Page 43 of The Vampire's Hunter

Suddenly, Corbin was at her side, not even having felt himself move.

He ripped the bulk of the coat she wore away, the one meant to hide the bulletproof vest she’d been supposed to wear beneath, but there was no vest there. In its place, there were nothing but blood. Her sweet, sweet blood, and the thin material of her dress.

Corbin was shaking, barely capable of forming words, as he clutched hold of her face, tapping at her cheek to rouse her awake.

Dani let out a pained groan, her eyes fluttering open to stare up at the cathedral ceiling.

“Why didn’t you wear your vest, darling? Why didn’t you wear the vest I gave you?”

Dani let out a shuddering breath, as if speaking had suddenly become a chore she didn’t care for. “You told me to leave,” she rasped. “You told me to leave and I…I couldn’t do this without you. I…won’t be anyone’s plaything, Corbin. I won’t allow others to make my decisions for me. Not even you, so, I…took a risk, made a choice.”

“And so, you chosethis, instead?” Corbin shouted his fury.

At her or at the heavens, the fates, he didn’t know who.

He didn’t know fucking anything anymore. Up or down. Left or right. Right or wrong.

None of it made any fucking sense. Not if he was going to lose her.

Just after they’d finally found each other.

No. No, he couldn’t lose her, goddamnit. Not like this.

Slowly, Dani’s face twisted toward him. “It’s what you wanted, didn’t you? For me to,” she sputtered, coughing up blood, “l-live a full life? To die before you? Of…of natural causes.”

“There’s nothing natural about my men putting a bullet in you!” he cried. “Goddamn it, woman!” Sweat gathered on his forehead, beading there, now that fear ruled him.

He couldn’t lose her. Not like this. Not like this.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, trying and failing to touch his cheek. “I…I need to ask you to save me one time more.”

One time more.

As if before she’d even come here, she’d somehow already known everything he’d held back from her before. About Rosalind. Elias. Gertrude. Even about the skeleton key. About how he’d tried to protect her from the worst parts of himself, only for that singular decision to place her in more and more trouble along the way. He could fall on his knees before her, grovel for the rest of his years, and still, it wouldn’t be enough.Hewouldn’t be enough.

Which was exactly why he’d left her.

Though she’d never resorted to anything this drastic.

Never alone anyway. And now, he was going to lose her.

Corbin’s eyes combed the room, searching and finding his target. “You,” he snarled at Kharis, voice trembling. “You did this, didn’t you?”

Kharis shrugged, like he failed to see how it mattered. “I might have helped her a little along the way.”

Corbin snarled, baring his fangs.

“Self-sacrificial doesn’t suit you. We needed something to snap you out of it.”

“And so, you thought it might be a good idea tokillthe woman I love?” Corbin roared his fury, standing and pacing beside where Dani now lay at his feet. He gripped at his scalp, fisting his hair so hard his knuckles turned white. “Fix this,” he demanded, pointing toward her, to where she was barely breathing. “Fix this, Kharis. Hell, turn her if you must.”

“Do you really want her to be mine that way?” Kharis said, his expression unmoving. “Are you truly so afraid of losing her that you would hand her away for forever? Tomeof all people?”

Like all vampires, Kharis had more than a little darkness of his own. They all ended up that way, twisted, corrupted over the years.

“Corbin,” Dani rasped, blood gurgling out of her mouth, reaching up in search for him.

Corbin fell to her side again, hands clammy and shaking. “I’m here, darling. I’m here.” He gripped her hand, brushing a stray strand of hair from her face.

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