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"I got him," I whispered into the mic "He’s alive But I can’t move him He needs--"
From the front lawn, I heard Leo shout, "Jacques Shoffru, former Master of the City of Veracruz and Cancún, Mexico, and all hunting territories between, you are forsworn You will e!" So ht for the challenge
"He needs a va it was too late Eli’s heart pu His pupils were bloide and nearly black as a va the chains holding Eli upright, iron chains, the kind a monster truck would use to haul a cattle car As if Eli was dangerous--
A shadow flickered in the edges of rabbed a knife Threw it With et But the corabbed it as a blood-servant fell,I’d hit the carotid artery He tried to shout, but sucked in blood with the breath Choked I’d hit his windpipe too He writhed on the floor, dropping the short sword he had been holding Trying to pull a gun Gently, Bruiser took it away from him
The man died I remembered to breathe The air ached in reen eyes, as if burned into ain and returned to the chains He loosed the bonds holding Eli upright in the chair My partner started to slide down, boneless The T-shirt bandages slid again and fresh blood gushed overthe bloody cloth as Bruiser caught hi to sustain life Eli is dying Together we eased my partner to the floor Instantly blood soaked into the carpet beneath hiathered in my eyes "Nononononono," I murmured, over and over
"Jane," Alex said, his voice full of fear in my earpieces "Jane?"
"I can’t-- I don’t knohat--"
From the front yard, I heard the clash of steel The roar of vas Fast I need Shiloh here, in this room And I need Molly to drain the pirate You understand? Now No argument Just do it Tell the orders on the makeshift coms system I felt more than saw Bruiser leave the roo desperately to hold in the blood To hold in the life His pulse thumped and stuttered and raced I leaned in and hissed, "Do not die on me Do Not Die" Tears ran from my eyes and snot dribbled underto be silent Knowing that if I had to defend hio and take up a weapon, Eli would die Right then "If you die"--I snuffed up the mess on my face and wiped it on the shoulder of the fuzzy purple shirt--"I’ll tell all Derek’s h as they are I’ll"
Fuzzy purple T-shirt I repositioned my entire body and held the blood-soaked wad of compression material over his neck with my knees as I ripped off the T-shirt It was stupid to ree "Stupid, stupid, stupid," I whispered But I eased it slowly back Blood had pushed past the clot that had forrabbed the stake from my pocket, wiped it cleanish onI wrapped the T-shirt over the wound and tied it all off with the T-shirt’s arh to let hih, a mound of pillows under them I pulled all the linens off the bed and tucked the now At last
A hand touched my shoulder Bruiser leaned down to ainst my cheek, "Someone is in the hallway Shiloh has a shot Stay down" I saw the vamp fall before I heard the rifle shot It didn’t echo far, not on the flat land, but the echo in the
On the front laords clashed I heard Leo shout, a sound of pain I s it for a while, what seeh it couldn’t have been more than two minutes From the back of the house, I heard a scream and the faint snap of a whip Go, Bliss and Rachael Just hope it wasn’t one of ours
"Molly says she can’t draw the life fro it from Leo too," Alex said, controlled panic in his voice "They’re ure out how to separate theh the bond he has on her, using Molly’s ainst Leo And Shiloh can’t help you She says Leo is pulling froh She says all of Shoffru’s va in on Leo" His voice in the earpieces went e to honor the Blood Challenge They’re just gonna kill hiet up here any way he can Tell Bliss and Gee to help hiet to Eli and save him--I don’t care what it takes" I yanked the mic off me and tossed it across the roo?"
"Flying by the seat of my pants" I yanked up the chains from the blood-soaked floor And stalked out onto the porch
Belowof varound, both bloody, scored by dozens of cuts They were surrounded by a niic around Jack was a haze that glittered with black and redinto his skin It was death ic And I knew I could survive it
Jackie Boy wanted the blood diaot his hands on it, all hell would break out Hell on earth That could not happen I had to find a way to destroy that thing Somehow Later For now, I had to endure And suffer Molly’s death rowled, hdrum Below me, Leo seemed to take heart from the sound and in a roin, kidney, and face Blood splattered across the lawn, black in the security lights Leo shouted, and I felt the shout through the binding, holding , one hand holding the chain, the stronger ar me on the narrow iron barrier And I picked out Jack’s second A lone va out around the ground she held Shoffru’s heir She was tall, muscular, with a small waist and broad shoulders, her hair cut short to the scalp She was ars two inches long She also had two long swords, one on each hip And she had a nose ring
In an instant, I put it together--the reason the scents had never worked for me The reason the timeline hadn’t worked for me It wasn’t Shoffru who took Molly Who took Bliss and Rachael Jack had used his heir, pulling strings in the background, letting his heir, Cy a woman to host a party To approach women To take them away And it was the wo with Adrianna,ti and full of desire The wo for and with Jack all this ti alone, just by himself How sexist of me was it that I had never once considered a woic that was hurting Leo Somehow she assisted it I narrowed ht vision on her She was holding a sword in her right hand, the naked blade reflecting a streetlight She held so shiny
Blood Challenges are fore of the issuing challenge, required a second They always had rules And witnesses I didn’t know enough about theainst the rules I didn’t knohat I was about to do would cause me problems in the future Or probleht out Shoffru’s second, aimed my body at her, and shouted "Hey, Cym! You want some of this?" And I leaped
Beast floodedthe chain over my head It whirled And wrapped around her as I landed With a clank-snap, the end of the chain, tacky with Eli’s drying blood, caught her Secured her Holding to the end of the chain, I rolled, seeing the va the i And I pulled the chained vamp with me End over teakettle She dropped whatever she had been holding and I grabbed it up And I started to burn Three red h the flesh of my palm and under my skin Into hI tasted blood I rolled to o the chain and pulled a stake Rammed it into the second’s heart She went still Maybe true-dead,knife,My flesh on fire And I threw it
As knife throent, it sucked The blade flipped inpower and trajectory And hit Shoffru in the back, just below his neck on the right side, nicking the round Shoffru whirled to s like tusks, eyes like the pits of hell Terrifying He let go of the pull on Molly’s ic and whipped back his sword to take ular circle of vamps and their dinners, Leo dropped to his knees He was bleeding everywhere Red motes of power scuttled like roaches under his skin He was dying Eli was dying Rick was gone Molly was as good as gone