Quinn couldn't help but take a step back from the murderous expression on Gideon's face. He backed up into something large. Two iron vices grabbed his arms to hold him in place. Gideon's bodyguards. Of course a man as important as Gideon wouldn't be without bodyguards close by.
Out in the sun too long today. Lack of blood. Mind-blowing sex. Enough to fry his brain cells. Definitely.
He was dead.
Gideon reached under his jacket and produced a silver knife with a curved blade. It looked extremely expensive. And extremely sharp.
He brought it up to Quinn's throat so close that it bit into the skin. "Tell me why you're here."
"Because I'm trying to save your life. Can you believe it?"
Gideon raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
"Yeah. As a matter of fact, in about ten minutes, a bomb that Malcolm Price—who isn't quite as nice as
I am—put under the podium onstage is going to detonate, taking you, me, and everybody within a block with us. So feel free to kill me now. It won't really matter in a minute."
Gideon slid the knife into his pocket and grabbed Quinn by his throat. "Are you lying to me?"
"Why don't you go out there and check? Easy enough to do."
He glanced at his bodyguards and with the barest nod of his head, they let Quinn go. Just as he was getting his bearings, Gideon grabbed the neck of his shirt, catching him off balance, and pulled him out onstage.
Quinn blinked at the bright lights. The audience—whom he couldn't see but knew were out there in the darkness—was deadly silent.
A large man in a leather jacket was in the middle of presenting the award for lifetime achievement, and he looked annoyed by the interruption until he saw that it was Gideon. Then he graciously backed off the stage, leaving it clear.
Gideon nodded at him. "Go on."
Quinn focused on the podium. When he got to it he slid the bottom door open.
"Well?" Gideon asked.
Quinn looked at him. "I was wrong."
Gideon's lips thinned, and he nodded at his bodyguards.
Quinn continued. "There isn't ten minutes left. There's three."
Gideon moved to his side and looked down at the bomb. His expression didn't change from vague annoyance. "I thought Malcolm Price was dead."
"I wish he was."
Gideon motioned for someone off on the other side of the stage, a tall man with glasses whose eyes widened as he saw the device.
"Take care of it," Gideon barked. Without question, the man immediately fell to his knees and began disarming the bomb.
Then Gideon turned to Quinn. "This is ruining my event."
He shrugged. "Sorry. So are you going to kill me now?"
"Yes."
Quinn grabbed the microphone and addressed the crowd. "There is a bomb in the building. Everyone run for your lives!"
And despite the fact that they were three hundred of the toughest men and women inAmerica , they immediately scattered screaming in all directions.
Gideon turned around in a circle, watching the sudden chaos surround him. When he turned back, Quinn had disappeared into the crowd.
Janie glanced at her watch. How much time was left? Where was Quinn? He should have been back by now.
"He's been killed." Malcolm's voice bit into her thoughts.
"Shut up."
"If he does not disarm it, the bomb will go off in less than two minutes." He smiled cruelly. "I believe we will be fine here, but if you'd prefer, we can leave the building."
"He'll disarm it."
"I still would be happy to take care of you, Janie. I am your true sire, after all. I gave you vampire life;
Quinn simply smoothed out the rough edges."
Her fists ached to hit him. Knock out some teeth. Live eternally with no teeth—see how he'd like that.
Not that he was going to live eternally, because she wasso going to kill him and shove that detonator he'd been waving around right down his vampire throat. She just had to wait to make sure Quinn was safe first.
"Shut. Up." She repeated it with an underlying danger that normally brought perspiration to even the strongest man's brow.
"As you wish."
She couldn't help but let out a small, humorless laugh at that. "Yeah, that's what all this is about, isn't it?
The wish? And what are you planning on wishing for?"
"I plan to wish for omnipotence."
She eyed him sideways. "You can get a prescription from your doctor if that's a problem for you."
"Omnipotence."
"I know what it means, you freak. Absolute power. But you're already a vampire, so what difference does it make?"
"All the difference. You see, right now, while I am a greater being with the potential to live eternally,
there are still side effects. Should I not get enough blood, I will die. Should I be staked or shot with silver, I will die."