Pray with Me
Leah
LUCIEN MOVED HIS lips and tongue at my neck where I knew the wounds he’d given me but moments before were gone.
He lay atop me, one arm curved around my back, the fingers of his other hand laced in mine and pressed to the bed at our sides.
He was still buried deep inside me, unmoving, keeping us connected, giving me much of his weight, his warmth. His fingers tangled in mine, holding so fast that the rings he’d given me as a symbol of everything that was us dug into the base of my fingers.
He’d also marked me so our hearts were beating as one.
Beauty.
As for me, with the one arm I had free and both my legs, I held him tight to me.
“We’re going to be okay,” I whispered in his ear.
He lifted his head to look down at me.
He was troubled.
I hated to see his face that way. In fact, I wasn’t certain, even with all that had happened, that I’d ever actually seen his face that way.
The Mighty Vampire Lucien, who was the strongest, fastest, and smartest of his kind, didn’t get troubled.
I knew he was worried about the fate of humanity.
I knew he was more worried about the fate of me.
“We’re going to be okay, darling,” I repeated.
“I’m almost a millennium old and I’ve only known true happiness since the moment I laid eyes on you at your Selection, doing it knowing you would finally be mine.”
I felt my eyes start burning and swallowed.
He dipped his face closer. “I cannot lose you, sweetling.”
“You won’t lose me,” I promised.
He pulled his arm from around me to lift his hand to my face. Using his thumb, he traced around my temple, my cheekbone, along the side of my nose, across my lips, his eyes watching, his other hand continuing to hold mine tight.
Then his gaze caught mine, and at the fire in his, I held my breath.
“If you are lost to me, I vow to you, I will go down fighting.”
“Darling,” I breathed.
“But I will go down,” he continued. “I cannot live without you, Leah. And I will not.”
“Don’t say that,” I urged quietly but fiercely. “Your children. Isobel. Julian. Your mother—”
“They’ll understand.”
I lifted my free hand to his face too, cupping the side, digging the pads of my fingers in.
“And if I lose you, do you think I shouldn’t go on?”
“You won’t,” he stated. “Eventually, this world will be deprived of your beauty. Your spirit. Your humor. It’s natural for you to find your end. So you will carry on until that time comes. But I would be sentenced to an eternity without any of that. And I know in my soul I cannot face it.”
That was beautiful (most of it).
I still hated it.
“You made a vow to me,” I reminded him. “Until the sun falls from the sky.”
“Leah—” he groaned, my name sounding torn from him.
“You are vampire,” I hissed. “You cannot break your vow.”
“You’re right, I cannot,” he agreed. Then he devastated me. “Unless I’m forced to do so.”
Suddenly, I couldn’t abide this conversation.
“It’s a waste of time to talk about this,” I declared. “We’ll survive. We’ll prevail. We’ll have a family and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“I do hope you’re correct, sweetheart.”
I lifted my head off the pillow. “Hope hard, Lucien darling, because that’s what we have. And hope is beautiful. It’s also strong. It will guide us to victory.”
His eyes burned into mine before he bent his head and took my mouth in a searing kiss.
When he was done making both our hearts beat faster, he gently slid out. He rolled me to rest on top of him as he reached to turn out the light. Then he moved us to our sides, facing each other, and gathered me close.
“Sleep, my pet,” he murmured.
“Only if you do too,” I replied.
There was a smile in his voice when he said, “I will.”
I cuddled closer, wrapping my arms tight around him. “Good.”
“I love you, Leah.”
I closed my eyes and pressed a kiss to his chest.
Then I whispered, “I love you too, Mighty Vampire Lucien.”
It would turn out to be a boon from the fates that the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was my mate chuckling.
Sonia
After they’d finished making love, Sonia sat astride her handsome wolf, his cock still planted inside her, his knees angled, cocooning her, his torso up, his arms around her, big hands moving soothingly along the skin of her back, his face buried in her chest, his chin resting at the vee of her breasts.
Sonia slid her hand through his hair, her neck bent, lips to the hair on top of his head, allowing him his thoughts even though she knew they were not pleasant.
He proved her right when he spoke.
“I lost you once.”
She pressed her lips to his hair as she cupped the back of his head in both hands.
“You didn’t,” she whispered.
“I thought I did. And it was agony.”
Sonia flinched at the pain behind the truth buried in his words.
“I know, wolf,” she replied, lifted her head and fisted her hands in his hair, gently tugging it back. As she wanted, his head tilted so she could catch his eyes. “That won’t happen again.”
“If that witch is right, I understand now why the Oracles have not seen our future. Because it hasn’t been written yet. And our fates are in the hands of humanity. I don’t understand that. I also don’t like it.”
“Humans have the capacity for a great deal of love. Generosity. Kindness. Hope,” she told him.
“They also have the capacity for a great deal of hate. Judgment. Envy. Prejudice. And they’ve proven over centuries that they do not handle fear very well,” he returned.
She slid her hand to his jaw. “This is true, husband, but that’s the stuff that gets all the attention. You’ve lived long but not often close to humans. Trust me, the good stuff happens far more often, but it doesn’t make headlines.”
“I hope you’re right,” Callum murmured, dipping his chin and kissing her chest.
Sonia again rested her lips to the top of his head. “I do too. But you’ve lost so much already to the cause of keeping humans safe. I cannot believe that the fates, and more importantly God, would make you lose more.”
He pulled his face out of her chest and she lifted her head again when he tipped it back.
“We have babies to make,” she whispered when she caught his eyes, normally an amazing clear blue, but now, with the emotion her king was feeling, a brilliant, breathtaking gold. “Pups to raise.” His hands stopped soothing so he could wrap his arms around her. She dropped her lips to his, moving both her hands to his neck before she stroked his jaw with her thumbs. “An eternity to live and love, my king. That future will not be taken from us.”
“No,” he growled.
“I will not lose you,” she declared. “And you will not lose me. Not again.”
“No,” he repeated his growl.
“No,” she whispered, tilted her head and slid the tip of her tongue across his generous bottom lip.
Her husband, her handsome wolf, her king, as ever, accepted the invitation and he kissed her with a ferocity that was both man and beast.
When he broke the kiss, he lay back, reaching to the light. He turned it off as she pulled the covers up over them.
As was their wont, they stayed connected.
Sonia cuddled deep, pressing her forehead into the side of his neck.
“You know I love you?” he asked into the dark, and Sonia closed her eyes.
“I do,” she whispered into his skin. “And I love you too, my handsome wolf. With everything I am and everything I’m meant to be. And I know, know,” she said the last fiercely, pressing close, “I’m meant to be a lot.”
Callum’s arms around her gave her a squeeze. “And I love you the same, baby doll, with everything I am and everything I’m meant to be.”
She tilted her chin to touch his skin with her lips and then she settled in.
Callum ran a hand gently up and down her spine.
Connected, as close as they could get, just as she liked it, as did he, Sonia, Queen of the Werewolves, fell asleep on top of her king.
Hook
Standing outside his daughter’s door, Hooker Johnson hesitated before he lifted his hand and knocked.
After a few seconds, the door opened a crack and Lilah’s man stood there wearing nothing but jeans.
Fuck, but the kid was built.
“Sorry to interrupt, bubba,” he muttered. “But wanna say good night to my little girl.”
Abel studied Hook’s face, his own holding an expression of understanding, and seeing that, yet again, Hook was relieved that this was the one she’d been yearning for all her life.
“You got it, Hook. Just a second,” Abel said quietly. He left the door slightly ajar and disappeared.
It didn’t take long before Lilah filled it, opening it further, doing this wearing her man’s thermal.
“Daddy?”
He forced a smile, his heart heavy, his gut gnawed raw with unease, his beautiful little girl, who now had it all—finally—standing in front of him.
“Just wanted to say good night, Lilah.”
Her expression softened and she moved into him, wrapping her arms around his back and pressing her cheek to his chest.
“I’m glad,” she said softly, giving him a squeeze.
He’d curved his arms around her and he took her in, felt her solidness, her softness, her warmth, smelled the sweet scent of her hair, felt her love for him burrowing deep. He did this remembering the first time she was put in his arms. She was naked. Goo all over her barely wiped off. Arms and legs pumping. Eyes squeezed shut. Mouth open, bawling.
She had been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and that was the most precious moment in his life.
Until she gave him more.
And more.
And more.
His arms got tighter.
As did his throat.
He coughed shortly to clear it before he said, “You sleep good.”
“I will, Daddy. You too.”
He gave her a squeeze and let her go.
She didn’t let go until she gave him a squeeze back.
He didn’t prolong it. He couldn’t. He was a tough guy, but that . . . that he couldn’t take.
He just gave her a smile, turned, and began to walk away.
“Daddy,” she called.
He turned back.
“Love you,” she said quietly.
A lump hit his throat, threatening to suffocate him.
“Love you more, little girl,” he replied gruffly.
She smiled and he saw the wet hit her eyes.
He tipped his head to the side, forced a return smile, turned, and walked away from his baby, hoping like all fuck that whatever was going to happen within these walls, it wouldn’t be the last time.
Aurora
“Oh goddess, sweet goddess,” she moaned as Yuri, behind her and under her, his cock driving deep and hard, his arms around her, the fingers of one hand toying with a nipple, the fingers of the other toying with her clit, had his face buried in her neck.
He’d just torn through and she felt her blood flow.
She also felt her climax devour her, violently bucking her against his hold as it laid her to waste.
The first time her vampire fed.
Unbelievable.
Vaguely, due to her orgasm and the numbness Yuri had explained she’d feel, she felt him lap at the skin of her neck before he pushed her gently down, cheek to the covers. He held her there with a hand between her shoulder blades, keeping her steady against the beautiful brutality of his lovemaking with his other hand clasped at her hip, as he continued to power between her legs.
The climax was receding, but Aurora kept moaning as she took him.
She loved what Yuri could give her. She loved the way he played with her. She loved his tender dominance. She loved the velvet violence she received once he was inside. She especially loved that every time he gave her something exquisite: an orgasm that was always better than the ones he’d gifted her with before.
But she also loved this, when she was done and he was not. She could come again, easily, but she tried to hold it back. (This failed when he wished for her to orgasm. Yuri tended to get what he wanted and Aurora always liked giving it to him.)
She tried to hold it back because she wanted to be all about him after he’d been all about her. She loved the sound of his grunts and groans. She loved the feel of him losing control and rearing inside her before he found his own climax. She loved the power it made her feel, knowing their play seemed as if she handed it all to him, but in these moments, she knew she held it all along.
She gloried in it.
Power over a vampire.
Power over her vampire, Yuri.
She gloried in it.
She was, of course, a witch.
So she would.
And right then, he gave it to her. Sliding the hand between her shoulder blades to the side of her waist, he clamped on and lost control, thrusting wildly, his grunts filling the room, his groan of release thrilling through her with enough power to make her whole body quiver, inside and out.
He made love to her gently as his climax descended, and she knew it had left him when his hands slid high on her hips so he could stroke her bottom with his thumbs.
Finally, he slid himself in to the root and asked gently, “All right, button?”
“Yes, sweetheart,” she replied.
“Mm,” he murmured, the purr of it making her clit twitch.
Oh yes, she gloried in her power over her vampire.
Slowly, he slid out and she bit her lip at the disappointment of losing him.
Then she felt his tongue lapping the swell of one of the cheeks of her bottom.
Another lap and she made a soft mew when she felt the dull bite of his fangs sinking through.
She tipped her bottom up, deeper into his mouth.
He growled against her skin, gripping his fingers high on the inside of her thigh before she felt his tongue again. Then with his natural speed, she was on her back with her vampire on top.
She looked to his face, which could be cold, or remote, or bland, and it was often this way when he looked at her.
So she didn’t look at his face.
She looked in his eyes, eyes that always told her what she wanted to know.
That he gloried in his witch just as much, if not more than she gloried in him.
More power and he gave that freely.
She loved that, maybe most of all.
No. Aurora Lenox knew what she loved best.
She loved the fact that she was falling in love with a vampire.
She smoothed her hands over his shoulders, lifted up, and kissed the underside of his chin.
When she settled back down to the pillows, it wasn’t only his eyes that told her everything. It was his whole face.
“When this is done, my sweet, I wish for you to consider moving in with me.”
She blinked as her heart skipped over itself with glee.
He smiled.
He’d heard her heart.
“Really?” she asked.
He moved his hand to caress her side.
“Really,” he confirmed.
She felt her brows draw together. “Do you live in Texas?”
He shook his head. “No, I have homes in Napa, Tuscany, and Miami, as well as apartments in New York, Paris, Sydney, and Barcelona, and last, a villa on Crete. Once this is done, we’ll need some time to recuperate. You can pick where you’d like to visit first.”
She knew her eyes were big when she asked, “You have all that?”
“Yes, and before this started, I was in negotiations to purchase a residence in Japan.” He bent closer. “The garden is extraordinary.”
“I’ve always wanted to see a Japanese garden,” she breathed. “A real one, like, in Japan.”
“Then you shall,” he told her.
“I, well . . .” She hesitated. “I have a job. A house. I gave my boss an excuse when all this started and they gave me a leave of absence. But I—”
“You don’t understand,” Yuri interrupted.
“I . . . okay, then maybe you should explain it to me.”
“If you wish to work, but also wish to spend time in one of my homes, we’ll find you a job. If you enjoy your current employment, I’ll purchase a home for us in Dallas. However, if you wish to enjoy the opportunity I can afford you and explore what my world has to offer, I’ll take care of you. You can also do any combination of the above. Whatever you wish, Aurora, you will receive.”
“Wow, that’s a lot,” she breathed.
“Perhaps,” he murmured.
Aurora gave him a squeeze. “It’s a lot, Yuri.”
“To you, absolutely. To me, not quite.”
“Seeing that it’s that to me, then—”
“My sweet,” he whispered, then touched his mouth to hers before he lifted his head half an inch. “I’m not done explaining.”
“Okay,” she whispered back.
“I’ve lived a long life,” he told her.
“I know,” she replied.
“And I have never, in all those centuries, found someone like you.”
Her breath stuck.
Yuri stopped caressing her side and trailed his fingers down her arm until he found her hand. He curled his big one around her small one and pulled it up, pressing their hands to his heart.
Aurora kept not breathing.
“I wish to keep you with me,” he said gently. “And my further, most fervent wish is that you wish to keep me.”
She forced her breath out, saying, “I do.”
She felt him relax and hadn’t realized he was tense.
And when she did, she thought that was unbearably sweet.
“After the world is saved, we’ll work it out,” he declared.
“Yes, Yuri. After the world is saved, we’ll work it out.”
His eyes warmed and he bent again to give her a deep, lavish kiss.
Only after he broke it did he reach to the light to extinguish it.
Then, as he always did, he positioned her as he wanted her. This night, spooning, his arms around her, pressing her smaller body deep into the warm, hard curve of his bigger one.
She found his hand and laced her fingers through.
When she did, his tightened.
Again, unbearably sweet.
“Good night, sweetheart,” she whispered into the dark.
“Good night, button,” he murmured into her hair.
As cute as, he’d said.
Her vampire.
Unbearably sweet.
On that thought, she tried to relax, tried to calm her heart, knowing he’d know exactly when she went to sleep.
She couldn’t do either.
Now that it was quiet and he wasn’t touching her, making love to her, coloring her world by offering her his, in the silence, Aurora fretted.
She didn’t want to take him on the journey she knew she would make that night. It was dangerous. Too dangerous. And she was falling in love. She didn’t want to risk the chance of losing him.
But when she came back, he’d be so very angry that she went alone without him to protect her.
She had not known him long, and although they spent a lot of time together, he was centuries old. There was much to discover about him so she still did not know him well. Though, she was learning.
The one thing she did know was that he would indeed be very angry with her in a way that it wouldn’t earn her an enjoyable spanking ending in an outrageously fantastic orgasm.
He might never forgive her.
And she couldn’t have that.
Because, she couldn’t be sure, but she was beginning to believe, she wouldn’t be able to live without him.
So she had to take him.
And she hated that.
Even so, she prepared, keeping her hand tight with his and shifting her leg so he had no choice but to hook his thigh over her hip.
Tangling them up together, so that in sleep, they were connected.
So that when she dreamed, she would take her sweet vampire with her.
Abel
“Oh yeah, fuck yeah, Abel, baby, yes!” Delilah cried as she reared back into him on all fours and came.
He reached out, grasped her hair, and drove her back on his dick, listening to her pants and whimpers as she kept taking him, kept coming, the smell of her cunt in his nostrils, until all that and her sweet pussy drove him over the edge and he exploded, embedding himself inside her and shooting his cum deep.
As he came back to himself, he felt her fucking herself gently on his cock. He let her hair go and bent over her to kiss her shoulder blade.
“Love you, baby,” she whispered.
“Love you too, pussycat,” he whispered back and pulled out. “I get to clean you tonight.”
“Whatever you want,” she murmured, dropping to her side, curling up, and giving him her eyes.
Fuck, so goddamned beautiful, it hurt looking at her.
But he couldn’t stop himself. The hurt felt too good.
He slid a hand over her hip before he got out of bed, went to the bathroom, wet a washcloth with warm water, came back, and gently cleaned her while it sounded like she purred, letting him.
He didn’t bother going into the bathroom when he left her to return the cloth. He just tossed it into the sink from the doorway, then with his vampire speed, he was in bed with his mate, pulling her close, yanking the covers over them, and finally nestling deep.
“You good?” she asked.
“Real good,” he answered.
There was a pause before she went on, “You ready?”
“More than ready,” he told her. “Whatever happens, after it’s done, finally, we get wild and free.”
“Wild and free,” she whispered, burrowing closer.
“Wild and free, baby. You and me for eternity.”
She kissed his chest, settled in, and held him tight.
It shocked the shit out of him, but his Delilah had no trouble finding sleep.
Abel did not have the same.
Staring at the ceiling, holding her tight, he did it hoping he hadn’t lied. Hoping he was ready. Hoping all of them were ready. Hoping that whatever was going to happen, he and his mate got wild and free.
After doing that for a long fucking time, finally, Abel fell asleep.
Gregor
Having not slept a wink, at six o’clock the next morning, Gregor moved into the room, which was already bustling with people and filled with equipment, including a large television camera aimed at an armchair set close to a fireplace, a warm fire blazing in its grate.
“We’re ready, sir,” a man wearing big headphones and sitting at a bank of monitors said to him.
Gregor nodded but kept his eyes on the woman standing by the chair.
He approached her, taking her in.
She wore a lovely frock, red satin embroidered with delicate wisps of green and blue flowers. Mandarin collar. Her graying black hair was smoothed into an elegant knot at the nape of her neck. Her makeup was dramatic, highlighting her exotic eyes.
She appeared calm.
The red was chosen as it was a power color, but the deepness of its hue and the delicacy of the embroidery, they were assured, would also communicate tranquility along with its strength.
“Are you ready?” he asked quietly.
“I am,” Jian-Li replied.
He nodded.
“They’re starting,” someone announced, and he turned his head to the bank of television screens.
“Volume, please,” he called.
The volume came up and Gregor watched a black woman with soft curls in her long bob of hair, who was wearing a smart and stylish but casual outfit all in taupe—woven cashmere turtleneck, ribbed cardigan with long lapels, expertly tailored wool slacks. With this, she wore understated gold jewelry but exquisitely elegant, spike-heeled pumps.
They’d been assured, with her history of demanding frank, in-depth interviews, prompting surprising candor and emotion from her subjects, that she was by far the most trusted member of the media, not only in the United States, but in all of English-speaking North America.
On screen, she was walking up a wide, sweeping set of stairs at the base of a castle. She moved toward the balustrade that led up from its end, which had a statue of a proud wolf carved in stone.
She did this speaking.
“I stand on the steps of Canis, the home of the king of werewolves, a man known as Callum. And I do it with the unprecedented honor of sharing with you the tales of the warriors who are on the brink of saving humanity from the shocking threat we learned we were under at the hands of a rebel faction of vampires, werewolves, and a race known as golem.”
She stopped and laid a taupe, leather-gloved hand on the balustrade.
“I am at Canis,” she went on, “but I’ll begin my report not with King Callum and his queen, Sonia. I begin my report with Lucien, a vampire whose strength is said to be unparalleled. A vampire who was the general in the last battle the immortal vampires fought alongside humans against a foe who wished the freedom to hunt, feed from, and kill members of the human race. This was a secret battle that was deadly, and great losses were suffered on both sides, but the vampires and their human allies prevailed.”
Her expression became grave before she carried on.
“But during it, Lucien lost his human partner, a woman he loved implicitly. She was captured by his enemies, tortured, and put to death. I tell his tale first, along with that of his human wife, Leah. A concubine, these being not what you might think they are when I say that word. They are a centuries-long line of strong women who swore duty to vampires, giving them their allegiance, and their blood, in order that vampires could sustain without hunting humans. Protecting us. Keeping us safe. Strong women who many saw brutally violated and murdered in recent videotapes streaming online.”
Pictures of Lucien and Leah, with Leah’s photos starting from birth, came on with the presenter’s voice telling stories of them, moving onward to photos of their Claiming Ceremony. Both of them smiling. Both of them clearly outrageously happy.
This moved on to the presenter introducing Sonia and Callum’s story, with more pictures as their tale was told.
And this continued with the presenter introducing Abel and Delilah’s story, a montage of photos of them also helped to tell their tale.
The stories were powerful and presented beautifully, but Gregor felt Abel and Delilah’s played the best. Although both of them were extraordinarily good-looking, each had led very humble lives and he believed theirs would be the one that would resonate the strongest.
By this time, the presenter was inside Canis, seated in a chair in what looked like a warm and welcoming (because it was) library.
She had an attractive earthenware mug sitting on the table at her side. Nothing extravagant, the power behind the throne was depicted by her walk up the steps to the castle. Now she was metaphorically seated in the lap of the werewolves—unpretentious, openhearted, relaxed, gracious.
In the meantime, in the room Gregor was in, they’d seated Jian-Li in her chair.
“And today,” the presenter stated, “I have the pleasure of speaking with one in a long line of Chinese American women who opened her heart and home to the hybrid werewolf vampire, Abel. Generations of her family kept him safe and hidden, with the immortal Abel doing the former for her family. Keeping them safe. Providing for them. I’m pleased to introduce you to Jian-Li Jin, a restaurant owner and mother of four sons, one of whom she counts as Abel.” She tipped her head to the side. “Jian-Li, it’s lovely to meet you.”
“And it’s lovely to meet you as well, Susannah,” Jian-Li said on a soft smile.
Gregor watched as the presenter asked gentle, then more and more probing questions and Jian-Li answered them unwaveringly, frankly, and proudly.
He watched knowing this was being broadcast on every network, including cable. He watched knowing that after it was over, it would be rebroadcast, repeatedly. He watched knowing that after it was done, it would take but moments for it to be available to stream on every online outlet offered to the masses.
And Gregor watched hoping that the stories of The Three, humans and immortals inexorably connected together in love and loyalty, would win the hearts of billions.
“Thank you, Jian-Li, for your time and your honesty. But mostly, thank you for sharing the private matters of your family in hopes of giving peace of mind to the many who understandably fear what might come next after the events of yesterday,” the presenter finished the interview.
“It was my pleasure, and my honor, to speak of my son, his lovely mate, and the others who I have met, grown to know, and grown to care about deeply,” Jian-Li replied.
The presenter smiled.
The red light on the camera blinked out.
“Excellent!” the production manager exclaimed, rushing up to Jian-Li.
But Gregor watched the television as the presenter finalized things, summing up, injecting humanity into every word she spoke about The Three, and finally concluding.
“We are not privy to what awaits these couples, husbands and wives, kings and queens, partners, or as they refer to themselves, as do we, mates. We have only been told that they have selflessly agreed to undertake a very dangerous mission to see to it that the human, vampire, werewolf, wraith, and phantom races can live peacefully, harmoniously, and safely.”
Her gaze intensified as the camera panned in subtly.
“And I, for one, with all my heart, thank them for their service and hope each one of them, Lucien, Leah, Callum, Sonia, Abel, and Delilah, emerge unscathed. To this end, I will pray for them. I do hope for these brave souls that you pray with me.”
She drew in breath and dipped her chin.
“Thank you for watching. Stay calm. Stay safe. And stay hopeful,” she finished.
The program ended and a newscaster came on.
The volume was muted and Gregor felt Jian-Li touch his arm.
“That went very well,” she stated.
“It did, indeed,” he agreed, moving his hand to cover hers on his arm. “You did beautifully.”
“I hope so.”
He gave her a small smile.
“What the hell?”
This came from the man with headphones and Gregor’s attention moved to him immediately.
Then his body locked.
“What’s that?” a woman carrying a clipboard and standing behind him asked, her eyes glued to the bank of monitors.
“Don’t know. What . . . ? I . . . Fuck!” the man with headphones cursed. “The feed has been taken over. I don’t . . . Shit!” he exclaimed, rising from his seat.
Jian-Li’s hand had become a claw on his arm as he felt her body strain against the tightness in it, doing all it could to survive the unhealthy speed of the beat of her heart.
And Gregor knew why.
Because on every screen was Etienne, standing in the middle of a street somewhere.
And with her back to the camera, facing him, stood Delilah.