Page 34 of Slayer

Whoa. That was sobering.

I opened my mouth to ask another question when a bloodcurdling scream rent the air, sharp and sudden.

I stiffened, turning in the direction of the scream to see over two dozen vampires suddenly appear in the space, bodies materializing out of thin air. Tall, impossibly pale, and menacing. One second, they weren’t there, and then they were. The entire room was thrown into chaos. Some screamed, some ran, and some stood stiffly.

Luna and Harper were frozen beside me as I reached into my boot, grateful I still had the stake that Asher had given me. Harper patted her hip and cursed, panic flashing across her face. She wasn’t wearing any weapons.

I fisted the stake in one hand and moved in front of Harper and Luna, who still seemed shocked at what was happening, placing myself between them and the nearest threat.

These bloodsucking bastards were really starting to make me mad. They shouldn’t be here, according to Harper.

A tall, slender female vamp about six feet away spun in my direction and grinned, lips pulling back to show sharp teeth as she sniffed the air. Her eyes pulsed red, big, small, big, small.

“Run and get help!” Professor Walters bellowed from where he stood onstage, his voice carrying over the noise.

It was too late to run for me. The female vamp was headed right for me and the girls, her steps slow and deliberate. I braced my feet, standing with them shoulder-width apart as I raised my fist with the stake in it, my grip tight enough to hurt.

I prepared for contact, but when the vampire got within three feet of me, someone blurred between us, staking the vamp before I could get to her, the impact jarring the air.

I knew by the blond slicked-back hair, the broad shoulders.

It’s Asher Voss.

Harper screamed and I turned to follow her line of sight, my heart slamming against my ribs. Her dad was fighting three vampires on the stage, bodies colliding with chairs and equipment. He was completely unarmed, as was almost everyone else here. It seemed they’d gotten too complacent on their campus, having not had an attack in decades. I was now wondering if all those weapons on Harper’s wall were just for training classes.

Asher and I ran for the stage at the same time, dodging fleeing students and overturned furniture.

“Get out of here!” Asher growled at me, trying to physically push me away.

“Screw you!” I shot back as we both launched to the stage at the same time.

It was in that moment that I wondered what in the hell I actually thought I was doing.

I was no vampire hunter. Sure, I had fought some last night out of survival, but willingly running into danger like this?

Stupid.

And yet I knew if I didn’t intervene, Harper’s dad was about to have his throat ripped out.

Two men held him against the wall by the arms while another went for his neck, fangs flashing inches from skin. I walked right up to the dude hovering over his throat and slammed my stake into his back where I thought his heart might be, the impact jolting up my arm.

He spun, hissing at me with pulsing red eyes.

“You don’t know what you’re doing!” Asher yelled to me and pushed me aside.

With one swipe of his sword, he’d decapitated the two vamps holding Professor Walters down, and then the professor took care of the guy I’d failed to kill. Asher threw him a stake, and the professor caught it in midair, slamming it right into the guy’s heart.

About two inches higher than where I’d placed mine.

The vamp fell to his knees, keeling over as the professor burst into action, already turning toward the next threat. He snatched the stake out of the vampire and looked right at me, eyes sharp and assessing.

“Run to safety, Stella. Go find Harper,” he told me, and then he took off with Asher as they worked on cleaning up the rest of the room, defending the students who were being attacked. Some of them were holding their own. They’d broken table legs off or had been packing a weapon tonight, possibly for looks, I was guessing by the number of unprepared people. Even the professor seemed to be in shock that anything like this would happen on campus. Yet when I watched him work, it was like watching a professional killer. He walked up to a vampire mid-bite and staked him in the back, right in the heart, dropping him to his knees before moving to the next without a second thought.

I stumbled off the stage, going out the open double doors where Harper and the other students who’d been unarmed had run.

‘Run to safety, Stella.’

It was good advice.