She didn’t even have time to call out before Beckham twisted her head at an unnatural angle and let her lifeless body fall heavy to the carpet.
Reyna gasped as the phone slipped from her fingers. Beckham killed her. He killed her. Lance fell to his knees at Penelope’s feet and began sobbing uncontrollably. His cries were loud and obnoxious, and at the same time she understood them. Death was the real monster.
Beckham didn’t give Penelope another glance before lifting Reyna into his arms. “Hold on to me.” Her body awoke at hisnearness and she curled into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Head in.” She did as he said and then he raced away.
Away from the living room with a dead woman and a forever broken blood escort.
She had to close her eyes as Beckham moved at superhuman speed. She couldn’t concentrate on her own thoughts, let alone process what just happened. One minute he’d been seducing information out of Penny and the next she was dead at his feet. It had been so easy. So unbelievably easy.
Beckham set Reyna down inside the entrance to Penny’s building, keeping her body obscured by the large metal door. “Don’t move.”
She couldn’t argue. She could barely function after the way his speed muddled her. She latched onto the door handle and tried to remain upright.
Beckham glanced out the door to assess the situation and then slipped out. Reyna peeked through the opening and saw Beckham moving like a blur as he attacked Visage’s men. An elbow to the chin, legs swept out from under, a rifle snapped in half, the butt of another gun smashed against a temple. Over and over every member of the team Harrington must have sent was taken down by Beckham’s martial prowess.
If he’d been human, he’d already be dead. Bullets pierced his skin, lodging in his body. He never even wavered.
Soon his chest rose and fell rapidly as he stood over a plane of bodies. They lay like carrion awaiting the vultures. Beckham the unstoppable beast, riddled with bullets, and master over all. Nothing could touch him.
Reyna slowly inched the door open. “Are…are they dead?”
He shook his head sharply once to the right. His eyes were lost in the distance. A force raged through him that she couldn’t possibly harness.
She chewed on her lip and waited for him to get under control.She could tell he needed a minute. Finally, his bottomless eyes turned to her and he extended a hand.
She moved toward him. The lamb stepping into the wolf’s circle, expecting the slaughter.
“You fear me?”
“Never,” she whispered.
Beckham snarled as if her answer infuriated him instead of soothed him. But he didn’t give her another chance to respond. He scooped her back up and raced away from the scene. She tucked her chin in again and tried to ignore her brain rattling in her skull.
She couldn’t even believe he still moved at top speeds. But a helicopter was beating overhead. Spotlights closed in around them. Other Visage vampires would be drawn to their trail. He couldn’t stop. They couldn’t stop. If caught, they were both dead and they knew it.
Just when she thought she might throw up from the sheer vertigo, Beckham dropped out of vampire speed and ducked into an alcove. The streetlights were smashed to pieces at their feet and the darkness enveloped them.
A helicopter circled nearby. They were so close. If they moved the spotlight one street over, she and Beckham would be seen. Beckham moved deeper into the alley, becoming one with the shadows.
She tightened her grip on him as fear pricked at her every nerve ending. She could feel his distress and the amount of pain he was in and thought she’d be sick. How could he endure it? He might think he was immortal, but eventually he’d have to stop. He was losing blood at too quick a rate. It oozed out of multiple wounds. Hot and red, pouring down his chest and arms. She was sticky with it.
“Becks, we have to get you help,” she whispered.
“I just…need…to get the bullets…out.”
“Where can we go?”
He shook his head. “The safe houses aren’t safe.”
“Can we get to Drew?”
Beckham clenched his jaw. “Too far away. I can’t…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. He wouldn’t make it. Fuck.
“Okay. Okay. Shit.”
“We’ll have to find a place.” Another helicopter shifted closer. Beckham moved deeper down the alley. “We’ll be caught otherwise.”
