Blood and Kisses - By Karin Shah Page 0,86

bulky shoulders. Gideon’s hands must have bruised his flesh with crushing force, but he seemed undaunted. “She’s as good as dead.”

Gideon growled. Reason gave way to the fury and fear that burned within him. He seized Akos by the throat, squeezing so powerfully he could feel the bones of his enemy’s spine. He would have pulverized the throat of a younger, weaker vampire, but the rogue just laughed.

Akos drew back his leg, perhaps to kick Gideon away, but stopped short. He choked. There was horrible sucking sound, and the end of a metal rod, flickering with the unique blue light of Thalia’s magic, flowered from his chest. He looked down at the blood-coated pole, his eyes rounded in surprise.

“I may be dead, but so are you,” Thalia said from behind him, her face a vengeful mask.

As his hands rose to clutch the rod, Akos crumpled in on himself like a fire-brittle log, shattering under the assault of a poker. Soon he formed a pile of gray ash. The rod fell with Akos’ remains and hit the ground with a crash. The pouring rain beat the little hill of ash into mud and began to carry it away.

Thalia balanced on her knees for a moment, arms out, palms up to the rain, letting it wash away the blood on her hands. Her ponytail holder had broken, and her hair clung to her cheeks like tiger stripes.

Gideon swept her off the wet asphalt and widened the hole in the side of the warehouse. He stepped through and laid Thalia on the dry floor. The scent of her blood hung rich and potent in the stale air. What had Akos done to her?

The door burst open.

A half dozen or so police officers piled into the room led by Cole and Poole, their weapons drawn. Rain beat at their backs and spattered the dusty concrete. “Get down on the floor, Damek. Get down! I said get down!” Cole repeated, her features tight with purpose.

Gideon had no time for this. “Get out,” he commanded, his voice the roar of a wounded animal, the compulsion in his tone so powerful the police officers grabbed their heads as they ran from the building.

Gideon sank to his knees and cradled Thalia’s head in his lap. She panted, her chest heaving as she fought for air, her porcelain skin coated with a fine sheen of perspiration.

He examined her, letting his mind float through her body, studying her systems one by one. What he saw terrified him. She had only a matter of minutes before she bled out internally. Even if he teleported her directly to an operating room, no earthly power could save her. He could feel her life force ebbing.

He had seen every kind of injury in his vast life, but he’d never been so helpless. He felt as if he were stuck in some cruel nightmare from which he was unable to wake. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t end like this.

But it was.

“God, it hurts,” Thalia whispered. “Can’t breathe.”

A tear streaked down her cheek. She writhed, moaning in the dust. Through their mental link, he could feel the pain that scoured her body. Her face was paper-white with agony. She clutched at his hand. “I love you, Gideon.”

He had been unable to absorb her earlier confession, but this time her words found some receptive part of him and stuck.

She loved him.

Thalia loved him.

His chest ached, but his feet and hands felt numb. How could he lose her when it seemed like only yesterday that she’d been born?

The monster broke free. His claws descended. His fangs extruded, but the demon only cried his pain to the skies. His roar recoiled through the building like a cannon backlash. And he recognized that Thalia had been right all along. There was no monster, merely a man. A man who would give anything to go back and have the chance to watch Thalia grow old, to have her for even just one year, one month, one day, one hour, more. Fear had given birth to the creature, a fear for which he no longer had the luxury. “I love you, too.”

Thalia smiled weakly. “You don’t have to be nice.” She coughed, drowning in her own poisonous blood.

“It’s the truth.”

“Okay,” she said, but he could tell she didn’t believe him, that she imagined he was only trying to comfort her. He damned the world that had convinced her she was unlovable.

She shook uncontrollably. Her skin felt like ice. She was slipping