Page 67 of You Only Love Twice
She flung her arms up around her head. "Don't shoot!"
Malloryn froze, breathing hard. The whine of the current down the thin chain evaporated as he took his finger off the pulse. "What the hell are you doing?"
She bent and tore the inert prong from Obsidian's chest, flinging it away from him. His chest heaved erratically, the leather glove on his right hand seared where he'd been holding the knife. Glazed gray eyes met hers, widening in shock. Gemma squeezed his left hand.
"Thank you," she whispered, "for not killing Charlie and Byrnes."
Because she knew he could have.
Obsidian's gaze slid past her, and Gemma turned, shielding him with her body. Malloryn's pistol never wavered.
"Gemma, get out of the way." Malloryn's entire expression hardened.
"No." Her heart beat wildly as she stared the duke in the eye. Lightning lashed over the city in the distance, highlighting the sharp slope of his cheekbones.
She'd failed him once.
She'd vowed never to do it again.
Behind her she could hear Obsidian groaning as he rolled to his side. Still far too vulnerable.
Wind whipped through her hair as she slowly straightened, tearing tendrils of it from her messy chignon. Her skirts rose to cover him. "He didn't hurt me. He never intended to hurt me."
Malloryn's jaw locked tight and he took a step toward her, his finger twitching on the trigger. "Get out of the way. I won't ask you again. This man is responsible for a threat against the queen."
"No." She stared defiantly back, and the look on Malloryn's face nearly broke her. "Icannotallow you to hurt him."
"Because he showed so much mercy when it was you in his sights," Malloryn snarled.
She could hear movement behind her, Obsidian clambering to his feet. His hand gripped her skirt, as if he needed help to steady himself. Electrical current was one of the few weapons any man—be he human, blue blood, ordhampir—was vulnerable to.
There was no way they could ever be together. She knew that.
"Go," she whispered, tearing her gaze from Malloryn's just long enough to push at Obsidian's chest.
Obsidian's gaze slid over her shoulder, locking on Malloryn with a faint air of menace.
"Don't you dare." Malloryn wasn't the only one whose bullet she needed to stop right now. If it came down to the duke versus thedhampirassassin, she wasn't entirely certain how the cards would fall.
Malloryn was only a blue blood, but he knew what he was facing. He'd have made precautions to allow for the nature of his opponent, and he wouldn't hesitate to use them. The Duke of Malloryn didn't lose.
And she couldn't lose either of them.
"Please go," she whispered.
Obsidian's hand captured hers, his gloved fingers stroking the back of her hand for just a second.
"You want me to be safe from your companions?" Gemma grabbed two fistfuls of Obsidian's waistcoat, keeping her body between him and the duke. "COR will keep me safe. And we couldn't... we couldn't continue the way we were. Walk away and erase me from your life. Forget me, just as you promised. You know the truth now. We both know the truth. This can end without either of us getting hurt."
It wasn't as if there was any way they could ever be together.
Her loyalty was to the duke and the queen. To London. She wouldnotcompromise the core of her beliefs, not even for him.
If only she was a mere Capulet.
His hand clasped hers, darkness sweeping through his eyes. "You were right. I don't think I can erase you. If I could, it would have happened when they sent me for reconditioning."
"Try harder," she snapped.
