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by Lena Diaz
Excerpt...
Dying crouched behind a garbage
can that smelled like rotten fish wasn’t the dramatic exit
Madison would have envisioned for herself. After all, she
was a fighter. Hiding was for sissies. She was no sissy, and
as soon as her legs quit shaking, she would quit hiding and
prove it.
She clutched her knife awkwardly
in her left hand since her right one was pretty much
useless. The were-panther had shredded her tendons with one
swipe of its massive paw.
Unfortunately, the cat was the
least of her problems. Something far more sinister was
stalking her now. It reeked of evil, thickened the air
around her making it difficult to breathe.
Even though she could barely see
in the dimly lit alley, she sensed the creature nearby. It
was playing with her. She’d heard fear made blood sweeter.
If that was true, her blood should be thick as syrup by now.
She glanced at the alley
entrance. Was she fast enough? Could she make it? A vision
of her mother at her graveside, a bewildered look on her
face, spurred Madison on.
She carefully tucked her sweater
around her arm to conceal the wound. If she did make it to
the parking lot, she didn’t want to be stopped by some
well-meaning security guard. If she could get to her car,
she could heal her arm far more quickly than any doctor.
A muffled noise from behind
convinced her to make her move. She shoved the garbage can
forward, spewing its contents in an effort to buy her an
extra few seconds. Convinced she could feel the hot breath
of the vampire on her neck, she sprinted toward the mouth of
the alley and lunged toward the opening.
And slammed right into a brick
wall.
Or at least it felt like one.
Her breath left her in a
surprised whoosh and she bounced backward, but a pair of
strong arms reached out and grabbed her around the waist,
saving her from a nasty fall.
She was eye-level with a broad
masculine chest clothed in a tight black t-shirt, but she
didn’t take the time to apologize for running into him. “Go,
get out of here,” she yelled, shoving out of his arms and
whipping around to face the threat. But the attack never
came. The malevolent feeling of evil evaporated as if it had
never been there.
“Are you all right?” the
stranger demanded from behind her, his deep voice thickly
accented.
“Why are you still here?” she
asked, without turning around. “It’s not safe. Go.” She
studied the shadows, searching for a hint of movement. Why
hadn’t the vampire attacked? Where was the were-panther?
An impatient grunt sounded
behind her. Two hands grasped her shoulders and spun her
around so fast she lost her footing, stumbling against his
chest. She winced at the sharp pain that shot through her
injured arm.
“Are you all right?” he
repeated, an impatient edge to his voice. “What are you
running from?”
She had to look up, way up, to
see his face. When she saw the blond hair, sharply chiseled
cheeks and piercing black eyes she felt the blood drain from
her face. Nicholae Dragomir. Sentinel vampire. She’d been
trying to find him for weeks but she hadn’t meant to get
this close, not in her current weakened state anyway.
If she played it cool, maybe
he’d let her go. He didn’t know who she was or that she’d
been following him. Could he read her thoughts? She knew
very little about sentinels. There weren’t that many of them
left and she’d never been this to close one before. Thank
God.
His large hands were wrapped
around her forearms and the throbbing in her right arm was
becoming unbearable. She tugged out of his grasp and took a
wary step back, hoping he couldn’t see how much she was
shaking.
His eyes narrowed but he didn’t
pull her back to him. “Did I hurt you?” he asked, as his
gaze brushed over her.
She thought his gaze lingered a
little long on her neck but that was probably her overactive
imagination. She hoped so.
“No, no, I’m fine,” she
insisted. “I’m sorry I ran into you. I was in a hurry,
trying to get to the mall before it closed. Um, if you’ll
excuse me, I’ll just be on my way.”
She tried to move around him but
he stepped to the side just as she did, blocking her
attempt. Her stomach did a little flip and she was having
trouble catching her breath. He hadn’t done that on purpose
had he?
“I’m so sorry,” she said,
forcing out a laugh. “I seem to keep running into you. I’ll
be going now.”
He blocked her again and she
couldn’t suppress the whimper that escaped.
Oh God, please don’t let me die
in an alley two thousand miles from home, she thought.
He grasped her hips and pulled
her roughly against him, ignoring her attempt to pull away.
Then he leaned down, buried his face in her hair, and
sniffed.
“You smell like wet fur,” he
growled.
Dammit. The were-panther. Did he
think she was one of them? Vampires and were-creatures
normally hated each other, probably because both species
vied for the spot at the top of the food chain. That’s why
she’d been so surpised earlier when the other vampire had
teamed up with the panther against her.
“I…ah, I have a pet cat.”
His eyes, if possible, darkened
even more and his lips hardened into a thin line. She didn’t
think he was buying her bluff but she didn’t know what else
to do. Forcing a coquettish smile on her face, she said,
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like cats?”
He moved so quickly, by the time
she realized he’d grabbed her around the waist she was
halfway down the alley with her back slammed against the
brick wall and over two hundred pounds of angry, powerful
male pressed against her.
His thighs pressed her hips like
a vice and he leaned his face down next to hers, flattening
his hands against the wall on each side of her head. In his
black eyes she saw nothing but death.
Wishing she’d worn her high
heeled boots with her jeans today instead of sneakers, she
stomped her foot down on his as hard as she could. He shoved
her in retaliation and she cried out in pain as he crushed
her wounded arm between them.
His fangs burst from his gums
and sparkled obscenely white beneath the yellow street
lamps. She’d always wondered what happened to their fangs
when they weren’t feeding. That was one answer she would
have gladly lived her entire life not knowing.
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