I tilt my head. "Nice to see you too, Gio."
His lips curl back, a flash of sharp teeth. "No. It doesn’t… There’s no possible way. Iguttedyou." His voice is raw with disbelief, but fury swells beneath it like a tide ready to break.
Fuck. Oh, fuck. This is about to get bad very quickly. And this isn’t just going to be some little scuffle, either.
My stomach tightens. I don’t flinch, but the memory flashes bright and brutal—Gio’s blade slicing through me, the sickening heat of my own blood pouring onto the floor.
Gio’s gaze narrows, suspicion darkening his features. “What deal with the devil have you made? What demon stands in front of me now?”
“Considering what we are, I wouldn’t have pegged you for the type to believe in the devil or demons,” I say. And I really shouldn’t bait the man, but suddenly, I’m feeling a little salty. Guess that’s what happens when the man who tried to kill you comes back with an attitude.
My words leave him looking more confused than ever when I say the wordwe.
But the look on his face shifts, the darkness in his eyes doubling. He takes another step closer. “One of my people said they saw you today," he growls, stepping even closer. “I told them that was impossible. I guess now I get to kill you twice. I think it fair for the brutality Ares used on my Luciano."
The air between us turns razor-sharp, and he moves, his eyes flashing brilliant red.
Fuck, vampires are fast. Gio lunges quicker than a striking snake. But now, because of his actions, I see every movement, I calculate every step he takes.
I can feel it humming beneath my skin. My new body is electric. Precision-forged.
I duck low under the arc of his swing, pivot off my back foot, and slam my elbow into his ribs. The blow lands clean—I feelthe impact in my forearm—but it’s like hitting stone. He barely flinches.
He snarls and backhands me.
I twist with it, absorb the momentum, let it carry me into a shoulder roll. My boots scrape the damp pavement. I come up crouched and launch forward, feinting a jab before driving my knee up into his gut.
This time, he grunts.
“What the hell are you?” he growls, voice breathy.
I grin. “Stronger than I used to be.”
He lunges, grabbing me by the throat. I drive both thumbs into the soft tissue just under his jaw, and when his grip on me loosens, I wrench free. I twist, catch his arm, and throw him over my hip in a clean judo toss. He crashes to the pavement but rolls with it, back on his feet almost instantly.
Then he grabs something from the ground.
A rusted length of rebar. Bent at one end. Jagged.
“Seriously?” I breathe.
He swings it with both hands, and I’m too close — it slashes across my side, tearing through my shirt, biting deep.
I stagger back. Pain flares hot and sharp. I feel the metal dig into my ribs, feel it tear the muscle, even graze bone.
But almost as soon as I can even register the pain, it’s gone.
I blink down and watch in morbid fascination as the wound begins to knit itself shut right before my eyes. Muscle fiber coils back into place. Skin stretches, seals. There’s not even time for blood to spill.
Oh, hell yeah.
Giovanni sees the miracle as clearly as I do. His eyes widen. “What the hell?”
I shrug my shoulders back, squaring off with him. “Gio, you have to stop and talk to me. What Ares did… he had no control. He isn’t himself right now.”
“I saw the video footage with my own two eyes! I watched Ares do it!” Gio bellows as he lunges forward again.
Rage distorts his face. He roars and lunges again, his strikes wilder now, desperation in every movement. I evade, ducking under his attacks, moving like I was born for this.
