Zombie Romance

Chapter 5

Lexi stabbed at open air with her bare foot. Her hands and fingers ached, but she was afraid to lighten her grip on the cold metal ladder. She knew there had to be ground below, but she couldn’t see it, having nothing to reference where she was but the ladder.
Panic engulfed her.
Her world seemed to be collapsing, invisible walls pressed in toward her.
She gulped for air, but none made its way into her lungs.
Below her something hissed.
She jerked and turned. Her body swayed to one side and finger by finger her grip on the rungs loosened.
Then she fell.
***
The female dropped from the ladder like a bird shot from the sky. The fall was short, less than twelve feet, but her landing, on concrete, would be hard.
With the speed of the preternatural beast he was, Bryce rushed forward.
With an umph of exhaled air, she landed into his arms.
He held her, cradled against his chest, unsure what to do next. Mind and duty said to drop her, but his arms curved around her and didn’t seem to want to let go. The sweet scent of innocence broke through the dank air of the sewer like a fist punching through a wall. Bryce grasped her tighter against his body.
“What…?” She pulled in a stuttering breath. Her hand reached out, grasping blindly in the dark, feeling for who had saved her. Her fingers found his face.
Bryce held still, not even his chest moving with breath.
“I fell.”
A pure statement of fact that in Bryce’s mind required no response.
“You caught me.” The words were soft, filled with disbelief.
He had. He hadn’t meant to, but he had. He was as surprised as she was. The realization only increased his need to be with her, to discover her.
His face lowered until her breath danced across his skin. He pulled it into his lungs, tasted it, tasted her…wanted more.
His groin tightened.
Tension flowed from her body like water from a spring; he could feel it. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back as if relaxing in an easy chair. She felt as comfortable in his embrace as he felt embracing her. The thought flitted through his brain, but briefly. His attention was too focused on the column of skin her movement had bared, her throat, pale and perfect.
The tiny steady throb of her pulse called to him.
He brushed his lips over her collarbone, and tried to remember who he was, the duty he was sworn to complete. Tried to think of zombies and vampires drunk with their own power, but all he could see, all he could feel at that moment was her.
She was everything, and for the first time in his long-dead existence, he was powerless to resist.
He opened his mouth and sank his fangs into her.