Part 22 (1/2)

Her thoughts honing, Bella remembered what Severo had said about the bullets. They'd slow a vampire down but would not kill him.

She eyed the wooden stakes, which hung in militant rows; each stake was twelve inches long and as thick as a chair leg. She reached for one, then another and another. The t.i.tanium syringe filled with holy water lay on the table, but her hands were full.

Racing forward, she didn't care that she was a dancer whose greatest achievement was the double golpe with spin, or that the first time she'd touched a weapon, she'd almost cried.

Somehow a vampire had breached Severo's protection wards.

”And the freaking security codes,” she barked out. How had anyone managed to decipher those?

The vampire struggled with the bullet in his chest and didn't expect a skinny mortal woman to leap at him with a stake held at the ready.

Gripping the one stake firmly while she clutched the other two in her left hand, Bella planted the thick piece of wood in the vampire's chest. It slid in easily. She didn't have to push hard to make it go in up to her curled fist.

The vampire spasmed. Hissing steam escaped from around the stake. The awful smell of burning blood entered her nostrils. Bella scrambled backward, into the open doorway, securing a stake in both fists.

The creature's agonizing yowl filled her ears. She bit her lip and almost called out, ”I'm sorry.” Jelly legs quivering, she sunk to her knees.

”Please,” she begged. The thing staggered and spouted smoke. It clawed the air, growling. ”Just die. Don't come back to life.

Where is he? Severo!”

A burst of ash dust filled the air. The vampire disintegrated into a human-shaped heap of gray ash. The stake rolled from the ash over to her knee, blood staining her white slacks.

”I did it,” she said, amazed. Was she supposed to be horrified? The dread feeling didn't emerge. Instead, adrenaline pushed her to stand and pump her fist in triumph. ”Yes!”

”Think you're quite the slayer, eh, pretty?”

Stake held at the ready for another attack, Bella let out a throaty squeak as she spied the three vampires who blocked off the hallway and any chance of escape.

Chapter 17.

S ix unarmed vampires? No challenge to him. They'd been going at it for a bit. One vampire would charge, and Severo would strike at his shoulder or deliver a roundhouse and thrust him off him.

He was rolling on the ground now with a snarling beast of a longtooth, its long fangs bared. A bite from a vampire would p.i.s.s Severo off, but it couldn't change him.

On the other hand, he'd never experienced a vampire bite. It would leave a permanent mark. And that was the last thing Severo wanted on his body. A vamp bite was a stigma he'd never bear.

The longtooth twisted Severo's arm around behind his back and yanked sharply, tearing the muscles. Severo could endure it. He needed a moment to flip and...yes. On his back, he struck his opponent in the chest with his heels and sent him flying. Darkness had fallen, and the trees were silhouetted against the gray sky. Now two vamps charged him.

”Have at me,” Severo muttered.

He could take them. For now. But the werewolf was beginning to rage. Then the stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had better run.

Surprisingly, none had tried to bite him yet. Odd. It was the vampires' best defense, weakening their opponent through blood loss.

What kind of idiots had Elvira sent after him?

And only six? Perhaps she wanted to toy with him. Give him a preview of the war yet to come.

Or maybe she needed to wear him down. The obvious reason was she wanted him alive for something.

He caught a charging vamp about the neck with a vertebra-crunching swing of his own. The vamp yowled, but his partner knocked Severo off balance by kicking his ankles. He hit the ground with a growl. Spitting blood from his mouth, he rolled to all fours and decided the werewolf had been kept at bay long enough.

Three more vampires had been destroyed in the a.r.s.enal. Bella couldn't think clearly about how she'd done it. But she now knew that holy water to the eyes was no way to go. The vamp's face had peeled away.

Kicking off her high heels, she ran out as fast as she could, though she had no idea what to do, where to go. Adrenaline sharpened her senses. In the garage, the odor of gasoline seemed to hang in the air. In the house, the smell of the wax Heloise used on the floor rose in invisible waves. And her perfume seemed far too strong.

As she checked the front door, her hands shook and she dropped the stakes twice. It was locked, completely secure. She stepped back and scanned the three-story foyer. The huge skylight windows lining the upper story were unbroken.

Where had the vampires gotten in? If not through the front door or the garage...

”Heloise.” Bella hadn't heard the housekeeper, and surely the commotion would have alerted her. Heloise insisted on using the servants' entrance near the laundry room, much as Severo wished she'd come through the front door. ”Heloise!”

She ran for the laundry room, praying the housekeeper had had the sense to hightail it to safety at the first sniff of vampire. Or at least hide.

Bella had no idea if faeries could defeat a vampire, but if they possessed any skill against the threat, she doubted that squat and kind Heloise had the ability to keep back anything larger than a dragonfly.

Hugging the pistol, which was loaded with three wooden bullets, to her chest, she skidded up to the laundry room doorway. And fell to her knees in horror.

A clear, thick substance pooled about Heloise's head. Her throat had been torn out, and it leaked more clear liquid. An unfolded bedsheet, still clenched in her hand, soaked up the stuff.

Reaching out and squelching the need to scream, Bella bent over and gripped her gut. ”Don't do this. Be strong.”

She examined the brownie's neck. The clear liquid must be faerie blood, because it sparkled. Had to be. ”Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. She was an innocent.”

Standing, her back skidding across the wall, she hugged the pistol to her chest and checked both ways down the hallway. It was clear.”I have to get to Severo.”

Nodding, because nothing else made sense at the moment, Bella ran upstairs to the living room.

Where three vampires waited.

”She's mine,” growled the tallest, sporting a black Mohawk. A fang glinted brightly at the corner of his mouth. ”Secure her!”

Bella fired, but the wooden bullet went astray, missing the vampires and ricocheting against the wall. The picture of Severo and Aby cracked and dropped to the floor.

Two vampires charged, and before she could again squeeze the trigger, the pistol was pulled from her hand. Her shoulders stretched painfully as, one to each side of her, they wrenched her arms behind her back.

”Nice,” the Mohawked leader said as he approached. ”And brave.”

Bella spat at the vampire. In punishment she took a knee to her spine. Pain shot through her skeleton and she yowled.

”Gentle, boys,” said the leader. The dark vampire's eyes were pale blue, and the pupils large.

Bella thought, for an odd moment, that his eyes appealed to her. She stopped struggling as he reached out and stroked her hair.