Page 117 of Sinner's Sacrifice

“I feel like shit,” she told him, suddenly furiously angry at him and the whole situation. “I found out that vampires are real and I have the potential to become one. Some of those vampires think my children will also make great vampires. There’s one ginormous problem with that,” she said in a rush, every word louder than the last. “I. Can’t. Have. Children.”

His face remained perfectly placid. “I guess that was a stupid question.”

“You think?” She threw her hands up in the air, jerking on the IV tubing. Her gaze snagged on the bag of blood. “Why am I getting a transfusion?”

“You cut your hand and wrist and lost some blood,” he said mildly.

She glanced down. A bandage was wrapped around her hand and halfway up her forearm. “Who did that?”

His head tilted to one side. “You did.”

She glared at him. “Fuck you. I did not.”

“Then it was an accident. You’d stabbed that idiot doctor, so perhaps you passed out.”

She shrugged. “Where are we going?”

“To Slovenia.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Why?”

“To get away from the circus we left behind in New York. Lots of casualties, blood, and plenty of betrayal.”

“Betrayal? Who betrayed who?”

“Benson knew there was something different about me, Baz, and probably others. If he knows, a lot of other people know, and nothing is safe there right now. I dare not depend on anyone I’ve been working with.”

“So, you just left your business empire to idle in neutral while you’re gone?”

“I left Baz and my aunt to look after things.”

She rolled her eyes. “Something tells me those two aren’t going to be a solution to anything.”

“I don’t know. It might be a good idea for Baz and his mother to spend some quality time together.”

“Your aunt is as straight as they come, but Baz...he could agitate the residents of a cemetery to riot.”

Yvgeny laughed, only for a moment, but it was the first time she’d seen any evidence of her irreverent, disrespectful, dangerous man in him since the confrontation in his apartment.

Her breathing changed, quickening along with her pulse.

“I was so scared,” she whispered. “When Benson shot you, I was sure you were dead, dead for good.” She reached for him. “Yvgeny?”

His warm hands grabbed hers and she found herself cradled against his chest. She buried her nose in his shirt and inhaled. Nothing and no one smelled like him, and he smelled so good.

She stayed there until her breathing and heartbeat returned to normal.

Normal was a thing of the past.

“Yvgeny?” she whispered. “You were dead. Benson shot you in the head.” She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “You were dead.”

He put one hand behind her neck. “And you avenged me.”

Tears rolled down her face. “He shot you.”

He kissed her wet cheeks, her nose, and finally her lips. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

“How is this possible?”

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