“Can’t stop…Have to do what…Simon says…”
Julian lunged for him, grabbing for that trigger.
The kid cried out, “Sorry!”
Julian felt Rose’s fingers grab his back. I told her to go! But it was too late now. The kid had already pressed that trigger. Julian could hear a faint hum as the device activated. Oh, fuck me. But the blast hadn’t ignited immediately. That meant they had time—or at least, a few precious seconds to spare.
His claws sliced right through the vest-like apparatus on the boy’s torso. The bomb dropped to the floor. The hum became a beep. Julian caught the kid by the nape of his neck and threw him at Rose. “Get him out!”
The explosion erupted, the flames shooting out behind him, throwing him into the air, sending him hurtling toward Rose. He saw the terror in her eyes.
Then he saw the flames, surrounding them. Going for her.
Flames can kill a vampire. “No!” Julian roared.
But it was too late. The flames were too hot.
The fire came for him. He kept running for Rose even as the flames burned his skin.
The fire came for him…and for her.
Chapter Four
The water was cold. Wonderfully, perfectly cold. Cold and dark. Rose kicked up and broke the surface, sucking in a deep gulp of air.
Only she hadn’t exactly come up alone.
A certain panther shifter had his arm wrapped tightly around her stomach—his hold was pretty much a death grip.
“Take another breath,” he growled at her, water streaming from his dark hair. “Again, love. Fucking again.”
And her starved lungs greedily drew in the air. As soon as she had that second breath, his lips crashed down on hers. He kissed her wildly, desperately, and the need she’d tried to push down so deep inside of herself flared to life. She wanted—
His mouth tore from hers. “Thought you were burning in front of me.”
She’d thought the same thing. But…
She smiled at him even as she kicked to tread water. “Thank goodness for super speed.” Because as the fire had raged all around them, consuming everything in sight like a hungry beast, she’d hauled ass up those stairs. And she’d grabbed her panther by the wrist on her way up.
Wait. Stop the thought. He is not your anything. Get that straight.
“Goodness…right. That’s what we should thank.” But his lips had twisted.
“Are you…are you hurt?” Her voice was husky and she didn’t know if that was because of the all smoke and flames that had been on the boat or because she had a weird urge to seduce the guy.
“Few burns. They’re already healing.”
Right. Shifters healed so fast.
“What about you?”
She was staring at his mouth again. Adrenaline had her feeling shaky. Adrenaline and maybe desire. “Fine.” A few blisters. Nothing that wouldn’t heal.
“Good, that’s—”
“Help me!”
Her gaze jerked to the right. The Pandora was there—and still burning quite brilliantly. Flames were shooting into the sky and probably attracting all sorts of attention. And that desperate, terrified “Help me!” cry had come from beside the boat.
Only…
The guy who’d uttered that cry had just slipped below the water’s surface.
And Julian was simply treading water with her and watching the fellow drown.
Fine. I’ll save him myself. She surged toward the human, but Julian pulled her back. “No way. We’re getting out of here before this place becomes a circus scene.” He began swimming away from the dock. And away from the drowning human.
“We’re helping him!” She shoved against Julian, but he didn’t let her go. When it came down to a battle of strength, unfortunately, his trumped hers.
Damn shifters.
“Julian, no, he’s just a kid!” He was a kid who had disappeared beneath the surface of the water and who had not resurfaced.
“He’s the bastard who just tried to kill us both,” Julian snapped back. He kept swimming and dragging her away from the burning boat and the dying boy.
Not a boy. He was probably around eighteen. Maybe nineteen. And he’d looked so scared on the Pandora.
“You have got to stop trying to save people who want you dead,” he continued, not even sounding a bit out of breath. As if they hadn’t just hurtled out of a burning boat and dropped into the ocean. “That’s just gonna come back and bite you in the ass if you don’t.”
Her heart slammed into her ribs—and she slammed her elbow into Julian. He grunted, as if surprised, but his hold didn’t loosen.
“He’s dying!”
Julian stopped swimming. His gaze met hers. “He was going to kill you. That means to me…he is dead.”
But she shook her head. We’re wasting time…time that human doesn’t have. “You cut the bomb off him. You were trying to save him. You might pretend to be some heartless bad-ass, but you’re not. You saw a terrified kid, same as me, you saw—”
He jerked her even closer, smashing her body against his. “I was trying to cut through the wires and stop the bomb, not save the jackass.”