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Move! Julian! Move!

Leah!

Something was horribly wrong.

Julian’s eyes snapped open just in time to catch a glint of something coming down on him. He registered the shape of the silver stake before he rolled, throwing her off him, but not before the stake pierced through his sternum and almost touched his heart.

He bellowed at the excruciating pain. His vision blacked for a brief second.

She was trying to kill him.

The thought was incomprehensible.

Not after last night.

It was another precious heartbeat before Julian’s vision returned. Jumping out of bed, he ripped out the stake. His muscles spasmed, his vision wavering even though he was prepared for the backlash. Too close. If he’d been a millisecond slower, she’d have succeeded. He didn’t have time to process. Leah was already up, a gun aimed at him.

Her nose bled. Her eyes glistened with horror and tears.

The sight immobilized him.

Until the gun went off.

Julian ducked. The bullets shattered the windows behind him. He heard Leah jump on the bed toward him. As he aimed to grab her leg, she kicked, her movements faster than a human’s could be.

Like a Hunter’s.

She fired off two more shots. His body sluggish from the stake wound with silver raging through his bloodstream, one bullet punched through his shoulder with another hitting closer to his heart, but the pain was only a sting compared to the stake. Leah jerked twice, somehow still linked to him.

He blocked off his pain and raised shields upon shields in his mind so she wouldn’t sense anything from him.

Her eyes slid to the stake a few feet away. She hadn’t given up, though she must know she couldn’t overpower him even with a gun. Blood poured down her nose and out of her ears, the metallic scent overwhelming his other senses.

He fucking hated the mating bond that made him crave her blood, even at a moment like this.

“Leah.” His voice was hoarse. Every breath, every fucking beat of his heart, hurt like a bitch.

She said nothing, but her mind brushed against his. A gentle breeze of sadness. Her words made his blood run cold.

I’m sorry.

She leaped out of the open window.

“No!”

His heart lodged in his throat.No!He jumped after her, expanding his wings. She won’t die. He won’t let her.

Julian was within an inch of her outstretched fingers when bullets tore through his wings. The shocking agony of it blinded him. He crashed into the building, sharp glass digging into him. Someone screamed. He saw someone catch Leah and deploying an emergency parachute.

She wasn’t dead.

Relief crashed through him like a tidal wave. More sounds of gunfire. He rolled, uncaring that he crushed his wings further, his body one giant organ of pulsating agony.

Julian, what’s happening?Marek, his tone urgent.

They took Leah. Wake everyone.He stumbled to his feet, his healing impaired and slow from the multiple wounds.Look at the surveillance. Tell me where they’re going.

People surrounded him, vampires and humans, gaping with their mouths hanging open. He’d crashed into one of the office floors with both human and vampire employees. As his wounds knitted back together, he realized he was buck naked.