“What if he remembers? What if he finds the compound after we leave and they shoot him?”
Christian lowered his arm and stretched. “That’s not our problem. Our job is to deliver three children to a holding camp, not to worry about the fate of two lovestruck teenagers.”
I took his hand and touched the ring I’d given him. “Have you ever been lovestruck?”
He looked at me with those arresting black eyes, his dark eyebrows sloping down. “We have lions to kill, and all you can think about is drinking my blood and romanticizing about love.”
I blinked innocently. “I was just asking a simple question.”
He caressed my cheek, moonlight glinting off his onyx ring. “Only once, Miss Black.”
“Tell me about her.”
“Her eyes were like day and night, her legs as long as her history of killing men, and her hair as black as a sinner’s heart.”
“How could you love such an evil woman?”
He drew closer. “Because she wore my heart around her neck.” Christian’s eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “And she never tried to bury me in a pine box.”
I slowly slinked by him. “Just be sure you keep bringing her coffee in the morning.”
“Is that a threat?” he asked from behind, amusement in his voice.
I smothered my laugh.
“What was that you just said?”
I smiled. “Nothing. I just had a tickle in my throat.”
“You hear that?” His tone sharpened, and I spun on my heel. Christian stood like a marionette frozen in place. He did that when isolating a sound.
I held my breath so he could hear better.
Then I heard it too. A rustling of something large moving through the forest. “Could be a deer.”
“Could be a bear.”
“Perish the thought.” I gripped the dagger with my right hand and turned in a slow circle.
Christian suddenly covered his ears and grimaced.
My eyes flicked back and forth between shadows and light as Christian dropped to his knees, blood dripping between his fingers from one of his ears.
A lion rushed at me with alarming speed, and I had only seconds to formulate a plan. Instead of fleeing for my life, I ran toward him and reduced the distance between us. We both kicked off the ground simultaneously and crashed into each other. I drove the dagger into his neck, and his massive teeth punched through my shoulder.
When we hit the ground, I shoved him off me with ease. He flew back and struck a cluster of trees behind me. The wound on my left shoulder began to heal thanks to Christian’s blood, and I rotated it in a circle to get the feeling back.
Sothiswas what it felt like to be a Vampire. Having that small taste of power during a time when I needed it made me feel like a different woman.
I spotted Christian stalking off. Then I heard the sound of hard plastic being crushed, followed by a few creative swear words. It must have been another sonic weapon.
The lion swiped at my feet, knocking me onto my stomach. The air whooshed from my lungs. When he pounced on my back, I twisted around and blasted him in the shoulder before wriggling free from his massive paws.
The lion roared before chasing me as I bolted in the other direction. I veered toward a large tree and kicked my feet off it, cartwheeling over the creature and landing behind him. Niko had taught me that move in the training room, and it was one I practiced repeatedly.
From my crouched position, I grabbed his haunches and gave him a shock to remember. He convulsed, and as I raised my fist to break his spine, a second lion blindsided me.
I struck a tree with enough force to break bones. My arm was in his jaws until Christian’s hands appeared in a hurried attempt to pry the animal’s mouth open before it severed my limb. I wrenched free just as the first lion savagely attacked Christian from behind.
