9. Chapter 9 #3
The broad vampire who’d caught me circled around me.
“Where’s the little girl?” he asked, grabbing a fistful of my hair when I remained silent, and pressing a pistol under my chin.
“You have no loyalty to these people. They’d skin you alive if you weren’t their fancy little blood witch.
He’ll knock you up and toss you in a tower where you’ll never see daylight ever again. So, tell me, where is the little girl?”
When my mouth pressed in a tight line, he lowered himself to his haunches and said, “If you tell me, I can help you get back to Meridian. Return you to your people.”
I could have scoffed. “I think you’re going to die.”
His twitching lip curled in a steep sneer. “What did you just say?”
I chuckled. “I said, I think you’re going to fucking die.”
His lip peeled back to reveal his fangs. “Do you think I am playing here? I will blow your brain to pieces. Where. Is. The girl?” he shouted inches from my face.
My smile stretched into a big grin as I managed to successfully pull a long piece of thread from my nightgown. “What. Girl.”
His callused palm came down on my face so hard, I dropped to the ground and hit my forehead against the wooden floors.
A sharp sting pierced right through my skull.
My ears felt warm and full, as if someone had blown them from within.
Rolling on my back, I tried to shake the haze and the ringing off, focusing on each breath leaving and entering my lungs.
He pulled me up. “The girl! Where is she!” he bellowed, pulling on my hair until my scalp was screaming from the burn.
“Bless this head and help to grow,” I murmured low, watching his brows drop to a frown. “Grow and grow, then it must sow.” Leaning in, I whispered, “You should know to gag a witch first.”
And then I pulled on the thread until it snapped.
Only a fraction of something crossed his eyes before I was smacked right in the face with slimy and gritty mush made of blood, bone, and brain.
There was a full minute of absolute silence before my ears started ringing.
And then his headless body dropped with a wet thud.
His skull had cracked right open. A pool of blood burgeoned around me, filling the crevices between the dark timber slats, soaking my nightgown up to my knees, slipping and settling between my toes until its thick warmth sent a shiver up my cold body.
White mist left my parted mouth with each heavy exhale I released. I sputtered some of the blood that had settled on my lips, wiped some gooey soft brain matter sticking to my cheek, and itched my scratched eye on the ball of my shoulder. If only Ethel could see the state of me.
Tipping my head back, I managed to mutter, “Thomas, he’s all yours.”
Every vampire in my vicinity had angled their heads in my direction.
Less preoccupied with their dead teammate and finding Piper, more so with the fact that I’d made myself smell like willing, juicy prey.
Their eyes were but two dark sinkholes and their lips peeled back to reveal sharp fans as they slowly prowled closer and closer to me.
I pulled another thread from my nightgown sleeve, twisting it around my trembling fingers.
Was this how I wanted to go? The choices were severe. Let chaos cannibalise me? Or draw my last breath in fear?
Damn it. Exhaling slowly, I pulled on the string until it cut into my skin, struggling to commit to a choice.
Screams echoed around every chamber in the mansion, pulling everyone’s attention to the first floor and away from me.
Grave, grotesque shouting and shrieking grew closer and closer in my direction.
That’s when I saw a fraction of Logan’s silhouette cut and sharpened by severe shadows as his arm shot out to grab one of the fleeing intruders.
A hand wrapped around their head as he pulled until bones and skin tore from the vampire’s shoulders.
He let the head roll down the stairs and jumped from the railing, timber splitting when he landed a few feet from me.
His white shirt was soaked in blood and a mush of flesh peeled from the fabric that looked heavy, clinging to every dent of muscle in his body.
Heavy gunfire echoed from outside, followed by orders of voices I was familiar with, and then screams from people I would never know.
The main doors shut from the outside, trapping everyone in there with him. They’d all paused, staring in my husband’s direction. Some didn’t even fight it as he tore them limb by limb with his bare hands.
His gait was inhuman. The motion of every single one of his limbs was unearthly. I’d never seen anything move with such agility.
A few tried to run, but he was there in front of them before they could take one step away from him.
Pulled apart in ways no part of the body should ever be pulled apart.
There was only one who fought, brandishing his fangs at my unimpressed husband who grabbed him by the neck, ripping his spine clean off his throat.
A pair of golden eyes were the only thing I could see through the metallic fog of blood. Focusing on the scent of cloves filling the air, I tried to steady my breaths, urging them to not scald me from the inside.
My feet left the ground as Logan hurriedly carried me upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.
“Piper,” I managed to say.
His jaw was set tight. “She’s safe.”
He slipped under the pouring shower with me, taking his jacket off before reaching to undress me until I was left in my loose white shift that was slowly turning a crimson shade.
His rough, bloodied hands palmed my cheeks, his fingers tenderly brushing the blood off my face.
My eyes fluttered shut when he dragged them through my hair and to the back of my neck.
They went a few inches down my spine and came back to my face again.
“Does this hurt?” he asked, carefully brushing the spot on my temple.