She grabbed his throat and shoved, somehow forcing him onto his back. "How's your brother, hunter?"
"He could be dead in that pile," Thane gasped around the pressure on his neck. "He could be the one tossing Words. Mei's still killing, though."
Then he grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanking her head back before he bucked, knocking her off balance. Dahlia lashed out at him, her fingers hooked like claws. He felt the skin across his cheek burn, but nothing more. Her chest was exposed. Her heart right there, and his free hand was the one with the clavum in it. All he had to do was stab her, and all of this would be over, but he hesitated for a single second.
"Let her go!" Mei screamed, slamming into him.
Dahlia's hair was wrenched from his fingers. His clavum went flying. Thane slammed into the ground, and then Mei was on him again, and this time she wasn't being careful. The woman wailed, the sound of it tearing at his ears, and she slammed his head into the ground over and over. He pawed at her, desperately trying to get her fingers to loosen on his throat, but she was done playing around.
"That is my love. That is my life. You hurt her and you die!" Mei shrieked. "I will make the whole world burn before I watch her die. I will rip your head off. I will get my revenge!"
He couldn't breathe. He couldn't speak. Spots were forming before his eyes, and yet he still tried to break her grip on him. His mouth gaped open. His lungs pulled, the ache in his throat too tight to let anything through. This was not how he was supposed to die. This wasn't the ending he'd expected.
Just as his arms began to grow weak, he heard, "Don't kill him!" The voice sounded like Dahlia's.
And then darkness took over.
Chapter Twenty-Three
DAHLIA
Dahlia saw Mei pummeling Thane and couldn't help herself. "Don't kill him!" she begged.
Mei stopped slamming his head against the ground, but her hands tightened. Thane tried to slap at her one last time, and then his arms went limp. Dahlia was panting, terrified that he was dead, and knowing that he needed to be. She couldn't risk leaving him alive again. Too many times she'd given him a chance, and each time, it came back to bite her and Mei in the worst ways.
Then Mei shoved to her feet. "We need to go!" she snapped.
But another Word hit, and this one pulled at the life inside them both. Dahlia gasped, feeling her vitality being drained, and gestured for Mei to go. It seemed the big priests had finally joined the party. The moment Mei made a run for it, Dahlia turned to the fool who thought he could hurt her.
"That," the priest growled, "is my brother."
She smiled. "How many are left, priest?"
"The Cardinal is coming," he warned. "If I hand you to him, he'll make sure you pay for what you've done."
Dahlia just stormed toward him. "Yeah? What have I done? We didn't start this fight. We just ended it."
"Six hundred years old," he said, proving Thane talked to him. "He was going to let you live, you bitch!"
"So I let him live," she breathed, stopping just out of his reach. "If I see the power in your eyes, I will rip your tongue from your throat. Are we clear, Laird?"
His eyes darted to the ground beside her at the sound of his name. She knew that wasn't shock. He'd spotted one of those spikes, possibly Thane's own, that had been dropped. Dahlia pointedly cleared her throat, making him look at her again.
"He's not moving," Laird said.
"Oh, he's out cold," Dahlia promised. "That means no one can say he didn't try. I even put a few claw marks along the side of his face. How about you, big brother? You going to kill me to prove your worth to your despicable faith?"
"They sent me out here to die," Laird told her. "You dropped everyone lower than me, so I'm the latest cannon fodder. If I walk back, there will be questions."
"Oh, that's easy enough to fix," she promised.
In a single step, she closed the distance, grabbed his throat, and pulled his mouth to hers. Laird sucked in a breath, but the moment his lips parted, she shoved her tongue between his teeth, tasting him, drawing from him, refilling herself from him. Laird tried to push at her, but he wasn't the strong one here.
No, that was Thane. He was the warrior. Laird seemed to be the thinker. Both men were beautiful. Both were nothing like the priests she'd met before, but she didn't have time to fuck around. Dahlia pulled, sucking his life force from his body into hers through their shared contact.
Then he wrenched his face to the side. "Fuck you," he gasped.
She released her grip on his throat, and Laird staggered, his legs weaker than they'd been before. She simply leaned into his face. "Figured that was better than biting."