Page 36 of Blood Owed (Blood Mafia 1)
The female vampire, the one I’m assuming armed the bomb in the vest, squeaks and flashes away from the group. Grayson hisses before shoving me toward Colt and running after her.
It’s more like flying with how fast he’s moving. I can hardly track him, but I see the blur of his form in the twilight.
Colt rips my shirt off and fumbles around with the mechanic part of it. I hear a faint beeping, which is growing more persistent the longer he messes around back there.
My heart’s trying to burst from my chest again, and I’m taking shuddering breaths.
This can’t be happening.
For a second, I thought I was going to make it out alive.
The beta has stopped eating Dick. Now he’s watching me, his eyes dilating. He tilts his head and snarls. He hears the beeping as well.
“Kill them all.”
The wolves shift at his command and race toward us.
“Fuck,” Colt mutters again.
“You should expand your vocabulary. Get this shit off of me.”
He grunts, and jerks his head toward the wolves. “Take care of them.”
The vampires rush forward, heading off the furious wolves. With the blood suckers involved, the fighting is too fast to keep track of. They move so much swifter and smoother than the wolves. It’s almost like they’re apperating in and out of the fight. Disappearing from sight and reappearing in another place. Logically, I know that’s not what’s happening, but my mind and eyes can’t keep up.
Colt’s still jerking the vest around and muttering to himself. The beeping is seconds apart now and I’m ninety-seven-point five percent sure I’m going to die.
“You should run,” I say to Colt.
Why do I want him to be safe? I should want him to get hit by the explosion, even if it won’t kill him. He’s partially to blame for my kidnapping and now my death.
“No.” His tone is firm. He huffs out a breath and says, “This is going to hurt.”
Then, he rips the vest off of me using his supe strength. The metal digs into my skin, drawing blood before it groans and breaks off under Colt’s force. I heave in air and Colt launches the vest far across the parking lot.
The wolves’ sense something is wrong and shift, racing away from the ticking time bomb.
Colt shouts at the vampires to take cover before picking me up and flitting us to the other side of the SUV. The explosion rocks the vehicle and the windows shatter when hard silver shoots through them. I hear a yelp of pain from a wolf who didn’t make it far enough away before my ears start to ring.
Glass rains down on me and Colt.
My fingers tremble against his biceps, and I fight off a wave of darkness. The beeping of the bomb continues to blare in my ears.
No, that’s the car alarms.
The vampires are shouting to one another, and they dart out from behind the cars. When they return, they’re carrying Grayson.
He’s covered in slow healing wounds. Silver isn’t deadly to vampires as it is to wolves, but it apparently slows the healing process.
Grayson groans when they lay him down in front of Colt and me. I lean over his face. My forehead creases with concern, which bothers me for a number of reasons, the main one being the sympathy I feel for him.
He smirks at me and brushes a bloody hand over my cheek. “Hey, tiger.”
Then he passes out.
I gasp and yank on Colt’s collar, pulling him closer. “Fix him.”
Colt pulls my fingers from his shirt and says, “He’s fine. His body needs a second to heal.”
