I ignored him to hunt for Willow. I found her in the living area with her back pressed up against a wall, her body position alert and defensive. She’d chosen to hide in plain sight, giving her two avenues to escape, both of which were highlighted by the moon coming in through the windows.
Good girl, I thought at her, then searched for the final two intruders.
There. I smiled at their location about a hundred yards from my house. Just a little closer, I urged them as I called up an administration screen on the panel beside their image.
Come on. Take a few steps.
That’s a good boy.
All right, you, too, buddy.
And… three… two… I hit the button and grinned as the explosion rocked the infrastructure around me. My tunnels would be safe—the blast radius was confined to the area they’d just entered and away from my underground haven—but those two vampires would be severely injured or dead, depending on how close they were to the detonation point.
All right, I had seven to go.
The one closest to me had started forward again, making it easy to catch him.
Using my security panel, I engaged a trap point within his trajectory and smirked as he stepped right into it. His resulting howls of pain were music to my ears. The only way out of that literal bear trap was to lose his limb. Oh, it’d grow back eventually, but not quickly enough to save him from me.
The trio behind my house started toward me, searching the field for my location because the idiot above me was shouting about me being nearby.
Yes, walk this way, I encouraged them, an old song popping into my head that I began to hum beneath my breath. No one made music like that anymore. Cinematic arts had died with the human population. A real pity because I rather enjoyed theatrical entertainment. Lycans were somewhat into it, creating their own on occasion, but it wasn’t the same.
I started dancing around to the tune playing in my head while watching the idiots on the monitors move exactly where I wanted. With a little spin, I engaged another explosive and chuckled when they stepped right into it.
“Thanks for playing,” I murmured, not caring if the idiot above me heard it. “Who wants to dance next?”
Still singing the previously famous song, I pulled up the screens of the house and found the other two inside, walking right toward Willow. Smart Guy Number Twelve had retreated, his presence no longer on my property. I’d try to track him down later by scent.
First, I needed to take care of the final two jokers inside my house.
Willow’s tense stance told me she heard them coming for her. Hopefully, she could hold them off until I arrived.
I really should have put her in a safer place.
Why do I care? I wondered as I started running toward her location via the tunnels. I barely knew the girl. However, some part of me had claimed her.
Willow fascinated me, in a refreshing way. She was obedient yet defiant. Beautifully broken where society was concerned—an attribute that made her perfect in my mind.
I also sensed her innate hatred for my kind and her desire to escape this life. All the while, a warrior lurked inside who was hell-bent on surviving. That she smelled edible and possessed alluring curves only added to the appeal.
And her eyes.
Mmm, yes, those beautiful blue orbs showcased a myriad of feelings she held back. I wanted to shatter her walls to release the volcano beneath, but I was biding my time with her. Playing our own little intimate game.
That had to be why I was sprinting toward her now.
We weren’t done, and if those assholes took my new toy from me, I wouldn’t just kill them. I’d annihilate their very souls before allowing them to fall into the clutches of death.
I reached my basement hatch in record time, then pulled up the panel beside the door to check on everyone inside.
The intruders had split up. I ignored the one on my second floor and watched the one on the first level round the corner into the living area where Willow hid.
He found her immediately, her scent a beacon in the dark to a vampire.
But he didn’t see her knives.
She threw one with a precision I admired, hitting him right in the chest. Then she aimed a star at his neck, lodging both instruments into him on impact.
Nice, I praised, impressed. But her actions drew the second predator’s attention, his steps harsh on the stairs as he sprinted down to locate her and his buddy.
I opened the trapdoor in my basement, my blood heating in my veins at the thought of him reaching my Willow.
Her gasp pierced my ears, the sound of a male growl vibrating off the walls.
I entered to find her sparring with the vampire, her technique on point, but she was no match for his supernatural strength. One of her stars was lodged into the wall—a missed throw. Which meant she had only one knife left.
“Bitch!” the vampire shouted. The sound of a bone snapping followed and sent a chill down my spine, Willow’s resulting shriek of pain forcing me to move.
I didn’t think.
I acted.
My gun fell into my hand, the aim resolute, and a bullet sailed into his head, forcing him to release her.
But that wasn’t good enough.
I walked up to him and fired three more rounds into his skull, then two more into his neck. Willow’s knife glinted on the ground in the moonlight coming in through my back windows. I holstered my gun, retrieved the blade, and went to work on dislocating his head from his body.
The other guy received similar treatment, and it wasn’t until I completed the task that I realized the harsh sound in my ears came from my chest.
I was panting.
Bloodthirsty.
Furious.
Willow cowered on the floor, cradling her arm to her chest as she bit her bottom lip, trying not to cry. My strong little warrior.
I set the knife down. Then I went to my quivering pet and knelt down beside her. She flinched away from my touch, her pain evident. “Shh, I’m not going to hurt you. Let me see it.”
She trembled but did as I requested.
The bastard had snapped the bones in her forearm, likely by twisting her wrist while trying to dislodge the knife from her hand.
She’d heal eventually, and I needed to go ensure the vampires outside would never wake up. Yet I couldn’t leave her.
Instead, I rearranged myself on the floor to sit beside her, then bit my wrist and brought it to her mouth. “Drink.”
Her eyes flew to mine, the tears lurking in her depths a glisten I never wanted to see again from her.
“Now, Willow,” I snapped, not willing to allow her to suffer.
She visibly swallowed, her nose scrunching up in distaste, but she complied and pressed her mouth to my open wound. Her first lap against my skin was tentative, the action not at all what I needed from her. I opened my mouth to instruct her, but she began to suck before I could tell her to.
A low groan vibrated my arm, her pleasure at drinking from me a euphoric hit to my senses. Using my free hand, I threaded my fingers in her hair and gently pulled her closer until she rested against my side.
She relaxed into me, her damaged limb still pressed against her chest while my forearm rested against her spine to keep her upright.
Holding her felt right. Warm. Intoxicatingly real.
What is happening to me? I wondered. I didn’t cuddle.
Ignoring the oddity of our situation, I opted to embrace it and ensured she took more than her fill of my blood. It would expedite her healing, just like it had a week ago.