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Another blow came at me. I cursed mentally and surged upward, out of reach, even as I called to my flesh form. As the second blow sailed underneath me, I regained form and dropped to the ground, hitting hard but feetfirst.
The third blow I caught and held, though the force of it shuddered up my arm and hurt like hell.
“If you want to get out of this place alive,” I said, voice little more than a harsh whisper, “you’d better stop trying to kill me.”
His shock was so fierce it hit almost as strongly as a physical blow. I really had no idea why I could sense this shifter’s emotions so clearly—especially when I wasn’t actively trying to read him—but I wished it would stop. Especially now, when the distinct lack of emotion in his expression belied the strength of that emotive swirl.
I swung the pack from my back and squatted down. “We have about five minutes before the vampires wake—”
“I’ve only ever seen one race other than the vampires able to do what you just did,” he cut in, voice harsh. “I was right—you’re one of them. You’re a déchet.”
I glanced up quickly. The fierce shock I’d felt only seconds ago had turned to anger. Anger and utter hatred. He hadn’t moved, but every ounce of him quivered like a bow too tightly strung. One wrong move, and we would both be dead.
“But not a soldier, no matter what you think.” My voice was calm, despite the tension rising within me. Tension the vampires closest to the door would sense if they were anywhere near consciousness. “And, right now, I’m your only means of getting out of here.”
He snorted, and I couldn’t help noticing his clenched fists. Even in the blackness, his knuckles glowed white, but somehow he was restraining the urge to lash out.
For now.
“Nuri would never—”
“Nuri sent me,” I cut in. “There is no one else coming, Jonas, so you have a choice—me or death.”
His expression very much suggested death might be a better option. I would have laughed if it hadn’t been so dangerous. It seemed there were some prejudices that could never be breached, no matter how much time had passed.
Which made Nuri’s comment that I had to rescue him for my own sake even more baffling.
I pushed upright, weapons in hand. “Choose, shifter.”
“And if I choose death?”
“Then you are a fool. But if that is your decision, then you can have the weapons. At least you can go down fighting.”
I offered him the shotgun and pistol. It was a dangerous ploy given the emotional turmoil and his obvious desire to kill, but there was no other option. To get out of here, I had to trust him.
And he had to trust me.
His gaze flickered to the weapons, then met mine again. After a moment, he took the shotgun, flipped it around, and pointed both barrels straight at my face.
/> “What if the death I choose is yours?”
The tension boiling through me sharpened abruptly, but I didn’t let any of it show physically. It might have been a very long time since I’d used any of my seductress skills, but I could still control my emotional output if I really desired—although if he could read me as well as I seemed to be reading him, it was probably a pointless exercise.
“If that is your choice, then so be it.” I shrugged. “But even if you somehow make it out of here alive, you will never find those children.”
“Says who?”
“Nuri.” I hesitated, then added, “And you might wish to know I have no more desire to be here than you have to be rescued by me. But Nuri threatened the lives of every ghost within my bunker. I cannot let my little ones die any more than you would choose to walk away from those still missing.”
For several precious moments, neither of us moved. Outside the bunker, dusk was dying, and inside the vampires were beginning to stir. We had two minutes, if that, before all hell broke loose.
“Choose, shifter. Now.”
“Then I choose life.” He lowered the shotgun. “Yours and mine.”
For now.
Once again, he might not have said those last two words, but they nevertheless hovered in the gulf between us.
