“If you say so,” he replied and I could hear the fucking smile in his voice.
I jogged up the stairs hoping this wasn’t going to take much longer. I had a man I needed to help and hopefully he’d reward me for it.
With his dick.
I was super motivated when it came to rewards that I wanted, and if helping Wilder got me more of him, that was all the motivation I needed.
It was surprising this group of vampires was so young. There was no way they had the money to fund a mini criminal enterprise, and they seemed to be dumb as fuck. They’d obviously never come up against someone like me and that wasn’t just my ego talking. They weren’t attacking as a team or being proactive. It’s like they were just sitting there, waiting for me to attack them.
Shit, were they expendable? There was possibly a bigger plan at play here that I just couldn’t see yet. I needed to take John alive and figure this shit out.
I loaded the crossbow up and stepped into the hallway. There was a single vampire stood at the end of the hall, the one guarding whoever was behind the door. This vampire looked older than the others. Sometimes you could just tell. He held himself in a confident way, like he thought he could take me on and win. His posture was relaxed, his hands tucked in his pocket and a cocky smile plastered on his face.
I aimed the crossbow at him. “Any last words?”
“Nope. Have you?” he asked, his smile widening.
I had a feeling this was going to be fun. “Nope.”
The air stilled between us and time slowed as I waited. A deep breath in and out. I tightened my grip on the handle of the crossbow and slowly closed my eyes. The vampire laughed then lunged.
His feet hit the wall, then the ceiling. He was running up and over me. I spun around and fired, opening my eyes to see him advancing on me with a stake sticking out of the hollow of his shoulder.
He slammed his hands in my chest, propelling me backwards into a closed door. I ducked just in time to see his hand pummel through it, splintering the wood. Oops. That was a bit close.
I grabbed another silver knife and sliced the outside of his thigh as I dived past him.
“You’ll pay for that,” he hissed.
“Why? Were they your favourite pants?” I taunted as I flicked the silver blade between my fingers, keeping a steady eye on him.
He darted towards me again, using his vampire speed. One second, he was at the far end of the hallway, the next I was pinned to the wall with his forearm against my throat and his fist punching my gut. Shit, that might have got my kidney.
The vampire laughed in my face, his breath rancid and like old pennies. Which was fucking stupid. If I were a vampire, I’d just kill my victim instead of playing with them like food. It left windows of opportunities for sneaky fuckers like me.
Hubris was going to be this idiot’s downfall.
I sliced my silver blade right across his laughing face and followed it up with a sharp punch to his nose as he stumbled backwards. Bones crunched beneath my hand and my knuckles rang out in pain that sang like a goddamn harmony.
I rolled out of his grip, and he tried to hold on to me, his talons scraping along my back and across my hip. Thank fuck for my protective gear. Without it, I’d have probably just lost a chunk of my spine.
I threw a blade in his direction, and it landed in the meat of his thigh. He roared in pain and his fangs extended even further. Crap, that was never a good sign. His primal instincts were taking over, and he’d soon be in full-blown survival mode.
I needed to finish this now. A normal vampire with some sliver of humanity made mistakes I could exploit. One in survival mode was pure, unfiltered rage and power that would stop at nothing to survive.
I went to grab the vial of the sunburst potion, but it wasn’t there.
“Looking for this?” the vampire asked as he held up my little satchel that I kept at my hip.
“Yes, actually. Would you be a dear and hand it back?” I replied, my chest heaving from the exertion.
He smiled, all fangs and sharp teeth, and threw it through the open door next to him.
My shoulders dropped. Fuck. This was going to make it somewhat more challenging. I slid my left foot back and brought my fists up. “Okay. Let’s do this the hard—”
A blur of white and grey shot through the door behind him and pulled him back into the room, disappearing from view. The sounds of screams and ripping flesh echoed down the hallway. Bones cracked and snapped and the screams slowly turned to raspy gargles.
What the hell was in that room?