I ran for her.
Another explosion deafened what was left of my hearing while chunks of the ceiling hammered my head and shoulders with bruising force.
I skidded onto my knees beside the girl and pulled off the bracelet cloaking me.
“Rhianna. Hey, sweetheart, it’s okay. I’m here to take you back to your Grandma Cassia.”
She tipped her head just enough to peer up at me.
“Your grandma wants you to come home now. All your family wants you to come home now. I can take you to Franny who is waiting in a car. Ready?”
She buried her face back into her knees and shuddered as another explosion rocked the house.
I touched her shoulder and when she didn’t react, I put the bracelet back on and scooped her up.
Vampire bit, I reminded myself. She was stronger than she looked, and faster, just like Lula. But she was still a child. A child who was in the middle of a nightmare.
She automatically wrapped her arms around my neck and held on.
I ran for the door we’d come in, stumbling over wood and plaster and stone, hoping I wasn’t going to break my neck with the speed the ring gave me.
At the door, I glanced behind me.
Lula was locked in a fight for her life.
She was fast, though the vampire was faster, ruthless with her knives, though the vampire was more ruthless with his.
She was bleeding from several cuts on her arms and face. Her left arm hung at her side, useless. Dominick was toying with her now, it was obvious.
And I still had the vampire-killing knife at my side.
“Fuck all,” I panted.
Why hadn’t I given her the knife that would kill the bastard? Why hadn’t she taken it from me?
She was going to lose this fight.
She was going to die.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ihave done some stupid things in my life. As a young man, as an earth-bound spirit, and as a man who’d almost-died too many times to count.
(Four. I’d almost died four times. It was countable, but I didn’t like doing it.)
There was no chance I would be fast enough to take Rhianna to safety and get back in time to help Lula.
Even if she had the knife.
That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
I rushed down the hall, desperate for a door I could open, a safe place I could put Rhianna so I could at least get the knife to Lula.
Then a child came around the corner. A girl who looked just like Rhianna.
Hatcher.
Sometimes you have to trust someone untrustable.
