Cassidy shot a panicked look toward Julie, who huddled in the corner, but Jasmine didn’t notice her as she focused on Dante. Cassidy opened her mouth to shout a warning, but it was choked off by the Savage who tackled her.
Dante was about to put a stake through the vamp’s heart when a fist smashed into the side of his face. The impact threw him off his victim. He tried to figure out what happened as he blinked away the lights flashing before his eyes.
When his vision cleared, he discovered Jasmine standing over him with a cruel smile on her face and a victorious gleam in her red eyes. She didn’t give him more of a chance to recover before she pounced. Trying to fend off her blows and slashing nails was like trying to fight off a honey badger on a rampage.
Dante knocked away one of her hands but realized too late she’d used it as a distraction from the stake in her other hand. He had no idea where the weapon came from; it hadn’t been there seconds ago. Somehow, he managed to turn in time to avoid taking the stake to his heart. Instead, the wood sank deep into his shoulder.
Gritting his teeth against the pain of the wood grinding against his bone, he grasped Jasmine’s throat. He started to lift her off him when the Savage he’d been fighting seized his wrist and jerked it down to pin it to the ground.
With his grip on her broken, Jasmine grasped the stake in his shoulder. He tried to lift his hand, but when she twisted the stake, a tingling sensation ran down his arms. His numbed fingers twitched but didn’t do much else.
Dante tried to yank his wrist free, but the Savage shifted and pinned his wrist to the floor with his knee. At the same time, the fucker twisted his knee into the bone until something cracked, and he lost feeling in his fingers.
When Jasmine pulled the stake from his shoulder, Dante gave up on trying to jerk his useless hand free as sensation flooded back into his arm again. As she lifted the stake to deliver a killing blow, he swung out with his good hand and hit her in the side of the head at the same time as she plunged the stake down again.
The tip of the stake pierced through flesh before breaking through the protective shield of his chest plate.
Chapter Forty-Five
Cassidy tore awaychunks of flesh from the face of the Savage who’d tackled her. Usually, the idea of having someone else’s flesh and blood beneath her nails would cause her stomach to turn, but it didn’t so much as make her cringe. She needed this bastard dead.
When the vamp’s hands enclosed on her throat, she stopped clawing at its face and sank her fingers into its eyes. She ignored the atrocious, mushy sensation it created as she did everything she could to blind the Savage.
With a howl, the vamp reared back as it tore away from her. Planting her feet on the floor, she thrust her hips up, knocking it forward. Grasping its shirt, she held it close as she rolled and pinned it beneath her. She slapped aside its hands when the creature fumbled for her and, lifting its head, battered it off the floor.
The blow stunned the Savage into immobility. She didn’t stop to ponder how she’d gone from disliking the idea of killing again to glad she’d probably bashed its skull into its brain. She didn’t care what she had to do to keep Dante safe, she would do it.
Lifting the stake, she plunged it through the creature’s chest and straight into its heart. She didn’t stay to watch its death throes as she pulled the stake free and lifted her head. Kyle was tearing the heart out of the other Savage as Jasmine sank a stake into Dante’s chest.
“No!” the wild scream tore out of her.
Dante’s chest plate gave way with a crack as the stake pierced his body. His body protested the presence of the offending weapon, but she’d missed his heart again. This time, she only missed by centimeters as every thunderous beat caused the organ to scrape against the stake.
Something primitive tore free inside Cassidy, and she glimpsed a red and black color seeping across her fingers. She knew what it meant, and she welcomed this emergence of her more demonic side.
With a speed and ruthlessness she never could have guessed she possessed, she leapt to her feet and raced across the floor toward them as Jasmine pulled her stake free. Clasping the weapon in both hands, Jasmine lifted it over her head as she prepared to stake him again.
Judging by the blood coating Dante, she’d stabbed him more than once. Cassidy’s blood pounded so forcefully through her veins that her temples felt about to explode. She was going to tear that bitch to pieces.
Jasmine was swinging the stake down to deliver a killing blow when Cassidy tackled her. The putrid stench of the woman filled Cassidy’s nose as the two of them hit the ground, and Jasmine’s stake skittered into the shadows.
Cassidy threw Jasmine off her and scrambled across the floor toward the stake, but Jasmine pounced on her back. Twisting to the side, Cassidy tried to shake her off, but before she could do much more than twist, fangs sank into her shoulder.
As if a switch flipped, all her muscles became ramrod straight, and Cassidy swore her bones shattered as fire seared her veins. She wanted to screech or cry; she tried to fight the bitch off, but she could only experience the agony of her blood leaving her body against her will.
Then Cassidy thought about thisthingstabbing Dante and, from somewhere deep inside, discovered the strength to push aside her suffering. Fisting her hand, she saw the entire thing was now a red and black color. This added strength, and fear for herself and Dante, enabled her to break free of the suffering a vampire’s bite could cause.
Reaching over her back, she bashed Jasmine in the head. The blow did nothing to knock the woman away, but as the color spread, Cassidy gained more strength. With her second blow, she succeeded in freeing herself from Jasmine’s fangs.
Even though Dante had blocked her out, Cassidy’s pain tore through their bond and struck his heart. Hehadto get to her.
Ignoring the grinding of his bones and the blood flowing freely from his wounds, Dante rolled to the side and pulled the Savage sitting on his wrist toward him. Throwing his forehead forward, he smashed it into the Savage’s face. The blow demolished its nose.
The creature reeled back as Dante released its shirt and finally succeeded in freeing his ruined wrist. Keeping hold of its shirt, Dante yanked the Savage to the floor and crawled over the top of it to get to Cassidy and Jasmine. When Cassidy hit her again, Jasmine fell back.
Dante pounced, and pulling Jasmine down, he flattened his palm against the side of her head. He pressed it into the floor as he knelt on her neck. Jasmine’s hands flailed as she screeched like a banshee, but she couldn’t break free.
While Dante kept her pinned, Cassidy grasped Jasmine’s body and jerked her around. The resounding crack of her neck snapping rebounded off the walls. Jasmine shrieked, but the rest of her body went still. While she was immobile, Cassidy removed the crossbow from inside her jacket and fired the bolt into the woman’s black heart.
