care what kind of havoc you plan to create.” He took a few steps forward. “And if a few prets have to die in order to preserve the old order, so be it.” He moved a little closer. “Sorry, doll,” he said to Keira.
“I’d tell you to go to hell,” she replied, blinking back tears. “But you’d probably enjoy it there.”
His lips twitched. “I might.” He walked forward several steps, stopping only when Stefan told him to. “There’s no way out, Liuz,” Finn murmured. “Let her go and let’s settle this between us.”
Stefan tightened his arm, closing off her air supply even further. Keira clawed at him and fought to breathe.
Over Finn’s shoulder she saw movement, and as she was about to call out a warning—she couldn’t help it, she still loved the bastard—she recognized the man and woman walking into view. Tobias Caine and the woman that Finn had gone to see at her house.
Hope unfurled within Keira. If Tobias was here, obviously alive and unharmed, that meant Finn hadn’t killed him. He’d been lying all along. She met his gaze. He obviously knew she’d thought the worst of him, because his eyes chided her yet held such affection for her. She was ashamed she’d ever doubted him.
Stefan, on the other hand, wasn’t feeling so generous. Rage emanated from him. “You!” he snarled. “I thought you were dead.”
“Obviously not. Once again the master manipulator missed,” Tobias rejoined. A world of satisfaction and triumph rode the curve of his lips.
Stefan’s arm tightened again. Keira choked, gasping for air. She wished everyone would stop yacking and get on with it. She’d like to start breathing again, soon.
“Everything you’ve told me, everything you’ve done,” Stefan said, “has been a lie?”
Finn raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised you didn’t have more people joining your group so they could stop your insanity.”
“I suppose you were in on it too, weren’t you?”
She felt Stefan’s face move against hers and guessed he was talking to her. She couldn’t respond—she didn’t have enough voice to speak, and the way he had his arm wrapped around her throat limited the movement of her head.
“Let Keira go,” Finn said. “If you don’t hurt her, you might come out of this with your head intact.”
“We have over an hour until the rift,” Stefan said. “I can hold on to her that long, and then I win.”
Keira slumped a little in his grip. Part of it was playacting; a larger part was because her vision was beginning to go dark from lack of oxygen.
“There’s no way you come out of this as anything but the loser you really are,” Tobias said. Satisfaction rode every lean line of his body. And something more, a savage fury that radiated from him in waves.
The woman with him—another vampire—felt just as strongly, though Keira sensed she was restraining herself a little more than Tobias was. The female vamp took a step forward. “You and I have some unfinished business, Natchook. There’s a little matter of you putting out a hit on my husband. And, oh, yeah.” Her eyes narrowed. “You nearly killing me a year ago.”
“Nix, my dear. How good to see you again. You’re looking well.” Keira couldn’t see his face, but she heard the smirk in his voice. Stefan asked, “Has it been a year already?” By Dagda’s balls, the man did not know when to quit.
“Nearly.” Nix took another step forward. “And I see nothing has changed, you’re still hiding behind a woman.” Disgust colored her tones. “Can’t fight your own battles, eh?”
Keira felt rage and anxiety rolling off Stefan and, for a brief second or two, doubt. She took advantage, letting herself go completely slack as if she’d fainted. Her action pulled him off balance, and he loosened his hold. She jabbed back with her elbow and ducked beneath his arm.
Finn jumped in, pushing the vampire away from her, and he and Stefan went at it with their fists. Very quickly blood smeared both their faces as lips split and knuckles crunched into bone.
“He’s mine,” Tobias bellowed. Keira looked to see him heading toward the combatants, his eyes black surrounded by crimson.
Stefan bit down into the fleshy part of Finn’s shoulder. Finn yelled, his face contorted in pain. “Then come and get the bastard,” he snarled and slammed his fist into the vampire’s temple. It loosened Stefan’s hold on him and Finn shoved him away.
Tobias jumped into the fray, landing several blows before Stefan turned and ran deeper into the mine. Tobias,