Page 50 of Bullets and Blood
Lance shrugged.“Doesn’t matter.”
“Are you okay?”
Lance drew in a breath.“No.I’m never going to be okay again.”
Nix pushed him back to check the bite wound he’d made, but it wasn’t bleeding.“Where are you hurt?”
Had he broken one of Lance’s ribs?He’d pulled all his punches.He could’ve killed Lance several times, but he’d wanted Lance to get angry enough to use a weapon.Instead, Lance had turned the lust on him.The one weapon that leaves no visible scars.
Lance dropped his gaze and shook his head.“I know you’re right.About everything.About my family.”He licked his split lip.“Even if I take you in, I’m not safe.I don’t trust them, and they don’t trust me.Maybe they were hoping you’d kill me and solve their problem.”
“If you’d attacked me after work that first day, I would’ve without a second thought.”
“If I was better at my job, I would’ve done exactly that.But I’d spent so long hunting you, I wanted to see who you were…and you weren’t the same as you are on paper.”
“Far more disappointing in the flesh.”
Lance gave a short laugh and shook his head.“Do you really love me or is that a ploy?”
Nix cupped Lance’s face.“I love you.But that won’t save us.”
“I know.I want that shit-hole winery so you could try to convince me wine is better than beer.”
“You’d sneak cheap beer into the fridge.”
“I would.”Lance smiled.“But I’d have learned how to fix things up and run a business, and it would’ve worked.We would’ve worked.”
Nix kissed him again so he didn’t have to listen to his dreams burn to ash like a dead vampire in the sun.“You’re unblooded.Offer yourself to the Reids.They might turn you and protect you.”
“What about you?”
His throat was thick.“All I can bring them is trouble.”
ChapterTwenty-Eight
Lance breathed him in.Nix smelled like blood and grass and sex.He was everything Lance wanted but didn’t know how to hold on to.He pressed his forehead to Nix’s.“I’m not leaving you.”
“Then we’re both dead.One of us has a chance…you need to take it.Please,” Nix pleaded.
He was right, but Lance’s heart wasn’t cold enough to do the job.
From somewhere in the discarded clothing, a phone buzzed, and another pinged.That wasn’t a good sign.
Lance got up, tucking himself in.Nix did the same, picking up his coat to rummage through the pockets for the phone.He pulled out two and discarded one.
His face shuttered and went cold in the moonlight until he appeared to be made of stone and glass.Lance looked at his phone as it pinged again, the message the reason for Nix’s stony change.
Zinnia is in custody.
“Hello, Mirabella,” Nix said with a voice that was so cold and sharp it made the hair on Lance’s arms stand on end.
His head snapped up.What was Nix doing?
He ran over to snatch the phone away, but Nix didn’t slow down this time.He moved to the edge of the cliff as though daring Lance to follow and held up his hand for Lance to stop.Then he put the call on speaker and put it on the ground between them.They both hunkered down to listen to Lance’s aunt.
“Hadley.You got my message,” she purred.
Nix put his finger to his lip and looked at Lance.
