Incompatible Means (Completed)

Chapter 11

I came back to consciousness to the sound of voices.

"I can't believe she is still alive," the masculine voice was gruff and serious.

You and me both, I thought.

"Mr. Keats lost a lot of blood. She came really close to killing him. I mean how does that even happen? She's just a little thang," this second voice was smooth honey with a southern drawl. I instantly nicknamed him Tex.

"I don't think any other assassination attempt has come quite this close. The other vamps said that they could feel him pulling for power across four states to recover," said Mr. Serious.

That had me reaching out mentally trying to understand what he meant. But I was still foggy and not able to process much complex thought at the moment.

"When I got up here last night he was wrapped so tightly around her I thought the blood was all hers and he had gone feral," Tex sounded a little wonderstruck.

Slowly I began to surface fully to consciousness, but I kept my breathing even and tried not to move to avoid alerting them of being awake. Hopefully, they could keep talking and I could figure out how I was going to get out of this mess. But first I needed to figure out what this mess was. I felt ropes rubbing coarsely at my wrist and ankles, though my wrists were no longer broken, they were still sore and I imagine it wouldn't take much to break them again. Sat in a chair, slouched over with my head almost touching my knees I opened my eyes slightly to inspect the ropes. The skin directly under and around the ropes was pulled tight and I could feel the raw skin underneath, I must have moved more than I thought.

"Think she is coming around," said Tex. He sounded excited about the prospect for some reason.

"Remember your orders, she isn't to be touched," responded Mr. Serious.

"Mmm hmm," Tex said distractedly.

With them aware of me being awake I tried to rise but the ropes pulled and I realized my legs and arms were also tied together keeping me in the bent position. They were also fastened to the chair, someone really didn't want me moving. The overkill made me smile. Slowly moving my head I looked around the room, absorbing each detail that might assist me. I was still in the loft bedroom, no one had bothered to clean up I could now see a large amount of blood covering the room. Blood covered the side of the bed, drenching the carpet in a pool, the smell was so strong no other smell was coming through. My dress was still on the floor, which brought to my attention that I was still in nothing but the corset and panties, someone had removed my boots. Looking around they were not in the room, my fans absent with them I was sure. With a futile hope I considered that I still might have a spare stake in the back of my corset, most of my body was numb so I couldn't tell by feel.

Once my eyes finally landed on the two men assigned to guard me I couldn't see past the power signature of one of them. From the look and feel of it, he was definitely a shifter, I was betting on a wolf. Both men were physically fit and had an imposing presence, dressed in tactical gear with an assault rifle in their hands and two handguns strapped to their thighs. Based on appearance alone I knew which one was Tex right away, he had dirty blond hair that was surfer long but combed back that insisted cowboy. I could see that he had dimples in both cheeks because he was grinning excitedly at me, like a puppy waiting for me to throw the ball. Yeah, he was also the werewolf.

Mr. Serious honored his name and was emphatically not smiling, his strong Roman face was blank but I could clearly see a twitch in his jaw from him clenching it so tightly. Definitely not a fan of me, this one.

I couldn't help my gaze from straying back to all the blood. From what these two were saying I knew Roderick was still alive but I would have guessed without the confirmation. When he fed on me the night before I could feel how much power coursed through the Archon, it was unfathomable. Never before had I encountered anything to the likes of it, just thinking about it caused a shiver to course through my pinned body. Roderick could have killed me in only a millisecond. So why hadn't he?