Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,128
side.
Fuck. I dodged him!
“That’s really embarrassing,” I slurred. “Vissimo, Vissimo, all the speed in the world. Vissimo, Vissimo, couldn’t catch the human girl. Write that on my headstone, you motherfucker.”
I spat out blood—
Then doubled over at the brutal blow to my stomach. A slash across the back of my thighs sent me sprawling. On my front, I blinked at the red line one inch from my face.
I was dragged away from it, the concrete scratching at my skin and jolting the aching wound in my gut.
My head was forced upward, my back arching to accommodate the movement. I tried to prop myself up, hands slipping on the concrete.
“Nothing to say to the people watching, whore?”
I stared at the camera, gasping.
He flicked my ear again, and I choked on a scream, tears squeezing from my eyes to drip down my face.
“Do you want to tell Kyros what you are?” he whispered in my other ear.
I sucked in a painful breath. “He knows what I am.”
All I wanted was to curve around my stomach. Arching my back like this was agony. Acute pain, thudding pain, so much pain.
Theodore licked my cheek. “Mmm, you taste delicious. Fear makes blood taste divine.”
He flipped my body and straddled me, leaning down.
Got ya.
I went to knee him in the junk, and when he jerked back and looked down, I punched him in the throat as hard as I could.
Even Vissimo needed air.
That’s for you, Agatha.
He gasped, and I kicked him—to no effect.
Pulling me up, he lashed the back of his hand across my face.
I flew.
Landing in a heavy heap, I struggled to maintain consciousness. The camera was in front of me, just beyond the red line. I smiled at it, knowing this was the end.
Tommy was safe. Kyros was safe.
I was happy for that.
If he’d come, his family would be dead. No one deserved to carry guilt like that.
Theodore grabbed the back of my neck and lifted me, turning me to face him. His eyes were blazing, his lips curved.
I screamed as his fangs sliced into my neck, ripping.
Blood had dripped from me in multiple places, but now it gushed and spurted in thick waves.
He dropped me, and I lifted a hand to staunch the wound.
This is it.
Eyes wide, I rolled onto my back, just shy of the red line. As I did, the strap around my neck slipped.
I tightened my grip on my throat, holding the bomb in place.
Theodore bit through the strap?
His growls reached my ears, and in a daze, I rolled to my side and managed to crouch again. My right arm was slippery with bright blood, and I didn’t need the sight to reinforce what my body already knew.
I didn’t have long.
Theodore gripped my upper arms this time when he bodily picked me up, turning so our profiles were to the camera.
Gurgling, I brought my free hand up to grip his leather jacket. It was still unzipped at the top.
I blinked at Gina over his shoulder. They couldn’t see me from here. There’d be no shouted warnings.
“You’re going to kill me,” I said softly. “Like you killed my grandmother.”
His hazel eyes weren’t muted at all. My body was too near death to feel any effect.
“You can beg harder than that,” he roared.
I brought my second hand to his leather jacket. “I choose when I die.”
He hadn’t seen me bring the bomb collar to his chest.
He did feel me drop it inside his jacket. Theodore’s eyes widened and he glanced down.
Heaving up both legs, I kicked at his chest with all my strength. I didn’t fly from his hands as intended, but my right arm was slippery with blood. His grip failed, and I tumbled over the red line.
Time slowed as I glanced at Tynan on the stage. Theodore turned to him, fear in his hazel eyes.
Tynan’s triumphant, fanatical gaze was fixed on me. He smiled, holding the remote aloft.
Click.
The explosion catapulted me back, rocking the entire building. Head ringing, I stared vacantly at a hazel eyeball by my head, trying to process the chunk of tissue attached to it.
More body pieces surrounded me—pieces of Theodore.
I couldn’t hear the other siblings, but I could feel my life essence slipping away. Reaching a hand up, I pressed into my gushing neck wound weakly.
Death.
How funny.
Shivering, I laughed, but only a gurgle came out. Head lolling, I frowned at the camera. It had fallen from the table and lay on its side covered in dust.