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Hot tears splashed down my cheeks as I looked past Olivia’s pale blond hair and met Declan’s horrified gaze. It was strange, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen so much emotion on his face. His serum shouldn’t allow it, even in a situation like this. Maybe it was only an illusion.
It felt like forever that they fed on me, but I knew it was only a few short seconds.
Olivia gasped first, pulling back from me and touching the dark red blood on her lips. The male was next, his eyes wide, his brow furrowed.
She gasped. “What is this?”
I glared at her as the feeling came back to my limbs and I was able to speak and move again. “It’s heartburn, bitch.”
When she opened her mouth to scream, I could see the fire rising up from deep inside of her. Before she could make another sound, she exploded in a fiery, ashy cloud. I tried to pull back from it so I wouldn’t be burned, but I was already up against the wall. All I could do was wave at the scattering ashes to keep them from hitting my face.
Ian turned his stunned gaze to mine, mouth dark with my blood. I saw both grief and fury in his black eyes. Olivia had been important to him and now he’d lost her forever.
He grabbed my throat, hard enough to crush me, but his hands had already caught fire. When he looked down at them with shock, I shoved him away from me as hard as I could. His growl of anger turned into a scream of pain as the inferno consumed him. A moment later there was nothing left of either of them except for a pile of ashes.
I brought my shaky hand to my throat, which was tender, raw, and bleeding, just like my wrist. The phantom stench of burnt flesh hung in the air, and I wiped the fine coating of ash off the front of my tank top and arms.
So close. Too close.
He would have killed me if he’d had more time. Luckily for me, he hadn’t.
Declan had managed to rise to his feet now, favoring his left leg. He wrenched himself up the remaining stairs and grabbed hold of my shoulders. I expected him to yell at me for being so careless, for nearly getting myself killed. He gently turned my face to the side and then took my wrist in hand so he could inspect the bite wounds.
“Damn it, Jill.” He held my face between his hands. “Are you okay?”
I smiled genuinely, so happy I was still alive, that he was still alive. When I’d seen the vampire grab him when he opened the door, I’d thought that was it. We were living on borrowed time anyway. I’d thought our meter had just expired.
I nodded. “I’ll live.”
He met my gaze. “You saved my life.”
“I actually think I owe you a few of those.”
His jaw set. “Don’t let it happen again. When I tell you to move, I want you to move.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s get Jennifer and get the fuck out of here.”
“But your leg—” I began.
“It’s healing as we speak. I reset it already. I’ll be fine, just slow.”
Declan had reset his own broken leg before it healed wrong. I wasn’t sure if I should feel sorry for the pain that must have caused him or be utterly impressed.
Both. He was a serious badass.
“Declan,” I touched his arm. “Did you hear what they said?”
He shook his head. “What?”
“They said that Jackson’s dead. They know what he looks like since he went after them at the bar the other night.”
A different kind of pain crossed his single gray eye, and he nodded. “Let’s go.”
I pulled the door open, relieved that Jennifer was still there, sitting on the ground in the hallway, pressed up against the wall with her legs pulled close to her chest.
Her fearful gaze moved to my throat. Whatever damage she saw there made her gasp out loud. “They bit you.”
