But just gave her death.
“They’re going after Dee. You know they won’t stop until she’s dead.”
No, they wouldn’t. “It’s time for you to step back, Tony. You’re not strong enough to handle the hell that’s coming.” Not with a Born Master playing in the game.
“I’m not leaving her alone.”
His brows shot up. “Who says she’s alone? Word I have is that Dee’s got a new lover, a vamp who risked the fire for her.” Interesting. In his experience, vamps really didn’t like to burn.
“I don’t trust that bastard.”
Neither did he. “You think he’s setting her up to die?” Grim. That was the Born’s name. Old as frigging dirt. And the older the vamps were, the stronger they were and the harder to kill.
Dee was a newbie. So easy for her to die.
“No,” Tony gritted out. “I think he’s setting her up to kill for him.”
Footsteps shuffled and a woman with short, red hair appeared, rounding the corner. She drew up when she saw them, her eyes widening.
The scent of smoke teased Zane’s nose.
She hurried past them, and he caught a whiff of…blood?
Hell of a combination.
“Zane. Shit man, forget about your dick right now, okay?”
He yanked his gaze off the woman’s ass and zeroed his stare back on Tony. “Go home. Leave Dee to me.”
But the cop’s head started shaking, hard. “I’m not abandoning her, I’m not just—”
“You want to be her prey?”
“What? No, she’s not like that!”
“Every vamp is ‘like that’ when they get hungry enough.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “You want to find her? Go inside and talk to Pak. You know that guy always has info about this city.”
Tony’s dark stare measured him. “And where the hell are you going?”
He brushed by him. Didn’t meet his stare. “Hunting.”
“Who are you hunting?”
Zane ignored the question and kicked up the stand on his new motorcycle.
“Who are you hunting?”
A flick of his fingers, a press of his foot, and the engine roared to life.
“Not her, you got me? Not. Her!”
The motorcycle shot away from the corner, racing right in front of an old, gray truck.
“Tell me about your change.” They probably didn’t have time for this. She should be getting dressed. Finding weapons. Figuring out what the hell they should do next.
But she needed to know more about Simon. Wanted to know and she didn’t want the blood link to tell her. She wanted him to talk. “Your parents, the vampires attacked them.” Killed them. Just like they’d killed her family. “Is that when you changed? Did they trans—”
He rolled away from her.
A chill rose on her flesh. “Simon?”
He sat on the edge of the bed, giving her a view of his strong, powerful back. “Don’t make me into something I’m not, babe.”
She pulled the covers up to her chest and waited.
“I was already a vampire before my parents were killed. I’d been a vamp for a year before the attack.” He glanced back at her. “You thought I was forced to turn?”
A nod.
His lips twisted. “No. I was one of the ones who chose to change.”
“Why?” The word came out husky, rough. To choose to be a vamp, to drink blood, to kill?
He rose, gave her a fine view of his ass and stalked to the jeans they’d tossed aside at some point. He yanked them up. “I was working in the Middle East. The shittiest and hottest place the world ever forgot.” Simon turned toward her. “One night, my men were ambushed. Cut down in the road by bullets and bombs.”
Dee didn’t move. Couldn’t.
“They died around me, their screams in my ears.” His fingers brushed over his stomach. “I bled out on the ground. My leg was shot to hell. My chest torn open. Every breath I took tasted of fire, and I knew, I knew I’d wouldn’t make it off that road.”
“But you did.”
His eyes darkened to black. “A man came out of the rubble. He walked straight to me. Asked me if I wanted to live or die.”
He’d chosen to live, as a vampire. Her lips parted.
“I heard the thump of a helicopter’s blades then. Whirring in the air. They were coming to help us, but I was the only man still living.”
So he could have made it without the change? He could have kept being human?
“I knew about the Other.” He swallowed. “I’d been to so many places, seen things people wanted to pretend didn’t exist. War brings out the monsters, Dee. It brings them out like you wouldn’t believe.”
“I’d believe almost anything.” Sad and true.
“I knew looking up at him—I could see his fangs, see his eyes changing. I knew what he was, and I knew I wanted to be like him.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“The medics could have tried patching me up. Could have saved my ass—and maybe, maybe I would have pulled through. But my job was to fight. I had to be strong. He could make me strong. Stronger than I’d ever been, and I’d never have to worry about choking on my own blood as bullets and hellfire took me down on a dirty road ever again.”
No, he’d just have to worry about getting his head chopped off and having a wooden stake driven through his beating heart.
“You don’t understand, do you?” His voice was grim. “Vampires are always young, always strong. That’s a deal a man dying on a battlefield isn’t gonna refuse. I wanted the bite. I would have done just about anything to keep living right then.”
“But the helicopter—”
“I wanted the bite,” he said again. “I wanted forever.” His shoulders lifted, fell. “I’m not gonna lie to you. Not gonna say the change was forced on me. I chose.”
“And would you choose the same thing now?”
His lips thinned. “Would you?”
“I didn’t choose this, I didn’t want—”
“Getting out is easy, Dee. Bleed out. Let the fire take you. Every single moment you live, you’re choosing.”
She knew he was right. She was choosing this life because for her, there was no alternative. “I’m not killing myself. That’s not me.” Too easy. Fight. Survive. Pak had taught her that. You survived, no matter what. You lived.