Page 36 of The Dancer and the Dark
Tenzin lifted a curved silver blade and slashed from the back of the man’s neck to the front. His head dropped to the asphalt with a thunk. Ben landed behind her, a black-clad angel of death moving so quickly that three vampires dropped to the ground almost as one, their necks twisted at an unholy angle while the humans around them shouted in confusion.
Those shouts propelled Gavin through the glass doors of the office building, which shattered with a bloody punch. He landed in the shard-strewn foyer and took a deep breath, scenting for his mate.
There.
Her blood was spiked with acrid adrenaline, feeding the cold rage in Gavin’s belly. He flew down the hallway, breaking down the door that divided Chloe from his protection.
A large man waited on the other side of the door, a handgun pointing at him.
Paul Chopel.
He screamed, “Don’t come any closer or she’s dead!”
Gavin looped a gust of wind behind the man, making him stumble forward into his grasp. He twisted his neck, feeling the pop of the man’s spine breaking under his fingers, grabbed the gun from the human’s limp hand, and pointed it at De Smet, who already had a small revolver pointed at Chloe’s temple and his hand over her mouth.
“Hello, dove,” Gavin said softly. “Give me a few more moments and we’ll have you out of here.”
She was shivering, and he could see that she was crying, but Gavin kept his eyes on De Smet.
“You’re an independent operator, and your client is dead,” Gavin said steadily. “If you let her go and leave now, I won’t kill you. You know my reputation, so you know that I keep my word. I have no loyalty to Ernesto Alvarez; I only want the woman.”
De Smet’s gaze didn’t waver, but Gavin could see the man was considering his options.
Killing Chloe meant the man lost all leverage. Giving her up might buy him some time.
“Mila violated her terms with Alvarez. His people are already on the way here. You need all the head start you can get.”
Gavin kept his eyes on De Smet and lowered the gun. As fast as his vampire reflexes were, he didn’t think he could shoot De Smet faster than the marksman could pull the trigger, so a firearm was useless. The marksman had seen Gavin use wind to knock his friend off-balance, so he had already braced himself. Gavin would have to convince him to let Chloe go.
“Leave now.” Gavin put his hands up. “You haven’t hurt her yet. I saw a door at the end of this hallway. Take your hands off my wife, leave now, and I won’t kill you.”
De Smet blinked. “Wife?”
Gavin cocked his head. “As I said, I have no loyalty to Alvarez. Take your hands off my wife. Leave now. I won’t kill you. If you leave so much as a bruise, on the other hand…” He bared his fangs. “You won’t like the result.”
Gavin stepped away from the door, allowing De Smet to circle the room and move closer to the exit. He couldn’t look at Chloe or he’d lose control and she could be hurt by the panicked human.
Once he was close enough to the door, De Smet moved with the fluidity of a trained soldier. He shoved Chloe toward Gavin, turned, and took two steps down the hall before Gavin heard a crunching sound, a slice, and a thunk as the gunman’s head hit the ground.
Chloe turned and saw De Smet’s lifeless eyes looking at her from the floor.
She turned to Gavin. “You said you wouldn’t kill him.”
“I didn’t kill him.” He took Chloe in his arms and enfolded her in a fierce embrace. “But I don’t speak for Tenzin.”
Chloe had never been whollycomfortable flying with Gavin, but currently her boyfriend didn’t trust the roads, cars, or anything but his own arms. So she kept her eyes forward, refused to look down, and trusted Gavin to keep her safe.
Safe.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. Tenzin was in front of them, enclosing their party with a bubble of stillness so that Chloe felt nothing more than a slight breeze brushing against her legs as they crossed the midnight sky.
Ben was behind them; Chloe could see him over Gavin’s shoulder. He kept watch, his startling grey eyes visible in the darkness.
“Almost to the Vecchios’, dove.”
Chloe nodded, but she said nothing. She was replaying the events of the night over and over in her mind, the endless questions, her frustration and panic trying to lead her two captors along with just enough information to keep them interested in a story she was making up on the fly.
She’d felt like Scheherazade, spinning tales on top of fantasies, inspired by nothing more than the desperation to survive. She’s lost all sense of time between the four blank walls of her prison, so when she finally heard movement outside, everything seemed to happen at once.
