Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
The vampire steps into the stable. Distressed by the stranger’s sudden entry, Bob backs up against the far wall.
His ears are pinned back and his eyes roll wide, showing the white.
Bob snorts, nods his head, and paws at the ground.
Instinctively, my boy knows this vampire is out to do him harm.
“Be a good boy, let’s see how you taste,” the vampire says with a chuckle and a smack of his lips. He moves towards my Bob.
On silent feet, I slip into the stable and creep up behind him.
No one threatens my horse. I hold in the angry growl that wants to rise and rip itself out of my chest. Without thinking, I lift onto my toes.
I reach out and grab the vampire’s hair.
I grit my teeth, jerk him back, and with a tilt of my wrist, I run the blade across his neck.
I slice his throat.
I cut cleanly through his carotid and trachea. His only sound is a sharp intake of breath, then a gurgle.
His hands fly to his throat in an attempt to stem the bleeding.
I let go of his hair. The vampire turns.
His panicked eyes search for the threat and he finds me.
When he takes in my expression, his hazel eyes go wide with fear.
With a snarl, I circle him. Protectively, I put myself between him and Bob.
I let the growl I’ve been holding in rumble.
I. Am. Livid.
Sweet Emma isn’t home at the moment.
I boldly step forward and push him. He stumbles away from me, but not as fast as I would like.
I shove him again, hard. I force him out of the stable, away from my horse.
The vampire hits the doorway on his way out, wobbles for a second, and then sinks to his knees.
Dispassionately, I note that he is struggling to breathe.
He wheezes and chokes, and blood bubbles from his lips.
Another growl leaves my own lips. I kick away his legs so I can quietly close the stable door. Leaving him on the floor outside, I step over his prone, gasping form.
Munchkin.
My lips curl back, and I bare my teeth.
The second vampire has had little luck with getting hold of the feisty Shetland pony.
My head tilts to the side as I watch him chase the pony around the stable…
until he isn’t and the pony turns and chases him.
The vampire lets out a squeal. “This thing is nuts. Patrick, what do I do? It’s trying to bite me,” he shrieks, unaware that his buddy Patrick is a little preoccupied.
Munchkin chases him towards me, and he runs into my knife.
He runs into my knife six times.
“Emma, are you okay?”
Sunlight streams through the stable door.
One stripe catches my face and arm in its golden light.
I blink. Sticky, warm, dark-red vampire blood clings to my hands and arms. One hand tightly grips the black handle of the dripping blade.
My other hand drifts up. I hold it up to the sunlight.
The blood glistens, and it makes sticky webs as I open and close my fingers.
“Emma, are you okay?”
Blood covers me. I pant with exertion.
My eyes drift down to the body at my feet. Munchkin gives the vampire a good kick, and his head rolls to the side. I get a good look at his glassy, dead eyes.
“Are you okay, stabber?” Sam shouts again from the feed room. Her words finally register through my slowly fading rage. The blackness clears from my eyes. I nod, even though she can’t see me. My head keeps nodding on its own, it won’t stop.
Oh my God. What did I do?
What did I do?
Uncontrollably, my hands shake. I must have stabbed him in the heart. I hold the knife out in front of me, extra careful not to stab myself. My knees knock together. “Bloody hell,” I whisper. “Oh bloody hell, what did I do?”
Munchkin ignores me…and the dead vampire on the floor. He goes back to eating his hay as if nothing has happened.
“What the hell did I do?”
“Incoming,” Sam shouts. Dazed, I walk out of the stable and encounter two more vampires. I wobble on my feet, and I clutch the blade in front of me in a tight, sticky fist.
Oh, hell. Where’s the rage and the blackness now when I need them? I tremble. Oh no, I can’t do this again…I can’t do that again.
Riddick comes out of nowhere and barrels into the vampires. His teeth flash, and his massive claws rend the vampires’ flesh. Blood splashes. The vampires don’t have time to react. No time to scream.
My whole body trembles. I rock on my feet, heel-toe-heel-toe.
“Good job, Emma,” Sam yells.
God, I feel sick.
Eleanor comes out of nowhere and gets in my face. “You were supposed to stay in the feed room,” she chastises. “What were you thinking?” I continue to rock.
I wasn’t thinking.
With a wave of Eleanor’s hand, the ward on the feed room drops and Sam is released.
“Oh, fuck—look at all the vampire bits. They’re all over,” Sam grumbles.
Her nose wrinkles as she peeks over Bob’s stable door.
“Look at the stable floors. I’m gonna have to hose both the boxes down and disinfect.
” With her hands on her hips, she continues, “The field is also a mess. I hope I get a clean-up team to help with all the goo.”
The words vampire bits and goo circle around in my head. I lean forward, and I only miss not throwing up on Eleanor by a whisker.
When I’ve finished, I go to rub my mouth…only to freeze at the state of my hands. My bloody hands. I can’t wipe my mouth. I look forlornly at my trembling, bloody, murdering hands. “I better get cleaned up,” I mumble.
“Yeah, killer, go wash your hands,” Sam helpfully pipes up. “The heathens were gonna hurt the ponies,” she tells Eleanor.
“Bob’s a horse,” I mumble.
“What arseholes. I got this, Em—I think you’ve had too much excitement for one day. I can hear your heart from here, it’s going nuts.”
“I am furious with you. Putting yourself at risk like that,” Eleanor continues with a tut. It’s as if I haven’t just sprayed her shoes with puke.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean to make your job harder.” I’m also sorry for the horrible things I’ve been thinking in my head about you. But I don’t say the words as it would only make the whole situation worse. I’ve been judgmental and unkind.
“Well, I understand your need to protect your horses,” Eleanor says gruffly. At that moment, the vampire whose throat I first slit groans.
“Is he going to be okay?” I ask.
In response, a sword appears in Eleanor’s hand.
Light on her feet, she turns. There is a high-pitched noise as the sword sings through the air.
She slashes the blade in a downward arc.
It meets the vampire’s neck at the perfect angle, just above his clutching hands.
In its wake, the blade paints a fan of blood on the wall of the stable.
The vampire’s head topples to the floor with a squelch.
I wobble. Okay, urm, I guess that answered that. I cough to clear my throat. Pieces of loose hair that have escaped my ponytail blow in the slight breeze. I avoid looking at the vampire. Instead, my eyes fixate on the blood dripping down the wall.
My chest hurts. I killed a man today. I’ve stepped over a line and into the realm of being a killer.
The sound of paws padding, claws clicking on the concrete gains my attention. I lift my eyes. Angry energy swirls around Riddick. His ears are held flat to his head and his tail is tucked. He prowls towards me.
Blood covers the fur on his face. His nostrils flare as his nose meets mine.
He snuffles at me. When I attempt to wiggle out of his way, his growl blows the wisps of hair back from my face, and I make the mistake of inhaling and get a mouthful of Riddick’s meaty breath.
I gag. “Eww, your breath smells of dead vampires.” Riddick growls again and shows me a mouthful of enormous teeth.
My entire face scrunches up in disgust, and I turn my head away.
I’m sure I saw bits of vampire stuck between his teeth.
“Riddy, I’m going to puke again if you don’t get your bloody face away from me.
” Riddick huffs out another stinky breath as he continues his smelling inspection.
“Stop it.” I smack his nose away from Bert.
“Stop it, I’m fine, they didn’t hurt me.
Stop breathing on me…stop sniffing me. It’s gross. ”
“Em, fuck…urm, maybe you shouldn’t smack the hellhound in the face,” Sam squeaks out, her voice full of horror. I wave her concern away.
“I left Emma inside the feed room, behind a protective fae ward. She then left the ward of her own volition, to intervene in an attack on her horses,” Eleanor says.
Riddick growls, again showing me his teeth. Not caring about my bloody hands, I grab his muzzle and close his mouth. I look into his angry eyes.
“I’m not sorry. I couldn’t let them hurt Bob and Munchkin.
I used the knife in the feed room, and I…
” my voice drops to a whisper and my eyes fill with tears…
“I stabbed them, stopped them. I’m…not…sorry.
” I swallow a sob, wobble and rock again.
“Riddy, I killed someone.” Riddick looks at me with understanding. His green eyes are full of compassion.
My hands fall away from his nose as he moves his colossal body to my side.
His soft fur brushes against me, and he wraps himself around me.
Warm, supporting. I take comfort in his nearness.
After a few minutes, I gently pat his head.
“I need a shower.” I wobble away. My teeth chatter, and with each step, my body screams at me to rest. Nobody stops me.
I can only assume that it is now safe. I need a shower.
This newly made monster needs to wash the blood from her hands.