“I’m Amelia.” I threw out a fake name, my voice betraying some of the fear I felt.
Keres stuck his hand out, like he expected me to kiss it. Against everything inside of me, I reached out my hand and grasped his fingers lightly, shaking his cold dead hand like I was yanking a dry, brittle, wooden stick.
Keres’ nostrils flared, and I thought he was taking in my scent, then alarm registered in his single widened eye.
“The Shadow Bloods,” he hissed, and Luka threw me to the ground so quickly I could barely register what was happening.
My chest slammed into the tile floor as I lay flat as a pancake beneath Luka’s body, who hovered over me.
Did he sayShadow Bloods?
The Shadow Bloods were vampire mercenaries, even more lethal than we were, but they didn’t do it for God and country. They were vampires who worked for mafia families that had beef with royalty. If they were here, it meant Thorin, Keres, and Luka were all about to die. They would kill Liv and I too, just for fun. They hated hunters, we were competition. Luka’s weight suddenly left me and I growled from my place on the floor. Popping up to my feet, I stood just behind Luka. No way were these bloodsucking thugs taking my mark!
Reaching into my boot, I pulled out my silver stake. I would kill him now and use the Shadow Bloods as a distraction.
Luka was in a fighting stance, eyes pinned on the door, waiting for the Shadow Bloods to burst in any moment. Keres bolted for the exit. I lunged forward, ready to stab this stake right into Luka’s back and through his heart. I only needed to weaken him enough to get him to drop to his knees, then I could take his head. The tips of all my weapons, including this stake, were laced with the potion that would preserve a vampire’s body for a day so we could take the heads and it would look like a normal murder to human police. Chief Baker took it from there.
I lunged forward, ready to make the kill, when Luka, faster than I’d ever seen a vampire move, blurred before me and caught my arm midair, just as the door behind him blew off its hinges.
“Hunter?” Luka hissed, looking at me wide-eyed, confused and … hurt? Grabbing my lower back with one hand while keeping my stake hand pinned between both of our chests, one jump and we were airborne, flying up into the exposed ductwork ceiling. This portion of the VIP room wasn’t in the basement. We’d gone up to the attic, and the ceiling was a good twenty feet high, with exposed rafters and steel beams.
My stomach lurched and I had to fight to keep from screaming. What the hell was he doing? He’d just identified me as a hunter. I was holding a freaking stake! And now he was what, kidnapping me?
He had to make a split-second decision then: drop the one hand holding me to him, or drop the hand keeping me from stabbing him in the chest with my pointy silver stake I tensed, preparing to be dropped right on top of the Shadow Bloods, but he chose the latter. Keeping my body pressed to his, hand firmly around my waist, he released the pressure on my stake hand and used his free arm to snake out and hold on to a metal rafter, pulling us onto a skinny beam. The metal groaned but held, as he used his leg to pull us deeper up onto the beam.
He knew I was a hunter and he didn’t drop me? He hadn’t killed me yet? Why? I was completely frozen in shock, unsure what to do.
The small beam Luka had rolled us onto was right next to a large duct, and a perfect hiding spot from the Shadow Bloods. He pivoted our bodies so that I was smooshed between him and the metal ducting at my back.
I was essentially trapped underneath his body, my stake arm free to do some stabbing, but I paused. My heart hammered against my chest as his hips pressed into mine to keep him from falling backward. His buttery yellow eyes burned into mine as my chest heaved, pressing my breasts against him. In all the struggle, my black wig slipped halfway off and he stared at my bright red hair which had come loose and spread across my arm.
A male’s bloodcurdling scream rang out below then. Was that Thorin?
Liv!
I jerked upright, but Luka’s hand came down on my shoulder, slamming me back onto the platform.
He shook his head, warning me not to move. All I could do was breathe and watch the golden flecks in his eyes while I wondered why he’d chosen not to drop me. He could have left me for dead … or killed me himself.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let Liv just be killed by the Shadow Bloods. They would end her life without a second’s thought. I craned my neck, having to move closer to Luka in order to do it, and looked down. My throat went dry at the sight of at least six Shadow Blood mercenaries who had entered the feeding room. They had Thorin on his knees, sword at his throat.
I didn’t see Liv. I searched frantically until I remembered my watch. Wriggling my arm free, I pulled my watch up, attracting the attention of Luka. Liv’s little GPS dot was moving away from the club, and I sagged in relief against him.
Thank God.She got away.
Luka looked at my watch and then at me, eyes slitted as anger—no, rage—played out behind his features, and his gaze flicked from my watch to my wig, to the stake in my hand. Guilt wormed through me for half a second until I remembered I was literally feeling bad for betraying a blood-drinking demon from hell!
I mentally recited my favoriteHunter Scripturesverse, the one that kept me fighting the darkness every single day even if I wanted to quit:“For we, as ambassadors of heaven, fight not our fellow humans, but against the foul demons of this world. Demons who feed on the life blood of humanity.”
“Where is the prince!?” the Shadow Bloods below questioned Thorin.
The vampire stayed silent, and my gaze flicked up to Luka’s face. He was … wrestling with something. He wouldn’t … give himself up … to save his douchebag uncle, would he? He pulled himself up and over me, trying to get some leverage, his back against the ceiling.
Was he going to jump down? I shimmied under him, leaving the silver stake on my chest, and reached my hands out, latching on to his forearms with an iron, vise-like grip. He looked down at me incredulously and I shook my head.
Don’t do it, you idiot.
Six freaking Shadow Bloods would murder us all. They were highly trained vampires with backup plans upon backup plans. His first instinct—to hide—was the right one. Six inside this room meant a dozen outside on the VIP floor. This was a well-planned assault. One I’d gotten myself stuck in the middle of.
