Finally tearing her gaze away from him, shelooked up as the younger looking male vamp, and woman, stepped infront of the ruined window. Before she could react, Ian shot to hisfeet and raced across the floor at them. She didn’t have time toblink before he launched at the man, seized hold of his throat andtumbled across the porch with the man in his grasp. The porchbanister snapped like a locust tree in a hurricane beneath theforce of their impact. The woman spun away from the window to goafter them.
Shaking herself off, Paige turned toward thedoor, but then she recalled the brand new doorway in the middle ofthe living room. She ran across the room and poked her headcautiously out of the shattered window before leaping out. Thedisconcerting and stomach turning spectacle of the older vamp’shead lying only feet away, caused her to hesitate by the shatteredremains of the window. She didn’t know where his body was, and shedidn’t look in order to find out.
Ian and the other man rolled across the lawnin a blur of motion that made it impossible for her todifferentiate one from the other. The woman had no problem as sheraced across the lawn and flung herself onto Ian’s back. The forceof her weight halted the aggressive rolling across the grass. Moreblood spilled from Ian as the woman beat at his back and tore athis clothes. Pulse pounding wrath burst through Paige, she’d wantedto pummel Ian more than a few times, but no one else was ever goingto hurt him.
She leapt over the broken railing and racedacross the yard toward them. Ian threw his arm back and twistedaround to clutch the woman’s broken arm. A screech escaped thewoman when he twisted the dangling appendage up toward her back,bending the shattered bone in an awkward direction. Blood streakedIan’s face and clothing, but his face was expressionless when helifted his foot, placed it in the vampire’s stomach and shoved heraway. The woman reeled backward so fast Paige barely had enoughtime to get out of the way before she sprawled on the ground.
Ian turned back to the man and drove hishand through the man’s chest. The sound it made reminded her of aball hitting a bat. The man’s eyes bugged as he grabbed at Ian’swrist, but Ian wrenched backward mercilessly. He crushed the heartin his hand as he drove his left fist into the man’s cheek. Bonecaved beneath the powerful force of the blow, the man’s feet kickedon the ground before finally going still.
The woman rolled over, but she was slowerthan she had been. Before she could react, Ian grabbed hold of herhead and twisted it around so forcefully it actually came aroundagain. The woman’s eyes bugged from her head; stuttering sounds ofanguish escaped her as her hands flailed wildly at her distortedhead. Paige skidded to a halt a few feet away from them. Ian’s eyeswere the same color as the blood coating him when he lifted hishead to look at her.
He held his blood covered hand out to herand gestured at the makeshift stake. “Give it to me.”
Paige had come out here with the purpose ofputting one of these monsters down; she realized now this wasn’ther world. She’d been deluding herself into thinking she’d beanywhere near as effective against a vampire as the hunters who hadtaken her in. Handing the stake out to him, a sick sensationsettled in her stomach as she realized she’d been nothing but apawn to the hunters she’d believed were trying to help her.
No normal human could hope to take on one ofthese creatures and survive. The woman’s freaking head wascompletely twisted around, and she was still moving and trying tofight! They may not all look like Ian did, with the deep reddishblack swirling over his skin and turning him nearly the color ofcharcoal, but they were all far more lethal than she was.
Ian took the stake from her and grabbinghold of the woman, drove it deep into her heart. The woman howledand clawed at the stake; her face twisted grotesquely as she spatat him before crumpling to the ground. Ian didn’t give her anothersecond’s worth of attention. Turning away, he frowned at Paige’sashen skin and bloodless lips. He knew blood covered him, knew whatshe’d witnessed, and he would have done anything to have preventedher from seeing it, but this was the lifeshehadchosen.
“Are you ok?” he demanded.
Taking a deep breath, Paige waved adismissive hand at him. She was extremely proud her hand didn’tshake. “I’m fine.”
“What you just saw…”
“I’ve seen worse, well maybe not worse, butclose to it. I told you I know what your kind is capable of.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed at her words. “I’m not amonster.”
“That’s not what I meant!” she gushed out.She ignored the blood coating him as she grabbed hold of his arm.What she’d seen had left her rattled, but she knew what kind of aman he was. “I know you’re not a monster, Ian.” He remainedimmobile, before his shoulders slumped and some of the tensioneased from his body at her words. She kept hold of his arm,refusing to release him, needing the contact with his body. “Why isyour skin like that?” she asked.
Ian glanced down at himself, an eyebrow shotup when he saw the reddish black color suffusing his body andpulsating through his veins. He’d only seen something like it oncebefore, with Ethan. If he’d still needed confirmation she was hismate, that color swirling through his body would have done it. Nowit only made him realize his brother wasn’t the only one who wouldbe capable of breaking the rules governing their kind, not when itcame to her. There was little he wouldn’t be able to do when itcame to keeping her alive.
“It’s something that seems to happen topurebloods,” he murmured. “Or at least the only other vampire I’veseen it happen to is Ethan.”
“What is it? What causes it?”
“I don’t know what it is,” he admitted. “Butwhen our mate is endangered it comes out in us.”
He flexed his hands, relishing the powerswirling throughout his system. He could take on ten more vampiresright now, and heknewhe could and would destroy anyone wholooked to hurt her.
He wiped the blood away from his face withthe back of his arm before gesturing toward the house. “We have togo,” he said gruffly.
“Are there more nearby?” she asked.
“No, not yet, but that doesn’t mean therewon’t be, and I’m not taking any chances with you.”
She blinked at him as if she didn’t hear himbefore nodding. Glancing at the bodies surrounding him, hisshoulders slumped. All he’d ever wanted from life was peace, yet heand his family were constantly threatened by those who had neverbeen able to find any peace in their own lives.
Turning away, he swiftly climbed the porchto pick up the duffel bag he’d left there and to retrieve Paige’sbag. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he told her when he rejoinedher. He placed both of their bags near her feet.
Paige felt hollow when she met his gaze. Itwas never going to end, she knew that now, her father would hunther until the day one of them died. “It’s my fault, they came herefor me.”
“No, it’s not. I have to bury the bodies.Wait here for a few minutes.”
“You’re going to dig a grave in a few…” herquestion trailed off. He’d taken out three vampires on his own,could run forty miles in five minutes, of course he could dig agrave in a matter of minutes.
“Your back!” she gasped when he turned awayfrom her. His shirt had been shredded along his side and multipletimes across his back. His blood had turned the blue material adeep maroon color. A jagged piece of wood from the window was stillembedded near his shoulder blade.
