Page 58 of Secret of the Vampire
I kissed her again and helped her to her feet as I got to mine. I was still a bit woozy, but overall, not too bad. At least I was able to stay upright now. We rinsed off and I turned off the water, now quite cool. Then we got out, dried off and got dressed.
Neither one of us said a word the entire time. As though we both knew now that we’d left what little protection the shower provided, we had to be extremely careful.
But I was getting her out of here. Tonight. The barrier the djinn had around the property should be nothing but a simple binding spell. Even if it was something stronger, I should be able to open it enough for her to slip out. Then I would follow her. Once we were out, we just had to get to the city and the help of my coven.
Surely, between all of us, we’d be able to fend off the djinn.
Right?
Chapter 22
Kenya
“Run.”
Chills ran down my spine as Alex’s breath tickled my ear. We’d been standing in the living room when he’d suddenly walked up behind me. We’d been waiting for the last hour, both of us quiet since the “shower scene” that I was still trying to process.
I frowned, sure I hadn’t heard him right. But when I looked at Alex, I saw the truth staring back at me. He was letting me go. “What about the spell? I can’t leave. I already tried.”
“I can lower it just long enough for you to get out, but you need to run faster than you’ve ever run in your life. I won’t be able to hold it long.”
Immediately, I shook my head. “Not without you.” I couldn’t leave him here to face Marcus’s wrath alone. He wouldn’t survive it. I knew this all the way to my bones. And although the thought of seeing him again in a different life—one that had no djinn in it—was enough to bring a smile to my face, I wasn’t yet done living this one. And neither was he. For the sake of the gods, I’d just found him. And although I didn’t know how to love him, the thought of losing him was an unbearable agony that had nothing to do with the blood bond.
He clenched his jaw, his voice low but urgent. “Jesus Christ, Kenya. Fucking run! Now!”
I held my ground. “No. Not without you.”
At first, I thought he was going to yell at me some more, but then his expression softened. “I’ll meet you back in the city. At the club,” he added. “But I can’t do what I need to do to get out of this alive with you here. Now fucking RUN.”
He shoved me forward as the sound of a car engine drew closer. My heart in my throat with fear for him, I did as he told me to do, running toward the back of the house where the walls were caving in. Knocking a board loose, I jumped through and ran, losing myself in the trees surrounding the house. I didn’t stop and I didn’t look back. Not even when I heard Marcus scream with rage and a sound like the house was caving in on itself. Not even when I came up to the place where the djinn’s spell should stop me. Lowering my chin, I pumped my arms and legs…
And burst through with only the slightest resistance.
Tears overflowed, blurring my vision, and still I ran. I had no idea where I was going, and it wasn’t until I plunged into the waist deep waters of the swamp and got smacked in the face by a Bald Cypress branch that I realized I’d gone in a circle. I stopped, my heart pounding in my ears. There was a splash to my right, and something brushed past my left thigh. Vegetation maybe. Or a snake.
Suddenly, the air pressure changed, ebbing and flowing in a weird wave of magic. I had no time to react before a second wave, this one much stronger than the first, hit me from behind, throwing me forward and knocking me face down into the cold water. I scrambled to my feet, the water now up to my chest, and backtracked the way I had come as fast as I could go.
When I found solid ground, I stopped for a second, getting my bearings, but I couldn’t bring myself to move again, to leave him.
I wouldn’t leave him.
If Alex could distract him long enough, I could sneak up behind him and twist off his head. The thought made me shudder. I hadn’t been a violent human, and I was even less so as a vampire, always relying on everyone around me to save me.
Well, tonight, I was the one who was going to do the saving.
Mind made up, I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what I needed to do, then I ran back the way I’d come, ignoring the fear that wound its way through me, threatening to freeze my limbs and send me flying onto my face again. Dodging trees and brush when I could and crashing through them when I couldn’t, I ran.
As I got closer, I was more careful of my path, not wanting to alert Marcus with all the noise. Slowing to a jog, I wiped the moisture from my cheeks from tears that refused to stop falling and tried to slow my racing heart. Once I was inside the border, I wouldn’t be able to leave again until the djinn was dead.
Suddenly, a female appeared in front of me. I skidded to a halt, wondering where the hell she had come from. She was quite lovely, with pale skin, long, dark hair and green eyes that shone even in the darkness. Immediately sensing she was a vampire, I instinctively crouched into a fighting stance and bared my fangs in warning. This was not her territory. Which only told me she was here to cause trouble I didn’t fucking need right now.
She held her hands out in front of her, palms toward me. “Whoa, there.”
I noticed she kept her voice down. I also noticed she wasn’t distracted by the noise coming from the swamp house. “Who the hell are you?” I asked her. Then I shook my head. “I don’t have time for this.”
“Please,” she said. “My name is Shea. And this,”—without taking her eyes from me, she tilted her head to the side where a man in a black robe appeared—“this is my mate. His name is Jesse. And we’re not here to hurt you.”
Slowly, I straightened as the fear I’d tried to hold at bay broke through the dam and flooded through me, making my teeth chatter and my muscles tremble. I didn’t know who the hell these two were, but I did know djinn magic when I felt it now, and the guy with her was oozing with it.
