“Mollie, look out!” Mike bellowed when he spotted the monster slipping through the shadows toward her.
A sound from her left drew Mollie’s attention as the remaining security thing lunged out of the shadows at her. Staggering back, she lifted the rifle and aimed at the man who not only wanted to kill her, but would do it in the vilest ways possible.
Fangs!The sight of them hanging over his bottom lip registered even as the guy advanced on her with inhuman speed.
Off balance, Mollie fired seconds before fingers curled around her wrists and the bullet dug into the ground at the man’s feet. The thing’s fangs and reddened eyes filled her vision when he lunged at her.
He’s going to kill me.She didn’t doubt it as the more she struggled, the deeper his fingers dug into her flesh.
Mike poured on the speed as the Savage dragged Mollie toward him. Lowering his shoulder, Mike barreled into the man’s side and flung him back, as if he weighed no more than a child. The Savage tried to cling to her, but the force of Mike’s blow knocked him free. Mollie staggered back and collapsed near one of the cages while the Savage scampered into the shadows.
Mike spun to make sure Mollie was okay before chasing after the Savage. The vamp hadn’t made it far as the breath wheezing from it alerted Mike that he’d broken some of its ribs and those ribs had pierced its lung.
Keeping his back to Mollie so she couldn’t see what he was doing, Mike knelt next to the vamp and placed his knee on the creature’s back. Bearing down on it, he ignored the crunch of ribs and spine as he gripped its head and twisted it to the side. The creature squealed and kicked its feet while its fingers clawed at the barn floor. When Mike succeeded in rending its head from its shoulders, silence descended.
Mike watched the blood seeping from the headless Savage. Usually, the sight of death made him turn away, especially if he was the one who unleashed the brutality necessary to do such a thing. But for the first time, he didn’t loath the ruthlessness residing in him if it helped to keep Mollie alive.
He didn’t look at the head before lobbing it into the shadows and dragging the body behind some of the cages. Maybe he couldn’t keep the truth from her, but he would hide as much death from her as he could.
When he reemerged, Mollie stood where he’d left her, looking dazed, but her eyes were resolute when she lifted the rifle and aimed it at his heart.
Chapter Nine
“What are you?”she demanded. “What arethey?”
“Mollie.” Mike raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Lower the rifle. I won’t hurt you.”
Under normal conditions, she was far enough away that he’d be able to move in time to avoid taking a kill shot from her, but he still had the other bullet embedded in his shoulder, was losing blood, and had broken a rib when he crashed into the cage with the first Savage. If she fired that weapon, there was a chance she might kill him.
“Now is not the time for this,” he said. “We have to get out of here before more of them arrive.”
“Then answer my question.Whatareyou?” Mollie bit out as she sensed the other occupants of the cages creeping closer to them. “And don’t lie to me.”
Mike debated how to answer her question; would the truth cause her to fire the gun anyway? But after what she’d witnessed, she had to suspect the truth, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself.
“Vampire,” he said, and her finger twitched on the trigger. “I am a vampire, and those things we just killed, and the ones whowillbe coming for us, are monsters.”
“Aren’t they vampires too?”
“They are, but we’re not all the same. If I wanted you dead, you would be.”
Those words were more comforting to her than they should have been because they were true. She’d seen what Mike could do and the speed with which he could move. He could drain her dry before she could count to two. In the hayloft, he could have left her to fend for herself and allowed her ass to be blown off; instead, he ran toward the danger, used his body to protect her, and carried her into the rafters.
But he’s a vampire!This whole mess had her wondering if she’d somehow ingested magic mushrooms and was hallucinating everything. Maybe she’d hallucinated her entire life. That seemed as plausible to her as theactualexistence of vampires!
Blinking, Mollie stepped back as she realized mushrooms had nothing to do with this situation. This was real, Mike was real, the gun in her hands was real, and Aida was in the hands of the creatures Mike had just described as monsters.
“Mollie—”
“I’m going to find my sister; will you help me?” she demanded as she cut off Mike’s words.
“Yes,” Mike said without hesitation. “I will help you find her, and Iwillget you out of this.”
Mollie wanted to believe him, but she didn’t know what to think in this strange world she’d been forced into. “The wooden bullets in this gun, will they kill you?”
“Yes,” Mike answered, knowing she needed the reassurance of her weapon. “Me and any other vampire you shoot through the heart.”
“If you’re lying about helping me or if you try to attack me, I’ll kill you,” she vowed.
