Page 173 of You Only Love Twice
Obsidian saw Ghost's gaze flicker down to where Gemma swung like a monkey beneath them.
Like hell.
His threw one of his knives at Ghost, and lunged forward.
They met in a clash of steel, knives whistling through the hot air as both ducked and wove. Grabbing Ghost's wrist, he slammed it upon the rail until Ghost was forced to release one of his blades. In retaliation, an elbow hammered into his teeth, and he staggered back.
Gemma swung beneath them on a small grappling line, and Ghost glanced down. Obsidian slammed Ghost against the rails before he could harm her.
It brought him dangerously within reach and he twisted out of the way like a cat as Ghost knifed him. The kiss of pain was an old friend as blood splashed from his side. Somehow he retaliated, and a thin line of blackened blood sprang up on Ghost's pale cheek as they broke apart.
"You've never beaten me," Ghost snarled.
"I've never really tried."
Over Ghost's shoulder, he saw Gemma haul herself up onto the bridge again like a lithe shadow, her catlike blue eyes locking on Ghost with all the intensity of someone staring between a pair of sights.
She drew her pistol and both of them heard the faint click of the hammer drawing back. No doubt it was aimed directly between Ghost's shoulder blades. Gemma didn't miss.
"It's over," he said.
Ghost raked the burning factory with a hard stare, frustration burning like a hot coal in his eyes. "We could have burned this city to the ground."
"For Balfour?"
"Forus!" Ghost snapped. "These puling humans don't deserve to rule. They're cattle. Food. And the blue bloods are merely a stepping-stone in our evolutionary path. We could have ushered in a new age and ruled over all. We are gods. Balfour sees that."
"You keep sayingwe. But what you mean isyou."
"Drop the knife," Gemma told him. "Or I'll shoot you in the back."
A pair of shadows divulged themselves on the other side of the gaping chasm of the bridge. A pale woman materialized in the smoke, her long silvery hair knotted into a chignon as she stalked toward them in an armored corset and a pair of leather trousers.
Obsidian froze.
Behind her, the Duke of Malloryn hauled himself up the last stair.
But it was Dido he focused on.
The gun in her hand, pointed directly at Gemma's back.
A moment of distraction. He saw the glint of silver and felt it slam into his side, right between his ribs. A razor-sharp stab of pain he ignored in the wake of the threat to Gemma.
"Gemma!" he bellowed, trying to warn her.
A pistol retorted, but he couldn't see what had happened to her....
Ghost grabbed him by the chin, slamming him back against the railing as he buried the knife deep and twisted it. "I will always be the better of the two of us. And she will always be your distraction. Your weakness."
Obsidian screamed in pain as the blade ground against his ribs.
Not a weakness, no.
But a reason to win, no matter what the cost.
If she was dead....
He could feel the darkness within him swimming to the surface, bringing with it the primal fury of the other half of his soul.
