Chapter 25
Ionly have seconds to act. The vampire in front of me laughs again and pushes up onto his feet. Something scuttles behind me.
When she gets here…
More are coming. The last time I faced two vampires I nearly died. This time I have the wooden stakes. I have a way to kill them.
Assuming they don’t kill me first.
My eyes drop to the ground, looking for the stake. It’s three feet in front of me, and the vampire is four. Pushing away all fear, I lunge for it, diving onto the ground. I grab it and roll back onto my feet in seconds. I whirl around, raising the stake, and slash it through the air.
The vampire, who hasn’t taken me seriously since the moment he laid eyes on me, lazily ducks away.
The sharp point of the stake catches him in the center of his chest, hitting him in the sternum.
His skin breaks open, sizzling from the holy water, but his bone is too hard and the tip of the stake breaks off.
He cries out, clawing at his chest. My eyes widen, watching his skin bubble and burn, reacting to the holy water the same way the vampire’s face did when I touched him with magic.
“You bitch!” he cries, and fangs slide down from his gums, covering his teeth. The stake won’t kill him anymore, but it can still maim. And that’s exactly what I’ll do.
I slash it through the air, and the broken tip scrapes down his chest over the open wound.
His eyes start to glow brighter in his rage and I realize that it must take an older vampire with more control to appear human.
Like the one at the free clinic I asked a rookie cop to look into.
I hope to God she doesn’t decide to go over and question him.
The vampire in front of me lashes out, grabbing the stake from my hands.
He tries to rip it from my grip. My gun is still in my other hand.
I let the stake go, causing the vamp to stumble back.
Then I hit him over the head with the gun before pressing the barrel into the open wound on his chest. My finger hovers over the trigger.
Shooting him won’t kill him. Shooting him will only cause me to lose a bullet, an unaccounted-for bullet, and the shot will ring out for miles. Instead, I press the gun into his flesh and bring it down, tearing his skin further before shoving him back into the shed.
I whirl around and see someone quickly approaching from the other side of the house. I need to get in and get another stake. Now.
Breaking into a sprint, I jump up the porch steps, slam the door shut, and twist the lock into place. But the front door is still open and unlocked.
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself, sucking in my breath. My body is alive with adrenaline, nerves on end and muscles twitching, ready for a fight. Slowly letting my breath out, I move as quickly and quietly through the house as I can to go into the two-story living room.
The bowl with the stakes is still on the coffee table, thank the fucking stars.
I grab another, flick the water off, and grab an empty water glass one of the guys left on the hearth, stashing my gun behind the pile of firewood.
The gun can’t hurt the vampires, but if one of them got hold of it, they could end me.
Easily. And killing me barehanded is already too easy for them.
I stick the cup in the bowl, filling it with a few inches of water before racing to the front door. I pour a bit of the water on the doorknob, then shut and lock the door. I swallow hard, mind racing.
One vampire I can handle. Two, I think I have pretty good odds. Three…yeah…as much as I like to think I can take care of myself in any situation, I need to be realistic if I want to survive.
Holy water hurts them, stakes can kill them, and the magic I don’t know how to control causes their skin to crack and burn with just the slightest touch. I close my eyes and let out a breath, remembering the way it felt to have the flames around my fingers.
“Come on,” I whisper, envisioning the flames. The heater kicks on, making me jump and almost drop the glass. I need to get it together. Focus. Figure out how the hell to do magic again.
The floor creaks above me. Dammit. I knew they were in the house. I slip through the living room and into the kitchen, mind whirling. Being trapped inside with the vampires is just as bad as being outside in the fog with them. In or out, I need to find them and kill them.
There’s no running, and no one is going to save me this time. The sun won’t set for another half an hour at least, and thirty minutes is more than enough for the vampires to tear me apart.
I edge toward the rear staircase, holding my breath, and listen. Whoever is upstairs is going through drawers, looking for something. I don’t know what they—oh shit. I was too distracted to notice it was missing. There’s only one thing in this house the vampires would want.
The spell book.
It was right there on the kitchen table and now it’s gone. More terror floods through me now than when the vampire at the bar had his teeth on my neck. I hardly know anything about my family and I just got the biggest link to our past before it was stolen from me.
Anger fills me. I grind my teeth and squeeze the stake in my hands.
My fingertips feel hot again, and the next thing I know, the water in the glass is boiling.
With wide eyes, I look at it. Everything logical says my hand should be burning too.
My skin should be bubbling and blistering right now, but I feel no pain at all.
The person upstairs moves through the hall and starts to come down the rear stairs. I take a step back and wait. Halfway down, he stops and sniffs the air. The fuckers can smell me.
“She’s in—” he starts to shout but cuts off when I rush forward and throw the glass of boiling holy water in his face.
His skin sizzles, melting off and falling in gooey puddles on the wooden steps.
He reaches for me and stumbles down the stairs.
I move over him, kick him hard in the dick, and bring the stake down on his chest.
He bares his fangs at me, eyes glowing a deep red. My fingertips hum with energy, but I can’t get the fire to ignite.
“Tell me where the book is,” I demand, digging the stake into his flesh. “Tell me or I’ll kill you.”
He pulls his lips back in a sneer, skin still bubbling. “Whatever you do to me will be merciful compared to what she has planned.”
Whoever she is sounds terrifying.
“What does she want?” I push the stake down harder.
“You.”
The front door rattles and someone curses, which only means one thing: another vampire is trying to get in and touched the holy-water-covered doorknob.
“I’m sorry,” I tell the vampire, looking right into his eyes. I’m not sorry for what I’m about to do. I’m sorry his life was taken and he was turned into this monster. With one hard push, I plunge the wooden stake into his heart. He lets out a scream and his head flops back, eyes going black.
Blood pools inside his mouth, dripping to the floor. The area around the stab wound starts to bubble up, just like his skin when I threw the holy water on him. His whole body begins to react next, and, in just seconds, he’s nothing but a puddle of goo.
“Fuck,” I say, covering my nose from the sulfur smell that’s a hundred times stronger now. Blinking rapidly, I tear my eyes away from the dead vampire, not letting myself fret over how the fuck I’m going to clean this mess up. Someone kicks the front door. Hard. Harder.
“Hey!” I shout, going through the living room to grab another stake.
The tip on this one has been dulled, and now that it’s covered in vampire mush, I can’t be sure it has the same power.
Holy water drips from the new stake. The vampire on the porch kicks the door again.
“That door is original to the house. Have some fucking manners!”
I shoot back the deadbolt and throw open the door, planning on stabbing the vampire in the chest the first chance I get. But there’s not one vampire.
There are three.
Three menacing, red-eyed vampires. All have their fangs out, and all three are dark-haired men, just like the others.
It’s too late to go back now. The door’s been opened, literally, and the closest one charges at me.
I go to stab him and another grabs my arm.
I counter by spinning my body into his and elbowing him hard in the ribs.
The forward motion of my arm continues and the pointy end of the stake hits the vampire right in the throat.
Blood sprays everywhere, and the vampire screams in pain, hands flying to his neck. Steam rises from his flesh, burning from coming in contact with the holy water. The vamp that grabbed me shoves me back into the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of me.
The third vamp comes in, pushing his bleeding friend to the side. The bleeding vamp is choking on his own blood and gasping for air. Vampires survive on blood and blood alone. If they lose enough, will they die too?
I don’t have time to find out.
Desperately, I suck in air and push off the wall, slashing the stake at the third vamp. He catches my arm and twists. I cry out in pain and the stake clatters to the ground. Still holding my wrist, he knees me in the stomach and throws me on the floor. I skid back, sliding on the hardwood.
The other picks up the stake and snaps it in half.
“Oops,” he says, throwing both pieces at me.
The vampire I stabbed in the neck has stopped moving. He’s already dead…can he bleed to death?
One of the vampires crouches down over me and grabs both my wrists. He’s stronger than me. Hell, he’s stronger than any human man. I try to fight him off and I can’t.
“You’re a feisty thing, aren’t you?” He brings his face to mine, smelling my hair. Then he runs his tongue along my ear, down my neck, and over my lips. “And you taste as good as you smell.”
“Go to hell.” I thrash against him, refusing to give up.
“I’ve been to hell, sweetheart. And came out a god.”