Page 66 of Scout’s Honor

33—Her Resonant

Bonhi stared at her man, thrilled that she’d done bona fide helpful, awesome, undeniable magic. She’d saved Dallas and herself, too.

She was a switch. She was magic. She had a bigger purpose than courtroom lawyer and maybe judge someday. She was destined to kill vampires.

The switch part of her clamored after the vampire. She picked her way around the wall she’d made, rocks held in front of her. There was still enough light to see by, and blue light was coming from somewhere. She turned back to see if Dallas had a flashlight.

“Your eyes,” she gasped. “They’re glowing.”

Dallas put a hand to his face.

Bonhi drew a circle around her eye with her finger. “Right here,” she said. “…glowing blue.”

Dallas grinned. “Let’s hope that means something good.”

Bonhi held her rocks up and growled like an animal, because Dallas’ new glow made her feel primal and ready for anything. Dallas shifted into his jaguar, and still he glowed around the eyes. He maneuvered her with his sleek body so that he was between her and the cabin. She pushed at him, wanting to go faster, and he held her back. They rounded the boulders and saw only the cabin door standing open, no vampire.

They crept for the door and Bonhi’s purpose pulsed inside her. Kill vampires.

She heard them muttering inside, their tones hushed and scheming.

Dallas’ muscles tensed. He poked his nose into the doorway, then crept forward. Bonhi crouched and followed, peeking in first like he’d done. The vampires were huddled together with glowing silver eyes and nasty pointed fangs. Dallas pounced and knocked one over, growling and biting, then he twisted so fast he was like a blur and flipped in the air, knocking the other vampire to the ground.

Dallas roared and shifted to a man, grabbing something off the ground—a gun. The first vampire tried to scramble to his feet, and Dallas kicked him in the throat, then held him to the ground with his boot on the vampire’s head. Bonhi darted forward, meaning to throw her stone at the second vampire, but he rolled off into a corner.

Dallas disassembled the gun in a few seconds and pocketed the bullets. He flung the rest of it to the floor, then he shifted back into a jaguar. Bonhi was already moving, rushing at the first vampire, her rocks held out, her guts squirming in disgust, but Dallas swung his head and the light from his eyes fell on the other vampire. He had another gun aimed right at her!

Dallas roared and leapt to get in front of her. Bonhi raised both rocks. The vampire fired the gun with a loud CRACK. Bonhi’s rocks jerked to the left on their own, then something hit one of the rocks like a freight train and blue crackles exploded all around. Dallas sailed past her, hitting the wall, then turned and pounced on the vampire, roaring and biting him. Bonhi crossed the room quickly, her rocks held in front of her, blue lightning crackling between them. Dallas held the vampire with his teeth, a deep growl coming from his throat.

Bonhi raised both rocks. “Now I fry you up so my kitty can have a crispy meal.” she said, slamming her rocks toward the vampire’s face.

He got a hand up, knocking one rock away. Blue lightning crackled his sleeve and skin, making him cry out. The other vampire came running for Bonhi. Dallas scrambled to her and pulled her away, making her miss her direct hit, but the second rock glanced off the vampire’s skull, scraping flesh to bone. Bright red light spilled from the wound and the vampire screamed, then disappeared in a flash of red light.

“Coward,” Bonhi spat at him. She pulled away from Dallas and saw the second vampire had a knife, and if Dallas hadn’t yanked her away, the vampire would have stabbed her. She whipped her rock at the knife, knowing as soon as it left her hand that it was off-course, but she could fix that. She splayed her fingers and directed the rock with a beam of blue light from her hand. The magic coming from her drew her eye, entrancing her, until it smashed the rock right into the vampire’s fingers.

He dropped the knife with a grunt and grabbed his hand. Dallas leapt at him, sinking his teeth into the vampire’s throat. The nasty fucker kicked Dallas’ prosthesis out from under him, lurching Dallas backward. Dallas ripped the vampire’s throat out as he staggered back. He regained his balance, then spit the flesh on the floor, where it splatted, black and oily.

The vampire put a hand to his moldy throat and grew new pale skin to cover it. Bonhi gagged and almost fell. Her mate moved close to hold her up.

Red light flashed, blinding Bonhi. When she could see again, the vampire was gone.

“Where’d he go?” Bonhi yelled, frantically looking around.

Dallas shifted back to a man. His shirt looked funny and he whipped it over his head, facing it forwards, then putting it back on. He looked all around the room, then said, “They can disappear like that. I don’t know where they go.”

“He’s not dead?”

“I don’t think so.”

Bonhi growled in a surprisingly good imitation of a jungle cat.

Dallas dropped into a chair, saying, “We fucking survived that shit.”

Bonhi leaned against the wall, dropping the rock to the floor, panting. “I don’t know how.”

“Because you’re awesome that’s how.”

Bonhi smiled at him. “That was you being awesome.”