AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Torrin exhibited no signs of unsettling behavior.
Perhaps she’d done her job too well and he’d read the queues she’d been flaunting. If Torrin attempted to test the waters and kiss her, would she let him? The very thought of his lips coming anywhere near hers made her physically ill. Grinding her teeth together, Blair battled through the wave of nausea at the sentiment, belated revulsion icing through her veins. Even his touch infuriated her.
But she couldn’t ease off the gas now, not when they’d connected through pleasantries and his barely tolerable perusal of her assets. If he attempted anything untoward, she’d deal with it when the time came.
“Not that you’d care, but reams are kept in this storage unit. My former managing editor, Victor, always made me stop here on the tour.”
Torrin unlocked the door and motioned for her to stroll ahead of him into the waiting darkness. Feeling her gut churn uneasily, Blair pushed it aside and dutifully stepped into the space ahead of him. As he flipped on the light, Blair briefly lost sight of him while she turned around.
The door clicked behind them.
And then he turned on the sound.
Instant agony. Deep in her marrow, the excruciating noise reverberated through her being and made bile rise in her throat. Knees buckling, Blair collapsed in a heap onto the cement floor, panting through the onset of pain. Clutching at her ears, she felt the warmth of blood trickle down her palms, her eardrums ruptured.
“You think I wouldn’t notice, vampire?” Torrin’s voice sounded garbled, tinnitus ringing in her ears and fracturing his spoken words.
Blair’s knees bit into the unforgiving surface of the chilled floor, her palms clutched over her ears to unsuccessfully block out the torment of the ultrasonic wave. Her heart pounded in her chest and adrenaline rose in response.
Cringing as nausea burned in her throat, her mind fumbled through her escape plan. The telepathic communication roared through her bond with Nina with striking swiftness, but the unfamiliarity of the ghosting presence at the end spelled trouble.
Blair’s eyes fluttered open to see Torrin’s form towering above her, Glock in hand.
Dread fisted an icy hand around her throat. Undoubtedly, the clip contained within boasted theCitizens’prized liquid sunlight bullets. Capable of searing through a vampire’s flesh and instigating a slow death, they were one of the few things that could kill her immortal breed.
Rocking back on her heels, Blair attempted to stand on knees that quaked beneath her frame. Every breath shuddered through her lungs as she bit back the nauseating urge to expel non-existent food from her stomach.
“You’re scum, bloodsucker.” Angry words from an angry man. “You deserve nothing but death.”
The sound of a silenced gunshot echoed against the paper white walls. Visceral heat burned through her skin, blazing through the flesh in her abdomen and jolting into her bloodstream. Sweat beaded on her temples instantly, her body wracked by uncontrollable spasms while the sunlight began eating through her tissues.
Blair!
Kaien’s voice in her mind was a bare whisper against the agony tormenting her. Gritting her teeth as she tried to crawl away from Torrin, Blair responded,I’ve been shot. I need—I need Nina to teleport me now!
She felt the all-encompassing shock that instantly swamped the male, the unmistakable vein of fear that bloomed on the other end of their connection. Something in her pulled taunt, a deep-seated desire to ease his panic, but she couldn’t focus as the blood pounded in her ears and pooled against her trembling palms.
She sensed the Raeth’s efforts as he built energy and concentrated on a remote teleport. Tendrils of his power curled affectionately around her, heat shrouding her even as her torso dampened further.
Torrin stilled, his soaring height rising above her. The Glock leveled with her temple.
The gun never went off. As her vision blurred, she surrendered to the teleport and let Kaien carry her away. Consciousness dimming, Blair vaguely saw Kaien’s earthy brown eyes solidify above her.
The coppery tang of blood flooded her mouth. Pain perforated her core as the liquid sunlight licked through her veins and exploded outward from the bullet wound that had ripped through her flesh like butter.
“Kaien.” Words felt like gravel in her throat. Blair tried fruitlessly to reach up to grasp his hand. Her fingers, cold from lack of circulation, never met his.
“Don’t speak, Blair.”
His eyes flicked to her wound, the gentleness of his hands coming to her waist. Behind the practiced mask of a clinician, Blair could see the worry that infiltrated his gaze. The fear.
The Raeth healer concentrated on her abdomen, his brow furrowing as he assessed her condition. With a curt shake of his head, he began to tear off her shirt.
Though her rational mind knew the action was for her own good, the confused predator underneath her skin couldn’t get past the feeling of vulnerability, of surrender. Unimaginable rage coursed through her veins. Sanity fled her while agony increased, the rational part of her psyche flickering off.
“No!”
Weak and hoarse, Blair’s last energy went to fighting his attempt to remove her blouse to better examine the wound.
