I groan but roll to my feet just as he comes crashing down on top of me.
“You know—” He sneers as I sink my claws into his arms, but he doesn’t even flinch, pressing me down into the pavement. “I’ve always wondered how much damage a shifter could take before they were forced to shift back to human. Shall we find out.”
He draws back his fist and slams it into my mouth, my wolf’s teeth graze his skin, but it doesn’t phase him. He draws back and punches me again.
My head whips to the side and I cough out a mouthful of blood. I need to get him off me.
Drawing my feet up, I press them against his chest and kick out with all of my strength. He flies back but manages to land in a crouch, whipping his head up with a vicious smile before charging forward again as if this is all some sort of game.
He’s so fast, his body a blur my eyes can’t seem to track. Letting my other senses take the lead I thrust my arm out, hammering a punch to the vampire’s midsection but shit, it’s like punching concrete.
I twist and deliver a spinning kick, but he manages to capture my leg and throws me on my back. I tuck and roll, coming to my feet just as he shoots forward with a curled fist. I dodge the blow and he collides with the car behind me, setting off the alarm.
I’m breathing heavy, though whether from adrenaline or exertion I have no idea.
Whirling, he pins me with his gaze. “This is going to be more fun than I thought.” He reaches behind himself and pulls out a blade. The edge glints under the moonlight and every one of my hackles rises.
In a blur of blinding speed, he rushes me. The blade sinks into the soft skin of my stomach and a burning pain spears through my gut. He withdraws the blade, tosses it to his other hand and stands again, this time sinking it deep beneath my ribs.
I choke on a scream as my blood turns to liquid fire.
“Burns doesn’t it?” he whispers in my ear.
I fight through the agony coursing through me and manage to knee him in the balls. He drops to his feet and I stagger back. I rip at the fabric of my shirt, exposing the two stab wounds. The skin around them is black and dark blood oozes from the wounds, thick and putrid.
Fuck.
He groans on the ground but pushes himself to his feet, his eyes murderous. “You’re going to pay for that.”
I eye his blade wearily. It’s silver and it’s killing the virus in my system, making it harder to recover. Already I can feel it leeching at my strength. I need to get out of here.
I turn to run but I stumble, and he crashes into me, his arms circling my waist and taking me to the ground. My cheek scrapes across the pavement. A sharp stab arrows through my back and I scream, my voice echoing through the parking lot.
He trails a finger down the side of my face and over the pulse in my neck. “Shift. Let’s see that pretty face of yours again.” He twists the dagger in my back.
I cry out.
“Shift, little wolf.”
I whimper when he withdrawals the blade, only to stab it into my back again and again in a flurry of jabs.
“Shift.”
Black spots dot my vision. Blood fills my mouth.
He drags the blade down my back in a criss-cross pattern, my shirt hanging in strips off my body.
“Please—”
“That’s it. Beg.”
Anger surges through me and with one final burst of strength I try and shove him off me.
But it doesn’t work.
“Last chance, little wolf?”
I swallow hard and shake my head against the pavement. “Screw you.”
