Page 81 of Kiss of Light

Still plummeting towards the earth, Lemar held up their entwined hands.

“Let go. You can shimmer to the ground. You’ll be safe.”

“No chance. Forget trying to protect me, vamp. I make my own decisions.”

He forced their hands apart and tried to push her away but she wrapped her legs round his waist.

“Shaitun, I order you to let go!”

She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, likethat’sworked in the past.” She brushed her lips against his. “For luck.”

Before he could stop her, she called up the power of the light-bringer. The white flash lit up the darkened sky, brighter than any beacon. It lasted for just a second.

She’d braced herself for the pain but she hadn’t expected this. A deep, bone-crunching agony which seared its way through her entire body. Blood ran from her nose.

Something broke inside her; some connection between her brain and the rest of her system. Her muscles turned to water. She fainted.

“Tala!”

Lemar screamed, his nostrils filled with the scent of blood. She started to fall away and he grabbed her, shocked at how white and lifeless she appeared. The damned light-bringer. He cursed his own stupidity. He should have taken it from her after the last time.

In a frenzy he sank his fangs into her left hand, tearing out the relic beneath her skin. He spat it out and let it disappear, hoping no-one would ever find it again.

The ground was much closer now. Lemar felt gravity tugging at their bodies as they hurtled downward. He didn’t care.

If she was dead… despair pierced his vampire heart. If she was dead, he didn’t want to live. He clutched her limp body to his chest and prepared for the end.

Shadows came out of nowhere and wrapped around them, slowing their descent. They looked smoky, insubstantial, but they were hard as steel as they coiled round his waist.

More shadows boiled out of the darkness and a figure appeared. A giant of a man with wings of silver-grey beating slowly to keep him aloft. A demon or an angel, Lemar couldn’t tell.

He shielded Tala’s body protectively.

“Who are you?” he snarled, even as he registered they had finally stopped falling.

The winged man looked at him with eyes the colour of sapphire.

“I am Lord Shadeed of the Ifrit. What is wrong with Tala?”

“She’s hurt.”

Shadeed’s gaze narrowed. Black smoke began to pour from him.

“She is bleeding. What have you done to her? If you have harmed her, Vetali, I will tear your head from your body.”

The words made Lemar’s canines vibrate and maybe he should have been concerned by the threat but his attention was fixed on Tala.

“She needs help. Stop your posturing and get us somewhere safe,” he snapped. Shadeed’s brows rose. Without a word he flew downwards, pulling Lemar and Tala in his wake.

Lemar used his shirt sleeve to wipe the blood from her face. He was alarmed by the waxiness of her skin. Shakily, he licked her palm to close the wound where the light-bringer had been.

“You’re too stubborn, shaitun,” he murmured. Her heartbeat was weak and thready. He massaged her chest, hoping to coax it into a more even rhythm. He ignored the panic trying to take hold of him. That wouldn’t help.

Shadeed flew fast, trying not to jolt his passengers. He frowned as he tried to work out what had happened. Tala was bloodied and beaten, but the Vetali wasn’t behaving as if she had been his most recent meal.

He was behaving as if he was distraught.

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