Page 14 of Slayer

I snapped my head that way, and my stomach dropped.

Oh no. It was another one. A hulking man with pale skin and red glowing eyes.

The sire hissed at the newcomer, “They’re mine, Claude!”

I took the distraction to reach behind Asher and shove the wafer into his open mouth. The second it touched his lips, he clamped his mouth down on it.

I stilled myself, unsure what would happen. The last time he took one of those, his wounds healed before my eyes.

I could tell whatever it was, it gave him confidence. He grinned now, facing both vampires with his sword held loosely at his waist.

“He’s juiced up now. Help me, and we’ll split the spoils,” the red suited man told the newcomer.

They charged Asher together, and I steeled myself.

Asher stepped into them as if he welcomed the fight.

He slashed at the sire’s chest so fast I could barely track his hands, and then he came out with a fisted punch to the other man’s face that was so hard, it made the male vampire fly backward twenty feet before hitting the ground hard.

“Stake him!” Asher called to me as the sire growled, coming at him harder.

I peered at the vampire lying on the ground twenty feet away.

Stake him? Me?

He was lying there, all bent and broken, neck crooked at an odd angle. Maybe he was already dead? He’d landed at an unnatural angle. I stepped closer to the old dude, stake in hand.

“Hello?” I kicked his leg a little.

Sounds of grunting, metal clanging on concrete, and screams came from Asher’s fight behind me.

“Stake him!” Asher yelled. “Right in the heart!”

I peered down at the ashen-faced man. His eyes were closed, and his chest wasn’t moving.

“I think he’s dead. He’s not breathing.”

I wasn’t just going to jam this pointy thing in a defenseless person’s chest.

“Vampires don’t breathe!” Asher screamed at me just as the man’s eyes popped open and his hand came around my ankle.

I screamed like a feral cat, and then I just…reacted. I fisted the stake and drove it downward into his chest.

A shrill scream, part animal, part steam engine came from his throat, but instead of dying, he pulled me down to the ground with him in one yank and crawled on top of me. I could see now that he was looming over me, that I’d stabbed him in the armpit boob area and not really where the heart must be.

Oops. My bad.

“Help!” I screamed to Asher, unsure what other option I had but to fully embrace this vampire role-play.

I bucked my hips and tried to reach up and pull out the stake, but the guy was too fast and too strong. He caught both of my arms and pinned them above my head. Panic flooded my system as he inhaled through his nose. “You smell like a fresh-baked croissant,” he purred.

Huh?

He bared his teeth, and nausea washed over me. His teeth were almost translucent at the tips and sharp. I felt like I was staring into the mouth of a demonic shark.

I needed one of those wafers. If I could just buck him off and shove one into my mouth, I might be able to yeet this dude across the park like Asher had.

As his face came down over mine, I pushed with everything I had, going absolutely wild. He groaned and then slumped limp on top of me.