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But in the end, he had surrendered his battle flag to his wife Mostly because she’d kissed hiht At least that was the lie he told hi that in spite of all the horrors he’d seen and utter agony he’d survived, he still had hope inside his heart Whether it originated asalways happened to carry hiht not win this latest fight, he would go down battling the whole ith everything he had Not for hilory Not because he’d been ordered to do it

He would stand strong and fight to the bitter end for the si to do

Yeah, even he ad where he’d left Adarian and let out a bitter laugh "We are so going to die"

CHAPTER 12

With the barrel aier and felt the recoil in his hand

Ahard sla Alan’s putrid life The gun landed a moment later with a solid thud on the concrete His fury exploding, Nick turned on his new attacker, intending to kill them

But just as his hand flew back for a punch, warm, soft hands cupped his cheeks and then a pair of tender lips touched his

The shock of being so unexpectedly kissed drove all the deer out of hi his head spin as he breathed her in It was neither Kody nor Casey he tasted And the kiss she gave him was so hot that it awoke everydeep in his throat, Nick lost himself to the wonderful sensation

Until soer renewed, he turned with a curse to find Casey glaring at him

The stern expression on her face told him she wanted to carve his heart into pieces "What do you think you’re doing?"

Shocked and confused, Nick glanced back to the woman in his arround No, it couldn’t be

Simi?

Saint ain

Nick ju that his future self had all but beat into him was that he had to stay away from Simi She was to be kept off his ry look over hiood even without barbecue sauce"

Oh, someone shoot me…

From the look on Casey’s face, he would say she was about to

But before she had the chance, another gunshot rang out Si his arain

Yeah, this was nice, but …

He rolled with Siun for another shot Reacting on pure instinct, Nick conjured a fireball and shot it at Alan It caught his ar while Nick jerked his head toward Casey, who hadn’t one off

She lay on the ground a few feet fro

No …

Sirens filled the air as the police finally came toward them Nick paid no attention as he headed for Casey to see if she was still alive "Sihting with joy, Simi licked her lips "Can the Si for dinnertime"

"No, Simi Don’t"

She un and glared at Alan "You are so related to akri No, Simi, no That’s all I hear You know, ‘bon appétit’ is a perfectly good phrase, too And it’s one that nored her irritated ue and Alan’s cries of pain as he rushed to Casey’s side Please don’t be dead He’d never forgive himself if he’d let her die because he was stupid and hormonal He skimmed her body, but didn’t see any blood

"Casey?" he breathed as the police descended on the parking lot, filling the darkening sky with bright, flashing lights

She didn’t respond at all as car doors opened

"Freeze!" solanced over to see Si instead of blazing Panic ht do to the police "Simi, drop it fast and hold your hands up so they can see that you’re not armed" Not that it mattered She was actually a hundred times more lethal without weaponry than a battalion at full arsenal

Luckily, Si beside Casey, Nick lifted his arers behind his head, so that some nervous rookie didn’t accidentally shoot him "We need an ambulance Please!"

The police swarmed them

"What happened?" a female officer asked as she squatted beside Nick

"We alking to the Hard Rock for dinner when he and another guy pulled guns on us" He pointed to Alan, as telling another officer that Nick had ju ere being ed, uy ran ahile I fought that one for the gun and it went off I dropped it, he picked it up and fired I think he shot et her help!"

"Don’t worry An ambulance is on the way"

Nick nodded as a male officer ca?"

"He says you attacked hi hi the worst and your girlfriend was holding an unregistered gun on him e arrived … We’ll take you all down to the station until we get this sorted out"

"He ht skate free after all

It didn’t matter what he said The cop slammed a handcuff down hard on his wrist and jerked his arm behind his back to lock it to his other hand He yanked Nick to his feet so hard, Nick was amazed it didn’t tear his arm out of the socket

"He’s crazy!" Alan shouted as the cop dragged Nick toward the parked police cars where a large, curious crowd had for I ain’t never seen nobody act that way He even setAlan deserved it

As they reached one of the cars, a deep voice ru on?"

Thank God, it was Acheron

The cop paused next to Ash, who, courtesy of his black biker boots, was alot a call about uy," he jerked Nick’s cuffed hands, "clai this one attacked him for no reason"

Ash shook his head, then leaned down to speak in a low tone "You know you’re arresting Kyrian’s Squire, right?"

The cop paled instantly "He’s one of us?"

Ash nodded "Fully inducted into the sacred council"

"Son of a … No I had no idea"

"I have my Squire’s card in round back there where I dropped it while trying to hand it over before he shot at us … first"

"Kyrian’s been training him to protect himself from our natural enemies" Ash jerked his chin toward Alan "Looks like Nick’s been a good student"