Page 77 of Slayer

The words were barely out of his mouth when the color drained from his face, and he reached out and threw me to the ground.

I yelped, barely getting my hands out in time to protect my face as I hit the ground, gravel biting into my palms and tiny stones embedding in my skin.

The impact knocked the air from my lungs in a harsh whoosh.

“What the hell, Asher!”

I rolled onto my back, heart pounding, and gasped when I saw that Asher was locked in a fight with a vampire, their bodies twisted together in a violent grapple.

The vampire’s fingers were clamped around Asher’s wrist, forcing his stake hand downward inch by inch toward Asher’s own abdomen.

There was another bloodsucker sliding in from the shadows right after him, her movement too smooth to be human, like she was gliding instead of running.

I kicked up into a standing position and pulled my stake, adrenaline flooding my veins so fast my fingertips tingled.

My ears rang and my vision tunneled, every sound suddenly too loud and too sharp.

“Go get help,” Asher growled.

His voice was strained, and I realized he was fighting the vampire’s strength just to keep the stake from turning on himself.

“Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, the word tearing out of my throat so loud it burned.

The vampire grappling with Asher flinched at the volume.

I lunged forward, aiming to stab him anywhere I could, his neck, his shoulder, something to break his hold on Asher.

I never made it.

The female vamp hit me from the side.

She was fast.

Vampire fast.

One second, I was upright, and the next, my back slammed into a rosebush, branches snapping and thorns digging through my clothes and into my skin.

Her left forearm was pressed across my collarbone, pinning me, and her face hovered inches from my neck, her breath cold and metallic.

She had my arms pinned in front of me with her right hand and my legs trapped between her thighs.

Then she leaned in to drink from my neck.

I didn’t think.

I just reacted.

I jerked my head sideways and bit down on the first thing I could reach: her ear.

My teeth sank into flesh and cartilage.

I bit hard and tore sideways like my self-defense instructor had drilled into us.

The texture in my mouth was wrong, rubbery and thick, and the taste made my stomach flip over as I spit a chunk of her ear onto the ground.

A hair-raising scream ripped through the air.

She reeled back, releasing me, clutching the side of her head as black blood streamed between her fingers and dripped onto the stones.