Page 78 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Renata gave the slightest dip of her head. “I’m afraid so, Loloma.”
“My name is Tressa, bitch,” she gritted out. “Do you hear me? And the only thing getting balanced here is your spleen on my hand.” She stepped forward and folded her arms in what she hoped was an imposing power stance. “If you want Ethan, you go through me.”
“And me,” Saiden added.
“And me,” Derrick chimed in.
“And even if you get through them,” Ethan said, stepping up to Tressa’s side. “I’ll never go down without a fight. You murdered my best friend. Drank him dry right in front of me. You think I’m going to believe this bullshit that you’re acting in the benefit of mankind or something? Fuck that. I saw you. That look in your eyes as he struggled to escape? You killed him, and you fucking enjoyed it. So tell yourself whatever lies you want about ‘doing what’s best,’ because when you meet your maker, they’ll know the truth.”
For the first time, Renata smiled. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Something tells me Lilith isn’t quite so interested in the actions of her children anymore.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to make sure justice finds you anyway,” Derrick declared, cracking his knuckles.
“By all means,” she replied. “You’re welcome to try.”
Chapter forty
Ethan
Blood pounded in Ethan’s ears, and the frenzied beat of his heart seemed to vibrate through his bones. After weeks of nightmares, endless hours of training in the gym, and constant memories of shattered glass and Jake’s blood dripping from ivory fangs… he was finally going to get his revenge.
Except he had no fucking clue what to do.
He thought he was over it—the violent, all-encompassing need to make her pay—but from the moment he saw Renata sitting by the surf, one voice screamed in his head, “Kill!” while another threw out plans of attack that were immediately dismissed as downright reckless. Visions of the hospital and church parking lot flashed through his mind, and with his logical brain reactivated, he was fully aware he was no match for the sheer speed and power of this creature. He still wanted nothing more than to tear out her throat with his bare hands, but his survival instincts left him quivering with impotent rage.
He finally had something and someone to live for, and he wasn’t going to carelessly throw it away. He had to be smart. If he couldn’t beat her with brawn, it had to be brains. But his brain glitched themoment he was finally ready to listen to it.
The thundering of the ocean waves and his own pulse were deafening, and he nearly missed the moment when the three vampires at his side launched their attack. Blurs of pastel, black, and brown flew forward, and all hell broke loose.
At first, Ethan couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening. He could only see a whirlwind of limbs and the occasional arc of ruby red blood flying through the air to splatter on the sands around them. The harsh staccato of fists meeting flesh popped off faster than a string of firecrackers as the cadre didn’t let up their assault for even a second.
And not a damn bit of it made any difference.
Renata maintained her smile throughout, and there wasn’t a scratch on her.
She moved through combat with an ethereal grace, bending, twisting, and weaving among the other vampires like a willow tree thrashing in a maelstrom. Though she was clearly fighting purely defensively—focused on dodges and blocks—she manipulated the other three with the ease of a puppet master, using them against one another. Each slash or punch was not so much deflected as it was redirected toward someone else. Tressa, Derrick, and Saiden were continuously knocked into one another, their limbs fouling each other’s strikes and their knives drawing friendly blood.
With a twist of the hips and a sharp upswing of her arm, Renata spun an attacking Derrick in front of her, and he accidentally buried his knife in Tressa’s bicep when she came flying in with her own dagger. Before he could dislodge his blade, Renata planted a hand on Derrick’s shoulder and vaulted over him. The momentum sent him crashing into Tressa, knocking them both to the sand.
Slipping behind Renata silently, Saiden closed in on her, but his dagger flashed through empty air as she dove forward in a summersaultthat sprayed a wave of sand into his face. Renata popped up from her roll only to blur back over to Derrick and Tressa as they rose from their tangle. She viciously tore out the blade lodged in Tressa’s arm and sent it tumbling end over end for Saiden’s heart.
Though still blind to his surroundings, Saiden threw himself to the side, and the blade merely sliced through his shirt, scoring a line across his ribs.
Off to the side, Ethan finally overcame the initial shock of watching their combat. Just because he wasn’t going to be reckless didn’t mean he was going to sit on the sidelines the whole time. Not when he had a love worth fighting for.
He surged forward, hoping to tackle Renata to the ground while her back was turned and give the cadre a chance to collect themselves. If they could all pile on at once, her speed wouldn’t matter for shit when pinned under four bodies.
He only needed to close a few yards, a dozen steps at most, and with his new speed it should be over in…
A flash of sky and water whizzed past his face as he soared through the air to crash into the surf, a hot lance of pain spreading across his ribs.
Spitting out sand and seawater, Ethan pushed up to his hands and knees to see Renata smirking over her shoulder at him, her arm still extended from the backhand that had sent him face first into the ocean.
“Dammit,” he cursed. He could run faster than some cars could drive, yet Renata still made him feel like he was all but human again.
He let out a frustrated roar, but it quickly died in his throat when he saw Tressa spring to her feet and charge Renata. The rogue whirled to meet her, skin rippling and shimmering. In the most surreal experience ever, Ethan watched Renata transform into… himself?
Worse. She turned into a version of him he barely recognized—cringing in fear, hands held up, abject horror pasted across his face.
