Authors: Toni Kelly
“But there is a chance, right?” She looked back and forth between him and Rafe. “I’ll do it.”
“No,” Luke said.
Rafe cupped Savannah’s chin. He held her gaze for several moments. “A vial of your blood for a vial of the healing blood. You have my word.”
Luke gripped Savannah’s wrist. “I said no.”
She yanked her arm back and spoke to Rafe. “You have yourself a deal.”
18
Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind
—Lionel Hampton
“What in bloody hell do you think you are doing?” Luke’s eyes burned fiery red.
“What do you think? You don’t expect me to leave you with rotting flesh? If it spreads, you could die.” She shook her head. “Again.” Savannah lifted her chin, her mouth twisted in its familiar stubborn frown. “As strange as it feels to say such an absurdity, I’m not going to let it happen.”
“It is not your concern.”
“Well, according to you, nothing is my concern, but I can’t—I won’t leave you hurt when I can do something about it.” She averted her gaze.
Why did it matter? Was it a feeling of responsibility, the decent thing to do? The Savannah he’d come to know would take this on as an act of kindness, but he was not inclined to receive charity. Although her blood burned him, he’d initiated everything by publishing a companion ad. “I do not need you as a protector.”
“Men.” She threw up her arms. “Obviously it doesn’t matter what species you belong to. Why won’t you ever let us help you?”
Rafe slipped a hand in his pocket and removed a vial. “I’ll give you two some space.”
“No, wait.” Savannah pushed forward, swept up her silky shawl and exposed the pale underside of her wrist. “Here.”
“Savannah.” Luke grabbed her arm. He could not let her go through with this. She understood neither Rafe nor the vampire world. The Ancient saw her memories. He knew what her blood was capable of. Giving him a vial of her blood would only secure her capture. She would never make it back to Boston—let alone out of Rome—alive.
“My lord.” Armand approached Rafe then lowered his voice. “It appears we have a problem.”
Luke could sense panic in Armand. The vampire was nervous. “What kind of problem?” he asked.
“We are being attacked. We don’t yet know what they want.” Armand’s gaze strayed to Savannah then back to Rafe. “They are mostly vampires and a few humans.”
Luke’s temper flared as he considered the fact he may have walked Savannah into a trap. Had this been planned? “What is the meaning of this?”
Rafe’s fangs lengthened and his eyes glowed a deep red. The color of blood. “I don’t know but I intend to find out. I imagine I’m not the sole contender for her blood.” He nodded in Savannah’s direction then turned toward Armand. “Take a couple guards and secure the perimeter.”
“Yes, sir.” Armand hurried from the room.
Screams sounded from outside the walls of the room. Luke could not pinpoint their origin, due to their echo.
“You both need to come with me,” Rafe said.
Luke tensed, ready to face off with the Ancient if necessary. He edged forward in front of Savannah. “I think not. How do we know your intention is not to harm her?”
“Harm her?” Rafe frowned. “If I wanted either of you dead, I would have done it long ago.”
“Someone has been hunting us,” Luke said.
“Not I.” He sighed. “It isn’t Drago either. He finds your travel companion ads a nuisance and a possible media issue if your games got out of hand, but he currently has larger interests. And Cybele would never send someone to hunt you, as she relishes the hunt too much to do so.” Rafe’s fangs disappeared and the pomegranate color of his eyes faded to an icy gray as he gazed at Savannah. “Right now, neither of them know about you or your…attributes. If they did, you wouldn’t be standing here. And yet, you haven’t the slightest clue what you are.”
Though her fear filled his senses, she lifted her chin and placed her hand on his arm. “What am I? Why don’t you tell me since you seem to know everything about me?”
“Your mind doesn’t want to accept what you are yet, which is why you can’t remember what happened. What I know could be unimportant to you. I’ve only scented your kind of blood once before. It happened over two decades ago but I remember it as if it were this morning.”
“I want to know more,” she said.
“Now is not the time,” Luke wrapped an arm around her as shouts rang out. Their attackers neared and a wave of aggression flooded the room. “They’re too close.” He couldn’t risk Savannah getting hurt in any crossfire.
“He’s right.” Rafe started toward an exit. “We’ll need to find you a safe escape route.”
Luke paused and scanned the room. Someone else had joined them. The steely odor of their body hung heavy in the air. “Wait.” He held up a hand.
Savannah’s eyes widened. Her chest lifted and fell with her shaky breaths. “Do you think they’d come here for me?”
“Bloody hell.” Luke did not know whether he’d seen the barrel of the revolver first or had felt the bullets’ vibrations. His only thought as he pushed Savannah aside was her safety.
As he collided with her, sandwiching her between him and Rafe, she gasped. The three of them hit the ground and rolled for cover. Luke’s injured arm took the brunt of the impact, and he sucked in a sharp breath as pain pulsated through his torso. Rafe’s men poured into and out of the room, pursuing shooters. The sounds of footsteps and shouts faded. Savannah’s heartbeat thundered in the quiet. She lifted her head. “Is it over?”
He wanted to remain on the ground with her in some sort of semi-embrace, but he had to move quickly. “I doubt it.” If anything, the danger was just beginning.
Someone hissed. Several feet away from them, Armand lay on the ground, jerking with tremors.
“Oh God.” Savannah pushed herself up onto her hands and knees then sat back on her heels. “Is he going to make it?”
“Not likely,” he said and rushed over to the injured vampire.
“But how? I don’t understand. You’re vampires.” Brows knit, she held the back of her right hand to her mouth. “I don’t feel good.”
“You need air.” Rafe came to his knees then stood. “They used silver. In large quantities, it can rot our bodies but we might save him yet.” He met Luke’s gaze. “You reacted quickly. Your powers grow strong for one so young.”
Take her and go. You’re free, for now. Move.
Rafe’s expression held no gratitude, but the words whispered through Luke’s mind were enough to assure him the Ancient would not be a threat tonight. “Which is the fastest exit?”
“You two can leave through there.” He pointed to one of the arched entryways. “And exit via one of the back tunnels. I’ll make sure you are left alone.”
Luke did not pause to question anything, but took Savannah’s hand and led her through the entryway and down a dark, narrow passageway.
“Are you sure we’ll be safe here?” Her voice shook.
“We have no choice.” He did not want to consider why Rafe let them go or whether there would be consequences. Instead, he squeezed Savannah’s hand in an attempt to comfort her. “Stay close.”
Water dripping down stone walls and the clacking of her heels echoed between the walls. Her breaths were light but quick. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For saving my life once again.”
He smiled at the reluctance in her voice and the irony of the situation. Tonight had turned into a holy mess and yet he had never felt so right. “I would never have let anything happen to you.”
She nodded, and he could hear her hesitation when she said, “He didn’t say thank you.”
A laugh bubbled up within him. “Who? You could not possibly mean Rafe?”
“Why not?”
“He is an Ancient.” Luke turned, only to catch her frown. She did not understand, Rafe’s status alone made him exempt from explanations. “In your society, do the rich explain away their mistakes?”
She laughed. “What mistakes.”
“Exactly.” He nodded. “Letting us go without insisting on a sample of your blood was his show of gratitude. Not to mention, it would take more than a few rounds of silver bullets to bring him to his knees.”
“I guess. What did he mean by you reacting quickly and your powers?”
“I felt the intruders’ emotions, their presence.” If he had not reacted with speed, he did not want to imagine what could have happened. “It is unusual for our kind to have such abilities at what we would term a young age. Kind of like a newborn who can crawl.”
“I see.” She paused, pulling at her bottom lip with her front teeth. “Can I ask you another question and get an honest answer?”
“I will do my best.”
“Who do you think would take such a risk and attack us when we’re with an Ancient? If they’re as powerful as you’ve described, wouldn’t that be suicide?”
He had not caught more than a glimpse of the shooters’ faces but one male looked vaguely familiar, reminiscent of someone he’d seen at Blood Bar. “I am hesitant to say, as I know the Ancients have made many enemies. Still, one shooter looked familiar. I do not know him but Lorenzo might.”
“Shit.” Savannah tripped, crashing into his back. Her hands floundered as she tried to catch her balance.
“I have you.” Luke turned and steadied her with a hand to her waist. Heat from her skin seeped through the material of her dress into his palm. Her skin tingled beneath his touch.
“I’m sorry, I can’t see,” she said.
“Let me be your eyes. Walk ahead. I promise to keep you safe.” He guided her forward, wondering whether the next few weeks would make a liar out of him.
19
The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.
—Victor Hugo
A wave of shudders moved through Savannah as she tiptoed on a bed of crushed stones, Luke’s hand steering her through the blackness ahead. A cool breeze whistled past, and deep bass pulsated around them. “Music?”
“We must be walking beneath a club,” he said. “I felt a rush of air. An exit should be near.”
A tremor of disappointment lanced through her that this moment’s intimacy would soon end. Ridiculous, she had such thoughts. They were walking through a dank, dark tunnel and only hours ago, she’d found out Luke had been planning to kill her. And yet, he hadn’t so much as attempted it in the many days they’d passed together. Not to say there hadn’t been opportunities...
“What is it?” He turned her around, ran a hand over her face, neck and shoulder. “You are shaking. Are you all right?”
No. Yes. She shook her head, not trusting her ability to speak or the complex feelings built up inside her.
“Savannah?”
She searched out his face in the dark, unable to see him but sensing his nearness. “Why didn’t you kill me?” She wanted to know. She didn’t care about the fact she stood with a vampire in the dark. What mattered was hearing some sort of answer, some sort of reason to convince her all she’d felt between them hadn’t been a hoax.
“I do not kill innocents, not if I can help it.”
“I’m far from innocent.” She bent her head. “I enjoyed some of it. I liked wealth.” She’d enjoyed the limelight with Ben. The expensive dinners, impromptu trips and beautiful clothes he’d bought her. The extras—superficial as they were—had only made his denial hurt more. Worse than the pain of crushed bones and a year and a half of therapy. She caressed her left hand where his ring had once lain.
A beautiful emerald like her eyes
, he’d said. Lies.
“No sadness.” Luke brushed her jaw line and she leaned into his touch, closed her eyes. “You do not understand how beautiful you truly are.”
How she wanted to believe him. She coughed a nervous laugh as he eased forward, one hand still wrapped around her waist while with the other, he tucked her hair behind her ear. He moved to kiss her and the darkness around them only made this knowledge more thrilling.
Back away
.
“Savannah.” He crushed his lips, moist and soft, over hers.