Kiss Me Deadly by Shannon Stacey

Author:Shannon Stacey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2006-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Khail still tasted the acrid fear of her near death on his tongue.

He’d nearly missed her. The triumphant shrieking of the Unkind as she moved ever closer to their grasp had almost driven him to his knees, but then his fingers had closed around her wrist and he’d jerked her away from the door. They almost got her. The bastards had nearly taken her from him.

Why do you defy us, Mikhail? Why do you betray the Unkind?

Leave her alone.

We will wait. Our patience is eternal.

He stroked Bridget’s hair while she cried, easily absorbing the blows when she occasionally hammered at his chest with her fists. Holding her kept him from beating his own fists against the wall.

He couldn’t protect her from this. He didn’t know how. With no horse under him or scimitar in his hand, he was no better than an old woman. And he was going to fail her as surely as he’d failed his wife and daughter.

Pain permeated his senses. He wanted this woman to be his forever. Not because she kept the Unkind at bay. Not because she was the first to survive his touch. But because he already loved her.

Bridget slipped away from him, but she didn’t move in the direction of the door so he let her go. Instead she went to the sink to splash cold water over her face. She shuddered a couple of times as she pulled herself together.

Mikhail.

Rage welled up inside of him, but the stronger his anger became, the louder the Unkind grew.

Mikhail…die… You must be punished. The woman must die. We are…coming.

The droning became more persistent and Khail instinctively moved toward Bridget as she turned from the sink. He reached out for her, but she pushed him away.

“Please, moya kisa. They are so loud in my head.”

"Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. Why don't you just leave me alone—go shit on somebody's windshield or something."

He watched—stunned by her anger—as she walked away. He forced himself to let her go despite his need for her. Her emotional upheaval was understandable, and yet her words still pierced him like a pike through his gut.

She was about halfway to her bedroom when they heard the scraping sound. He turned, trying to identify the source just as Bridget shouted, “The fireplace!”

Khail moved toward the counter, intent on grabbing a knife from the block, but Bridget was moving toward the hearth. “No!”

She got there before he could stop her. Black feathers dusted her cheek as a raven, covered in soot and slightly bedraggled, flew past her. The flapping of its wings didn’t cover the scurrying sound of another making its way through the pipe.

“Bridget, go in the bathroom,” Khail yelled as the raven flew toward him. “Go now!”

He whipped the blanket from around his waist and swung it like a net. The bird didn’t have time to react and Khail caught it, gathering the blanket corners together like a hobo’s sack. He slid the ends under the heavy table leg. It wouldn’t hold if the raven shifted, but it bought him the seconds he needed to get to Bridget who, of course, hadn’t listened.

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