Teaser Tuesday #43

“There’s no reaction, though. Not before we both hear someone swooping in behind her. Not before she has a half-second to turn around and there’s an ear-piercing crack of a gun firing against the side of her skull.
Like slow-motion, Blondie’s eyes roll back and her attacker shoves her to one side. She hits the muddy ground to my right, where she twitches and goes still.

Pain or no pain, I dig my heels into the earth and push myself back, nursing my ribs while trying to sit up. Behind where Blondie stood a second ago…

“Noah?”
There he is, gun in hand, staring at Blondie, mouth drawn. He’s here. He’s here and he rescued me.

I want to grab him and run, because he doesn’t know what he just rescued me from. At least, he shouldn’t,  but the way he’s watching Blondie like he expects her to get back up makes me wonder. He said he works for the government; it’s possible they know about things like this. Maybe he knows what I am.

Already I can feel my ribs knitting back together. Slow and uncomfortable, but the pain is ebbing enough that I can carefully get to my feet.

“Noah,” I say again. Relieved. Hopeful.

His gaze slowly slides over to me. There is no kindness in his eyes. No good-natured amusement. No love. He looks at me no differently than he looked the vampire he just shot. And it hurts. More than transforming, the broken ribs… the look he gives me hurts more than anything I’ve ever felt since the police told me my sister was dead.

When he raises his gun and aims it at my heart, it doesn’t matter. He can’t possibly break it any further.”

– Kindle Version ARC

“He started it,” Oliver mutters.

I plant my hands against his chest and shove. “No, you did, jackass. Leave him alone.” Behind me, Noah snickers and I whip around to shove him, too. “And you have made it perfectly clear I’m not your girlfriend anymore. I’m pretty sure wanting to kill me ranks high up there on the domestic violence chart.”

– Kind Version ARC