Koray sensed the bullet and dodged it. He fired again, but she anticipated this one, too. The bullet he’d aimed to tear through her chest instead ripped through where wing connected with shoulder, and she cried out, though she didn’t fall.
He watched her carefully, anticipating her next move, while becoming more certain of her goal as seconds ticked by.
She fell back again, as if the injury was too great to bear. Darien eased off the gas in case she was to disappear into an alley as Ivyana said, “She could fly over the buildings, Dare.” He heard everything Ivy didn’t say: Koray wasn’t trying to escape. In fact, she didn’t plan on leaving until she got what she wanted.
“You read my mind, sis,” he said, just as Koray slammed onto the car.
Claws grabbing the sunroof, Koray shook the vehicle from side to side. Ivyana swore, struggling to steady her gun. In the backseat, Loren screamed. Koray’s hair was like a dark flame spiralling in the warm wind.
“Can you get a clear shot?” Darien shouted over the sound of the car’s body thumping from side to side. His teeth were rattling in his head. He might’ve slammed on the brake if he didn’t think it would either prompt her to fly away or cause a multi-vehicle collision. If they didn’t kill this bitch soon, she could flip over the car. Which wouldn’t be a problem for Darien and his sister, who could survive a crash like that with barely a scratch on them. But Loren—
Loren began screaming as Koray pulled her up through the sunroof. Loren’s legs thrashed as she fought to stay in the car, seatbelt tangling around her thigh.
Koray cackled with delight. “Would you like tofly?!”
“Darien!” Loren screamed, her voice breaking.“DARIEN!”
“I can’t get a clear shot!” Ivy shouted. No—because Koray was making sure to hold Loren in front of her heart.
“For fuck’s sake.” Darien jumped to a crouch on the seat, still applying pressure to the gas pedal with his left boot. “You need to drive, Ivy.” Ivyana took the wheel from him, already moving to take his place.
The car careened to the left as Darien launched himself between the front seats and into the back—just as Koray lifted a screaming Loren through the sunroof.
Darien dove through that sunroof, taking hold of Loren’s bare legs before Koray could fly away with her.
But Koray wouldn’t let go, and soon they were airborne. Wind filled Koray’s wings like hot air balloons and carried them higher, turning the vehicles on the freeway the size of toys. Under their combined weight, Koray’s wings beat faster.
Pistol in hand, Darien shimmied up Loren’s body far enough to grab onto one of Koray’s wings, his right arm wrapped firmly around Loren’s waist. He pulled sharply on the wing, throwing Koray off balance. Her other flapped rapidly with a desperate attempt to stay airborne. The skyscrapers of the Financial District streaked by in a blur of spotless glass—glass that reflected the sight of Darien and Loren being towed through the air like goddamn rabbits caught by a hawk.
Their speed picked up again as Koray tried to free up her wing from his grip. She snarled in defiance—
And then gasped in horror as the window of a skyscraper neared. She tried in vain to backpedal, but it was too late.
Darien had half a second to shout for Loren to close her eyes before glass shattered and they were launched through the floor-to-ceiling window of an office halfway up a skyscraper.
27
Loren’s head spun as she rolled across the flecked carpet. Glass was everywhere; it bit into her skin in more places than she thought possible. But she couldn’t feel pain—not yet. Her ears were shrieking, blood rushing in her head as she finally stilled.
Three gunshots peeled through the air. Three gunshots from the pistol the slayer crouching before her held in a steady hand. Darien didn’t seem fazed in the slightest by anything that had happened as he fired at the vampire with deadly precision.
The vampire’s face was a mixture of rage and pain as the stakes tore into her bluish-white body. Two in the chest—directly where a heart should be—and one between her eyebrows. The silver burned her skin to ash as she fell backward, tumbling to the sidewalk below.
Darien leapt to his feet and strode to the sill, glass crunching beneath his combat boots. Wind whipped into the room, rustling his clothes and hair. From the way his features smoothed, and how he holstered the pistol near his belt buckle, Loren knew he’d succeeded at killing her.
From the street below, Ivyana called, “You got her.”
He gave his sister one nod, then turned around to face Loren.
Where she sat, gasping in the middle of the destroyed office, Loren couldn’t breathe. Fragments of the windowpane were spread around her in a mosaic, the red light of a deepening sunset reflecting in the hundreds of broken pieces. And among the glass, there was blood.
It washerblood. Every drop of it was hers. She almost threw up at the sight of it.
And then the pain began. It was everywhere, burning her shoulders, neck, and arms. Her bare legs were streaked with blood, the wounds glittering with shards of glass. Her breaths came faster, until it felt like her lungs were on fire, her tattoo flaring red.
Darien was suddenly crouching before her; she hadn’t even seen him move. “You’re okay,” he said, his deep voice gentle. “You’re going to be fine.”
But Loren was hyperventilating, her vision spinning so rapidly she could barely concentrate on the handsome face that was lowered to her level. “It hurts,” she bit out. Her cheeks were wet; whether it was with blood or tears, she wasn’t certain.
