I'll Be Slaying You (Night Watch 2)

But he only scented blood now.

A soft tremble reached his ears, a small vibration. Her heart? Please, it had to be.

He caught the nape of Dee’s neck and managed to tip back her head.

No moan came from her lips. No whisper of life.

Too late.

No, no—he wouldn’t be too late. If she was gone—

Stay, Dee. Stay.

He wrenched his shoulder but managed to position his wrist over her mouth. He wouldn’t have much longer. He could feel the lick of cold in his own body. Not much longer.

But he’d give her all that he had.

His wrist pushed between her lips. “Bite me.”

She didn’t. Her fangs weren’t out. Her lips didn’t move.

“Bite me!” A snarl of fury. She wouldn’t die while he watched.

Thud.

The slightest press from her teeth.

Dee. Do it, babe. Bite me.

“Live,” he whispered.

Vampire instinct took over. He’d seen it happen before. Seen a vampire on the brink of death. His teeth had shot out and he’d latched onto his food without conscious thought.

Dee’s teeth sank into his flesh. His blood trickled into her mouth.

Take. “Take.” Everything.

Her mouth tightened around him and she began to feed in earnest, greedy gulps as the bloodlust rose.

He would not watch her die.

Her lashes began to flutter.

But fate would make her watch him.

“It’s done?” Grim asked as his hunter stalked into the room.

A smile stretched the hunter’s lips. Slow. Satisfied. “Both of them are bleeding out now. With the sun up, they’ll never get out of that damn metal.”

He nodded. “Good.” Fire had never been the best way to go. He saw that now. Blood, the slow drain, the agony of knowing what would come and being helpless to stop it—

As I had been helpless.

—that was the end for his enemies.

Grim turned away and stalked to his bed. The dancer lay there. Still alive, but low on blood. He’d let her keep living a while longer. He’d rather enjoyed her. “Which one do you think will die first?” Not that it mattered. But the one left behind would have the greater torment. If there was an attachment there, and his vamps had told him the woman and Chase were close.

Lovers.

The body’s needs and desires could make the soul weak.

“The bitch will go first.”

Anger there. His brows drew together. “Did something to piss you off, did she?” Not surprising. Dee had earned her reputation for a reason.

In another life, he might have admired her.

In this life, he just needed her dead.

“She took the hardest hits. She’ll die long before dusk. They both will.”

They’d better.

“Do you still feel him?” his perfect hunter asked.

Him. Chase. The guy Leo had turned years before. Grim closed his eyes, tried to focus and find the ungrateful bastard but—

Nothing. “Maybe he’s already dead.” Maybe. But the truth was that he hadn’t felt a connection to Chase since the Taken had traded with the warlock.

So Chase could still be alive, or he could be dead. Again.

He glanced over at the bed. The dancer was awake. She’d been awake the whole time they talked, but she’d kept her eyes closed. Like a good little girl, pretending to sleep.

Maybe because she didn’t want to see. Maybe she wanted to pretend she wasn’t involved in this.

Wrong.

His tongue slipped over the edge of his sharp teeth.

The dancer wasn’t getting out of his den alive, but maybe he’d Take her. Maybe.

She drank greedily, desperate, hungry, needing the blood that spilled onto her tongue. More. More.

Dee felt the ice rising in her body. The numbing cold, and she fought it, drinking as much of the warm liquid as she could.

Drinking.

Her eyes opened when the blood flow began to ease, and she squinted, staring at the bright light. The broken glass.

Attack. Two vehicles. One from behind, one from the side.

Right at dawn, when we were the weakest.

Smart bastards, she’d give them that, she’d give them—

Simon’s hand dropped.

Dee sucked in a sharp breath. What— “Simon!” The blood on her tongue, the warmth in her veins.

His.

All his.

She turned her head to the left, craning to see him. “Simon!”

A weak smile curved his lips. Such pale lips. Such tired eyes. “What did you do?” she whispered. Stupid to ask, she knew. She fumbled, managed to grab his hand and hold tight.

“You…had to live.”

So did he. Dammit, so did he.

His eyes began to close. “Don’t…watch me…”

Her fingers clenched around his. “We’re gonna get out of here.” They were trapped in a damn tin can, but she’d get them out.

Crushed. Smashed in by the two vehicles and left trapped. The bastards would pay.

“Promise…don’t watch…me—”

His eyes were closed as he finished, “Die.”

No. “Simon?” The chill was back, raising the hairs on her arms and numbing her flesh. “Simon?” She squeezed his hand and realized what he’d done.

His life, for her. Bastard.

Dee dropped his hand and shoved against the metal. Shoved and pushed and jerked and twisted and—

Tears trekked down her cheeks as the sunlight poured onto her. “You’re not leaving me!” A scream.

Not like her father.

Her sister.

Her mother.

No one else would die for her. No one.

Dee screamed her fury into the light and kicked up with her knees. Bones snapped, flesh tore, but she fought through the pain and tried to tear her way out of the hell that held them in its hungry grasp.

When he saw the SUV, saw the metal tossed away on the side of the road, Zane’s heart seemed to stop.

“Holy f**k.” From Jude. The shifter had found him at the motel and helped him to kick the shit out of those vampires.

You won’t find her. The bitch’ll be dead before you even get close. Last words from one of the vamps.

Zane slammed on the brakes.

“She could still be alive!” The fierce whisper came from Erin Jerome, Jude’s lover. Of course, the woman had been at Jude’s side when he’d stormed up to the motel. Not like she was ever going to miss a good fight.

Zane jumped from the car, ran as fast as he could, and heard the thunder of Jude and Erin’s footsteps behind them. Be alive. She had to be. Dee couldn’t—