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of fur trembled, its bright eyes darting from side to side, looking for a way to escape. The King spoke to it gently, "There's no reason to fear, little one." He smiled at the animal. With a flick of his wrist, the rabbit's neck snapped. The sound of bone breaking echoed in the King's ears. "Here," he handed the lifeless ball of fur back to Celticad, "Skin it and strap its pelt to your belt. Every time you look at its soft fur, remember the sound of its neck snapping. Remember that is exactly what will happen to you if you ever again make a mistake of the magnitude you made today. Next time you will not survive. Never forget it."

Chapter 22

Although he didn't want to, Reggie knew that he couldn't get caught with Kahli, but he didn't know what to do with her. He wanted to keep her, use her blood for himself, but having her body around - and that uncouth mouth - was not smart. If the girl escaped her cage while he was unaware, she'd slit his throat and set him on fire. There were things vampires had once been able to recover from, but being beheaded and burned alive wasn't one of them. His eyes flicked to Kahli. She sat in the center of the cage, cross-legged, picking her nails like an ape.

"Must you do that?"

Kahli looked up at him, her eyes narrowed. She flicked a nail and it made that awful sound again. "What? You mean this?" She did it again, watching Reggie cringe.

"You know exactly what I mean, you barbaric simian. Stop making ghastly sounds." He pressed his fingers to his temples. "I need to think."

Kahli sighed and fell onto her back. Staring at the cage ceiling, she said, "Simian? Really? We're resorting to name calling now, Reggie?"

"Reginald," he bit back, his hands flying away from his face. Although he desperately needed to figure out how to play this hand, he couldn't think. Every time his mind brushed the surface of an idea, it slipped away. Exasperated, he strode toward her cage and stopped in front of it. "Did William teach you to act this way, or is this your own concoction?"

Kahli grinned, still looking at the ceiling of the cage. Not lifting her head to look at the vamp, she said, "William taught me not to trust anyone. My manners are my own creation. I know how much you like me, Reggie. I think we'd get along way better if you didn't treat me like a monkey." Kahli looked at her nails and then pressed them to the bottom of the metal cage, and pulled. They made a shrieking sound that made Kahli cringe inside, but she scraped her nails all the way across the cage bottom, which made the hideous noise louder. When she finished, Kahli looked at her nails. Two ripped, but it was worth it.

Reggie's arms tensed at the sound and pulled tighter to his body. His shoulders went rigid as he watched the girl. Plugging his fingers in his ears, he yelled, "I'll stop treating you like a monkey when you stop acting like one!"

Kahli jumped to her feet. "I'll stop acting like one, when you stop treating me like one. Let me out of this damn cage. We want the same things. We should be working together. You already know that, but you're too arrogant to say you need my help."

Reggie left his fingers in his ears, and pressed his eyes closed, "Silence, beast." When Kahli didn't stop talking, Reggie grabbed a remote off the side table next to the couch. He pressed a yellow button and a jolt of electricity shot through the cage, zapping Kahli. She gasped, rendered momentarily silent. When Reggie released the button, he said, "That's better. Remember, no matter what your puny mind might be telling you, you're trapped, little girl. Unless you chew through those bars, you belong to me."

Kahli's hair smoked lightly. The ends had that singed hair smell. It filled her nostrils as she pushed herself off the cage floor. Laying down and getting zapped was way worse than standing up and getting zapped. It was the second time he did that to her. "We're wasting time, you arrogant bastard." Her voice came out in a breath, completely lacking its normal venom.

Reggie folded his arms after he put the remote down. Scolding her, he said, "Then, shut up, Miss Kahli Wildgirl and let me think." His head hung