Page 24 (1/2)

I stopped, nostrils flaring I swiveled to the left I sht It has ht A faint rustle came from the left The scent of female vamp shifted with the sound

"Oh, crap," I breathed They hadme

I could take down one vaether And like an idiot, I had given chase without proper equipment

A door in one of the units just ahead opened and three youngthe door and the htly clothed Heavily arun oil and ammo and beer and marijuana "You out there?" one called "Lady huntin’ a vamp?"

"Mr Leo said as to come out and assist you," another said I heard the sound of steel hitting flesh, a kind of coet-it taunt

"What’s h the shadows into the protection of an empty porch, away from where I had spoken The position put the men and the male va stupid"

I chuckled "If you’re the center of the clock, andseven, behind ’ means?"

"Wild Bloody," another one said There was a tremor in his voice

"You think you three can take the ot?" I hated to ask, knowing that the va I could They were that close But I needed to knohat kind of weaponry my helpers had I heard a faint crackle and knew the male vamp had turned his attention to my new pals

"Crosses Holy water froarlic oil froot vaun"

"Aih, I said, "Yours is here"

The ferass nearby I bent my knees and moved toward the sound, away from the three un roared A vamp and a human screamed Silent, I rounded the house A thump sounded from somewhere close, but I couldn’t place it in the afterht lit a dry yard, dead grass in the corners and along the foundation, a fencehere and there So machine? Otherwise, the yard was e on Beast’s reflexes, I ducked Whirled the stake up A weight crashed into s latched on to round My left arm and the cross were pinned beneath ony like fire My blood splattered over y Her eyes were vaht as they caught the faint light

Beast rose in me I could shift now if I had to, but it was harder, pain like death itself, without the ritual I held her off, but took the strength and speed she shared

My turban fell, bounced, fell apart The stake ith it My braids tuht up the cross and slapped it onto her chest Stea of burned vacross, leaving it in her skin She ground doith her teeth Pain sizzled intoHand useless, I dropped the knife

She settled, sitting onMy skin crawled I slidbra and pulled out a stake Aardly slapped it open She didn’t react Too busy feeding I rammed the stake into her side She stiffened If she had been even a few days older, she would have rolled away I adjusted the angle of the stake and shoved it in Hard She gasped Releasedback, snakelike

Her eyes focused on me The vamp eyes bled away into human white Just for an instant "What?" she said Slowly, the life eased from her eyes Her vaht, I couldn’t see the color of her irises, except that they were pale Gray, maybe In a café au lait face that had once been beautiful

Without a sound, without a human exhalation, in a silence that always leftthe momentum of her fall, I pushed her to the side and rolled from beneath her, to my knees and to my feet Crap She had bled all over h deep in ed arers wouldn’t close Tendon dae It didn’t hurt as badly as it should, whichfroh vamp saliva to spasm most of the arteries and veins closed I turnedhard A huery and months of rehab to recover from such an injury As soon as I could shift, I would be healed But I had to live long enough to get to someplace safe