Page 50 of Night's Reckoning
The vampire he’d been holding spun and slapped a hand over his bleeding neck, lunging toward Ben. Ben kicked out and clipped the man in the head, snapping his neck and making the vampire crumple.
Vampires wouldn’t die unless you severed the spine, as Ben had been threatening to do, but snapping it would still render them useless until their bodies could regenerate the nerves, which could take hours.
The black shadow swooped down again, snatching the limp vampire from the sidewalk and disappearing into the darkness like a nocturnal bird of prey.
“That little shit!” Now they would never know who sent them.
Infuriating. She was absolutely infuriating.
Ben walked over and kicked the body of the remaining vampire into the canal. The head had already sunk. He dipped his knife in the water and dried it on his black T-shirt before he turned and walked back toward the house. He was going to have to go through the middle of town with a shirt covered in vampire blood. Glancing down, he realized it hadn’t reached his grey linen pants.
At least there was that.
* * *
He reachedthe garden gate and knew Tenzin was already in the compound. Steeling his expression, he unlocked the door and marched into the courtyard, already wondering just how much a ride share back into the city would cost.
“Every time,” he growled at her. “Every single fucking time I’m trying to question someone—”
“They were going to kill you.” Tenzin stood in the moonlight, her arms crossed and her face set in an obstinate mask.
“Did you not see the giant knife I had in the bastard’s throat?” Ben stripped off the bloody T-shirt and tossed it on a garden bench. It was starting to dry and stick to his skin, which was just… gross.
Ben strode toward Tenzin. “I had a ten-inch hunting knife pressed to his damn spine, and you decide to—”
“You weren’t going to be able to kill both of them.” Tenzin looked up at him, her face still unmoving, though Ben could feel the fury vibrating off her. “Not both of them, Benjamin.”
“But I might have gotten away, and I might not have had to kill either of them,” he hissed. “And now we don’t know who sent them. Did you ask for references before you killed the second one?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Then don’t be so damn shortsighted!”
Her eye twitched. “You’re calling me shortsighted?”
“Yes, you act on impulse. Every single time. If someone is after me here—”
Without warning, she rose up, hooked her arm around his neck, and locked her mouth on his.
Ben didn’t think twice. He didn’t care if he was furious with her. His body didn’t care at all. He wrapped both arms around her torso and pressed her close, locking them together in the darkness.
Her mouth was ferocious. He cut his lips on her fangs and she sucked his tongue in her mouth, drinking him in. Her amnis rose, dancing over his bare skin like icy rain. He held one arm around her waist and gripped the back of her head in his hand, trying to control the violence of her kiss.
It was impossible.
Tenzin released Ben as abruptly as she’d taken him, but not before she’d sunk her teeth into his bottom lip, piercing the skin and making him taste his own blood. She shoved herself away from him with inhuman strength. Ben was forced to let her go.
Her lips were bloody, her face was glowing, and her eyes were wild. “If someone comes after you, then I will kill them.”
She couldn’t blame it on bloodlust this time. She was fully herself, though she wasn’t fully in control.
“Tenzin—”
“Don’t.” Her eyes shifted to wary and guarded in the space of a second.
Ben heard someone waking in the house. Lights switched on.
He stepped toward her, looking her square in the eye. “Tell them to go back to bed. Send them away.”
