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Because that was her plan, wasn’t it?
Damn it.
He should turn back. As Tabby reminded him, this was her job. She knew what she was doing.
But what if she needed help?
What if she needed him?
Adam kept running toward the source of the blood. When the ruby red glow surrounding his sword only grew brighter, he knew he was right. The Nightwalker had already tracked her down.
His senses were overpowered by her rich blood. Just beneath it, he could barely pick up on the rancid stench that had to belong to a blood-bloated Nightwalker. Isn’t that what she said? That the bastard had nearly drained two victims already, working his way toward a complete kill?
Adam would be damned if he let that be Tabby.
The sound of fighting hit him at last. Feet pounding against the dirt. Grunts. Gasps. The rustle of clothing, and the unmistakable sound of metal whistling against the wind as it sliced through the air.
He pushed himself even harder before bursting through a particularly thick copse of trees, finding himself in a clearing with two others.
Tabby!
It only took him a few seconds to get a read on what he was seeing before he realized that there really hadn’t been any need for him to follow after her.
Unlike the other times when he found her at the mercy of a raging Nightwalker, Tabby obviously didn’t need his help.
As he watched her whip her weapon toward a bellowing Nightwalker’s throat, the sharp blade slicing through the thick muscle, tissue, and sinew like a hot knife through butter while he thrashed and screamed, Adam began to wonder if she’d ever needed it before.
Tabby waited for Adam to say something about her methods.
When he didn’t, staying stoically silent as she slapped on a magic-aid before cleaning up the scene, she wasn’t sure how to take it. He hung back as she got rid of any sign that they were there, then quickly left the clearing. He shadowed her, staying a few steps behind, and that bothered her more than the look of shock on his face when she slew the Nightwalker.
Finally, she had to break the heavy silence.
“I told you I was a slayer.”
Adam grunted. Not much of an answer, but at least he was listening.
And if he was listening, then Tabby was going to talk.
She didn’t worry about keeping her voice low. Between the two of them, they were more dangerous than anything else in the woods. She wasn’t afraid.
She talked about Rosie, because the old, toothless hound dog was still the light of her life. She made a point not to mention her uncle again, since Adam’s reaction had been a little… interesting when she brought up Boone before. Prattling on about slaying was awkward while she wore the blood spatter of her last kill, so she cheerfully told her brooding Nightwalker the entire plotline of a movie she caught on Witchflix last night.
It worked. Treating the Nightwalker like a person and not just a Para brought Adam back from that dark place where he had a tendency to go.
By the time they were heading back out of the woods again, he’d lost that rigid stance, relaxing in a more graceful stalking motion as he moved alongside her.
Until they were closing in on the car and reality set in.
It had taken some time for her to get deep enough into the woods to position herself before she sliced her arm, sending out enough blood to call the Nightwalker to her without attracting Adam. Even though that part had obviously failed—otherwise he wouldn’t have tracked her down, finding her right as she was finishing up her hunt—she’d put a lot of ground between her and the car. Then she had to clean up, get rid of the corpse, and walk with Adam through the trees again. It ate up a lot of time, something she worried about while working to boost Adam’s spirits.
He was the one to first bring up their scheduled meet. Peeking at his phone, he bit out a curse when he realized the time. “Shit. We were supposed to meet that witch over an hour ago. What are the odds she waited?”
“Honestly? Not so great. Holly probably would’ve stuck it out, but if she caught wind of the Nightwalker in her territory? She knew I was bringing you, but you’re harmless—”
“Harmless? I’m not harmless, Tabby.”
Of course that’s the one thing he would take away from that. She bumped him with her hip. Due to their height difference, she got him in his lower thigh, but the thought was there. “My mistake. You big, scary vampire, you.”
