Page 94 of Kiss of the Vampire

Silence.

“Caitlin?”

“Yes. I can’t let you and your friends be sacrificed. He said he’d kill us both and your friends would be next.”

Levka wrapped his arms around her, and she cried out.

One elderly lady fainted, and another ran back inside the building screaming.

“We are one. You are mine with or without the league’s permission. I have already said so. Together, we will fight this. But not today.”

Arman grunted. “What now, Levka? We give up our “guild” and become hunted vampires?”

“We have thirty-six-hundred and eighteen years between us. Surely four ancients and one sweet fledgling can come up with a plan.” To Caitlin, Levka said privately, “Agreed, love?”

She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “I don’t want any harm to come to you.”

“Communicate telepathically. People will think the taxi stand is haunted.” He leaned down and kissed her lips.

She kissed him back, her fingers clinging to his waist with a death grip.

“Don’t look now, but I see Vlad,” Ruric warned, “and some of his muscle.”

Levka hurried the group in the opposite direction, his heart hammering against his ribs.

“There are seven of them,” Stasio said. “Odds are in our favor just like when we fought the Marcher Barons. Should we stand and fight? I mean, away from where the mortals can see us, but—”

“No, it’s too risky. Anything can go wrong.” Most of all, Levka feared losing Caitlin. Somewhere, they would go and live in peace. They had to, because this time Levka would not exist without his mate.

Levka held onto Caitlin’s hand tightly, but when a passenger walked in front of her, he couldn’t pull Caitlin out of the woman’s path quickly enough. Suddenly, Caitlin became visible, and the woman let out a squeak. But everyone was in such a hurry to get to flights no one else seemed to have noticed that Caitlin wasn’t there, then was.

Pulling Caitlin around the woman who still held her heart and gasped for air, Levka warned Caitlin, “Fledglings can’t go through solid objects when they’re invisible. You’ll have to avoid them. It’s like playing chicken. Your mind tells you that you can’t walk through the object. It takes years before you can retrain your thinking.”

“Jeez, Levka, I wasn’t trying to walk through that woman. She just suddenly stepped in front of me, and I didn’t have time to dodge her.”

“Vlad’s seen Caitlin,” Ruric warned.

“Shouldn’t we make a stand?” Stasio asked again.

“Quickly, Caitlin, turn invisible,” Levka ordered, dragging her away from Vlad and his goons.

“In front of…”

“Do it! And don’t communicate with us or he can track you.”

“But I can use magic!”

When she vanished, Levka gathered her into his arms and said to the others, “It’s time to go home.”

“But the Dallas league…oh, you mean home,” Arman said.

Levka glanced back to see Vlad and his blood hounds heading straight for them.

Then he heard a strange rumbling behind him, thought it had to do with the planes, and hurried on his way.

“Everyone use your vampire speed and find the first flight out of here that’s now boarding passengers.” Levka ground his teeth when he saw Petroski watching the gate where the plane was bound for Orlando.

No one said a word, though as long as their communication was kept privately between them, Petroski wouldn’t hear them. Even so, Caitlin’s heartbeat quickened, but he heard her mumbling some pretty strange words. A foreign language? Cursing?