focus was on her. They were curious. That, mixed with the bloodlust in the air, began a frenzy of murmurings.
They all wanted to know what she was.
Fionn turned toward them, putting Rose at his back. “She’s mine!” His voice rang through the room.
Kiyo appeared at Fionn’s side, sword at the ready. His statement was clear.
The smart supernaturals nodded at the warning and moved off, joining the crowds around the two supes that were fighting on the other side of the warehouse.
A small group stayed behind, their curious, avaricious, silver eyes on Rose.
Vampires.
Rose remembered the vampire who attacked her. The delirious, amazed hunger in his eyes after he’d tasted her. What are you? he’d asked. Apparently, a fae’s blood smelled and tasted a little nicer than human blood.
Great.
Someone moved. Rose wasn’t sure whom.
But she never even got a chance to join the fight.
Fionn and Kiyo sliced their swords through seven heads in seconds.
Actual seconds.
Ash danced in the air like dust, floating down to create seven piles on the packed dirt floor.
She couldn’t breathe.
She’d never seen anything like it.
It had been like some violent, brutal dance watching the werewolf and fae deftly avoid fists and fangs and legs as they whipped, spun, and sliced through the group of vamps.
Holy shit.
“Rose.” A touch on her chin stole her gaze from the piles of ash to Fionn’s face. “You with me?”
“What just happened?” She gestured to the deceased.
“She is new, isn’t she,” Kiyo murmured at Fionn’s side.
Rose touched her throat. “Can that happen to us?”
Fionn flicked a look at Kiyo before turning to her. His voice was low, so as not to be overheard. “No, we heal too fast. The sword would get pushed out by our healing abilities.”
Holy shit. Looking beyond him, she noted none of the other supes seemed to care that seven vampires had just been killed.
As always, her companion seemed to read her mind. “There are rules, Rose. You don’t feed on unwilling victims at an underground fight. I made a claim on you, they ignored it. No one cares if they’re dead. Do you?”
Remembering how painful a vampire bite could be, she shook her head and then let out a slow exhale as she looked back at Fionn and Kiyo. “But you could’ve at least given me a chance to join in.”
Fionn closed his eyes and gave a slow shake of his head, but she saw the slight tremble in his lips. He was trying not to laugh.
Good.
He’d been so serious all day.
Kiyo held out the sword to Fionn. “There’s a big fight in Romania in two months. Bucharest. Only the very strongest are invited. Will I see you there?”
Ooh, Romania. It had been on Rose’s European bucket list but she’d never made it.
The question caused Fionn’s expression to flatten. “No.” He waved off the sword. “Keep it.”
Something like surprise flashed across Kiyo’s face as he held on to the weapon. “Change your mind. I need the challenge.” Then, without a backward glance at either of them, the beautiful Japanese werewolf strode out of the warehouse.
“We should go.”
Rose nodded, handing Fionn his coat. Her mind was no longer on the amazing display of warriorship from her companion and his werewolf buddy. It was on the grimness of Fionn’s expression. He’d gone somewhere hellish and dark in his mind, and she had no idea what had triggered the unsettling change.
20
The fight with Kiyo had burned energy.
Unfortunately, it had not burned his aggression, self-loathing, or frustration.
It might have, had he not felt his heart race mid fight, felt a tingle down his spine and that telling dread in his gut that warned him of danger. Fionn had known instantly that it wasn’t his own danger, and he’d looked out to the crowds to see two fucking vampires hunting Rose as she tried to push swiftly through the baying supes around her.
Kiyo had known to withdraw without a word as Fionn was a blur across the room to put himself between Rose and her pursuers.
His protective instincts weren’t anything noble. It was territorialism. Fionn could lie all he liked and tell himself he wanted nothing to happen to Rose before he got the chance to open the gate. That wasn’t true. They’d already be in Ireland if it were.
This was a different territorialism.
This was something primal and ancient.
Something that terrified him.
Nothing had terrified Fionn in a long time. In centuries.
Until now.
Because even if what he was feeling was what he thought it was, it changed nothing. Rose still had to die for