Reborn Yesterday - Tessa Bailey Page 0,57

curl into the fetal position. She squeezed tightly into a ball but that only made the pain worse. Nothing helped. Nothing helped.

Oh Lord, make it stop.

“Ginny!” Roksana was beside her, running hands all over her body, her touch leaving fire in its wake. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” she gasped, a terrible throb beginning in her throat. There was the sense that she needed something. A cure. Now now now. What was happening to her? She couldn’t withstand the torture much longer—and all she could think of was Jonas. She needed him there. He’d stop the pain.

Distantly, she realized people were gathering around them. Barstools were shuffled aside and the music trailed off. Roksana’s voice reached her, along with a tinny, yet familiar, one. As if it was coming over the phone.

“Bitch at me later,” Roksana shouted. “There’s something wrong with her…I don’t know! If I knew, I wouldn’t be calling you. She’s in pain, but there’s no injury. God, she’s…it’s like she’s dying. Tell me what to do! No. He made me promise I wouldn’t.” There was a heavy pause. “N-no, you can’t come here. You can’t—”

Ginny’s pain finally subsided, leaving her gasping and weak on the sticky ground, shaking violently. She couldn’t even speak to tell Roksana that she was fine. She wouldn’t have had time to say a word, anyway, because that’s when the door of the bar blasted open and pandemonium ensued.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“What a pair of goddamn idiots,” Roksana muttered.

Ginny struggled into a sitting position and only caught the quickest glimpse of Elias and Tucker in the entrance of the bar when Roksana dragged her into a corner and ordered her not to move. With her jaw in the vicinity of her lap, she watched every slayer in the establishment whip out a stake.

“Oh dear,” Ginny whispered. “Those are terrible odds.”

Had Elias and Tucker come to Enders because of her? What could they possibly do to alleviate whatever was wrong with her? Surely she needed a human doctor and not two vampires. Even as the thought ran through her mind, she was levering herself up to see the door, hoping Jonas would walk in behind them. Begging him to.

He didn’t.

She ignored the rush of disappointment and focused on the here and now—and the very real possibility that something horrible was about to happen. Her friends could be hurt because of her. Surely they couldn’t take on an entire room of professional vampire slayers between the two of them.

The room was divided in two.

Vampires on one side, slayers on the other.

Roksana stopped in between the two sides and hesitated, her gaze swinging from the the pair to her colleagues. So to speak.

“Go,” Elias rasped, his face partially hidden by a low-brimmed baseball cap. It was clear to Ginny he was speaking to Roksana, but the slayers around her muttered their speculations. “Go!”

Roksana remained frozen.

A male slayer with myriad piercings in the front row lunged, his stake raised high above his head and a battle cry pierced the air. He was headed straight for Elias when Roksana blindsided him with a kick, sending him crashing into a row of tables, sending bottles and candles crashing to the ground.

Roksana stared at the stunned slayer with a torn expression, slowly shifting her attention to the crowd of disgusted slayers.

Luther stepped out of the pack, betrayal etched into his features. “Am I reading this correctly? You protect…a vampire?”

Going from nonplussed to bored, she shrugged. “Just trying to even the odds. No one likes a shutout.”

“You’re not welcome here ever again,” Luther spat.

Roksana sighed. “Does this mean the offer to meet your parents is off the table?”

Elias released a low growl and stepped in front of Roksana.

The slayers bristled.

Ginny slowly got to her feet and made eye contact with Tucker. He shook his head at her almost imperceptibly, so she stayed put, even though her instinct was to sprint toward the exit. That way they could follow her and avoid what was sure to be a deadly altercation. If anything happened to her friends because of her, she wouldn’t be able to live with the sadness or guilt.

What could she do, though? She didn’t have superhuman capabilities and probably couldn’t beat someone whose professional job title was vampire slayer on their worst day, unless maybe they were playing checkers. She had no choice but to wait and watch.

Luther pointed in her direction. “That one arrived with Roksana. Bring her to the back room.”

Change of plans.

Ginny had no time to think as