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I jerked to backup, to run, but didn’t finish the step before Michio bolted into a dark streak, leaping over the moat and straight toward me. He was so damned fast I thought he’d sprouted wings.
Jesse fired the gun, over and over, each ear-splitting burst stopping and restarting my heart. But I knew the bullets hadn’t hit him. His approach was too swift, his movements indistinct to the eye.
I didn’t have time to run or fight or draw a breath. One moment I was standing there, and the next I was pinned against Michio’s chest. Then we were moving at an inhuman speed, his legs blurring beneath me as he carried me into the night.
My hair whipped in my face, and my pulse pounded past my ears. At the rate of speed Michio was running, it felt like I was hurling through a tornado on a sportbike.
As much as I wanted to let go of his shoulders and reach for the carbine strapped to my back, it wasn’t the best plan. Maybe I’d survive a fall at this velocity, but goddamn, it would hurt. I’d definitely break a bone.
There was also the little issue involving my aching need to help him, not hurt him.
Leveling my mouth at his ear, I screamed, “Slow the fuck down.”
The wind caught my voice and tossed it behind us. Cradled in the unbending cage of his arms, my body barely jostled with his fluid sprint.
I flattened a hand on the bare skin of his shoulder blades, half-expecting to find wings, but instead my fingers slid over ridges of muscles bunching beneath smooth, hot flesh.
The field he just bolted through lay silent and unruffled, a trail-less expanse of grassy ground stretching to the moonlit backdrop. Somewhere back there, Jesse and Roark would be tracking us, at a much slower clip.
“Michio, stop.” I dug my fingernails into the hard flesh of his back.
The son of a bitch picked up his pace.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Not far.” His voice feathered out, easy and measured.
How was he not winded? It wasn’t human. He wasn’t human.
My skin shivered where it pressed against his, and my head spun with dizziness. “This is unnecessary. Put me down, and we’ll walk there together.”
He laughed, more like an incredulous huff, as his legs surged in a haze through the tall grass, taking me farther and farther away from Jesse and Roark.
Blasts of air chased my pulse into a faster rhythm, cleaving sharp pains in my chest. I shoved my hair from my face. “You’re scaring me.”
He sliced his eyes to me, his expression startled, maybe even heartbroken. I didn’t trust him, but with his face so close, I did the only thing I could think of to slow him down.
I kissed him. First, on his cheek, then I slid my lips to the spot beneath his ear, my breathing ragged and desperate.
“Evie.”
His growl chilled my blood, but I didn’t back off.
I kissed along his hairless jawline, and his steps faltered. When I leaned closer to kiss the corner of his mouth, he angled his head away.
“I know what you’re doing.”
Wish I could say the same about him. I shoved at his chest, going nowhere. “Let me go!”
A breathless moment later, he slowed to a walk. “We’re here.”
I turned my head to find the animal clinic twenty yards away. The broad outline of Tallis’ back filled the doorway, illuminated by the interior glow of a kerosene lamp.
As I opened my mouth to shout, Michio muffled it with his hand, his other restricting my thrashing body in a painful arm lock. “Not a peep, or I’ll knock him out.”
He’d lost his goddamned mind. My eyes widened with a mixture of terror and venom as I nodded reluctantly.
He released my mouth and arm, soundlessly darted around the building, and holy shit, we were going up. As he scaled the ladder on the stony backside, I reared back a fist to smash his face. But the plan was as fleeting as the ascent. Before I connected with his jaw, my feet touched the flat roof, and the warmth of his body was gone.
Heart racing, I released the carbine from its sling on my back and aimed it at his twisted fucking brain.
He stood a few feet away, arms at his sides, and cocked his head. “You’re not going to shoot me.”
A swallow lodged in my throat. Could I paint the shingles with his brain matter? I didn’t want to. Heaven help me, it would destroy me, but adrenaline and fear made people do desperate things.
“Right now, anything’s possible.” I stretched a shaky finger over the trigger. “Why did you bring me here?”
He slid a hand in his pocket and walked a slow circle around me, his posture relaxed, his eyes on the pitch-black horizon. “We don’t have much time before they catch up.”
