Liam

Blayde pushed me behind him, growling at my partner who was standing in the doorway, a black gun in his hand that was pointed straight towards Eli. I growled a little at that, not at all happy to see my mate in the line of fire. Especially since he was being threatened by none other than my law enforcement partner, Peter.

So many questions plagued my mind as I tried to make sense of what was taking place here.

Why was Peter here?

Why is he pointing a gun at us?

Was he involved in the killings?

"You're not going anywhere" he snapped shaking his gun at Eli when he attempted to step towards him.

"The bullets are silver and coated with ricin and angel's trumpet extract so don't even think about it" he growled as his gaze slid to me, fury exploding in the brown depth of his eyes.

"And you, you fucking whore, did you think that you could just get away with stealing my mate like that. I swear to god I'm going to fucking kill once I get my hands on you" he screamed, making me even more confused at the entire situation.

"Make one move towards him, and I don't care if you have a gun, I'll snap your neck where you stand, leech" Blayde rumbled, curing even me to shiver slightly in fear at the anger that was held in his voice.

"What the hell is going on Peter, what are you talking about?" I asked, putting my hands up and attempting to show him that I seriously meant no harm to him.

"Don't you dare act like you didn't know, especially since he rejected me for you of all people. Not only that but you somehow convinced him to turn you before you shot him" Peter yelled, jerking the gun in my direction as tears started to pour from his eyes. My eyes slipped to the ground as I attempted to decipher what I had just been told, my gaze returning to his when I finally understood.

"Archer was your mate?"

"Don't even try to play dumb with me you son of a bitch, you knew all along, you knew and still you seduced him"

"He was human, he didn't even know about the existence of the supernatural before he was turned, he did nothing wrong"

"It doesn't fucking matter, not anymore, not when my mate is gone" Peter laughed hysterically before sobering up quickly, his scrutinizing look never straying from me before proclaiming in a chilling voice:

"If I can't have my mate, you can't either" before shooting Eli than Blayde causing me to scream in horror before launching myself at him. I couldn't control myself as I ripped his flesh apart, his screams only ceasing when I severed his cords.

But I continued on, until nothing but torn up pieces of flesh lay before me in a pool of blood.

"Liam?" I heard Blayde call weakly as he pushed himself up from the ground, a bullet wound on his abdomen bleeding steadily. I rushed over to him, helping him sit up against the wall and attempted to stop the bleeding with my shirt.

"Don't-"

"No, we can save you, just hold still while I get help, keep the pressure on it," I told him, keeping the shirt pressed against him even as he pushed it away before moving over to Eli. Turning him over, I noticed that the bullet had passed through his body, right past his lung and out the other way.

Using his shirt, I kept the pressure on it before looking over to Blayde, who had taken my shirt off of the wound which was steadily seeping blood.

I got up to go aid him, but immediately fell as my hunger for blood suddenly rampaged through me. My mouth filled with saliva and my stomach burned as the scent of both my mate's blood made me dizzy with thirst.

"Liam?" Blayde called, making me crawl over to him whilst attempting to get control of my bloodlust.

"Liam, look at me" I stared into his eyes the gorgeous tree bark brown depths calming me in a way that only he could.

"Focus on me, nothing else, just me" I swallowed the saliva that pooled in my mouth, trying desperately to keep my eyes focused on his, despite the blood that surrounded me.

"You need to take the bullet out, I can't do it, not when it's silver" I crawled towards him, and, despite the voice telling me not to look, looked down at his wound. It was still seeping with blood and showed no signs of stopping. I pressed my shaking hand to the wound, trying to remember what I needed to do whilst keeping my raging beast at bay.

Blood.Blood.Blood

He chanted, scratching at my conscience as I pressed two fingers into the bullet hole, causing Blayde to wince and growl. But I couldn't focus on that, no, I had to fight myself to not bite Blayde and drink his blood. No matter how it tempting the crimson liquid was, I had to fight it.

Finally, my fingers came in contact with something hard and metallic, making me sigh in relief as I pinched my fingernails around it, and gently tugged it out. At this point, Blayde was biting down on his hand in order to keep from shouting out, blood slowly seeping from the bite wound he was inflicting on himself.

"Blayde-" the sound of heavy footsteps approaching made me snap my head towards the busted door, I jumped to my feet and prepared to defend my mates as the footsteps neared. They were rushed and heavy and could belong to no less than six men at least, which meant we were badly outnumbered with no way out.

"Put your hands up rogue" one of them screamed as he pointed a gun directly at me, his clothes resembling that of a swat officer, but without the official markings. Which instantly told me that these were not real cops, and we were so fucking screwed.

"Step away from them with your hands up, now!" the one at the front commanded, jerking his gun towards the corner furthest from them.

"Please, you have to listen to me, I'm not a-"

"Silence"

"Leave him alone now, or I will tear each and every one of you to shreds" Blayde's voice caused them to falter before they pointed the guns at both of us, little red dots covering our abdomens.

"I swear to god if you don't-" A defining roar cut Blayde's threat off, and my eyes shot to where Eli was sitting up, his eyes were practically glowing as he stared down the men. His aura of dominance and strength bled into the air, making me whimper at the force of it. But still, I watched in awe as the men instantly turned their weapons away from us and bowed their heads.

"Our apologies Elder Eli, we weren't aware that they were with you," one of them said before making his way over to Peter's mangled corpse. As they examined it, they began to ask Eli rapid-fire questions, uncaring that he had been shot.

"Is this the rouge?"

"Did you kill him?"

"Why was he committing the murders?"

"Why hadn't you called for backup?"

But he didn't spare the men a second glance as he walked over to us, his eyes examining both of us from head to toe for any injury. He let out a chilling snarl when he saw that Blayde had been shot, although, his wound seemed to be nearly healed. I soon found myself sandwiched between two muscular bodies as Eli took my mouth in a passionate kiss, uncaring that we had company as he pulled away, only to kiss Blayde over my shoulder.

"Elder Eli?" one of them asked timidly as if he was worried that Eli would attack him at any moment.

"We'll be returning to Colorado as soon as we return to the motel, the vampire there is the rogue who has been killing the humans, the reason...." he looked to me before quickly returning his gaze to the guards.

"Unknown"