Page 82 of A Vampire Bewitched
Sniffling, Aiden played it up a bit before finally raising his head to look at her with watery eyes. Lifting his hands to her face, he blocked her view while he placed a sweet kiss on her forehead, and then her nose. Pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her, he winked at Nik.
Nik smiled, then put two fingers in his mouth. A piercing whistle ripped through the cavern.
Leeha tore herself from Aiden’s embrace, pushing him aside and jumping to her feet to stare at Nik.
He just shrugged at her. “Sorry. The sight of you two was making my stomach turn.”
Narrowing her eyes, she didn’t get the chance to form a rebuttal before a hair-raising howl rent the air.
Whipping her head around, her glowing eyes pierced through Aiden. “You broughtwolvesto my door?WOLVES?” she shrieked at him.
Scratching his head, his features twisted up in a grimace. “I had no choice, love.” He sounded sincerely sorry. “They just showed up, and you know how stubborn those bloody Scots are.” Placing his hands low on his narrow hips, he gave her an admonishing look. “Besides, if you would just stopstealingpeople—”
With an ear-piercing screech, the back of her hand lit across his face. Stumbling from the strength of the impact, he nearly toppled down the stairs.
Charging down after him, she got right up in his face, fangs bared. “You have no idea what you’ve just done!”
Smiling broadly, he spit out a mouth full of blood and sneered at her. “Oh, I knowexactlywhat I’ve just done, love.”
She drew herself up to her full height. “You all think you’re so smart, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
Another spine-tingling howl sounded, closer than before.
“This isn’t how I planned for this meeting to go.” Leeha sighed. “I was hoping to make youalldisappear, like your Hunters. But I can adapt…TAKE HIM!”
Before anyone could move, dozens of rotting, grey bodies filed out of a hidden door to the left of the throne. The horrid stench of them flooded the space as their angry snarls vibrating throughout the room.
A group surrounded Aiden, and though he gleefully managed to take a couple of them out, they dragged him back up the stairs and out of the room.
With a last, angry glare at Nik, Leeha followed, appearing to disappear right through the wall behind them.
Nik watched them go, a feeling of sick helplessness washing over him. Torn between keeping Emma safe and saving his best friend, he fisted his hands at his sides, and threw back his head with an anguished roar.
Chapter 46
Terror flooded through Emma as the monster’s shrieks drowned out Nikulas’s roar. They were completely surrounded.
“Nik?” Her voice shook so much she didn’t think he could hear her over all the noise.
But he did.
Emma gasped as he turned toward her, and for a brief instant, she recoiled in fear at the sight of him. He seemed larger, his muscles straining against the fabric of his clothes. Like in the midst of this overwhelming danger, his physical form couldn’t hold all of what he now was. His lips were drawn back from his dagger-like fangs as he snarled rabidly at the creatures surrounding them. The skin pulled so tight across his features, his cheekbones and eye sockets were stark slashes across his face. Bright eyes glowed so blue they were near colorless as they darted around the room, tallying his prey like the killer he was.
Scooping Emma up in his arms as she shrieked, another roar thundered from his chest, daring any one of them to try and take her. Emma knew this. She could feel everything he felt, more so with him in this heightened stage than ever before.
Slowly backing away, Nik threatened them with bared fangs as they prowled around him. They seemed hesitant to attack, as if they sensed he wouldn’t be an ordinary opponent.
Eventually, though, they would.
Emma’s clung to Nikulas as her eyes skittered around, trying to watch everywhere he couldn’t. Glancing over Nik’s shoulder, she saw they were almost to the wall behind them. “Nik. Put me down.”
He growled softly in response.
“Nik. You can’t fight them while you’re holding me. Put me down!”
The creatures were close now. One of them made a half-hearted swipe at them even as she spoke. Nik stiffened, snarling back in response.
“Nik!”
