His words caused a strange sensation to run through her as unexpected tears pricked her eyes. This man, this stranger, thisvampireplanned to use his body to shield her from bullets that could kill them both.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he ordered.
Mollie did as he said and draped her arms around his neck.
“Let’s go,” he said to Jack and Doug.
Mike clasped Mollie’s nape with one hand and placed the other in the small of her back before sprinting away from the barn and into the field with Jack and Doug at his side. Lowering her head, Mollie turned it on his shoulder to stare at the world whizzing past them.
The whipping wind made her feel like she was riding in a convertible with the top down. The sensation would have been freeing if it weren’t for the screams and gunshots peppering the air. Mike’s powerful body flowed beneath her as he zigzagged to avoid any bullets coming their way. When she shifted her hold on him, the blood from his bullet wound seeped onto her palm, and she yanked her hand away before she hurt him.
“Almost to the woods,” he said.
Mollie tried to turn her head to see the woods, but the wind whipping her hair into her face stung her cheeks and eyes. When she turned back, the air blew her hair away from her eyes. More gunfire pierced the night, and behind Mike, the earth churned up as bullets riddled the ground.
Mollie suppressed a scream when two of the runners threw out their arms as they tumbled to the ground. One of them tried to crawl forward, but another round of bullets ended their movement. Mike’s muscles bunched beneath her, and before she knew what was happening, he leapt into the air.
Mike’s foot came down on top of the split rail fence, and he launched himself off it as a fresh round of gunfire pierced the air. Holding Mollie closer, he bent partially over her to keep her protected as he propelled himself off the fence and into the woods. Not expecting the embankment on the other side, his front foot came down awkwardly and twisted.
Mollie cried out when his leg gave out. From the corner of his eye, he saw Doug grab a tree branch, but Jack bounced off the ground as he tumbled ahead of them and out of view. Mike staggered and almost caught himself before his other knee gave out and he plunged forward.
Mollie bit her bottom lip to keep from screaming when they hit the ground. Her breath wheezed out when Mike’s heavy weight came down on top of her before they rolled over. The rifle bounced against her back, dirt and rocks battered her, but Mike kept hold of her when they flipped head over heels down the embankment.
Mike grunted when his back crashed into a tree, but better his back than Mollie’s. When they started to roll over again, he thrust his body to the side to ease their downward plummet. Mollie burrowed her head in his shoulder; her fingers clawed his back when the movement caused him to come down on top of her again while they skidded down the hill at an alarming speed.
Slipping his leg between hers to keep her trapped against him, he released his hold on her and smashed his hands into the ground over her head. Dirt and rocks tore up beneath his fingers as their momentum slowed but didn’t stop.
Spotting a tree on his left, he lifted his hand from the ground and swung out to grasp it. His palm slammed against the trunk, and his fingers dug into the bark. One of his fingers broke from the impact, and his wounded shoulder screamed in protest, but he didn’t release the tree. Jerked to a halt, a muscle in his shoulder tore, but it was the least of his concerns as he took a minute to catch his breath and survey their surroundings.
They’d come to a halt halfway down the steep embankment. Some humans and vampires were still tumbling past him while others were running down the hill at a sideways angle to keep their footing. One human was bent around a tree, their spine broken from the impact and their awful moans mingling with the gunfire above.
He searched for his friends in the chaos, but he didn’t see Jack or Doug anywhere. Thankfully, their trackers were also nowhere in sight... yet.
Lowering his gaze, he stared at Mollie’s bent head as she panted against his shoulder and clutched at him. A tenderness he hadn’t known he possessed took over when he brushed the hair back from her forehead. Hehadto see her eyes and know she was okay.
She lifted her head from his shoulder, and their gazes met. Like the first time he saw her, the striking color of her eyes stole his breath from him. Without thinking, he bent and kissed her forehead. The action was entirely out of place but felt so natural it was as if he’d kissed her a thousand times before, and he wanted more. He inhaled her sweet apple scent as it mingled with the earthy aroma of the freshly turned up dirt surrounding them.
Mollie’s breath froze when his warm lips caressed her skin. Vampireskissedothers? Of course, they did in the books and shows, but in real life? It seemed impossible, but then maybe she was hallucinating this.
No, she was not hallucinating the weight of his body against hers or the firm press of his thigh between her legs. She was not imagining his enticing scent of cedar with the faint hint of cigarette smoke. She definitely wasnothallucinating her body’s utterly inappropriate response to him as her nipples hardened and the urge to rub herself against his thigh hit her.
When his lips moved from her forehead to her cheek, Mollie turned her head, so their mouths were only a few inches apart. She shouldn’t want him to kiss her, yet she did. He was more enticing than a KitKat bar. Perhaps he was only doing this so he could drink her blood, but when his breath tickled her lips, she didn’t care what his reasons were.
She found herself staring into his turbulent, royal blue eyes while he gazed at her with a look of awe that more than matched hers while their breath mingled, but their lips didn’t touch. She wanted to end the torture of this near kiss by lifting her lips to his, but she couldn’t break the moment as the rest of the world faded away until it was only the two of them.
A spatter of much closer gunfire drew their heads toward the top of the hill as more screams rent the air. Their captors were coming.
Mike suppressed the snarl seeking to tear free. He would destroy every one of these bastards for what they’d done, but first he had to find somewhere safe for Mollie. Releasing the tree, Mike braced his feet apart as he rose and extended his hand to Mollie.
Mollie clasped it, and he helped her to her feet. Their tumble had caused her shirt to pull down and expose the top of her simple black bra. The rifle had almost come off her back. She adjusted her shirt and the gun as headlights flashed over the top of the embankment and a truck rolled to a stop.
The glow of the headlights lit the tops of the trees and reflected off the ground. The shadows they created came alive as they slithered across the forest floor in such a way Mollie had the insane idea they were demons rising to drag them into the pits of Hell.Too late.
“They’re coming,” she breathed.
“This way.” Keeping a firm hold on her hand, Mike led her at an angle toward the bottom of the hill.
Chapter Eleven
