Page 63 of The Mafia Bloodline
He fired once, twice and each shot a silver streak that hit the creature square in the chest. The demon snarled, jerking back as smoke hissed from its wounds, but it didn’t fall. It leapt forward instead, smashing into Gideon with enough force to knock him against the wall.
I gasped, trying to scramble backward on the bed, my stomach tightening painfully. The baby fluttered frightened, mirroring my fear.
“Ivan!” Gideon shouted through clenched teeth, grappling with the demon. “Now!”
Ivan appeared a heartbeat later, his gun already blazing. Two more demons surged in through the ruined window, they are smaller, quicker, their eyes black as tar. One of them hissed, its voice scraping through the air like broken glass.
“She’s the one,” it rasped. “The womb…”
Ivan shot it mid-sentence, the silver round blowing through its jaw. “Not tonight, you bastard.”
Another one lunged toward the bed, claws reaching for me. I screamed, throwing my arm up in instinct, but before it could touch me, Gideon ripped it away, his claws slicing through its neck in one clean motion. Black blood sprayed across the floor, sizzling where it hit.
“Runa, listen to me!” he barked. “Get down, stay still!”
“I…my baby…”
“The baby is safe if you stay still!” he snarled, eyes flashing with feral light as another demon lunged at him.
I clutched my stomach, gasping, trying to steady my breathing. Everything inside me screamed to run, but the bond flared hot and wild, a voice at the back of my mind that wasn’t mine.
Volken.
He wasn’t awake yet, the sun was still clinging to the horizon, but he felt it. The panic, the danger. His fury was a distant roar under my skin, echoing through the bond like thunder in my bones.
The demons hesitated for the smallest moment, as if they could sense it too.
Ivan reloaded. “We need to move her, Gideon!”
“No,” Gideon snarled, slamming a demon into the wall. “We hold until the others come!”
“The others?” I whispered, clutching tighter at my stomach as another burst of light flared outside the window.
A roar split through the room it was low, lethal, and unmistakably inhuman. Relief and dread crashed together in my chest.
Volken was awake.
Even from miles away, I could feel the storm building through the bond. The sunlight wouldn’t stop him this time, not when he knew I was in danger. The floor trembled.
Gideon froze for a heartbeat, then looked at me. “Hold on, Runa. Your mate’s coming.”
And in the distance, above the sirens and the screams, I heard it, a growl so deep it rattled the air.
Volken was coming. And God help anyone, or anything, that stood in his way.
Chapter 21
The world snapped.
One moment I was dead asleep, buried in the thick, black weight of daylight and the next, fire.
The bond exploded through me like lightning in my veins. Pain. Fear. The scent of blood, her blood filled my mind, so strong I nearly tore through the sheets as I bolted upright with a snarl that rattled the room.
“RUNA!”
The name tore out of me raw and feral. I was already on my feet, half-dressed, vision rimmed in red. The scent of her terror flooded every thought, every instinct, until there was nothing left but the need to get to her.
She was in danger. She was mine, and anyone who touched her would die screaming.
