Chapter 3 #3
I could tell whatever it was, it gave him confidence. He grinned now, facing both vampires with his sword held loosely at his waist.
“He’s juiced up now. Help me, and we’ll split the spoils,” the red suited man told the newcomer.
They charged Asher together, and I steeled myself.
Asher stepped into them as if he welcomed the fight.
He slashed at the sire’s chest so fast I could barely track his hands, and then he came out with a fisted punch to the other man’s face that was so hard, it made the male vampire fly backward twenty feet before hitting the ground hard.
“Stake him!” Asher called to me as the sire growled, coming at him harder.
I peered at the vampire lying on the ground twenty feet away.
Stake him ? Me?
He was lying there, all bent and broken, neck crooked at an odd angle. Maybe he was already dead? He’d landed at an unnatural angle. I stepped closer to the old dude, stake in hand.
“Hello?” I kicked his leg a little.
Sounds of grunting, metal clanging on concrete, and screams came from Asher’s fight behind me.
“Stake him!” Asher yelled. “Right in the heart!”
I peered down at the ashen-faced man. His eyes were closed, and his chest wasn’t moving.
“I think he’s dead. He’s not breathing.”
I wasn’t just going to jam this pointy thing in a defenseless person’s chest.
“Vampires don’t breathe!” Asher screamed at me just as the man’s eyes popped open and his hand came around my ankle.
I screamed like a feral cat, and then I just…reacted. I fisted the stake and drove it downward into his chest.
A shrill scream, part animal, part steam engine came from his throat, but instead of dying, he pulled me down to the ground with him in one yank and crawled on top of me.
I could see now that he was looming over me, that I’d stabbed him in the armpit boob area and not really where the heart must be.
Oops. My bad.
“Help!” I screamed to Asher, unsure what other option I had but to fully embrace this vampire role-play.
I bucked my hips and tried to reach up and pull out the stake, but the guy was too fast and too strong. He caught both of my arms and pinned them above my head. Panic flooded my system as he inhaled through his nose. “You smell like a fresh-baked croissant,” he purred.
Huh?
He bared his teeth, and nausea washed over me. His teeth were almost translucent at the tips and sharp. I felt like I was staring into the mouth of a demonic shark.
I needed one of those wafers. If I could just buck him off and shove one into my mouth, I might be able to yeet this dude across the park like Asher had.
As his face came down over mine, I pushed with everything I had, going absolutely wild. He groaned and then slumped limp on top of me.
What the ? —?
I pushed him off to see Asher standing over me, sword still stuck in the man’s back.
“If you want to survive the night, we gotta go now .” He reached out his hand, and it was in this moment that I realized everything he’d been telling me was true.
He is a vampire hunter.
Vampires are real.
He is trying to help me.
And the one next to me was decomposing into shadows and dust right now.
“I’m not crazy, am I?” I asked him, taking his hand as he hauled me up.
He pulled my stake from the ground and handed it back to me as he sheathed his blade.
He didn’t answer, just scanned the park with military precision. I could see his mind searching for our next move.
I realized then that I needed to be taking this more seriously, that I would die if I didn’t.
“I couldn’t kill the sire, but I scared him off. He seemed new otherwise I’d be dead by now. He’ll be back once he knows my wafer has worn off,” he said and began to jog.
“I have the rune wafers.” I jogged after him and went to pull them back out from behind my lower back where they were stashed.
He held out a hand to stay me. “You might need to be in charge of those. See that I get another one in about an hour when this wears off.”
One hour. Okay. I could do that. I checked my phone to see that it was almost one a.m. and Rae had been blowing up my phone. I’d left it on silent at the club because I didn’t want any distractions for my party.
Rae: Where are you?
Rae: Club got shut down after a gang fight! Wild. Tell me you’re safe???
Rae: Holy crap Stella I’m calling the cops if you don’t text me.
I shot her a quick text.
Stella: Sorry, I ran off when the gang fight happened. Met a hot guy. Hanging with him tonight.
Rae: Ohhhh Yas, tell me more.
I sent a smiley emoji back.
I mean, it wasn’t far from the truth, and I didn’t want her freaking out.
Gang fight was so far from the truth, but I wasn’t about to tell her it was really vampires.
“What are the wafers? They give you superpowers?” I asked as he stopped near a couple smoking under a streetlight. The girl held a beer can, and music was blaring out of her phone as her boyfriend pulled an e-cig up to his lips.
“Hey, you wanna make two hundred bucks?” Asher approached them.
The girl, who had long blond locks, looked up at Asher glassy-eyed.
“Doing what?” She scowled at him.
“Can you and your boyfriend switch clothes with me and my sister?”