"Less talking, more driving!" She grabs my thigh as we narrowly miss a delivery truck. "Unless you want us both dead!"
"Already dead, sweetheart," I remind her, throwing us into reverse. "But your concern is adorable."
Two cars left—time to get creative.
And by creative, I mean absolutely fucking reckless.
I gun it backward down an alley, metal screaming as our bumper scrapes brick walls. The two remaining cars split up—one behind, one parallel in the next alley over.
"They're boxing us in!" Seraphina's nails dig into my thigh. "Lucian!"
"Watch and learn, Cupcake." I slam the gear shift into first, cranking the wheel hard. We burst through a chain-link fence, showering sparks across the hood. "Daddy's got this."
A bullet shatters our back window. Glass rains down as Seraphina ducks, screaming. "If we live through this, I'm going to—"
"Rock my world?" I cut through an empty lot, catching air as we hit a loading dock. "Because this is definitely foreplay."
"You're impossible!" But her hand slides higher up my thigh as we hit the ground hard enough to bottom out. The pursuing car isn't so lucky—its front end crumples like wet cardboard on impact.
"I take it back," Seraphina gasps, her knuckles white on the oh-shit handle. "GTA's got nothing on you."
"One more to go," I sing-song, weaving through a maze of warehouses. "Want to help me make it extra special?"
"Just shut up and drive!" She's breathing hard, her pupils blown wide with adrenaline and something else.
"Yes, ma'am." I downshift, engine howling as we blast onto the main road.
Seraphina's giggle lights up the car like Christmas, and the spike of arousal hitting my nostrils tells me my angel's getting her kicks from this high-speed chaos. "Nothing's touching you, Cupcake. Vampire's honor."
"Mmm, well," she purrs, and something in her tone makes my heart skip. "If you mess this up, I'm collecting on that pegging promise."
Wait, what the actual fuck?
My brain short-circuits faster than a toaster in a bathtub. I whip my head around to stare at her, my mouth hanging open like a broken garage door—
And that's when karma decides to be a complete bitch.
The last sports car appears out of nowhere, T-boning us at full speed. Metal screams. Glass explodes. Our car flips, rolling once, twice, three times before launching into the air.
"LUCIAN!" Seraphina's scream cuts off as we hit the ground.
The impact throws me forward. My head crashes through the windshield. Everything goes black.
I wake up to the taste of blood and glass shards sticking out of my face, my neck, and my arms. Steam hisses from the crushed engine. The hoods crumpled like paper.
"Phina?" My voice cracks. She doesn't answer.
I force my eyes to focus. She's slumped against the airbag, blood running down her face from a gash at her temple. Her chest rises and falls with shallow breaths.
"Cupcake, please." I try to move, but my body won't cooperate. "Wake up."
Sirens wail in the distance, getting closer. Blood drips from my face onto the shattered dashboard.
We're exposed. Vulnerable.
We need to move. Now.
But first, I have to get my head out of this fucking windshield.
