AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cally grabbed Huxley from behind, and the vampire was forced to take evasive actions to get out of the bear’s grasp.
“It’s real,” someone noted.
Huxley was forced into a physical battle with Cally while trying to fight Gavin metaphysically, and Lauren knew when the tide turned. She pushed more energy into Queenie, and envisioned Cally’s claws digging into Huxley’s chest, since he was protecting his head, realizing that was her objective.
Cally formed a fist, punched the vampire’s chest, and then rammed her claws into undead flesh. Vampire blood spurted like a fountain, and Cally used the opportunity to rip Huxley’s head from his body.
The energy in the roomsnapped.
Lauren went to her knees from the backlash, because everything that had belonged to Huxley now belonged to Gavin.
And at the same moment, she realized Gavin hadn’t been losing — he’d been playing with Huxley while trying to convince him he wasn’t here to take over as Master of Vegas.
I’m sorry.
You were trying to help. We’ll figure it out. There are shows here you can run, too. It might take some sidestepping to bring Nick with us, though.
Stop talking to me and do what you have to. I’m with you, whatever happens.
Queenie’s hands grasped Lauren’s upper arms, and the werewolf lifted her and stood her beside the civet, so she could lean against the wall as well.
A loud argument had broken out, accusing Gavin of cheating. Lauren stepped forward and raised her voice loud enough to be heard. “Huxley is dead by vampire law. I belong to Gavin, and the bear is part of my magic.” She recalled Cally, and her bear came to her and rejoined her. The room gasped, almost as a single entity, and one of the vampires stepped forward, a long sword in his hand, lifted in the air, his body language clearly showing he knew how to handle it, and asked, “What are you?”
Lauren stepped to Gavin’s side and was about to tell them what she was, when Gavin’s arms went around her and everything went black.
Chapter 39
In the thousands of years Gavin had been alive, he’d been careful to allow no one to know he could turn to mist unless they were going to die. Zander and Kendra knew, but that was it. Not even Queenie knew.
Because it was a secret, he’d been able to use it as his escape-of-last-resort and get himself out of situations where he should have died more times than he could count.
He wasalwayscareful to be certain everyone who saw it or heard about it either died or had their memories rewritten, and that wasn’t going to be possible today, but he didn’t care.
A bullet had been headed towards Lauren’s head, and there was no other way to get her out of the way, so he threw his arms around her and went to mist.
Without physical ears, he couldn’t hear the collective gasp, but he was aware of it. He needed to get Lauren away from the worst of the danger, so he focused on moving the particles that had been him and Lauren out the doorway and into the hall, traveling near the ceiling.
The Slayer’s attention was on them, but he wasn’t watching with his eyes. No one else was aware.
Gavin moved into an empty room and focused on forming them back. A millisecond after he’d put them back together and solidified their physical forms, he created a dome around them to dampen any sounds Lauren might make.
Coming back from the mist hurts every fucking cell in your body, and Lauren’s relationship with pain was complicated — especially new kinds that she wasn’t accustomed to. She leaned over and dry-heaved, her stomach already empty, thank goodness.
You’re okay, he telepathed.Breathe through it, Shortstuff. When we return to the room, I need you to levitate the civet off the property and into the bus. It might be nice to have Cally as an escort.
Cally had Huxley’s blood on her when she came back to me. I have some of his powers. I need to sort through them.
That was unexpected, but it made sense. Odds were, she’d only have them a short time, but it was certainly something they needed to experiment with.
She stopped dry heaving, stood up straight, and shuddered.What the fuck did you do to me?
I turned us both to mist, left the room, and reformed us. I know it hurts, and I’m sorry, but a bullet was about to go into your brain. More bullets were on the way towards both of us, so knocking you out of the way wasn’t an option.
I suppose a thank you is in order, then.
Mordecai came striding into the room, and he stopped and crossed his arms. Clearly pissed.
“I have her,” Mordecai told Gavin. “You should return to the weight room.”
