Bloody Kisses by Virginia Nelson, Saranna DeWylde, Rebecca Royce, Alyssa Breck, Ripley Proserpina Page B

she’d done. What she’d allowed to happen.
    “I can see that, you living in a castle. I’ve always wanted to see Trieste.”
    “I could take you there now. It’s a little more than a day on my boat.”
    If only… But she knew what she had to do. “Perhaps someday. Can I ask you something?”
    “You have already asked me something. Many things.” He nodded.
    “I will ask you another something, and I suppose you don’t have to answer, but—”
    “If you ask, Elizabeth Wollstonecraft, then yes, I must answer.”
    “How did you know to come? You arrived just in time to save my life.”
    “You saved your own life. You didn’t really need me.”
    “But I did. I needed you to get this far.” She studied the walls of the cave, looking for the next passage, running her fingers along the rock.
    “Check in with your masters, then I will answer all of your questions if you’re still of a mind to hear them.”
    “You know what they’re going to say, don’t you?” She pressed her lips together. “Yeah, me too. But I don’t want to.” Elizabeth sighed. “I don’t want to go back in there.”
    “So, do not.”
    “You know it’s not that easy. They’d send a bounty hunter after me. Or worse.”
    “I will protect you, if that’s what you wish.”
    “Polidori said they want you.”
    “I’m sure they do.” He shrugged, but continued to stare out of the mouth of the cave.
    “You’d fight them for me?” She inched closer to him, her search temporarily forgotten.
    He turned to look at her, intensity burning in his mismatched eyes. “I’d do anything for you. All you have to do is tell me what you want.”
    Elizabeth needed to touch him. She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. His skin was so hot, he felt feverish, but she didn’t pull back. “For me, or the bloodline?” It was stupid that she wanted him to make the distinction, that she wanted to be the one he’d fight for. Elizabeth didn’t need drama or faux alpha male macho bullshit. She didn’t want anyone to fight over her or for her, but somehow, it was important that he would.
    “The bloodline. I’m bound, but yes. For you, too, Elizabeth.”
    “Why?”
    “I doubt that you’ll remember, but once you were a little girl crying over your mother all alone in a hospital waiting room.”
    That memory was sharp as a blade slicing into her awareness. It was strange how she remembered even the color of her mother’s ponytail holder, the exact number of frayed edges on the embroidery of her favorite sweater, but him… she’d believed the big man who’d come had been a dream. Something she’d made up to comfort herself in the darkest times when she’d been so very much alone.
    Only it hadn’t been.
    “You asked me what I needed,” she said, as the memory became corporeal in the being in front of her. Her hand, of its own volition moved to his cheek.
    He closed his eyes against her touch. His face was burning up, on fire. Like the rest of him. “And I didn’t say anything. I wanted to ask you to bring my mama back, but I knew it was wrong to ask. How did I know that?”
    “I don’t know.” His voice was a jagged whisper, but the words seemed to have been torn from him. “But I’ll fight for you. I’ll save the world. For you.”
    His words were a balm and a wound. Being so close to something she’d thought was a myth, a legend, but somehow he was so very real, so very… him. It twisted up her insides, and she couldn’t think straight.
    All she wanted in that moment was to get her hands on him. She couldn’t get close enough to all that hot skin.
    The circular stairway began to retract and the sound of the scraping metal startled her. She lurched against him.
    He caught her easily and, the moment they touched, something changed. Some electric charge crackled between them.
    They were in the middle of an apocalypse. They couldn’t do this, even if he wanted the same thing that she did.
    But why couldn’t they, a voice