Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,89

Knights of Death. Our family and a few others.”

My eyes narrowed. “You are not my family. I have a family.”

The look that he gave me was unmistakably puzzled. “But you don’t belong with them.”

“Of course I do,” I said without thinking. Dammit, Lex. I shouldn’t have taken the bait.

He took a pleading step forward. Opal tensed, but she watched me, waiting for a cue. “The Luthers aren’t like us, Lex,” he said urgently. “They age quickly, and live just as fast. Soon they’ll leave you behind. Then, not so long from now, their lives will be finished, and where will you be?”

I didn’t want to listen, but I couldn’t help it. My thoughts leaped to how Dani was nearly a teenager, how Elise and Anna were both in serious relationships that might lead to marriage. Paul was moving to New York, my dad would be retiring in a few years, and Charlie would start preschool the following year. And where was I? Working at a convenience store by day and running around with vampires at night. I couldn’t even bring my boyfriend to family dinners.

Sensing an opening, Emil took another step forward. I reacted instinctively, drawing the Smith & Wesson from the fanny pack I’d twisted backward. It had been pointless when there were so many vampires against me, but Emil I could shoot. I pointed it at his forehead, but he ignored me. “It’s already happening, isn’t it?” he said softly, his eyes probing. “Marriage, kids, careers. All those things you can’t have. And they can’t understand why not.”

I tried to push the words out of my head, but he’d hit me in just the right spot. It did feel like a gap was opening up between me and my family. Would it really just get bigger? Would they all drift away from me?

Would I have to watch them die?

“Come with me,” he pleaded, his eyes desperate. “Help Sophia and me stand against the rest of them. We’re your flesh and blood. We understand what you’re going through—the slow aging, the vampire relationship, all of it. Your vampire can come too, if he wants. You could learn from my mother, and together we could do more for boundary magic than the Knights ever did.”

I looked at him for a long, frozen moment. “You choose your own family,” I said quietly. “You came to my town, you tried to kill someone who’s been good to me, and you allowed that creature to take innocent lives. Last chance to walk away.”

His face hardened with fury, and I saw my error. In his eyes, he’d just offered me an olive branch, a true connection between equals, and I’d spat on it. “Kill them both,” he growled.

The vampire shot forward, but I put two shots in his body mass. It wasn’t anywhere near the heart, but it slowed him down enough for Opal to smash into him, snarling as she rode him to the ground. Seeing this, Emil pulled a knife out of his pocket, flipped the blade open, and turned to run—but not toward the parking lot and freedom. Toward Elise.

I raised the gun and put a bullet in the back of each of his thighs.

He crashed to the ground like a fallen tree. When I was positive he wasn’t getting back up I ran forward, fumbling to undo my belt to make a tourniquet. I dropped to my knees next to him and saw that blood was spurting out of the wound on his right leg. I’d nicked the femoral artery. He was dying.

I yanked out the belt and tried to gingerly ease it under the leg, but Emil saw what I was doing and held up a hand. “Please,” he begged. “Don’t.”

We locked eyes for a moment, and I understood. He wanted to go out like this, instead of in six or twelve months. More than that, he didn’t want to be the draugr’s daytime pet anymore. I nodded once.

Letting go of the belt, I fumbled at his pockets and came out with a cell phone. I tossed it to Opal. “Call Quinn,” I ordered. “Get him here now.”

Without watching to see if she did it, I turned back to Emil. He was looking at me with resignation. “You don’t know what you’ve done,” he said weakly. “If you don’t surrender, he will level this town. I can’t stop him now. Your niece . . .”

His eyes began to roll back, and I slapped him across the face. “What about