Gripping the phone in both hands, Lucien used it to bash in the skull of the first Savage as it lunged at him. Clutching the caved-in side of its head, the creature staggered away from him before hitting the ground on all fours.
Callie pressed her hand against the glass and leaned closer. She couldn’t breathe as the second Savage grasped Lucien’s arm and jerked him around. They’d just found freedom, and now these things were going to destroy that.
The Savage, who had smiled at her, jumped onto Lucien’s back.No!
Lucien stretched a hand over his back to grasp the Savage’s neck. His fingers brushed against its open mouth; it was about to sink its fangs into his throat when Lucien squeezed its flesh and hauled it over his shoulder to smash it into the ground.
The Savage grunted as it squirmed like a worm and tried to get away, but before it could, he lifted his foot and hammered the heel of his stolen sneakers into the Savage’s mouth.
Callie winced and started to look away from the brutal scene, but she had tosee. She couldn’tnotknow what was going on. Lucien was winning, but that could change, and if he were in jeopardy, she would do what she could to help him.
Hovering nervously at her side, the guard murmured a prayer. She didn’t know what he was praying for, Lucien to win, all of them to die, or some kind of heavenly intervention.
The third Savage turned and started to flee. Lucien couldnotallow that to happen. Even if they were long gone from this area before more Savages returned, they would have the advantage of knowing where to start looking for them.
The Savage was near the top of the fence when Lucien launched himself up the chain-link, grasped the back of its shirt, and yanked. The material tore as it gave way, but he pulled the Savage from the fence.
Lucien swung it over his head and drove it into the ground. Bones crunched as it smashed into the pavement. The creature’s broken arm hung limply at its side as it dove at him.
Clasping his hands together, Lucien hammered them into the Savage’s back when it wrapped its arms around his waist. The Savage pulled his jeans down and nearly pulled them off his ass as it hit the ground.
Before the creature could recover, Lucien pulled back his fist, and kneeling over it, he smashed his hand into the Savage’s back. Bone and flesh gave way as he pushed through to grasp the monster’s still-beating heart. With a yank, he tore the organ free and smooshed it into the ground.
Though incapacitated, the remaining two Savages remained a threat. Lucien returned to the first Savage as it staggered to its feet and swayed toward him. The one side of its head still looked like a car had backed over it, but its bulging eyes were a fiery red, and drool dripped from its elongated fangs.
Like a mummy, newly risen from the sarcophagus, it held its arms in front of it as it lurched forward. When Lucien grasped one of those arms, the fingers of its free hand dug into his flesh, but Lucien ignored it as he spun the Savage, grabbed its misshapen head, and snapped its neck.
The guard fell to his knees, crossed himself, and clasped his hands in front of him as his prayers grew louder. Unsure of what else to do, Callie rested her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. The man trembled beneath her, and she hoped he didn’t have a heart attack before this ended.
Lucien kept twisting the Savage’s head until he ripped it free. Then he turned his attention to the remaining creature as it launched at him.
Lucien dodged the punch, caught the creature’s elbow, and snapped its arm over his knee before bashing his elbow into the Savage’s face, once, twice, three times. The creature’s head shot back with each of the blows, and blood sprayed from its mouth as its face became more like mush.
Releasing its arm, he jerked it up and behind the Savage’s back as he spun it and pushed it into the pavement. Pressing his palm against its cheek, he smashed the Savage’s face into the asphalt as it kicked and squirmed like a worm rising from the earth after the rain.
Lucien pushed down until something popped, the head gave way, and his knee hit the pavement. The creature’s arms and legs continued to kick, but little remained of its head. Unable to stand the sight of it anymore, Lucien tore its heart free and tossed it aside.
He turned to find Callie watching with her mouth open, her palm against the glass, and her other hand on the guard’s shoulder. Then her hand fell from the glass, and she grasped the door handle to pull it open.
She burst free of the shed and ran toward him, only to skid to a stop a couple of inches away. She took a tentative step toward him before pulling her foot away from the carnage surrounding him.
Callie had been about to jump on Lucien and hug him, but when she saw the damage he’d inflicted, reality returned. She couldn’t throw herself into a vampire’s arms, especially not one covered in the blood of the Savages he’d just slaughtered.
That was complete insanity. But oh, how she longed to go a little insane and reassure herself he was okay by hugging him close.
After thinking that, she wondered if she might already be a little insane. But how could anyone remain completely sane after everything she’d seen and endured? They couldn’t, but she still wasn’t about to hug him when blood, and other things she preferred not to think about, covered him.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine. I’m filthy again, but I’m fine.” Normally, being dirty didn’t bother him. It was part of the job, after all. However, after a month of being covered in filth and his blood, he was tired of it. “I have to take care of the guard, dispose of these bodies, and clean up before we leave.”
“I’ll help you.”
“No, don’t touch any of these things.” He didn’t want the filth of the Savages tainting her. “There’s no point in both of us getting dirty again. Stay close to me. There could be more of them out there.”
Callie wasn’t going to argue with him.
It tookhim longer to deal with everything than he’d hoped. The new guard arrived before he finished cleaning up the mess. Lucien took control of the new guard’s mind and settled her into the booth with the old man. The woman was near seventy with smooth black skin and graying hair she wore in a bun. She didn’t have a cell phone either.
