out of his Chevelle and into the rain. He made it only three steps toward me before he was circled by Valan’s fanged flunkies.
“Remi?”
“Gabe,” I said hoarsely. Emotion choked my words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“Enough,” Valan cut me off. “Pathetic. You traipse around getting men killed for you and sorry is all you can say?”
His words caused something inside me to snap. The dam of caution broke, allowing my pent-up desire for vengeance to run free. We couldn’t wait in the hopes that the werewolves would find us in time. If Gabe and I were going to die in that parking lot, then by God I wasn’t going down without a fight.
My hand went back inside my coat and retrieved a silver dagger. The vampire was as quick as the lightning flashing around us. His fangs sank into the tender flesh between my neck and shoulder.
I screamed.
The knife in my hand glimmered with reflected light as I lifted it to strike. Valan caught my wrist and spun me around. With my free hand, I grasped the crucifix that hung on its chain and I held it out to ward him off. He let go of me and backed away a few paces. It bought me precious seconds to take aim with my knife and throw it. The blade buried itself in the vampire’s gut. Holy water would only be diluted by the rain, so I skipped it and went for more silver. A second dagger hilt protruded from Valan’s shoulder after I aimed and threw again.
I took a chance and glanced toward Gabe. There was a flurry of movement all around him, but he was still in it. The bodies of two corpses were returning to ash and dust where he had felled them.
Over the tumult, I heard a howl in the distance. Alex.
Valan righted himself and stalked toward me, yanking out the daggers as he came. The silver had weakened him, I was relieved to see. The wounds couldn’t heal themselves and he was losing precious blood quickly.
Feeling woozy from my own blood loss, I struggled against the lethargy and kept going. My life and Gabe’s depended on it. I drew another stake from my boot and prepared to use it.
“How persistent you are,” Valan commented with a smug smirk. “I like it.”
I didn’t bother to bandy words with the vampire, instead opting to answer him with an attack. Lunging forward, I aimed my weapon at his heart. Valan batted my hand away with one of his own before decking me solidly with the other. Red bloomed bright behind my eyes as pain lanced through my cheekbone.
As I gathered my wits, I realized that my attack had been too direct. This was no newly spawned walking corpse – this demon had been wearing skin for centuries.
I darted away. The vampire was still moving slowly – for a vampire. Though I was suffering from my own wounds, adrenaline overrode the pain. The opportunity I had been waiting on for three years had finally come, and I couldn’t waste it.
Feigning to the right, I took advantage of Valan’s lessened speed. I gripped the stake and spun to my left, preparing to bury it in his chest. I didn’t see that he had read my misdirection all too easily and was ready to deal me another blow. Before he could hit me, though, a flurry of bristling fur and snapping jaws interrupted our tit for tat.
I looked to the side and saw the other two werewolves helping Gabriel dispatch the remaining four vampires. Alex, in all his lupine glory, was circling Valan with a dangerous glint in his tawny eyes. For once, I wasn’t happy to see him.
With Valan cornered, I went back for more. Just as I began another attack, Alex put himself between me and the vampire. I came up just short of running into the wolf, and Valan took the opportunity to slip away. The stormy night swallowed him up as quickly as he had appeared.
“No!” I shouted. My fist clenched around the now useless stake in my hand. Soaked to the bone and shivering with anger, I glared at Alex. “Whose side are you on?”
In a split second, the werewolf changed from sitting on his haunches to
“Remi?”
“Gabe,” I said hoarsely. Emotion choked my words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“Enough,” Valan cut me off. “Pathetic. You traipse around getting men killed for you and sorry is all you can say?”
His words caused something inside me to snap. The dam of caution broke, allowing my pent-up desire for vengeance to run free. We couldn’t wait in the hopes that the werewolves would find us in time. If Gabe and I were going to die in that parking lot, then by God I wasn’t going down without a fight.
My hand went back inside my coat and retrieved a silver dagger. The vampire was as quick as the lightning flashing around us. His fangs sank into the tender flesh between my neck and shoulder.
I screamed.
The knife in my hand glimmered with reflected light as I lifted it to strike. Valan caught my wrist and spun me around. With my free hand, I grasped the crucifix that hung on its chain and I held it out to ward him off. He let go of me and backed away a few paces. It bought me precious seconds to take aim with my knife and throw it. The blade buried itself in the vampire’s gut. Holy water would only be diluted by the rain, so I skipped it and went for more silver. A second dagger hilt protruded from Valan’s shoulder after I aimed and threw again.
I took a chance and glanced toward Gabe. There was a flurry of movement all around him, but he was still in it. The bodies of two corpses were returning to ash and dust where he had felled them.
Over the tumult, I heard a howl in the distance. Alex.
Valan righted himself and stalked toward me, yanking out the daggers as he came. The silver had weakened him, I was relieved to see. The wounds couldn’t heal themselves and he was losing precious blood quickly.
Feeling woozy from my own blood loss, I struggled against the lethargy and kept going. My life and Gabe’s depended on it. I drew another stake from my boot and prepared to use it.
“How persistent you are,” Valan commented with a smug smirk. “I like it.”
I didn’t bother to bandy words with the vampire, instead opting to answer him with an attack. Lunging forward, I aimed my weapon at his heart. Valan batted my hand away with one of his own before decking me solidly with the other. Red bloomed bright behind my eyes as pain lanced through my cheekbone.
As I gathered my wits, I realized that my attack had been too direct. This was no newly spawned walking corpse – this demon had been wearing skin for centuries.
I darted away. The vampire was still moving slowly – for a vampire. Though I was suffering from my own wounds, adrenaline overrode the pain. The opportunity I had been waiting on for three years had finally come, and I couldn’t waste it.
Feigning to the right, I took advantage of Valan’s lessened speed. I gripped the stake and spun to my left, preparing to bury it in his chest. I didn’t see that he had read my misdirection all too easily and was ready to deal me another blow. Before he could hit me, though, a flurry of bristling fur and snapping jaws interrupted our tit for tat.
I looked to the side and saw the other two werewolves helping Gabriel dispatch the remaining four vampires. Alex, in all his lupine glory, was circling Valan with a dangerous glint in his tawny eyes. For once, I wasn’t happy to see him.
With Valan cornered, I went back for more. Just as I began another attack, Alex put himself between me and the vampire. I came up just short of running into the wolf, and Valan took the opportunity to slip away. The stormy night swallowed him up as quickly as he had appeared.
“No!” I shouted. My fist clenched around the now useless stake in my hand. Soaked to the bone and shivering with anger, I glared at Alex. “Whose side are you on?”
In a split second, the werewolf changed from sitting on his haunches to
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