The Dragon Billionaire's Secret Mate(24)

But Severin would. She could see it in his eyes. He was bracing himself to go through with this.

"I need you to drink this," Severin said. He handed her a little vial. A clear golden liquid sloshed inside. "It won't hurt," Severin said. He gave a low, shaky laugh. "I'm told it won't even taste bad."

Theresa stared down at the vial in her hand. She could throw it away, shatter it on the ground. Except she didn't think she wanted to find out what he'd do then.

Severin shook his head as if reading her thoughts. "Don't," he said. "Don't make this any worse, okay? This is the easy way. You can drink this, and just go to sleep."

There'd be a hard way, too, he didn't have to add. He'd have a gun, maybe, or a knife. Or, God. He could probably turn into a dragon and bite her head off.

Theresa looked down at the vial again. "He won't even have to know," Severin said. "I'll tell him you ran away, you don't want to see him anymore. He'll be sad for a while, but he'll get over it. I'll make sure your family's taken care of. All you have to do is drink."

Theresa held the vial in shaking hands. Oh God, what was she going to do?

There was a sound in the distance, the whine of an engine strained to its limits. A car was flying down the dirt road, bouncing madly over potholes, a thick cloud of dust rising behind it. It screeched to a halt beside them.

Samuel jumped out. Her heart soared at the sight of him.

"Get away from her!" Samuel roared.

A golden glow surrounded him. His wings rose towards the sky, the flash of red limning their edges glowing like fire in the light of the moon.

Severin answered with a roar of his own. When Theresa turned to look at him, he was only a shadow in a golden cloud. The shadow grew and grew, resolving itself into the shape of an enormous dragon. It towered over her. When it spread its wings, it seemed to blot out the night sky.

Theresa's breath caught in fear. Samuel couldn't fight this. No one could.

But Samuel didn't even hesitate. He launched himself at the dragon's enormous head, claws flashing. The dragon roared in pain when Samuel's claws slashed across its face. It swung its great head around, jaws snapping. But Samuel was the faster of the two of them. He was already darting backwards, out of reach. The dragon's jaws closed on empty air.

But there wasn't any way this could end well. Severin's advantage in size and power was just too great. Samuel only needed to make one single mistake, to be a fraction of a second too slow—

A car door slammed. Vivienne climbed out of Samuel car. She must have been waiting there the entire time, Theresa realized.

Vivienne stretched out a hand. Green light rose from her fingers and caught around the edges of Samuel's wings. Theresa remembered the terrible cold that had crept up her arm from Vivienne's hand. Samuel's movements were slowing. Vivienne fell back, gasping, obviously exhausted by the effort; but the damage was already done. Frost glittered on the edges of Samuel's wings, and his movements were awkward and stiff.

The dragon swung one enormous paw and batted him out of the air, his claws rending three deep slashes across Samuel's chest. Samuel hit the ground with an awful, shattering sound.

Theresa screamed. She ran, stumbling over her dress. Fell to her knees by Samuel's side.

He was lying very still. His chest was an awful, bloody mess.

"No!" Theresa's voice cracked, a sob clawing its way out of her chest. "Samuel, no."

Samuel slowly opened his eyes. He reached out with a shaking hand to touch the side of her face.

"Theresa. It's okay. You're going to be safe now," Samuel said. His voice was soft and kind. Theresa sobbed again."He's got no reason to hurt you once I'm dead."

"No!" Theresa said frantically.

"I love you," Samuel said.

Of course he loved her. Of course he did. How could she have believed otherwise even for a minute, no matter what he'd said to Severin? He'd been showing her with every word, every action since they'd met how much he liked and respected her.

If she hadn't ran away, if she'd trusted him, maybe none of this would have happened.

"You can't die. You can't, I love you," she said, pressing her hands to the wounds on his chest, trying to stem the terrible flow of blood. She could feel the life running out of him. "I love you. Don't die. Please don't die." She was crying, hardly aware of what she was saying. He couldn't die. She loved him, and he couldn't die.

"I'll always love you," Samuel said, and she knew he meant "goodbye".

"No!" she said angrily. "No! I won't let you!"

She pressed harder down on his chest, as if she could force life back inside him by sheer force of will. "I love you, I love you," she whispered, like a magic chant, like a prayer.