Page 95 of Midnight Kiss

My vision turned red as I rose from the stone floor. Ezekiel had forced me back, but the draught they had used to weaken my powers was finally wearing off, and I wasn’t going to allow this fight to continue much longer.

I had to get her out.

Fury at him having harmed Emily rose inside me, but I quashed it.

If I wanted to get rid of Ezekiel and get out of here, I’d have to control my temper.

“You’re mine,” Ezekiel growled. “You are mine.”

“Best you fetch your master,” I said. “If you want to keep me from leaving.”

“I don’t need his help,” he replied, with a savage grin.

But there was something behind it. I was mindshielded, so I couldn’t reach out and read what he was hiding from me. He had hidden something. Karn was gone, wasn’t he? He had retreated for some reason.

If he had actually bound Emily in some manner, it might have temporarily weakened him.

Ezekiel roared and leaped toward me, wielding his magic, and I sent out a weaker sliver of my own. They collided, red on red, and the explosion forced us both back, sliding along the stone, our hands contacting the floor until we came to a halt.

Ezekiel glanced sideways at Emily.

“Touch her and die,” I said.

The grin reappeared, and he darted toward her.

I closed the distance between us in a millisecond, catching him by the throat before he could lay a hand on her. Ezekiel’s hand transformed into a ghoulish, long-clawed thing, and he slashed it upward toward my throat.

The flesh there tore, but it wasn’t deep enough to kill.

I choked on blood but didn’t release him.

“You’re too weak,” Ezekiel spat, struggling to speak around my tight grasp on his throat. “You are too weak to kill me, Alexander, and too weak to do anything but fail. You should never have been Karn’s?—”

I squeezed harder, the bones in his neck cracking. “Touch her and I will separate your skull from your neck.” I tried to get the words out but struggled past the slow-healing slit across my throat.

I hadn’t fed in days. My healing was slower.

Ezekiel gargled a laugh. He sent a bolt of magic toward my chest, and it penetrated my flesh bursting out of my back in an orchestra of pain.

“Keep holding me and you will die.” Ezekiel grabbed for my ruined throat as well and started squeezing.

A second burst of magic ripped through me. I tried to form my own in response.

A third through my chest.

A fourth.

I formed a bolt of magic that fizzled out as it hit him. Their method of incapacitating me had worked too well. Physical strength was the only way out, but even now, my mindshield wavered.

“You’re dying,” Ezekiel choked. “And when you die, she will be ours.”

The thought drove me. I couldn’t allow that to happen.

I let my mindshield drop at the last second, using that last sliver of magic to form a blast that blew Ezekiel backward and sent me to the floor.

I landed hard, weakness sending me to my knees. Even though he couldn’t kill me outright, I couldn’t heal quick enough to defend myself. Or Emily.

“Emily, run,” I murmured, falling over on top of her. A last effort to defend her body from Ezekiel. To keep them from taking her. “Emily, please.”