Marked: a Vampire Romance by Kate Rudolph Page A

from Wendy, claws like nails ripping at her chest. Blood dripped from the wound before she felt the pain of the tear.
    On instinct, Gold pointed her gun down and fired at his feet, rolling away when he yelped in pain as one of her bullets shot through his foot. She found cover behind a pushed over table, but Okano’s pain didn’t last long enough and he was coming toward her again before she knew it. She fired again, two more rounds in his direction. Neither one hit the mark.
    He tackled her, kneeling over her, his eyes red with fury and bloodlust. His fangs had grown huge, like a prehistoric tiger’s. They’d rip her throat out in a second.
    I’m sorry, Lily. I should have said goodbye .
    She didn’t close her eyes. She wouldn’t meet her fate as a coward. But in the moment she was sure that Okano would strike her down, he disappeared, his weight vanished as if by magic.
    She scrambled up and saw that it was not magic, but Adam who had saved her. He was pummeling into Okano, fists moving at inhuman speeds.
    Gold raised her gun, trying to get a shot off to take out the evil vampire, but with Adam on top of him she didn’t have a shot. Besides, her hand shook so much from the pulling wound on her chest that she couldn’t trust her aim.
    She crawled toward Wendy. It didn’t matter that Gold was getting dizzy from the blood loss. She was getting this girl out of here.
    It was a struggle. She couldn’t carry Wendy anymore, not with her muscles ripped open. Gold holstered her gun, leaving her life in Adam’s hands. She hooked her arms under Wendy’s armpits and dragged her, the girl whimpering the entire way out the front door and across the loose gravel to her car.
    “Marigold!” she heard Adam scream.
    A flash out of the corner of her eye and Okano was on them again, his face even more misshapen and monstrous than before. He couldn’t even stand up completely straight. This time, he didn’t go for Gold, grasping instead for the semi-conscious Wendy.
    Gold reached for her gun and aimed, but Okano had Wendy in front of him, unintentionally using her as a human shield as he pulled her in position to drink from her neck.
    They’d made it this far, they’d gotten to Gold’s SUV, and still Wendy was going to die. And then the strangest thing happened.
    Okano dropped Wendy, tilted his head back, and shrieked, his voice achingly high. Gold winced and instinctively took a step back, turning away from him and trying to block out the sound.
    He took off, leaving Wendy on the ground and passing by Adam without a look. It was a godsend, a miracle that she couldn’t explain.
    But she wouldn’t risk sticking around and they needed to move fast. She didn’t know what spooked Okano, but anything that scared a vampire away was too scary for her to fight while injured and defending an even more injured young woman.
    Adam limped up to her as she was loading Wendy into the back seat. He clutched at his stomach, blood seeping out onto his gray t-shirt.
    “We need to get out of here,” he said, climbing into the passenger seat.
    Gold climbed into the SUV and took off. She was two miles down the road before she remembered that they’d come in different cars.
    “What’s the matter?” she asked.
    Adam looked over at her, face pale and clammy, eyes stark. “The shit’s about to hit the fan.”

Chapter Ten
    Adam’s mind was a jumble and his gut was on fire. He breathed shallowly, hoping the hole in his side would hurry up and close, but he wasn’t the one in the most trouble. The scent of human blood hung thick in the air, as it seeped sluggishly from the gash on Marigold’s chest and oozed out of the bite marks dotted all over Wendy Choi.
    Marigold drove directly to St Mary’s Hospital in Jasperton. Without speaking, they dropped Wendy off, waiting in the shadows until they were sure that the staff had seen her.
    Then it was back to the car.
    Marigold had gone pale and her eyes were glassy. Her mouth pulled tight and she