twined around his neck, one hand forcing the small blade deeper and deeper up under his rib cage.
Eyes wide, Lazaro coughed blood, just like Shannon, but unlike her, he was dying.
I knew she had punched through his other side when his body shuddered and he gagged as a river of red flowed from his mouth over her shoulder like a silken ponytail.
Jason shuddered and I caught him as his knees crumbled, nearly bringing us to the ground.
His laughter was shaky. “Thank you, Ran. I didn’t...I didn’t expect that.”
“Didn’t expect her to win or didn’t expect all the blood?”
He paused. “Both.”
With a hiss of disgust, she let go of Lazaro, wrenching the small dagger out of his body.
“Bastard. Underestimated me,” she spat out, standing over him as though she meant to do further harm to a corpse that was, even now, already starting to wither away. “Shouldn’t have given me that chance.”
“Shouldn’t you be thanking him?” I adjusted Jason so his shoulder didn’t ground so painfully into my collar bone. “Were it not for him saying you could hit him once, you would be dead right now.”
Her fangs flashed in the flickering torchlight and for one moment, with her body drenched in blood, I felt my breath come short and quick.
Male vampires were scary.
But female vampires were outright terrifying.
“He said he wasn’t an idiot,” she said and tossed her hair with a laugh. “What a stupid motherfucker. That’s why I hate men.”
Jason cleared his throat and slowly got to his feet with no help from me. “You’ve changed.”
That feral light faded if but a little bit and for a moment, just one moment, I saw her shoulders hunch defensively.
Was this bluster just an act as well?
“We all do,” she replied. “Even you.”
He smiled, although it was not one of happiness. “What I am is because of you.”
“Then you’re also a dumb ass.”
The complete shutdown in his eyes spoke volumes.
Watching them from the sidelines was not something I wanted to do. “Enough. I would rather we get out of this death trap.”
Jason opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it with a shake of his head.
Shannon shrugged. “I’m not complaining. Let’s get the hell out of here before those sons of bitches send someone else. Fighting here feels like a fucking death trap.”
I knelt by Ryder. This was new for me, this offering assistance to something I had done nothing but decimate for the past ten years. “Ryder?”
He did not answer and I rolled him onto his back. Except for a thin stream of blood trickling down his face, there did not appear to be lasting harm. Then again, doing lasting harm to vampire was just about impossible. They were either perfect or just dead. All or nothing for the so-called masters of the night.
“Ryder.”
He groaned and opened one eye, one brilliantly blue eye that looked at me and then crinkled at the corners. “Did we win?”
I didn’t like the way he said “we” as though it was already decided we were some sort of team. “Lazaro is dead.”
He laughed and then immediately winced, one hand going over his chest, the other going to his temple. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have been so damn confident. I probably could’ve taken him. If I tried harder, that is.”
Keeping my face straight, I helped him onto his feet. “Of course, Ryder.”
“Why does it feel like you’re telling me to go fuck myself?”
He laughed low under his breath. He smelled like stargazer lilies, my favorite flower. I couldn’t stop myself from taking in a deep breath, remembering the way they looked at my mother’s funeral.
His face was close to me, so close I could have fallen into the startling blue, the sky in his eyes. “Do you like it?”
I refused to feel shame. “I like lilies.”
He moved closer, so close if he puckered up his lips, we probably could have kissed. “Then maybe I should wear it more often.”
Abruptly, he was pulled away from me as Shannon tugged on the collar of his shirt.
“For fuck’s sake, Ryder. Keep it in your pants, at least until we’re not in immediate danger of getting our heads taken off.”
Behind her, Jason’s face was immobile and he shrugged when I didn’t stop looking at him.
“Do you not approve?”
It was a silly question, but one I felt compelled to ask. It wasn’t as though I was trying to make him jealous, but still, it would have been interesting to see what sort of reaction, what sort of emotions he