Page 58 of Kiss of Smoke

I sat up straighter, my stomach doing its best to expel the gourmet grilled cheese Alec had served for dinner. At the thought of him, my nausea turned to anger, so I didn’t flinch when the officers stopped in front of me.

“Chloe Drexel?” the woman asked, her accent as neat and clipped as a BBC presenter’s.

“Yes?” I stood. “I mean, that’s me.”

The man spoke, his voice low and courteous. “We’re from the Metropolitan Police Service. We’re here to take you to your embassy, which will issue you an emergency passport so you can fly home.”

Hope surged like a shooting star in my chest. “Seriously? How soon will I be able to leave London?”

“I’m not certain, ma’am. But the embassy moves pretty quickly. I’m sure they’ll get you sorted.”

It wasn’t like I had any other options, so I followed them from the waiting area and past the ticket agent who didn’t even look up as we left. Which seemed…weird. Because wasn’t she still trying to get the embassy on the line?

The female officer looked at me over her shoulder. “You’re lucky we monitor all outgoing calls to the embassies. We picked up your case on our scanner.”

Oh. Well, that made sense. “How far is it to the embassy?” I bit my tongue before I could ask what part of London it was in. I didn’t want them knowing I was running from someone. Two someones.

“Not far,” the male said, gesturing me toward a waiting police car as we exited the terminal. To my surprise, he slid in beside me while the female officer took the driver’s seat. She merged seamlessly into traffic and we were off, the airport shrinking behind us.

We rode in silence for about twenty minutes, the police car a dark cocoon of silence. Then my phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I let out a yelp.

“Everything all right?” the female officer asked, meeting my gaze in the rear view mirror.

“Y-Yes.” I had to wipe my sweaty hands on my jeans before I could grasp my phone. “Sorry, just anxious about losing my passport, I guess.” My heart raced as I typed my password with my thumb.

Two text messages. Both from friends.

I let my head thump against the back of the seat. For the next few minutes, I simply stared out the window, letting the blurred scenery soothe me. Except… We were going kind of fast.

Too fast for the congested London streets.

And the scenery was all wrong. Instead of bright lights and busy streets, there was nothing but forest. How had I not noticed it before?

I sat up. “Where are we—” My question ended in a strangled scream as the male officer slapped a hand over my mouth and yanked me against him. As soon as my back touched his chest, I knew I’d made a terrible, terrible mistake.

Because he had no heartbeat.

Vampire. The enemies Alec and Lachlan had warned me about.

A low chuckle slid around my ear. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chloe.” The mocking edge in his voice was even more offensive for being delivered in a cultured, upper class accent. “Let’s see if you taste as good as you smell.” Something sharp pinched my neck. Agony zipped down my shoulder and into my elbow, like hitting my funny bone against a hard surface.

I bucked against him. He tightened his grip, and the agony moved to my ribs as he squeezed me like a tube of toothpaste.

The air seemed to vibrate.

He lifted his head. “What the devil is—”

A fireball smashed into the road ahead of the car.

Chaos.

Tires squealed, and then I was thrown forward. My forehead smacked the seat in front of me, and a high-pitched whine filled my ears. For a moment, it was like I was underwater. Sounds were muffled. The world became fluid and slow.

Then everything rushed back in a burst of light and sound. Fire filled my vision. Someone shouted. Rough hands hauled me sideways. The vampire pulled me from the car and into the road, which looked like a scene from Hell. A wall of fire at least ten feet high formed a circle around the car. Heat seared my face and smoke filled my lungs. As I bent, coughing, the vampire seized my arm and spun me so my back was against his chest. He wrapped a hard forearm around my neck and put his mouth next to my temple. “If you fight me, I’ll drain you before your lovers can save you.”

The female vampire strode into view, her police hat gone and her hair flowing like an inky cloud down her back. She rounded on us with glowing red eyes. “Do it now, Andrei! They’ll kill us if they know we have her!”

Fire streaked from the sky—a thick stream of it incinerating her on the spot.

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