"Shit!" Rayne hissed as two large vampire men turned towards her and Jarrah as soon as their feet passed the threshold of the room.

Rayne couldn't see much in the room, but she analyzed they were guarding something opaque and large, stretching almost six feet across on top of a stone. Before she could step forward and getting a better look at the box, the men came barreling towards them, their earlier shock wiped clear off their face. Jarrah tried to push her back behind his body, but she shook off his arms. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he needed her. He was powerful, but not powerful enough to take on two big ass vampires.

And considering the pained expression on his face, his powers were limited in the enchanted room. He only had enough power to protect himself, and that was perfectly fine. Rayne didn't spend hours training every day as an alpha to give up now.

Much to Jarrah's dismay, considering he was shouting angrily behind her, Rayne ran straight towards the charging vampire, her claws extended. She dipped low to the ground at just the right moment and swiped at his legs, knocking her vampire off his feet with a slash. The man growled loudly and swooped back onto stable legs as he threw a kick in her direction. She dodged the motion easily, but wasn't so fast to avoid the punch aimed at her stomach.

Rayne grunted from the impact, the action temporarily winding her. She swung an arm out, despite her breathlessness, and satisfyingly scratched the front of his chest with her claws extended, ripping his shirt and leaving streaks of crimson to come to the surface of pale skin. His red eyes filled with rage, and he lunged for her neck, his glittering teeth extended to pierce her exposed neck. He was met with air and a smug smile, her eyes burning yellow with the partial change she knew swirled within them. Swinging her arm out, her knuckles landed a solid punch to his jaw.

The smugness didn't last long.

The vampire was quick to recoup from his brief daze, and he grabbed her arm before she could finish her second swing and twisted it hard behind her back. His grip was nearly tight enough to pop it off, with just a few more tugs if he wanted, and when she went to swing her other arm back, he caught that one as well. He was toying with her now, and held her tight enough for a snarl to break free from her curled lips. Jarrah's glowing white eyes snapped to her; his own vampire struggling to remove himself from his arms as he pressed a glowing hand to his temple. His vampire dug his nails down his arm and, though he swore loudly, he didn't release him.

Rayne didn't know what Jarrah was doing to the howling blood drinker, but whatever it was, it led to eventually temporarily paralyzing his daze-eyed vampire. Which meant Jarrah couldn't help her; not until he finished putting his own down.

But no matter how hard Rayne tried to twist away from the vampire's hold, she couldn't budge free. He tugged her arm up harder; nearly snapping it as she bit her tongue to keep from crying out.

Hold on, Jarrah's eyes pleaded to her as her vampire slid his hand around Rayne's distracted throat from behind. She thrashed against his hold again at the sight of Jarrah's ghosted eyes bulging in panic, but the vamp had the upper hand. She'd need to wait for an opening, or figure out how to distract him long enough for Jarrah's vampire to pass out so he could help her.

"How sweet," her vampire drawled, his voice colder than a corpse. His breath slid icicles down her spine like a hint of death. Her death if she didn't outsmart him. And quick. "A dog and a fairy."

"Fuck you," she choked out, her claws extending. He gripped her tighter, cutting off all air supply.

The vampire tsked in her ear and she shuddered. "In front of your boyfriend? As you wish."

He spun her body around and pulled her tightly against his chest with the hand around her throat. Jarrah's vampire dropped to the ground at his words but the vampire Rayne currently struggled against had made a grave mistake in turning her around. He had released one of her hands in the spin and she used the opportunity to dig her claw into his chest, resulting in a piercing shout. In his desperation, he clenched onto her throat harder, but Jarrah was already there with his arm around his throat.

Rayne choked again, and Jarrah tried his best to tug him off. She used her other hand to dig a claw into his wrist, but he held on to no avail. Jarrah desperately demanded him to let her go, but this was one of Ambrosius' strongest. He'd fight until the end if he had to.

"Just . . . do . . . it," Rayne all but gasped, referring to Jarrah focusing on putting him down rather than helping her get unlatched from the tight grip. Stars danced across her vision, but she held out for as long as her body would allow her.

And much to her relief, Jarrah put him out just like he did the first one.

She fell to her knees, gasping for air with her no-longer-clawed hand wrapped around her throat. The stinging in her eyes and the wild coughing didn't relieve the pressure right away as she fought for any form of relief. Jarrah's knees fell to the ground beside her collapsed body and his arms dove for her, wrapping securely around her back as she wheezed. For the life of her, she couldn't get air.

And if she hyperventilated anymore, she knew she was really going to pass out.

"Rayne! Rayne honey it's okay," he tried to soothe, but the anxiousness in his eyes said otherwise. "I'll make it go away."

His eyes desperately roamed over her exposed throat as he carefully pressed his fingers into the bruising, relieving the pressure from her airways. A warm glow flowed from his shaky fingers and finally, Rayne was able to slowly calm down. The panic of the situation ebbed away the tightness in her throat and allowed fresh air to trickle down her throat. She coughed and breathed a few times until Jarrah removed his hand from her neck to draw her to his chest, one arm still around her back and the other wrapped in her curls.

"Oh, thank the Creator," he breathed, his tone flooding with frantic relief.

Rayne couldn't speak just yet despite the ability to open up her throat again, but still found herself wrapping her trembling arms around his neck. She wouldn't allow herself to cry, but that was the closest she'd ever been to death before that night. Never in her life had she been choked so severely, not even in training and she hated to admit how much it terrified her. She knew she was willing to die for her pack, but not before helping Jarrah get back to their people with the elixir.

Jarrah moved back to wrap his hand around her face, scanning for more injuries hands while she glanced over his paling features. Aside from a few scratch marks on his cheeks and a gash along the length of his arm, most likely by one of the vampire's nails, he looked mostly unharmed.

"I-I'm okay," she croaked weakly, but it did nothing to take away the worry from his eyes.

"I didn't know if I could put mine down in enough time to get to you," he admitted shakily. His eyes were unfocused and his nose tinged red. "But then when he started choking you, I—I—"

She hugged him again. "Thank you," she whispered, holding him just as tightly as he was holding her. He pressed his face into her curls and used her honeysuckle scent to relax him.

When they finally pulled apart, she allowed him to help her up to her feet and kept a steady arm around her waist, refusing to let her go. With how weak her body was re-energizing, she knew better than to complain and took whatever support he gave her. She let him keep her close to his side, brushing his lips to her temple every so often as he slowly drew them deeper into the crypt and closer to the sleek box they were guarding from before. They didn't know how much time they had left before reinforcements came, so there was absolutely no time to waste.

Once they got close enough to make out the shape, and the smooth, black corners, Rayne's eyes widened. Her body stiffened at his side and for some reason, her pulse thrummed, beating rapidly underneath her skin. Her heartbeat strummed under her fingertips as something pulled her towards the box. Something ancient; something . . . powerful, beckoned her towards it.

"It's a coffin," Jarrah whispered, perplexed. He blinked, having not expected the object. And if she were honest, neither did she.

She gulped. "Y-you don't think . . . he's in there . . . do you?" she forced out, her voice still hoarse.

He frowned, eyebrows furrowing. "I don't know. That wouldn't make sense if he was."

Her fingers curled into Jarrah's shirt at the thought and he adjusted his arm around her, bringing her even tighter to his chest. "If it is him, you need to get out of here, Rayne."

She shook her head stubbornly. "I'm not leaving you," she said, tone low.

"Rayne—"

"I won't do it. I'd rather I stay and you go, okay. You'd get back a lot faster than I could and you're a king!"

His body bristled at the thought. "Fuck no," he immediately growled.

"We'll then it looks like we're stuck in this together because neither of us want to leave the other behind. Now open the lid before we run out of time," she demanded. She removed herself from his side so he could use both hands to judge it open or do whatever magic he needed to to open it.

Jarrah sucked his teeth with disdain, but mumbled something under his breath. A thin veil of smoke leaked out of the well preserved coffin as something unlatched underneath, popping the lid ajar. Whatever lay there, Ambrosius wanted to make sure it was well taken care of, because there wasn't so much as a fingerprint or scratch on the outside. It had to be the elixir. He wanted the one thing that could kill him to be preserved and hard to get to, but he hadn't counted on a Fae and a wolf working together and making it as far as they had.

Rayne held her breath in anticipation. Jarrah pushed the coffin lid off the rest of the way.

Both of them jumped back with wide eyes and silently screaming mouths. Rayne's heart raced out of her chest and ran straight home, her mind whirling with a hundred thoughts all trying to make sense of what the hell was going on. She looked to Jarrah, but he was just as dumbfounded as she was.

They both peered back into the coffin. What the actual fuck?