Ellie forced a smile and tried to slow her erratic heart rate, caused from being in the spotlight. “Unfortunately. Trust me.” Just smile and lie, she told herself. I can do this. “Imagine how mortified I am. I bumped my head and it’s on the eleven o’clock news.”

“Are you and Mr. Fury having sex?” Someone else rose and asked.

Ellie hesitated. “Are you having sex? That’s kind of a personal question, isn’t it?”

“I’m not.” The male reporter smiled. “But I would be if I were dating someone. Come on, Ms. Brower. Are you and Mr. Fury having sex?”

Ellie squeezed Fury’s hand to assure him she was fine when he tensed. “My sex life is not up for public discussion but I will say that Fury and I are living together, as Tom let you know, and we are involved in a serious relationship.”

The man nodded and sat down. Another man popped up. “Mr. Fury, do you bite Ms. Brower? We heard rumors that there is biting during sex.”

Fury’s hold on her became intense enough that she had to hide a flinch. Ellie used her thumb to rub the back of his hand. Fury relaxed and shook his head.

“I would never hurt Ellie.” He suddenly pulled back his upper lip to show his teeth quickly. “It would hurt if I bit her.”

Questions started flying. Ellie fought back a laugh at the absurdity of some of them. Tom yelled for order. He repeated his instructions of one question at a time or the interview would end. Silence reigned again and one person stood.

“How do you two kiss with his sharp teeth?”

Fury opened his mouth. Ellie bumped him with her shoulder and answered. “How do you kiss someone with an overbite? Or someone with buck teeth? Or someone with missing teeth? You just do. That’s a silly question.”

“So you two do kiss?”

“Of course I kiss him. Look at him.” Ellie turned her head and smiled at Fury. She looked back at the reporter. “Teeth aren’t a problem.”

A female reporter rose next. “How do you feel about being with a man when you know he can’t have children with you?”

“Doctor Norbit,” a male reporter shouted out of turn. “Are you doing research on them?”

“No,” Trisha denied. “They are people, not lab rats.”

“How do you feel about being with someone that you may never be able to have children with, Ellie?”

Ellie stared at the same female reporter who asked again about kids. She hesitated. “There’s never a guarantee, no matter who you are with, that you can have children. There are plenty of couples in this world who are together and then discover for whatever reason they can’t have them. That’s why we have surrogate mothers, sperm banks, and adoption available for those couples. I don’t think anyone meets someone and judges if they like them or not on the basis of how well their reproductive system works and how many children they can get out of that person. That’s just unreasonable and stupid. I’m not concerned in the least about that. I don’t even think about it.”

The reporter sat. The next one popped up and it went on. Ellie tried to keep her calm. They were asking stupid questions for the most part. They wanted to know if Fury helped with household chores and if Ellie treated him as if he were a regular person. Fury kept his cool, laughed at a lot of the questions, and never lost his temper. Ellie watched him, really proud of how he took it all. He could be charming when he wanted to be. He met her gaze and smiled back at her.

“Ellie?” A man in the back suddenly yelled.

Ellie turned her head, trying to find the source. “Yes?”

“How does it feel to betray your own race by allowing an animal f**k you?”

Shock tore through Ellie at the sudden verbal attack. Just as she found the jerk who’d asked that question, a thin, tall man in a business suit suddenly shoved at the people in front of him, flashing a gun clutched in his hand. Screams erupted around them and gunfire exploded. Ellie froze in horror before someone slammed her into the ground and something heavy crushed down on top of her.

Ellie’s eyes flew open. Fury sprawled over her, covering her body with his. Shots continued to ring out along with panicked screams and shouts from the crowd. Fury crawled higher to cover her better, twisting his body to put himself between her and the source of the attack.

His arms dug underneath her and then he lifted her, shoved her knees into her chest to force her into a tight ball inside his arms, and staggered to his feet. He sprinted for the gates with Ellie clutched in his arms, hunched over her, still shielding her body with his.

Fury jerked hard, his hold on her slackened, but then tightened again. He kept moving and yelled out words she didn’t catch. Ellie was too shocked to understand him and she couldn’t breathe. He had her crushed within his arms and her knees and legs were shoved against her chest, compressing her lungs. The pounding impact of his body as he ran didn’t help either. Ellie couldn’t see much with him wrapped around her and the way he held her so tightly.

She knew they cleared the gate, saw a section of the wall flash past them just as Fury collapsed onto his knees. He groaned loudly but somehow kept hold of her inside the cradle of his arms. Then his grip eased. Ellie moved in his arms, lifted her head, and she saw pain twisting his handsome features.

“Fury?”

He shifted her and put her on the ground in front of him. She looked up at him and watched his eyes roll back in his head. He just crumpled sideways, crashing onto the grass next to her. Ellie ignored the shouting, the screams, and all the other sounds going on around them. She frantically crawled to huddle over his still form. That’s when she saw the blood.