Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,98
absorbed the flames that had been ravaging my body.
The pain snuffed out along with the fire. As I looked up into my protector’s face, only a dull prickling sensation continued to ripple over my skin.
Omen smiled at me, the charcoal gray and glowing orange fading from his skin. “You defeated her. That was spectacular. And here I thought I’d get to come charging to your rescue for once.”
I beamed back at him, feeling slightly delirious. The sharpest flames might have dwindled, but the fire inside me was raging on, its heat crackling through me. “Don’t sell yourself short. Your brigade gave me the opening I needed.”
I turned on shaky legs to stare at the blackened corpse that had fallen beside me. Tempest’s wings had smashed into crisp chunks when she’d hit the ground; one of her hips had fractured, blackened all the way through. The silver needle had melted into a gleaming blob in the blackened mass that had once been her head.
She’d defied death before. I wasn’t taking any chances, thank you very much. I nudged the sphinx’s side with the toe of my sneakers—and her entire charred rib cage crumpled in.
Triumph flared inside me next to my still-smoldering anger. I aimed a kick at her head and watched it burst into burnt dust.
Omen stepped up behind me and took one of my hands, raising it over my head. When I lifted my gaze, my pulse stuttered. A swarm of shadowkind had surrounded us—the horde Tempest had ranted about. The Highest’s minions.
Omen pitched his voice to carry. “The phoenix Ruby has destroyed our true enemy! You saw what the sphinx was preparing in that building. You witnessed how the mortals she conspired with attacked every shadowkind they met. This being has ended all of that. Ruby is our hero!”
Holy glittering guacamole, was that gambit actually going to work?
Plenty of the gazes that had fixed on me shone with hostility. But they hesitated, many of them turning to look at the largest beings among them, who started murmuring amongst themselves in harsh voices.
Omen tugged me back toward him. He twined his fingers with mine, his other hand rising to my cheek. The pale blue eyes that met mine were anything but cold.
“So, you took my advice for once,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying.
The corner of his mouth crooked upward. His thumb traced the line of my cheekbone. “There’s a first time for everything. You’re not always wrong.”
I made a face at him. “If they’re not convinced, they’ll kill you.”
“It’ll be worth it.”
He said it without a hint of hesitation, and a strange flutter passed through my chest. Naturally, rather than figure out what to make of that, I kept shooting off my mouth. “Oh, yeah? Because I seem to remember plenty of times not at all long ago when you were doing your darndest to get me out of your—”
“Shut up just this once in your life, Disaster,” Omen murmured, tipping his head closer, and I didn’t think anyone had ever said those words more sweetly. “They’ll have to rip me to shreds before they get one piece of you. I’d put my entire existence on the line for you all over again in a heartbeat. I told you that you’ve made an impression—in more ways than one.” He did hesitate then, his fingers going still against my skin. “I love you.”
I’d never anticipated hearing those three words fall from the hellhound shifter’s mouth. A giddy warmth spread from around my heart, swallowing up the fiery rage as it came. Still, one last question tumbled out. “Even though I’m partly human?”
Omen chuckled. “Because you’re partly human, it seems. Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I know better than that.” My fingers curled into his shirt just below his collar. “I love you too.”
He answered me with a kiss, so fierce and demanding it made my knees wobble. What our spectators made of that, I had no idea, but I couldn’t say I cared. This indomitable, passionate man was mine, the missing piece in the quartet I hadn’t known I needed, and I’d never felt more at home than in his arms in that dismal parking lot.
When he drew back, I grinned up at him for a moment longer. Then I glanced toward the crowd to search for the rest of my shadowkind lovers. It wasn’t a matter of whether they’d be here but only where. My gaze skimmed over the mass of figures—