No way am I getting in that small enclosed space. I’d prefer the chance to run. Where? I have no idea, but even though I know the vampires want to capture me, not kill me, for some reason staying feels like certain death.

Spidery gooseflesh ripples across my back, taking my breath.

The sensation stills me.

My hammering heart beats a loud whoosh in my ears. An odd silence takes hold of my awareness, the battle noise falling away.

And then I feel him.

7

What alerts me to his presence isn’t the abrupt increase in Flame electrifying the air nor the wave of tingling energy that rushes my nervous system, forcing a deep shudder to rack my shoulders.

It’s the switching-on effect, my cells igniting with an acute awareness of his arrival.

And the palpable sense of an unwavering gaze on the back of my neck.

Michael. His voice sinks into my mind like a stone into water.

“No.” I scrabble at the door handle, suddenly determined to get in the car. My sweaty hands fail to grip the metal.

Precious one.

God, I know that honeyed voice. I’ve never heard it before, but I know it. The way I know my own heartbeat. Every cell in my blood yearns to draw as close as possible. My instincts scream at me to flee.

Come to me.

No. Fuck no. I wrench the door open. A wave of Flame slams into my back and floods my limbs like fire, buckling my knees.

Come to me, my love. Ugh. That voice, like a sweet oil sliding under my will.

“No. No.” I grip the door frame, determined not to turn, but my shoulders move of their own accord.

At the center of the battle, untouched and composed amid the chaos, stands the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. He’s tall and lithe in an immaculate black three-piece suit that contrasts with moonlight-pale skin. A shock of midnight hair falls across dark eyes. This vampire could never be mistaken for human.

Rising from his back, arching over the space that surrounds him, spread giant black wings. They must span seven feet across, with taut leathery skin stretched over claws, like the wings of a bat. Or a demon.

He’s not like any vampire I’ve read about in horror books. Aren’t they supposed to be monsters? This guy’s stunning, by anybody’s standards. And his presence stirs in me an overwhelming desire to kneel. To fall to the ground and lower my head.

I turn my back, every muscle clenching as I grip at the car door frame in an effort not to move. The cracked rib feels like a serrated knife in my chest. “No. No.”

The urge to be near him steals my breath. What the hell? I hold on harder, metal biting into the pads of my fingers.

Shake it off, Blakeley. Shake it off.

A third wave of Flame bursts like lightning through my veins to the tips of my toes, and I sink against the car, all desire to resist slipping away.