Page 46 of Bullets and Blood
Lance closed his fingers around the grip, and Nix kept his hand there.
“I trust you to do it right.”Nix held his gaze.
“I don’t want to.”His mouth was dry.“I can’t.”
“Then you’re a fucking fool with a death wish.”
“Says the man asking me to break my oath.We swore a truce.”
“I release you.”
“I don’t release you.”
“So we stand here for two days and another hour?It’s not me who’s out of time.It’s you.I can’t save myself, but I can at least spare you.”He lifted his hand.Lance felt rather than saw the slap that snapped his head back.Lance stepped back, the gun still in his hand and blood in his mouth.He wiped his lip, and they both stared at the red on his skin.
“Truce broken, Orlan.Your move.”
Lance licked the inside of his cheek where his teeth had cut the flesh.His skin was hot with the print of Nix’s hand.He glared at Nix and spat blood on the ground.“No.”
Nix blinked, and his eyebrows knitted together.“No?”
“You aren’t an oath breaker.”Lance’s voice was steady.
“I am now,” Nix snarled.
“This isn’t you.”
“How the fuck would you know?You have a dossier filled with half-truths and a week and a half of my dick up your ass.You don’t know me or what I’m capable of.”He took a step and closed the gap.“I could rip your throat out and leave you for the scavengers and tourists to find.”
“So do it.”Lance gave him a little push, and Nix stepped back.Lance took a step forward, keeping the gap between them to barely anything.Nix’s fangs weren’t even down.“Bite me bad and make me bleed, but then who’ll give you the quick death you claim to want?I know you don’t want to die.I know you want that shitty little winery.”
“There’s no way for me to live.If we run together, one of your cousins will chase us both.”He grabbed the gun and put it between them.“It will never end.It’s not a life.”
For a few seconds, they struggled.It shouldn’t have been a struggle.Nix was faster and stronger.The barrel of the gun clipped Nix under jaw, drawing blood.Lance tossed the gun aside.
Nix touched the wound.“Most definitely broken now.Come on, Orlan, you’ve been chasing me for months.This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to bag yourself a Hadley and save your skin in the process.”He made loose fists with his hands, ready to fight.“I’m all yours if you have the balls to see this through.”
Lance shrugged out of his coat.He dropped his gun on the ground, then charged Nix.Nix didn’t resist.He let himself be taken to the ground with a thump.
Nix’s eyes widened.“I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Lance shut him up with a kiss.Nix’s mouth opened, and Lance ran his tongue over Nix’s teeth and teased his tongue.He didn’t want to hear another stupid word out of Nix’s mouth.
Nix pulled the knife free from the small of Lance’s back.Lance slapped his hand to the ground and pinned it there.“You aren’t even trying.”
Nix broke the hold and tossed Lance onto his back, momentarily winding him.The sunset was brilliant.Before Nix could grab him, he scrambled away, but Nix was on him just as fast, knife in hand.Lance blocked, not sure if Nix would actually hurt him or if he was doing just enough to piss him off so he did shoot him.
Either way, they were both getting hurt.He lifted a knee, catching Nix in the ribs and dragging him down so he could whisper in his ear.“I know you.I have studied you.You don’t want this.”
Nix punched him in the armpit.“I do what has to be done.You know that.You need to learn that.A blooded Orlan would get it done.”
Pain radiated from the hit.“Yeah, well, I’m not blooded.”
They grappled, twisting and clawing, Nix never seizing the upper hand even though he could’ve used his strength to end the fight.Lance ended up on top again, the knife several meters away.Both were breathing hard, but they were enjoying the fight far too much.
Lance really wanted to adjust his jeans as they were pinching his hard-on, and Nix’s fangs were down, glinting in the fading sunlight.Lance leaned down and kissed him again, nipping at his lip and then along his jaw to taste his blood.The heat in his blood and the ache in the roof of his mouth demanded to be fed.He wasn’t blooded, but he was still a vampire, and his body craved to be more than what he was.The blood was salty and metallic on his tongue.He moved his hips against Nix, loving the feel of his erection grinding again his own, and drawing a sweet groan from him.He kissed him again, wanting to feel Nix’s fangs break the skin.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
