with all her might, being shoeless wasn’t in her favor. Her foot hurt like hell.
He was on top of her in seconds.
No way was she going to give up.
McKenna punched him with both hands and managed to rip the skin from his face with her nails. She struggled, squirmed and fought with an energy born of both fear and anger.
She was against the wall without knowing how she’d got there. The attacker’s face came close—a pasty angular death mask with dark holes for eyes.
“Freak!” she rasped as his hands encircled her throat and began to squeeze.
She got her arms under his and shoved hers upward to break his choke hold. Dropping her weight, she again hit the floor in time to slide out from under him.
He grunted once and again caught her by the hair. With a sickening heave he had her upright and shoved against the same damn wall. His hands returned to her throat.
She groaned as her breath left her and her lids fluttered toward stillness.
* * *
“What the hell?” The detective’s startled shout preceded Kellan’s race to the stairs.
Kellan was beyond caring about vows and secrets now. If anything happened to McKenna, he’d be one sorry immortal.
He was at her door in seconds and through it in less time than it took for Miller to gather himself enough to follow. One quick scan told him that the beast, in a blur of malice and motion, had McKenna by the throat.
Kellan pulled the vampire off her and held the abomination suspended in the air as he spoke McKenna’s name, needing to know he was in time and she was all right. He had never faced the meaning of real fear until she didn’t answer.
The vampire in his grip was young and unaware of beings with greater power. It spit and hissed and fought with the strength of two human men, but was no match for a Blood Knight.
Kellan threw the beast against the same wall McKenna had slid down. Hearing Detective Miller’s approach, and regretful over not having the time to deal the bloodsucker some retribution, he clutched the vampire, moved to the window and tossed the beast out.
“Another time, fiend,” he said, his voice low and threatening. “You’d better hope it’s not anywhere near here.”
“McKenna?” Miller was calling her name, kneeling by McKenna’s side, turning her over. She was on the floor with her head against the legs of a chair. Her eyes were closed.
“McKenna, open your eyes,” Miller directed. “Look at me. You’re going to be okay. Tell me you’re all right.”
Kellan watched, wanting to help, desperate to go to her. Frustrated, he made himself wait, hearing the rapid patter of McKenna’s heartbeat from where he stood and the staccato intake of her ragged breaths.
Miller turned his head. “Where did the bastard go?”
“It exited the same way it got in,” Kellan said, withholding the part about throwing the bloodsucker out and onto its five-year-dead ass.
Miller didn’t seem to notice the it part.
“Help her,” Miller directed, pulling a phone from his pocket to call the incident in. “Jesus, there isn’t a decent place left in this goddamn city to live.”
Kellan relished the chance to get close to McKenna. As the detective barked orders into the phone, he took McKenna in his arms, brushed the hair back from her face and spoke in a soft tone. “You’re not hurt, McKenna. I won’t allow that, and neither will you. Do you hear me?”
He used his power of suggestion to convince her of this, adding, “Open your eyes. See me and believe that what I say is true.”
She obeyed. Her sapphire-blue eyes blinked slowly.
“That’s good,” he said. “Now take a deep breath and push back the fear. It’s over. You’re all right.”
Again she obeyed, taking one steady breath after another. Her face was ashen. So were her lips. “Window,” she said. “He came through the window.”
Kellan nodded. “He probably thought no one was home.”
McKenna coughed as she shook her head. “No. I think he came for me.”
“It’s all right now,” Kellan repeated. “Your cop friend will see to that. And so will I.”
He ran a hand over her throat, noting the red marks where the monster had nearly squeezed the life from her. There were no punctures. No visible bite marks. She’d been reached in time to ward off that rueful fate.
Inwardly, Kellan chastised himself for allowing Detective Miller to keep him occupied on the street. That was what he got for being a good guy in a world gone bad. Any longer of a delay and he might have lost the one thing he needed most. McKenna.
Miller squatted down beside him. “Do we need an ambulance, Mac?”
She shook her head. “An ice pack would be nice. And a stiff drink.”
Miller’s relief was obvious and spoke volumes about the love he had for McKenna, no matter the status of their current relationship. His attention had been on her, and only her. Still, Miller couldn’t protect McKenna if monsters had got wind of a developing relationship between McKenna and a Blood Knight, even if they didn’t understand what a Blood Knight was.
He had to consider the possibility that his presence had played a part in drawing the vampire to McKenna’s apartment, without the vampire realizing it.
Could this be a case of monsters recognizing on some level another monster’s prey? Fang calling to fang, no matter how distant and seriously diluted the connection might be?
Miller offered McKenna a hand and she took it. She didn’t look at Kellan again until she was sitting in a chair.
“Tall. White-skinned. Dark eyes. Black coat and boots. Black thinning hair,” she said. “Maybe thirty years old.” Wincing, she added, “With very bad breath.”
“Good. What else?” Miller said after repeating that list to whoever was on the other end of the phone line he’d kept open.
“I think he might be sick.”
“A junkie, possibly looking for drugs?” Miller asked.
“That’s a good possibility,” McKenna agreed, shifting her questioning gaze to Kellan. “Thanks for coming back in time to get him off me.”
Kellan nodded.
Miller grunted an unintelligible remark, but Kellan searched McKenna’s face for signs that she might know more about this intruder than she was willing to mention to the detective. The puzzled, frightened gleam in her eyes suggested she thought she’d seen a monster and was trying to come to terms with that.
“We’re searching the area now,” Miller said, pocketing the phone. “If the bastard is anywhere around
