Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

The raw emotion in his voice made her want to cry. Wrapping her arms around him, she rested her head on his chest. “Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded. “I didn’t expect him to punch me. I thought he would slap me.”

Loosening his hold, Sean allowed just enough space between them to look down at her. “I should’ve taken him out sooner.”

“That wasn’t the plan.”

“You getting hurt wasn’t the plan either,” he countered furiously.

No. But they’d all known it was a possibility. “Honestly,” she said, hoping to quell his anger, “I expected Rylan or one of the others to step in.” When he opened his mouth, she held up a hand. “Quietly, please. We don’t want to wake Marge. And my head is killing me.”

Worry furrowed his brow. “Marge isn’t sleeping.” Gently taking her by the chin, he encouraged her to look away so he could study the side of her head. He brushed the hair above her ear up without touching the place where Kent’s fist had made contact. “He didn’t break the skin. But this is going to swell.”

“It was more of a glancing blow.”

“If I had my blades, I’d cut his fucking hand off.”

She smiled.

Releasing her chin, he tunneled his fingers through her hair and felt the back of her head.

When he touched the place where the football had struck her, she winced. “Yeah, that hurts.”

Several more curses poured forth. “There’s a lump. Do you have a concussion?”

“I don’t think so. I’m a little dizzy. But that’s probably from whatever drug they gave me, because I’m still not thinking quickly.”

He cupped her face in his hands. Smoothing his thumbs over her cheeks, he studied her carefully. “Your pupils are dilated.”

“That explains the blurry vision.”

The amber light in his eyes brightened. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Who, Kent?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you won’t hear any objections from me. If Marge hadn’t insisted on buckling my seatbelt, he would’ve groped me. I saw it in his eyes.”

A growl escaped Sean as he turned to face the downed man.

Nicole grabbed his arm. “Hold on there, tiger. That can wait. Right now, we have a situation.” She motioned to the unconscious men, all of whom still lived. “We’ve gone and messed up the plan again.”

“We didn’t.” He pointed at Kent. “He did.”

“True. So what now, George?” She forced a smile. “By the way, could you have worked any more Britishisms into your speech?”

He laughed. “No. Those were all I had.”

She would’ve shaken her head if it didn’t ache so much. “Where did you even learn so many?”

“Network headquarters. One of the med techs is British. And Bastien spouts them every once in a while.”

Nicole took in the splayed bodies and spattering of blood. “Well, crap.”

“No one will blame us for this.”

“I know.” Even the special ops team had been told to step in if it looked like she was in danger. “Wait. Marge isn’t sleeping?”

“No. After she left, Marge made some calls, just like she said.”

“You could hear that over the engine noise and the television?”

“Yes.”

She studied him. “And?”

“They weren’t going to torture me to get you to talk.”

“Good.”

“They were going to torture you to get me to talk.”

“What?”

“I was more convincing than I thought when I told them I was tight with Nick. They figured I knew whatever you did and thought hurting you in front of me would get them the answers they needed faster.”

She scowled. “So they thought I would be okay with them torturing you but you wouldn’t be okay with them torturing me? What kind of crap is that?”

“That isn’t all.”

“What else?”

“While they waited to see if Nick would meet them at a designated rendezvous site, they intended to study you like a lab rat to see if you’re like him.”

“If I were like Nick, the drug they used wouldn’t have affected me.”

“They don’t know that. They know it wouldn’t affect a vampire. But all they know about Nick is that he doesn’t age and hasn’t gone insane the way vampires do.”

“So they know vampires go crazy?”

“Yeah. They think Nick might be infected with a different strain of the same virus. One that behaves differently. One that’s a success. They’re speculating that it was created in a lab. They think that the one the vampires have is the flawed first effort and the one Nick got is the prize.”

She frowned. “Poor Becca. Thank goodness they took me instead.”

He sent her a half smile and gave her cheek an affectionate stroke. “Yeah. You kick ass.”

“I didn’t today,” she said with a grimace.

His smile widened. “Are you kidding? You made that bastard bite through his tongue and would’ve taken him down if I hadn’t butted in.”

“Damn straight.” She said it for Sean’s benefit but seriously doubted it. That drug had really done a number on her. “So now what?”