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He let up on the pressure on my shoulder, and I was grateful for it. The crowd behind him was getting restless and more than a little worried about what they were witnessing. I guess my pain was too real for them. They calmed down a bit when Charlie and I started talking again, but the whispers were getting louder, and there was a frenzied tone to them. The train we’d arrived on had left the station, and with it all my hopes of a rescue from Holden.
Charlie crouched over me, pinning my arms to my sides with his Prada-clad feet. He turned my face towards him with a hard jerk so I was forced to look him in the eyes.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” he told me.
“Not as much as I will. ” My meaning was lost on him. He was too focused on my neck and the blood exposed from where I’d been scraped. A vampire with the smell of blood in its nose is like a shark in chum-filled water. Try as they might to ignore it, it was only a matter of time before they would go primitive.
A Queens-bound train pulled into the tunnel just as Charlie’s weight collapsed on top of me as he dove for my neck. The surging wave of air brought in along with the subwa
y rocked my sword into a spin, moving it well outside of my reach and carrying it away from me with each rotation. I watched helplessly as my plan fell to pieces, and winced as Charlie’s teeth pierced my skin for the second time.
I didn’t waste time cursing my luck. Even with Charlie’s weight pinning my arms down, I still had use of one hand. Fumbling under the hem of my dress, I grabbed hold of the holstered switchblade and gripped it firmly in my sweaty palm.
While I contemplated how I might be able to open the knife without accidentally cutting myself, someone stepped on the hilt of the sword, stopping its loud, metallic spin. I hadn’t noticed a second Times Square train arrive, but one was here now. Some of the crowd had decided they’d rather move on than watch me die, and boarded the new train. When they were gone, I could see Tyler standing on the concrete platform, my sword under his shoe.
I couldn’t read the look on his face, but I could have kissed him when he kicked the sword over to my outstretched arm. I grabbed it with my bad hand, but couldn’t swing at Charlie from my current position. He had begun to lap at the open wound like an eager dog, which meant he wasn’t clamped on to me. I took my chance and lifted my head up hard and fast, smashing my skull into his with a sickening crack.
I saw stars but didn’t let myself get slowed down. Charlie sat back, shocked but not permanently damaged. My arms were free, but with him still sitting on my lower half, I needed something more than a headbutt to get him off me. I’d never be able to swing the sword properly from this position.
With a satisfying click I snapped open the switchblade, rotating the handle back on itself and avoiding the silver end. I slashed out and caught a still-dazed Charlie across the throat.
“Bitch,” he spat.
He stumbled backwards off me, one hand latched to the new wound I’d opened. I hadn’t nicked anything serious, because he was still able to form words.
Now free from Charlie’s weight, I kicked my legs up, my body following, and landed in a crouch with the sword pointed behind me so I didn’t land on it if I stumbled. The last thing I wanted to do was commit accidental seppuku if I broke a heel. Charlie and I rose to a standing position in a mirrored formation. I rotated my wrist, swinging the katana in front of me, and had it angled to the floor, waiting for him to move.
“Secret. ” This from Tyler, shouting a warning in the same instant one of the guards leaped at me. I raised the sword, slicing it back and forth in a Z pattern, the steel blade making a faint rushing sound as it parted the air in front of me. It also parted the guard, who fell in three neat slabs at my feet.
With the wet, meaty sound of the vampire’s body hitting the platform, the remaining crowd seemed to realize this wasn’t a show. There was an uproar of frightened voices, and someone threw up. If I hadn’t been so impressed by the precision of the blade, I might have been sick too. I wanted to turn my attention back to Charlie, but the final guard still planned to prove his loyalty to his master.
And considering it was the vampire who had nearly thrown me under a train, I was pretty sure he was going to try killing me for purely personal reasons too.
He bellowed at me, making sure I was focused on the six-foot-seven bulk of him. As if I could miss it.
“Bring it on, Baldy,” I said, and made another showy display of windmilling the blade in my hand. It gave him pause. Our eyes locked, and I was sure we both knew how this would end, but where we disagreed was on which of us would be dead.
He charged at me and gained confidence when he avoided my first swing, sliding to a halt against a closed convenience stand. Next to him, beside Charlie, a Coke machine was glowing a merry red and white and completely unaware of its impending demise.
The huge, bald vampire ripped the big metal and plastic box away from the wall as if it weighed nothing, and hurled it at me. I didn’t have a chance to dodge it, but his aim was off due to the bulk of the machine. It glanced off my left side, knocking the wind out of me and bringing me down to one knee. Had he been farther back he could have hit me better, but he was too close and couldn’t get the proper momentum or direction for his toss. As it was, the only thing the hit did was give me a few new bruises. It also made him believe he had the upper hand, now that I was back on the floor.
He chuckled and opened his mouth to say something, but he never got the chance. I rolled forward so I was less than two feet from him, then swung the blade upward from the ground, cleaving him neatly in half, where he and his insides slopped to the floor next to his former colleague.
I wasn’t interested in playing games anymore. I’d stopped caring that we had an audience, most of whom were now in a panic-induced state of shock. My arm hurt like a bitch, and if Charlie had let me kill him back at the hotel, this whole mess could have been avoided. There was going to be hell to pay from the Tribunal later, but at the moment there was only one thing on my mind.
I turned to Charlie, who was standing still in the way only a vampire could, as if he believed by not moving he might avoid being seen. Fear painted his face, and he didn’t mask it. He had nothing clever to say to me as I stalked towards him with slow, deliberate steps. The front of my dress was splattered with blood the last vampire had sprayed on me as he fell. My sword dragged across the tile floor, emitting a loud, eerie squeal that ate away at the silence that had fallen over the crowd.
I stopped about four feet from Charlie, the sword at my side. My vision was clear, my eyes only for him. He was trembling.
“Don’t fight it,” I said, and even to my own ears my voice sounded wrong. It was too calm, too empty. “Don’t fight me anymore. ”
He nodded and his legs gave out under him. He collapsed onto his knees and looked up at me with wide, terrified eyes. The look was so honest it gave me a brief pause because it almost made me want to take pity on him.
“Secret?” Tyler’s voice came through like the voice of an often-overlooked angel on my shoulder. “You don’t have to do this. ” I don’t know where he’d gotten the gun, but its small size suggested it came from an ankle holster. Out of the corner of my eye I could see he had it trained on me, and in spite of the shake in his voice, his hands were perfectly steady.
He must have thought I was only going to use the sword for defense when he’d kicked it to me.
“You don’t understand. ” I raised the blade so it was even with Charlie’s eyes. “He has to die. ”
