Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster Page A

made his nostrils flare and his pupils consume his irises.
    No matter how hideous the scene was, he liked it. Or the smell of it, anyway.
    Honoria shivered. She looked down the lane to the little house three houses down with the light blazing in the window.
    “Smells like Jem Barrett o’er in Brick Lane and his brother, Tom,” Will said.
    “Jaysus,” O’Shay swore. “He did a right number on ’em. Their own mother wouldn’t e’en recognize ’em.”
    Blade reached out and touched his finger to a droplet of blood. “Nothing human did this.”
    “Aye.” Will agreed. “Tore ’em apart. Throat first, at least. They weren’t aware o’ most o’ it.”
    “Only blue blood in these parts is you,” O’Shay muttered. “And you wouldn’t lose control like this.”
    Honoria went cold. It started in her stomach, then crept outward, spiraling through her core. There was a bitter taste in her mouth. Oh God. Lena!
    She broke into a run.
    Blade caught her at the door of the flat, dragging her into his arms.
    “No! Let me go!” She hammered at his chest. “I have to…” She couldn’t speak. A gurgle of something, a sound of inarticulate pain, crawled up her throat.
    “Let me go in first, luv.” His voice and hands were gentle, but he controlled her as easily as if she were a fluttering bird in his hand. “Just let me make sure it’s safe.”
    She collapsed against his chest, feeling the slow, inhuman thump of his heart beneath her cheek. His body was hard, firm. Strangely comforting. “No,” she said weakly. “No. You can’t.” Because if he found Charlie, he’d kill him.
    “Honor?” Lena called from the other side of the door.
    Her knees chose that moment to give out. “Lena?” His arms closed around her, holding her close, with a quiet murmur against her ear.
    The door opened. Lena peered out, her fingers trembling. Honoria pushed Blade away and dragged her frightened sister into her arms.
    “I thought it might have been…That you were…” Honoria turned her face into Lena’s hair, breathing in the sweet, familiar scent. Safe . Lena was safe.
    “I could hear them all yelling, but I didn’t dare go out.” Lena swallowed.
    “Charlie?”
    Lena looked past her at Blade. “He’s still in bed. I didn’t unlock the door.”
    “Good. You did good.” Her knees were still shaking. But Charlie was still in bed and Lena was…It dawned on her then. Her brother hadn’t lost control and turned.
    Which meant there had been another blue blood in Whitechapel.
    A dash of ice water down her spine. But if Vickers had found them, he would have taken Lena and Charlie and tossed the house, searching for the diary with her father’s secrets.
    Or would he?
    This was exactly the type of game he liked to play. Cat and mouse. Toying with her. Leaving a pair of bodies torn apart in the street just to prove that he could. That nowhere was safe from him.
    You are nothing , he’d once whispered in her ear. I could take you here and now, and you couldn’t do a thing to stop me.
    But he hadn’t, because it was far more enjoyable to watch her live in fear. Once he broke her, the game would no longer be as entertaining.
    What could she do? Should she run? But where? And how could she take Charlie now when he was so ill? Where would she ever find another respectable job?
    “Blade?” A man called, startling her back to the present.
    She’d forgotten about him in the horror. And Blade was just as dangerous—if not more so—than Vickers. When she turned, she found him watching her, leaning back against the railing with that nonchalant way he had. With his leather coat over her shoulders, he wore only a white shirt and black velvet waistcoat. Despite herself, despite everything, she couldn’t help remembering how stroke-able that waistcoat had felt when he had held her in his arms.
    A laugh took her. She was going mad. She had to be to think such a thing at a time like this.
    Blade held up a hand, instantly silencing