Page 171 of Vampire's Choice

Her shift of opinion could be a temporary state, having to do with the raw emotions of the last few hours. But she knew that was wrong. Yes, she’d been torn open to the soul, but that had finally balanced her thinking, let her see this from a perspective that had been waiting all this time. Waiting for her to open her fucking eyes.

Lord Belizar spoke to Kaela, his baritone echoing through the courtyard. “A steel stake will be placed in your hands. You will drive it into your servant’s chest, ending his life. If you refuse, the honor guard will force you to do it. It will be messy and painful for him. You have brought him to this end. Make it merciful. The Council has no opinion on the quality of his demise, only that it happen now.”

“No. No.” Ruth surged forward, but Lady Helga, giving Lord Belizar an I have this look, swiftly covered the ground between her and Ruth and drew her back to the wall of the house. It put them under the balcony where Debra and Brian stood. Anwyn and Jessica held onto Ruth too, the sorrow in their faces showing a heartsick helplessness.

Kaela gazed in the distance over Belizar’s shoulder. When he was done speaking, her lips pressed together and she gave a little nod, as if saying something to herself. She turned toward Garron.

They’d shoved him onto his knees. Two holding his shoulders, two ready to hold her. While a wooden stake took the life of a vampire, a metal one was the surest way to end a fully marked human servant. Other than killing their vampire master or mistress.

Mum…Etsi…

When Borgas offered the stake to Kaela, she stared at it. After receiving a short nod from Belizar, Borgas grasped her wrist, lifted her hand and folded her fingers around it. His companion gripped her elbow on the other side, and they moved her toward Garron.

Kaela was rigid dead weight, until the point was at Garron’s chest. Then, whatever she’d come to terms with inside her head broke. She began to fight.

Silently, furiously, tears running down her face, fangs bared. She was proving just how hard to beat she could be, a twisting, kicking human mace, delivering blows with arms, legs, elbows and fists. Helga’s arms remained tight around Ruth. Lord Brian had come down and was helping her, bidding Jessica to step back as the vampires tried to contain one of their own, same as they were doing in the middle of the courtyard. Debra stood with Jessica, her countenance pale.

“Let me go.” She would get free of them, go help Kaela fight. Borgas and his companion grimly tried to quell the overlord’s struggles as the other two continued to hold Garron. He was fighting them for a different reason, as best as he could with a broken arm and hand.

“Let her go. Get your fucking hands off of her.”

“This is wrong,” Kaela shrieked. “He’s done nothing to deserve this.”

“You’re not helping your case, Kaela,” Lord Stewart’s voice was insanely mild. No more Lady Kaela. She’d been stripped of the overlordship.

With despair, Ruth saw why he seemed unaffected by the battle. Kaela wasn’t gaining the upper hand, and she was running out of strength to fight. The blood loss and psychological impact of the firing squad wall she’d been flung against were taking their toll.

Garron’s gaze was on her, his expression anguished. Whatever thoughts he was hurling at her, to try to calm her, to stop making it worse on herself, she was having none of it. But then he stopped threatening the guards and went a different way.

“Stop, my lady. Stop.”

The command reverberated through the courtyard, as authoritative as Belizar could have done himself. Lady Carola even flinched at the bald evidence of what it said about the human male.

Kaela subsided in Borgas’s hold, panting, half sobbing. Not because she agreed with the command, but because Ruth thought whatever else Garron was communicating to her in his mind, reflected in the strong emotions in his expression, made her want to hear his words.

His last words.

He looked toward the Council. “Let me go, and I will help her do it. I swear it.”

Belizar met his gaze, and Ruth thought even he couldn’t deny what he recognized there. A male, wanting to protect the woman he loved. With his life, if that was the price.

“Lord Belizar,” Stewart began, but Belizar lifted a hand.

“Whatever will get it done.”

Stewart subsided. When the two guards warily released him and stepped back, Garron’s attention went to Borgas.

“Let her go,” he said.

Borgas looked toward Belizar. At his slight nod, the guard’s face flashed with anger, but he stepped back, letting her go with a scornful expression. “Crawl to your Master,” he muttered. “You’re an embarrassment.”

“Borgas,” Carola said sharply.

Kaela didn’t seem to hear any of it, and Garron didn’t acknowledge the male’s insult, either. He simply extended his uninjured hand. “Come to me, my lady.”

Kaela came to him, one trembling step at a time. She was still clutching the metal stake, having used it as a weapon. Borgas and the other male were bleeding from several stab wounds.

When Garron clasped Kaela’s empty hand, an ease came to her features at the contact. Their fingers laced together.