Page 25 of A Memory in the Flame

“Why do you think I upgraded to the newer model?” Cain asks with a wink. He throws his arm around Beatrix’s shoulder. She still says nothing, while I use every ounce of self-control I have to hold back from punching him in the face.

Cain’s gaze flicks downward, and I realize at the same moment that I’ve clenched my fists. The vampire just laughs. “What? You’re going to hit me?”

Noah smiles, then, and it’s the type of smile that sends frost through your veins. “Actually, that honor goes to me.”

Then he draws his own fist back and slams it into Cain’s jaw. The other vampire goes down like one of the junk piles in the Barrens.

“I can’t believe you, Charlotte!” Beatrix cries, wrapping her hands around Cain’s arm. She helps him up as he blinks, obviously dazed. Noah didn’t hold back—even though Cain will heal, the bruise is deep enough that it’s still visible, a violent splash of red and purple on his otherwise flawless skin.

I gape at Beatrix now, my fangs sliding back into my gums. “You can’t be serious.”

Ignoring me, she looks adoringly up at Cain. “Let’s get out of here, baby.”

Cain glances at Noah, a hard light in his eyes, as though he’s considering whether or not to hit him back. Noah just waits, wearing a beautiful, taunting grin. After another moment, the two of them walk away, leaving me standing there, vibrating with anger and hurt.

My own jaw aches from clenching it so hard, and my eyes sting with unshed tears. Noah shifts to stand in front of me. He grips my chin and brings my gaze to his. “I’m taking you back to the hotel,” he murmurs.

I pull away from his touch. “I can get there on my own, Noah. I’m not helpless.”

The bounty hunter moves so we’re a mere breath apart. “No, you’re not. But I have this sneaking suspicion that if I leave you alone, you’ll go after that asshole.”

This time, I make no effort to pull away from his grasp. “First, I need to rip out Cain’s throat out and paint the streets of Kin with his blood.”

The vampire sighs and pulls me off the street, then between two shops. “You don’t have it in you to kill anyone, Charlotte. Not anyone alive, at least.”

In a flare of anger, I shove Noah back until he hits the bricks behind him. “Why do you even care? Why didyouhit Cain? You’ve made it perfectly clear from the moment our partnership started that you’d rather work alone, so I don’t know why you’re—”

Noah grabs my hips and pulls me against him. As I put my hands on his waist to steady myself, my eyes fly to his. My senses are overwhelmed by him. His blood, his warmth, his scent. Noah is everywhere, consuming me with a single touch. He drops his forehead to mine and I lose myself in the depths of his eyes.

“Now that I have your attention,” Noah whispers, his nose skimming mine. My pulse races, making my head feel light enough to float away. “Nothing else to say, baby vampire?”

His thumbs move under my jacket and shirt, tracing my skin, shooting warmth straight to my core. Tingles dance across my skin as I struggle to think straight. “Oh, fuck it,” I mutter.

At last, I succumb to the desire I’ve been terrified to feel.

I close my eyes and yank Noah’s mouth down to mine. He tastes like blood as I instantly deepen the kiss, pressing closer. I can feel his heartbeat against mine. Noah slides one hand up my arm and buries it in my hair, kissing me back with such ferocity that it steals the oxygen from my lungs. His tongue darts out and traces along my bottom lip until I open to him, moaning, and he wraps his other arm around my waist to press his lower half into me. I gasp into his mouth and Noah chuckles.

“I changed my mind,” I murmur after a moment, trailing my lips along his jaw. Stubble there scratches my skin.

Noah claims my mouth again, nipping my bottom lip with his teeth. “About what?”

I grip the front of his shirt, my cheeks flushed and my lips throbbing. “Take me back to the hotel.”

“You sure about that, baby vampire?” he asks. His eyes blaze with desire. When I nod, Noah grabs my hand, lacing his fingers through mine, and we step back onto the street. “Let me order a—”

An ear-shattering explosion goes off, shaking the ground under our feet.

In the space of a heartbeat, chaos erupts. The air fills with screams of terror. Flames light the horizon and the air darkens with thick, black smoke.

“What the hell was that?” I shout as people run in every direction. Their frantic shouts assault my ears.

“A bomb,” Noah says, nodding toward where the smoke is the thickest, billowing into the air a few blocks over. I see bright flames lighting the heart of Oldbel.Drew, I think.

Then I break into a run.

“Charlie!” Noah snarls, but I don’t stop. My boots slam against the ground like gunshots. I don’t slow until I begin to struggle seeing through the smoke, and when the building comes into view, my stomach churns into knots. Screams pierce my ears, but they’re muted over the roar of the flames.

Someone bombed a feeding facility—it’s the same one I stopped at during my time in the boardinghouse.

---