Bitten Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 3)

“I can smell her blood from here. She’s alive. She’d better be as strong as promised, because I need the fuel. It was stupid to use that much energy when we’re still so weak.”

“We’re not supposed to touch her escorts. We don’t need to be making enemies with Slade. This was the safest way to take her without a fight.”

“We have to hurry. That witch we spotted has an ambush set up just twenty miles down the road. She’ll be wondering where they are soon.”

“What do we do with the other two?”

I keep my silence. Not even a breath escapes me.

My eyes frantically search for a weapon, but the wreck has shoved everything around. The only things I see are random candy wrappers, books, and useless other things.

My window is shattered, so I might be able to—

“She’s awake!” one barks, and panic slams into me, forcing me into action.

I grab the buckle of my seatbelt, and curse when I drop hard to the ceiling. I don’t feel so damn powerful right now, because a grunt passes my lips, and I gasp for the air it has been knocked out of me.

Scrambling frantically, I crawl through the small space, but a scream rips from my lungs when two arms grab me. With one hard slam, I crash my elbow into the guy’s ribs, and something cracks upon impact.

“Fuck!” he roars, and I start running the second he loses his hold. My heart is thudding painfully in my chest, as I look over my shoulder.

One. There’s only one back there. Where’s the other one?

I turn around too late to see the arm that comes out, and my throat feels like it collapses when it connects. That asshole just clotheslined me.

Dark spots dim my vision, but I stay awake, heaving for air that I can only catch teasing wisps of as I watch the blurry images of two silhouettes moving around the distant SUV.

“Send them back to their place.”

“No. That’ll alert them to what we’ve done. We’ll just veil them from sight in case the witch comes here. Kick the vehicle out of the road.”

My fingers curl, digging into the ground as I flip onto my stomach and uselessly try to crawl. The voices sound hollow and distan

t, and my shallow, barely-there breaths make my vision dim all the more as I slowly suffocate to death.

“Wait! Look at that one,” one says, excitement coating the echoing words. “I can almost taste her power from here. It’s so strong. Even stronger than the anointed.”

“We can’t. Slade said only the one. These two can’t be touched.”

“Slade isn’t our fucking boss.”

“He’s our friend, and he saved our lives. We wouldn’t even know about the Aquarius if he hadn’t informed us. Her power is enough to recharge us completely.”

“He didn’t fucking tell us she was immune to magic. And he said one would escort her. Not two. It took a lot of energy to knock them both out. We need more. Slade won’t care. He doesn’t care about anyone. Just take that one. Toss the other one aside. We’ll consider it a compromise.”

It’s the last words I hear before my vision completely loses a grip on reality, and the short breaths steal my consciousness.

So much for escaping before this world kills me.

Chapter 13

ZEE

It’s almost like my breath is stolen when a wave of panic hits me. Again, it’s not my panic. My skin crawls with dread, and I grab the phone to call Ella, when suddenly the panic is gone.

An easy breath slides into my lungs as I sit back, half wondering if I’m imagining things. My finger hovers over the call button, but I decide against it since the panic is gone.

If Leah is still with them, calling is a bad idea. Hearing her voice would just piss me off, because I’m fighting with all I have to keep from going after her. Every instinct is being denied and overridden by willpower that weakens every second she’s gone.