Chapter 31 Predator vs. Siren 2
"Poor thing," I whispered, running my fingers through its matted, filthy hair. "She hurt you too, didn't she?"
The creature made a soft, clicking sound in its throat and closed its eyes, leaning into my touch like a child seeking comfort.
Wood splinters flew into the room like shrapnel. The iron lock spun across the floor, clattering against the wall.
I flinched, covering the creature’s head instinctively.
A silhouette filled the ruined doorway.
Klaus.
He was terrifying.
His coat was gone. His shirt was ripped at the shoulder, as if he had torn through a wall to get here. He held a sword in his hand—a blade of dark, rippled steel that hummed with violence.
His face was a mask of pure, unadulterated murder. His eyes were black holes, consumed by the beast.
"WHERE IS IT?" he roared.
His voice shook the dust from the ceiling. He scanned the room, looking for the threat. Looking for the blood.
He saw the broken crates. He saw the shattered window.
Then he saw me.
He froze.
His sword arm dropped slightly.
He was expecting to find a corpse. Or a struggle. He was expecting to have to carve a beast off me.
Instead, he found me kneeling on the floor in a pool of moonlight, my hand resting gently on the head of the feral vampire.
The creature whined at the sound of Klaus’s voice, trying to burrow under my skirt for protection.
"Quiet," I shushed it, stroking its hair.
Klaus stared. He blinked, the blackness in his eyes receding just enough to reveal a ring of stunned sapphire.
"Nerissa?" he breathed. The sword tip lowered to the floor.
"I'm here," I said calmly, though inside I was still shaking.
He took a step into the room, kicking aside a piece of the door he had just pulverized. He looked at the creature. His lip curled in disgust, but also confusion.
"That is a Starving One," Klaus said, his voice tight. "It should have torn your throat out."
"It tried," I said. I lifted my chin, meeting his gaze. "I told it to sit."
Klaus looked from me to the cowering beast. He saw the way it trembled under my hand. He saw the absolute submission in its posture.
He sheathed his sword with a sharp click.
He crossed the room in three long strides. He didn't look at the creature. He reached down and hauled me up by my good arm, pulling me away from the beast.
"Did it bite you?" he demanded, his eyes scanning me frantically. He saw the blood on my sleeve. "You're bleeding."
"It’s a scratch," I said. "Klaus, wait—don't hurt him."
Klaus looked at the creature. Now that I was no longer touching it, the beast looked up, baring its fangs at him. It hissed, scrambling back into the corner.
"Him?" Klaus scoffed. "That is a thing, Nerissa. A thing that Vespera let loose to kill you."
He reached for me, pulling me into his chest. He buried his face in my hair, inhaling deeply. He was shaking. The Grand Admiral, the man who stared down emperors, was shaking.
"I heard the glass break," he whispered into my ear. "I heard the growl. I thought... I thought I was too late."
"You weren't," I said, resting my forehead against his chest. I could hear his heart—it was hammering, erratic and fast. The black veins on his neck were throbbing violently. "I handled it."
"You petted it," he murmured, pulling back to look at me. His expression was a mix of awe and horror. "You petted a feral vampire like it was a house cat."
"He was hungry," I said simply. "And scared. He’s just... broken, Klaus. Like the bones in the garden."
Klaus looked at the creature again. The disgust in his eyes softened into something bleaker.
He walked over to the cowering vampire.
The creature snarled, swiping at him.
Klaus didn't flinch. He just looked at it.
"Go to sleep," Klaus commanded.
It wasn't a siren command. It was just an order. But the creature, sensing the immense power radiating from him, whimpered and curled tighter into itself.
Klaus turned back to me.
"Vespera," he said. The name was a curse.
"She locked me in," I said. "The housekeeper... she said Vespera paid her debt."
"The housekeeper is dead," Klaus said flatly. "I passed her in the hall."
My stomach turned. "Klaus..."
"She betrayed my protection," he said, his voice cold. "She paid the price."
He ripped the silk cravat from his neck. He walked over to me and gently tied it around my bleeding arm, binding the wound.
"This ends tonight," he said.
"What are you going to do?"
He finished the knot. He looked at my torn dress. He looked at the pearls, now stained with a fresh drop of my own blood.
"I am going to finish the dance," he said.
He grabbed my hand.
"Come."
"We can't leave him here," I said, looking back at the creature.
"Guards are coming," Klaus said. "They will take him to the colony. He won't be killed. You have my word."
He led me out of the ruined room, stepping over the splinters of the door.
We walked back into the hallway. The music from the ballroom drifted down the corridor—a lively, upbeat reel that felt grotesque after the violence of the storage room.
Klaus didn't stop to fix his torn shirt. He didn't wipe the dust from his face. He looked wild. He looked dangerous.
"Klaus," I said, trying to keep up with his long strides. "Where are we going?"
"To the ballroom," he said.
"But look at us! We're a mess. The Emperor..."
"The Emperor wants entertainment," Klaus snarled.
He stopped. He turned to me, gripping my shoulders. His eyes were burning with a cold, blue fire that made the torches on the wall seem dim.
"Vespera tried to feed you to a dog," he hissed. "She thought you would die screaming in the dark. She thought I would find pieces of you."
He leaned in, his forehead resting against mine.
"She forgot one thing," he whispered.
"What?"
"That I am the one who feeds the dogs."
He pulled away. He offered me his arm. It wasn't a request this time. It was a summons to war.
"Walk with me, Princess," he said. "And when we get in there... don't say a word. Just watch."
I took his arm. I felt the tension in his muscles, coiled tight like a spring.
We walked back toward the light, toward the music, toward the woman who had tried to turn me into meat.
And for the first time, I didn't feel like prey. I felt like the weapon Klaus had always said I was.
I touched the torn silk of my dress. I felt the sting of the scratch on my arm.
Sit, I had told the monster. And it sat.
I looked at Klaus’s profile, sharp and terrifying in the torchlight.
Vespera was about to learn a very hard lesson about what happens when you try to hunt the hunter.