two hours. We’re cutting it close.” He frowned. “I’ve already contacted Tobias and Nix. They should be here pretty soon.”
She gave a nod, then what he’d said really filtered in. “Wait.” She watched a slow grin curl his sensual lips. “You really didn’t kill him?”
“I told you I didn’t.”
Keira allowed herself to feel hope for the first time in a long time. Something else fought its way up from the depths of her soul, too: a sense that, working with Finn at her side, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do.
She was relieved that Finn wasn’t the bad boy she’d thought he was. There was good in him, even though he did his best to downplay it. She’d known that; it was one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him. She should have had more faith in her own judgment.
Finn cast another glance at his wristwatch then looked at the trail. “Damn it. Where are they?” His gaze snagged hers. “I don’t think we can wait. Liuz is probably in there right now firing up that machine.”
“What’s your plan?” she asked.
“We go in there, fight the bad guys, and disable the machine.”
She blinked. “That’s it?” She couldn’t keep the shrill incredulity from her voice.
“I never said it was a good plan,” he defended.
“How about we go in, you take care of the bad guys, and I’ll sweet talk Stefan until I can get close enough to the machine?”
“I’m not sure that plan’s any better than mine,” he muttered. “But I like it. Let’s go.”
She shook her head at his grin and followed him into the mine. They reached the juncture right before the shaft seemed to dead end. Two burly vampires stood on either side of the shaft, leaning broad shoulders against the wall of the mine. Upon seeing the intruders, they straightened from their relaxed posture.
“You’re not authorized to be here,” the one on the left said.
Keira took a step forward and pushed out with her empathy. “Oh, Stefan asked us to come,” she said. She tried to wrap both vamps in a comfy cloak of camaraderie, but they weren’t having any part of it.
“Oh, the hell with it,” Finn muttered and launched himself at both vamps. “Get out of here,” he told Keira as he dodged their fists. “I’ve got these two.”
One of the vampires struck him in the jaw, sending him staggering back several feet.
“Oh, you do, do you?” Keira drew her dagger and stepped into the fray. She was smaller and lighter than her opponent, who looked like he’d been a boxer back in the day. She couldn’t tell how old he was, though she sensed he had been turned rather than coming through the rift. He was probably one of Stefan’s converts after he’d arrived on Earth.
She figured as long as she stayed out of reach she’d do okay. So she took a page out of Muhammad Ali’s playbook and danced around, jabbing out with her dagger every time she saw an opening.
Soon the vamp was bleeding from several cuts, some of them deep, and he was getting madder by the minute. Which suited her just fine, because the more he let his emotions control him, the bigger her advantage.
“I am gonna gut you with your own knife,” he promised her, his pupils so dilated she couldn’t see any hint of iris. Crimson filled the whites of his eyes, unspoken testament to how she’d riled him. Vamps were fast, but she was pretty quick, too. He charged her, a move she easily sidestepped. She hadn’t counted on how quickly he’d recover his momentum, though, and he grabbed her arm as he turned around. “You’re mine now, you little fey bitch.”
“I don’t think so,” she muttered. Reaching forward and down, she grabbed his balls and squeezed as hard as she could. His free hand came up and wrapped around her throat. Okay, maybe not the smartest move she could have made, but it would be interesting to see who passed out first: Her or Mr. Numbnuts. If she could only get her bare skin on the Earth beneath her feet, she might be able to get a boost of energy.
She sagged in his grasp, pulling him off balance. They went down in a tangle of limbs. She still had her hand wrapped around his testicles, and he continued to choke her. As soon as her head hit the dirt, she focused on drawing more energy from the Earth. There wasn’t much to draw on, and