Page 125 of The Vampire's Seduction

“Let’s go! Get out of the car!” Dmitri shouted.

Hold on!Marek felt so close. She looked up and saw shadows flying over her.

Olivia reached to unbuckle her seatbelt. Something smashed into their vehicle on Dmitri’s side and turned her world upside down.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Shescreamedastheworld tumbled around her. Pain exploded everywhere. From her arms. To her head. Her shoulders. Her knees.

Am I dead?she thought when things finally stopped moving.No. Not yet.Chaos and destruction reigned. Animalistic growls and terrified screams and unending gunfire.

Olivia!Marek shouted, his voice urgent.Answer me!

Marek, I’m… I’m alive.She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to catch her breath.

The seatbelt straps dug into her shoulder and her stomach. The car shook again, and her heart jumped to her throat at a menacing growl.

Whatever monster had smashed into them was here to finish the job.

What happened?Marek asked.Where are you?

I don’t know.Olivia looked around. The jeep had landed on Dmitri’s side. He was unconscious, a line of blood trailing down his temple. She hung sideways, which explained why the seatbelt was choking her neck. Shadows of gigantic animals darted through the headlights of the convoy.

“Are you okay?”

Olivia bit back the scream when she recognized Alessandro, rifle at the ready. Blood trickled down his forehead. Dirt smeared his jaw and cheeks, and his hair was a tangled mess of mud and leaves and who knew what else.

“Do I look okay?” She hated the hysterical note in her voice, but she couldn’t help it.

Alessandro’s eyes were cold and calculating like Dmitri’s. Something flashed in the corner of her eyes. As fast as a vampire, Alessandro whirled around to shoot the shadow. A yelp. Then a loud thud as something heavy dropped on the ground.

Olivia fumbled for the seatbelt button and pressed it to no avail.

“I’m stuck!” she shouted.

“Olivia!”Marek?

“Cover me!” Alessandro shouted to someone before turning to Olivia with a grim expression. A knife appeared in his hand out of nowhere. She thought he would kill her, but he only sawed through the straps. She fell unceremoniously onto Dmitri.

Dmitri groaned and blinked; his eyes glazed with pain.

Olivia ignored him and scrambled out of the jeep, only to come face to face with glowing golden eyes. Terror seized her heart in an unbreakable grip, and she let out an earth-shattering scream when the monster snarled, revealing large, sharp canines.

Heat flared up from her wrist. A cone of green light, her magic, struck the animal head-on and threw it backwards.

“Olivia!” Marek materialized out of the darkness. Hope flared, painful in its intensity. She shot up to her feet and ran into his arms.

He’s here. He made it.His strength flowed into her and rejuvenated her, like the past twelve hours hadn’t happened.

But their reunion was short-lived. Marek cursed and pushed her behind him. When she looked over his shoulder, Alessandro had his rifle pointed at Marek’s heart.

“Not so fast, vampire.”

Marek sniffed the air and growled, the sound as terrifying as the animals attacking them. “You smell like one of us.”

Alessandro’s grin was pure viciousness. “You can thank your friend Blackmore.”

The scream stuck in her throat when Alessandro fired. The explosion of the gunshot reverberated in her brain, even as Marek blocked the bullet. An impenetrable mental wall rose between them, Marek cutting her off from his pain.

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