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“My mother…” One whispered. “He made me…”
“My wife…” From another.
“My son.” Grief. Fury. “I begged him, but I couldn’t stop him!”
Not born monsters. We are what we become.
Simon looked back down at Grim’s still face. Once, Grim had just been a man, too. A man betrayed who’d woken to the power of a near god.
Dee’s fingers slowly loosened their death grip on the stake. Her breath exhaled on a hard sigh. She trembled.
Grim’s lashes were closed. His lips unmoving. No heartbeat. No breath.
Death.
Simon took Dee’s shoulders and pulled her away from the Born vampire. Over. Finally.
“Dee?”
He caught a scent in the air. A wild, fierce scent in the night. Animal. No, shifter. Jude had to be close. More of the cavalry, but coming too late this time.
The vampires stilled, and he saw their eyes dart to the shadows. They knew when they were being hunted. Fear trickled into their dark gazes.
Then they bolted.
Not as dumb as he’d thought. Just lost, like he’d been.
“Is he dead?” Zane wasn’t looking at them. His eyes stayed on Nina’s body and his shoulders hunched.
The stake was buried in Grim’s heart. The bastard wasn’t so much as twitching. Yep, looked dead.
Simon tugged Dee closer toward him. “Sonofabitch, woman, you scared me! Catalina didn’t tell us Grim would die, she said you?—”
Her knees buckled and Simon saw her chest—saw the blood that covered her. “Dee?”
A stake. A fucking stake. She’d gotten the Born, but he’d taken his death blow.
Both…right…Grim’s last words.
Because they were both dying.
Her lashes fell closed. No, no, screw that. Simon grabbed the stake and yanked it from her chest. She was still breathing. Her heart still beating. The stake had missed its mark, it had missed! She wasn’t going to die. No, she wasn’t going to?—
“Easy,” Zane’s hoarse voice blasted, and Simon realized he’d been screaming. Begging.
“Live,” Simon whispered now.
Grim had missed her heart. Simon could hear Dee’s heart beating. She’d be all right. She just needed blood. She just needed?—
Her lashes lifted. Such dark eyes. Weak, but, still Dee.
“I will,” she promised. “I will.”
He crushed his lips onto hers and kissed her as hard and deeply as he could.
Surrounded by death, but she was alive.
He leaned his forehead against hers and just held her.
