She's going to give you that third mark, and you are going to live.” Gideon gave a weak half snort. “Too far gone. Better this way, anyhow. Third wheel . . .” His voice faded off, his attention oddly detached. “You can do a better job . . . You didn't let her come up here.

Don't carry me.”

“Shut up and save your strength.” Daegan had slid his arms under the man's body but paused, mentally preparing himself for a very fast transport, plus a very rapid third-marking, even if he had to force Anwyn to it unwilling. It was possible moving Gideon would be enough to kill him, but even if it didn't, the man might be right. He might be too far gone. But it was the only possibility for saving his life.

As he lifted Gideon, the man's heartbeat began to stutter. Daegan took off, moving faster than the light sparking along the shards of the blood-soaked mirror they left behind.

Anwyn was still curled on the couch when he got there. He brought Gideon into the cell, laid him on the opposite end of the sofa, stretching out his legs so that they slid against her hip. She curled into a tighter ball, but Daegan closed his hand on one of her arms and yanked her loose from the tight coil.

She came off the couch in a flash of motion, her fangs bared, hands going for his face. Part of it was the monster in her blood; part of it was the woman, enraged by the way he'd pulled her back from the suicide she'd sought. She hadn't even really registered the body he'd laid next to her.

He fixed that quickly enough. Twisting her around, he knocked her to her knees beside the unconscious Gideon. She froze, her gaze riveted on the too-pale face. “He's dying.”

“Not yet. Mark him.”

She fought his hold. “No, you do it. I can't—”

He shook her, hard enough to snap her head back painfully, drawing her attention to him. “Your mark is the only thing that can save him.”

“But you—”

“I'm not doing it. You are.”

He forced her head down to Gideon's throat. The man was covered with blood, so it was easy enough to activate a young fledgling's hunger. Her fangs elongated. She was weeping, her hands shaking. “He didn't want this.”

Daegan hardened his heart to her, to all of it.He doesn't know what the hell he really wants. A vampire takes what she wants. You take him, make him all the way yours. And then you'll make him glad you did it .

As a human, she would have known only that he was badly hurt. The supernatural predator she was now knew the damage was mortal. She'd killed him. He was dying. She could smell it, the insidious voices in her head delighted with her.

Gideon had known it was a risk, but he'd cared more about her need to reclaim some sense of herself than his own well-being. He would have stood between her and anyone she might have hurt, taking them both down before anything happened. She knew that about him. But she'd thought only of herself.

“You're still doing that.” Daegan was merciless, plundering her mind.Mark him . . .

The vampire in her craved to do what he said, the vicious predator Barnabus had put in her mind egging her on. But it was that commanding tone that blasted away the last remnant of protest, the tone that wouldn't be refused, even by a Mistress. He was a Master who would not be defied, not now or ever.

She sank her fangs into Gideon's throat, goaded past the part of herself that was beyond morality, deep in animal instinct.He'll never escape you. The shadow voices rejoiced.

“Keep drinking, but get the serum in there. Don't stop until I say so, no matter what he does.” She didn't know why that admonishment was necessary, because the primal part of her took over, eager to keep tasting the rich fluid, the mix of her binding agents in it. Then Gideon started convulsing.

The hunter's humanity was vital to her, but that strength had been a weakness. Daegan had forgotten how an honorable, decent human being would think in such a situation, respecting her free will in a way he wouldn't have, keeping her ass down here even if she swore an oath in blood never to forgive him.

Even to him, the vampire hunter who'd survived so much, killed so many, had seemed far more invincible. But humans were so fragile, too fragile. The compromise to his skull, the internal hemorrhaging, would kill him in a matter of minutes, unless Anwyn could win the race.

If there was time to do this right, she could have aroused him, minimized the seizurelike effect. At least she hadn't had to mark him with all three at once. He had told her that combining them like that was like shooting acid into the veins of the unfortunate human. It also inflicted a simultaneous paralysis on them so the agony didn't have the relief of movement or unconsciousness. Some more sadistic vampires did it that way for that very reason, but he wasn't one of them. Even now Daegan wished he could close his senses to the rigidity of Gideon's body, trapped in that straitjacket of pain and agonized transition, which reawakened deadened nerves. While it could be a good sign that she was pulling him back from the brink, he'd been very close to the other side. The trauma could still take him in the end.

Gideon's distress was reaching her, though. Several times she tried to pull back, but Daegan held her fast. The moment she'd taken enough of his blood, though, he yanked her up. Pulling her arm to his fangs, he punctured her wrist as she yelped, startled. Ignoring that, he put her arm in front of Gideon's mouth. The man was barely conscious, despite the convulsions, so Daegan had to open his jaw, let the blood drop in. Rub his throat until he'd swallowed the requisite number of times. Thank God it didn't take much of the vampire's blood to complete the marking, because Fate chose that moment to bring another seizure upon Anwyn. Given the stress of the past few minutes, he was surprised it hadn't come earlier.

Take him as yours. Feed on his blood.The shadow voices swelled in her mind, matching her own desires.Rip out his beating heart, just to prove you can. Hearing her thoughts, he was ready for her response.

“No. Let me go,” she shrieked. She was being pulled down in the maelstrom. Howling at the haze coming over her vision only made the rush of bloodlust come in faster. Still, Daegan held her grimly in place until the blood was in Gideon, though her struggles became like those of a wild animal. Her awareness of Gideon's plight deserted her, her eyes rolling and fangs bared as she spouted the invective that came from her sire's broken mind. She even landed a few punches on Gideon's immobilized body before he restrained her, pushing her down to a crouch over her knees until the urge passed.

Daegan had been up to his elbows in blood, witnessed the stink of fear, the horror of dying an unexpected, violent death at his own hands. Yet every time he'd killed, it had been an assignment, the target someone who'd reaped the consequences of illegal actions. What he'd just forced her to do felt like destroying an innocent life. No matter that Gideon had tentatively made the decision himself, that didn't deceive Daegan. The man was nowhere near prepared or committed to being a vampire's full servant, and it was very likely he never would be. The repercussions of taking a servant who wasn't fully committed to belonging to a vampire were usually disastrous.

Gideon's face flashed through his mind, the cocky attitude and grim half smile, the wary eyes. The way he looked at Anwyn, as if everything he could ever want resided within her slim frame. The life dying out of his eyes as he told Daegan to leave him and go help Anwyn. As if he were an afterthought, his body just garbage to be discarded. Anywn's words:He didn't want this . . .

Damn it all to hell.Daegan shut it out, everything out but what had to be done right now.

She continued her berserker efforts to break free, her mind encapsulated in pure, raw rage. He was fine with responding in kind. Though she was in the midst of a violent seizure, he knew what would bring her back to them. Taking hold of the thin, feminine fabric of her slacks, he tore the seam down the back, ripping through the silky panties. She stilled in a moment of shock, but Daegan brought her back onto the couch and slid his fingers between her legs, reminding her of his touch, his claim on her, which had burned inside him without outlet for the past few chaste days. A lifetime. She was still slippery from her earlier lust and now she shuddered, a whimper breaking from her.

No.

Freeing himself from the jeans he'd so hastily pulled on, he slammed into her, hard enough to rock her into Gideon's body. Gideon's eyes flickered open, his expression dazed, her blood staining his lips, but he was barely conscious. Daegan kept his focus on her.

Anwyn the human woman had been brutally raped, but he wasn't worried about any comparison at this moment, because he was in her mind, immersed in her new but raging vampire instincts. He knew exactly how to respond to a vampire female in this state.

“If you truly wanted to deny me, your body wouldn't respond. But your cunt is wet, hot and welcoming, Anwyn.”You've told slaves that letting go of control is the greatest power they can embrace. You're a hypocrite. But hypocrites can learn the same way a slave can. By having a Master force the issue.

Rotating his hips, he stroked with deadly accuracy, and her body shuddered again. Sliding his fingers around front, he found her clit, his knuckles braced against Gideon's thigh. She cried out, part anger and part desire, as he started ruthlessly manipulating her.

Daegan caught her wrist, guided her hand across Gideon's waist and down to close over the man's cock, even trapped behind denim. He wanted to remind her of what also belonged to her, what was worth living for. Anwyn swallowed against his hold as he pulled her head up with a hand collared on her throat.

“I don't give a damn about who's in your head. You'll climax for me when I say. And you'll surrender everything to me, the same as you demand of Gideon. It's not only because it's what a vampire is; it's the only sure way to save a soul. You know it, but you don't believe it. It's time I make you believe it. You will climaxnow .”

One final pinch, one rotation of his hips, and it tore out of her, the climax shuddering through her as she took his thrusts, crying out with the brutal strength of each one. Finding Gideon's mouth, she devoured it, kissing him mindlessly through the orgasm, breathing her whimpers into his mouth. Whether unconscious or not, the man was responding. It might be only in his dreams, but Gideon aroused to her in his darkness, his lips moving lethargically against hers. His biceps flexed under her tight grasp.