Changing Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 2)

Just as he turns, I say to hell with caution and leap, spiraling through the air. Roslyn’s cry of pain sounds in my ears just as I get my jaws locked on his shoulder, taking him down with me.

“Fuck!” he yells as his body crashes through one of her beams.

His skin sizzles, and his leg comes up, managing to kick me square in the stomach and launch me off him.

Another yelp sounds from me when I crash through a streak of Roslyn’s power, and I land on my feet, crouching low as I think of a better point of attack. Roslyn drops to her knees as several more of the night stalkers drop.

She’s risking death to take them out, and Slade is capitalizing on her distraction. I charge as orbs fill his hands, but I’m too far away. They release, sailing toward her, and I dive, hoping I’ll somehow manage to end up between them and her.

I end up crashing into Roslyn just as a set of crazy orangey red energy streaks crash into the blue orbs, exploding in unison hard enough to make my ears ring and my skull vibrate.

My body shifts from fur to flesh, and I stretch out over Roslyn to keep her covered as the energy stops flowing from her body.

“Thad.” My name is a whispered gasp of disbelief, and I look over as Zee and Slade go head to head, exchanging blows of harsh magic.

Fucking shit. Zee has his power completely under control, and Slade actually has blood on his mouth.

“Get her out of here,” Zee growls, straining to stay in step with Slade.

“Really don’t want to kill you fuckers over her,” Slade confesses.

Roslyn sucks in a sharp breath, and suddenly I feel my body dematerializing as she drags me away. The weightlessness slaps me, but it’s a smooth transition, unlike Zee’s attempts.

We’re suddenly appearing much too far away for a plane travel. Fuck, we’re almost back at the house.

“I’ll go get him,” she tells me, turning away.

The fuck she will.

I grab her wrist, jerking her to me, and my eyes fall on all the damage.

Her mouth is swollen, her lip is bleeding, and there’s a harsh bruise on her cheek. Her side is dripping blood from the hit she took from him, but she doesn’t seem fazed by it.

“You can’t go back. He’s going to fucking kill you.”

Her eyes soften, but before she can speak, Zee is suddenly appearing next to us, jogging to a halt at our side.

“Dude is seriously psycho,” he says, wiping blood from his mouth.

“I have to go back,” Roslyn says again, trying to wriggle free from my grip. “He’ll kill you if I don’t. He’ll kill you just to be able to kill me!”

The panic in her tone snaps my mind into action, and I finally take in the reality in front of me. She’s not an incoherent mess. She knows who I am; she’s alert and completely lucid; and she cares.

My eyes dart down to the wrist I’m holding, and my gaze slides up the tattoos that spiral around her arms, ending at her elbows.

“She’s turned,” Zee whispers, apparently noticing the same thing I am.

Roslyn’s eyes meet mine, and I take in her unshed tears. Pain. There’s so much pain in those soft, violet eyes right now.

It makes me want to tear them all apart for what they did to her.

I pull her to me, brushing my thumb over her bottom lip, and watch as the first tear rolls down her cheek.

“Believe it or not, we can handle him if he comes, Ros.”

My breaths grow shaky as Reese’s warning comes back to me. He said all the memories that drove her crazy would come back when she turned immortal, and she’s clearly immortal.

Her dark hair stops just below her bra strap on her back, and it tickles against my hand as I wrap my arms around her, ducking my head to just barely touch my lips to hers.