Page 22 of Echoes in the Void

“Nowhere is safe for me. But also, don’t leave me like that. It was rude.”

"You're right.” His words stopped me when I struggled against his chest and I looked up at him to find him staring straight down at me and ignoring the world and all that went on around us. The crowd, the mad cackling creature. Everything. He focused solely on us. “I was scared. Scared that I would lose the woman I loved the second time. To the same creature. Because of the same evil.”

My breath stalled. “That’s not going to happen,” I managed, squeezing my thighs together where the evidence of our midnight fantasies still dampened my skin. “And you're just saying that because you have to, because you took my virginity last night, and I mean, who helps out a six thousand yearold creature who couldn't get herself laid in six freakingmillennia?—”

Dolion’s mouth crushed mine in a kiss to end all kisses. The crowd’s muttering and hate disappeared as the scent of him enveloped me, midnight promises and eternity and peace in that touch. I sighed in his arms, letting go of everything that panicked me, letting him in. Letting him hold me.

“I love you, ma Steorra,” he whispered against my lips. “Not because of some outdated version of chivalry, or because you think I owe it to you. Because you are everything to me, and I will not live in this world with a beating heart without you.”

I smiled against his mouth. “What more can a girl want?”

“Eternity together.”

“Not going to happen if that bitch gets her hands on your woman.” Tifa materialized beside us in a flurry of shawls. She flapped her tassels at me. “You should not be here.”

I sighed in the circle of Dolion’s arms. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“You don’t know how powerful she is.” Sebastian backed into Dolion as a wave of heat blasted over our heads. Everyone else ducked. Dolion didn’t move as Sebastian cursed, tucking Tifa into his arms. “We should not be here.”

“And yet here we are. Should we not just get this showdown over and done with?” I waved a hand in Anitta’s direction, and frowned at the vampire. “Is there a rule about not killing the one who made you, or something?"

Sebastian’s gaze locked onto me. “Not for lack of trying," he grated. “She might look ridiculous up there, but don’t be fooled. This woman can turn a crowd against you in seconds.”

Dolion’s hands closed on my arms. “You shouldn't be here, Steorra,” he rumbled, the sound merging with something deeper inside him.

I glanced up at his face, frowning. “Alright, then we take this showdown on the road, to somewhere quieter, you all move away and,poof,ash. Simple. Okay?” I said brightly.

The vampire and the gargoyle sighed.

“Steorra…”

“Alright, what am I missing?” I searched their faces. “Tell me.”

Dolion tightened his hold on me. “We’re leaving.”

I looked up at him, placed my hand on his chest. His heart pounded strong, but fast.Fear.I could almost scent it rolling off him.

“Alright. We will fight her another day.”

Breath left him in a longwhoosh.“Thank you, my star.” His lips brushed my temple and something around my ribs popped as he crushed me to him in a hard hug, moving us through the back of the crowd in long strides.

A fireball whisked over our heads, halting our path.

“That one had a really good aim,” I muttered, peeking around his shoulder, and paid proper attention to the demoness for the first time.

“Too good,” Dolion agreed, and sighed. “I guess we are doing this your way, Steorra.”

Another fireball zoomed over my head, close enough to singe hair.Ugh, I hate that smell.

“I guess so.”

I turned to face my foe, the woman who had dressed like me, and wore a facsimile of my face with terrible hair. The only difference was that hers wasn’t on fire.

And she stood less than five paces away, wearing a terrible, terrible smile on her face as she sank her blade deep into Sebastian’s side.

And the vampire dropped to the trampled grave dirt beneath our feet.

CHAPTER TEN

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