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I squeeze her neck, pulling her forehead gently towards mine. “Tell me who.”

“You need to leave. Now,” she says, but her lips pull to mine like a magnet all the same.

My body is vibrating with the need to devour her, to mark her as mine.

“I’m not leaving here until you tell me who I need to bury,” I whisper against her lips, muscles tense with the knowledge that someone more dangerous than me hurt her.

“What would you do, Xander? Shoot them?”

My hand immediately leaves her neck and reaches into the strap to the side of my waistband, pulling out a pistol from inside my slacks. I hover it between us as her eyes drop to the weapon. I watch as her throat works to swallow, and she slowly brings her focus back to me, the first hint of fear swirling in her eyes. I don’t plan on letting her go, so she may as well know the truth about me now.

She flinches as my thumb slides the small safety clip down, the click of it loud in the quiet of her bedroom.

“I’d do more than that.”

Her bottom lip starts trembling, and her eyes ping to the gun. Vacant. Almost unseeing.

She’s scared.

I shove the gun back in the holster and guide her chin up towards me.

“Look at me,” I demand, and she does. “I can’t promise to protect you from me, but I will protect you from everyone else. I will kill for you.”

“That’s insane,” she whispers with that vacant look still painting her face.

Without another word, I press a kiss to her forehead and leave through the front door.

Chapter 15

Camila

Hands grip my neck, but they’re not soft and claiming. They’re hard. Threatening. They’re squeezing, cutting off all the oxygen from my lungs. I try to pry my eyes open, but I can’t.

A menacing laugh tickles my face.

“I have you now, bitch.”

No.

No, no, no.

He’s here, inside my flat. He’s finally caught up to me.

I claw at his arms, trying to wrench them off me. I kick out my legs beneath him, cutting myself on something rough during the process.

I try to scream, try to do anything, but I just can’t. The smell of sulphur invades my senses, the side of my face heating up.

Is there a fire?

My head starts spinning, and I’m losing control of my limbs. Ash fills my mouth as I desperately try to heave in any air I can find.

“I told you I would fucking kill you,” Luke snarls in my ear, just as my body starts giving up the fight.

No.

“NO,” I shout, jolting up in bed. Sweat drips down my body in rivulets, and my breathing is ragged. I move my hands, feeling around the soft bedsheets tangled between my legs.

Soft. Warm. And damp from sweat.