“Andre,” I said, stepping farther into the room, “do you not recognize my scent?”
At the sound of my voice, his shoulders tensed. He turned slowly, the static-y energy of the room ratcheting up.
“Soulmate,” he breathed.
The weapons stayed trained on their targets, but he kept his back to the officers as he strode towards me. When he reached me he cradled the back of my neck and tilted my head up. His hair still rippled, and his eyes were largely unseeing. He leaned his head against mine, drawing in my scent.
“They took you.”
I touched his cheek. “And you came for me. Thank you.” A week ago I might’ve said this as a way of placating him. Now I meant it sincerely.
His eyes closed, his body relaxing. “I haven’t breathed since they captured you.”
He opened his eyes and kissed my lips, then my forehead. “I will eliminate these people, and then we will go home.”
Blood roared between my ears.
Yes!
Andre began to pull away, and I stopped him, gripping his arms. I was missing something. I searched and searched before I remembered.
Ah.
“Let them live to see another day,” I said. Even as I spoke, I rallied against my own words. I wanted them all to pay for what they’d put me and Andre through.
His nostrils flared. “They want you dead. I will not let your enemies live.”
I clasped his cheeks with my hands, and forced his unfocused gaze on me. “I cannot be killed. They know this.”
His unseeing eyes finally sharpened on me, and I thought I’d made a breakthrough.
Over a dozen weapons fired at the same time.
Mother fucker. He shot them.
“What’ve you done?” I gasped as more screams lit up the night. I felt those screams soak into my skin, along with their pain. Power burned through my veins.
Andre wrapped an arm around the back of my knees and lifted me up, his jaw hard. “Righted many wrongs.”
My gaze moved around the room. The smell of fresh blood flooded it. My fangs, which had already descended, throbbed, and I swallowed down my unnatural thirst and all the dark thoughts that accompanied it.
My gaze connected with Caleb’s. He clutched his bloody arm and gritted his teeth. He nodded at me, his way of telling me to go.
Not that I had much choice, trapped as I was in a power-crazed Andre’s arms.
“You promised me no more mass executions,” I said as he began to walk.
The sound of groaning metal pulled my eyes back to the weapons behind Andre. Gun barrels bent themselves in unnatural angles. Then, as I watched, they clattered to the ground.
His lips brushed my forehead. “They are flesh wounds, soulmate. They won’t kill them.” Andre said, carrying me out the entrance. Even though his eyes had focused, his hair still undulated.
What was scarier than a blindly raging Andre? An aware and raging Andre. There was cruel determination in the set of his jaw.
Andre’s grip tightened on me as he stepped outside. Since I’d been inside, several officers had acquired new weapons, which they trained on us.
I lifted my hand and whisked these away from them, crushing the metal with my magic, before Andre had a chance to react.
Behind the line of Politia vehicles and officers, Oliver leaned out of a black town car and was signaling to us.
I pressed my power outwards, forcing cars and people back and creating a walkway that ended at our ride. Andre squeezed me, but otherwise gave no reaction to my power.
He took his time reaching the car, glowering at every officer that watched. He was amped up and practically begging for an excuse to unleash more of his violent power. But no one lifted a finger. They watched the somber procession.
It was a strange, uncomfortable standoff, and I was thankful when Oliver opened the door of the town car and we slid inside. Once we were in, our vehicle burned rubber and we fled the scene.
I wiggled in Andre’s arms. “You can let me go.”
Instead of doing just that, he nuzzled my neck, breathing in deeply. His hold tightened. “Let me—calm—down.” He forced the words out, pulling me close and inhaling me in.
Tentatively, I threaded my hands into his hair and tugged him closer. “It’s alright, my life,” I said, using an endearment he typically murmured to me, “I’m safe. You got me out.”
“Ho please. He got you out?” Oliver said from my other side. “He was crushing skulls like a barbarian while I broke you out of that cell.”
I threw my friend a look as Andre’s hair stirred again. Now was not exactly the time for an argument. Not when Andre was ready to go on another rampage.
“Pssh, fine, whatever,” Oliver said noticing my look. “He got you out. Happy now?”
My vampire’s hand clasped my jaw and turned my head back to face him. “‘My life’? I am still yours?”
I smiled. “Always.”
As soon as we exited the car in front of Bishopcourt, Andre finally released me. At least, it was his version of releasing me. His hand still lingered on the back of my neck, his thumb absently circling my jugular. It was oddly erotic, and I had to shrug off the rush of heat that swamped my body.