3/3/2019

Set during Owned (between chapters 2 and 3 when Noah doesn’t remember who he is) and Temper (chapter 4).

“Why didn’t you let me do anything?” Noah demanded as soon as they were behind closed doors.

“Because there’s not anything you can do against five werewolves,” Khaz said. He knew Noah had killed a few ‘wolves before he’d ended up in Mays’ tender care, but that could’ve been a fluke. As much as he wanted to have faith in his childe, he wasn’t willing to lose him for the sake of letting him try to prove a point.

“They raped him!” Noah said hotly, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

He was beautiful. Even in righteous rage, Noah was gorgeous — maybe because of the rage, even, because he felt so strongly about it.

“I know,” Khaz said, slumping down onto the couch and pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Khaz!” Noah protested. “This isn’t the time to play on your phone.”

“I’m not playing on my phone,” Khaz said. He had a little more humanity than that, even if it wasn’t always obvious.

“Then what the fuck are you doing?” Noah demanded. He crossed over, looming above Khaz and watching him expectantly.

“I met his… person,” Khaz said vaguely, not wanting to admit to Noah that he’d fed upon the man they’d seen downstairs moments ago. He hadn’t caught the werewolf’s last name, but there couldn’t be too many werewolves who looked like Reese and had that name, too. He might’ve been relegated to a back alley whore, but he still had contacts.

He sent a text to the one he was on best terms with, a witch who’d loved the drama of having him on his arm, and got an answer almost instantly.

Dorsey.

“Reese Dorsey,” Khaz mumbled, typing the name into a search and scanning the results. “Can’t be too many of those around…”

He sent a text back to Nathan. Do you have a phone number?

No, but I can get it. Five minutes.

“This is taking too long,” Noah said, pacing across the living room. “Khaz, we have to do something.”

Noah didn’t remember who he was, what he was, and that was a good thing. If he’d still identified himself as a rebel, there’d be no way to keep him back. Slave or not, vampire or not, there was no way he’d let the werewolves hurt a human without consequences.

Khaz swallowed. He wasn’t willing to risk Noah for the sake of a human, but he knew better than to say that aloud. Noah might not have remembered who he was, but he still had the same priorities.

It was enough to send a pang through him.

In three minutes, Khaz had the phone number.

“Well?” Noah asked. “Come on, Khaz.”

Impatience dripped from his childe’s voice, making him just as anxious as the younger vampire. “I’m working on it,” he said. “As fast as I can. I’m sending a message to Dorsey now.”

“Sending a message?” Noah asked, incredulous, as he stopped pacing and outright stared at Khaz. “You aren’t going to at least call?”

“It’s dangerous enough to send a text,” Khaz said, typing out the message — the address to Bound, and nothing more. He could get away with sending the address to someone’s phone even if they were picked up as a traitor, and he had a feeling Reese was going to be that and more after he realized what had happened to his human.

Then again, it was possible Reese had already thrown him away, to hell with the consequences. There was only so much Khaz could do without putting him and Noah at risk, which wasn’t something he was willing to do — even if he could see Ashton’s eyes, even if they already haunted him, even if he wished there was something he could do.

But five werewolves against one fledgling and a vampire who was hardly combat-trained? It would be a disaster.

Not to mention, Mays would surely go back on their deal, and he couldn’t afford to put Noah at risk again…

Noah wouldn’t understand it because he didn’t know how high the stakes were. He didn’t know that Khaz was offering himself to Mays, over and over again, just to keep his childe free. He didn’t know who he was or why that was so important. He didn’t know just how much was riding on staying under the radar.

Khaz felt guilty as fuck, and sorry for the human to boot, but it wasn’t enough for him to risk Noah. If he tried to rescue every human who came through Bound, he’d be labeled a sympathizer or worse. What made this one so different? He’d walked past similar scenes in the past, but none of them had affected him the way this one had.

None of them had begged Khaz to help.

He’d always been willing to avert his eyes, but there was something about being around Noah that made that ten times harder.

“Well? Did you get a response back?” Noah pressed.

Khaz hated seeing his childe so agitated, but calm as he was on the outside, he was just as rattled. “Not yet,” he said. “We may not get one. Noah, I don’t even know if his werewolf still… has him.”

“You should’ve called,” Noah muttered.

“Noah, I can’t,” Khaz said, but he knew he couldn’t exactly explain why he couldn’t… which made it harder for him to talk to Noah about it.

“And what if he doesn’t do anything? What if he can’t?” Noah asked, pleaded with him.

Khaz was terrified that this was going to make Noah remember — passionate as he was, guilty as they both felt, and under the blade as they were — and he didn’t know what to do about it.

“We just have to believe he will.” Khaz hated how fragile his own voice sounded, but he had to count on the werewolf showing up and getting the others to fucking stop. He patted the seat on the couch beside him. “Come here, Noah.”

Noah glanced again at the door, yearningly, and he seemed about to take a step in that direction. Instead, he sighed, moving to sit down beside Khaz. “I know there’s probably nothing I can do,” he said softly. “But I feel like I need to try. I know I should try. I don’t know if I can take on five werewolves, but I can try.”

“And you’ll get killed,” Khaz said, turning and clinging to Noah — terrified his childe would insist on going anyway. “If the ‘wolves don’t kill you, the Enforcers will. You can’t defend a human against supes. You just can’t.”

“That’s so fucked up,” Noah said, relaxing as Khaz’s touch smoothed along bare skin. He might not have realized he was being dosed within an inch of his life — thank fuck — but Khaz ruthlessly used his gift to make sure Noah didn’t want to be anywhere but beside him.

It wasn’t playing fair, but then, the idea of losing his childe…

It sent shockwaves of panic through him, and he couldn’t stand it. Bad enough that Elias Ivers was taking interest in his childe without worrying about him running off to an almost certain death.

Mays hadn’t gotten to where he was by being a fluffy bunny, and he was sure the other werewolves were more than capable of defending themselves.

Khaz felt bad not warning Reese what he would be up against — assuming he did anything at all — but he couldn’t risk anything more.

He did what he had to do, and he’d done what he could do, and that would have to be enough.

He had to hope that Reese could do what he and Noah couldn’t.

He had to believe he would.