Shameful by May Dawson
37
Legacy
I stoodbetween Killian and the vamp. The gun was pointed straight at me, and the barrel felt as if it could swallow me. Behind me, I couldn’t hear Killian breathe, and my own heart froze in my chest.
“You need to learn when to run, little girl,” the vampire said. His finger curled against the trigger, gathering the slack.
“Who are you?” I blurted out. I needed to buy time, find my way to get the jump on him. “You know my name. Who areyou?”
His lips curled, revealing those fangs. It was a nasty smile.
“Tobias Bentley,” he said, his finger easing just slightly on the trigger. I didn’t think he even knew he did it, but I was so tightly attuned to him in that moment that Inoticed.
He wanted totalk.
He wanted to kill me, too, but maybe I could keep him stuck on talk for a while.
“What do you want with me?” I asked.
“I already told you. You’re my revenge.”
“Lucas doesn’t care about me anymore.” I couldn’t die because someone thought Lucas loved me. That was too ridiculous.
“Liar,” hesaid.
There was that fucking word again.
“If he doesn’t care, then why has he been hunting me?” Tobias asked. “He’s protectingyou.”
My mouth was dry, so dry I could barely speak, but my lips parted anyway.
I had a hundred good arguments to make. None of them mattered.
The next second, he pulled the trigger.
The bullet smashed through my shoulder. I flew backwards, slammed into the ground. For a second, I didn’t feel the pain, just the impact.
Then Idid.
I rolled onto my side, clutching my shoulder, biting back a scream, and looked into Killian’sface.
His eyes were closed, dark lashes resting in the hollows above his cheekbones. His mouth was slack above that hard-lined jaw. I couldn’t see any sign oflife.
My chest squeezed painfully. I wanted to rewind two minutes, keep Killian out of danger.
Tobias came toward me, whistling.
Tobias was right. I should’ve run. I’d wanted to protect Killian, but now we were both going todie.
I tried to shift again, but I couldn’t summon it. If I managed to turn into a wolf, I wouldn’t be bleeding out anymore. The flesh and bones broken by Tobias would heal into nothing but a flesh wound.
He grabbed my ankles and dragged me across the broken ground to where his boat rocked on the waves. He tossed me easily over one shoulder, carrying me with supernatural strength vamps weren’t supposed to have. Vamps were fast, and strong, but he was the fastest I’d everseen.
Something didn’t make sense.
If I survived Tobias, if I captured him, I could prove that I was right. I could go back to mypack.
I came alive, kicking and fightinghim.
He almost dropped me as I began to shift. My body was suddenly bigger, heavier, awkwardly slung across his shoulder.
That was before my teeth cameout.
I attacked him, and if he weren’t so damned fast, I would’ve ripped his throatout.
He dove across the boat, which rocked dangerously on the waves. I kept my footing, surer than him, leapt after him. He grabbed the rifle, whirled to face me as hefell.
He’d killed Killian. Killian was mine. He was pack. I was going to kill thevamp.
He screamed as I hit him, as the boat tilted beneath us, as my teeth sank into his throat. He turned the gun on me, and I snarled as I twisted to catch it in my teeth. I tore it away from his hand, felt his fingers rip away with the gun as he screamed.
The gun went off, loud beneath the cloudy skies.
The bullet went through my chest.
The boat tilted over into the waves.
The next thing I knew, the world was peaceful andgray.