“I tried to protect you from the impact. I knew I’d come back…it was you that wouldn’t.” His eyes glittered. “And you were so still. You weren’t breathing. I know death, but I don’t know life. And you needed life.”
He rose, and he lifted her up, holding her in his arms.
She could have walked, maybe. She wasn’t exactly sure of what injuries she had. Amber was a bit too stunned to take stock of things. “Why didn’t you die?” Amber whispered. That whole “I’d come back” part nagged at her.
“Who says I didn’t?”
What?
His hold tightened on her and he started walking away from the wreckage. Heading toward the line of trees. They seemed to have crashed near the edge of a swamp, and the twisting cypress trees were all around them.
Had he died? Had she? She didn’t want riddles, she wanted the truth and—
“The knife!” She grabbed for his shirt front. “I have to get the knife. I need it!”
“I already have it, sweets. I strapped it to my leg right after I boarded the plane.”
He’d…what? She didn’t remember seeing him do that. Sneaky Reaper.
“That was how I knew you hadn’t sabotaged the plane. Ivan did it. The bastard set us both up to die.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I worked with Ivan in the past…and Gregory worked with him, too.”
Gregory. Her new least favorite vampire.
“I’m guessing Gregory got to Ivan. Made him an offer too good to pass up.” His jaw hardened even more. “So that means that fucking Gregory will be closing in on us.”
“He’s the least of our troubles.” At the moment. Luke and Leo are both coming here…because I called out to them. She and Cass had to haul ass—seriously fast. But how?
He kept walking. Kept carrying her. There were no cars, no motorcycles. No boats. Nothing. It looked as if they’d crashed into the middle of absolutely nowhere.
“It’s going to be okay,” Cass told her. “I’m going to keep you safe. You don’t have anything to fear any longer.”
“We both have plenty to fear, trust me,” she muttered.
“I won’t give you back to Luke.”
Her eyes widened.
“I can’t.” He stopped walking to stare down at her. “I can’t let you go. I’ll do anything to keep you with me.”
“Cass?” Something had changed between them—she could see it in the way he looked at her.
“I’d never been that scared. You weren’t breathing. I’ve seen so many people die. Thousands. You were…you are different. The world can’t keep going unless you’re in it.” His jaw hardened. “Not my world.”
Then he was walking again, carrying her through the woods and she curled her arm around his neck. “You…you protected me.” She was trying to piece the last moments of that crash together. She’d been surrounded by him, held so tightly in his embrace. “What did you do…make yourself my air bag?”
He gave a rough laugh that rumbled against her. “Something like that. I knew I’d come back, so the trick was making sure you survived.”
And she had.
“But then you weren’t breathing.”
“So you breathed for me,” she whispered.
He smiled. Had she ever noticed just how sexy his smile was? “Seemed a simple enough price to pay to make sure you stayed in this world.”
Tears stung her eyes. He didn’t get it. “Luke and Leo will come. And they will take me from you.” He should leave her. He should get the hell away. Luke wouldn’t handle a betrayal well. She knew that from past experience. And if Cass was really going to stand between her and the Lord of the Dark…
It’s what I wanted. But I can’t let Cass suffer for me.
Because something had changed for her, too. When a man died for you, it changed everything.
“They can try.” He didn’t seem worried. His steps didn’t falter. “But I’ve finally got something worth fighting for.”
And her heart warmed.
She rested her head against his chest. Her whole body ached, but she was a fast healer—another left-over trait from a time long gone. It was also damn hard for her to die—most days. She doubted a human would have walked away from that crash—or even been carried away—alive. But thanks to Cass and her own genetics, she’d survived.
Now what?
They made it to a road. A small country road. She didn’t know if they were in Mississippi or Alabama or Florida. She just knew Cass was covered in blood, testimony to the injuries he’d taken for her—and he was holding her so carefully in his arms.
“Lift up your thumb, sweets,” Cass murmured to her. “Help is on the way.”
She didn’t hear—
The rumble of a truck’s engine reached her ears just as she saw the vehicle round the curve on the narrow road. Cass had better hearing than she did. The man just kept surprising her.
Supernatural tricks.
She lifted her thumb. “He’s not going to stop.”
Cass walked into the middle of the road. “I won’t give him a choice.”
She turned her head to stare at the truck that was fast approaching them. The last thing she wanted was a head-to-head impact after the plane crash and if that truck didn’t slow…
“Smile, sweets. No one can resist your smile.”