Page 92 of You Only Love Twice
Silence.
A cold feeling rippled down her spine.
Gemma closed her eyes, her hearing focusing intently. There. The faintest sound of gravel shifting, as if beneath someone's foot.
Right behind her.
Gemma spun, stabbing the button of the illuminator, and not daring to open her eyes. A bright light flashed, searing her closed eyelids, and someone screamed.
One second of intense light, and then the whine died down.
Gemma shot into the night, spraying bullet fire in a half-circle in front of her, before she dared open her eyes. She'd lost her night vision. Blackened shapes reared around her, and she almost tripped on a headstone, blinking furiously.
A shape moaned on the ground to her left.
"Bloody hell. What did you just do to me?"
Gemma turned her pistol upon him. One bullet left, if she was counting accurately.
"Pull the trigger and the girl dies," he gasped.
Gemma froze.
"Where is she?" she demanded.
The bastard panted, hand clapped over his chest and one side of his face burned as he pushed to his hands and knees. Behind him, she could hear the shouting growing louder. "Out of the way, luv. I know a certain someone who wouldn't 'preciate it if I ripped your head off your shoulders. It's the only thing savin' your life right now. I just have to keep tellin' myself that."
"Strange. I was fairly certain I had a target on my back. Several of your brethren have tried to murder me in the last month."
"And where are they now?" He staggered to his feet. "Bottom of the Thames? I suppose wecouldask our mutual friend."
"Don't move." She focused her pistol right on his heart.
"You're runnin' out of time, Miss Townsend. You have barely a minute to save the girl's life, so you'll have to make a decision. The girl. Or me."
Gemma's teeth clenched. "What do you mean?"
"I had my orders. Malloryn's not supposed to find her ‘til it's too late, but if someone else were to get to her first, well... I did as instructed. Tick, tock, Miss Townsend."
Thedhampirvanished into the fog, and Gemma turned helplessly toward the pale figure she'd seen in front of the memorial.
Blood.
Sprinting toward the mound, she could just make out the beginnings of pale skirts. Miss Hamilton lay sprawled on her back, her eyes closed and her arms curled around a small ticking package.
Oh, no. Gemma slid to the young woman's side, feeling for a pulse in her throat. There. Thready and weak, but there. There was a lump on the side of her head.
She examined the bomb. Less than twenty seconds remained on the clock face attached to it, and a thin wire was attached to the bracelet on the young woman's wrist. A single move and it would detonate, she was sure. "It's all right, Miss Hamilton. I've got you. You're going to live, I promise."
Curse him.
Curse them all.
Gemma eased out a slow breath as she slid her fingers around the very edge of the package.One. Two. Three.
She tore the bomb free and flung it, throwing herself over the girl. The fiery detonation washed over her, raining a hail of marble pebbles down over her. They stung her skin and pelted into her legs, but she'd heal.
Malloryn suddenly slid to a halt at her side, spraying gravel. "Miss Hamilton? Is she all right?"
