Page 38 of Dragon Exposed

Levi gently took the weapon from my hands as his voice in my head saidGo upstairs. You don’t want to see this.

Want had nothing to do with it. I felt like I needed to.

Holding my ground, I moved toward the stairs, giving him space to do whatever he needed to do, but I wasn’t about to leave.

With a scowl, Levi moved in behind Ted. His taloned hands slipped around the vampire’s neck, and with a sickening squelching sound, he manhandled Ted’s head until it popped right off like a Barbie head that was getting brushed too hard.

As he dropped the severed head onto the floor, I bolted up the stairs and into the first bathroom I could find to throw up.

14

Stained with Blood

LEVI

Fucking hells. I knew she shouldn’t have watched it. But the only way I was going to be sure Ted didn’t get any chance to heal from his wounds or get away from this situation was to take his head off, and I wasn’t about to give him even a sliver of a chance of survival.

Not when he’d seen Izobelle.

Not when he’d have her scent in his nose for the rest of his life.

She was mine, and no one would hurt her again.

I carefully pushed my dragon back down, taking a few calming breaths before I headed upstairs.

I just hoped she hadn’t run. She knew where the garage was now, or at least where the door was, and Declan hadn’t exactly been discreet in announcing that I kept the keys with the cars. If she ran now, she could disappear, and I might not be able to find her again before the craze set in.

But she was standing next to the bathroom door, looking pale and shaken.

“Is that how I’d have to kill Viktor? Take his head off?”

“Stakes hurt, and the more blood loss they have, the weaker they get, but to really make sure a vampire doesn’t get up again, decapitation is the best bet and maybe fire for good measure.” I sighed, nervous about getting too close, setting her off. As long as she wasn’t running, I felt like maybe I had a chance.

Izobelle nodded absently, like she wasn’t quite hearing everything I said. Like she was just going along with it.

Fuck, was she in shock?

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” I stepped closer slowly, moving with small steps until she was close enough to pull into my arms.

“Levi?” She looked up at me, her eyes a little bleary. “We did the right thing, right?”

Scooping her up, I carried her easily up to my room and straight into the master bathroom. I wanted to let her sink into the oversized tub and let the jets ease the tension from her bones, but we couldn’t do that until she was cleaned of Ted’s blood. “He was a murderer. Killing him now ensured he wouldn’t do more damage than he already has. You shouldn’t feel any guilt over taking out a vampire like that.” With a sigh, I gently set her down on the counter and started to carefully strip off her blood-soaked clothing. “If he was sired by Viktor, he was chosen because of his hunger for blood. He would’ve been just as bad, if not worse.”

Izobelle gave me another absent nod, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave her alone in the shower. I hated knowing that in some ways, I would never be any better than Ted. I wasn’t afraid to take a life, and I’d do it without blinking many more times before all this was done, I was sure.

The only difference was, the people I would kill were a threat to me, to my family, and to my mate.

“Will you…” She looked up at me again, her eyes a little clearer. “Will you help me figure out how to decapitate one myself? If we’re going to bring Viktor here, I want to cut his head off myself.”

With a slight nod, I leaned close and cupped her cheek. “As much as I would want to save you from the heartache of being the one to deliver the death blow, I know how much he’s taken from you, and if, when we get him cornered, you still want to do the deed, I’ll help you as much as I can. I have plenty of weapons that should work.”

I didn’t want to tell her that if I claimed her, she would likely become a dragon too. She was scared enough as it was, I didn’t want to add to her stress over it.

I wasn’t even sure yet that she’d let me claim her.

It didn’t really matter, either way. If she wore my bite, if she had claws and teeth of her own, I’d teach her how to use her strength to rip the fang’s head from his body. If she didn’t yet have my claim when we found Viktor, then I had no issues helping her to use any number of blades to liberate his head from his neck.

Whatever it took to make sure that Izobelle never had to worry about him coming after her again.

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