Page 3 of Black Bay Protector
“He may have told her something. Kill her.”
Kill her? Wait. What?
Time slowed. Or maybe that was just her brain’s reaction to the death sentence she’d been handed, trying to make her remaining seconds last as long as possible. She saw one of the men raise his gun just slightly higher, the barrel registering in her mind as oddly long, and she watched in horror as his finger moved on the trigger. Paige would have liked to have been brave and looked her killer directly in the eye, but she couldn’t. She closed her eyes. This was it. She was going to die. Here. In her own living room. Wearing nothing but a ratty, old, oversized T-shirt and a pair of men’s boxer shorts.
The impact, when it came, didn’t slam into her chest. Something hit her from behind, something large that took her to the floor, knocking the wind out of her and leaving her dazed. There was a vicious-sounding snarl right by her ear, and then, all hell broke loose.
A shrill scream tore out of Paige’s throat as she scrambled on hands and knees for a place to hide and take cover. She threw herself behind her recliner, wedging herself into the tight space between the chair and the wall. Why was this even happening? Why? Those men were shooting rapidly, while the guy who had been wounded and bleeding only minutes before was attacking, his movements so fast watching him nearly made her dizzy. He’d lunge for someone, latch onto the arm that was holding the gun to throw their shot wild, and then he’d kick backward at someone else.
So many shots were fired, but the sound wasn’t as loud as it should have been. Was something wrong with her ears? Silencers, her confused mind finally pieced together. Those men were using silencers.
Dust and debris rained down on her head as a bullet hit the ceiling above her. She needed to call the police. Therealpolice. Why weren’t they here already? Her neighbors were doctors and nurses, administrators, and accountants. Surely someone must have heard the disturbance, first with her sliding glass door shattering and then with her apartment door being kicked open. Why weren’t the police swarming in to defend her and arrest everyone else?
Carefully, moving by inches, Paige peeked around the edge of the recliner. Her stomach lurched and bile rose in her throat. Three of the men were on the floor, dead or unconscious. One of them was definitely dead. Even in the low light provided by the small lamp she’d turned on, she could see his head was cocked sideways at an anatomically impossible angle, displaying a gruesomely broken neck. She shuddered.
The guy who had crashed into her apartment – the man who’d saved her from being executed – was still fighting the two remaining men. Their grunts mingled with the sounds of knuckles meeting flesh as they grappled. One of the men slammed into a wall hard and the single framed picture that hadn’t yet fallen, hit the floor, the glass shattering.
She could do this. If she stayed low and moved quickly, she could get to her room and her phone while the fighters were distracted.
Squeezing out from her hiding spot, her eyes were watchful on the three remaining combatants as she scurried on her hands and knees. Almost there… Almost there…
Something slammed into her bare thigh, the sharp pain making her cry out. Shit. Had she been shot? She should have kept her eyes on the downed men as well. At least one of them must still be alive to have gotten a shot off.Move, move, move, she mentally chanted. She could assess the damage once she was safely behind cover. She scrambled and then rolled the final few feet into her bedroom. Paige kicked the door closed and then slid backward on her butt until she reached the cover her bed afforded.
Her lungs were pumping like bellows, her heart racing with fear as tears of pain and confusion blurred her vision. This couldn’t be happening.
Her thigh throbbed and felt like it was on fire. Paige didn’t want to look, but she had to assess the damage. Biting her lip, she turned her thigh to see the wound. Not a bullet hole, but something had hit her. The point of impact was beginning to swell, and there was a smeared trickle of blood. Flying debris from a shot gone wild? Possible, and much preferable to a gunshot wound.
There was no time for relief, however. Danger and death were right outside the door. She snatched up her phone. Her hands were bloody – his blood – and left smears on the screen as she tried to unlock the phone with trembling fingers.
Her door burst open and Paige clutched the phone in a death grip as she screamed.
Chapter Two
Itwashim.Theguy who could heal, and by the looks of him, that was a very good thing right now. The front of his shirt was full of holes and darkly wet with blood in way too many places. Jesus Christ, he should be dead not striding around the bed to loom over where she was huddled in a tight ball on the floor.
“Are you all right?”
Her eyes flew up to his face and she blinked in confusion. His face was handsome, incredibly masculine, and strong with sharp cheekbones and a square jaw, but his eyes… Paige had never seen such a color on a person. They were vivid, bright yellow, and slightly up tilted at the corners, giving his face an exotic look.
“Are you shot?” he barked out when she failed to answer promptly. His teeth. Holy shit. The guy had fangs, both top and bottom. With a gasp, Paige curled up into an even tighter ball as her fingers squeezed her phone so hard it creaked. Vampires aren’t real, vampires aren’t real, vampires aren’t real. Her little mental chant did nothing to alleviate her fear.
“Were you hit?” he repeated more gently this time as his eyes swept over her, searching for any sign of injury.
She shook her head. That was all she could manage at the moment and she just wanted him to go away now so she could pretend this never happened.
Were the men dead? Had he killed them? Her eyes flicked to the open door of her bedroom and she licked her lips.
A low groan had her whipping her attention back to the man who stood before her. He hunched over, his hands braced on his thighs, and suddenly, five – no – six bullets dropped out of him to bounce harmlessly on the carpet.
Paige gawked at the blood-smeared pieces of violence.How was this possible?her mind asked once more. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed it. Hell, even seeing it she was still having trouble wrapping her mind around it.
She had so many questions. Who was he?Whatwas he? How could he heal like that? How did he end up in her apartment? Who were those men? Why were they after him? And more importantly, why were they trying to kill her? Paige blanched. Washegoing to kill her now for seeing too much?
A scared little whimper escaped her as he suddenly grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to her feet. She let out a dismayed squawk. “We’ve gotta go,” he told her, propelling her along beside him.
Go? With the strange man who had just killed five armed and probably heavily trained men? Paige struggled against the firm grip on her arm and tried to yank away. Instead, she got pulled front and center and the vampire creature, whatever he was, glared at her.
“Look, lady. I get that you’re scared. I do. But those men,” he said, thrusting a finger toward the door. “That was just the first wave. Any minute now, they’re going to realize their guys are down and send more. Many more and you don’t want to be here when that happens.”
