back of Elijah’s neck. Resisting his violent efforts to shake her off, the wild-eyed bitch held on even as Elijah threw himself to his back and writhed, grinding her into the ground beneath him.
Lindsay looked frantically for the other two lycans and found them with their jaws full. Steeling her courage, she leaped into the fray. A male vampire darted toward her head-on, playing chicken. Knowing that changing course would only weaken her footing, she charged ahead with a dagger in hand. She staked him in the heart, then used the protruding hilt for leverage to flip over his shoulder and land on the other side.
She continued without breaking her stride, diving forward as Elijah straightened. Her fist collided with the vampress’s jaw and it gave way with a sickening crack. Dislodged from her hold, the vampress hit the dirt on her back. Elijah rounded on her with a roar, grabbing her by the throat and ripping the flesh to the spine. Lindsay finished her off with a throwing knife to the forehead.
A gunshot echoed off the hillside, followed by the unmistakable whine of a ricochet.
She pivoted. A woman stood on the steps of the house with a shotgun, pumping another round into the chamber. She took aim at Adrian and pulled the trigger. As the report reverberated through her, Lindsay’s lungs seized, preventing her from screaming the warning that howled inside her horrified mind.
Adrian whipped one wing around, deflecting the bullet with the harsh
The gun disappeared from the vampress’s hands and appeared at Lindsay’s feet.
It took a half minute for Lindsay’s brain to lurch into full understanding. Then she caught up the weapon and pumped the fore-end, firing at a vampire charging one of the wolves. She got off six more shots, providing cover for the lycans. When the last chamber was spent, she wielded the shotgun like a club, whacking a vamp attempting to get up from where he’d been sprawled on the ground.
Risking a glance at the house, she searched for Adrian.
He was surrounded on all sides and kicking some serious ass. But the chick on the porch had retrieved another shotgun-a sawed-off one this time-and was lifting it to aim…
Lindsay darted through the opening in the fence, dodging flying bodies and barreling through ash piles. A vamp flew at her from the right and she ducked beneath his sailing body, startling herself with her own agility. She grabbed the last throwing knife from her bag and prepared to hurl it.
The barrel of the gun swung toward her.
Lindsay caught the nearest vampire and hauled him in front of her. The shotgun discharged with a deafening
The vamp jerked against her. Agonizing pain radiated through the forearm she had wrapped around his waist. She dropped to her knees in an exploding cloud of ash, the vampire disintegrating from the fatal shot.
The three lycans tore up the stairs and attacked the shooter.
Lindsay gulped in air but couldn’t breathe past the pain. She kept her gaze averted, afraid to look at her arm.
A vamp galloped on all fours out of the black pit of the front door and leaped toward Adrian. She took him out with the final blade still clutched in her uninjured hand. His ashes billowed over the yellowed, weed-infested lawn just as Adrian slammed his fist into the frothing maw of a snarling vamp.
The vampire hit the ground, unconscious. A second later, Lindsay joined him.
CHAPTER 11
Lindsay woke in a shadowed room. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, her head turning to figure out where she was.
Her cheek touched the cool cotton of the pillowcase and she saw Adrian. He sat to the left of her in a round low-backed chair covered in silver damask. He was bare except for a pair of loose-fitting white pajama bottoms and whatever he might be wearing underneath them. He watched her with a searing intensity, his mouth straightened into a dangerous line. Although he didn’t move a muscle aside from blinking, she felt a tornado churning inside him.
“Hi,” she croaked past a dry throat. She must have pushed her body too far; she always felt like hammered shit when she exerted herself beyond her limits.
He reached for the clear glass pitcher of water on the bedside table and poured a large ration into a waiting tumbler. Then he stood and helped her sit up, propping her back with some pillows before handing her the drink.
She accepted with a grateful smile. There was a thick cushion of white gauze bandages on her left forearm. Beneath them, pain throbbed dully. She downed the entire contents of her glass and passed it back.
He picked up the phone beside her and punched a button, ordering room service. They were in a hotel, she realized. The windows to the right of the bed were at least two stories tall and had Tiffany Blue drapes drawn across them. There was a large sitting area beside her and a massive entertainment center at the foot of the bed. Considering the size and opulence of the room and the grand piano she saw through the open living room doorway, they were in…
“Las Vegas?” she queried.
Setting the phone down, he nodded. He poured her a refill and returned the tumbler to her.
She blew out her breath. “How long have I been out?”
“We were in Hurricane the day before yesterday.”
Yikes. “Is everyone okay?”
His gaze bored into her. “You were the only one seriously hurt.”
“That’s good.”
“The hell it is,” he growled, his voice rumbling through the room like thunder, rattling every loose object. “I told you to stay put.”
“Why the fuck not?”
God, he was sexy when riled. She’d never seen him show anything besides total self-possession, but he was visibly seething now. “Because you needed someone at your back. Everyone else had their hands full. I couldn’t take the risk that you’d be spread too thin and leave an opening.”
“I could survive it.”
“You don’t know that! You told me yourself that you’ve had casualties. You’re not indestructible. I wasn’t going to stand around and watch you die.”
If there was any mercy in the world, she’d never have to watch another person she cared about die.
“So you decided to make me watch
The unspoken word slid insidiously and inexplicably through Lindsay’s mind. She winced and pressed her palm against a suddenly throbbing temple. Adrian took the glass from her other hand-the hand that should have been too weak to hold it-and bent to press his lips to her forehead. The pain left her like a receding tide.
“If only you could bottle that talent,” she murmured.
Remembering the ninja/
“You’re going to drive me insane.” Although his voice was once again smooth as silk, the turbulence inside him hadn’t abated. He straightened.
“Can you open the curtains?”
Adrian hit a button on the nightstand and the drapes parted, revealing an overcast sky and drizzle. In Las Vegas. Not that it never rained in the desert city, but at this time of year…?
She looked at him, knowing his mood was once again affecting the weather, which affected her in turn. “You were really worried.”
His hands went to his lean hips, exposing the entirety of his perfect torso and delicious biceps. His wings materialized, extending with a sinuous grace. He was so damn beautiful. So fierce and proud. He was like catnip to her. She wanted to roll around with him in a blissful stupor, breathing in that scent of his that drove her wild.
