AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes were a foot from mine, a demonic blue-ringed brown. He raised his switchblade and then swayed, blood bubbling from his mouth. The knife dropped to the sand. Another heartbeat passed while I froze, not even daring to breathe. Then he collapsed at my feet like a marionette with its strings cut.
I backpedaled until I hit the rocks. Someone was making a high, keening sound. I clapped my hands over my ears until I realized it was me.
My face felt wet. I scrubbed at it with my T-shirt, then stared, horrified, at the dark stain.
Blood.
Oh, God.My stomach lurched. I fell to my knees and threw up on the sand.
When I looked up again, Stefan was moving feebly, and Andre had Gabriel down, his mouth latched onto Gabriel’s throat. Neither man had a knife. Gabriel was trying to push Andre off, but the other vampire was stuck to him like a leech.
Gabriel’s struggles grew weaker.
It was up to me. Dragging myself across the sand, I rolled Stefan onto his stomach. The switchblade was lodged firmly in his spine, so I scrabbled around in the sand for his own knife, but came up empty-handed. Maybe he was even lying on top of it, but there was no time to look.
A glance at Gabriel told me he was barely moving now.
I grabbed the handle of the knife in Stefan’s spine, closed my eyes and jerked, but it caught on something.
My breath sobbed in. I straddled the vampire and wrapped both hands around the smooth silver handle. The metallic scent of blood made my stomach heave again. Bile burned my throat.
I yanked again. This time, the blade released. I rolled Stefan back onto his back. His eyes were closed but his hands clawed at the sand.
I raised the blade above my head and plunged it into his heart, then froze, holding my breath. But he went still and didn’t move again. His skin darkened and then started to crumble to ashes.
My gaze swung back to Gabriel and Andre. Gabriel caught my eye and reached out a hand, wordlessly asking for the switchblade.
I licked my lips, nodded. I pulled the bloody knife from Stefan’s still-disintegrating chest and crawled off him, holding it as far from me as possible.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God.” I didn’t know if I was praying or swearing.
I scrambled, spider-like, across the beach and put the switchblade in Gabriel’s palm. His fingers closed on it. Sucking in a breath, he reared up and thrust it into the side of Andre’s throat.
The vampire hissed but still didn’t stop feeding until Gabriel gave him a hard shove. With a snarl, Andre released him.
Gabriel heaved Andre off him, and he fell to the beach. Gabriel crawled a few yards away to collapse, panting, on the sand.
I crouched beside him, keeping a wary eye on the motionless vampire while I glanced frantically around for a switchblade. But the beach was so dark, I couldn’t locate any of them.
Andre moved first. He pulled the blade out of his throat and with a grunt, came to his feet, one hand pressed to the wound, the other gripping the knife.
His gaze took in the two disintegrating vampires before swinging to me. Rising to my feet, I backed up, looked frantically around for another switchblade. All I saw was a small rock. I bent my knees and picked it up without taking my gaze from Andre.
His T-shirt was torn, the ragged black flaps fluttering in the wind. He staggered, caught his balance.
Gold eyes scorched mine. “That,” he said, “was a mistake.”
All the spit left my mouth. My heart threatened to smash out of my chest. But I raised the rock threateningly. “Go. To. Hell.”
He fingered the switchblade, eyeing the still-prone Gabriel. With an animal-like growl, I threw myself in front of Gabriel.
In the beach house above, lights came on. A searchlight swept over the beach, casting Andre’s face in demonic relief. He swore and staggered toward the boat dock, seeming to gain strength with each step. By the time he reached the speedboat, he was strong enough to leap aboard.
Panic gripped me. He was getting away—and he still had Joey.
“No,” I rasped. “Come back here, you bastard.”
I sprinted toward the dock, but the motor had already roared to life. Without turning on the running lights, he cast off, swung the boat around and zoomed off into the night.
