NocC 016 - Laura Kaye - Vampire Warrior Kings 02 - Seduced by the Vampire King - Harlequin 2012-06 Read Online Free PDF Page A

at the volume of his friend’s outrage. “I was stupid.”
“You were fucking moronic.” He braced his hands on his hips and glared.
The situation wasn’t funny, not in the least, but Nikolai felt the corners of his lips rise. “I’ll concede the point.” Few others had the balls to talk to him this way, but he and Mikhail had always been close, almost like brothers. His stomach plummeted. Kyril and Evgeny were gone, but Mikhail was here, and Nikolai was going out of his way to piss on his friendship. “Look, Mishka—”
“Save it. I know, all right? I lost them, too. I loved them, too. They might not have been brothers of my blood, but they were still my brothers. Like you. Since we were young. So I get it. I do. But I swear to Christ—” He covered his mouth and turned away.
Nikolai cleared the lump from his throat, cursing himself for failing Mikhail exactly as he knew he would, and dragged them back to safer ground. “So, give me the rundown on my condition.”
Mikhail turned and crossed his arms. “Broken femur and scapula. Bullet passed through the former, lodged in the latter. Doc got it out on the table. Hit to the right side of your neck took out your jugular and nicked your carotid. Lost half your volume of blood. He patched you up, though, and set up the transfusion before we brought you here. Says you’ll survive to be a pain in the ass another day.”
Ignoring the gibe, Nikolai frowned. How the hell had he survived such injuries? No doubt about it, Anton was a master surgeon, but the blood loss alone…not to mention the poison. A deep sense of something like déjà vu came over Nikolai. He frowned, suddenly certain he’d forgotten something important. He scrubbed a hand through his hair, hampered some by the connected tubes. “Jesus. What a mess.”
Mikhail sighed. “Yeah. Understatement of the century, my friend. Even more complicated by the girl. We need to decide what to do with her. She’s seen a lot.”
Nikolai narrowed his gaze and tried to decipher the words, but he had no idea what Mikhail was talking about. “What girl?”
Staring at him, Mikhail dropped back into the chair beside the bed. “What girl? The one who saved your life.”
     

Chapter Five

Kate woke up disoriented, hurting and pissed off.
She eased into a sitting position, the back of her head throbbing harder as she rose, and tried to make sense of her dim surroundings.
Small, spartan cot, rough stone walls, an empty wooden table. She looked to the right and gasped. Bars. An iron-barred door.
Was she in jail?
She flew to her feet and moaned. The small room spun around her. With her head in her hands, she sucked deep breaths until the dizziness passed. Clenching her eyelids, she prayed she’d been having a nightmare. She opened her eyes.
Oh, shit . No such luck.
Outrage bubbled up from Kate’s gut. Surveying the room, she located a high-tech security camera in one corner. Old-looking cell paired with modern surveillance equipment. The vampires had her. Had to be.
Kate glared into the camera. “Let me out of here, damn you. Do you hear me? You have no right.” Her voice rose with each word until she was shouting, the sound echoing off the stone.
Trying the door next, she shouted, “Let me out of here!” Holding a bar to hold herself steady, she looked down at her body. Coat gone. Mace gone. Cell phone gone. Her hand flew to her lower back. Gun gone.
But her clothes…they were the same. And they were covered in blood. Her jeans were red and stiff from hips to knees. Smears of blood ruined her pale blue sweater, and the sleeve of it was shredded. She sucked in a breath. Gauze circled her forearm from the heel of her thumb to nearly the crook of her elbow. Spots of maroon seeped through the layers.
The details of the night flooded back to her in vivid color.
Her vampire.
His attack.
Her acceptance.
The arrival of the others.
Kate slid down to her butt, wincing as her tailbone eased against the stone floor, and sagged