She waved me off. “No, I’ll go get it. Just pick me up at the front of the restaurant.”
What she really wanted was space. I bowed my head and turned, heading toward the car.
I paused when I reached the door, taking a moment to run my hands through my hair. If someone told me, six months ago, I’d be losing my mind over a vampire vixen, I would have had a raucous laugh.
Yet here I was. Twisted up inside. Needing Vivien’s declaration of love like a weak mortal consumed by ego and desire. Acting like I’d die without it.
But the true danger waslivingwithout her love. Hellfire was preferable to that.
My finger pressed against the identification lock on the door handle.
I had less than a moment to hear the click and rising buzz. My jaw tightened and my hand clenched tighter around the handle right before the vehicle exploded.
7
Vivien
Imade it halfway to the restaurant when a crack of thunder followed by a wave of heat against my back sent me flying. Time escaped me, and I found myself splayed against a car, the hood crushed in under my body.
I checked to make sure all parts were still attached, but blood seeped out of my nose and slid down my forehead. What the actual fuck just happened? My brain took far too long to compute an explosion had thrown me.
Panic gripped me as I realized the direction the blast had come from.
“Grim.” My cry for him came out in a strangled word as I rolled off the car.
Oh, shit shit shit. I ran toward the blazing fire.
The air shimmered from the heat around the crackling flames. I had to throw an arm up to shield my face from them.
“Grim,” I cried out, finding my voice this time. I screamed his name a few more times.
Oh fuck, he couldn’t be dead.He’s a god.
Even as I tried to reassure myself that he’d survived, my insides twisted with agony and grief. A sob choked me, so I couldn’t call out for him anymore.
I staggered back, unable to take the heat any longer. Should I check the ground for body parts? Did I gather them in a pile and hope he’d repair himself?
The very thought made my stomach somersault in vicious spins. I began to lose my footing, staggering to the left until I could hold myself against a slightly charred hood.
Metal crunched and groaned in the conflagration. I squinted, trying to bring the movement into focus. A shadowy figure moved inside the flames.
Grim emerged, his clothes burned away. Smoke twirled off his bare, rounded shoulders. An aura of what I could only describe as divinity shimmered around him. His bronze skin and dark hair gleamed as though he’d been polished in the fire. His golden eyes glowed with a fierce rage, making him one scary motherfucker. Any human who witnessed the naked, almighty god would melt into a puddle of incoherence and fear.
Then his eyes landed on me, and his expression morphed into one of worry and love. In moments, I found myself in his arms. Sirens wailed in the distance.
“Oh, sweet baby hamsters, I thought you…” I couldn’t finish the phrase as the invisible grip around my throat had yet to release.
“Are you alright?” he asked, pulling back, running his hands over me, checking for wounds. A hardness flickered in his expression when his fingers brushed against the cut on my forehead.
“Am I alright?” I asked, incredulous. “You were the one at the center of an explosion.” I could hear the hysteria climbing up in my voice.
Say it. Say you love him. Tell him. It’s right there, ready to spring off your tongue.
Except the panic and fear shoved it right back down into the deepest cavern.
Tucking my hair behind my ears, he stared deeply into my eyes. “I’m fine. You didn’t lose me.”
The sirens grew louder. “We need to get out of here,” Grim said. “Do you have your phone?”
