sank her teeth through greenish skin, tasted metallic blood, crunched through bones. It still tried to crawl forward even after she'd severed its spinal cord. Tess used all her strength to hold the demon's body down. She gnawed at the thing until it finally stopped moving.

Roars, shouts, and the crash of bodies drew Tess's attention away from the corpse. Worry killed any desire to feast on fresh meat. She spun, ready to help Dan.

VALENTINE watched Yevgeny whirl around, using the bulk of his body to protect the animal in his arms. The heavy black beast leapt onto his back. Blood arced upward onto the walls and ceiling. Yevgeny cried in pain.

Terror raced through Valentine.

"Yevgeny!"

The demon appeared before her and blocked her view. The werewolf brought the demon down. This brief struggle kept Valentine from getting to the others, but to immortals a moment was a long time. Actions that would have appeared to happen at light speed to a mortal seemed in slow motion to her.

She shouted to Dan for help, but it wasn't Dan Conover she saw when she looked his way. "Corvei," she breathed.

When the werewolf tried to spring forward, Valentine grabbed her and buried her fingers deeply into thick fur.

"Calm down, Tess," she urged when the werewolf struggled and snapped at her. "I'm saving your life. You can't go to him like this. Corvei specialized in beast hunts in the arena. You need to change shape before he goes after the wolf as well as the hound."

Dan Conover could change into two types of vampire shape but he faced the h.e.l.lhound in human form. As an Enforcer, he always carried a silver knife, but he didn't have the weapon in his hands now. He was a man going up against a monster, but as a mortal he hadn't been an ordinary man.

Corvei's eyes were cold, narrowed with concentration. His face was expressionless. The ability to kill blazed from his smallest movement. It was a gladiator against a wild beast, facing off in the center of the room."He's about to kill one of his own children," Valentine told Tess. "He can't do this any other way."

THE red eyes that tried to stare Dan down were full of intelligence. He wouldn't let himself care. He didn't feel compa.s.sion for the madness he saw in those eyes either. He never looked away as he circled slowly, a.s.sessing how to attack.

The beast circled as well, its eyes locked on his. Hot drool dripped from fangs too large for its muzzle. Its growl was a continuous diesel-engine rumble in its deep chest. Its steely claws gouged the concrete floor. Dangerous and beautiful, it studied him.

But it didn't have patience. It didn't have experience. It couldn't wait.

"You're still a puppy," Dan said when the h.e.l.lhound sprang toward him.

He grabbed its front legs while it was still in the air and swung it around. Its huge head swung back and forth, seeking flesh. It bit into his forearm, but Dan didn't let go even as the beast worried at the wound. Vampire flesh was tougher than mortal. Dan bled, but his arm wasn't bit in two the way a man's would have been.

He smashed the beast on its back onto the concrete. He followed it down, planting his knees on its exposed abdomen. It snapped for his throat, raked claws across him. Dan ignored pain and the creature's piteous howling. He extended his own hard claws.

He killed the h.e.l.lhound the same way he would have another vampire. By opening its chest and ripping out its beating heart. The heart was still beating when Dan stood with it clenched tightly in his hand.

With his own howl of pain, Dan threw the ruined pup's dark heart as hard as he could through the gaping window.

He dropped his arm and looked around for his next kill. He started toward Yevgeny. The other vampire lay still on the floor. The uncorrupted puppy was licking his face.

Tess's arms came around him before he could take another step. She pressed her human form against him, flooding him with her warmth and life. She brought back his sanity with her touch. He grabbed her and held on as hard as he could. He mourned this loss as he had mourned all the lives he'd taken as a gladiator, strigoi, and Enforcer. Tess was a light beyond the pain. Tess beckoned him with the promise of life to hold on to.

"Let go of the h.e.l.lhounds," she whispered to him. "Now you have a werewolf to call your own."

VALENTINE dropped down beside where Yevgeny lay in a widening pool of blood. She had to push Bela aside to ease his head into her lap.

The skin was blue around his pale lips, his heartbeat faint and slow.

She stroked hair away from his face. "Oh, no, I'm not losing you again."

Bela was sniffing at Yevgeny's shoulder. Valentine held her wrist out to the little h.e.l.lhound. "Here."

It obligingly bit her.

She thrust her b.l.o.o.d.y wrist into Yevgeny's mouth and let life pour into him. "This is the second time in a week," she muttered at sharing her blood like this. "I am such a s.l.u.t."

Within moments, Yevgeny was suckling from her as if he would never stop. She closed her eyes and let the pleasure of the sharing take her.

When she couldn't take it anymore, she commanded, "Stop!"

His tongue slid delicately across her wrist. A thought teased her, Are you sure?

He sat up and they helped each other stand, but continued holding hands. He smiled down at her. "Why did you do that?" he asked.

"You were dying."

"I'm a vampire now," he reminded her. "I'm already dead."

She opened her mouth, closed it. "Right," she said. "I knew that."

"Oh, yes, you knew what you were doing. Don't play the ditzy dame with me."

He pulled her close. They both stank of the heady perfume of blood. Her need for Yevgeny was stronger than ever. Any moment now she was going to sink her fangs deep into his delightful flesh. And he was going to do the same to her.

Fancy that.

"What about your bond with Haven?" he asked as he began to caress her.

"Haven?" she asked, and laughed beneath their kiss. "Let his girlfriend have Haven."