Sexiest Vampire Alive(106)

Ping and Genji screamed and ran inside the temple. A loud gong sounded, and more soldiers streamed into the courtyard.

Abigail eased up the steps of the temple so she could steer clear of the fight and have a better vantage point. She didn’t want to take her eyes off Gregori. He was slashing a path through the enemy, working his way back to her.

Suddenly a hand clapped over her mouth and dragged her back. Lord Ming’s sharp nails curled into her skin, and his foul breath filled her nostrils.

She elbowed him hard in the ribs and pulled away. With vampire speed, he was on her again in a second, clutching her by the arms. His eyes narrowed on her neck.

He shrieked with rage and shoved her back. She stumbled on the stairs, banging up her knees, but righted herself quickly. She froze.

He had drawn two long daggers from his belt.

Gregori shouted behind her.

With a growl, Lord Ming threw the daggers.

She ducked just as Gregori teleported in front of her. Two sickening thuds. Gregori’s body jerked.

“No,” she whispered. He crumpled in front of her.

“No!” she screamed.

Russell ran up the steps and skewered Lord Ming in the chest. He turned to dust.

“Oh God, no!” She fell to her knees beside Gregori. He lay pale and still with two daggers embedded in his back.

She hugged him, turning her head to press her cheek against him. “Gregori.”

At the top of the stairs, by the entrance of the Buddhist temple, she saw Master Han.

He stood quietly watching the battle, then vanished.





Chapter Twenty-nine



“He’s still bleeding!” Abigail cried as she tossed a blood-soaked towel into a plastic tub, then grabbed a fresh one to press against one of the wounds on Gregori’s back.

Angus pressed a towel against the other wound. He’d removed both daggers from Gregori’s back, but they’d had no luck in stanching the flow of blood.

“Here, we try this.” Kyo pushed her hand aside and slathered a paste onto the wound.

“What is it?”

“Yunnan Baiyao. Secret medicine to stop bleeding.”

“What’s in it?”

“If I tell you, it’s not a secret!” Kyo smeared more of the paste on the second wound. “But it has some very good things in it—ginseng, myrrh, and dragon’s blood.”

Instead of streaming from the wounds, the blood slowed to a trickle, then finally stopped.

She collapsed on the floor beside the bed and burst into tears.

“There, lass.” Angus patted her shoulder. “ ’Twill be all right.”

“But he’s lost so much blood,” she wailed.

“Aye, if comes to, he must drink several bottles.”

She nodded. She’d wanted to take him to a hospital in Tokyo, but Angus had forbidden it. Couldn’t risk Gregori falling into his death-sleep there, or being put into a room with sunlight.

With a groan, she hefted herself to her feet and sat on the bed next to Gregori. “Don’t die on me. We’ve been through too much together. I don’t know how to go on without you.”

He lay there still unconscious.

At least Kyo’s secret medicine was working. She thought back to that terrifying moment when she realized Gregori had taken the daggers meant for her. She’d clung to him on the temple steps, crying. When Angus had tried to pull her away to teleport her here, she’d actually struggled to keep hold of Gregori.

He’d finally tugged her loose while Robby had picked up Gregori. They had teleported them both to Kyo’s estate.

She wasn’t sure of all the details of what had happened at the compound. She knew that once Angus had brought her here, all the Vamps had returned. They seemed to be celebrating, so they must have experienced a victory. But she’d seen only about thirty soldiers at the compound. The majority of Han’s army was traveling back from the Yangtze River, so they hadn’t been there for the battle.

No one, other than Gregori, had been seriously hurt. Howard and Rajiv were brought back. Howard’s wounds had mostly healed when he shifted back to human form.

One Vamp did not return with the others. Russell. Angus sent a search party after him when his homing device indicated he’d returned to their first base. A sleeping bag and some bottles of blood were missing, and on the floor in a small pool of blood, they’d found his tracking chip.

J.L. led the search party to the second base. It looked like Russell had been there, since his backpack was missing. J.L. and his team had gathered up everyone’s belongings before returning to Kyo’s estate. She had her backpack now, but no samples of the Demon Herb or the third plant.

Kyo brought her an ice chest filled with bottled blood and set it beside the bed. “If he wakes up, he must drink.”