Page 9
“Bring him here,” she mutters, her voice like sand and ash. Croaky. Barely there. “I need to feed.”
The vamps exchange a confused look; in order to take me to her, they need to cross into the light. They’ll burn.
She doesn’t care.
“Bring him to me,” she says. “Or your fate will be far worse than a little sunburn.”
Quickly – so fast it makes my head spin – they drag me from the rubble to Zephyra’s hiding place. They are sizzling when they come to a stop in front of her. Smoke, which smells like charcoal and sulfur, fills the air. They cry out, and try to pat themselves down.
One of them, when he has stopped patting himself, gives me a shove so I fall to my knees.
I look up, on all fours, and my eyes slowly adjust to the gloom.
Zephyra’s eyes are rimmed with scarlet. But they are the only thing that still looks normal.
The rest of her…
I swallow a jolt of bile.
Her skin is mottled, red, angry… like her face is made of wax and has been left in the sun for too long. Like it is sliding away from her bones and, at any moment, will fall away completely.
She reaches for me.
Her arm is raw, exposed muscle. Some flashes of white where the bone sticks through. Her hair, too, is almost completely gone on one side. Once thick and black and glossy, it has been singed to within an inch of its life.
“Are you horrified by me, Kim?” she asks, shuffling closer, like a moving corpse.
I nod before I can help myself. “Will you heal?”
“I need blood.” She looks at my neck, then my wrist. “You may choose where I feed from.”
I open my mouth to protest. I glance back over my shoulder at the sunlight. Fuck. I can’t run. They’ll catch me.
Or will they?
Would they risk themselves a second time for her?
“My thigh,” I say boldly. “I always wanted to know what it feels like. Seems like now is as good a time as any, seeing as I escaped an early death.”
Zephyra coos quietly. Too distracted by her pain to hear the lies in my voice.
The other two vampires click their tongues and lick their lips. “May we feed too, my queen?” one asks.
The other tuts at him to be quiet, but Zephyra nods slowly. “If there is enough left in his veins when I am through with him, you may.”
I stand gingerly, and begin to unfasten my belt. Zephyra’s eyes widen.
Fuck, she is ugly. I have never seen anything so monstrous. Despite my years of demon hunting… she is the worst creature I have ever laid eyes on.
As one hand slaps the leather free, the other slips into my pocket. My fingers wrap around the Venatrix’s talon. I grip it tightly, making it an extension of my own hand.
Zephyra crawls closer. She looks up at me. Desperation swims in her eyes. Her mouth hangs open, her tongue flicking the air as if she can already taste what waits for her. Before she knows what’s happening, I slice downward, aiming for her eyes. The talon meets resistance, but I keep going.
Zephyra screams like a banshee and falls backward.
The other two vampires jolt for me, but I dart back into the light and they stop. I pause for half a second before turning and running.
If there are others from Zephyra’s nest watching, they do not follow.
