Page 40 of Night of the Vampire
A heavy hand landed on my shoulder. "Why don't you let me take her home?"
My eyes never left her face. "Get your fucking hand off of me. I'll take her home."
"Killian, I don't know that you're in any condition to do that."
He was trying to help her. I knew this. And it was the only reason I didn't kill him on the spot. "She is mine, Jamal."
I heard him sigh. "I know you think you need your own witch, just like you thought you could make your own family, but I still say—"
"You're not hearing me," I told him. "She is mine."
Chapter 15
Lizzy
Jamal let out a deep sigh. "I know."
I couldn't take my eyes from Killian's face. It was different. The changes in his eyes and his bone structure slight, but there. And the way he was staring at me. Like I was a...a...possession. Or something to eat.
But no, it was more than that. He stared at me like I was his entire life, like I was the only thing in the universe for him.
And when he spoke, I could see the points of his teeth. They hadn't been like that before.
It scared the hell out of me.
"What do you mean I'm 'yours'?" I tried to look around him to Jamal. "Jamal? What is he talking about?" My nerves were shot. My heart was pounding. That woman in the bed had just fucking fed from me, for God's sakes. And Killian was the one who had bit me! Then licked my blood from his lips with a moan like it was the most delectable sauce or the finest wine.
Even Jamal, the one who seemed to be the most level-headed and in control, had the same look to him as the other two. The sharpened bone structure. The black eyes that seemed to glow. The long teeth.
It was all I could do to hold back the screams bubbling up inside of me. But I instinctively knew it would only make things worse if I fell into a pile of hysterics on the floor. Now that he had me where he wanted me, which apparently was pinned against the wall and away from the other two, Killian had calmed down and was making some sense again. I had the feeling he would stay that way as long as I did the same and nothing else happened to set him off. "Jamal?" My voice was shaking. That I couldn't help.
"Killian, you need to tell her what's going on, man." His voice was also calm. Resigned.
Killian rubbed the back of his knuckles against my cheek. "So soft," he murmured.
I turned my attention back to him. "Please tell me what's happening here," I whispered. "I'm so scared."
In the blink of an eye, his entire appearance changed from predatory to horrified. He dropped his head, touching his forehead to mine. "Shite. I'm sorry, Lizzy." Then he glanced over his shoulder. "You can go," he told Jamal.
"No," I protested out of some sense of self-preservation. "I want him to stay."
Killian's eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth—his fangs—for a brief second before he pushed away from the wall and gave me some space. Not much. But some.
I took a deep breath. My head was swimming. "I need to sit down."
Taking my arm without a word, he led me over to the sofa. "Do we have anything for her?" he asked Jamal.
"I think there's some juice in the fridge. I'll grab it."
"Check on Kenya, too, please."
I sank down onto the sofa gratefully, and when I lifted my head again Jamal was handing me a glass of orange juice. "Kenya is doing better," he told Killian. I took it from him, wondering if I'd passed out or something for a minute. But then I remembered how fast he'd leapt over the bed when he'd tackled Killian in the bedroom.
And how effortlessly Killian had thrown him into the swamp.
Lifting the juice to my lips with a hand that shook, I paused, then pulled it away and peered into the glass.
"It's just juice," Killian told me. "Drink."
