Page 129 of You Only Love Twice
To know him.
But there was nothing but blankness in her expression, and suddenly he realized how she must have felt all those years ago, to see the man she loved betray her.
Crouching low, he gestured for her to come at him. If she was focused on him, the she couldn't hurt anyone else.
A vicious leg swept toward him, smashing into his jaw.
Then Gemma was upon him in a single leap, her thighs locking around his face and throat. Slamming her fists down upon his head, she threw her body weight to the side, but he leaned back into it, spinning her through the air instead.
An elbow rammed into his ear.
Obsidian squatted and slammed her back onto the floor, trying to pin her with his body weight. He thrust his arm across her throat to try and choke her out. If he could make her black out, he'd have a chance to secure her without injuring her. Gemma gasped, momentarily winded. Those thick, dark lashes blinked once. Twice. Blood flooded her face, mottling her skin.
"Go to sleep, sweetheart," he whispered. "You've got to go to sleep so we can get this thing out of you."
She smashed the flat of her palm into his elbow, and his arm slipped.
Then it was like holding a writhing, spitting cat that knew he'd almost taken her down. Gemma fought to kill now, holding nothing back, and it was all he could do not to hurt her.
"Don't shoot!" Ingrid yelled nearby. "Get me one of your stunners!"
Every move he made was countered. A thumb gouged toward his eye, and the second he flinched back, her legs were swiveling and locking around his waist. They rolled, and he threw his weight across her, so they rolled again.
A shadow blurred over her shoulder as they flipped.
Then something smashed down over her shoulder. He felt the arm give as it popped from its socket. Gemma screamed.
Obsidian flipped her onto her stomach, forcing her other arm up behind her beck. Ingrid knelt on her, holding the long pole of a stunner with its loop of wire around the end.
They got the loop of the shocker around Gemma's throat as she kicked and thrashed. He didn't dare let go of her as Ingrid stepped back and gripped the end of the stunner.
"Shock her!"
Ingrid's eyes narrowed, and he saw her realize he understood he'd be hit with the current too.
"Do it."
The first lance of electricity sparked through him, slamming into his elbow as if a lead pipe had hit him there, and then arcing through his gut and throat. Obsidian's heels drummed on the ground, a scream vibrating in his throat as current poured through him.
He lost control of his entire body.
Lost his grip on Gemma.
Pain vanished instantly, as if it was finally, blessedly over.
Obsidian collapsed on the ground. He'd somehow landed face-first, and slumped there, gasping and dribbling on the floor. Every nerve in his body shook, and the world around him swam.
"Gem—"
He could sense people crowding in. Sense skirts swishing past him, and shoes.
"Where the hell is Malloryn?" one of the dukes on the council demanded.
There'd been files on all of them.
Photographs of their faces printed and pinned to the wall so all thedhampirwould know their faces.
Lynch. The Duke of Bleight.
