Page 5 of Deadly Cravings

All the blood wasn’t what struck me, nope, it was the fangs. He was a vampire. I sucked in a trembling breath, attempting to yank out of his stiff grip. He braced his side up with my van, not giving an inch off my wrist.

“I won’t hurt you.” His whisper was ragged and accented.

My chest tightened and it became difficult to suck in a breath. Spots danced in front of my eyes. I’d saved a vampire. This was surreal, there was no way fate was this cruel. My hand shook as I dug into my bag and clawed for my inhaler.

I shouldn’t have fucking tested lady luck with all that bullshit about “not havingthatbad of luck.”

“Girl.” The English tone came as if from far away and the world tilted, blurring my sight. As I hit the cement, pain shot through my body, shocking me back to the present. Somethingcushioned me and my inhaler pressed to my mouth. “How does this work...” The vampire was talking to himself.

I inhaled instinctively at the puff and my lungs throbbed as they sucked in the medicine. My blurred sight warbled. Blinking quickly, I couldn’t believe the vampire leaned over me, eyebrows furrowed as he took in my features.

The vampire dropped the hand painstakingly holding my inhaler and slumped against my van. Energy worked its way back through my system.What a shit time to have an attack.My palms pressed into the ground as I pushed myself to a sitting position, preparing to bounce to my feet and take off. His fingers remained locked around my wrist and no matter how much I tugged, he wouldn’t release it.

My gaze dropped to his furrowed dark eyebrows, and I hesitated.

This was a vampire and although I had questionable, physical attractions to the idea of them, it didn’t erase their danger. His hair fluttered in the wind as his gaze sharpened, his fangs hinting from between his lips.

His pain-filled eyes . . . the wounded look—hopeless. He had helped me . . .

Too fucking bad. Vampire business was notmybusiness, and the last thing my outfit needed was more abuse.

Except he wouldn’t loosen his grip.

“They are coming.”

Who was coming? More vampires? My gaze dropped to the remnant undead powder smeared on his shoe. One vampire opposed to multiple . . .

My legs moved before my thought finished, and I hooked my arm around his narrow waist and pulled his arm over my shoulders. He wasn’t going to let me go, so he was coming with me, and now that I knew stakes killed vampires, my heel would do nicely.

“I-if you bite me. I’ll kill you,” I spat out in the most aggressive tone I could muster. All bravado, but he didn’t know I was happily a wimp.

I had to use every muscle I owned and dug my heels into the ground. Heaving, sweat beaded at my forehead.

“I will not harm you,” he slurred and lifted my inhaler. I plucked it from him and stuffed it into my purse.

My purse remained hooked over my shoulder and I reached inside, pressing the button of my key to unlock it. My beat-up van beeped, and I jerked open the creaky back door. There were no back seats, which I was glad for in this instance.

The vampire weaved and fell inside, slumping with his head on the back of the passenger seat headrest. He was out for the count. I huffed, glaring at his large body. This was not the way I expected my first night to go.

Tears pressed against the back of my eyes, and I sucked in a shallow breath.

This sucked ass.

Gripping him around his back, I tugged but was unsuccessful in budging him, so instead, I nudged and shuffled him until he thumped flat. What was I thinking putting a vampire in my space? They were evil, cruel monsters. They only used. I’d witnessed it firsthand.

After crawling into the back of the minivan, I hooked my hands under his oversized lean torso and pulled.Okay, finally some progress.I yanked until I couldn’t anymore and then reached over his body to haul his long ass freaking legs into the vehicle to slam the doors shut.

I lowered to the floor, peeking through the window to see if anyone ran after us. With one look at the still vamp, I reached for my heel. I could do this. Killing one should be easy, right?

His head lifted and I froze at his nose grazing my belly and inching near my thigh. I sucked in a breath and pressed my spine into the back of the seat.

The vampire moaned. “You smell good.”

The vampire shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut and groaning. That wasn’t what concerned me, it was the answering throb at my core wanting more of his praise.

“I apologize.” His eyebrows lowered on his forehead.

“You need to leave.” I couldn’t believe myself; I should be driving my heel into his heart. Or at the very least, propping that door open and kicking him out, but I couldn’t move.