Warrior Fae Trapped (Warrior Fae #1)(85)

“Samantha, it’s me! We’re friends. Don’t you remember your human side?”

“Friends? Is that why you have a gun?” Fangs elongated from black gums. She was changing again.

Arms shaking, Charity raised the weapon and aimed. Samantha hissed, moving one second before Charity pulled the trigger. The deafening shot blasted. Sam jerked back, a puncture to the left of her heart. She shifted from beautiful to ghoulish, and she grinned, a ghastly sight.

“Missed me, missed me,” she said softly, her horrible singsong sending shivers down Charity’s spine.

Sobbing, Charity opened fire. Bullets punched into her former friend. But the vamp kept moving, too fast, the heart hard to hit, even from this close.

Samantha sprang forward and backhanded her. She crashed into the closet doors, her head thumping the glass hard enough that it cracked and spider-webbed. Charity jumped up and then twisted as claws tore through the air. Searing pain bit her shoulder.

She snatched a knife off the nightstand and dodged another claw strike. Not thinking, just reacting, Charity surged forward and slashed downward. The blade burrowed into Samantha’s chest.

Samantha’s expression melted from rage to shock. She staggered backward and her hands drifted up. Her appearance shifted back to human.

“Charity, what did you do?” Samantha asked, her tone achingly familiar. This was the Sam who’d gotten Charity out of the dorms. The one who’d told her friends that Charity could hang around whenever she wanted to. It hadn’t been a great friendship, or an equal one, but it had mattered to Charity.

“I…” Charity sobbed, not knowing what to say. She stared in horror as her friend’s expression sank into a look of hurt.

“Charity, why? I was always good to you.”

“I’m sorry, Sam!” Charity cried, stumbling backward against the wall.

Samantha’s beautiful face twisted into the visage of a howling, rage-filled monster. The creature she’d become turned, tearing at its ruined chest. Its cries of pain tore at Charity’s heart.

Suddenly the vamp was ripped away, the black sludge oozing from its chest cavity dripping all over the wood floor. Devon’s handsome face filled her vision.

“Charity, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I killed her. I killed Samantha.” She sobbed, sickened by what she’d done. By what she’d had to do.

Devon clutched Charity’s shoulders, looking hard at the claw marks from the creature Sam had become, before looking down her front and then turning her. He was checking for the severity of her injuries.

“The elder is outside. He…he killed a gray wolf…” Charity forced back the sobs, praying a new friend hadn’t died tonight along with an old one.

“I know. It was Sarge. Roger must have sent him to watch you. No one wolf, besides maybe Roger, is a match for Vlad. Sarge gave it everything he had, but…”

“How’d you get in?”

Devon scooped her up and carried her out of the room. She squeezed her eyes shut so she didn’t have to see Samantha’s ghoulish remains.

Once in her room, he sat with her on the bed, cradling her to his chest. It was only then his nudity soaked into her awareness.

“I left the Range Rover and ran around,” he said before she could guess the answer. “The elder was standing in the middle of the driveway. I didn’t want to risk pushing him through the ward with my car—if that would even work. He was too focused on you to notice my drive-by.”

“I didn’t know I could get people inside! I… She was falling. She had dirt on her face—I couldn’t tell if she was changed or not.”

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay. You did good.”

“I killed her, Devon.” Charity moaned, tilting her head up to his, wanting him to stop this pain.

“No—vampires killed her when they changed her. That wasn’t Samantha anymore. That was a creature. You saved lives tonight.”

Charity shook her head as a phone rang in the other room. Devon stared at her for an intense moment. “That is probably one of the pack. I need to go get it.”

“Please don’t leave me,” Charity said, clutching his muscled shoulders.

Devon leaned down slowly, his lips lightly touching the very tip of her nose. “Come with me.”

Her entire body tingled. Heat sizzled through his touch. She sank into the feeling.

She barely heard the phone call, as intent as she was on his presence. On his solid body and the ardent need that pumped through her blood. There had been so much violence, so many changes and horrifying new discoveries since that first night at the nightmare house. She’d witnessed the death of her crush, and then she’d had to kill a friend. She needed to forget, if only for a while. She wanted an act of love to push back the despair of soul-crushing loss.

When they were in her room again, she ran her palms up his hard chest and hooked them around his neck. At his confused expression, she pulled his head—his lips—closer.

Apprehension took over his confusion, but he couldn’t hide the burning desire in his eyes.

He wanted this too. He needed it. But he was an alpha and a gentleman, and so he wanted to do what he thought was right.

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” he whispered. She knew he was also worried that he’d sex away his regard for her. Which meant he felt something too.